publicservicememes

[publicservicememes]

I don’t know if I’ve ever said this on here guys, but 

I AM SO FUCKING GAME FOR USING THE SAME PLOT WITH MULTIPLE PARTNERS. 

someone messaged me this morning after I sent them a message late last night about a plot on their wishlist, saying that we couldn’t play it out because “somebody messaged me about it first”. I find that VERY rude, just because there are SO MANY WAYS you can go about a plot!! It doesn’t matter if you have the same plot with two people or twenty people BECAUSE there are so many angles you can play it at!! 

So I just thought I’d throw this out there, that if you see a plot on my wishlist FUCKIN MESSAGE ME. I literally do not care if I’m playing out the same plot with one person or ten people. Throw the fuckin plot at me guys. I want that plot from different angles. I do not care how many people I’m doing it with. THROW IT AT ME. 

this has been a psa. 

[publicservicememes]

a small psa that, if you’re writing with me, there’s never any pressure.  you can always take as much time responding to things as you need.  days, weeks, months, it’s fine with me!   you and your well-being come first.   i never want you to feel like i’m expecting you to write, because that’s never the case.  and i never want you to feel rushed for replies.  you, the mun, always come first, full stop.  <3

[publicservicememes]

you're doing a great job with your blog. you're putting love into it, and the people around you can see that, and they appreciate that. you make this community better with your presence. no matter how many replies you do, no matter how many posts you make, no matter how many followers you have... you add value to this place. you are a positive addition. thanks for being here ♡

[publicservicememes]

Reblog if you love AO3 and appreciate their volunteers who are working harder than God, fighting battle after battle, making sure the place that is a safe space for every fandom is staying up and running for all of us

[publicservicememes]

A lot of pop psychology gets thrown around and since I already have a headache, here's preventing you lot from making it worse.

Love-bombing: A manipulation tactic of increasing affection and grand gestures before or after doing something abusive, specifically to weasel one's way out of consequences.

What it is not: A streak of affection and generosity towards friends/loved ones.

Trauma-bonding: Knowingly traumatizing someone to take advantage of their vulnerable state, to then act like the "hero" or the one who cheers them up.

What it is not: Bonding over similar traumas.

Gaslighting: *Knowingly* convincing someone they cannot trust their own perception of a situation in pursuit of one's own narrative.

What it is not: Misaligned perception of events.

Narcissist: Someone afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, a traumagenic cluster B disorder, that struggles with self-obsession, paranoia, craving validity from the public, delusions of grandeur, and social disconnection.

It is not: Your rubbish ex that cheated on you.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

-Xanthe

[publicservicememes]

It’s always insane to me when people DM me to yell at me about breaching their DNI because I reblogged a post from them

Like how chronically online are you that you’re checking the blogs of everyone who reblogs from you

And I genuinely mean that. Even if the post only has like 10 notes at best. How much free time do you have to check the blogs of all 10 of those notes, and then go OUT OF YOUR WAY to message anyone who doesn’t fit your strict guidelines for human interaction. And I know some of y’all don’t just check but you DIG, because some of the stuff I get DMed about is not advertised on my blog as soon as you look at it.

How do you all survive outside of the internet when every persons political opinions and stances on fictional content aren’t displayed to you right off the bat.

Like I’m not kidding. That’s not normal. You are not the normal one in this situation. Please put your phone down for at least a week and go outside.

[publicservicememes]

let’s romanticise the “keep reading” feature

i know some of you new users aren’t as familiar with tumblr’s dashboard and that’s okay! i’m here to teach you a lil something that will revitalise the way you long post on this site.

tumblr has two forms: web browser and mobile app

no matter which way you prefer to post either long fic or simply have long posts about your life, current news affairs, whatever, there are now ways on both mobile and web to add a “keep reading” break. back in the early days of the app, we used to have to type out code that added the break [ READ MORE ] iykyk and it only sometimes worked. now we have a much easier button to press on both the web browser and the mobile app.

web:

mobile:

go forth and long post to your heart’s content!

[publicservicememes]

RP blogs please reblog im curious

[publicservicememes]

// since its autism awareness month, shout out to all the autistic muns and muses !

[publicservicememes]

it is not your followers' obligation or responsibility to make sure that you feel acknowledged on tumblr, for while we all feel down, insecure and in need of reassurance from time to time it is not under any circumstances on your followers to make sure that you feel loved. they are people, individuals who have their own lives, so to place your need for reassurance in the hands of someone else is selfish. it is not other people's job to make you feel good about yourself in a hobby.

[publicservicememes]

Accessibility within the RPC

How we can make it a better place for everyone. These tips are coming from a accessibility educator and web tester. It's not comprehensive, but meant to give you a crash course. Especially on the most common RPC trends.

General

The more you deviate from standard English writing, the more people are going to be less likely to be able to read and interact with you. People with disabilities, neuro-divergence, or even normal people whose time is limited will be effected with each deviation.

While tools exist to make these things easier to curate someone's experience, their functionality is limited. The large majority of them work by modifying standard English sentence structure. They tend to break or not function properly otherwise.

Some screenreaders for example struggle with all lowercase/uppercase text, double/multi spacing between words, lack of punctuation, etc. They will end up reading the text back in very odd ways.

Color can be make it difficult as well. The themes on Tumblr are varied. Your writing partner could be using these theme and your colored text is nearly impossible to read because of their theme. There are also color contrast issues for people with varying degrees of color blindness.

Accessibility is not one size fits all. Talk with your writing partners about their specific needs.

Tips for a more accessible blog and replies

Look for themes / carrds that are W3G compliant.

Don't use all lowercase text in your replies ( lapslock ).

Don't use all uppercase text outside of well-known acronyms.

Don't put multiple spaces between your words.

Use punctuation in your sentences.

Don't use color in your blog's text.

Use themes / carrds that say what the button/link is for. I, II, III, IV don't really give an indication of what's there. List it out: Rules, Muses, Connections, etc.

Make sure your theme uses at least 16px font sizing. Tumblr's post small font is 13px which is below the standard. The regular font however fits.

Don't make important links or link context like text appear on hover. A mobile device can't see it. Someone who is keyboard only can't either.

Again this isn't comprehensive, but it will give you a start. This is to help be more inclusive with your replies and blogs. This isn't to shame anyone for their aesthetics, but to point out things we can all do to make the RPC more accessible.

What if I like my aesthetics and don't want to change?

That's fine. Just understand it means fewer people can read, process, or comprehend your writing. Better yet if you don't want to switch and instead compromise? Make it very clear in either your rules, pinned post, carrd, etc that you will absolutely switch to regular formatting upon request.

This will help bridge the gap that people with fewer spoons to reach out over this will feel more comfortable doing so.

At the end of the day when we make our replies and RP blogs accessible for those who need it, we make it more accessible for everyone.

[publicservicememes]

Hey there! I need some help and advice on not using 'as' all the time to join sentences when multiple things happen at once. I'm finding it everywhere in my story!

Eg. She opened the door as the monster turned the corner. The window rattled as the monster's footsteps stomped against the floor. A painting on the wall fell to the floor as the door slammed shut. etc.

How can I stop?

Over Reliance on "As" to Join Cause and Effect

Like so many things where writing is concerned, this is something you'll need to correct in revision, and then the more you do it in revision, the more naturally it will come to you as you write. So, for now, it's just a matter of rewording...

The monster turned the corner at the very moment she opened the door, the windows rattling with each stomp of its footsteps. She slammed the door shut again, and a painting on the wall fell to the floor.

She opened the door at the very moment the monster turned the corner. The windows rattled with each stomping footstep. Fear jolted through her, and she slammed the door shut, causing a painting to fall off the wall.

So... there's no magic to it. No trick. Just a matter of playing with the words. Moving things around, trying out different things, and arranging the words in a way that doesn't require the constant use of "as" or any other word that feels excessive.

It's something you can bear in mind as you write, but ultimately it's something you'll pay attention to when you revise. And the more time you spend revising sentences to eliminate "as" or other excessive words, the better you'll get at doing it when you're actually writing. :)

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[publicservicememes]

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.

[publicservicememes]

alt text is not the place for fucking commentary, ESPECIALLY if you don't describe the image at all and ONLY include your commentary.

alt text is not a cheeky aside. it's not a private whisper to your friend.

alt text is an accessibility tool. fucking use it that way.

[publicservicememes]

it is not your followers' obligation or responsibility to make sure that you feel acknowledged on tumblr, for while we all feel down, insecure and in need of reassurance from time to time it is not under any circumstances on your followers to make sure that you feel loved. they are people, individuals who have their own lives, so to place your need for reassurance in the hands of someone else is selfish. it is not other people's job to make you feel good about yourself in a hobby.

[publicservicememes]

My vibe about ships since forever tbh

[publicservicememes]

a few reminders because i’m tired and angry

fandom is a hobby, not a form of activism

adult women aren’t inherently creepy for being in fandom and having hobbies apart from raising babies and doing taxes

the vast majority of people pushing back against the worrying trend of instigating harassment over fictional characters and relationships aren’t incest supporters or pedophiles, actually

liking a m/f ship doesn’t make someone a dirty heterosexual invading your space

preferring gay ships doesn’t make you ‘’woke’’ and good

no one owes you a disclaimer that they are a good person who recognizes that their favorite fictional villain’s actions are evil and that they don’t condone those actions irl

liking a fictional villain is in no way comparable to advocating abuse/murder/genocide/etc and you’re a fucking idiot if you believe that

just because a woman is attracted to a fictional villain doesn’t mean she’s promoting toxic relationships or going to end up in a toxic relationship. assuming women can’t tell fiction and reality apart stinks of internalized misogyny 

some rando’s a/b/o fanfics have none of the level of influence that popular tv shows and movies spreading propaganda have

no one owes you a detailed description of their traumas and mental health problems

abusive relationships are not the same as enemies to lovers ships

y’all need to chill the fuck out over people, relationships, actions and events that don’t actually exist and learn how to enjoy and discuss them like normal people

fandom is a hobby, not a form of activism

feel free to add more