#fandom tools

You know that feeling when you look at a tag on AO3 and think: "Nothing is permanent. Losing a digital work is the same as if it had never existed. How can I preserve these works for future generations?"

Alternatively, you know when you find yourself browsing a tag and think: "I might as well download all of these works now—it will save me time because I'm going to end up reading every single one."

Have I got a tool for you! Behold, the AO3 tag downloader browser extension, hot and fresh in tasty Firefox and Chrome flavours. One easy click and it will begin downloading all the works for whatever tag you are currently browsing, in whatever format you prefer.

Note: while the downloader attempts to straddle the line of "don't make me wait unnecessarily" and "don't trigger AO3's 'please stop it hurts' reaction", the tool will let you know when AO3 is enforcing a backoff period before downloading can continue. Just leave the page open and allow it to do its thing.

Ah, I just heard about this from @ehyde as well. What a fantastic tool!

Here is the post from the coder @nianeyna. And HERE is the actual program. (If you use/appreciate this, and are able, I see that the programmer has a ko-fi)

A lot of the appeal of hosting a rec blog with other people is sharing the work. I don’t have to spend more than five to ten minutes a week writing anything up, and I automated the formatting, so that’s another five to ten minutes.

But it occurred to me that I could just, like, fill out a single-user version of the google form and just publish it when I got enough responses, or once a month, or something else. And if I filled it out at the same time I wrote a comment, I wouldn’t really have to spend much time thinking about what to write.

So, I modified the google docs I created for @aeor-is-for-reccing​ to be suitable for one person (taking out the themes randomizer, removing some of the duplication work, and adding a pairing field), and I thought I’d share it with everyone else. You can see the original explanation here (or just go to aeor is for reccing, you can see it).

Short version remains: google form -> google sheet -> mail merge to now-html format -> copy and paste to tumblr

I can’t tell y’all how incredibly grateful I am this website exists. This website is for creating epubs of fanfic that hasn’t been hosted on a fanfic database site like FFnet or AO3 (where you can quickly & easily pluck their epubs for download). This is extremely relevant for me because AO3 didn’t even exist when Supernatural started, and instead at the time many fans used Livejournal, where they posted chapter updates as blog posts with a link to fic’s masterpost containing all the links to the fic as they wrote. 

So for 3 whole years, Sam&Dean and Sam/Dean fic was huge on Livejournal, with many LJ comms & bangs so successful that they’re still thriving today. But 3 years is also enough time for many incredible authors to come & go & never x-post, thereby making it pretty difficult to download those fics (bc even copying & pasting was a disaster : ‘select all’ included an LJ blog’s sidebar content, links, etc. iirc).

Enter squee!Book.net. Lifesaver! ❤️️❤️️❤️️

here's a brief lineup of the tools i use for writing, gif-making, video edits, vod downloads, and the works!

Downloads (all web-based applications):

Instagram stories/reels: https://www.storysaver.net/

Twitch clips/vods: https://clipr.xyz/

Twitter GIFs and videos: https://twittervideodownloader.com/

YouTube videos/shorts/clips: https://www.kapwing.com/home

The Arts (require installing software unless otherwise specified):

GIF making, including screen-recording and editing downloaded GIFs: https://www.screentogif.com/

Editing from YouTube videos/shorts/clips: https://www.kapwing.com/home (web-based)

Editing downloaded videos/making montages/highlight reels/fancier videos: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve (requires a moderately good computer)

Word processor: https://gottcode.wordpress.com/category/open-source/focuswriter/

Hosting and Sharing (all web-based applications):

Filesharing for files <100MB: https://filegarden.com

Filesharing for videos: https://streamable.com/ (temporary storage only)

Filesharing for videos: https://www.youtube.com/

Filesharing for files <25MB: Discord (this functionality may be removed soon)