#fandom guidelines

Dont’ Like, Don’t Read

or DL; DR

You are responsible for curating your own online experience.

If something upsets you, makes you angry or queasy or triggers you, stop reading/looking at it. Avoid things that might make you feel that way.

Learn to use the Sort and Filter function on AO3, especially the Exclude tools.

On social media, block and mute accounts / tags / words when necessary.

If you hated something, you don’t need to tell that to the creator or start pointing fingers at them publicly.

The Back button is free. Use it.

Addendum:

Yes, for this to work, creators need to tag their works accordingly, so that people know what sort of content they are about to engage with and can nope out if necessary.

I will probably make another PSA about the importance of proper tagging later.

Ship And Let Ship

or SALS

You are allowed to ship whatever you want.

Everyone else is also allowed to ship whatever they want.

You are entitled to dislike or even hate a ship. If you want to do this online, in public, don’t use the ship tags for hate posts.

If you see someone posting about a ship they like and you don’t, there is no need for you to start arguing with them in their replies / comments / QRTs / reblogs. Don’t throw your hate in their face.

Do not harass fan creators or fans for shipping something you disapprove.

All of this also applies to liking / disliking an individual character.

Addendum:

”I agree with this, except when…”

No, then you are NOT agreeing with this.

Let me make this VERY clear. There are NO exceptions. None.

You don’t EVER harass real people over pixels.

If you disagree with this, kindly block and move on.

Your Kink Is Not My Kink

or YKINMK / YKINMKATO

The longer version is ”Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That’s Okay”.

People have different tastes. Not everything is for everybody.

Even if you don’t like a specific kink, other people are still allowed to use it in their creations.

You are entitled to dislike kinky content and think that it’s ”weird”.

Don’t kink shame or judge people based on their kinks.

This goes both ways: your kink is not someone else’s kink, so don’t push it onto those who are not into it.

Be Kind

or Don’t Be An Asshole

Focus on the things you like instead of the things you hate.

Create and unite instead of destroying and dividing.

Don’t harass real people over fictional things.

Stop stirring up petty drama just to get some attention on social media.

Stop trying to ”win”. Fandom is not a competition.

yeaahhh i get that, and it’s totally cool dude, it’s a valid thing to think about!

i know a few people within the community that don’t really like it either, which is why we’ve asked nsfw stuff to get tagged accordingly.

i think some people do it here because no one from smosh really comes on here, but apparently people on twitter (i think???) do it too and MUCH more publically. 

people are just apparently desensitized to how some people can be uncomfortable with fans thirsting after them. it’s mostly because like,,, if you’re thirsting after a big name actor, sure, they’re probably not going to interact with that, but with smaller creators, they’re DEFINITELY going to see it. 

personally, i think that if you’re doing it somewhere private, like in messages with friends, discord chats, private or read more posts, and not placing it anywhere where a casual viewer or creator themselves can see it like putting it in the main tags or fucking @ / ing them (which like, if you @ a creator in your thirst posts, wtf is wrong with you????), then it’s okay. you can find people attractive! you can have a little celebrity crush, as a treat! 

just, when it comes to real life people, especially smaller creators, please keep your open thirsting to a minimum. and please PLEASE do not main tag your thirst or nsfw posts. NOT MAIN TAGGING ALSO GOES FOR SHIPPING!!!! don’t tag #[person name] if you’re ship tagging! and if you’re worried about posting something a little more racy, the read more feature and base 64 are you best friend :)

she ra said gay rights!

every character has two hands (perhaps the feet are counted if you ship an ot3)

have some human decency please

This is me, seeing nonsense the second I open up tumblr. When will these people learn that, what OTHER people enjoy, is none of their fucking business???

This particular person say one thing honestly tho, "Yea you enjoy this sort of thing means you are a terrible person that actually enjoy/do this sort of thing in reality."

How I wish the level of confidence isn't misplaced. Sigh.

If anyone wants to be a moral judge or base absolutely everything on THEIR OWN moral views, go pack your bag and find a time machine. Go back to the bloody medieval times or something when there was nothing in the world but "morals".

Here I thought, going into a character tag to spill hate is bad enough, some people really take it one step further.

This post I saw says something like "I am a lesbian. I have so much hate for this male character. I makes me love my girlfriend even more."

I get it. If you are only interested in ladies, you are only interested in ladies. But hate for dudes? Or the other way round for whatever gender equivalent the world uses these days.

These people probably don't realise things and this entire world don't exist requiring their personal approval. Despite companies tell you so, because you wouldn't give them your money if you don't favour their product, or whatever rubbish they are selling you.

But this isn't reality/true.

Stop posting hate under character tag for people who LOVE the character. The reason for you to be in a character tag should be that you like/love/enjoy/resonate with/curious about the character. Not because you HATE it.

@TheHPAlliance @andrewslack HPA Launches Positive Fandom Project. Help make the internet a better place!

The internet can be a wonderful place to reside. The communities are engaging, the content inspiring and the weather is always perfect. However, it can also be a terrible pit of despair and nasty comments. We don’t always treat our fellow internet citizens with the respect they deserve and when it comes to fandom, this can be especially heartbreaking. The Harry Potter Alliance wants to do its…

nerdmeister said: Yeah, hi. I couldn’t agree more. Look, I know, I’m old, I’m square. But please, out of common courtesy to we Fanterns who are too young or too old, put it under the cut.

Word from the Boss--Jim Krieg, one of the GLTAS Producers! As seen in Stormraven24's post.(including input from others)

I'm old fashioned and rather OC. so are others~ then there are kids who simply want to see great GLTAS fanart.  Let's make it safe and simple for everyone.

General categories by intensity:

Nudity: almost no sexual content. Sexual level of Figure drawings in art school~

NSFW: Nudes portrayed to be sexy and whatever, nude/semi-nude pinups, penis (not erect), vagina (not wet or red), nipples/bareboobs, shinny butts~ 

Smut / Porn: (they are the same thing) Including list on NSFW, titillating images(even the suggestive), sexual intercourse, penetration, masturbation, includes cumm, abominations

Please Tag accordingly and put under Read More cut(specially smut/porn since not all people have working Tumblr Savior). Use 1,2, or all 4 of those words in your tag depending on the intensity of sexual content in your post. We don't want people to poke their eyes out just because you tagged it only as NSFW when it's actually PORN. If it's Smut/Porn, then you might as well tag it as NSFW also. 

Optional tags: Fetish, BDSM, Kink, Homo, whatever specific thing your stuff would be categorized as.