Summary: Shazam didn’t understand how taxes worked. He always seemed kind of lost when they talked politics. Wally often had the sense that he was nodding along with things he didn’t really understand. He knew what vaping was. Inexplicably he knew what TikTok was. Weird guy. The Justice League try to adjust to their newest member. They know he's hiding something from them, but in their line of work everyone has secrets. Shazam's no different. Is he? Or, the Justice League accidentally inducts a child and then deals with the fall-out.

Author: @penny-anna

Dear reader friends,

Authors can see your public bookmarks. When you bookmark a work and don't choose to make it private, they can read what you wrote in the tags. This is great if you wrote silly things like "this made me smile" or even "screaming crying throwing up when I read this" (and I can tell you that us writers absolutely go into the bookmarks hunting for tags like this because we are praise-hungry little freaks), but not so great when the tags are something like "author is clearly an amateur, do not come back to this one".

I've kinda gone back and forth on this topic in my head, because on the one hand people are totally allowed to put whatever they want in a bookmark's tags and authors are voluntarily going into bookmarks to read any potential public tags. However, if the option to make a bookmark private is there and you are going to write something not so nice to remember the fic by (which is totally valid! some fics are just not for some people!), I feel like it's okay for us authors to at least ask that you consider making your bookmark private?

Once again, I would like to reiterate: there is nothing wrong with not liking a fic. There is nothing wrong with tagging it "this was awful and I hated it". All I and my fellow writers ask is that you check that lil box that makes the bookmark private, allowing you to be the only one who sees it.

After all, if I'm taking off my Writer Hat and putting on my Reader Hat, I am the only person I'm writing that review/making those tags for. I am not tagging my bookmark, saying, "this fic is awful don't read it" so that other people know not to read the fic. That would be mean and (maybe I'm out of line saying this, but oh well) out of line. This is not GoodReads. This is Ao3, and writers are voluntarily writing lovely things that they've put pieces of their heart and soul into that you can consume for free. All we ask is that you're kind in return. :)

So reader friends, if you finished a fic and you didn't like it all that much, please consider ticking that little box that makes the bookmark private. There is nothing wrong with tagging it in a way that warns you to steer clear, but please do it in a place the creator of said work can't see it. Thank you, we love you! :D

Sincerely, your writer friends

something that annoys me a lot in fanfiction as an aromantic is when people dont tag important platonic/familial relationships but tag random romantic stuff

i remember this fic in which there were platonic relationships that were almost as important as the main romantic ship, yet they werent tagged. but a romantic relationship that didnt even had a full scene was tagged.

there are millions of fics that do this. why only tagging romantic stuff? you have non romantic relationships in your fic that are just as important. tagging them would actually help the fic to get more readers (the ones looking for fics with gen relationships) but no, the romantic couple that had ¼ of chapter (of a multichapter fic) was a more relevant tag. wonder why

one of the funniest things in Fandom, any Fandom, is when someone draws ship art and then earnestly tags it #notshipart. you just think their loving embraces are neat huh

I find it interesting that a fandom will take something as simple as a characters choice of accessory or favorite food or something else equally mundane, and be like "Yeah, their favorite color is green because that was the color of their mom's eyes and they watched her die tragically while staring into said eyes." Like no, @/charactersbignaturalhonkers, most people just like a color because it's pretty or like the way it looks on them, people don't need a special angsty or edgy reason to like something.

women aren’t allowed to wear tshirts and jackets, or have short hair, or facial hair, or be kind of grimy. if they do, they aren’t women. much to think about!

Honestly questioning why I even go on twitter anymore. It's been made very clear that I will only thrive in the Hogwarts Legacy community there if I'm a good artist, post art everyday, good writer, have a shit ton of followers, and post about my MCs and OCs. I get some comments sometimes but when I do a rare character post, it never gets any likes whatsoever. I just did a post about how Professor Sharp would propose to my oc Eleanor Knightley and as usual, there's no interaction. Yet when other people do it they get so much interaction and support.

People are nice to me on twitter but it honestly feels like it's a closed off community where only the best get the attention. I will never do the "1 like and I'll give you a fact about my oc" because no one would respond. I have thought of getting an oc fact questionnaire that people are supposed to ask questions on but instead of doing that I just post all the answers since no one would reply to it anyway. I make sure to interact with people and comment on their posts too.

It was so much easier when I wrote shitty one shots here because even though they were so bad and my writing was atrocious, I got likes and support. It made me so happy and want to keep writing because of your support. I suppose I did this to myself by not doing much HL art but damn, it hurts to see the truth.

Sorry I keep ranting about the same thing 😂 I just hate facing the truth and honestly I'm a bad artist and a slow one, so it's obvious I wouldn't get noticed in this community. Really wish I could just go back to writing but god character ai made me lose all of my ideas and I think it might have stunted my writing.

I really think everyone needs to truly internalize this:

Fictional characters are objects.

They are not people. You cannot "objectify" them, because they have no personhood to be deprived of. They have no humanity to be erased. You cannot "disrespect" them, because they are not real.

i do unironically think the best artists of our generation are posting to get 20 notes and 3 reblogs btw. that fanfic with like 45 kudos is some of the best stuff ever written. those OCs you carry around have some of the richest backstories and worldbuilding someone has ever seen. please do not think that reaching only a few people when you post means your art isn't worth celebrating.

Alright, to ao3's soon to be arriving Wattpad Refugees, a basic guide to general user culture:

1.) Unlike Wattpads vote system that let's you like each chapter, the ao3 equivalent kudos only allows one per work. Everyone is generally quietly annoyed about this. To engage with each chapter, you're heavily encouraged to comment. Trust me, it makes people's day.

2.) Ao3 has no algorithm. By default it's latest updated work first. You can find things to your taste through searches, filters and tags.

3.) 'No archive warnings apply' and 'user has chosen not to use archive warnings' mean two very different things. No archives warnings means the work is free from any content that could require a warning tag (character death, graphic depictions of violence, non-con, etc). User has chosen not to use archive warnings means it could contain any of the warning content, be it hasn't been explicitly tagged. Treat it like an allergen. No archive warnings apply is allergen free. User has chosen not to use archive warnings, may contain traces or whole chunks of the allergen. If you're likely to have a bad reaction, maybe don't take the risk.

4.) Speaking of warnings, ao3 has very few restrictions on the type of work that's allowed. Whatever your personal thoughts or feelings on that are, thats how the site is. You're likely to run across some dark subject matters and a lot of people are uncomfortable with reading that. You're well within your rights not like these works and have your opinion on whether they should be allowed, but harassing the authors of such works (or any works) is more likely to come back on you than them. Ao3 operates on a strong policy of 'don't like, don't read'. Use the tagging system to your full advantage to only engage with the kind of works you want to see.

We look forward to welcoming you all and seeing the fantastic works you create. Happy writing!

reblog for a bigger sample size if you feel like it

Summary: Techno is a human who needs a place to live. Phil, Wilbur and Tommy are vampires who need blood to survive. Two problems are fixed with a single solution. Though perhaps Techno should have thought twice about the consequences of entangling his life with three powerful immortals.

Author: @anarchy-and-piglins

Note from submitter: All the relationships are platonic. Mind the tags, as it has some dark aspects.

“I hope this email finds you well”

First of all the only emails that ever find me well are from AO3

You! American fan of foreign or otherwise un-American media! Are you aware of the nuances and cultural differences that are portrayed in that media and have an understanding that you as an outsider looking in should be careful with the lenses you analyze that media in because you have a different perspective that is not catered to?

Had to share this here because you're right and you should say it. It's incredible how many people came out of the woodwork as soon as AO3 was down and suddenly had no compunctions at all about screaming how much they love and need fanfic--on the AO3 twitter. Is it so much harder to do in the comment section?

At this point I don't care anymore if people call me entitled or think I'm out of line. If fanfic is so meaningful to you that you cannot go half an hour without, let alone 24h, then you can get over yourself long enough to write a fucking comment. No excuses.

"writing comments is hard and scary" yeah well GUESS WHAT so is writing fanfics. fandom as a community is dying, because it is instead treated as a COMMODITY, a CONSUMER PRODUCT. We're not asking for much. We're asking for a CONNECTION. We don't want to sell, we want to share.

You've shown your hand. You've admitted you cannot live without us. Now ACT LIKE IT. Go write a fucking comment.

additional comment from the anon: this mostly applies to things like smut or nsfw art. I see a lot of blogs that are 18+ and I’ve always wondered if people actually listen to "minors dni (do not interact)" or if they just ignore them.

*this poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. if you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post)

Edit: tap here for a poll in regards to this one, but with more thorough details (in which 'view' and 'interact' are two separate things).