it's a good doomsday

I put together a relatively short survey (about two dozen questions, mostly multiple choice, all optional) to get some data on what fic lengths and completion statuses readers on AO3 prefer or avoid. If I get enough answers to have a good sample size, it should give us some insight into how people search and read on the archive.

If you find this interesting, feel free to share it with AO3 users elsewhere or post it to other platforms. I'd like to get a good crossection of readers that isn't biased by platform, if at all possible.

The survey is just for fun/curiosity, and isn't associated with any university, company, or other entity. It's just me asking you this stuff here :)

TLDR: In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire job was to listen to volunteers. Most of the people they fired were union organizers. Wikipedia’s editors are now threatening to strike in solidarity. The Foundation is sitting on $296 million in reserves and a freshly profitable AI revenue stream. This is a confrontation with global implications.

"You hold more leverage than a cancellation could ever give you, and it works in the opposite direction. A donation that disappears is invisible. It shows up as one anonymous line in a spreadsheet, gets blamed on the economy or a bad fundraising email, and teaches the institution nothing.

"A donor who speaks up is much harder to wave off, because donors are handed a door that the Foundation’s own staff and volunteers aren’t. You should walk through that door instead of slipping out the back.

"In practice, that means writing to the Board of Trustees, whose job is to hold leadership to account, and telling them in your own words that your support has always been a matter of trust, and that trust depends on how an institution treats the people who build it.

-bottom growth varies widely. I've known guys who get barely any growth and I've known guys who end up with huge t-dicks (lucky bastards 🙄) it really just depends

-it feels weird at first, but it's not particularly painful. i would get mild pain occasionally when mine first started to grow but I've known a lot of guys who haven't had any pain whatsoever. it's really nothing worth panicking over, relax.

-it is extremely fucking sensitive when it first starts to grow. like EXTREMELY sensitive. i had to switch from boxer briefs to boxer shorts because the chafing was too annoying

-you are going to end up with a foreskin if you get any growth at all and you will have to learn to clean it. thankfully it's very easy to do.

-to put it bluntly, your junk will start to smell like balls. I've seen a lot of guys panic over this. it's normal, i promise you're fine

-atrophy is a bitch but there are things you can do to fix it. I've never tried any of them because i wasn't really big on bottoming to begin with, but I've talked to guys who have had success with it. just ask your doctor.

-while I've known a lot of people who have gotten dried out by T, i haven't really noticed any change myself so ymmv

I put it off because i wasnt using that hole anyway so yayyy who cares and now i suspect that it is the cause of some of the urinary issues I've been having (an incredibly stubborn uti and some retention) because it can effect your urethra and bladder, not just your front hole.

i was trying to figure out the atrophy and chronic pain for awhile, and wasn't able to make much progress because my doctor didn't know that much about atrophy and didn't give me any instruction beyond using the estrogen cream weekly before bed

what does chronic pain from atrophy look like? everyone is different, but for me it was chronic pelvic pain and cramping (it feels like bad menstrual cramping), especially after sex/orgasm

a few tips

you'll likely get prescribed estrogen cream with a plastic applicator to use 1-2x a week before bed — the applicator can be really uncomfortable, just using your finger or putting it on the tip of an (insertable) toy is fine, as long as you get it in there

if you're like me and really put off seeking treatment for atrophy until it was really bad — you can use it more often. my pelvic health therapist had me use it daily for two weeks when i started treatment

atrophy isn't just internal, it also affects some of the external tissues as well, making the tissues more sensitive, dry, and sometimes even painful. if this is the case for you, make sure you also use some of the e cream externally! my pelvic health therapist told me to do 1g internally, 1g externally, focusing on the areas that are more sensitive (for me that was around my urethra)

"After they overheard that ICE was at the courthouse to arrest someone, they improperly accessed court databases to determine who was not born in the United States," a DOJ detention filing says. "They then snuck every suspected illegal alien who was at the courthouse out a back door, where ICE, who was waiting in the parking lot for their target to leave the building, could not see them."

In just the past two months, Sony has:

Said the PS6 will be more than $1000 at launch

Announced the end of all physical PS game releases

While simultaneously announcing the end of two of their console game stores — ensuring multiple games will die forever

Declared that they are wholly dedicated to (A) leveraging A.I. when making games and (B) creating live-service games above all other game types

Announced that if you bought any movies through their PlayStation Store, over 550 of them will soon be deleted from all users' libraries — with no restitution offered of any kind

Gamers, it is time — to paraphrase Robert Vann — to turn Sony's picture to the wall. Any one of these insults would be bad, and taken alone? Maybe it could be swallowed. But this is an ongoing campaign of disdain towards customers, with each declaration worse than the last.

Spin the wheel again. That’s who’s trying to protect you.

(If you have zero idea about a name you got, spin until you see someone you recognize.)