boosting!

Apr. 7th, 2024 01:34 pm
quillpunk: screenshot of langa from SK8, with a joyful expression (langa7)

Ad Astra (an AO3-clone for Star Trek fanfiction!) has gotten a Patreon.

And [personal profile] luckyzukky has written a guide about how to install the AO3 code via docker so you can make your own archive! The guide is here, and the SquidgeWorld guide she mentions is here.

I so want there to be more AO3-clones in existence. More archives! More options! Single-fandom! Multi-fandom! All the things!!!

Give me everything!!!!!

quillpunk: Mr. Villain from the anime Mr. Villain's Day Off is pissed off (mr villain is pissed)

SquidgeWorld

Squidgeworld Archive ([personal profile] squidgestatus) is looking for volunteers! A treasurer, an abuse committee, and a Gundam Wing archivist is specifically requested, though I think they're always looking for more tag wranglers. (There's a backlog of like... 4k unwrangled tags right now, I think?)

CoHost

CoHost might be going bust.

Basically, CoHost is losing and always has lost a truly infuriating amount of money, and their only funding (aside from the user-funding like subscriptions etc.) has always come from their "rich friend". That friend is out of contact now, for whatever reason, and they are running out of money. They say the money will be gone by April. Which is, you know, soon.

Lori has written a very detailed blog post about CoHost's financials from start to finish of the company's existence, according to what has been shared in public, and I think it's worth a read. It's a very interesting breakdown, especially as while I do have one or two CoHost accounts (unclear) I've never actually used the site in any meaningful amount of time. However, I do remember seeing a financial update or two being published while I was sort of paying attention to CoHost, and I think it must be stressed that I never actually realized they were doing that badly.

Like, the communication from staff at CoHost has always been (in my experience, which is not much) cavalier, oversharing, and making light of things.

I also think, after reading Lori's post, that it's extremely clear the people running CoHost are not good at business. They plainly don't know what they're doing; their prioritizations are incredibly weird and harmful to the eventual goal of... like... not losing thousands of bucks every month. They showcase a consistent inability to manage what they and each other are doing so that things actually get done, including things that might make them money.

So like. Yikes, honestly.

Update: They have gotten in touch with their main funds rich friend.

Pillowfort

Back in December, Pillowfort held an End of Year Fundraiser to raise 25k USD. This was successful! It got them funding until July this year, upon which further donations and premium subscriptions has ensured Pillowfort's existence until August. Pillowfort's current monthly goal is 5k USD in income; every month that goal is met, one more month of life-expectancy is added to the tally. March is currently at 55%.

Duck Prints Press

Duck Prints Press is holding a Kickstarter for mythical creature pride enamel pins and stickers.

quillpunk: Mr. Villain from the anime Mr. Villain's Day Off is pissed off (mr villain is pissed)
Warning: I got emotional. Read at your own risk.

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of metallic snowflake and ornaments. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Challenge #15 - Fandom Wrapped


Your top 5 fandoms for 2023 were: (But what do you *mean* though? Do you mean what fandoms I wrote fic in? Read fic in? Participated in conversations about? Fandoms I thought about in a kind nostalgic way but didn't interact with? I don't understand. How you do you quantify fandom in this instance, and what are you counting??? How are you counting it? If you have no data, are you a loser? It feels like I'm being called a loser because I have nothing to offer here.)

In 2023 I wrote a lot of fics in a fandom and then didn't write more. I read fics in dozens of fandoms. Quite frankly, I don't like this question.

But the most memorable things I wrote for are:
  • HP (2 fics?)

  • Teen Wolf (1 fic)

  • Blade Movie Trilogy (1 fic)

  • DCU (2 fic?)

  • Bleach (1 fic)

Your top 5 fandom spaces in 2023 were:
  • Dreamwidth

  • Mastodon

  • Discord

The top 5 things you did to contribute to fandom in 2023 were:
  • Setting up [community profile] tinyfandomflash

  • I dislike the phrasing of "contribution" here for some reason. It feels kind of invalidating of my own fandom experience of "just writing fic." Is writing fic not a fandom contribution? If I write a fic and nobody read it, does that means I have contributed nothing? Who decides what's a worthy contribution, and *why* is it a contribution?

    I don't know, this feels strange to me. Are things like reading fics, commenting on fics, participating in fic challenges counting? Because it doesn't feel that way from the phrasing, and saying "top 5" inherently means a ranking and some kind of "this is the best way to contribute" measurement that ultimately also means "you can fail at this/do this wrong."

    Like, what are you quantifying here, and how are you measuring it? What metrics are you using? What is a "contribution" to fandom and why should I be thinking of fandom in those terms? *Why* should I care? You're making a case here that there are "contributions in fandom" that should be Above Others™ and I just don't understand.

    Honestly, the language of "contribution" implies that I owe fandom something for being allowed in the room, so to speak. It implies, to me, like I need to pay my dues, and if I don't I'm taking up space that is not for me. It implies debt, and the expectation that if you're here, you'd better be doing something or you're just wasting the air. You know. Shit like that. That's where my mind went, and I think folk who interact with fandom more/in different ways then I do are probably not reading it that way.

    I think I'm taking it personally because it feels alienating, and like an accusation I'm doing something wrong because I don't 'get' it and that that's my fault, and if I just interacted with fandom in "the right way" it would be obvious to me. It feels like an accusation that it's ultimately me that's malfunctioning here, because at some point in my fandom journey I took the wrong path, and now I can't see through the trees anymore.

    I think I probably don't understand this question, to be honest. And certainly I don't get the intent behind it.

    I'm also not interested in it so don't tell me if you figured it out :)


Your top 5 most appreciated fandom contributions were: I don't understand what this sentence means, the phrasing is weird as fuck to me. Do you mean "the fandom contributions by others you (*I*) most appreciated" or do you mean "which contributions *I* made did other people most appreciate?"

To be honest, the thing I most appreciate is the existence of Ad Astra: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive and Squidgeworld Archive, both AO3-clones. They're fully functional, and though I'm still not around SqWA much (I do tag wrangle there sometimes though! Which is a lot of fun!) I deeply appreciate them. I wish them both all the luck! And also for more AO3-clones to be created! XD (I would join in a heartbeat and would def be willing to offer tag wrangling assistance, lol.)

And on the whole: This challenge question sucks for me, and I felt like shit the entire time I was thinking about it. Somehow I am taking it very personally that I don't 'get' so much of this. This is simply not how I relate to fandom, and I genuinely feel a bit kicked in the ditch like I'm roadside trash who's in the way of the people who do 'get' it and can easily interact with these questions without overthinking like I'm obviously doing.

Like, I know I don't have to do every challenge. I have simply not done them all. But I got Emotional™ writing this, so I'm posting this anyway. You're just gonna have to deal with it.

(You are so lucky I mostly managed to keep in my swearing.)

flops

Jan. 22nd, 2024 11:42 pm
quillpunk: Inaho from Aldnoah.Zero raises his hand in hello (inaho1)

Laughs deliriously.

I am done with my fic for [community profile] smallfandombang! It is complete; it could use some editing if I have time and energy for it, but it's entirely functional as it is (barring oh so many typos) which means I can officially stop worrying about it.

I have two more prompts claimed left for [community profile] smallfandomfest, but one I've already given up on. That one feels like a 3-6k word fic, potentially, and I can't get that done in time, so hopefully I'll still be interested in writing that in the next round, but if not, it is what it is. The other one I could maybe squeeze out a short ficlet for, but I'm not holding my breath; I keep restarting it because it's not quite working as I want so. It's fiddly, LOL.

Anyway, this means my only big deadline for fanfiction left is [personal profile] candyheartsex. I'm catching up! XD Almost got it all under control now, LOL.

([community profile] smallfandombang is still looking for artists, by the way. If you're interested...)

quillpunk: screenshot of Aaravos (who is smirking in full evil mode) from The Dragon Prince cartoon (aaravos1)

Did I sign up to another exchange before the assignments are even out for [personal profile] candyheartsex? Yes, yes I did. Murder Mayhem Flash Exchange is run on [community profile] deusexchange and works (min 300 word fic) are due Jan 14, and there are two initial pinch hits I'm boosting because they're still there and time is ticking, LOL.

...Why did I do this to myself???

Ahhhh!

quillpunk: screenshot of Rue (blushing and happy)from the webcomic The Villainess Flips the Script (rue1)
Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of metallic snowflake and ornaments. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Challenge #1: Fandom Information


Decided in the end to just make a new post instead of updating my sticky introduction post, as I just couldn't figure out how to adjust it, LOL.

So! Fandom information.

I'm [archiveofourown.org profile] TisStrangerEerierAndPreposterousUsername on AO3 (I was trying to max out the characters in my username in an attempt to have more Vibes~ in my fun fandom hobby, LOL). I'm *hoodwinked* on Squidgeworld Archive and Ad Astra (a Star Trek fanfiction archive), both built on AO3's code.

I wouldn't say that I'm really *in* a fandom right now; at the moment I'm more just coasting between different fandoms/pairings I find interesting, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm *invested* in them, if that makes sense. I don't think I quite latch onto fandoms in that manner where I get like super, super into something, but I tend to always have 5 or so fandoms I'm interested in enough to read and write fics for.

I don't know, I've ruminated on fandom before and to be truthful I think it might be a result of limited spoons for fandom stuff, and just a preference for using those spoon I do have to write fun fics, instead of necessarily talking about/with the fandom. Lots of executive dysfunction and chronic pain is perhaps not the best combination, LOL.

Last month I wrote four fics, all different fandoms. One Blade (Movie Trilogy) fic written for [community profile] smallfandomfest, a Call of Duty fic, one for Hit the Floor (TV) and one fic for A.M. Burrage's short story The Attic written for [community profile] tinyfandomflash (which I run!).

I think that's pretty much where my fandom interest lies these days when it comes to 'things I want to write' (but maybe not? Will I actually write more for any fandom I've dipped my toe into before? Impossible to say) but 'things I want to read' goes much, much wider; as evident, I'm very much not monofanish.

Over the years there have been occasions where I've gotten pretty invested in a new fandom/pairing very quickly and go on reading sprees on AO3, but they typically don't last long enough for me to write a lot of fics myself, and my burning desire to Read All The Fics tend to burn itself out very quickly. DCU and ATLA are probably the longest-lasting examples of this; those fics can be found on [archiveofourown.org profile] hoodwinked, my older AO3 account I'm not much using these days.

There are characters I'm more perpetually drawn to even when the larger fandom interest fades; Jason Todd (DCU), Draco Malfoy (HP) and Kuei (ATLA) are probably the ones at the top. But that doesn't translate into any 'constant' interest, it's more a case of going back to them every once in a while, just because I'm still intrigued and would like to do more exploration.

Mood plays into a lot, I think. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Teen Wolf fics, and then I'll read a bunch for a week and then that'll mood change and I'll go for something else. So it's always hard to say 'I'm into these and these and these specific fandoms.'

Hmmm.
quillpunk: Loyd from the anime Spy X Family (loyd 1)
  • Nominations have now closed for [personal profile] candyheartsex and sign-ups open on Jan 1. I am Excited.

  • There's one month left on this round of [community profile] smallfandomfest; if you haven't, I recommend checking out the list of prompts. There are over 6k to browse, so chances are you might find something interesting!

  • Pillowfort met their USD 25000 fundraising goal, thereby securing about 6 months of funding!

  • [personal profile] duckprintspress's kickstarter for their aetherpunk anthology has begun!

  • Bookdun is a discord server that hosts a six-month writing challenge, the new one starting on Jan 1. While it's on discord, it's fine to just pop in for the progress updates and ignore the rest.

  • via [personal profile] vriddy, [community profile] merlin_bbc is a new comm for Merlin the BBC show. They've got a friending meme going right now.

  • [community profile] snowflake_challenge will be starting soon and I am Looking. I've never done it before but I'm (hopefully) gonna give it a try.

  • The year-long writing challenges [community profile] getyourwordsout and [community profile] inkingitout are both open for signups for 2024 right now.

  • [community profile] fandomtrees are inching ever closer to the deadline, and there are still a lot of trees that need gifts. Check out the master spreadsheet here.

  • [personal profile] amperslashexchange and [community profile] yuletide_admin both finished recently! Moar fics! :D

  • via [site community profile] dw_community_promo, [community profile] dchellparty is a new DC Comics prompt meme.

quillpunk: screenshot of judith (making a exhaused, horrified expression) from the webcomic The Villainess Flips the Script (judith1)

[personal profile] candyheartsex is currently open for nominations, and I'm thinking of signing up to the ex.

The only exchange I've ever done is [community profile] justmarriedexchange and honestly, I didn't muck like it. I think a lot of that was on me; I had expectations (not that I know what they all were...) and when they weren't met my mood soured fast on it. I didn't like the fic I wrote, I didn't have fun writing it, it was stressful and full of pressure and I think my recipient still hasn't read my fic, which honestly? Yeah, it kind of bums me out.

However. However one attempt is a pretty small sample size, and I'm thinking a quick ex like this, with a month long writing period, is a pretty good ex to dip my toes in again, adjust my expectations, absolutely not offer or request for the fandom I wrote in the Just Married ex (because that ways lies only bad associations), and go in with a 'devil may care' attitude.

I do wanna try again, because theoretically I still think exchanges might be fun and while the dates smash a little against [community profile] smallfandomfest, this still seems like it'd work.

Like, when thinking of the Just Married ex I still feel sour about it all, but if the Candy Hearts one goes even mildly better that might even those feelings out a little? And I defaulted on that pinch hit I picked up for [community profile] fffx and still haven't regretted it, so 1) that was probably the right call and 2) I think I'm at least a little more comfortable defaulting now, which is probably a good skill to have for exchanges.

If I sign up and don't have fun writing for it, I'm gonna try to convince myself to default instead of soldiering on, because fanfiction is my fun time and I want it to be fun and not super serious and like. Fun vibes, you know. I'm in the middle of trying to to adjust my whole attitude to fandom like that, hence making a new AO3 account not that long ago (I wanna write a post about that at some point).

So yeah. I might give this one a go.


Also I took a break writing this post and I'm returning with a random new fandom event idea: Dead Fandoms Fest or Dead Fandoms Casket ala (is 'ala' an actual word? I think it is but the spell checker disagrees with me which has made realize if it is a word I don't actually know what it means, I just assumed it's used like this from context learning, LOL) [community profile] smallfandomfest [community profile] fandomgiftbasket and the like, for fandoms with like... less than 10-50 new/updated fics [posted on AO3] in the last year (10 sounds very little and 50 like a lot, so maybe 25???).

Anyway, just thought that seemed like a fun concept XD

quillpunk: digital portrait sketch of an imaginary guy who might or might not (not) be me (smirk)
Signups are open for [community profile] fandomtrees! I still haven't decided if I'm going to sign up or not but I am keeping an eye on the Trees; I had a lot of fun with [community profile] fandomgiftbasket and I wanna drop more random fics on random people!

The prompting period closes soon for [community profile] smallfandomfest. I've dropped a couple of prompts, the one I'm most proud of is the Bachelor(ette) AU for Biggles. I am still cackling evilly at that. Like, I don't know how it'd *work*, but I am cackling. XD

[community profile] tinyfandomflash has reached 10 challenges now, and I am ridiculously proud of myself for still getting the prompts out on time. Since it's only 2 challenges a month, maintaining it is going pretty well for me, and I'm quite happy I got it going and didn't just like, let it languish forever in my drafts.

Like every month, there's a Review Hunt ongoing at Ad Astra, a Star Trek fanfiction archive, which is very fun. I'm getting a lot of practice commenting and I think it's really helping! I'm second-guessing myself much less when commenting now, LOL. And I've won some cool books on my wishlist from the Review Hunt in the past, which is just absolutely awesome! XD

It's Amnesty over at [community profile] fandomweekly and I wrote a Leverage fic for it. I would like to write one fic more for it before Amnesty ends, but we'll see. I feel like I almost had the characterization down but not quite, so I'd like to make another attempt at Leverage. *musing expression*

Aside from the Fandom Weekly ficlet, I've also written a 9-1-1 fic and a Teen Wolf fic. First attempt at both of those fandoms and I'm generally feeling pretty *ugh* about the TW fic and kind of *meh, good enough* about the 9-1-1 fic. Like characterization-wise I just wasn't able to get the right feel at all for TW and while I think I did pretty okay with the 9-1-1 fic, I can do better. We'll see if I keep trying, LOL.

I'm linking the New Year's Countdown horror prompt list I wrote up a while ago because it's getting close (ahhh!) and I'm considering if I actually want to write anything for them. Mostly I'm just mentioning them to remind myself they exist, LOL.

I've crossposted some fics to SqWA, finally, and made a cursory update to [community profile] wraithvault. One day I'll catch up, but today is not that day.

Pillowfort is currently doing a fundraising campaign until the end of the year to raise enough money the IRS doesn't reclassify them as a hobby project (or something to that affect, I don't quite remember), which would make things worse for them financially. They're over half the goal already (woo!) which is probably in part because apparently stuff is happening again over at Tumblr. (I have like 14 tumblr accounts (that's only a slight exaggeration) and haven't checked in in months, and honestly I don't wanna. Ugh.) I've got lots of free invite links for PF if anybody wanna check it out :D

Finally, I've got my eye on [community profile] getyourwordsout because I wanna sign up for next year. I'm thinking I'll sign up for 500k, because it's more fun getting halfway on an unattainable goal then it is to fail at a reasonable one, LMAO. (For reference, 200k-300k is what a reasonable goal looks like for me *right now*.) (I think I'm technically signed up for [community profile] inkingitout this year with a 200k word goal which, yeah I might actually reach that. Interesting. Considering I haven't thought about that at all all year, I'm still debating if I'll sign up again next year. It looks like I might be able to sign up for both?)

Also I've completely forgotten my NaNoWriMo project, LOL. My poor baby. I'll get to you at some point, I promise!

Edit: I forgot [community profile] hcfest again. Sigh. Right now H/C Fest is in the claiming and filling prompt period and I had better write at least one fic or there might be nothing at all, LOL. The prompts can be found here, if anybody's interested.
quillpunk: literally nothing. something went wrong and now it's literally nothing. (thingy)
here's an impromptu Multi-Fandom Hurt/Comfort Prompt Fest: [community profile] hcfest

(yes, i hath done this, yes, i am in a Mood, yes, i have a cold my crappy immune system has been battling over a week now (and shall probably lose for another week) and due to this i can not take my rheumatism meds, and now i am going wild and can not be stopped)
quillpunk: screenshot of adam's face in full costume from SK8 (adam)
  • It's Amnesty Week over at Ad Astra's weekly challenges! I have one fic that's sitting in draft I wanna post; I'll either have time to fix it up a little more, or if not I'll just post it as it is. Basically, it's good enough already, I just think it could be better. We'll see!

  • [community profile] fandomgiftbasket needs more fills! Deadline is coming up tomorrow and as it looks right now, to me, it's probably gonna need to be extended again. I learned about this too late to sign up but I've dropped two fics on random strangers, which is very fun. I feel a bit like a bird just dropping flowers on people out of the blue, and it's very cool.

  • Sign ups are open for [community profile] smallfandombang, a big bang for small fandoms with a minimum wordcount requirment of 10k words. I signed up and am fairly (?) sure I know what fandom I'll do. Please yell about this with me.

  • [community profile] tinyfandomflash is still going! Up to 6 challenges now, attackable (cue sword popping up above your head) at any time.

  • [community profile] trope_of_the_month seems to be fairly new, and looks exciting!

  • I've been popping into Pillowfort with my shiny new account lately and have found some cool communities there. Namely MultiMeta (side-note: turns out I like meta) and WebDiscussions. The FindComments community also seems a good way to find where the conversations are happening. If you're on PF, say hi?

  • I've figured out how to do the that textbox thing. It bugged me, I thought it was a code box or something, but no it's *textarea*. But now I have captured this knowledge!


  • Prompts! I've thrown up 2 prompt lists on Pillowfort (if anybody wants I can post them here as well?).
quillpunk: screenshot of judith (making a exhaused, horrified expression) from the webcomic The Villainess Flips the Script (judith1)
So! Just Married Ex 2023 is over XD I got an absolutely magnificent fic that I just adore. Like, seriously, it is perfection.

I got:

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Title: attained in your present affiliation
Author: bloodmoney

I wrote:

Fandom: Leverage
Title: leaves over the mountain range
Author: hoodwinked

This was my first fandom exchange and to be honest I'm a little iffy on how I feel about it. Like, it was stressful? There was pressure, at least to me, since if I got a fic but ended up defaulting, I'd feel super bad. And I didn't want to do that. So. Yeah, pressure and stress, and honestly, I don't know how I feel about the fic I wrote. It's not bad, I don't think, but I don't much care for it.

Anyway, I did the sensible thing and not sign up for FFFX2023 (I wasn't even done with Just Married Ex when signups were open!). And... then I signed up for a pinch hit anyway. Sigh.

The pinch hit spoke to me! It tempted me! I couldn't not ahjksfhads but at least with doing a pinch hit there's not that pressure that I must finish it or I suck. So that's nice. I don't quite know how I'll approach exchanges in the future; I might try again, might stick to pinch hits... we'll see. I did manage to write a fic for Fandom Gift Basket though!

Also. I signed up for Small Fandoms Bang. Because why not, at this point.
quillpunk: Yuri from Spy X Family is making a scared but determined expression (yuri1)
(This post is almost 1k words, welp. But at least I had fun thinking out loud!)

So I made this throwaway post on my shiny new Pillowfort account:

"I wonder what part AO3 having native fic exchange and prompt meme functionality played in it becoming the fandom behemoth."

And the thought stuck with me. Like, to participate in a fic exchange or prompt meme on AO3 you *must* 1) have an AO3 account, 2) post your resulting fic on AO3 and 3) probably comment on the fic you get gifted [in return] while logged in on your account. You functionally can not do a fic exchange on AO3 without everyone involved having accounts on AO3 and actually using them.

I mean, you can certainly do a fic exchange or prompt meme without AO3. But there's a barrier of entry to running something like that, a difficulty that makes it Intimidating™ and Big™. A prompt meme, sure, that's relatively simple. But an exchange?

Now you're talking math. You're talking matching requests and offers. You're talking moderating people who might break the rules, who might write something with a recipients DNWs, who might be an asshole if they don't like the fic *they* get gifted. You're talking juggling pinch hits and deadlines and trying to make sure everyone has gotten all the info about their match.

quillpunk: digital portrait sketch of an imaginary guy who might or might not (not) be me (brave10)

I dived into the tags on SqWA (I think that's the acronym) again recently, and now think I can articulate what it is about the archive that feels a little off to me.

There is not, to my experience, any readership on SqWA.

Naturally this isn't true to everyone, always. There are probably pockets of older users (as in, people that have used the site for a long time) active somewhere in there, and there are probably sporadic readers who pop in, read what they want, and pop out again waiting for new stories. The speed in which stories gets posted to the archive is 100% slow enough that that's achievable without being overwhelming.

But I can't see them. I can not, in fact, spot anyone. But that in itself isn't actually the main thing. It's kind of lonely, but it's not alienating.

But the new users (I know I'm pretty new myself; I certainly don't have a lot of legs to stand on here. But I am Trying™) who are cross-posting all their stuff from AO3 due to dissatisfaction aren't in turn actually reading anything on the site, and that is actually kind of alienating to me. It's a backup archive for them, and to be clear that is a fine and good thing to have. AO3 is not immune to bugs in servers just because they own the servers.

But it honestly feels kind of weird for me, as a reader, to browse through the archive. It doesn't feel like the authors using it are actually there; to put it another way, if I left a comment, would they even notice? Same for kudos.

I've gathered some stuff in my Marked For Later list and I do want to comment on them when I have the spoons, but I'm genuinely not sure it'd be welcomed. Like, comments are on, so they should be, right? But it doesn't feel it. It feels like I'd be imposing and wrestling myself into a space that I'm not welcome in.

Like, part of the appeal of SqWA for me as a reader (I'm a writer as well but honestly that's irrelevent to my current musings) is that I find stories on there I would never have known existed on AO3, simply due to the sheer volume of fics on AO3. It's actually feasible to just browse through all the works and go "interesting" a lot. That's fun! It's cool to spot fandoms I'm not even aware of, and see works I never would have been able to dig my way through on AO3.

But it does also feel a bit weird to read there. I guess another way to put it is; it doesn't feel as if the authors invite readers. (Again, obviously this isn't true for every author, or every work, or every... you get the idea) It's kind of hard to articulate, but it's overwhelmingly my impression that authors cross-posting their stuff from AO3 are using it in a very cold manner, a sort of "don't speak to me, don't look at that, I'm not here, this isn't for you" kind of thing. And I don't know where that comes from, but it makes me feel weird to read and try to engage with their stuff on SqWA.

Actually, I think I just hit the nail on the head; it feels like it's not for me. Like there's an invisible boundary going up and I'm not supposed to look at it.

And I think, after grumbling about it a little in my head, I might mainly be getting this impression from author's who do not say anything when they're very obviously cross-posting stuff from AO3. Like, a fic tossed up with a quick note "first posted on ao3" doesn't give me that impression; it doesn't feel closed off and remote. But a fic with absolutely no notes, where the author profile says they're cross-posting, or where it's empty but they've got a ton of fics posted very quickly, and they have no bookmarks or anything to indicate they're actually there... that does feel like a divide. A boundary. A sign saying "this is not for you, you don't get to enjoy it, go away".

And that's very odd, and sort of off-putting, to me.

quillpunk: literally nothing. something went wrong and now it's literally nothing. (thingy)

SquidgeWorld Archive is doing a fundraising drive 'til Aug 31! They're currently at about 1/4 of the goal (the goal is 1000 USD [I'm assuming it's USD, lol)]. If my budget doesn't self-destruct (known to happen, sigh), I might see if it'd be possible to toss in a buck or two closer to the end of the month...

And very interesting; Ourchive is a currently in development new archive software package. There's a demo/closed beta site you can check out here!

comm promo

Jul. 2nd, 2023 12:42 pm
quillpunk: Yuri from Spy X Family is making a scared but determined expression (yuri1)
[community profile] tinyfandomflash is now up and running! This is a flash writing challenge for fandoms with 500 or less fics! The first challenge can be found here, with rules and guidelines here.
quillpunk: screenshot of Rue (blushing and happy)from the webcomic The Villainess Flips the Script (rue1)

Hi! (waves)

Generel likes

  • Domestic fluff!
    • I'm a sucker for soft moments of devotion, those kind of unspoken ways the characters can convey how good they actually know each other and how comfortable they are in their relationship.
  • Fantasy/Sci-Fi elements and settings! (that said, i'm also perfectly happy with canon or other AUs!)
    • I adore SFF and good worldbuilding, and hoenstly there should be more SFF AUs. Steampunk, gaslamp fantasy, space operas etc are much loved :)
      • Alien/Human!
      • Monster Romance!
  • i'm always down for some crack treated seriously!
    • like seriously, i always am.
  • Accidental relationships!
    • Nobody knows when they started dating, but they're in it now and they're not letting go!
  • Fake relationhips turning real!
    • Fluff! Angst! That moment when they realize they're in love!
  • Found Family!
  • Misunderstandings!
    • 1 person thought it was a marriage proposal, and the other didn't? Oh, you can get so much good angst and catharsis out of that.
  • Mutual manipulation!
    • They're both aware they're manipulating each other but it's kind of hot?

General dislikes

  • forgiveness without accountability
  • misunderstandings that don't get solved

Do Not Want

  • loss of limbs
  • eye-trauma
  • bittersweet/tragic/melancholy/sad/bad ending
  • infidelity
  • teeth loss
  • betrayal of trust
  • i can be down for gender changes if both people in the pairing have changed genders, but not if only 1 of them did
quillpunk: screenshot of Luca (making a disgusted, scheming expression) from the webcomic The Villainess Flips the Script (luca1)

I've made an account on the new Ad Astra archive and even posted a quick fic there. I'm not sure how I feel about the fic itself but man has this resurrected my Bashir/Garak feels. A DS9 rewatch might be in the future.

Anyway, so far that fic isn't anywhere else.

I'm also slowly crossposting all my fics (currently going through the completed ones) to my new DW community wraithvault because as much longevity as the OTW might aspire to have, it's still an all-eggs-in-one-basket kind of situation. Especially because I tend to write my fics right on AO3 in the browser so I'm not sure I actually have backup copies of everything.

Or where they might be if I do...

(Yes, I've lost a thing or two when the drafts got automatically deleted and I forgot to back it up. Wince.)

But I'm extensively tagging everything (from fandom to pairing to wordcount etc.) on the DW comm so it should be easy to browse. It's set so memberships are invitation only, and posting is members only, so only I can post, but subscriptions are more then welcome! Comments are registered accounts only, though.

I've never actually done this before—I went right from ff.net to AO3 with no pitstops, and I'm only recently getting into DW. But I'm really digging it.

Like, to be honest, AO3 isn't that welcoming anymore? Like, it kind of feels like the Borg; it's one big hive where everything that's posted is assimilated into one gigantic blob of content. It's kind of loud, in a way, and I've figured out that I'm not made for that kind of loudness.

Also, I just like the fact that I can pick and choose between so many themes. XD

(I thought about doing it on Neocities and while that'd give me a lot of freedom in design, quite frankly I'm not in the mood for all the coding. Because, like, I would wanna do Things™ (that I can't actually do) with it.)

Also, I've uploaded a bunch more icons. I feel like a proper DW user now! XD

Edit: Also I do have a Squidgeworld account, I'm just not using it much.

quillpunk: digital portrait sketch of an imaginary guy who might or might not (not) be me (Default)

I've been thinking a bit about my relationship with fandom and how, for the most part, I don't thikn I actually have one.

Or, to put it better, I don't have one in the way most people mean. I've been around fandom for close to 10 years now (holy shit) and in that time I've seen a lot of big fandom spring up and just... take over. And always, without fail, even if I enjoyed the source material and was in that space, I disconnect entirely from that fandom.

When a fandom gets big, I get the fuck out.

I watched OFMD when it first came out and went right to the fics, I was beset by Genshim Impact on all my socials, I buried myself in MDZS fics when there was less than a thousand. I liked the source materials, I loved the fics, and then the fandoms hit critical mass and I just... stopped.

I stopped reading fics, in some instances stopped engaging with the source material. I stopped. It got big, I got out, and aside from reading some fics every once in a while, I still don't involve myself in any way in those spaces.

A lot of that lack of engagement is probably because I've never been very involved in fandom in the first place. I write fics and that's it. I don't even really talk about the fandoms I enjoy. For me, there's very little sense of community in fandom because I just don't engage with it in that way. Maybe I could if I tried but honestly I'd rather spend that energy on writing more fun fics.

But the whole 'fandom gets big and I get out' is interesting to me because by now it's an established pattern. It doesn't matter how much I like the show or anime or whatever it is. It doesn't matter how much I crave the fics and the god-tier tropes. It doesn't matter how invested I am in the characters or world. If it gets too big, I leave.

And it's not even a conscious decision. Honestly, I think it's a bit like sensory overload. Eventually there's just too much happening at once; too many fics popping up in a single day, too many conversations happening on social media, it's all just too much, and I react by shutting it all down and going away.

And to be fair, I don't much miss it when it's gone. In fact, it rather tends to be that I consumed so much of it so quickly that sometimes I instead get rather sick of it. There are multiple pairings I won't touch anymore that I really liked back in the day.

Anyway, I've just thinking about it.

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quillpunk: digital portrait sketch of an imaginary guy who might or might not (not) be me (Default)
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