what an ordeal...

Platonic "friendship" relationships have none of these rituals or rules, which leaves me in a permanent state of "are we friends?" "how long have we been friends" and "how can I escape this friendship I'm no longer interested in."

Seriously, there being no socially recognized acceptable way to "break up" in a friendship is deeply frustrating and distressing, and causes me to remain in relationships I am trying to escape while trying to find a socially acceptable way to do so.

Without a method of recognizing a friendship officially, or dissolving it, I'm left in a nightmare half-state where I'm trying to ghost someone as politely as possible until they get the message. There should be a better way!

I specifically meant that it should be normalized to have conversations about what you're comfortable with in a platonic relationship.

Like with romantic relationships there's usually a conversation about whether you're in a relationship or not. That should apply to platonic relationships as well. I'm tired of being in situations where I'm considered someone's friend who i barely know. Because then i have to "aqcuintance-zone" them and i look like the bad guy when in reality i never consented to being in a platonic relationship with you.

Like I need people to understand the mental image here of a multimillionaire internet creator personally overseeing DVD production in his own house like he’s running an underground bootleg operation out of a basement in 2007.

It’s weirdly charming because there’s something very “old internet” about it, this energy of “I made a thing, and now I will physically hand it to people myself like an artisan at a craft fair.”

The man really said: “The future of cinema is me standing next to a humming disc burner at 2am”

2. Your creativity matters and so does your ability to share it

3. Serial harassers in fandom spaces are beginning to express discomfort that sites like AO3 completely strip their ability to do anything about fic they don't like, sometimes going as far as leaving entire fandoms due to the influx of "problematic fiction without a chance for consequences to the author". Posting your fanworks to AO3 actively contributes to making harassers feel unsafe and powerless in fandom

4. Militant anti-fanfic content creators also cannot do anything about fic posted to AO3

5. You can post anonymously to AO3, with the ability to de-anonymize at any time

"I'm really sorry that lockdown and the ongoing pandemic interrupted pivotal educational and social/emotional development moments for you. You have an uphill battle towards adjusting to a lot of community based efforts because you experienced a mass trauma during an incredibly important time in your life where you should have physically been around your peers learning to engage in shared community. There is no "but" here, I'm genuinely really sorry. Something many of us consider key points in our interpersonal growth as youths was taken from you, not without reason but without care for its impact on you. I hope you know we are eternally allies in our struggles and if that is something you struggle to know I hope you can learn it someday."

Because so many of the angriest, most disenfranchised people I see on this website are under 24 and I often try to put younger people's behavior in the context of where they might have been 2020. I've seen the impact on my siblings and their peers+friends first hand, all ages 18-24. We've talked about how its impacted them, the isolation, the attachment to the internet, the anxieties and phobias and fears it developed in them due to the pandemic, the political unrest, and the responses to both that we've seen since. I know they're not the only ones and I know how much being marginalized also influences that impact too.