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#the current wank
runawaymarbles · 2 years
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Hii!
I don’t understand what’s going on with AO3 and the election? I’ve been using it for about a year so this is all new to me! Is Tiffany getting elected actually bad?
I hate censorship, so seeing posts about them censoring stuff is concerning but idk how much truth to it there is 😳
I just want to be informed, and understand!
Hi! Welcome to AO3:)
since I'm not sure how much you know already, the background (background as interpreted by me: I am not speaking on behalf of the OTW) is: Ao3 is run by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), the nonprofit that also runs Fanlore and publishes Transformative Works & Cultures. Anyone who has donated $10 to the OTW in the last year, and chooses "yes I want to be a member" at checkout is an OTW member. (This is not the same as having an ao3 account.) Every year, there is an election to fill either 2 or 3 seats on the Board of Directors. OTW Members (i.e. people who donated between 7/1/21 and 6/30/22, in this case) get to vote on this.
Most of the time, this election is only really followed by people on fail_fandomanon. Sometimes, it isn't.
Things the Board of Directors does: writes posts to send out to the general public when Things Are Happening (the recent csam attacks, the requests for more antiracism measures.) Writes posts to send to volunteers when Things Are Happening (see prev.) Keeps track of what all the committees are doing and how it ties in with whatever the strategic plan says they should be doing. Deals with the IRS/US laws. Approves large funding requests. Deals with emails that someone else has deemed outside their own wheelhouse. Herds cats. Proposes priorities. Points at something shiny, pats the org on the flank, and says "walk that way, walk that way!! Come on buddy, you can do it!!". etc etc etc.
Things the Board of Directors doesn't do: unilaterally determine ao3 content policy. Let us use the word "porn" on ao3 drive merch. Make decisions that are going greatly affect other volunteers' work without input and some level of agreement from said volunteers.
Anyway. This year, one of the five candidates for the three open board seats is Tiffany G. (More information about all the candidates and their platforms is at https://elections.transformativeworks.org)
Tiffany is a tag wrangler from an unspecified country that is, from context, assumed to be China. The candidate Q&A can be read here. Her answers were a little bit confusing, but she said she wanted to update the ToS policies on 'pedophilic and illegal content' because, quote, "people think we host child porn content and such things... It might... be helpful to clarify that to the public." Further down she said:
a) I support 100% “maximum inclusiveness of content”, yet there is always a boundary to everything. Since OTW is already an influential org, we need to protect our image and hold a better image to the public. I want the public to think of us as an inclusive and socially responsible community. So in general, we have to do something to change. Things like making the rating system more specific and obvious to users will be what I want to do. b) Not really restricting the content being posted. I hope it is like more warnings and ratings for posting work so people know what to expect. And all of these are not surprising to people who do not wish to see this.
I took this to mean "she wants to clarify to outsiders that ao3 does not host csam, is not only for erotica, and update the ratings and warnings system." I don't think that those things are necessary or should be a focus of the org, which is part of why I didn't vote for her.
Other people took it to mean "Tiffany is against pornographic or underage works and wants them to be banned." Some people took this, combined with her nationality, to the conclusion of "Tiffany is a secret plant of the Chinese Communist Party who wants to join the board, get all the ao3 user data, and then have the users from mainland China arrested" (despite the fact that this is not information the board would have access to, if for no other reason than ao3 is blocked in China so anyone trying to view the site from mainland china has to use a VPN anyway.) Some people are upset that the OTW elections committee "allowed" her to run in the first place, because they think that not letting anyone with opinions the current board or elections committee didn't like is an absolutely great precedent to set.
There are a bunch of comments on tw.org, and some in fail_fandomanon, that give more context to her comments in terms of Chinese fandom (though most posters still disagree with her position.)
This got... longer than planned. But to the question "Is tiffany getting elected actually bad" - If my interpretation of her statements are correct, I think it would be annoying, because she does not have the experience I think that being on the Board requires, and focuses on priorities I disagree with. Which isn't to say she'd never have a valuable perspective or ideas about something, but there are four other candidates that I think are much better suited to it at this point in time. If the people who think she is an antishipper bent on censorship are correct, she could probably make life very annoying for the rest of the board-- but considering the rest of them are not pro-censorship, I can't see how she'd have much influence in that direction in the org as a whole.
If the people who think she's doing espionage on behalf of the CCP are correct, then... look, I can't even finish that sentence because I find the idea of the CCP deciding that a) they need to get ao3 user data and b) the way to do that is to run a clearly unqualified candidate in a public board election absurd.
the tl;dr of this tl;dr is that there's a lot of fearmongering going around, and a lot of accusations and hate (and racism. let’s be real a lot of this is racism) directed her way. I don't know her, so I don't know what her "real" opinions are, but regardless of who wins the board election, ao3 is not going to be censored any time soon.
if for no other reason than if the Abuse team was told on top of all their other work, they now had to assess and remove fics reported for being "problematic", they would say "we'd prefer not to" and then proceed to not do it.
It's awesome that people are realizing the board elections and OTW membership are a thing now, though. We kept talking about how to encourage membership, and "running a very dramatic and wanky election" did not occur to us. In retrospect, I don't know why.
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werepires · 5 months
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Reminder you don’t have to coddle your faves, especially when their opinions support a narrative that enables ethnic cleansing and genocide
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laas-yahnir · 3 months
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currently brainrotting over: I think one of the most clarifying things that came from the many conversations I (should not have) had with anti-fans was understanding how shallow of a read they had on the specifics of Catra and Adora's trauma
and I say that not to be combative, just to state the facts of the situation as I saw them -- very general concepts of prolonged physical and emotional abuse as inflicted by Shadow Weaver, Catra receiving both and Adora primarily receiving emotional abuse... no capacity to articulate what happened to them beyond that, no capacity to articulate what healing from that abuse should look like beyond, well, you know, healing, getting better, being happy
and I don't know if it's my own trauma work talking or what, but I find it kind of fascinating that someone could walk away from Promise and not realize that they had just witnessed Catra's core acute traumatic event in particular, and that it actually had very little to do with that generalized, prolonged conception of the abuse she suffered, the yelling and the verbal cruelty and the proclivity to physically push Catra around -- all of those manifested there, but they were all in service of making a specific direct threat on her life, and whether or not that threat would be carried out was contingent on how much Adora liked her
and Adora in turn watched this play out, watched this threat be made, and was told that it was her responsibility to prevent this from happening again -- also very little to do with the generalized concept of "emotional abuse", entirely to do with this one moment of being assigned an extremely disproportionate amount of agency, a degree of agency she fundamentally couldn't fulfill and couldn't have reasonably been expected to fulfill
all of which I think is to say, trauma is incredibly specific to the person who deals with it; no two people will emerge from the same traumatic event with the same internal experience of that event, nor will they develop or *need* to develop the same skills to cope with that event
all of which is also to say, because that one event is indeed supposed to be illustrative of how the dynamic between Catra, Adora, and Shadow Weaver played out for Catra and Adora's entire childhoods, that those incredibly granular specifics are what we're dealing with at any given time, with any given instance of either or both of them being triggered
and I never really saw an understanding of either of the above points from the people who were insistent that Catra's healing in particular should have looked different, that it should have been enough for her to just leave the physical proximity of the Horde in Season 3, that she didn't do enough to negate the hurt she caused, that she didn't do enough to warrant getting back on Adora's good side and eventually getting together with her, that xyz events of the final three episodes are proof that she still has too much work to do
because of course, the line that always gets trotted out is that trauma is an explanation for behavior, not an excuse
and it is! it only ever can be
but my question then becomes, do you understand what exactly is being explained to you
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cafeleningrad · 3 months
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Is the character really "morally gray" or are they just a sarcastic, wise-cracking personality?
Is the character really "morally gray" or is the audience expecting a simplistic moral tale?
Is the character really "morally gray" or does the character have to make a choice between options which each will have certain consequences?
Is the character really "morally gray" or is important information withheld from the character?
Is the character really "morally gray" or is the character in a situation in which the best choice is "the least harm possible"?
Is the character really "morally gray" or is the character just a teenager?
Is the character really "morally gray" or is the story itself questioning the simplicity of only thinking in two categories of either good or bad?
Is the character really "morally gray" or doesn't the character have any actual agency?
Is the character really "morally gray" or are they just a hot, dark, brooding guy?
Is the character really "morally grey" or is the audience overstating the gravity of past actions?
Is the character really "morally gray" or is the female character just written with a three-dimensional personality?
Is the character really "morally gray" or are the characters just written as regular human beings with all regular complications?
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thevioletcaptain · 11 months
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do fandom people realize that gleefully firing off mean little zingers at the socially accepted online target of the week for clicks is functionally identical to the way high school bullies use cruelty for clout, or do they lack that level of self awareness?
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thereadersmuse · 1 month
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I think there is something inherently problematic about spending a dedicated amount of time ripping apart not only two characters, but their fans and the actors that play them. While continuing to promote and compare them to your favorites.
I mean, you can do whatever you want, honestly. That's the beauty of tumblr. But unless you are gaining something from surrounding yourself in constant negativity, I honestly don't get it.
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distressedwalnut · 2 years
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I would like to join the Wank enjoyers please
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zaritarazi · 4 months
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the legends of tomorrow fandom really is so special to me. who else, when they see that i'm feeling sad, would go out of their way to start coming after tala & maisie for not being genocide supporters? in defense of caity? the most unemployed woman alive??? it's like, who else would want to distract me so fully, get my heart rate up so fast, besides the scum of the earth zionists that have always grown like pernicious fungus in the dark cracks of the legends fandom?
that have only ever seen their judaism as a token in identity politics?
who else but these despicable freaks with no real connection to actual judaism (otherwise they wouldn't be following a christian doctrine) would go out of their way to put themselves in my sights like this? who else wants a beating that badly? they've really had all their dreams come true. they've gotten an excuse to be mask-off racist, to finally express their active prejudice with the kind of selfish oblivion that only someone truly obsessed with social currency could accomplish. and they can try and say "well jews are in danger" as some kind of excuse. the only danger you're in is from me, under your fucking bed (for the purposes of comedy and entertainment).
it's the solipsism, it's the racism, it's the tone-deafness. truly, three paragons of zionism, absolutely exemplified by the leeches of the caity fans in the legends fandom - the only really active ones left, of course, because she cannot get a fucking job.
like i've been sitting here for about a year and a half like, it's not appropriate for me to point out that these toxic-positivity pinkwashers are true zionists through and through, in that they really do just lie about every aspect of themselves, in that they send nasty, despicable, islamophobic things to tala and then say they love the whole cast and the whole show.
i've been like, now is not the time to bring that into this. but they really turned out for me! they said to me "hey, rachel. we can see you're down. would you like to stomp on our necks to feel better?" and like, nothing is going to make me feel better about an ongoing genocide. but it's certainly helping my cardio. and i guess that's something
edit: i've been told these bitches got covid. and i want to say i never doubted me for a fucking second
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clefclefairy · 8 months
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very very quick post on current Fandom Woes that i want to throw out so i can put it out of my head and go do important things (making sword)
1: 'ugh this is so OOC just make OCs if you're going to do this' and how does fandom treat OCs, exactly? do you RT people's OC art? do you call OCs "cringe?" do you ask questions about people's OCs? do you commission art/fic of people's OCs? do you think you're the arbiter of what "in-character" is for an entire fandom?
2. i was there 3000 years ago, gandalf, and so i can say with confidence: "he would not fucking say that" used to be unilaterally applied to any LGBT content. any fucking queer ships would be told "this is OOC, they've never said they were gay in canon!" and if you tried to explain like, basic subtext or the long history of queer-coding to some internet rando they would just call you a stupid fangirl. i'm not saying that's always what is happening now, but i am saying that this is where that attitude can and did lead, and still leads for certain queer headcanons. (try calling a character trans coded. see what happens!)
3. sometimes people just want to have fun. sometimes people just make jokes that do not align with their view of the canon characterization for fun. sometimes people just like to mash their current favorites against a thing they like or find funny. acting like this is killing fandom rather than simply personally annoying you is ludicrous.
4. again, not every post with this attitude is saying this, but given the current social climate surrounding AI art/AI chatbots/AI fanfic and the complete and utter disdain for fanfic writers and artists, "why even write this it's so OOC" feels very...entitled. you don't know what emotions, life experiences, formative media, styles of interpretation, and methods of critique/analysis someone brings to any given character. everyone brings themselves to the table of fandom and that's supposed to be a good thing. (coda: there are some ways people can willfully misinterpret characterization and be incorrect. people can also just be missing necessary context in their analysis. people just might not be good at analysis and interpretation. piss on the poor, etc., but outside of malicious willful misinterpretation, this isn't like. evil. you can just block and move on.)
5. i don't care if a fic is OOC to my personal interpretation of the character. i really, truly don't. i hit the back button and move on. you don't know why someone writes or feels the way they do about characters, and sometimes people don't want to write OCs! they want to process whatever's going on in their life with their favorite characters! and that is fine! even if it doesn't make sense to anyone but them! even if it isn't good! fanfic and fanart needing to be good is bullshit. you can't and shouldn't try to quality control free writing and art like you would professional work. (coda for the piss on the poor website: this does not include malicious hate speech and imagery. it DOES include topics you personally find unappealing. not everything is for you.)
6. fandom is a collaborative community experience and not everything is to your taste. you don't know why someone writes or creates or draws what they do, or why they're doing it. have a private circle of friends to bitch about stuff you don't like together. trying to make other people behave in ways you don't find 'cringe' or write and draw what you want, for you, isn't happening. block and move on, mute and blacklist, use your back button on fanfics, and mind your own business.
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samsrosary · 2 months
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I get its funny that the king has cancer but also we are so bad politically at the moment we are comparable to the USA
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pikslasrce · 5 months
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NEED to move into my own room so i can have a proper wank for once
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laas-yahnir · 5 months
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thinking about doing a "currently brainrotting over" post about the comparison between "Don't you get it? I am never going to go with you!" and "Don't you get it? I love you! I always have! So please, just this once, stay!", because I've gotten back around to the first again and it's a damn shame to me that people saw the similarities here and, instead of looking at the contexts and specific word choices, chose to interpret those similarities as Catra having learned nothing and the writers trying to force her relationship with Adora to work anyway rather than as a deliberate callback
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jlf23tumble · 11 months
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Yeah the whole ban discourse was like…huh? Are we reading the same thing? I’m also unsure how much radio play really matters in 2023 vs. Spotify playlists or other forms of promotion (ahem - magazine covers/features or talk show performances). How much does radio play actually increase a fanbase? (Seemingly what fans want for Louis). If we look at indie artists who have blown up recently, has that occurred based primarily on radio play? In any case, Louis is not out there starving to death y’all.
Alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll of this, sprinkled with a dose of why do people get off so hard to making him some kind of victim in a game he a) already won in his 20s and b) doesn't seem all that interested in revisiting in his 30s? Like, I'm sorry (truly, deeply sorry) that struggling indie solo artist Harry Styles is now on my dentist's playlist, and everyone working there has to hear it 5x a day, like, why would you want your fave to be that kind of flave? I trust that Louis's doin' just fine! Better than most, even!
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effingunicorns · 1 year
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the so-called "progressive" fandom declaring that donating to Wikipedia is absurd while donating to ao3 is pratically sacrosanct and necessary— all while Wikipedia's donations actively fund orgs that are run by and advance the issues faced by BIPOC and other marginalized groups within STEM fields, but meanwhile ao3 openly admits that they sit on multiple millions of reserve funding that only continues to grow with zero plans on actually using any of the money for anything useful
Go post your fic on wikipedia then??? Seriously, try to do it. I'll wait.
The two sites are completely different platforms: different purposes, different audiences, different financial tiers. When they come up in the same breath, it's part of a conversation that inevitably started with someone who's pissed off at AO3's very existence trying to shame people into donating to something meaningful instead of something fun. It has nothing to do with either site's community outreach record or lack thereof, and suggesting that it does is wildly disingenuous.
On the matter of the OTW "sitting on" reserve funding, they've stated repeatedly that they've been saving this money in anticipation of funding drying up, and as that's continued to not happen they've also stated a willingness to spend that money on various improvements they need both as an organization and to the services they provide. You can check their latest vision statement, posted in July of this year, for a recent example, and there were various related questions for every candidate in this year's board elections.
If none of that satisfies you, sorry. Donate extra to Wikipedia on my behalf, and we'll each keep our favored non-profit website up and running.
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cooltapes · 2 years
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like being in the s**lor m**n fandom led to me being lowkey internet stalked and having people start up all kinds of rumours/shit talking about me (which I only ambiently knew about because OTHER people would tell me) and the Cr*stal stuff was STILL the worst thing to come out of that fandom for me lmao
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zaritarazi · 9 months
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Listen you can prefer any site you want i'm not invested in that but you cannot sit there and say the serial numbers filed off for profit site moderates content because it cares about its readers. You can love the serial numbers filed off for profit site and i will say follow your truth but you cannot assign morals to the capitalism machine as a means of praxis for strangers on the internet. You simply cannot. Your brain will become polished like fine quartz and i will no longer be able to help you
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