Nicola:)

“All Tumblr ever does is write oneshots now” Tell the writers that you’d love to see them write longer things.

“Nobody updates their fics anymore” Tell the writers you love the fic and want to see more of it.

The reason their reports were honoured was not because the content they reported had any actual "pedophilic content" (The RPF fic did not have pedophilia), but because sexual intimacy 'below the neck' is banned in Chinese platforms, and LGBTQ content regardless of rating has been the target of increasingly strict state censorship for years. It was never about pedophilia like Tiffany G claims it is. I think a lot of people (including myself) think that censoring truly morally reprehensible content is a good thing, but from my experience with state censorship it always starts out that way, with things that we generally agree is abhorrent but then it never stops there. As of now, sexually intimate scenes are no longer allowed to be portrayed in stories, especially in LGBTQ centered stories, even though it was possible just a few years ago.

EDIT: Clarifying because I phrased the above line wrong and people on the comments think this means I'm pro censorship. What I meant was that there are people who may think that censoring morally reprehensible content like pedophilia is a good thing and I WAS one of them, but because of my experience with state censorship, I've come to realize that it doesn't stop there and will eventually spread to other "formerly acceptable" content and people should realize that fiction is not reality when deeming whether content is moral or not. My english is really not that good yet 😂 Thanks for helping me compose this @ravijahn

AO3 was able to exist as a gray area in Chinese internet for so long because of its niche existence. In the uncertain world within the 'Great Firewall', things like this can usually survive longer as long as it stays in its little niche corner, that's why minding your own business and being meticulous about tagging your content is such an important concept in Chinese fandom. It was generally agreed upon that no matter how bad things get in fandom disagreements, reporting content should never even be an option, because drawing mainstream attention is a surefire way to kill a free creative space within the firewall. Xiao Zhan's fans disrespected that and ruined everything for everyone, and since then rules like "No Xiao Zhan fans allowed" are common to see within Chinese online spaces.

This issue has made its way to weibo and plenty Chinese fans are pissed at that Tiffany person. Just look up 'Tiffany G' on weibo and read what people are saying. Although I have seen some genuinly hurtful and racist takes about Tiffany on international social media, I would also like to say that reducing the criticism against her as nothing more than 'white people being racist' isn't fair either because Chinese fans are just as worried and angry about this. I hope people can fight for this without unfairly misrepresenting Chinese fans, who were the biggest victims of the AO3 ban in China. It was the last bastion of creative freedom and uncensored LGBTQ content within the firewall and to have it taken away really brought so much pain to a lot of people. Tiffany G's views do NOT represent Chinese fans, and even though some people are painting her as possible representation for non-white fans on the OTW board, the reality is that her views are the exact opposite of what Chinese fans want.

Here's an excellent twitter post that explains this much better than I can. Please give it a read and share!

Fanfic detractors love to say it's not real writing, but even putting aside the 101 ways that's total bullshit, the sheer act of writing takes time. At my fastest, I could write maximum 1200 words an hour; these days, it's closer to 500. Yet, you have so many writers churning out fic after fic, ranging from bite-sized bits to epic-length monstrosities. That's hours and hours of our lives. I set aside 2–3 hours a day for writing, and you can bet those add up fast.

So here you have these people creating scores of content for the hell of it, putting it up for free, and expecting damn near nothing in return. There are outliers, of course, but the general sentiment I've seen is that we don't want money, and we don't demand comments, though we appreciate the everloving shit out of them. At the core of it, writing fic is a labour of love, and fandom is a gift economy.

You know what's not a gift? Being a little shit in the comment/ask boxes of your local fandom writers.

It's fine, absolutely a-okay, spectacularly acceptable to not like or even viscerally hate any given character, trope, ship, or even specific fic. But listen, that's a you problem—and it doesn't have to be problem at all if you just click that pretty X and exit the story posthaste. The author won't even know you'd been there, and you're free to go wash out the taste of whatever fuckery made you nope out. If you're inclined toward writing yourself, you can even give the tried-and-true art of writing out of spite a go.

But, for the love of god, don't hop into the comment box and list all the ways in which the author could've made the story the one you wanted.

It's not your story. It's also clearly not for you. The writer wrote the story they wanted the way they wanted it. Leave it the fuck alone.

Some writers may ask for concrit; feel free to give it, provided you've nailed the constructive part of constructive criticism.

But their writing has typos and grammar errors: Shit happens, and we're not robots. Ignore it, or if you can't stand it, stop reading.

But it'd have been better if it was another ship/character/direction: That's your opinion, which will remain valid for only as long as it stays solely in your head. Again, stop reading. Exit quietly.

But the content is problematic: My brother in Christ, it was meant to be. We're not all pearl-clutching puritans. Stop reading things that upset you, especially if they're tagged!

Harassing authors won't get you the content you want. Nor, for that matter, will politely pestering them make them see the holy light of whatever crusade you're on. Most you'll manage is break the confidence of a fledgling writer or drive someone vulnerable out of fandom. And if that's your endgame, you're the kind of trash a handful of words from voxofthevoid.tungle.com can't change, so fuck you anyway.

Creativity begets more creativity. In every fandom I've written for, I started writing because, after a point, reading wasn't enough. I have specific tastes that don't always align with broader fandom tastes—for instance, I like out-and-proud sadists and writing my favs as tops/doms, whereas the predominant trends seem to favor the opposite. I also like very specific kinds of fuckery with my fluff, which are often hard to find. All that's fine. I have MS Word and the will to use it.

Granted, writing fic deliberately tailored to my tastes isn't the same as reading fic that's coincidentally tailored to my tastes, but that's fine too. I can be immeasurably grateful to the wonderful folks whose writing does strike a chord in me while also endeavouring to one day make someone say, "Damn, voxofthevoid, this is exactly the story I needed." That's what I want to give to fandom.

Others are free to think, "Yikes, voxofthevoid, you're fucked in the head," and be on their merry way; just don't make it my problem.

And if you, personally, don't have the time or inclination to be the porn fic you want to see in the world, there are other ways to encourage the kind of content you want to see. Participate in fandom exchanges. Seek out writers that take prompts or requests. Send positive encouragement (not rude demands) to the writers whose work you enjoy.

Don't throw a tantrum in the comment/ask box. It helps no one. It pisses off a lot of people. Nobody benefits.

Sincerely,

hmm, lets see!

first of all, none of you fucking care to reblog our work. we are all aware of how tumblr's algorithm is absolute trash. writers have been BEGGING for readers reblog their works bc it's the only way our works can be seen and in turn, we receive the fruits of our labor via followers and exposure. but no, lets make MORE THAN HALF of the likes to reblog ratios consist of fucking LIKES. on top of that, we don't we shit on writers for wanting the absolute BARE MINIMUM aka a REBLOG bc well, they're not entitled to it aren't they? while writers aren't necessarily entitled to notes, answer this; do you work for free? do you bust your ass doing something knowing that there will be no pay off what so ever? that's what i thought.

secondly, you treat us like shit. you expect us to spit out content like we're a machine and when we don't get to it on time bc we have - idk - LIVES, you send the shittiest asks demanding for more content that you aren't even paying for. do you think people are gonna neglect their real life responsibilities to write for YOU and for FREE? absolutely not. on top of that, when we start writing for ourselves and our own spaces, we get push back. yea, not an effective way to encourage your favorite fic writers to give you more content to consume.

and lastly, YOU STEAL FROM US. each and every fic that a writer puts out has taken hours, days, weeks, or even months to write. that's lots of hard work and time invested into one single piece for you. free of charge. people put their fucking hearts into their work. and what do you do in return? disrespect them in one of the most hurtful ways possible.

people who like something and leave it on liked without caring to rb it. rbing takes more time than liking a fic, i get that, but if youre a desktop user you can just press 'E'. the rb button turns blue, you take your pointer there, and then you click on it. thats all you need to do

people who take content creators for granted: who are demanding and disrespectful and overall douchebags

people who steal: people who plagiarise authors' works for inane reasons and post them as their own.