Artsy

my thoughts on it were put under a reblog of someone ELSE’S thoughts but also no one’s gonna dig through something buried beneath Other Things. that being said. goddamnit why would you come into our ecosystem yknow. okay I understand being like “don’t put it on the discord.” I actively endorse making a DNI tag. but you can’t create characters that are public domain without accepting that they are out of your hands.

i understand that this is for maddy’s comfort (boy does it feel strange to write my name that way) but she could very easily do a DNI tag. I understand even pyro wanting his spaces ship-free for her good!!! the fact that they spoke about it is the sign of a healthy relationship.

“i have my little birds in every forest” is basically telling us there is no space for that content.

boundaries ≠ rules. apologies for lack of credit, but someone used an analogy (paraphrasing here, bear with me): “if you don’t want to be hugged, you set the boundary of people not hugging you. you cannot ban hugging even if you don’t see it because that is a rule.”

we know ccs aren’t perfect lil princesses but also What The Fuck man. if anyone is feeling conflicted you need to know that this is your space first and foremost and your creative autonomy should take precedence over witch hunts and hatred. I will be very pleased if pyro alters his boundaries (abolish did a great job with going back actually!) and a DNI tag will fix all of this. that is all <3

my blog is a safe space. if your opinion differs from mine and you do not know me, leave. scroll away. enjoy sterilization. if we know each other and you disagree, let’s chat! or, if you decide it’s not worth it, simply block certain tags.

out of spite I will be maintagging this. a, he deserves to see it if he’s poking around in spaces he shouldn’t. b, people who have pyro general blocked deserve to be shielded.

It is okay to have boundaries. In fact, it's good to be able to set boundaries. However.

Creators have power. Doesn't matter how big or small their community is, they have power. They need to remember to be very careful to never say anything that fans could easily interpret to mean "go make sure people don't do this". And should they accidentally say something of that nature, they need to address it real damn quick.

Setting boundaries is fine, but watchdogs/spies and censorship do not belong in fandom.

I don't give a shit how uncomfortable something makes you. You need to recognize that, short of outright illegal/disallowed content (ie blatant porn on websites that do not allow porn), you don't get to dictate what can and cannot be posted. You can set out what you don't want to see so people know not to tag you in it, but you do not have the right to tell people in fandom spaces what they can and cannot post (obviously this isn't referring to shit like death threats).

I'm asexual and I don't like seeing people be horny on my dash. But I don't hop in their DMs and go "hey this post made me uncomfortable, can you take it down." No, I block it and move on because that's what you do on the Internet.

I personally find it uncomfortable that people write about/depict rape, but I also understand that censorship will always disproportionately harm minorities, and that some people write about topics like that in order to work through things. But again, I don't harass anyone who writes about that, because they've never tagged me in it or done anything to make sure that I specifically saw it. I block what I need to and if I've missed something, that's on me.

What I'm saying is that it's fine that Maddy is no longer comfortable with her or Jack's characters being shipped with characters other than each other. But when it comes to the content that those two see, that's up to them. They are the ones who choose what they do and do not see. It's perfectly fine that they no longer want to see shipping content of themselves with other creators, but as far as I'm concerned, that means "don't force us to see content that we do not wish to see".

people should be free to write, draw, create, etc whatever they want. and if the ccs find it and don't like it, they can block, and move on. just like if I see a fic on ao3 that I don't like while browsing a ship tag, I ignore it. If I see more by the same author, I block the author and keep scrolling.

bottom line is: ccs can't control you, so do whatever you want. but if you are knowingly breaking their boundaries, be prepared to face the consequences. (getting blocked/banned from their spaces) And if someone is harassing you for the type of art you make, report them, block them, maybe tell your friends who make the same kinds of things to be wary of them, and keep doing what you love.

your local Tumblr vampire,

Yes everyone is entitled to change what they are comfortable with and discover discomforts etc. But you've got to be realistic about the internet or everyone gets hurt. And right now everyone is getting hurt.

I'd say especially if they come from an RPF fandom there are going to be misunderstandings, because RPF fandoms have existed for decades and the main thing with them is a "we keep to our spaces and you keep to yours", with seperate tags etc. And those are some of the people likely to be most understanding of the fact a creator might be uncomfortable! And most uncomfortable themselves!

(Inspired by recent events but tbh applies much more generally than that)

Also not having a DNI tag (or not saying where you do look) means... Well sure you have 'boundaries' (what they have is a very real thing, but boundaries is not the correct term. Rules, perhaps). But have you ever considered that the fan creators might too? That even if something is perfectly platonic, PG, and canon-aligned the maker might still not want to be perceived?

just gonna comment about the last paragraph because HUGE on that: how are you supposed to know that any art of two characters interacting is supposed to be shipping or not?

most popular ships in fandom come from media that has the characters interacting in ways that at NO POINT were intended to be romantic (see, most shonen mangas, for example); but an audience interprets it as queer subtext

there's no code or rule for what consists of shipping art or not. like sure, clearly sexual or romantic gestures can be counted as shipping art, but what about the characters sat next to each other gazing at the sunset? one could argue it's just an artistic depiction of a canon moment! but maybe the person made the art with shipping in mind, but someone else might see it and accused them of making shipping art simply because it's a "typically romantic scene"

or there's situations like with VSMP, in which there's characters that have relationships that very much might be interpreted as shipping, EVEN when they could also see as simply an attacker with their victim (see, bloodletting)

Yes, please moderate spaces that directly affect you if it makes you or someone close to you uncomfortable! YouTube comments, stuff you're tagged in, Twitch chats, whatever. That's good.

Don't have your "little birds in the forest" or whatever. That's not good. Fandom is not for appealing to the creator. I'm not making Percy Jackson fanfiction so Rick Riordan will have me in his will. Fandom is for appealing to yourself. Fandom is not for creators.

I enjoy Pyroscythe's content. I'm happy they're in a relationship. I'm happy they're setting boundaries.

Boundaries are for spaces you should directly moderate. Boundaries are not for spaces that you can't. Creators are guests in fandom. You can block people yourself. Tumblr and AO3 and all those other sites are not FOR creators. Be on there if you'd like, but you WILL see something that you won't be entirely comfortable with, and you can't police someone for that.

Anyway. We cool? Cool. Cool, cool. The coolest.

ok, i went and found pyro's statement from discord and i have concerns.

first, we're starting right off the bat we have proof that what people were worried about is correct: people are already finding fans to out to pyro. so you are going to have this fandom become a panopticon where keeping track of your fellow fans to turn them in is normal. and i would hope i don't have to explain why this is a bad thing.

second, he didn't back down on the wording at all. even if he doesn't mean to cause harassment, that's exactly what's going to happen (see above). fans are basically being rewarded for turning other fans in and the threats that he made which sparked harassment already still stand.

the whole issue is that instead of taking a reasonable stance on the issue that people like cleo have done, he's creating an environment that sews distrust among fans. because of not understanding what a boundary is. it is absolutely more than fair to block people you come across who are making you uncomfortable. it's fine to ask people not to do something with the understanding that if they do, you'll block them.

After almost a decade on this site, I found another Tumblr user in the wild. I stopped to tie my shoe with rainbow laces this morning outside the silversmith at Colonial Williamsburg, and I heard it.

“I like your shoelaces.”

Oh. Oh no.

I responded the only way I could. “Thanks.” And then I reluctantly added, “I stole them from the president…and if that makes sense to you, I’m very sorry.”

The poor man, in full Colonial dress, stared at me for a long moment. And then burst into laughter. And said, “I haven’t thought about that in YEARS and this has never happened to me before.”

Yeah. Me neither. Not until today.