hey just for the record, if you’re on r/ao3 and keep running into these kinds of comments on bookmark related posts — it’s not a good take. calling someone’s writing “slop” and saying it deserves criticism for being bad BECAUSE it’s posted publicly might seem like a nuanced take, but I promise it isn’t.
yes, sometimes us writers get a little too obsessed over a cryptic comment or bookmark; no, that doesn’t actually mean the solution is to say whatever you want in them because authors “deserve” your honesty. 
I know we’re in a touchy time for readers and writers, but comments like these are NOT kind, refreshing, or nuanced. they’re just kind of mean and discouraging.
also, this analogy falls completely apart, because a writer on AO3 is not a paid colleague of yours. there was no mandatory meeting that the cake was served at, or a free cake offered in the break room. even then, politeness would dictate that you’d maybe talk shit about the cake to a work buddy but we’d all understand it would be fucking rude to go up to becky herself and said “hey this cake was terrible” when she left something out for free for you to take or not take. it wouldn’t be rude to drop your plate in the trash, and if she sees a trash can full of cake she might feel bad, but that’s different from anyone SAYING something to her.
and also: salt instead of sugar in a cake is either malicious or a mistake. maybe a learning mistake. people usually don’t post stories they worked on maliciously. andif someone is still learning as a writer and makes a ton of mistakes, telling them it’s shit doesn’t help them much. maybe a person pulling becky aside to quietly say, “hey, i didn’t know if you knew this, but i think you accidentally used salt instead of sugar?” MIGHT be welcome but it would also be mortifying. much more so if becky had already realized it herself and is rather hoping nobody mentions it and everyone forgets it and she already knows to double check next time. she can bring it up herself with friends years later to laugh when it’s less stinging, the way some of us go, “God, fifteen years ago I wrote the most HORRIFIC Mary Sue fic, she had platinum hair and purple eyes, the works.”
and again, on ao3, you don’t even WORK with anyone. nobody is paid to be here. you suffer no loss of income if you can’t handle it on a particular day and pack up and go home. there is no moral high ground in reading a story and commenting or bookmarking JUST to tell someone their writing is shit. you find the one nice thing you can say if you ended up reading and not liking it, or you just don’t say anything at all. you hit backspace. go complain to your friends but don’t leave that negative shit in a public space. that’s BASIC human kindness.
if you pay for something, you can go to the person who sold you the thing and say, “hey this is terrible, and i’d like my money back,” or tell a larger audience, “don’t waste your money.” and to a degree, even THAT is subjective. but if you get something for free, you don’t go complain unless you’re part of a test market with someone specifically seeking constructive feedback– and that’s what fanfic writers go to friends and beta readers for.
but please, if you’re a person who leaves negative comments in a story or a bookmark, please rid yourself of the idea that being an asshole is fulfilling some kind of moral or craft role that helps make someone a better creator. if you think it’s just putting them in their place to discourage them from sharing and that’s a good thing you’re doing? then fuck you and see yourself out, thanks.
In middle school you were on facebook liking hundreds of pages called shit like “Laying down in my bed = life” now you’re 26 and posting shit likr “naptime is amazingly fire” upwards of 5 times a day. just pointing out how some things never leave you
every ww2 squadron had that one dude who was always eating all the rations, didnt know how to reload, put on his helmet backwards, carried around a photo of his dad, and would say shit like “deadass has anyone else thought about just joining the other guys?“
[Two muscular guards roll back the stone that sealed me within the cave, and Call me to the entrance]
[I crawl forth, shielding my eyes from the light for a moment before adjusting and moving my hands away]
“What is this… Am I free?”
“No. You got a visitor.”
“Hmph. You know how I feel about visitors. Let me guess, another peasant, here to rub their victory in my face? My parents, here to scorn me for losing such battles?”
“You’ll see for yourself.”
[They pull hard on your chain, dragging you into my view. I squint with hatred in my eyes] [The light hits you, I recognize your face, and my demeanor instantly changes]
OMG whats up little white bitch best Neice in the world long time no see come here mwwwwwah [Leaves a butter-stain on your forehead] what’s up
My little Vaushie is so cute. I wake up early in the morning every day just for him ♥️ i love my little vaushie and his little red pecker. He gets up every day at 2:30 on the clock! Its soo sweet. He calls me a fat assed whore i love him so much. Then he lays in bed grunting while i finish doing the dishes and making his ubereats order for him, its just so cute! He would starve and die because he can only get food from apps.
Yesterday he did just the cutest thing . he was on stream playing The Last of Us 2 (Heterosexuality mod) and someone told him that even if they lowered the age of consent it would still be bad to masturbate to lolicon. he started doing just the sweetest little squealing pounding his red fists on the desk. i love him. hes the best. hes so sweet, when hes sleeping on the floor. like a soft little animal. like baby jesus in the manger.
To be completely forthright with you all: half of evil villain is just people who find the log in info written on a bathroom stall wall, above the hole, in a truck stop down in Tuscaloosa by the i395 exit, the one close to Bobby’s park truck supplies & equipment. Upon seeing the password, a male trucker will enter the stall and the bargain commences (hence the hole). But naturally, upon logging in, the spirit takes you, and thus you are assimilated. So really it’s still just one guy, and many vessel. You know how it is with truck stops!
We gotta do something about the way dog owners behave. No other pet owner is just bringin the pet wherever the fuck they go all the time but for some reason with dog owners they think its fine if they bring their dog to the gym and taco bell and whatever. And you invite a dog owner to your house where youve got your own pets youve got your dog and your cats and whatever it is you have and this dog owner shows up at your door like “oh i brought my dog i hope thats okay hes so sweet youll love him” and it is always the most untrained poorly behaved agressive animal that has ever lived. And we all have to pretend like its acceptable behaviour well im sick of it
why are americans obsessed with the word grief everyday i feel like i am closer to reading something like “no one talks about the unborrowed grief of never going to parties”
This Black History Month, reflect for a moment on the fact that George Washington Carver, famously “the inventor of peanut butter and more than 100 industrial uses for peanuts” wasn’t, like, Doc Brown fucking around in his garage because he really liked peanuts but was specifically trying to introduce larger use of a nitrogen fixing legume into crop rotations against cotton monoculture which was destroying yields, livelihoods and the biosphere, and how most agribusiness farming now just destroys that topsoil on purpose and continues to grow a cotton monoculture (or soy or corn or whichever local monoculture is profitable) using petrochemical derived fertilizer, which is one element driving climate change
Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful heart surgery. He also founded the first nonsegregated hospital in America because he was keenly aware of disparate health outcomes by race which is still a problem today.
WEB Dubois was a part of the delegations for the birth of the UN. His proposal to include in the charter that “the colonial system of government … is undemocratic, socially dangerous and a main cause of wars” was not adapted for the final draft. We might see inaction against colonial violence to this day as part of the failure of others to heed his warnings there.
I feel like so often when we look at Black History Month so much of it is driven by factoids but when taken as history in context its about a direct line from decades and centuries to what is happening right now.
taking away his arms and feets was allegedly a punishment but now several thousand years after the fact everyone agrees that tubelike is among the most badass shapes an animal can be. perhaps a sign of the times but perhaps it is also correct
President Donald Trump’s “government efficiency” cheerleader Elon Musk proposed simply ignoring all federal regulations during a public call shortly after midnight Monday morning.
Musk, whose newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency” team has in recent days executed a dramatic power grab at several government agencies, called for “wholesale removal of regulations.”
“Regulations, basically, should be default gone,” Musk said. “Not default there, default gone. And if it turns out that we missed the mark on a regulation, we can always add it back in.”
“These regulations are added willy-nilly all the time. So we’ve just got to do a wholesale, spring cleaning of regulation and get the government off the backs of everyday Americans so people can get things done,” Musk said, adding later: “If the government has millions of regulations holding everyone back, well, it’s not freedom. We’ve got to restore freedom.”
Musk replied, “If it’s not possible now, it’ll never be possible. This is our shot. This is the best hand of cards we’re ever going to have. And if we don’t take advantage of this best hand of cards, it’s never going to happen, so we’re going to do it.”
As the GTS has reached 100 million Pokémon traded, the Vivillon pattern distribution has been announced. This pattern will run from tomorrow, July 8th, to July 31st 2014 over the Nintendo Network. This Vivillon is exclusive to this download and comes with the special move, Hold Hands, that no other Pokémon can have.
What if you poked me in the chest and your finger broke through like you were cracking into a rotted plank of wood and dust came out and I just crumpled into nothing and my spores got into your nose
I would not hang out with you again that’s for sure!
i think i’m going to be straight now can a girl come on this post so i can practice i want to try to be straight today
i need a girl to come on to this post i need to try something
ok. im come over.
heyyyy lol 😛 sooooooo *leans against the wall in a way that’s way way way way too close and you can smell my deer attractant and axe body spray combo* ummmm *blushes* *goes red*
ok. whatever. *looks away from you, hornily*
*i panic and rip your face off*
ummm…. ok… kind of weird… you are such a weird guy lol…. kind of funny tho… lol… can we kiss now. *i am unperturbed and my face is growing back slowly because i am immortal*
OOC: Godmodding. This is why i never RP with women
OOC: Typical misogyny. And of course the mod team does nothing. This is why rpworld.zetaforums.net is failing. I’ll be taking me - and my FOURTY-SEVEN active RP threads - to roleplaydream.invisionfree.com. Thanks for nothing.
OOC: Have fun getting anyone to play with your shitty mary sue. Go back to fanfic
What the fuck did I just read? As a role player and a non-straight woman… I think I need a drink after reading this. You are BOTH terrible role players, and neither of you are worthy of a good plot.
*crawls towards you on all fours submissively hoping you don’t hurt me*
this post is crazy now cause i do legitimately have a girlfriend now, and maybe i wouldn’t have been able to do this without this practice simulation. like, say what you will, it worked.
gale is actually the character of all time for swinging wildly between suicidal depression and delusions of godhood. he’s ready to die and you give him a crumb of ass and hes like what if i just ruled the universe actually. this should be a huge red flag but then, you only need to ask him to stop once and he’s like “ok” and the next day hes like “are you mad at me :(”
literally its so fun being abnormal about christianity and also being christian because i just said “id kiss judas with tongue” in front of my pastor and she squinted at me and went “do you need to be removed from council or are you going to be normal?”
me: do you think jesus and peter ever explored each other’s bodies?
her husband, the other pastor: oh almost definitely.
does anyone have that reddit exchange screenshot where someone is like “what colour is this mouse??” and posts a mouse who is like in some sort of purple world with confetti around it and the top comment is like “it would be easier to tell if your mouse wasn’t at the club” . i keep thinking about & referencing mouse at the club and i cant find it
current tabs open on my english teachers computer include a) the myth of sisyphus by albert camus. b) google search for ionic columns c) the cure discography
i read the stranger -> i bring it up in class -> we talk about it -> teacher mentions the cure song based on the stranger (unfortunately titled ‘killing an arab’) -> we look at the names of the songs the cure has written -> teacher brings up the myth of sisyphus -> other student asks why we’re talking about sisyphus -> gonna be honest i have no idea what happened here -> ionic column
borders between countries aren’t real btw we just made them up. there’s no such thing as an “immigrant” we’re all just people moving around on the same planet that we’ve always moved around on
You can fight AI in indie publishing by leaving reviews.
Seriously.
Ai-generated garbage is flooding the self-publishing market. It works as a numbers game- put out ENOUGH fake crap and eventually someone’s aunt will buy them the ebook as an unwanted gift, and you’ll have made two dollars. This tactic works at SCALE, which means real independent titles are now a needle amongst a haystack of slop.
If you have read a book this year that has less than 5 reviews, your rating is an algorithmic spotlight on that needle.
A one sentence review helps. Really. A star rating helps if you really can’t think of anything to say, but if you can muster up even “I laughed at the part about the tabby cat” you are doing indie authors a favor like you cannot believe.
(Also if you left a review on one of my books this year I am kissing you so softly on your forehead and I adore you)
as a former indie author i cannot express how much even one single sentence review can mean to sales.
so if you care about supporting authors take a sec to leave one!
I finished my next reference, decided to just go alphabetically backwards since I finished the two I most wanted to. So that meant Yugoslavia was first.
Unfortunately, our plagiarism checker has found that your essay is copied word-for-word from another source. We’re very disappointed in you. At this point in your academic career, you should know better than relying on the Library of Babel to think for you.
you literally copied this from the library of babel too i don’t want to hear it
