I don't think making fun of kids growing up on social media depends heavily on engagement and don't know how to search for what is good for them without others' help.
Now, I think fic recs are dearly needed in this climate. I'm still looking for Heartstopper fic recs posts for some time now as I recently got some good Legolas x Gimli fics recently and I'm currently reading this long fic.
Fic recs are so good for me. An easy fic recs for me was to look at the bookmarks sections should I like the author or to see their Tumblr.
That's why it's so easy for me to go searching for any fic recs posts on any media I'm currently into.
Yes, there are lots of stories out there.
Think of AO3, FF.Net, Livejournal, Spacebattles, and other fanfiction sites as libraries. Because that's what they are in the end. Libraries.
Summaries and tags are there for the most part.
Godoka, if kids of today think AO3 is hard to navigate, then imagine kinkmemes. You'll lucky to find a Delicious link page for everyone unless you are basically obsessively memorizing the page and section of a kinkmeme. Kinkmemes are like Jenga where these prompts are hopefully or not answered.
Alongside FF.Net, I still search for fics on Livejournal and now Spacebattles.
I'm not a social media person. Even now, as an ARMY, I mostly use my Tumblr.
I'm so used to searching for fics that AO3 was an easy transition.
AO3 doesn’t need engagement.
Most fanfic writers I have seen don’t care much about engagement, just wanting to tell a story. While kudos and comments are nice, it’s something that is just isolated within the fic itself.
Fandom in itself had been severely affected by the ‘content’ of the social media landscape. We’re basically The Menu the fandom experience of creativity and community. The fandom shared a love for whatever pop culture and the little subset of fans of a fanbase just bounce off each other for a particular ship or piece of media that was released slowly. Now binging and quick bites of content reduced art and community. And it went as far as affecting fandom.
All fandom is a shared love for something. That’s why the algorithm for AO3 is antithetical to fandom.
Fans shouldn’t be forced to create piece after piece just to maintain relevance in a fandom. They’re not creating but pumping out for approval. What fans want to share is a love for something. Something as simple as a ‘that’s so good!’ is enough of an encouragement as opposed to pumping out products like a machine.
The point is a never-ending fandom because that’s the point. Not because there’s nothing left to be released does not mean that fans cannot still create. It’s steady and fun, not stressful. Somehow it’s consumerism rather than personal entertainment and community bonding through a common interest.
It doesn't mean that fandom can't adapt to the new environment but when people are casually dropping series after it ends and no content is coming out of fandoms to the point it's called a dead fandom just for the series not having anything new coming out of it after it ended. There's a difference between a rarepair / minor fandom that didn't garner the fans to create and dropping after the series ended and not even thinking of making what happens in the potential. Really, I'm not even in the Genshin Impact and MHA fandoms right now but even I check them at odd times alongside Code Geass, Haikyuu, Daiya no Ace, and Durarara fics. For fuck's sake, Katekyo Hitman Reborn is still going strong to this day.
What fandom usually does is gather after and in between episode/chapter releases to socialize, theorize, and create.
Heck, even companies starting to release in pieces rather than the whole thing even Netflix does it by chopping up seasons for example. Though that might force making the finales even worse just to make it feel like a season finale.
Fuck, you can use the top comments or kudos section on the AO3 as fanfic recommendations. Yes, the diamonds in the rough in the lesser-reviewed fics won’t be seen but the point is still there.
If you like a particular author’s story, check out their other works, their bookmarks, and their gifted works in that order. If you notice in my AO3 bookmarks, I have several fics from several authors in multiple fandoms. I’m picky about what I like so it’s the ones I like best that are in my bookmarks while others from the same authors I just appreciate but no dice.
Kids, please understand that I’m trying to help you. While I wasn’t there for the debacles of Livejournal as I was in 6th to 7th grade at the point aka I was just starting to explore fandom outside my books, I was there for the Tumblr fiasco. I know my fandom history as it’s interesting to learn.
Please learn fandom history and it’s easy to search: read the summary, check the tags, use the filters, and use the search engine. If you like a particular story, check the author and if they have bookmarks, check their bookmarks because if you like the content of what they like, then what they read is similar.
Go find fic recs. TVTropes has one alongside having a fanworks page if found. Ask for fic recs on Tumblr or anywhere that is fan-related really.
Learn why fans were frustrated with the loss of Tumblr's NSFW and now Twitter's with only logins to even see the NSFW and even then fans still go to other sites so they can publish their NSFW. Why AO3 is considered the last bastion of creativity that allows so many things to be told.
It’s an archive, a library with warning tags.
Do they walk into a library or a bookstore expecting an algorithm and warning labels? I don't think books have trigger warnings at all.
The books I want to read don't have warnings on them for certain.
I have seen a warning on Witch Hat Atelier tankoban about that sexual harassment chapter but I don't think it's an overall thing I have seen so far.
I know this because books are still the love of my life. I have a backlog of books as well as an entire history in my AO3.
AO3 basically asked you with the yellow banner that it’s content for adults and if you are ready to read it again. Because it is your decision at the end of the day, even with the fic in question having all the tags and warnings on it complete with the summary.
You curate your own experience. Complaining and deliberately seeking out material you aren’t supposed to read is just you throwing a tantrum.
All those fics have a place to exist alongside the best fics. You don’t get to decide what kind of fics to even exist.
AO3 has been called the last bastion of creativity for a reason.
Do not think for a second you are special just because you think you know shit.
All you are showing about yourself is a spoiled brat who thinks they know better than the older women who literally built the superstructure of the fandom itself.
Why is it so hard to ask for fanfiction recommendations?
Fanfiction recommendations are a thing that should still occur. Not only older fanfiction is getting harder to find, but their presence is also nil compared to the recent work.
An archive is an archive. With a functioning tagging system, it is used the filter and search the designated fanfiction. However, it will take longer aside from just knowing the basics.
It’s an archive. An archive dedicated to saving fics from defunct sites because have they ever experienced just how many fics are lost from so many sites and just how many fanfics had been impacted by lawsuits even during the time when they just started to circulate as zines? An archive for the saving of fandom history that has been lost or could have been lost.
Do you know how important that all art that is just used to create not be sold in capitalist institutions that are for the rich to see and discard how they want to see, disregarding the creativity and the hurdles that marginalized groups don’t have a chance in displaying their work due to the so-called style or have access or people doing what they love but no one appreciates it at the time or the drive to just create and not monetize? For historians, the voices of the ordinary are literal gold. I’m not a historian but Godoka, seeing historical ordinary voices, outside of the rich, educated, or well-known, are fascinating.
There are professional official archives for anything that are archived by people with advanced degrees who are paid to be there. AO3 is no different. It’s an archive of creativity from ordinary people who made no profit from basically doing regular fandom activity. Even something as the author’s note with the mundane or crazy life mentions is so significant to a glimpse of life out there. AO3 is the Library of Alexandria.
Do not let anyone think otherwise because they bought into capitalism and the fact that not everything is for them and not everything is about them.
Fanfiction is important because of the creativity, happiness, and community that can help people feel and get through the day. All fanworks are!
Fuck the elitist bs! All art is important even if these antis cannot see shit from their elitist puritanical bs.
Because on top of this, they display appalling misogyny, seeing only white women as the only ones who ever use AO3 and that women’s hobbies especially those over thirty are lesser and what they and their moral authority declared what women should be doing instead. Wow, not even thinking about intersectionality there! No women from the LGBT and WOC while saying that white feminism trumped everything while degrading white women at the same time!
The History, Marked For Later, and Bookmarks are frequently used. I personally used the Bookmarks as the FF.Net Favorites equivalent and what made it better was the private as well as the Rec heart. Depending on my fanfiction, you can find the Rec heart prioritized over the normal bookmarks.
While I would like to filter the History too, there is only so much I could do to find what fics I was reading for.
AO3 is still in beta and still has lots of work to do. I mean there were periods where the fics I read didn't make on time to the History page until days later as a result of the problems with the server.
I don't want an AO3 Wrapped or an algorithm. My current reading history is between me and whatever higher being.
I will be redoing fanfic recs after so long. First up are Pokemon AUs and crossovers!
I can’t believe we got to the point of pro-censorship people climbing the ranks on OTW. It’s just sad to see the younger generation puritanical in ways that show they are too in the healthy ships.
*snorts* Given the NSFW romanticism of daddy issues that is so prevalent in EndHawks, I doubt the younger generation isn’t any less shy. Just selective oblivious.
I don’t give a shit about EndHawks shippers and refuse to set foot on their grounds; seeing fanart gives me psychic damage because I can skip fanfiction about them but fanart is still art. I don’t want anything to do with that ship after seeing the implications and what it would mean for the characters, especially Hawks.
Anyways, it’s clear that the younger generation is puritanical to horrifying degrees.
Yes, you can tell stories without resorting to offensive shit. However, said offensive shit can provide good writing if you know how to write it tactfully.
This tactfulness doesn’t seem to register. No exploration in their land. Apparently, after dealing with terrible execution, these things must never be discussed or be put in black and white.
Because even when people want villains of the sympathetic and redeemable, somehow the irredeemable and just bad are wanted yet seen as uninteresting. People want bad for evil’s sake but it depends on how the character is written.
I mean Puss in Boots The Last Wish showcased the villains in different lights and well-regarded.
What these guys up their ass about censorship showed is a lack of creativity and critical thinking. The point of a villain is usually the kill because that’s what a villain does.
Censorship is bad. They want no creativity and critical thinking that had been so prominent in literacy. As a book enthusiast, that is a big no to these guys who want censorship even more on fandom grounds.
They are showing they know nothing of fandom history as all they want is to be pure despite people telling them it’s their own job to curate and just look at the damn tags.
They aren’t doing anything worthwhile with their tantrums and crusades. They showed ignorance and a lack of common sense.
The internet ain’t their babysitter. When regular YouTube is better for kids than actual YouTube Kids, then that says everything. And let’s not get into censoring words. That in itself is horrifying and showed an unwillingness to discuss. I refused to be censored so I’m happy to use them freely than be forced by this domino effect of censorship that began in TikTok. Horribly dystopian and offered nothing but a lack of human discussion regarding the human experience that is needed in a society that already refused to discuss these topics in a healthy way.
Using words like unalive to censor basic human experiences like death, sex, and even terms for oppressed minorities is horrifyingly dystopian just because advertisers and corporations demand it. Young people and grown adults see it as normal and getting used to not talking about any of those topics without going around censors is a problem. It’s unsettling hence my refusal to bend down to those censors.
Censorship is just bad. No matter what, history had shown how much it stifled in the name of morality even though all those people showed nothing but ignorance.
Looking at you, Mary Whitehouse. Yeah, these Puritans of today in fandom spaces are Mary Whitehouse of fandom. If people who fight stupidly against ships existing instead of ignoring and letting others have their fun are foolish, these guys are idiots against all types of fun and imagination.
I’m not a big horror fan but even I am aware that the horror classics should be appreciated. On an aside note, horror movies should be nominated and appreciated by the so-called superior film award shows that just go after biopics which is already dubious enough. You won’t see me watching a horror flick alone or with anybody but I understand the classics.
I mean I'm moreover a romance genre fan than a horror fan. Please when romcoms had been denigrated and seen as fluff than anything of substance. Still popular so much that queer filmmakers are trying their hands at it as queer characters can lead a rom-com. I mean the last rom-com I heard was Fire Island, the queer Asian cast Pride and Prejudice romcom. Bros are the mainstream romcom that people are supposed to know when I wish people look at Fire Island instead.
Anyways, censorship is not good for lack of better words. Nobody should censor creativity in fandom spaces just for these guys' so-called morality and moral panic. They don't seem to understand basic exploration and tactfulness on top of it.
All I just want for them is to not throw spoiled tantrums and expect the internet to clean up that mess. With Elsagate's ominous return and many veterans and actual mature adults pointing out that even AO3 asked one last time if you seriously want to read something that only adults should see, then I'm wondering just how far they'll go just for their puritanical censorship.
Fanworks with all the disclaimers are essentially theft. There was no need to add disclaimers on AO3 though.
Fans particularly queer fans stole them and basically have a field day with them. It’s basically about certain fanbases, the shipping is about the dynamics in relation to the media and personal preference. Ship wars are about arguing who is the better match which is not as fun to witness as simply ignoring and reading. Ignoring ships that you don’t like instead of invading other ships’ spaces is better than seemingly doing your best to be superior in any way possible.
This is literally no different from the public domain and the various mythologies we got of Western superheroes. There are official fix-its in comic book canon as well as what-ifs. Just because fans don’t profit from it does not negate that it’s a creative art in a community devoted to it. Just because women from all walks of life see it as a hobby does not negate the very idea of fandom. The significant difference was that commercialization and capitalism separate from fans' will to create.
Without women being the first to push Star Trek and the Beatles, the men really wouldn't have taken a second glance at it. And even then it's the men who so-called legitimatize them (to the point the Beatles changed their look to appeal more to the male demographic whereas BTS attempted no changes and was always grateful to ARMYs for the opportunities) when female interests are often trashed. Pop culture media like Supernatural and Sherlock owed much of their popularity to women and these shows returned the favor by belittling these women including the shipping tendencies.
And apparently, women’s hobbies relating to fandoms are even more denigrated. Women over thirty shouldn’t be participating in fandoms but instead, be spinsters according to these people.
When older women are the reason for the superstructure that is the fandom in the first place. Zines? Women.
Fandom is supposed to be fun with many fires going on behind.
The whole thing with the puritanical tyranny going on with Gen Z is annoying and shows a lack of fandom history and lack of common sense and media literacy. All they want is to be ‘good’ in the eyes of the society that is demanding better rep for BIPOC and queer people. What they don’t seem to understand is the nuances of proper tactful exploration.
Fandom is supposed to have fun with canon more or less being prompted for imagination. Whatever implications or whatever extrapolated from teeny tiny interactions or none at all is what is supposed to happen in fandom to have fun. Canon just provides the basics but does not mean that in itself the end-all-be-all that I see nowadays.
