Clueless

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I'm never going to forgive CBS. Never.

I don’t think I’m ever going to forgive CBS for taking this couple from me? How about any of you? I console myself with all the fanfics I can. Here’s one I read a while ago, but still love nonetheless! Check it out! Between the Lines by WatingDragons! Ernie read between the lines in season one and so do we! Thanks for reading! Spread the love and read on! Type your email… Subscribe

Like, you suddenly notice a string instrument in the background music and you haven’t seen a few of them in a while. And the more musically versed you are, the more you figure it out (like in a mystery novel if you happen to have in-depth knowledge about the current riddle) while the “normal” people can get fooled into twists.

The non-musically versed audience hears a new brass instrument and is like “Oh shit, the dude with the tenor horn is probably dead!”, but then he suddenly appears perfectly fine and one minute later they find the body of the Euphonium player.

Engagement is a metric, a set of numbers that YouTube or Instagram or Tiktok can use in order to measure which people on their platform reach the widest audience and get the most reaction. These creators get priority access as well as a paycheck. Why? Because giving one person $10 million per year is still cheaper than their advertising budgets used to be 15 years ago.

Engagement is also used by companies as a way to measure how effective their marketing strategy has been. Lots of likes and retweets means more people saw your post means more people know about your product or brand.

Fan works have always had an element of competition to them. We all want to be “the best” in some way. That kind of validation is wonderful. But I worry that some people (especially newcomers to fan creating) are focusing more on the numbers, the “engagement,” than on their own joy. To me, that seems like a path that leads almost directly to frustration and disappointment.

Why do the numbers matter? Why do we care if 5 people see it versus 500 or 5000? What do those numbers give us that we’re otherwise lacking? Why don’t we look somewhere else to find it?

Rating your talent or worth based on engagement is measuring with the wrong ruler. Engagement just tells you that people like your product (the ship or plot) or your brand (the fandom or genre). It tells you that you marketed effectively with your tags or by posting on social media. Engagement might even tell you that people think you’re a fun or interesting person.

On most standard platforms, the way to increase your engagement rate is to put money behind your content (think paid ads or boosted Facebook posts). But even that doesn’t necessarily guarantee engagement. I mean sure, it will increase your overall reach and impressions (rates that basically tell you how much the content has been seen and by how many people), and that will increase the likelihood of getting more engagement, but even money is no promise of genuine audience engagement.

Truly — I have regularly bent backward to get around saying “I don’t know” when asked why a certain metric performed a certain way. Because I don’t! I don’t know! Social media is a monster, audiences are inconsistent, and various external factors make it difficult to consider an algorithm necessarily “reliable.” (And these algorithms — in addition to audience demographics — are not the same across different platforms, meaning your content will perform differently on different platforms!)

Metrics? In my opinion? Do not always make sense.

And that’s in the world of marketing, which is a whole world removed from that of our fanworks world!

Metrics do not reflect your joy and passion. They do not reflect the appreciation and admiration of your fellow creators. And they certainly do not reflect the worth of you or your content.

And speaking as a “professional”? Sometimes I don’t know what they do reflect other than how we’ve strategically spent a client’s money.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: NCIS: Hawai'i Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lucy Tara/Kate Whistler Characters: Kate Whistler, Lucy Tara Additional Tags: Smut, 3 + 1, One Shot, POV Second Person Summary:

(my ko-fi, if you’re so inclined)

Oh my God. You’re in love with her. 

Alex shows up at Catco three hours after the fight where Supergirl went down. Cat’s nerves are fried. Normally on a day this bad, Kara would appear and offer her M&Ms before she got a chance to pour herself a drink. Even now, Kara a reporter and no longer her assistant, she always managed to arrive just before Cat stood up to head to her bar in the middle of the day.

She wasn’t here this afternoon, though, so by the time Alex gets there, Cat’s two drinks in, trying to hide the way her hands have started shaking.

“Agent Scully, finally,” Cat says. “Can we quote you for a story on Supergirl’s condition?”

“She’s fine,” Alex says, closing the door to Cat’s office behind her.

Cat doesn’t believe her. “Surely you don’t mind if I could hear that from the hero herself?”

“Cat. She’s fine.”

Except Kara fell out of the sky.

Cat has been pretending all day like the sight didn’t stop her heart dead in her chest. She’s been yelling at employees, demanding a source, demanding eyes on Supergirl before any other news outlet. She’s been making it seem like it’s about the story instead of the girl.

She can’t simply believe she’s fine.

“When can we expect her back in our skies?” Cat asks. She’s rearranging things on her desk like she’s looking for a document, but what she’s actually doing is avoiding Alex’s eyes. “How long do criminals only have to outwit the NCPD instead of Supergirl?”

“She told me to tell you her article will be finished by tomorrow,” Alex says. “Though she claims Snapper will throw it in the trash anyway.”

The papers Cat is holding flutter to the ground.

Of course she knows Kara is Supergirl. She’s known, of course she has known. It’s clear, even, that Kara knows she knows, but they’ve never addressed it. Not directly. And here Alex is, talking about Kara’s assignments. Talking about Snapper. Alex would never do this if Kara didn’t insist–which means Kara is okay, must be, okay enough to have pushed this plan on her sister.

Cat sets her palms flat on her desk, pays no attention to the papers scattered around her feet.

“Good,” she says. “I’m glad to hear that.”

She still hasn’t looked at Alex, but something must cross Cat’s face, because the other woman lets out a harsh breath.

“Oh my God,” Alex says. “You’re in love with her.”

Cat flinches.

On any other day, she’d have a better poker face. But she flinches, and her fingernails scrape against her desk, and she’s sure that’s all Alex needs to know.

“She’s probably right about Snapper,” Cat says like Alex never said anything. “But someday she’ll write something he’s actually willing to publish, I promise.”

“Tell your staff you’re leaving for the day,” Alex says.

Cat finally looks at her. “Excuse me?”

“You’re coming to the DEO,” Alex says. “You and Kara need to talk.”

“About what?”

Alex levels her with a look like she’s an idiot. 

-file it into my brain, and go about my day.

'Dealing with Fandom' pt 2

Chapters: 6/? Fandom: NCIS: Hawai'i Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lucy Tara/Kate Whistler Additional Tags: Smut, Angst, Humor, 1x17, 2x01, Established Relationship, Jealousy, angsty smut, 1x07, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Tennant’s slow rise into becoming a deity Summary:

Collection of (mostly) unrelated one shots.

Tags for each chapter in the chapter’s summary.

1: One last time (had she known). 1x17. Rated M. 2: The other one in which someone else is in Ernie’s chair. 2x01. Rated G. 3: Palpitations. Post 1x22. Pre-2x01. Rated T to be safe. 4: Summer. Post 1x22. Rated G. 5: You’re embarrassed by me. rated G. 6: The Russo factor. Rated T.