"Why Can't The Freaks On AO3 Just Go And Make A Site For All The Gross Stuff And Leave AO3 Alone."

"Why can't the freaks on AO3 just go and make a site for all the gross stuff and leave AO3 alone."

Because AO3 is that site. Because AO3 was that site long before you decided AO3 was better than the sites you bullied us off of before, and I can promise you if someone somehow comes up with a fanfic site you like better specifically for the 'gross stuff' you'll try to bully us off that too so you can benefit from it.

AO3's specific core purpose is to preserve fanfiction, yes, but it was also instigated as a host site for the fanfiction that kept getting yeeted off other platforms like Wattpad. Its designed to preserve all fanfiction, not just the fanfiction you, personally, think is 'allowed' to be written.

AO3 is the site for all the gross stuff the freaks make. We've been there just as long as you. We've been funding it just as long as you have. AO3 has specifically said you have a place here. The timeline was literally:

Wattpad/FF.net/LiveJournal purge fanfics > AO3 is born > The people who's fics got purged moved over to AO3 > AO3 gains popularity as the best functioning site > The people who pushed for the fics to be purged off Wattpad move to AO3 > The same people try to push for AO3 to purge fics.

AO3's source coding is open-access. You go make a polished, strict, rigid site where nothing 'icky' is allowed. You go make a site where you can control what is hosted. We already have our space.

Information and action are the parents of change.

You cannot fight what you do not know. This is why the sharing of accurate, blatant information is so important. This is the true value of freedom of speech. This is why we fight for unblocked social media platforms and independent press and for our private conversations to be protected.

You can't act if you don't have the information. How can you challenge something you don't even know about? How can you fight for the correct side, the correct outcome, if you don't understand it and know what, exactly, you have to fight for and whom you should be fighting?

You need information in order to take action. And you need information and action in order to make a change.

Please do not sign this petition if you are not a UK citizen with a UK valid postcode. If you are not a UK citizen please only spread awareness. False votes will nullify the petition and we will have to start over.

Part of the reason petitions like the original are so dangerous is because they rapidly become a gateway to further bigotry and legislation. They will set a precedent that will be difficult to overturn. Prevention is always, always more effective.

this is so so important to me and mine, and I'm asking you to Do Something so I'll respect your time and keep it brief

in the UK, if 100k sign a a government petition it will be brought to Parliament and debated. y'all know this country is suffering from some 80s-style bigotry right now, and this is one symptom: almost 200k fuckholes have come together to force the government to discuss whether it is 'appropriate' to tell children that queer people exist. this is a big symbolic victory for them. and i am burning with fury.

please, if you're from the UK, sign this counter-petition so they can at least see how much of a minority they are. simply put, the attempt to put these bastards in their place isn't gathering enough steam. there are barely 2000 more signatures now than there were this morning (27th January 2023), and that isn't enough. i refuse to let these people feel even a moment of victory or satisfaction. please help.

An actor who is openly okay with their character being shipped with other characters or who is openly okay with being shipped with their costars/friends is not automatically giving you permission to engage them in it or push it on them.

It is not an open invitation to send them explicit ship art or tag them in ship posts or ask them inappropriate questions at Cons. It is not an open invitation to try to dig out their sexuality or use their stance on shipping as "evidence" that they're X or not X.

"I am okay with people having creative perspectives on my relationships." =/= "I am okay with being forced to constantly see it, be asked about it or have it impact my life."

I've seen people bringing explicit art to conventions for the actors to sign and for some of them it has very clearly made them uncomfortable. Even if its not intended to be RPF you are still using their exact likeness in pornography.

Unless you know with 100% certainly that someone is okay with being actively engaged in something, don't try to push their involvement. Stop asking them invasive questions at panels. Stop bringing explicit art or fanfiction to meets.

In real terms, its like when your parents or friends insist you have a crush on someone or you must be secretly dating. It makes things uncomfortable, awkward, and after a point it gets frustrating and upsetting. There are countless examples of famous people who've had their lives impacted by people trying to force ship content on them, be it by destroying their real-life relationships or just by making them actively resent the characters, fans and/or ships.

Septiplier (Youtubers Mark Fischbach/Markiplier and Seán McLoughlin/Jacksepticeye) is a prime example of this, where fans were so determined to actively force them to engage with shipping that it began to negatively impact their friendship and real-life relationships to the extent that for a while they took a break on being publicly seen as interacting.

To summarize; Creating ship content and shipping characters or RPF is fine and valid, but unless an actor has explicitly said they are happy to be engaged in it or presented with it, you should do your due diligence to make sure you're not exposing them to content or trying to force that content to sway/impact/represent reality. (E.g; many straight actors are perfectly fine with their fans creating queer RPF, and it does not "provide proof" that they're actually not straight.)

the hell? i’d say that’s relevant info lmfao 🤣

OP did not mention, at all, anywhere in their post or posts prior that their actual reason for calling out the user was because they're a known, real-life pedophile and a current danger with an accessible, public platform. They only mentioned it after I told them callout posts based on the proship-vs-antiship argument result in an influx of harassment.

"Block this user because they're proship" =/= "block this user because they're a known, real-life pedophile and an active danger."

OP made a callout post based on one thing, then in response to me telling them its a well-intentioned but bad idea, changed their entire basis of the callout.

I have no issue with bringing active pedophiles to public attention. My sole issue and the current nature of the discussion is the fact that OP said one thing, got offended I opposed it, then said something completely, vastly different to defend their original action.

Does that clarify the issue?