For my Americans out there, here is a map with the safest states for trans folk. These are the states that have the most laws in place to specifically protect trans people.
Maryland is currently the safest, here is an article about it.
Reminders for new ao3 users (in no particular order):
- filter your searches like you would on a library website or in an online catalogue
- don’t post placeholders, fic searches, or recommendations as fics. DON’T! It’s against ao3 TOS
- there is no algorithm. ao3 sorts by date posted/updated unless you filter with specific search criteria
- ao3 is a non profit. that means it doesn’t sell ads to make money — it only survives on donations. this is why it can show you so many fics without ever flashing an ad or pop up at you!
- report fics that break TOS when you see them (I.e., placeholder fics, searches) to help other users navigate better
- the tag “dead dove, do not eat” doesn’t equate to gore/awfulness automatically. it is a complementary tag that enhances current tags. E.g., if the fic is tagged “gore” and “dead dove, do not eat” the author really wants you to mind the gore tag
- most fandoms have a variation of “no beta, we die like (x character)” and they all link back to the “No beta” tag
- publishing a new fic sometimes means it won’t show up in the fandom/pairing tag for a few minutes
- subscribers receive update emails at different times, depending on when you update/publish your fic. there’s no good way to predict when an e-mail will be sent — it can be in 30 seconds, or two hours later
- some fics are restricted by authors to those with ao3 accounts only. if you see a blue lock in the upper right corner, that fic is only visible to logged in ao3 users
- you can block commenters now! this didn’t use to be a thing
- updating a fic just to stay at the top of the pairing tag/fandom tag is a dick move. unless you’re legitimately editing or adding chapters, this just annoys readers and fellow authors, and people will skip over your fic
- make sure that you tag your ships correctly, both romantic and platonic. Putting an “&” between a pair of names means that the ship is platonic. Putting a “/” between the characters means its romantic. For example: “Greg & Steve” = platonic. “Greg/Steve” = romantic. They are NOT interchangable.
- if your fic includes original character/s or reader insert or y/n or etc, then TAG THOSE IN THE CHARACTER TAGS. Not just in the relationship tags!! They are characters in the story, so include them in the character tags. Failing to do so means people who want to find fics with those tags won’t be able to, and people who want to exclude fics with those tags won’t be able to.
- NEVER EVER EVER ADD A LINK TO A PATREON OR KO-FEE ACCOUNT OR ETC. Ao3’s entire legal protection hinges on the fact that no one is making money from fics. If you start commissioning fics or linking to a monetary platform, you are in breach of the Ao3 terms, risking legal action, and risking ao3 as a whole. There are loads of authors/companies who WILL sue if they think you’re making money off their intellectual property.
- seconding what OP said about Dead Dove Do Not Eat. It doesn’t automatically mean “gore”; it just means “heed the tags.” It means “Hey yeah when I tagged this as [thing] I was NOT fucking around, ok? Only read this fic if you’re OK with reading [thing].”
additions from someone who has posted way too much on this site please listen to me:
there are no best times to post but generally sunday and monday are a good zone for traffic
you must double check and make sure the publication date matches the day a chapter is posted or it won’t show up on the first page of updates. sometimes you have to physically edit the posting date multiple times for this to be fixed.
on that note: artificially editing your publication date so your fic shows up at the top when you haven’t added a chapter is the dickest of moves and will make you a pariah. do not do this. yes everyone will notice.
editing existing chapters doesn’t count as updating a fic and won’t change the publication date.
ao3 usually adds weird spaces after italics if you copy and paste in your writing pre-formatted. it doesn’t add these until after you’ve saved a draft or posted so you have to re-edit.
check the “add space after paragraph” option in your word precessor of choice to avoid having to delete an extra space between all your paragraphs on ao3.
when you add a second chapter to a one chapter fic, your original start/end authors notes will now be appended onto the notes of every chapter unless you move them to the now extant first chapter notes sections. this is confusing, but you’ll see what i mean.
to post on anon: add your fic to the anonymous (anonymous) collection. it’ll take up to fifteen to minutes to show in the tag once posted. it’ll show up (to you) as AUTHOR NAME: fic title. no one else sees it this way. it will never show up on your own dashboard unless you go to your stats page. if you ever de-anon, all your subs will get an email about it as if it were just posted.
if you update multiple fics at once, ao3 will group the updates into one email.
to transfer a fic to a new ao3 account: make a new account, make the new account a co-author, remove the old account as co-author.
you cannot mention money changing hands for fic on ao3, ever. don’t say commissions. say a fic was requested if you must say anything. your fic can get taken down for this.
reply to comments or never complain about engagement in fandom.
per that: EVERY TIME YOU EDIT A COMMENT, THE AUTHOR GETS A NEW COPY OF YOUR COMMENT IN THEIR EMAIL. we can see all the edits. be aware.
tagging is both a warning and an enticement, do so accordingly. you really don’t need to tag things that fall outside that unless you want to.
on that note: please don’t do the “short fics for 300 different fandoms in one fic” thing. no one wants to scroll past that. i mean you can but it just makes it harder for people to find the thing you’ve written that they want to read.
if you are really bad at summaries just think of it as a movie tag line and don’t say you’re bad at summaries. don’t neg your own fic.
re all the questions i saw in replies: fic searches are people looking for specific fics. i don’t know what the fuck a placeholder fic is but these aren’t fanworks and you can’t post them. you can’t post discord links or rp requests or complaints about fandom. you can post fanart and meta essays. that’s allowed.
oooooo what a cool post my mutual just reblogged ! I think I will reblog it as well !!! oooooh who did they reblog it from ? That username seems familiar,,, hohoho it’s me ! from an hour ago !
so i have a mildly popular “reblog and put in in the tags” post going around and its. very clear how many people don’t know how to interact with a tumblr post
so, first of all, tumblr’s culture has changed a lot in the past couple years. there’s a genuine community effort to not start any drama, and ironically a lot of the current hostility is an effort to keep things calm. there’s also a change in how people interact with posts, so if you haven’t been here in a while please skip down to the tags/replies/reblog with text section.
for newcomers: you should be reblogging posts about as liberally as you would like somethingon twitter. if you only like stuff, people will think you are rude/a bot. you’ve probably heard people talk about “cultivating your dash,” and thats because this platform is 100% centered around your dashboard. trending matters less, unfollowing and blocking in order to shape your dash into it’s best form is widely accepted, the majority of the content you’ll find and interact with will be because of your dash, and the only way to put things on your dash is to reblog them. tumblr users are deeply distrustful of algorithms and have largely turned off the “see posts your friends have liked” function (i recommend you also turn of the various algorithms in settings → general settings → dashboard preferences).
so, once you’ve reblogged a post, there’s three ways to add content to it. the tags, replies, and reblogging with text. all of them have different connotations
the tags: an inside voice. originally they were meant for organizing your blog (and they’re still used for this), but they’ve also morphed into a way to share thoughts that aren’t funny/insightful enough for non-followers to be interested in. when in doubt, put your comment in the tags
replies: basically talking to your friends in class. your followers have no way of finding your replies (they don’t pop up on the dash, nobody gets notified except for the original poster) so chances are, only the person who made the post is gonna see your comment. it’s for quick one-offs that you’re okay with other people overhearing, but really is only made for one person. they’re like a public dm
reblog with text: an outside voice. you’re getting up on a stage in town square and entertaining people. make sure it’s funny or insightful— bottom line, add something new to the conversation. you should use this the least
general rules of thumb:
when in doubt, reblog. people will judge you if your blog is only personal posts and you only interact with other content by liking it.
the only things people will judge you for reblogging are personal vent posts. leave a like to give a little virtual hug
if a post is asking about your personality/opinions (i.e: tell me what’s the last tv show you watched, that kind of thing) put it in the tags
also if you see a nice edit, gifset, or art, reblog and say something nice in the tags! it’s that nice sweet spot of common enough that no one will notice but uncommon enough to make the artist’s day
Finally real advice for new users. This is a solid guide for how to make the transition from Twitter to Tumblr.
In particular, artists need you to reblog. A reblog helps them get seen. A like doesn’t help them at all.
On the note of early creepypasta, shout out to the Holders, the proto-SCP Foundation in that it was the first thing to fill the niche of “big collaborative horror story about weird artifacts”. The set up was always “In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself "The Holder of the [word]” instead of containment procedures
Reading over it now you kinda get why the SCP Foundation became bigger, though. Both have set formats, but SCPs are more freeform. A statue that kills you when you aren’t looking, a vending machine vending interdimensional snacks, living Origami dragons in a magic box, a infinite IKEA, and a humanphobic Lovecraftian terror writing messages on a window are all equally SCPs. But every Holder is more or less the same. You go to the same place to go find a cursed artifact. If you bring them together the world will end. I once tried to read them all in a row and got bored since so many are essentially the same, and there’s not really room to imagine something weirder given the strict format (though there are format-breaking ones here and there, my fave was one from the POV of the person at the desk who tells them where the Holder is). So many are basically “this one you read before, but edgier” and it’s way more repetitive than reading over even the earliest SCPs
The other thing with the Holders lore-wise is like. Why are people seeking them. Almost every artifact gives you a fate worse than death but a lot of them don’t have like…a benefit, any kind of Faustian boon you get at the cost of the horrible fate. How do they even know what’s in each one if they’re unavoidably fatal
Also I first experienced The Holders via this old website that combines it with a list of “Easter eggs” & excerpts from “Myths Over Miami” and that’s their ideal form tbh
Shout out to the Gideon Keys too, the least known site of the horror artifact wiki boom, but with the gimmick that all the artifacts are in Calgary, Canada.
Actually, this wasn’t like the SCP Wiki, but the originator claims that they’re entries from a notebook he found at the University of Calgary, written by a unknown writer, and apparently the OP has never owned up to them being fiction, so. Go hunting for mysteries in Calgary I guess
Danny, fifteen but physically deaged to ten and freshly shat out of a natural portal into the DCU, realizes Gotham has a serious issue with trafficking.
Danny, who can turn invisible and intangible, takes it upon himself to act as bait and free the people who are victims of trafficking
Red Hood, who routinely dismantles trafficking operations, starts to notice Adoption Bait Danny being trafficked from one ring to the next, and that whoever is betraying these organizations and freeing the kids keeps missing this particular one.
Red Hood eventually learns that Danny is Older Than He Looks and assumes that Danny is some adult superhero who got de-aged and is using his new tiny body to his advantage while he figures out how to change back. So he starts treating Danny like an adult which convinces everyone else to do the same.
(“Want a cig?” “Nah, that stuff will kill you, you know?” “We need a drink.” Snorts “Good luck explaining to the bar tender why you bought a 5 year old a shot of tequila.” “Shit, fuck, fuck, fucking son of a whore!” “Language!” “Shut it you ass!”)
Meanwhile, Danny is so distracted by trying to figure out how to change back, finding out who’s behind the smuggling ring, and honestly being thrilled that he has allies who didn’t shoot him at first sight that he completely forgets/doesn’t notice that he never really told anyone how old he actually is.
Cue Danny eventually reverting to his true age, maybe right before he goes home, and everyone freaking out because the kid they thought was an adult, was in fact a slightly older kid!
This does absolutely nothing to help with the Adoption Bait. It only makes it worst
Danny is still quite adamant that he does not need an adult thanks. But if he has to have one Hood or J'onn are his choice please and thank you.
Batman is baffled. What do you mean you don’t need an adult!?
Danny is quite happy to run off whoever Batman tries to talk him anywhere. Gotham has been treated to the sight of a child fleeing Batman. Yelling something about not today fruitloop? Never mind.
Danny has also been happily using his powers to set up caches of food and necessities for the local homeless population. He randomly pops up in Hood’s office and adds a spot to the map before running off again.
Hood is slowly becoming desensitized. The crazy little bastard can’t be pinned down. So he just asks the kid to check in each day. The feral teen is going to do what he wants. He may as well accept that now.
Danny, fifteen but physically deaged to ten and freshly shat out of a natural portal into the DCU, realizes Gotham has a serious issue with trafficking.
Danny, who can turn invisible and intangible, takes it upon himself to act as bait and free the people who are victims of trafficking
Red Hood, who routinely dismantles trafficking operations, starts to notice Adoption Bait Danny being trafficked from one ring to the next, and that whoever is betraying these organizations and freeing the kids keeps missing this particular one.
Bi/Gay. He/Him/They/Them. 26
