#unforth replies

[unforth]

I'm glad your KS problem got solved. Can you please use some time to post about Palestine? People are being killed in your name. Use your platform please. Thank you

Hey anon! So...no, I won't be doing that. What the fuck do you even mean "people are being killed in my name"? Absolutely no one is killing in my name, and I owe talking about it more to no one.

First, I trigger pretty severely to harm to children, which automatically means that a great deal of the coverage of Palestine is very triggering for me.

Second, I think there are plenty of people already blogging about this, that not every single blog needs to become wall-to-wall discussion of Palestine, and that mass-blogging about the conflict is entirely performative.

Third, in general I rarely blog about political events, and when I do it's virtually always US election (FOR FUCK'S SAKE YOU HAVE TO VOTE) and/or things about censorship, because those are the areas that interest me and that I personally feel strongly about.

Fourth, I think the demand that a stranger blog about that one specific event, ignoring all the other ongoing tragedies in the world (the war in Ukraine and the genocide in the Congo, to name two that spring immediately to mind) is honestly heckin' weird.

Fifth, I own and run a business, and it's entirely within my rights to decide to keep that business apart from incredibly divisive current events. The business account (which is entirely separate from my personal account - it's not a side blog, it's a separate log in) - when it interacts with political topics at all - primarily blogs about recent happenings in publishing and related fields (so, legislation about free speech, ongoing strikes, etc.) and about recent happenings related to queer things (positive legislation and negative legislation being proposed or passed). I intentionally do not blog about other political topics, because they have nothing to do with the business. The most political the Press has gotten about the conflict in the Middle East is that we've quietly removed a couple books from rec lists that were written by authors or released by publishers who have managed, by publicizing their OWN views, to become especially controversial (especially on Tiktok) and even that I did extremely reluctantly, I just don't want to get Tiktok cancelled because we spent 5 seconds saying we liked a book by someone they currently hate, because Tiktok is Like That.

As to my own personal views on the conflict, which you are in absolutely no way entitled to know but which I have previously shared publicly so don't mind sharing again, I am a Jew and I was raised to believe that when all the rest of the world turned on us, Israel would always be the one place where we'd be safe, and I clung to that belief over 40 years of watching Israel become increasingly right wing and jingoistic, continuing to believe that the surest path to safety and security for everyone involved was a two-state solution.

As I previously wrote here, in the face of Israel's current actions against Palestine, I no longer believe that. If this is how Israel behaves, I no longer think Israel has a right to exist. I do still think that the best outcome right now is a two-state solution, but one that involves the complete abolition of the current Israeli government and army, to be replaced with a system that isn't, ya know, disgustingly fascist - and that if that can't be done, we need a one-state solution, and that one state shouldn't be Israel. This is my personal opinion.

However, I also acknowledge that for many Jews, this is an incredibly loaded, difficult topic, and I would never align my business to an official position like this because I have no desire to alienate people who I know feel as conflicted and complicated about this as I do myself. I take it as a matter of simple real fact that I respect my friends and colleagues enough to accept that they may reach different conclusions than I have about this, and I don't want them to feel unwelcome in a space that I've created because I on an individual level have reached a different conclusions about what I believe to be the best ending for this conflict than they have. We also do not allow political conversations of this stripe in our server for the same reason.

No matter how much people on both sides keep trying to paint this conflict as black and white, right and wrong, with one-and-done magic single-switch solutions, it's not that simple, never has been, and never will be, and the reality on the ground of ways to resolve this are also not that simple. Now, to be clear, I think it IS simple and accurate to say: the killing needs to stop i.m.m.e.d.i.a.t.e.l.y. That's a given and I think I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the circles I travel in who'd disagree. But what should happen AFTER that? That's where I think reasonable people can still disagree about what should happen next to that land and the people living on it.

Anyway.

I should probably stop talking before, in my effort to be nuanced and balanced, I say something that leads someone to think I should be canceled. I am against the genocide 100% and this conflict has turned me from reluctantly vaguely okay with zionism to anti-zionist, but I also am tired of seeing people act like big problems have easy solutions, and I'm tired of the suggestion that anyone who isn't performatively outraged about this specific situation 24/7 is a bad person with wrong opinions.

Like, I think you need to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself why you thought this was an appropriate ask to send a stranger. I'm genuinely disgusted that you'd try to turn a conflict that has nothing to do with me into something I'm personally responsible for because it's being done "in my name." Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with you? Antisemitic much? I'm a Jew, but that doesn't and never will mean that the Israeli government speaks for me or in my name. Fuck you.

#unforth replies #politics #antisemitism #i'm not tagging the other major things in this post because I don't want it to be that visible #but if anyone needs something specific tagged please let me know

[duckprintspress]

Hi there, i'm not sure this is in your wheel house, and I hate to waste your time, but I had a question and wonder if you might be able to offer advice (no worries if you can't or don't want to). i write a lot of fan fiction, but also have lots of idea about non-fan fiction stories. when i've tried to write them, however, I find the idea of getting a whole story out to be sufficiently intimidating that i've never been able to do it (there are probably other reasons for this of course, too). i love the A03 capability of posting one chapter (which can be super short) at a time; it's a real impetus to keep going without having to complete an entire work up front, esp if the feedback along the way is encouraging. what is your take on getting an original fiction story out in a03, but then trying to get it published elsewhere afterwards (taking it down from a03 at that point if necessary)? is that something feasible to try to do?

or perhaps you have other recs? (I don't think my original stories (unlike my fan fic) is likely to be focused on LGBTQIA+ relationships or issues, and i'm straight, so i suspect it's not what your publishing house is focusing on)

thank you so much for even reading this message.

Howdy anon! So there's a few things brought up in this message, and I'll try to answer each.

First: yes, we love offering advice and getting asks! Srsly, you and everyone, don't hesitate to drop stuff like this in our inbox, I love answering them, and if I (hi, I'm @unforth, meatspace name Claire, pen name/editing name Nina, and I own the Press and run our social media accounts) don't know the answer, I can kick 'um to the DPP server and get more folks to weigh in!

Second: yeah, motivation is a constant challenge, and what works is always going to be different for everyone. Those comments each chapter can be all that keeps me going on a long fanfic sometimes (and even they're not enough sometimes, oops, shovels a bunch of unfinished wip under the carpet behind themself)

Specifically, you ask: what is your take on getting an original fiction story out in a03, but then trying to get it published elsewhere afterwards (taking it down from a03 at that point if necessary)?

So, works are absolutely converted from AO3 stories to published stories. I can think of a half-dozen examples off the top of my head (one of the most recent being Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk, which started as a Dean Winchester/Jimmy Novak fic). However, I'd point out that original fiction gets very VERY low engagement on AO3. Most of the conversions I know of are people taking fanfiction and either scrubbing the barcodes (as in, swapping character names and removing/replacing canon references) or completely rewriting it. If the feel you're struggling with is "I want to get fanfic-like engagement but on a completely original work" I think you'd struggle to get that on AO3; virtually no one I know who has posted original works on AO3 has gotten that engagement on those works.

Publishing it as original fiction that you don't substantially change for publication will also weaken your ability to get it published. It'll guarantee that you can only apply with it to places that allow/do reprints, because you've already "used" the First Worldwide Publication Rights that most publishers will want for an original thing - because you already published it. So even if you remove it, the cat is already out of the bag on "first," and that will limit your options - another reason to do it as fanfic that you then rewrite. It's relatively hard to find places that will publish works, especially long works, that the First rights are already off the table (though we're one example of a place that will, we've published things that are up on AO3, and allowed the unedited versions to remain on AO3 when we've done so. For example, several of @tryslora's stories. We've also allowed the opposite; there's at least one original work on AO3 that started as a DPP exclusive for Patreon, and when the rights reverted back to the author, they chose to post it to AO3 with our blessing).

Of course, you can bypass these issues by self-publishing. Then what you keep and what you change, whether you keep it on AO3 or remove it, etc., is up to you, because you're the boss. Self-pubbing puts a lot more of the work on your shoulders tho - editing, cover art, marketing, typesetting, etc., all of it becomes your responsibility.

But: yes, taking works from AO3 to original fic publishing is feasible and is a thing that happens all the time. Depending on how you're publishing it and/or how extensively you rewrite it, you may not even have to take it down, but it would depend. Certainly, for most trad pub/big publishing houses, they would expect you to take it down.

Re: your last point about working with us, we require exactly zero disclosures from our contributors about their sexual or gender orientation. Our only requirement is that authors have posted fanfiction on a public, accessible fanfiction website. To the best of my knowledge, the vast majority of the people we work with are LGBTQIA+, but I also know for sure we've worked with at least one person who was cis and het. There are probably more. It's honestly none of my business. We've also published plenty with no LGBTQIA+ component. The way we work, we accept authors, and once we've got the author, we publish what they want to write, we're not particularly interested in policing that. Things without LGBTQIA+ don't tend to sell as well, because of the interests of our customers, but we'll put it out anyway *shrug*. I'd guess around a quarter of our catalogue has no explicit LGBTQIA+ rep, maybe a bit less.

Anyway! Hi, I'm wordy. TL:DR is: you can absolutely try to motivate yourself to write original fic by publishing it to AO3, but engagement is likely to be low, and doing so will make it harder to publish. If you feel you need the motivation that posting chapter-by-chapter gets you, it'd be better to write it as fanfiction with the intention of rewriting it later, as this will improve engagement without doing as much damage to your ability to publish it later.

and if you wanted to write with us, you'd be welcome; we recruit authors through our anthologies, and I expect our next open call to be sometime over the late spring or summer. We only juuuust started talking potential themes a few days ago.

Hope this helps!

-unforth

#unforth replies #faq #duck prints press #publishing #writing advice

[cnovelartreblogs]

with tumblr dying, do you know of any open discord communities for danmei and cnovels?

Hey hey!

The only public fandom server I'm part of for Chinese media (...virtually the only public fandom server I'm in at all, and my personal main hang-out spot on Discord...) is @merinnan et al's Daomu Biji server.

It's the nicest, chillest, most welcoming public fandom server I've ever been in - not that we haven't had our moments of drama, but they've been rare, and I've always felt comfortable there - and I've made a lot of friends too. That said, if you're not into DMBJ and/or as obsessed with Zhu Yilong as I am, I can't imagine it'd be a great fit.

Also, so - I'm @unforth, and my day job is that I own and operate an indie micropress, Duck Prints Press, that publishes original work by fanartists and fanauthors. As part of that, I and the staff involved with that run a "Book Lover's" Discord server. While it's sort of a combo "about the Press" and "about all queer books" and "about whatever we feel like talking about" server, we do end up talking about danmei a fair amount because multiple of the people involved in the Press, including obviously me, are into that kind of thing. Like we do a weekly chat on Wednesday about what we're reading and yesterday's was like, "here's one mlm YA book! here's a thriller in Dutch! here's the Yuri manga I just read! And here are the eighteen bajillion things we're all currently reading on Bilibili oh and I started Poyun." You're certainly welcome to join us. What we talk about there really boils down to what the people who are there want to talk about, ya know?

About a million years ago, I started building a cnovelartreblogs Discord server myself, but I've been so frackin busy the last couple years that I've never managed to finish setting it up the way I'd like. That said, it's got penciled in rules and channels for some of the more popular cnovel fandoms (mostly danmei, tho there is a Please Don't Laugh section). If I could get help moderating it, I could open it.

I just really don't have the ability to do it myself anymore, my days right now are like:

wake up

scroll tumblr and do upkeep on the art side blogs (while sitting with my kids and helping them get ready for the day) (1.5 hrs or so)

study Chinese (while sitting with my kids and helping them get ready for the day (.5 hrs, tho I wish it was more, if I can manage more than 30 minutes then I can actually try reading a real damn book but I only have the time maybe once or twice a month)

work (7 to 8 hours on weekdays, often more on the weekends, bonus if my kids are around and my wife is at work, such as tomorrow)

try to be a good mom (all the hours)

errands, chores, kid after school activities, etc. (1 to 3 hours a day)

read while snuggling kids on the couch and trying to ignore the tv (an hour if I'm lucky)

sleep (8ish hours, I hope)

there's just no wiggle room left for me to do any extra fandom stuff right now, sigh.

(sorry to whine about that part. it's not relevant. I just got my covid booster yesterday and I feel terrible today so I'm feeling sorry for myself. it's truly not a bad life overall I'm just perpetually exhausted)

#unforth replies #idk how to tag this

[destielficarchive]

Thank you for putting the Destiel Fan Survey Favs Collection together, I have really enjoyed going through it! Do you perchance still have plans to add the submissions from 2021 to the collection since they were already voted on? Or if that's not something you have the bandwidth for (totally understandable), would you consider letting other fans help out with adding them? I ask because it's been a great resource for finding fics, and I'd love to see some of those underappreciated fics get more attention! <33

Hi!

Unfortunately, I'll own, I really don't. My life is just so insanely busy right now that I simply don't have the time. I feel bad about it, but at the time I couldn't have predicted that I'd end up bedridden for two+ months and needing back surgery. If that hadn't happened, I'd have had the time to take care of it, but it's been two years and I'm literally still playing catch-up on my day job for those two months, there's just no way.

Maybe if a miracle happened and I suddenly found myself with 40+ hours to spare, I could try? but I can honestly say I wouldn't expect it.

I'm so sorry. I've never stopped feeling guilty about my inability to finish that, but life lifed at me, and I did what I could.

-unforth

#unforth replies

[svsssartreblogs]

lol at that other person who sent you the anon ask with the mpreg bingqiu thing. it kinda sounds like they were mid-conversation? did they mean to send that to someone else?

out there there's a blog currently making posts about mpreg bingqiu that just received an ask thanking them for regularly reblogging all the SV art or something and wondering wtf that anon is talking about xD

lmaoooooo that would be amazing and hilarious.

my assumption/guess is that it was in response to some piece of artwork I reblogged??? but idek.

#unforth replies

[mdzsartreblogs]

hello! the user 'creepyandcuddlyart' is most likely a bot account that generates ai art/ someone who reposts other people's art for profit though i'm leaning more on that its an ai bot account (look at their profile on their various 'emo angel arts' and 'nerd rizz' that differ wildly in style and look 'off' despite being posted on the same account and the captions for their works that sound like an ai prompt like 'wuxia waterfall scene' and 'wuxia boys in the moonlight')

Thanks for letting me know. I'll own I thought that one looked pretty sus, so I shoulda trusted my instincts, but I'm so busy rn that I didn't have time to investigate myself. I really appreciate you taking the time to check them out and to message me. I've deleted the post!

#unforth replies

[tgcfartreblogs]

Why did you tag Mu Qing x Xie Lian art as Hua Cheng and Hua Lian? Is there something I missed in the art or was it an accident

It was an accident, it happens sometimes. I'd tagged it "mulian" too so. Good job past!me, lmao. I tag and queue 50 to 100 pieces a day, and I've been *extremely* busy the last month, to the point of borderline fall-on-my-face exhaustion, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm making more mistakes than usual. I've fixed that one now!

-unforth

#delete later #unforth replies #mod post

[mayalaen]

@unforth

The fact that Dean Winchester didn't have tattoos from the beginning was the biggest disappointment for me in the series.

It's a physical NEED.

I *know* that character would've at least had ONE and I get that they couldn't afford it at the time, but ugh so sad.

Lots of fans complain bitterly about bigger issues, but I'm just here like... ta- tat... tattoos? 😭 please? 👉👈gimme?! the man has them just show them please NOW?!!!

And for Dean not to encourage Sam to get one once they were on the road again?! It's WRONG!! Sam would've gotten at least one too! Not just for protection, but an actual because-he-wanted-one tattoo!

#supernatural #tattoos #dean winchester #unforth #replies

[xieliansbignaturals]

This is random but do you have any idea if there's a way to find "spicy" NSFW art for tgcf on this hellsite ? Every time I try looking up the tags #hualian and #nsfw, Tumblr basically tells me it's against their rules to look it up lol. Is there another tag the fandom uses to get around it?

Oh my gosh, yeah. 😭 I don't think there's a tag for it, unfortunately. Everyone seems to use their own tags, and there's no way to filter for mature content labels (as far as I'm aware). I only ever see NSFW TGCF art when it comes across my dashboard.

Sorry to not be more helpful! :(

Edit: @unforth put this link in the replies: https://tgcfartreblogs.tumblr.com/tagged/lemon It's the NSFW tag of a blog that reblogs a whole bunch of TGCF fanart from the tag (all of it, maybe??) and categorizes it. Probably your best bet!

[sweetlittlevampire]

10 Questions

Tagged by @kisahawklin ♥

Rules: answer 10 questions and tag 10 people you want to know better

Relationship status: in a happy relationship - 20th anniversary coming up very soon!

Favorite color: Too many to count. I gravitate towards pastels and saturated colours alike, but I generally only like some shades of yellow, orange, and green. I'm very partial to a good warm pastel (millennial) pink though.

Three favorite foods: strawberries, spaghetti carbonara, couscous

Song stuck in my head: none right now

Last thing I listened to: a news article about a baby that went missing here in 2015 and has never been found

Last thing I googled: the weather forecast

Time: 9:00 pm

Dream trip: I miss Ireland. Like, I really do. And Scotland. I would like to see the aurora, and I don't really care if it would be australis or borealis. But, as a general rule, anywhere where I could meet my friends.

Anything I really want: For my brain to calm down and let me get stuff done so I can become an actually useful human being.

Currently reading: a variety of fanfic.

Last song: I believe it might have been "Dancing with your Ghost" by Sasha Alex Sloan

Last movie: I haven't watched a whole movie in a while.

Last series: I haven't watched a series in a while. My attention span is...not good atm, and my mother hogs the TV, so...yeah. :/

Sweet, savory, or spicy: Yes. (← that was a perfect reply, Kisa, so I'm stealing it.)

Currently working on: surviving, pretty much. I signed up for an RBB and I am wrecking my brain about what to draw, if that counts.

Craving: A hug.

Tea or coffee: Both? Usually more coffee (with milk & sugar), but I won't say no to a nicely brewed tea, though I cannot stand the taste of Earl Grey, for some reason.

Tagging: @waltzing-marionettes , @perkynurples , @unforth , @elvencantation and anyone else who feels like doing this. No pressure though - only if you want to! I know these aren't ten people, but Kisa already tagged the majority of the people I would have tagged too, so there's that.

#Sweet is rambling #thanks for tagging me! #Tag Games #sorry if I haven't interacted in tag games and ask memes recently - I simply lacked the energy to do so #and sometimes I really don't have anything to say #also sorry if this is super drab #I am experiencing one of the worst mental health periods in a long while and...yeah it's kinda hard #wanted to do this one to see if it would cheer me up #did it work? Unclear

[unforth]

Today I gave my dead batteries away. They were free of charge!

man, you're smarter than me. mine weren't fully dead, and I threw them at someone, and now I'm being charged with assault and battery.

#unforth replies #when I was in college we had a running joke where we'd throw a pinch of salt and a battery at someone jokingly #it's a salt and battery you see

[duckprintspress]

13 Books!

Yoinking this meme from @profiterole-reads

The Last Book I Read: I finished the YA graphic novel Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable last night.

A Book I Recommend: there aren't many books I'd recommend without knowing who I'm recommending it to, but The Alienist by Caleb Carr is fantastic.

A Book That I Couldn't Put Down: Little Mushroom by Shi Si

A Book I've Read Twice (or More): the Elenium trilogy by David Eddings

A Book on My TBR: my "next ups" are Thousand Autumns vol. 4 by Meng Xi Zhi and Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker.

A Book I've Put Down: it's been a long time since I've really had a DNF? One of the first books I can ever remember DNFing, when I was young, was book 1 of The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey, I just couldn't get into it.

A Book on My Wishlist: I don't have a wish list, most of what I want is pre-ordered and I'll get it when it's available.

A Favorite Book From Childhood: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

A Book You Would Give to a Friend: again it depends on the friend???? idek I don't think I can answer this one, no book is universal.

A Book of Poetry or Lyrics You Own: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

A Non-Fiction Book You Own: all of Stephen Sears Civil War battle analyses are fantastic.

What are You Currently Reading: Copper Coins by Mu Su Li

What Are You Planning on Reading Next: I already answered this on the "a book on my TBR" one, didn't realize it'd come up again, oops.

Tagging: anyone who wants to play! <3

#tag game #unforth replies #meme

[cnovelartreblogs]

Hi, I saw your post on the available danmei/baihe novels officially liscensed in English, and I was wondering on the statement, "titles that weren't originally on JJWXC (of which there are several here) WILL have e-book editions". Do you know which ones (is it just a matter of checking novelupdates to see if JJWXC is listed?), and where those can be purchased? Thank you!

This was info that I got from someone else, but now I can't recall who or find it again, oops.

iirc it's primarily the two that aren't linked/aren't as well known and therefore aren't on NovelUpdates: Albert from Earth and Obsessed. But don't quote me on that.

All the big-name Rosmei titles (priest stuff, Po Yun, the infinite flow stuff, etc), were from JJWXC.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

#unforth replies #faq

[destielficarchive]

Hi I've been looking for some cheesewithmy fics. I think I found the two that I were the ones that I would have missed the most. (Kingdom come and cut it out and then restart) but I was hoping to find more. I'm a little confused how the sheets file works. It looks like the author is in red but the notes say that there's five fics or something. Long story short, I was hoping to find more of their work if possible

Hi!

Yes, I have both of those, I'd just need to know an e-mail address to send them to.

I have the following cheesewithmy fics:

An Old Solution (as PDF and epub)

As Seen on T.V. (as an unformatted .doc)

Cut it Out and then Restart (as PDF and epub)

Down the End of the Road (epub)

Graceless (epub)

Kingdom Come (epub)

Nothing on My Tongue (unformatted .doc)

One Need Not Be a Chamter (unfomatted .doc)

That Would Be Enough (unformatted .doc)

There Will I Be Buried (epub)

The only one of their fics I know of but do not have is To Burn Your Kingdom Down; that's the title in red.

If you DM me or e-mail me at unforth6748 at gmail dot com and specify which titles you want, I can send them your way.

-unforth

#unforth replies #cheesewithmy #destiel #posting publicly in case anyone else wants them

[mdzsartreblogs]

hey for the noob, what's a repost? why are they bad? what's the diff btwn 'reblog' and 'repost'?

thx for explaining!

Howdy!!

I'm glad you asked!

Basically, a repost/art repost is when someone posts a piece of artwork they didn't create and then posts it on their own account, usually without crediting the original artist. This often makes it look like the person who reposted it IS the original artist, and any attention, likes, reblogs, followers, etc., all go to the reposter, instead of the artist who actually created the piece.

Example 1: I go on Pinterest and I find a piece of artwork and I go OH WOW THAT'S PRETTY I NEED TO SHOW EVERYONE I'VE EVER MET so I download the piece of art work, make a brand new tumblr post, put the art in that post, and go HEY LOOK AT THIS ART.

Example 1 is a repost.

A reblog, on the other hand, is basic Tumblr functionality in which any old blogger hits the "reblog" button and kinda..."passes forward" from the original poster. When you reblog a creator's work, they still get the notes, followers, etc. - it's still clear that they're the person who actually created the piece of artwork.

Example 2: I'm scrolling my dashboard and I see someone with username person12345 say, HEY EVERYONE I MADE AN ART DO YOU LIKE IT? And I think to myself, YES I DO, so I hit the reblog button.

Generally speaking, reposts are *highly* frowned upon and considered extremely rude. If you didn't make something yourself, don't post it unless you have express permission OR the original creator has something like "Reposts allowed" on their account (which is rare but does happen. Even an authorized repost should always have credit to the original creator attached to it; "Credit to the owner" is not credit. The reasoning is that, firstly, artists put a fuckton of work into what they create, so for someone to just take it post it somewhere else is kinda fucked (like, imagine if someone did that with a fanfic!). Secondly, a lot of artists rely on sales to their shops, commissions, etc., to get income - but when work is reposted without naming them or without linking them, they lose out on all of that.

Reposting on this website ranges from completely innocent "oh oops I didn't realize that wasn't nice" all the way through intentional attempts at theft/taking credit from original creators. If I had a nickle for every time someone called me a bitch, asshole, or crusader for suggesting they not repost, I'd be able to buy, like...dinner.

Generally speaking, posting work you DID make yourself is awesome, as is reblogging from artists who post their own work.

I could go into a LOT more about this, but tbh it'd kinda be reinventing the wheel. Instead, lemme grab some existing resources that can add more information to this, if you want to know more.

@dont-repost-art is a cool account dedicated to spreading information about why reposting is bad. It's not really active anymore but if you just scroll through what they've reblogged in the past you'll still get some good info.

How to Spot Art Reposts: a long post I wrote a bit ago, discussing art reposting, why it's bad, and how to recognize signs that piece might be a repost, with an emphasis on danmei fandoms on Tumblr.

Flow Chart: Can I Post This Fanart?

Really everything in the tumblr search "art reposting" which is full of artists being upset about people reposting their work....kinda says it all

FINAL NOTE: When an artist says "do not repost" they do NOT mean "do not reblog." Please, please reblog artist work, if you like it. Creators are what make this site so amazing, and when their work doesn't get much love, creators get discouraged and don't want to keep creating. When people steal their work without crediting them, they don't want to keep creating. When people treat them like art-producing machines, they don't want to keep creating. NOT reposting, and ACTIVELY reblogging (with a healthy side dose of "saying nice things in the tags") is a great, small, easy way that every single fan on this site can help creators fell all warm and happy and like they should keep making things.

Hope this helps!

-unforth

#mod post #unforth replies #art reposting

[tgcfartreblogs]

hello! your tags are so precise, which is amazing! it's so easy to search or mute pretty much anything on your blog.... except genderbend/cisswap? it'd be great if you could tag it, like you do everything else, canon or not. thank you!!

Hey anon!

On my MDZS and SVSSS side blogs, I tag gender swap, but I don't tag them for TGCF because there's canonical gender mutability. Figuring out a consistent, logical, non-offensive way to tag gender swaps would therefore be very challenging, especially for Shi Qingxuan and He Xuan.

For example: which gender would I tag as "gender swap" for Shi Qingxuan? They were born male, but indicate multiple times they're more comfortable in their female form. So, which is the "swapped" gender? Or do I tag them BOTH as "gender swapped"? Or do I just not use the "gender swap" tag for Shi Qingxuan while applying it to other characters? If so, which other characters does it apply to? Is an AU where Shi Qingxuan finally convinces Xie Lian to switch to a female body a "gender swap," with everything that would imply, or is it just "the same Xie Lian in a body that has breasts"? Which leads to...

For another example: it's also canon that Hua Cheng has chosen, at times, to present as female, but that wouldn't change that Hua Cheng is a man (at least in my opinion/interpretation of canon - there's little indication that he views his gender with the same fluidity that Shi Qingxuan does); whether his body has boobs or not, Hua Cheng would still be a man (again, based on my personal view of canon) when someone does canon-based gender swapping artwork. Therefore, should I tag "canonical" female!body!Hua Cheng as gender swap, but tag modern ones as gender swapped? Where would I draw a line? What if the artist doesn't give enough information for me to tell?

Even if I opt for a relatively neutral version of this (such as "male shi qingxuan" and "female shi qingxuan" as the tags) I end up in a morass, especially since the logical extension of that is that I'd then have to tag every single character post with their presumed gender, which means I'd have to presume that gender, which means...well. You get the idea.

From a blog moderation stand point, what to consider a "gender swap" when characters exist in a canon where they can change their gender presentation/appearance on a whim is extremely challenging - basically a minefield. If I choose to tag, it leads to me having to approach ethical questions like "is this person 'inherently' a given gender and if so, what should I base that assessment on?" And once I get into that kind of issue, there's basically NO answer I can give that won't offend SOMEONE. It's a rock-and-a-hard-place situation for me as a moderator, and rather than face the risk, I opted to just...not...across the board. I was sadly aware that this could pose problems for people who are especially uncomfortable with gender swaps, but I also figured that in a fandom where such gender switching is canon, the percentage of people who'd BE that uncomfortable with it would presumably be relatively low, and so ultimately I went for no gender-related tags. It does also make it harder for people who WANT to find that kind of content but again...yeah, same issues, I'm sorry.

I HAVE been considering adding a Hualesbians tag, since I figure people who really like that might like to be able to find that iteration of the ship specifically, and also because it conveniently sidesteps the gender issues outlines above - I'm not making a "judgement call" on which is their "actual" gender by tagging it as a "gender swap" (or cisswap or genderbend, all of which imply that the "original" gender is their "actual" gender) and just jumps straight to, "whatever their canon gender(s) I can at least clearly say that they are Hualian and they are Lesbians, as indicated by the artist themself."

TL:DR: there is no way to tag male/female/genderbend/cisswap/genderswap for the TGCF fandom without risking imposing my personal views of the characters onto the artwork people produce, which then will lead to me pissing people off and having to deal with the consequences, and that's a really fucking uncomfortable position for me to be in, so instead, I've opted to just not tag anything related to this on the TGCF blog. (I do, fairly inconsistently, tag trans versions...but I also often forget to do that one on this blog, oops.)

-unforth

#unforth replies #mod post #resources