#on fandom

writing “long” paragraphs is not a sign of AI — it’s a common narrative choice many writers make both in fanfiction and in traditionally published novels, and AI stole it from us.

using an em dash is not a sign of AI. it’s a stylistic sentence choice that’s been an option in place of commas and semicolons for a very long time, and AI stole it from us.

long sentence structures are not a sign of AI, but are yet another stylistic choice writers often make to create a cadence and tone that mimics the flow of poetry, and AI stole it from us.

“YA narrative breaks”? i don’t even know what the fuck this means, but i can guarantee that AI stole it from us.

italics are once again a stylistic choice that many writers love to use to create emphasis, and it’s a more stylistically acceptable and traditional form of emphasis than bold or underline text. oh, and just to be extra clear: AI STOLE IT FROM US.

stop creating fandom witch hunts over AI when you know fuck all about what it means to sit and write a story, and to spend hours fiddling with sentence structure and dialogue to get the exact right tone. writers will stop writing out of fear that their work “sounds like AI” — IT DOESNT! AI STOLE FROM US! AI SOUNDS LIKE US! — and after a while, all that will be available on AO3 is shitty AI-generated fanfiction.

because yeah, people are going to continue to use AI to write fanfiction whether you “call them out” or not. but making a laughable thread on X that uses asinine criteria is not going to fix that problem. it will just push the real writers out because people will accuse them of using AI when they haven’t, and they will (rightfully) stop writing for spaces that attack them.

It's one of the last few things we can have as a society that's free. You can engage, for free. People give you things (art, stories, etc), for free.

Don't buy into the consummerism just because it's everywhere else.

You don't have to consume everything you interact with. You don't have to use things, just because they exist.

You're allowed (still, for now), to have things that are enjoyable for free.

Do you realise how insane the world is? We don't have many places where we can just be, for free anymore, but ao3 is. Did you notice we don't have ads in ao3? We don't have pop ups? Where ELSE do we not have that?

Where else can you just go and not have to wait for a commercial to be over or for ads to be on the sidelines?

I don't think the younger people understand, but the whole of internet used to be like this. YouTubers would do Youtube for free, just because. You couldn't monetise your internet presence before.

Ao3 is like a little preserved corner of the internet where the old internet used to be, and it's being attacked by people who do not understand that free things are allowed to exist without judgment.

Please don't ruin this for us.

please don't feel guilty about your fandom engagement!

don't feel bad if you haven't been able to keep up with tumblr or discord!

don't feel guilty for not reading or commenting on a fic, and especially not for being "late"!

don't fret if you haven't responded to a tag or ask game! these are not homework assignments, they are playdate invitations and you don't need to make it to all of them!!

don't feel compelled to maintain the same amount or type of activity consistently!

you aren't delinquent

i won't forget about you

i will always be happy to see you again

I think some folk need to reframe how they think of interacting with fandom. I’ve recently noticed an uptick of people in comments on fics/posts on Tumblr who seem to be fundamentally misunderstanding how this works.

To me, fandom is a potluck. Everyone has seen The Thing, got inspired, made something to eat, and shown up at the party. We all brought something to the table.

Maybe a bunch of us brought something similar that’s super popular, like chocolate. Some people made chocolate cakes, some people made chocolate chip cookies, some people made lovely little hand-fashioned chocolate candies, etc. You get the idea. And a lot of folks are hanging around the chocolate table because, hey, FREE chocolate! Hell yeah!

The problem I’m seeing is a nonzero amount of people walking up to the chocolate table and going: “WHY is chocolate so popular? I HATE chocolate! I HATE how popular it is and how EVERYONE brought chocolate! Why does nobody ever make caramel?”

Which is weird because, again, this is a potluck. There are definitely still non-chocolate items at this meal that you could be trying right now. Some of them are even caramel. But also you’re walking up to people who made what they liked and getting mad it isn’t created with you in mind.

Then when someone says, “Hey, I like caramel too, did YOU bring any?” The person complaining always says, “Oh, no. I make a lot of caramel at home but I never bring it to these type of things.”

Well, that’s the problem, bud. This isn’t a restaurant. You don’t get to sit and imagine your ideal Fan Content, then demand it from people. And it’s a little annoying when every third post in the tag is someone complaining about a creative lack they could be solving themselves.

The only way to ensure the thing you like will be at the table is to make it yourself OR aggressively support/encourage the people who brought what you liked so that next time they’ll bring more.

Fandom is about community, creativity, and being inspired by other folks interpretation of something we all enjoy. Maybe instead of walking into someone else’s work or a specific tag to complain about how much you dislike it, you direct that desire/energy at your own creative pursuits?

“But I’m bad at making caramel!” You’ll get better. Everyone burns the first few batches.

“But everyone’s too busy looking at chocolate to even notice my caramel!” I promise you, there are always going to be people you who dislike/hate/simply don’t care for chocolate. I’m sure they, like you, would love to see more caramel, or any number of flavors you can think up.

“What if nobody likes it?” YOU like caramel, my friend! YOU will like it!!! That is what’s most important! Do you think I made all these chocolate cupcakes just to watch everyone else eat them? It’s always fun to share, but if I’m making cupcakes, it’s because I want a cupcake.