#oriantal | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

francestany · 7 months

Text

Astro observations no : 1🎃🎃

Moon in scorpio and their averted eyes. They are just like dont wanna to look into your eyes because they will gonna know everything you feel. İt is kinda scary 😬 indeed. Probably they dont look people eyes on purpose but when you see their eyes look into yours it's intense like you're naked💀

Mars in earth signs and their high drive to success . Whenever ı see a very goal orianted, logical and successfull someone ı see they have earth mars. Because earth gives the mature the ability to survive of the world's own diffuculties . So feet firmly on the ground. Whatever had happens they gonna do it again.

Capricorn rising /venus : real elegants. Woaw whenever ı see a very fashionista and classic girl with a very mature attitude ı am saying "okey the caps here.." 😅 also they might be seem a bit aloof and masculine kinda energy. (I mean they just seem so determined and powerful just like caps.)

Pluto aspecting mercury: they might be interested in psychology and ethereal stuffs. Also wanna work in this kinda areas.they are really into the psyche.

Saturn in 3rd house natal: they might have learnt to read and write late. Or might indicate a delayed school life. But for sure at the wnd of the day saturn gives own gift to natures by blessing them with superior wealth of knowledge.🤭

12th house mars native : generally addiction issues with sex🤫. Escapism by the sex and dreaming about it.

Gemini placements : and beautiful hands. Probably the hands are the first thing people notice when firstly meeting them.

Neptune/pluto 1st house: dreamy kinda beautiful eyes. Just for this regards they might be seem as too naive but the reality is they are not most probably. This give an ability to seem like an angel even if you're devils itself. Ethereal assets on the world👽

Moon in the 1st house: prone to suddenly getting angry.also swift mood changes.but they are really cute intimates.🥰

Venus in the 1st house: really beautiful people... at least they know how to present themselves. Really perfect facial features.😵‍💫 really likeable.they got a warm energy that makes everyone astonish in an elegant way. But probably they seem more kind and good hearted and elegant than they really are.🤔 They often are not that cute but still it'is a good thing to have.

Jupıter aspecting Asc: have big and remarkable laughs .. maybe a bit loud and kinda unique. Also sophisticated appearence

That is it for now 💫💫💫

#astro notes #astro chart #astro observation #astrology #astro observation +18 #venus in the 1st house #moon in the 1st house #saturn in the 3rd house #capricorn rising #capricorn #neptune in 1st house #mars in 12th house #jupiter aspect asc #astrology observations #moon in scorpio #gemini #astro placements

1K notes · View notes

aromantic-diaries · 2 months

Note

I find it really hard to relate to the ace community. Like it feels so foreign to me even as a oriantated aroace.

I just feel really seperate from my ace identity

You're not alone with that! I feel similarly about my own sexuality, it simply isn't that defining for some people and that's okay

#anon #mail time

46 notes · View notes

akayralylegacy · 6 months

Text

──✧✦ 𝚆𝚎𝚕𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘, 𝙼𝚢 𝙿𝚊𝚐𝚎!! ☙

☾┈⛁⛀┄⛃┄⛀⛁┈☽

➪ Hey hey hey! Hello and welcome to my Tumblr! Name's Akayraly, I'm a 14yr/o girl with a passion for art/animation and story creation. I have 50 stories in total and more than +500 OCs, my love for all of them is huge, and I'm willing to share more info about my beloved characters and universes!!

— Info About Me:

• Pronouns: she/her

• Oriantation: Omni

• Nationality: Brazilian

• Nicknames (what you can call me): Akayra, Kayra, Akay

• Personality Type: ENFP, 7w1, Chaotic Good

• My Life in Art: I started to get more and more invested in art around 2017 when I was 7 years old! I started to do digital art around 2021.

• Fandoms: MBTI, Harry Potter, Sonic, Cuphead, Coraline, FNAF, Bendy, Astrology (kinda), Lorax (aka Onceling), TF2, Wednesday, Pokémon (kinda), TLK/TLG, FNF (kinda), TAWOG, LPS, MLP, Creepypasta, Poppy Playtime, HTTYD, HTF, Cat Ghost, Andy's Apple Farm, Gacha, Warrior Cats, Super Mario (kinda), Miraculous, Roblox, Baldi's Basics, Amanda The Adventurer, TLOTR, Supernatural, Lackadaisy AND Melanie Martinez Fandom

Phew, gosh, I am in so many fandoms :')

Anyways, that's pretty much it! I hope I can make some friends around here! See ya guys ^^

35 notes · View notes

thelunarsystemwrites · 20 days

Text

(Tw: S.A, weight, and snakes is mentioned!)

So this kinda a PJO person? But she's a general Greek mythology OC!

After Poseidon... had his way with Medusa, and she was turned into a gorgon by Athena—Months later, she had his baby... a demigoddess.

Of course, the baby turned to stone the second they opened their eyes and looked at Medusa.

The baby was left in stone, and for years... many years she was preserved in stone, years until back in the early 2010s, an older couple found her.

They thought the statue looked so... interesting. And took it home.

And for whatever reason, that's when the curse finally broke. And the baby was alive again.

Both the couple could see through the mist. And yet they just found her so endearing, it was weird that she didn't turn them to stone...

So, they raised her.

She took on their last name, Stone. And they decided to call her Vera. She went to school, she was shy and soft spoken—Just a kid.

As years when by, each snake on her head also seemed to have a bit of personality. Vera named each one after the planets, then one Sun, one Star, and one Moon. A head of twelve snakes.

She loved her parents—Though they tended to call themselves her grandparents instead.

As she got older... mistakes happened. She didn't know she could... turn others to stone... until it was too late.

The first time it happened, a dog came our and lunged at her! She got spooked, and as she flinched and looked at it—Stone...

The second time it happened, is when she had to leave for camp... She hadn't meaned to... but, her parents—Her mom accidentally scared her and bam she was stone! And the second she looked at he dad, he met the same fate...

She needs to learn how to undo it...

ABILITIES:

Can turn others to stone. (Only works if she's startled/scared)

Can breathe under water, as can her snakes.

Has very limited hydrokinesis. (<- can move water, but definitely not a lot.)

Immune to nearly all venoms, toxins, posions.

Can bite and inject venom. As can her snake hair.

Can talk to reptiles, specifically snakes.

DOWNSIDES:

Can't undo stone.

Can't control who turns to stone if she's startled/looks at them.

Mirrors shatter if she looks at them.

Snakes have a complete mind of their own, and do what they want when they want too.

Cold weather slows her down a lot. Too cold makes her go unconscious.

Can't eat anything snakes can't.

INFO:

Inherited her mother's beauty.

Tear markings are permanent on her skin.

Terrified of Greek gods.

Dislikes Athena and Poseidon.

Has Theophobia, Eisoptrophobia, Androphobia, Aichmophobia, and Emetophobia.

The snakes on her head are blue-lipped sea krait.

Has severe anxiety.

Self conscious about her weight.

Very fidgety.

Autistic/ADHD/Dyslexia/Dyscalculia/Dysgraphia/Epileptic.

Full name is Vera Medousa Stone.

Put of Flight/Fight/Freeze/Fawn. Her scared reaction is Freeze.

Has a good relationship with Medusa.

Anddd, there she is! She/Her. Uabeled gender/oriantation.

And here's her snakes names!

Mercury. - Likes talking/hissing... a lot. Fairly friendly.

Venus. - Very friendly, bites a lot like a venus fly trap, but doesn't enject venom (it's her way of showing affection)

Earth. - Glutton, likes eating.

Mars. - The most aggressive, WILL bite (NOT FRIENDLY NOM NOMS!)

Jupiter. - Kinda flirty, he flirts with other snakes.

Saturn. - Confused, and very confuzzeled they will be.

Uranus. - Jokester.

Neptune. - Jerk.

Pluto. - The smallest snake, right behind Vera's ear, he's very quiet.

Sun. - Sassy, doesn't bite, gossips, thinks he's the bestest snake ever.

Star. - DERPY.

Moon. - So done with Sun's stuff, she's much closer with Vera.

Vera is uh, VERY ashamed of who her godly parent is, Poseidon. Poor thing.

Its Canon shes been mistaken for a monster 7 times. (<- just put that there so I'll remember it.)

16 notes · View notes

3m0n3rd · 1 month

Text

romance in my au so ppl don't get confused, warning theres a lot

in the past there was something silly I drew were april wuz blushin n shit with the pride flag yk, but I have since decided since than that April is aroace becuz.. becuz.. (she/her)

Raph, mona n casey r in a poly relationship. Casey n mona used to hate each other, and they still do but they do love each other but they mostly only care abt Raph. Becuz they used to be at each otherz throats abt who should date Raph but latr they realized they like each other so it kinda jst worked out yk (raph he/them. Mona it/her, casey he/him)

Arrow n Don r together but Donnie is rlly bad at expressing his feelingz. so sometimes they go over to Arrow's apartment, and kinda watch them sleep. But Arrow doesn't know that their partner is doin this soooooo, they just think itz all good. But Arrow does latr confront Don when they caught Donnie tryin to sneek in one time (arrow they/them, Don they/them)

(the realationship with leo and karai kinda changed) Karai is like general or the kraang army, and when she had 2 fight leo she kinda wuz like, oml shes hot. And so she would study him but when Shredder asked wut she wuz doing she would jjust say she was "watching the turtlz for their next move sir" n all that, But eventually when the turtlez try to be good for once karai finally getz the courage and kissez the girl so hard (karai she/them/it, Leo she/him/them)

Renet n irma r one of the first shipz I ever did, they basically saw each other once, and kissed reaaaaaaall fast. But renet came on a spaceship with mona, and when they arived n met the turtlez. At the time April n irma were best of frenz and like irma was DOWN BAD for Renet, even tho it wuz in their alien form Irma did not care. But laatr on april and irma got in a fight so Irma just didn't go to the lair anymore, but shes still dating Renet (irma she/they, Renet it/her)

while theres jenika and venus de milo, I do not draw them enough and I plan to do a redraw once my parentz gimme back my drawing tablet, Jenika and venus r both twinz. Venus is pan but Jenika only likes others platonically n hasn't figured out her sexual oriantation yet(jenika she/her, Venus De Milo she/her)

Splinter and Shen were in a realationship until he got mutated, so Shen raised saki (ill do something to explain their realationship, becuz I promise u karai an leo arent related) But When Shen found Yoshi when he got mutated, becuz he left her in fear she wouldn't love him. But shen was rlly happy until the turtlez told her wut he does to them. So Shen helped leo kill splinter n after that shen tried her best to be a mother (hamato Shen she/her, hamato yoshi he/him)

Bebop n rocksteady in the future do get married, but when in 2009 *when the au takez place* Rocksteady wantz to propose but has doubts in marriage becuz his mother divorced 5 different people, and his father divorced twice and than killed himself because he couldn't find a lover. But they do get married in the end, and adopt 2 kids (rocksteady he/him, bebop he/him)

okai thatz all, do wut u want with the infomation or idk okai bueeweteiuhgJUHGju

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt fanart #tmnt au #3m0n3rd tmnt au #mutant menace au #tmnt 2009 #ships #tmnt ship #love dynamics #pride #lgbt pride #lgbt #tmnt love dynamics #my ships #ramble abt shit #ramble #infodump #idk how to tag this

12 notes · View notes

aquariumsysurls · 9 months

Note

Hello! I am the OG coiner of the terms Hoki/Hoka/Hokai; they were created by me for an OC side project that I have started in the beginning stages. I am REALLY glad to know that you enjoy them and think they are creative! :) If you make any more, PLEASE tag me in the post as well!

Fictohokai An oriantation on the asexual, aromantic and hokai spectrum for monsters who experience sexual and romantic attraction toward fictional monsters, or a general type of fictional monsters.

Fictohoka An oriantation on the aromantic and hoka spectrum for monsters who who experience romantic attraction toward fictional monsters, or a general type of fictional monsters.

Fictohoka An oriantation on the asexual and hoka spectrum for monsters who experience sexual attraction toward fictional monsters, or a general type of fictional monsters.

Rosehokai An orientation on the asexual, aromantic and hokai spectrum for monsters who want/enjoy the idea or experience of romantic and sexual attraction, but become romance and sex repulsed after a short period of time.

Rosehoka An orientation on the aromantic and hoka spectrum for monsters who want/enjoy the idea or experience of romantic attraction, but become romance-repulsed after a short period of time.

Rosehoki An orientation on the asexual and hoki spectrum for monsters who want/enjoy the idea or experience of sexual attraction, but become sex-repulsed after a short period of time.

Bellushokai An oriantation on the asexual, aromantic and hokai spectrum for monsters who are not interested in sexual and romantic relationships, but is comfortable with or enjoys behaviors typically coded as romantic and sexual.

Bellushoka An oriantation on the aromantic and hoka spectrum for monsters who are not interested in romantic relationships, but is comfortable with or enjoys behaviors typically coded as romantic.

Bellushoki An oriantation on the asexual and hoki spectrum for monsters who are not interested in sexual relationships, but is comfortable with or enjoys behaviors typically coded as sexual.

Ahokai An orientation on the asexual, aromantic and hokai spectrum for monsters who experience little to no romantic and sexual attraction

Ahokai (alt) An orientation on the asexual, aromantic and hokai spectrum for monsters who experience little to no romantic and sexual attraction

Ahoka An orientation on the aromantic and hoka spectrum for monsters who experience little to no romantic attraction

Ahoki An orientation on the asexual and hokai spectrum for monsters who experience little to no sexual attraction

Ahoki4Ahoki

Monster4Monster (hokai edition)

@tranny-dyke-autist :]

48 notes · View notes

queenofpurgatoryq · 1 year

Text

KURAK GÜNLER / BURNİNG DAYS

TD;lr: Turkish goverment is trying to mess up a movie with a queer storyline, its a great movie and you should watch it to support it.

9/10

Besides the stunning cinematography and excellent acting by all of the leads (especially Selahattin Paşalı), this movie is a setting stone for Turkish cinema for a political reason, too.

TURKISH GOVERMENT AND QUEER SUBTEXT

Without giving the plot away, I want to note that while I would not consider this movie as 'queer cinema' it has a storyline revolving around its two male leads, their chemistry is undeniable and one of the main drivers of the story.

The spoiler free version is that, there is a queer relationship and even while it does not have explicit scenes, it has been getting a lot of attention from right wing media from the moment it aired in festivals. After negative press about "homosexual propoganda" the ministry of culture decised to "get their funding back, with interest."

This is the most pathatic thing I've ever heard tbh. The movie's first draft apparently did not include a queer aspect to the two leads' relationship and the ministery approved to support it. (Its an art house film that was suppose to attend many festivals world wide and it is currently doing so.) Then they revised the script and sent it to do the ministery as well, 20 months ago. And now they want their money back because homophobes are mad.

I believe anyone who lives in a country with corruption (I guess most of the world, sadly) will relate heavily to this story and share the frustration of living in an unjust world.

A QUICK SUMMARY WITHOUT SPOILERS

Hopefully you are as pissed as I'm and would like to watch this movie to say 'fuck you' to bigots, you should be able to find it many cities in Turkey and Europe.

The movie revolves around a young prosecutor named Emre and it starts with him moving to a small town. The elections are close and the town has a plotically divided atmosphere and Emre finds himself in the middle of an open case that revolves around the town's water source.

The movie highlights the injustices of a currupt town and a goverment and the helpless feeling of trying to fight this injustices but struggle at every turn. Along side a rape case of a young girl, the town's main focus shifts to a rumor of the nature of two men. This highlights the irony- nobody cares about a Romani girl getting raped, but everybody talks about these men. Its frustrating, the movie set in a setting without water, everybody is thirsty, its hot and its suffocating. The setting creates a helpless feeling in Emre and the viewer.

It is an absolute thriller that had me at the edge of my seat. At Emre's every moment where he stood his ground, I was holding my breath.

QUEER "SUBTEXT"

If you read this far and want to now more and do not care about SPOILERS, go ahead.

The queer relationship revolves around the prosecutor Emre and the town's journalist Murat. Their relationship was definietly beyond subtext, eventhough it was open to intrepretation to how far they have gone with each other, it was clear they were drawn to each other one way or another.

The relationship is beyond subtext because for starters, Murat is introduced as an outcast of the town, a journalist with a sharp tongue and from the start people tell Emre of his 'unorthodox ways'. Murat's sexual oriantation is a talk of the town and its clear that he had been bullied and harrased for a long time. As they get close, both the nature of their relationship is questioned as well as their their stand against town's traditions.

The lack of clear water in town was portrayed stunningly. Especially for Emre's and Murat's relationship. Everytime they were around each other, it was near a lake or a shower and even then they were not able to relax due to external pressure of the events around them.

All in all, Selahhatin Paşalı's portrayel was amazing, his feelings were more subtle and open to intrepretation yet much more powerful in my opinion. I liked that even in very intimiate moment they were calling each other Mr. And called each other with the formal 'you' until the very end.

The main focus of the movie is not their love story yet their dynamic elevates the rest of the story and brings attention to very important topics. I hope it will get the attention it deserves, from outside of Turkey, too.

#kurak günler #burning days #selahattin paşalı #ekin koç #movies #turkish cinema #queer cinema

126 notes · View notes

darka-art · 1 year

Text

I'm starting to finally be free of my cold, and finally finished that drawing this morning.

Behold Leha, aka Snipe mom.

She is one of my OCs, though there is a good chance I will edit her name. She came from a desert like planet, and I was inspired by Oriantal and Arabic culture a lil when I did her backstory.

Most of her design come also from Ana in Overwatch, I love her design too much.

⛔

Art is mine, do not trace/edit, use as NTF , reblog or clams as your own.

#warhammer40k #warhammer fanart #soldier #sniper #astra militarum #desert #art #drawings #illustration #no ai

49 notes · View notes

kevkebus-subh · 11 months

Photo

#nike #shoes #sport #sport shoes #oriantalism #Sinan Agayev #design #sneakers #turk #turkish culture #carpet

7 notes · View notes

sleep-nurse · 6 months

Note

pe isnt there to make you a gymnast its there to show you how your body can move and try to keep you at least a little bit fit

take it from someone who would have broken my neck were it not for my pe teacher showing me how to roll over my head without hurting myself

yea most likely you wont need all this in todays world where evetything is super comfort orianted but maybe somedays youll be thankful for these few lessons

or at least just be happy you dont have to learn all they long and you can move a bit

thanks p.e teacher the sequel i already knew all of this. it still wont make me like it any better tho nice try

#asks #ALSO THAT POST WAS CLEARLY A JOKE????? 😭😭#i know p.e doesn't make me an athlete i'm not stupid #i already go hike in pretty steep mountains and do other physical activities #2 hours of lame games at school legit won't do anything to my body

8 notes · View notes

miralines · 10 days

Note

Before I say anything, I just want to inform you that I just randomly came across your post browsing the discourse tag for something else. I don't know who you are nor what's happening with ao3 users here. I don't know if you wanted a deep(ish)dive into someone's thoughts and reasons for choosing fics based on kudos and hits ratio, but 100% ignore if you didn't! Sorry if I am intruding by doing this!

I come from multiple giant fandoms and when there are multiple fic choices with tags and summaries that I like, I do choose to go by kudos and hits ratio. Just to pick which one to check out first. I did notice however, that in smaller fandoms or tags this couldn't be applied because there's not enough fics, so I just read what I'm interested in most.

Why? Kudos signify how enjoyed the fic is to me, because usually the more kudos it has the more talked about it is on other platforms. Why would that be important? It's just that I enjoy exploring content made by others after I'm up to date with a fic. It's really fun to see people talk, theorize, make art and speculate or scream over things that will or did happen. It's giving me an opportunity to find people with similar interests and see what they make overall!

Sometimes though, if fic in a fandom or a tag that's incredibly popular gets hundreds of hits and very few kudos, I choose not to read it. This is based on a few bad experiences I had giving those fics a chance, where something in them made me uncomfortable or hard to read. I don't have any very specific needs when I'm reading fics, I just enjoy reading as a part of enjoying the fandom, so when I see the general readers avoid giving kudos in fandoms where it's very usual to have a lot on fics, I don't want to read that fic for my enjoyment.

I really don't know much about this, I'm sorry! But yeah, I basically use kudos to hits ratio to oriantate myself and avoid something I wouldn't like based on previous correlations I made. I don't know if that's wrong or upsetting for others, but if you find it that way, I would like to know why too and improve! Sorry for any grammatical mistakes I made!

Oh hi anon! I wasn’t expecting anyone to reach out like this, but thank you for taking the time to write out your thoughts! (Also. Please do not feel the need to apologize for grammatical mistakes. I do not believe in ‘correct’ grammar; as long as I understood you, which I did, I think you’re absolutely fine and using language as it’s intended!) (I am. A particular kind of nerd and not policing grammar is something I have Opinions about hence this tangent lmao)

This got terribly long, so I’ve put a tldr above the cut and divided the rest under headers for ease of reading.

Tldr: I see your points with regard to differences between large and small fandoms, and with the specific goal of finding “sub-fandoms” for particular fics. I still disagree that kudos-to-hits ratio is the best way to decide what fics to read, both because it isn’t an accurate metric of engagement and because I dislike the idea of using engagement as the primary metric in the first place. When I use A03, I prefer to sort by what’s recent and use the tags and summary to decide what to read, or to use the (excellent) search function to find what I’m looking for specifically.

I’d also like to note to anyone else reading: I doubt this will be an issue, but if anyone is rude to anon I’m going to turn off reblogs on this post. I know this is something some people feel strongly about, and discussion is fine, but this is absolutely not worth being mean to another human about.

Size of fandom

To begin my more thorough response: This is an interesting perspective– not one I entirely agree with, but I can certainly see how in larger fandoms with a lot more content it would be valuable to be more selective. For context, my main fandom is an obscure storytelling band with under 3k total works on A03, and these days I mostly occupy a niche of that fandom (one specific album) with only 128 works. The largest fandom I’ve been active in currently has 37k works on A03.

I don’t know what your fandoms are, but as some examples of bigger fandoms, Star Trek currently has over 100k works, Supernatural has almost 300k, and Harry Potter has nearly 500k. That is a big difference! I’m currently working on a goal to read every fic in my 128-fic niche (with some exclusion criteria), but in larger fandoms it’s impossible not to be selective. This is all to say– I definitely agree with you that the size of a fandom impacts how a person can and does interact with it.

Fans of fics

Your point about wanting to interact with other fans of a particular fic also makes sense! There was a particular fic series in my largest fandom that had a pretty decent following, and I still have friends from that sub-fandom several years later. If this metric helps you find fics that match your goal of having that experience, I can see how the kudos-to-hits ratio could function as a potentially useful metric, though I still think its usefulness is a bit limited for reasons I’m about to go into.

Kudos-to-hits isn’t accurate

I have two reasons for thinking that kudos-to-hits ratio isn’t the best way to determine what to read. The first is purely numerical. If you’ve been watching this discourse, you’ve probably already seen people discussing how users can only leave a single kudos, but may be responsible for 20-plus hits on a work. This is especially applicable to multichapter works, which in my experience are the fics that are able to develop their own following. If you want to sort fics by engagement, it seems like at the very least, using comments for the ratio is a more accurate measurement.

Using engagement as a metric at all

Secondly, though, I (and I believe, a lot of people) dislike the notion of using engagement as a metric to measure fics in the first place. I think the current discourse is partially due to some regrettable phrasing on the part of the OP of the post I was vaguing– if I recall correctly, they said that they use this metric to determine if a fic is “worth reading”. I think this phrasing was hurtful to a lot of fic writers who may not have large followings or a lot of engagement, but who work very hard on their fics and feel frustrated that this person implied that they aren’t worth reading. I have fics that are personal favorites of mine, but that I haven’t gotten a lot of feedback on.

Of course, this is just part of writing, and it’s an important skill for any writer (of fic or anything else) to learn to handle rejection or just lack of feedback. But I also think that particular post was phrased in a thoughtless way that interacted poorly with pre-existing insecurities (this is part of why I suggested that post was bait– the phrasing seems to me like a perfect storm to make writers upset and defensive, but of course this could also be due to the OP just being a bit careless with their words, and not expecting to have hit quite nerve they did).

There’s an excellent post here on engagement on fics and what a realistic assessment of “successful” engagement metrics are based on professional standards (which includes a stat about how Harry Styles, one of the most popular and successful current celebrities, only gets a 1:30 ratio of likes to views on his social media. I don’t know what ratio you’re using, but iirc the post I was discussing suggested 1:10). Personally, though, I worry about both authors and readers depending too much on statistics, especially in a broader cultural context when it feels like everything is performed, measured, and monetized. Most social media platforms have gone from a place to share with friends to a place to compete for attention and make money and fame off it. There’s a lot of cultural anxiety around that at the moment, which is another reason I think this discussion has gotten so big.

Why I disagree with using engagement

I think this discussion, at its heart, is a debate about what fandom should be, and I feel focusing overmuch on engagement statistics contributes to a fandom culture uncomfortably close to the commercialization of everything else on the internet. I feel that fic should be enjoyed as art (whatever art means) and not as a product. I’m not saying you’re personally approaching fic that way, but unfortunately there does seem to be something of a broader trend towards that, which troubles me.

As a writer, I would hope that when people come across my fic, they give it a chance based on the metatext information I give them in the tags and summary, the quality of my writing, and whether my work matches what the reader is looking for. Judging it based on the numbers feels reductive to me, and makes me feel like nothing about the work or passion I put in matters; just the popularity. My fics aren’t going to be for everyone, and I understand that. If someone comes across my fic and decides they’re not interested, that’s their prerogative. But I hope that potential readers don’t discount my work just because it doesn’t meet a numerical standard that, in my opinion, is extremely arbitrary.

My suggestions for what to do instead

As a reader, I default to sorting by what’s been posted recently, and then using the tags and summary to decide what to read. That’s what those things are designed to be used for, and I think they’re much more informative than the stats. Worst-case scenario, I start reading and then go back to the search. All I’ve lost is a couple minutes.

In large fandoms, this might be an inefficient way to search for fic, and I recognize that. I’d encourage you to try using A03’s (fantastic) search function to find what you’re looking for– you can both include and exclude fandoms, characters, pairings, and tags. I have come across people who don’t realize that A03 has no algorithm, and haven’t realized they need to learn to use the search function. This is understandable, given the state of most of the internet and what these (often young) fans have learned to use before, but I think learning to search and filter is a vital skill to develop. I have no idea if you’re in this boat, anon, but if you are, please check out the search. It is, in my experience, the best way to find what you’re looking for on A03, and can at the very least supplement numbers-based selection.

Conclusion

I don’t think you have a moral responsibility to stop using engagement as a way to determine what you want to read. Frankly, this isn’t that important. I don’t think you even strictly need to stop using kudos as the measure instead of comments, though I think that would be more accurate if you do prefer to sort by engagement. But I do think you could be surprised at the hidden gems you could find if you didn’t limit yourself to only reading fics with high ratios. I don’t know the nature of your bad experiences in the past, and obviously how you use A03 is up to you. But I think there are better ways to decide what to read.

Thank you again for reaching out– you’ve helped me understand the other perspective as well! I really do appreciate your explanation. I hope I’ve been as respectful as you have, and that I’ve helped you understand where writers who share my opinion are coming from. If you’d like to continue talking about this or respond to any of my points, please feel free to shoot me another ask or a message. I hope you’re doing well and that you have a nice day!

#not maintagging this either because I don't want to get too involved in the discourse TM #this ended up being a bit of an essay. I tried to cut it down and it just didn't work #discourse #<- for blacklists

3 notes · View notes