tollingreminiscentbells

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an important principle of fandom (and life, actually) is that if you want more of Less Popular Thing, it is good to create positive spaces and events for it. however, if you use those spaces to take cracks at the More Popular Thing which you perceive as stealing oxygen from your Less Popular Thing, you do not increase the audience for Less Popular Thing. you decrease it, because you irk people who like both Things. and depending on the relative popularity, there are quite possibly more people who like both Things than people who only like Less Popular Thing. (not to mention - you kill your chances of recruiting people who like More Popular Thing but are neutral on or haven’t considered Less Popular Thing.) 

you’re not campaigning for votes (where There Can Be Only One), you’re marketing for a share of people’s attention. don’t be petty. be effective. 

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they used to make smackable technology. you used to be able to hit your tv when it didn't work good.

#do you guys remember when tv screens were staticky? #if you touched them you could feel the static #they had an ozone smell too #which was probably bad for us but we lived

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i love living in western washington. i can literally just get on the ferry

#this post was like a jump scare #i know exactly where that photo was taken #and yes #western washington does just look like that

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One of my more petty sources of fandom annoyance is when I see posts along the lines of: "no one writes [thing they want]/where is [thing they want]/why isn't there more [thing they want]".

If there's something you want that doesn't exist, write it yourself. That's the answer. It's what the rest of us do. Don't try to shame, guilt, or cajole strangers into writing it for you. Write it yourself.

Writing fiction isn't some gift handed down from the heavens to some people and not others. If you want to do it, start doing it. That's how everyone else learned.

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I sometimes run across people saying that they find ao3 confusing or hard to use (in comparison to wattpad). And that is fascinating to me because I consider ao3 one of the most intuitive websites still in active use.

It must be generational. That's the only explanation that tracks. I started using the internet in the late 90s, so for me a website like ao3 is perfect. It's straightforward, there's no algorithm, and you almost never encounter images. It's the optimum internet experience.

A website like wattpad, on the other hand, is irritating. I can use it. I am perfectly capable of navigating and understanding it. But it's not pleasant. I don't want recommended content. I don't want pages of images. I don't want infinite scrolling. It's just clutter and noise that makes it more difficult to find the things I actually do want.

I don't have a grand conclusion here. It's just interesting to be handed such a concrete example of how changes in the internet have changed expectations with regard to user interfaces. But man, give me an ao3 over a wattpad any day.

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newbie fic authors, shooting themselves in the foot: This fic is bad haha I suck at writing lol I am being mean to myself in the hopes that you will be nice to me but actually am dissuading anyone from even clicking on my fic because all I have done to advertise it is tell you why you shouldn't read it

me: I am King Big Dick of Fanfic Mountain and I have arrived in your fandom with the Express Intention of writing my Very Favorite Fics, which I will generously allow you to read. You're welcome.

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Fic Update: Revolution of Configured Stars

Revolution of Configured Stars (152,763 words) by ReminiscentBells Chapters: 33/? Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Harry Potter/Voldemort Characters: Harry Potter, Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger, Theodore Nott Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Harry Potter was Raised by Other(s), Smart Harry Potter, Sane Voldemort (Harry Potter), Complicated Relationships, Moral Ambiguity, secondary OCs - Freeform, Harry Potter is Not the Boy-Who-Lived, Arithmancy (Harry Potter), appearances by a lot of other characters, Wizarding Politics (Harry Potter) Summary: In another world, Harry Potter was spared. Raised by a Pureblood guardian in Lord Voldemort's Britain, he isn't special and enters his seventh year wanting nothing more than to be allowed to go into Arithmancy research and keep his head down. But after a chance encounter with a man who later arrives at Hogwarts on behalf of the Ministry, to evaluate the seventh-year students for potential, it looks like it may not be so simple. Marvolo Gaunt seems to have his eye on Harry. The trouble is, Harry has no idea why.

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Chapter 33: Wherein Harry pays a visit and does not try to become a spy.

#revolution of configured stars #rocs #harrymort #fic update

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I love this so much, I’m gonna start saying “nuts” we need to bring it back

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AO3 Comments are SO SO SOOOOOOO important because you can only leave Kudos ONCE. You add to the hit count ONCE (every 24 hours).

So whenever someone updates their fic, the ONLY way an author knows who their regular readers are is if they comment on each chapter. And we WANT to know who's still reading.

Believe it or not, some of us think about the name that pops up constantly in the comments and go "omg I can't wait to see what they think of THIS SPECIFIC SCENE cuz I KNOW they'll say something about it!!!"

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There should be a new chapter of RoCS sometime tomorrow! For anyone out there keen on that sort of thing. It actually has come together finally.

I also am about 90% caught up on my comments, so it's a productive week on the creative front.

#revolution of configured stars #rocs #fic progress

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Reblog if you didn’t write My Immortal

We’re going to find the author by process of elimination.

#i do remember when it first appeared though

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Status report: I'm between a third and halfway through the next chapter of RoCS, so that will be updating sometime this week, without question. It's going a lot better this time around than it did my first attempt. Fortunately. Because it was a little rough there for a minute.

#revolution of configured stars #rocs #fic progress

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"your ship will never be canon" you silly silly boi

I don't want my ship to be canon

I don't care what happens in canon

To me canon is just another fanfic that I really like

I'm here for the fanfics, the fanarts, the memes, the people and the vibe

My fav ship being canon is the last of my concern

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I'm taking my second trip of the year next week. But because it's Golden Week and that means everyone else in this country will also be traveling, picking a destination was . . . challenging. It's one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.

So I'm going to Aomori and Hakodate. What am I going to do in Aomori and Hakodate for five days? I have absolutely no idea. I'll figure it out when I get there. But it's hitting up prefectures I've never been to before, and not costing a small fortune, and those are my only requirements for Japanese domestic travel.

Last year for Golden Week I went to Ise, in Mie, with a day in Nagoya solely so that I could check Aichi off my list. We'll see how Aomori and southern Hokkaido stack up.

ETA: What I have unintentionally done is leave Akita as the only prefecture in northern Japan that I will have never been to. I'm going to have to find some reason to go because this isn't going to work for me:

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does the term “content creator” make anyone else irrationally angry?

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By the way, I am woefully behind in my comments. Replying to comments is something I love doing, but I have a backlog of probably about . . . 80 right now? Across fics, not all in one place. You are all valued and cherished and I am sending love and appreciation to every single one of you, but that's a lot of replies.

I know people aren't expecting me to do it, but it's one of my things. So if you commented on something a few weeks ago, don't be surprised if a reply pops up in the next couple of days. I'm working my way through.

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Take the test

You can only do 12 options in a poll so if you tie choose which one you prefer???

#bard #i'm good with that