epicstuckyficrecs

[epicstuckyficrecs]

About the AO3 "No Guest Comments for a while" warning

If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:

These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:

But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.

Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.

If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.

Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.

Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.

Update: There's now a Megathread about this on the AO3 subreddit.

#ao3

[epicstuckyficrecs]

hi i tried the google trick and cant find a stucky fic i read a while ago. i thought i bookmarked it but i fear it may have been deleted. i dont remember the title but i do remember that it was a post catws fic that had bucky kidnap steve and drive him to south america (i think) in a mini van.

thank you in advance even if you can't find it.

-ecc

don't think I remember this one!

#asks

[epicstuckyficrecs]

Fellas, fellas

Why on earth are you BUYING PHYSICAL BOOKBOUND COPIES OF FANFICTION????

ACTUALLY WHY ARE YOU EVEN BOOKBINDING FANFICTION TO SELL?!?!?!

IF ANY OF YOU DO EITHER OF THESE THINGS, GET OUT!! I AM NEVER SPEAKING TO YOU AGAIN.

In all seriousness though, authors on AO3 have begun to pull their works off of the site to avoid getting sued by people stealing their works to make a pretty bound book for profit. Entire accounts could be shut down as well.

Listen, I’m all for saving favorite works by printing them out and putting them in a binder, or learning how to make a fancy book for a fanfic, but making books with actual fanfiction in it to sell is where I draw the line.

Literally the entire point of AO3 is that you can read it FOR FREE.

It is DISRESPECTFUL for people to make money off of hardbound copies because guess what, the original creators of these fics get nothing. We are literally only writing fanfiction for our own pleasure.

Buying and selling book-bound fanfiction is also ILLEGAL YOU DUMB SHITS. It’s an immediate violation of copyright law. The original fan work will get erased from the internet.

Fanfiction is already a legal grey zone since they are works being written about are protected by copyright. Copyright holders can in fact go after writers as well as the person who sold the fanfiction.

This also goes for people who steal fanart and, claim it as theirs, and put a price on it.

Don’t make it worse.

Bookbinding fanfiction for profit is literally ruining things for everyone. DON’T.

#PSA #fanfiction #bookbinding #ao3 #fanbinding #fandom

[epicstuckyficrecs]

PSA: bot comments are taking over ao3

The above examples have been provided with the authors' permission to demonstrate what these look like.

Basic rundown:

They are all 3 sentences long

Perfect grammar, capitalization, and punctuation

Like absolutely flawless English teacher-style writing with only a single exclamation mark, ever

No mentions whatsoever of character names, settings, situations, or anything that could be tied to the story

The usernames may be identical to people who exist on ao3, but the name is not clickable, and no profile is associated with it EXCEPT when you directly search for that name. What this means: the comments come from an unregistered (not logged in) reader, bots scrape the site for real usernames, attach that to the comment, and post

Please spread the word about this so authors can filter comments and report them accordingly

There has been some speculation about why this is happening at all, and the best guess is that this is a feature that AI-training story-scraping tools are implementing to try and make their browsing traffic look legitimate

#psa #ao3

[epicstuckyficrecs]

No one reblogs on tumblr anymore.

No one leaves comments on Ao3 anymore.

Seriously people the lack of fandom interaction these days makes me genuinely depressed, it never used to be like this, makes me wonder what's the point of coming online to do anything anymore.

Reblog a post so other people can see it.

Leave a comment so the author doesn't feel like giving up.

Fandom cannot live on Likes or Kudos alone.

#fandom #ao3

[epicstuckyficrecs]

Into That Good Night by Nonymos, binding by DCB Bindery (dontcallmebree)

Summary: Steve Rogers has lived for entirely too long—long enough to see the world’s end. The heroes are gone, and the Earth is pushing what’s left of mankind towards the exit. But when a makeshift team rises from the ashes, when a mysterious presence all but drags Steve there, he begins to think there may be hope yet. As they shoot for the stars one last time, Steve will get proof yet again that the future is nothing if not an echo of the past.

Specs: Straight back bradel binding, gold leather headbands, 257 pages, B6, black endpapers.

Thanks to Nonymos for letting me bind this gorgeous winding tale! So beautifully written and gut-wrenching in the best way possible, I hope I did this piece justice.

On the process: Typesetting was an interesting process! Decided on a lead-in instead of a drop cap, had a lot of fun with styling the chapter numbers, and had the opportunity to turn the original round text into a double page spread. Lots of help from the lovely community at Renegade Bindery on that last one!

Somehow, the textblock trimming and casing in went worse than before, but I’d rather not relive the horror. The bright side is the headbands turned out better this time and I got to title the spine! Choosing to focus on the positives.

More DCB Bindery Projects

Submission for @steverogersbingo Card SB2003 / Square A5 Dystopian (Thanks to the @renegadepublishing community for all the assistance!)

#beautiful 😍 #ficbinding

[epicstuckyficrecs]

hii! can you please help me find a stucky fic where its a memoir/autobiography written by one of the howling commandos (i cant remember who im sorry 😢) and in the fic, bucky is basically faceless as in the public doesn’t know his full name or his face, and also in most photograph, he is not seen. thank you so much!

Sorry, I don't think I know this one!

#asks #not found

[epicstuckyficrecs]

What is this about the tumblr staff wanting to sell art data to midjourney?

An ex-colleague of mine mentioned yesterday that there may be contacts between Automattic and midjourney in that direction, but nothing is public yet and I don't have any more info. They probably won't have anything specific to share either, since they left the company weeks ago too. That being said:

I have no reason to doubt my ex-coworker word, they are a trustworthy person.

Tumblr's CEO has been absurdly enthusiastic (comically, even) about AI, and is a big fan of LLMs and 'AI' companies.

A deal with midjourney could solve tumblr financial issues (not the same company, but openAi is paying up to 5 million/year to news companies to use their content as training data... tumblr generates several orders of magnitude more content than any newspaper or any media company and it only would need a 20 to 30 million per year deal to be profitable)

So I don't have any extra info yet, but I'm keeping my ears open.

#just in case

[epicstuckyficrecs]

STUCKIES UNITE

THE SHIP WARS ROUND FOUR

#Stucky fam we’re kissing AGAIN #you turned it around last time you can do it again!! #get to it let’s go let’s go!!! #ok that typo in the first tag is hilarious but I’m on mobile I’m not fixing that #I meant LOOSING obviously

[epicstuckyficrecs]

THE SHIP WARS ROUND THREE

#y’all Stucky is LOOSING #better get to it fam

[epicstuckyficrecs]

Calling all Writers!

Do you write a little or a lot? Poems or ballads? Snips or snops? This event is for you! Tag a marvel writer, and invite them to sign up for Just a Pinch, a free Marvel zine.

Sign ups start March 5th!

⬆️ examples from our last Zine. Check it out for an idea of how this years zine might look: 2022 Zine

#Stucky

[epicstuckyficrecs]

Claims are officially open!

We're so thrilled with the response to this round so far. The first round of claims are still open. The official bang writer sign up will close at 5:20pm EST today.

Second claims: if you already have claimed a fic and would like to claim another, you may do so from 6:30pm EST on 21st January.

Pinch hitters and betas: we will be circulating a form later this week for additional pinch hitters and betas to sign up.

#stucky big bang #stucky

[epicstuckyficrecs]

A stucky au in which Bucky is a youtuber and Steve is an actor, and one time Bucky decided to do some movie commentaries and it led him to discovering Steve that he thought wasn't that talented and was overrated but he fell into the rabbit hole and became one of them 'fangirls' 😁 inspired by my previous text post because why not 😎

#that's fun! #stucky #stucky edit

[epicstuckyficrecs]

Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!

NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!

#just in case

[epicstuckyficrecs]

we need to resurrect the stucky fandom on tumblr like we need a full renaissance to happen. i want to rival destiels

step 1: organize. choose a day to have a wild stevebuckython where en masse everyone rewatches cap 1 n 2 and posts about it. i would like to propose march 10th, because not only is that bucky's birthday, but march 1941 was the first issue that steve n bucky were introduced together (according to google lol)

step 2: the mcu has scorned us. for me its a big reason why I stepped away from stevebucky (because it hurt my feelings to think about steve leaving bucky like that and I am Weak). I think we should pick a specific comic run to all obsess and analyze and create content over that doesn't end in tragedy

step 3: post. post a lot. reblog old posts. hell, completely plagiarize your old posts and repost them. there's a lot of good content from circa 2015 we can revitalize

step 4: make them into a meme. pick a single screencap of them and COMMIT!!!! we need to universally decide which one to use, how to use it, and stick to it

[epicstuckyficrecs]

This is your periodical reminder to download your favorite fics from ao3 every once in a while!!

Personally, I got into the habit of doing it once a year, when I'm working on my "Favorite" fic recs.

While I'm at it, here's a few tools I use that help greatly with my Ao3 experience!

Userscripts

Here's a few userscripts that I love for Ao3!

AO3: Kudosed and seen history: Highlight or hide works you kudosed/marked as seen.

This is the userscript that helps me the most when making fic recs. While browsing a tag or my history, I can see which fics I've already kudosed and I can decide to skip/hide individual fics (there's other userscripts out there if you want to permanently hide specific tags).

AO3 Review + Last Chapter Shortcut + Kudos-sortable Bookmarks: Adds shortcuts for last chapter and a floaty review box, sorts bookmarks by kudos.

AO3: Estimated Reading Time: Add an estimated reading time to a fic description in hours and minutes.

Calibre

Calibre is an ebook management software. You can download it here. I really love using Calibre to send fics I've downloaded to my kindle, but there's also a function where you can download all the fics in one Ao3 page, or multiple fics URLS, all at the same time. Just last night, I used it to download all my Buddie bookmarks. Super helpful! It also allows me to add my own covers to fics and use them on my Kindle. I love it!

#ao3

[epicstuckyficrecs]

You ever spell your whole ass email wrong and have to repost the whole commission post entirely??? Just me?????? Okay let’s do this again

Hey darlings!! I am officially opening up some digital commissions!!!! This is a limited time kinda deal - I don’t offer digital commissions or via online very often. I’m not sure how many slots I’ll be opening, it depends a little on the demand as we go. The All Star Game is the first Saturday of FEBRUARY, so commissions are only going to be open from now to sometime in January, depending on how long it takes to get the scratch together!!

Why this is important to me: well, if you’re here - you know how far down the hockey hole I’ve gone. And the all star event is here, in MY TOWN!!! This year! My wife is a lifelong leafs fan, and the original instigator for me paying any attention to hockey after potvin left. My besties are planning to go, and I’d really love to get my wife and I there as well. I’m not looking to fund something ringside, we’re dead ass looking at nosebleeds so anything and everything helps.

How this works!: it’s pretty easy!! You decide what you wanna see me draw, in my style. Then, decide what kind of commission flavour you’d like - there will be examples at the end of this post!! Email me!!!! If you have photos, even better!! Especially with the blorbo squares! Even if you don’t have an exact photo of what you want, that’s totally fine! Send me anything you think is relevant! I’ll respond, say YEAH!!!! Payment happens, via PayPal! Then, you’ll get a rough version of your commission to approve. If you want to make changes, this is when you do it!! It’s the easiest point in my process. Once you say, YEAH!!!! I finish up the image and deliver to you, via email, high res images and .psds with the layers intact. Easy!

Examples:

Here’s an idea of what you’ll get. All commissions are drawn in procreate, at 8.5” x 11”, 300 dpi - perfect to get prints made for personal use, if you’d like. Blorbo squares are unique in that I do an 8” x 8” square, that I export as a transparent png. Great to make stickers out of!! Again - for - personal use! Uploadable to discord as stickers, with some compression! (This is something I can do for you, if you’d like, and a small compressed png will be provided as well.)

Follow me under the cut!!!! Snip snip snip snip

#stucky #Stucky fanart