#questions for the tumblmind

[destinationtoast]

Calling Game of Thrones fans with knowledge of the fandom's history! [see also: Supernatural version]

I'm in the midst of putting together some fandom deep dives as part of my analysis of TV Fandom Fix-Its on AO3, including GoT. I'm trying to give context for how many fanworks the fandom was producing overall, and when overall spikes in fandom activity were happening, and I could use help.

Specifically, I'm trying to label AO3 activity spikes with what episodes/events seemed to contribute to them. But I'm probably missing important context. E.g., I know there were other events like fanwork exchanges happening that might have been contributors to some activity spikes, or things the show creators said/did might also have contributed sometimes.

If you have theories about why the red spikes between seasons happened near the following dates, that would be excellent:

Dec 28, 2020

May 11, 2020

Oct 5, 2015

Sept 29, 2014

July 21, 2014

And if you think I'm missing important context for some of the other spikes, or I made goofs on some of the labels, please LMK!

This was posted on April 10, 2024; I'm hoping for relevant replies in the next few days.

If you prefer to look at the raw data, it's too long to list here, but you can read it in this spreadsheet. And you can view the graph and labels bigger in this slide.

Thanks so much in advance!!

(If you have questions or critiques, please click through and read more context on AO3 or click through to the OP version of this post, which I will update with clarifications as needed.)

#got #game of thrones #asoiaf #fandom stats #questions for the tumblmind #op #toastystats #50 #100

[destinationtoast]

Calling Supernatural fans with knowledge of the fandom's history! [see also: Game of Thrones version]

I'm in the midst of putting together some fandom deep dives as part of my analysis of TV Fandom Fix-Its on AO3. I'm starting with Supernatural and trying to give context for how many fanworks the fandom was producing overall, and when overall spikes in fandom activity were happening, and I could use help.

Specifically, I'm trying to label the activity spikes with what episodes/events seemed to contribute to them. But I'm not in the fandom, so I'm probably missing important context. E.g., I know there were other events like fanwork exchanges happening that might have been contributors to some activity spikes, or things the show creators said/did might also have contributed sometimes.

If you have theories about why the red spikes happened around July 15 and Oct 7, 2023 (both after The Winchesters was done airing), that would be excellent.

And if you think I'm missing important context for some of the earlier spikes, or I made goofs on some of the labels, please LMK!

(Edit: This was posted on April 7, 2024; I'm hoping for replies in the next week or so.)

If you prefer to look at the raw data, it's too long to list here, but you can read it in this spreadsheet (edit: click tab "just the total activity"). And you can view the graph and labels bigger in this slide.

Thanks so much in advance!!

(If you have questions or critiques, please click through and read more context on AO3 or click through to the OP version of this post, which I will update with clarifications as needed.)

#fandom stats #spn #supernatural #questions for the tumblmind #op #toastystats #50 #100

[destinationtoast]

Have you noticed how much Goncharov fic is femslash? it's a lot. the whole phenomenon is wonderful, but this is probably the most fascinating thing about it (to me, at least)

I have noticed, and it is fascinating! To update some of my Goncharov stats from 3 days ago, now that the AO3 fandom presence has grown from 40 to over 500 fanworks (!!!):

With those smaller numbers a few days ago, I was really just goofing around (you can't conclude much about which ships are "winning" with only 40 fanworks, but I wanted to contribute some fun graphs to the Goncharov phenomenon anyway). Now that there are so many works, femslash is clearly leading the fic world, even though a lot of the meta and articles I see people sharing primarily mention the Andrey/Goncharov homoeroticism.

This is really interesting, and I wonder what all is driving it. Do the actors who play Andrey & Goncharov not speak as much to slash fans as the actors who play Katya & Sofia? is it the particular scenes that the women characters are in that speak to the fans the most? Was there some particularly inspirational early F/F fic or fanart that spurred more? Are "imaginary canons" (such a goofy genre name!) more likely to generate more femslash than other canons? And/or are there other reasons? Would love to hear theories.

#goncharov #katya x sophia #shipping #fandom stats #toastystats #asks #toasty replies #all the thinkiness #questions for the tumblmind #it's hard to know for any one fandom #but I'm still interested to hear thoughts #unreality #fake movie but real fanworks and real stats #op #on my way to a big family gathering now and probably won't be online for a while #happy holiday to those for whom it's appicable #katfia #50 #100

[destinationtoast]

Toastystats preview: F/F vs. M/M tagging

I discovered something unexpected while doing stats comparing F/F and M/M on AO3. One thing I was initially looking for was whether M/M fanworks were more likely than F/F fanworks to tag dark themes or explicit sex acts. It seemed like yes, they were -- but then I found out that, more generally, M/M fanworks use more tags on average than F/F fanworks. And given that, it's not too surprising that M/M is more likely to use most of the common AO3 tags than F/F is (whether the tag is dark, fluffy, or otherwise).

Still, I found a few AO3 tags that F/F was more likely to use than M/M. And I sorted a bunch of common AO3 tags from "Most likely to be used by M/M" to "Most likely to be used by F/F", shown above. The middle line indicates that a tag is equally likely to be used by M/M and F/F. Some of the darker and more explicit tags do indeed seem to be further toward the mostly-M/M end of the spectrum, but some of the ordering surprised me. (E.g., F/F is more likely to use "Smut," while M/M is more likely to use "Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot." And F/F and M/M are nearly equally likely to use "Trauma" and "Coercion.")

I have a whole lot more F/F vs. M/M data to share soon, but I have questions for y'all first about this data:

does the above visualization makes sense? I'm worried it might be hard to interpret, so if you're confused, can you share anything about why?

are you are surprised by anything about the data?

any thoughts/theories/questions this data raises for you?

Below the cut -- additional explanations that might be useful when theorizing (e.g., about possible factors like background ships), along with raw data for the above graph.

A couple notes on interpretation: we shouldn't have to worry about the fact that F/F is often tagged when F/F is actually a background ship -- I tried to weed out all cases where the F/F or M/M tag of interest could possibly have referred to a background ship. Also, all of the above tags are used at least 1000 times on F/F works and at least 17K times on F/F and M/M combined... so these numbers shouldn't be *too* prone to the noise of really small numbers.

Data used to make the chart

Header: tag name | % F/F using tag | % M/M using tag | A/A is X times more likely to use tag as B/B (A/A uses it more than B/B)

Whump | 0.16% | 0.39% | 2.4

Protectiveness | 0.85% | 1.81% | 2.1

Hurt | 0.93% | 1.94% | 2.1

Kinks | 1.12% | 2.30% | 2.1

Crack | 0.87% | 1.67% | 1.9

Torture | 0.46% | 0.84% | 1.8

Children | 0.56% | 0.99% | 1.8

Gore | 0.23% | 0.40% | 1.7

Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot | 2.25% | 3.72% | 1.7

Not Beta Read | 1.76% | 2.63% | 1.5

Falling in Love | 1.12% | 1.62% | 1.4

Self-Harm | 0.63% | 0.90% | 1.4

Abuse | 1.82% | 2.57% | 1.4

Incest | 0.93% | 1.31% | 1.4

Cuddling & Snuggling | 1.56% | 2.15% | 1.4

Humor | 3.63% | 4.99% | 1.4

Birthday | 0.38% | 0.51% | 1.4

Supernatural Elements | 2.16% | 2.93% | 1.4

Badass | 0.37% | 0.50% | 1.4

BDSM | 3.94% | 5.32% | 1.4

Awkwardness | 0.65% | 0.86% | 1.3

Dark | 0.44% | 0.58% | 1.3

Marriage | 1.78% | 2.36% | 1.3

Light-Hearted | 3.13% | 4.12% | 1.3

Hatred | 0.51% | 0.66% | 1.3

Mythical Beings & Creatures | 2.01% | 2.58% | 1.3

Love | 5.95% | 6.74% | 1.1

Friendship | 5.01% | 5.64% | 1.1

Alternate Universe | 19.27% | 21.27% | 1.1

Holidays | 1.90% | 2.09% | 1.1

Trauma | 1.43% | 1.56% | 1.1

Coercion | 0.37% | 0.39% | 1.1

Horror | 0.45% | 0.47% | 1.0

Comfort | 0.95% | 0.97% | 1.0

Fluff | 23.98% | 24.17% | 1.0

Flirting | 1.20% | 1.20% | 1.0

Hugs | 0.38% | 0.37% | 1.0

Crossovers & Fandom Fusions | 1.56% | 1.52% | 1.0

Alternate Canon | 4.89% | 4.71% | 1.0

Polyamory | 0.71% | 0.67% | 1.1

Smut | 7.04% | 6.48% | 1.1

Slow Burn | 2.54% | 2.26% | 1.1

Post-Canon | 2.32% | 2.03% | 1.1

Romance | 6.42% | 5.49% | 1.2

Drabble | 2.59% | 2.21% | 1.2

Prompt Fill | 0.70% | 0.59% | 1.2

Pre-Canon | 0.77% | 0.59% | 1.3

One Shot | 3.85% | 2.66% | 1.4

LGBTQ Themes | 7.77% | 4.44% | 1.7

Gender Related | 3.52% | 1.45% | 2.4

#fandom stats #femslash #wlw #mlm #F/F vs. M/M #ao3 #toastystats #questions for the tumblmind #op #50 #100

[destinationtoast]

I've been getting a new wave of spam comments recently on AO3 that are easy for me to spot because they are responding to my fandom stats meta as if it were fiction:

[redacted]* left the following comment on [Fandom stats] Ted Lasso S3 on AO3: fandom response to Season 3:

I love how you explored the unexplored aspects of the original story. It adds a whole new layer of depth.

[redacted]* left the following comment on [Fandom stats tutorial] How to gather fandom data & do fandom stats:

Your fanfic is an emotional rollercoaster. I laughed, I cried, and I couldn't get enough. Fantastic work!

[redacted]* left the following comment on [Fandom stats tutorial] How to gather fandom data & do fandom stats:

Your writing has a lyrical quality to it. The prose is poetic, and it added an extra layer of beauty to the story.

[redacted]* left the following comment on [Fandom stats tutorial] How to gather fandom data & do fandom stats:

I can't get enough of your writing. It's addictive.

I believe I've only been getting these on my most recently updated three works (and mostly on the oldest of those three, which is also the most popular, the only WIP, and the only one with multiple chapters). But it's also possible I got some comments on older works that were fiction, and I didn't recognize them as spam.

Has anyone else been noticing a similar influx?

*Edit to add: redacted because at least some of the names the bots are using are real usernames, appropriated for spam. (But if the name in a comment is not linked, it's not the actual user leaving the comment.) If you see such comments yourself, don't blame the real users for the spam bots' actions!

#ao3 #ao3 comments #comment spam #comment bots evolving #unsurprising but annoying #questions for the tumblmind #op #50 #100

[destinationtoast]

Reverse fake relationship fic?

Has anyone read any fic where characters who are not in a relationship have to pretend to be siblings, or some other platonic relationship, and in the process realize how hard it is to act truly platonically, and that they want more?

Or about members of an established relationship who have to pretend to be platonic and keep having to explain away absent-minded affection, and have to keep sneaking around to have secret sex? (Edit: a couple people have rightly pointed out that this one is a Secret Relationship, which is indeed an existing trope!)

#apologies to any targaryens or lannisters who feel i'm being reductive about the sibling relationship #;P #this question brought to you by The Rec Center and Fansplaining both covering the trope this week #fake dating #fake relationship #tropes #questions for the tumblmind #op #50

[destinationtoast]

Just finished rereading the Imperial Radch trilogy. (Or, actually, I listened to it this time.) How is it so fucking good?? I'm sniffly about it. *happy sigh*

I love rereads in general, but I especially enjoyed the additional Presger insights I had this time around, thanks to Translation State.

Based on my love of this universe and the Murderbot Diaries, a friend recommended A Memory Called Empire. Do any of you agree/disagree, or have any other recommendations?

#imperial radch #toasty recs #questions for the tumblmind #not that i don't already have a long TBR #but still curious #op

[destinationtoast]

britpicking? (Ted Lasso)

So, I seem to be continuing to write lots of Ted Lasso Roy/Jamie/Keeley fic. :D Is anyone interested in britpicking? I'd be especially interested in someone who can help with the essentials of a Northern/Mancunian dialect (e.g., when it's appropriate to say something like, "she were sending a text" vs. "she was sending a text") and also with "innit" (which I know is linguistically more complex than just replacing "isn't it" and has been evolving). I'm happy to beta/ameripick in return, if desired.

I currently have a couple WIPs that are a few thousand words each.

#ted lasso #jamie tartt #roy x jamie x keeley #britpicking #questions for the tumblmind #most of my british friends don't watch the show or dislike my ship #so before I force any of them to suffer I figured I should ask around ;) #I'm probably overly cautious #but i don't like to try to imitate a dialect i don't know without help #as i know it could end up reading like a bad parody if i get it really wrong #but the result is that i mostly end up not including any dialect markers at all #not even common things like 'innit' #which is differently inauthentic

[destinationtoast]

Hi!

I've been tracking the number of restricted works on AO3 since about 24 hours after the recent Reddit post on ao3 probably being scraped for use in commercial writing AIs. I think it could be interesting to make some meta with that.

Do you, or does one of your followers happen to have data on the number of restricted works on ao3 prior to December 2nd? Or know where I could find it?

Oh, that sounds really interesting! I don't have any recent data about restricted works on AO3 prior to that date (it's vaguely possible I looked at this number at some point in the past, but if so, it was years ago). Any of my followers have relevant data?

#fandom stats #ao3 #locked works #restricted works #questions for the tumblmind #asks #toasty replies

[destinationtoast]

informal survey for people who post fanworks on AO3

I know that sometimes people post fanworks tagged with a pairing that they don't personally ship. There's plenty of reasons they might do so -- it's a canonical ship, it's a ship they were prompted to write about, they got a one-off plot bunny for a ship they're not normally into, etc. But I would generally assume that if someone tags a non-canonical ship in a lot of their fanworks, they probably are into that ship. However, this might be a bad assumption! So I want to ask more questions before I do some related stats and/or other data gathering.

A. Do you post fanworks about any ships on AO3? Please proceed only if answer is yes. :)

B. Are there any examples in your own AO3 fanworks of ships that you've tagged in a bunch of your fanworks, but that you don't personally ship? (I'm most interested in non-canonical ships, and especially interested in ships that you've tagged as the first ship.) If so, why did you post a bunch of fanworks about the ship(s)?

C. Is there an approximate threshold you could point to in your fanworks above which you'd say you usually ship something? E.g.:

If I've posted at least 5 fanworks about X, I probably ship X

If I've posted at least 5,000 words about X, I probably ship X

If over 50% of the fanworks I've posted in fandom Y are tagged with ship X, I probably ship X

(all of the above numbers are just arbitrary examples... if you have a threshold, it could be very different)

D. Did this informal survey frustrate you because I'm asking the wrong questions? If so, what should I be asking? :)

#questions for the tumblmind #ao3 #shipping #toastystats #ish #informal surveys #i know the term 'shipping' is itself both vague and complex #but i want to try asking this initially without further definition of that term #and see if i can gain any insights despite that #particularly about whether important counterexamples exist that i wasn't even thinking of #50 #100

[destinationtoast]

seeking parallel F/F and M/M duos

I'm looking for F/F and M/M pairings that have strong parallels in canon, such that you might expect them to generate similar fanfic.

Examples:

Eve/Villanelle (Killing Eve) and Will/Hannibal (Hannibal) -- highly similar show genres and similar character roles

Robin/Nancy and Steve/Eddie (Stranger Things) -- this group of four spends a bunch of time together onscreen and is frequently shipped as two same-sex duos

#questions for the tumblmind #toastystats #F/F vs. M/M #I have so much good data from other comparisons #but would love a few case studies also #fandom stats #op #50

[destinationtoast]

How to address non-binary characters in fandom stats about gender

@once-a-polecat asked a thoughtful and interesting question in response to my post about Canon gender representation & shipping:

So, I know this is a VERY small number of characters (statistically speaking), but how do you deal with, or plan to deal with, the increasing numbers of characters who are non-binary in canon? (Jim Jimenez in OFMD, or Desire in Sandman for instance.) If you’re documenting how prevalent it is that fans introduce gender diversity to binary characters at some point you have to address the question of canon characters who do not have a binary gender. And I understand how much of a tricky question this is because it’s less easily traced across fandoms and some characters may not have a binary gender in ways that do not track with Western human society (they may have culturally significant genders or be non-human beings etc…), but small numbers and diverse types of genders gets difficult for data visualization purposes.

I wanted to give a long-ish answer (or really, to discuss a number of possible answers, all of which sometimes apply but aren't complete on their own), and I also wanted to open it up to others for ideas, so rather than reply in the notes, I'm replying here.

One answer is to say that I'm limited by the data I have available about canon (e.g., in that past 2018 work I was pointing to about Gender representation in canon vs. fanworks, I was working with someone else's movie data set, which didn't contain any data about canon nonbinary characters). That raises a question for future analyses -- does anyone know of a reliable list of canon nonbinary characters that is kept up-to-date? How good is Wikipedia's List of fictional non-binary characters, e.g.? Also interested in lists of canon trans characters.

(A quick aside, because I'm about to talk about limitations: I'm incredibly grateful for the AO3 tagging system, and everyone who makes it work! In part because it allows me to do far more complex stats about all this stuff than any other fandom platform -- or other media platforms, period. And because it gives us all some pretty outstanding sorting and filtering superpowers. Hallelujah! Okay, now onto some limitations. :) )

Another possible answer is to say that my stats are about how people tag things on AO3. So for the most part, I just follow however people are tagging things on AO3 -- and if AO3 users start tagging more ships as "Other" as they often do when a canon nonbinary character like Jim Jimenez or Desire is involved, some of my tag-based stats will pick up that kind of thing (even though I'm currently investigating F/F and M/M specifically, about which more below, I do often include more shipping categories than that). However, this is also only somewhat satisfying, since tagging practices differ between fandoms and change over time (e.g., I *think* more people used to tag some ships involving nonbinary characters, like LaFontaine/Perry from Carmilla, with gendered tags like "F/F" rather than with "Other" -- though maybe that particular example was just because L/P was often a background ship). And I know the use of "Other" can also be touchy; it can be frustrating to lump together human-only ships like Oluwande Boodhari/Jim Jimenez with ones like Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote, for one thing. (And AO3 could even change some of these tagging options in the future, which might make such data even less useful.)

Another answer is to say, "Nonbinary characters are usually just noise, statistically, because there are so few of them -- I can ignore them most of the time." (Which you nodded to in your question, though you didn't suggest being so dismissive about it. :) ) There are some times when I make those kind of omissions or oversimplifications, though I avoid it when possible. For the purposes of my upcoming "F/F vs. M/M" analysis, this answer and the previous one both come into play -- my initial goal is to look at how explicitly queer fic differs between fanworks tagged "F/F" vs. "M/M." Which will unfortunately miss a whole bunch of queer fanworks featuring nonbinary characters. But I am going to simplify things by initially focusing on those two largest and most explicitly queer ship tags.

A final answer is to say that I've tried to make up for limitations in my other work by explicitly seeking out and analyzing gender diversity in some of my stats, like my analyses of Trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse characters on AO3. [Edit: and then I addressed the possible visualization complexities by looking at each of the common tags -- like "Nonbinary Character" -- separately.] At the same time, because I don't know which characters are trans or nonbinary in canon, those stats have been vague about which gender diversity is coming from canon vs. from fandom -- see my above question about good lists of canon gender diversity. (Also, this doesn't capture types of gender diversity that aren't reflected in the tags.)

Finally, a shoutout to @centrumlumina who does a fantastic job hand-labeling the gender and race of all the characters for the annual top AO3 ships analysis. I am in complete awe. Canon race and gender are both things I wish were easier to analyze/find data about -- but at least for the characters in the top 100 ships each year, Lulu has provided a great data source!

Thanks for the question -- curious to hear if/how others think about this topic.

#gender representation #fandom stats #gender diversity #nonbinary #data viz #is hard #when categories are complex and/or numerous #questions for the tumblmind #toasty replies #toastystats #all the thinkiness #long post #oops I've been forgetting to use that tag lately #I'm not sure how many people still filter “long post” now that tumblr has “Expand” #but I try to remember #op #50

[destinationtoast]

Hi! I don’t know if you’ve ever taken suggestions for your fandom stats stuff, but I would LOVE to see the stats on DID/Disasocitive Disorder tagging on ao3. I’ve written some about Ken Kaneki (Tokyo Ghoul) and plurality and despite him BASICALLY canonically having it, the tag wasn’t at all wrangled— all I got was DreamSMP. Which is fascinating.

Hey! I don't have time for a deep dive right now, but I will say that I think that which tags get wrangled as canonical is more about how expert & active the volunteer tag wranglers are within a given fandom than it is about how canonical a tag is. When I look at which character tags have a canonical "<name> has DID" tag, they're mostly (all?) from very big fandoms:

I think another important factor is that characters who canonically have a feature don't always get tagged with it -- probably because authors don't feel the need to point it out if it's canon. The characters from Moon Knight and Mr. Robot provide further evidence of this. Both of those fandoms use the tag "Dissociative Identity Disorder" a lot, presumably because (I believe, as someone who hasn't actually seen Moon Knight) the main characters from both shows canonically have DID, and some of the fanworks focus on that. However, neither Steven Grant (nor Marc Spector or any of the others) nor Elliot Alderson have a canonical tag of the form "<name> has DID," even though Moon Knight especially is a large and active fandom.

Has anyone else out there done any data collection/research about the Dissociative Identity Disorder AO3 tag or any related topics?

#asks #toasty replies #ao3 #ao3 tags #ao3 tag wrangling #DID #questions for the tumblmind #fandom stats #ish #toastystats #again i say ish #:)

[destinationtoast]

Hey! Love your stats roundups and everything. Can you tell how many authors are on AO3? I know there are 5.8M users and 11.1M works, but out of those users, how many write? Thank you!!!

Hey! Great question, but I don't know the answer... @zz9pzza is this something you would be able to share? And/or can anyone who has looked at author stats in the past give insights/estimates?

#ao3 #ao3 authors #fandom stats #questions for the tumblmind #asks #toasty replies

[destinationtoast]

rec yourself

Two people ask to read one of your fanworks.

Person A shares your reading tastes, but they aren't any of your fandoms and don't know any of the source material.

Person B shares your reading tastes and is in all of your fandoms.

What do you recommend to each of them?

---

(I'm interested in self-recs, but also curious how many people would recommend their most recent work in at least one case. I would currently recommend my most recent long fic in both cases. Would you?)

#questions for the tumblmind #I'm not planning to do any formal study of this #btw #just asking a hypothetical for fun #fanfic #self recs #50

[destinationtoast]

cats with diabetes - advice?

So I just found out Tico has diabetes. My vet has recommended:

a new diet of all wet prescription food

an insulin injection every twelve hours

monitoring glucose levels, either via frequent vet trips or via home monitoring, which involves pricking his ear for blood often IIUC

This is going to be extremely difficult for several reasons, but mostly because I'm usually gone a couple times a week for 18-36 hours. I have until now just left out a bunch of dry food for all three of them, and they've been okay without me there.

I can solve the problem of "I have three cats with different diets now who will want to eat each other's food" -- there are now RFID feeders that I can key to their microchips (so the feeder only opens when the right cat approaches -- which will apparently scare the hell out of them at first, but they'll hopefully adapt). But the injections + wet food every twelve hours is going to be HARD.

I asked the vet, "My parents had a diabetic cat who only got injections once a day -- is it possible to adjust the injection schedule to that? Or how bad is it if he misses an insulin dose a couple times a week, or if he eats dry food on those days?" All the vet would say is, "That's not recommended." But, like ... would it mean a minor decrease in his quality of life? Or would it make him get much sicker, or be noticeably uncomfortable? They wouldn't say anything. I know it varies a lot by pet, but does anyone have relevant experience here?

Also, does an ear prick blood draw bother a cat? Am I going to be able to do that at home? idk. [Edit: but my cats are nearly impossible to pick up or capture, so going to the vet regularly sounds bad.] I know the insulin injection in the scruff isn't noticed by most cats, at least.

We're supposed to take him back in on Saturday for more tests, because he's got other issues, too. Poor kitty.

#cats #feline diabetes #questions for the tumblmind #I'm also calling back to try to get the vet to answer more questions #look I'm not recommending using tumblr for medical advice without consulting pros #but sometimes hearing from a wider set of experiences can suggest ideas or questions you didn't think of