January 1st 1993 Be Like

January 1st 1993 be like

You know what. Fuck this. Fuck you. *unCzechs your Slovakia*

purge of 2002? of 2012? what ARE those?

Oh, how quickly the past is forgotten. 

They are part of the reason A03 is a thing now. Not the whole reason, but part of it. 

The Great Purges of 2002 and 2012 are when ff.net got a wild hair up their ass about THINK OF THE CHILDREN and nuked any fic posted on there that was explicit. Thousands upon thousands of nc-17 smutfics were lost.

It’s what led to the creation of alternate hosting sites for smutty fic…AdultFanfiction was the one I went to…but thousands of fics would never be recovered. 

Some reputable links to help Ukrainian military & civilians

- https://savelife.in.ua/en/

Charity fund Come Back Alive that supports soldiers on front lines and after service.

- https://voices.org.ua/en/

Charitable Foundation Voices of Children, mostly with focus on mental health and development of children in Lughansk and Donetsk region.

- https://www.peoplesproject.com/en/

Ukraine’s military and civil crowdfunding.

You can also donate directly to Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, for logistical or medical support. More info here: https://mil.gov.ua/en/donate.html

Please do not ignore individual calls for aid and crowdfunding too! Whether they come in form of patreon links, emergency commissions, etc. I’d say setting up a patreon account to support creators and people in need would be the surest way to help, since things like PayPal, Ko-Fi, CashApp etc do not work in Ukraine (although some people still use them through friends or relatives in different countries). Not all circumstances are dire enough to need organizational help, but even 10$ can really help an individual person who had to evacuate from their town, relocate from a damaged building, etc.

Last but not least: CHECK YOUR INFO SOURCES!! Russia has been on disinformation pipeline since last week, and sowing panic in Ukraine and around the world is one of the worst things to do right now. Like, for real, stop with the WW3 bullshit. The conflict as it is, while obviously hard for Ukraine, is fairly localized and with your help it can very much stay that way.

I think a surprising amount of writers don’t realize that tragedies are supposed to be cathartic. They’re intended to result in a purging of emotion, a luxurious cry; the sorrow caused by a great tragedy is akin to fear caused by a good horror movie – it’s a “safe” sorrow, one that is actually satisfying to the audience. It can still be beautiful! It’s isn’t supposed to just be salting the earth so nothing can grow.

But that’s how you get grimdark: writers who don’t realize that they’re supposed to be doing something with the audience instead of to the audience.

You keep promising

the sun the sky and all of the stars

to me

I’ll bring you the moonshine

you say

But I don’t want them

I just want this moment, nothing else

Promise me this moment

will always be ours

Promise me you’ll try to make it last

even if we both know it can’t

Promise me this memory

Promise me it will always be mine

To cherish

To love

To live

Promise me a world where I don’t have to

Print words onto my skin

Force them in

Just for them to stay

To not be forgotten

Promise me a world where these whispers

won’t ever die down

Where I don’t have to have your words

written on me in black

Just to remember in this life

We were once

Everything.

I feel like there’s needs to be, like, handbook for authors who post on Ao3 for effective metatext.

By metatext I mean like tagging, summary, and authors notes (especially initial authors notes at the beginning of a fic). The means by which we communicate to our readers what they’re getting into.

Because we kind of all have to learn it by osmosis and there are conventions but nobody’s really taught them at the start, so there’s inconsistencies and misunderstandings or people just not knowing things through no fault of their own.

This ends up breeding frustration and confusion and in the worst cases resentment, hurt, and aggression.

I’m severely tempted to make such a handbook and get it circulating.

I think it would do fandom a lot of good.