On November 24th, 2018, I posted a list of major deletions of sites or of content on sites that stripped fandom of its history. A bunch of pro-shipper blogs had just been deleted, and people were nervous. I suppose I was thinking “All this has happened before…”
On December 3rd, 2018, Tumblr’s Department of Irony announced the NSFW ban. Thanks for providing this salutary lesson to The Youth and a billion reblogs to me, I guess.
Today, we have AO3 for writing. Audio, images, and video are in as much danger as ever, yet fans attack AO3 every donation drive. For those of you who forget our past…
HERE IS WHAT HISTORY HAS TAUGHT US!
1992 - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro forces a zine to be destroyed
1995 - Viacom/Paramount goes after fansites
1995 - Anne Rice gets IWTV fic deleted everywhere
1997 - Fox and Lucasfilm go after fansites
1998 - AOL goes after X-Files fansites
2000 - Warner Brothers goes after Harry Potter fansites
2000 - Anne Rice anne rices again
2001 - Tripod Massacre
2001 - Anne Rice goes after IWTV fic on FFN
2001 - The Bronze shut down as Buffy changes networks
2002 - FFN bans porn
2002 - FFN bans RPF
2003 - Gryffindor Tower implodes
2004 - FFN bans script format
2005 - FFN bans CYOA, Readerfic, 2nd person, Songfic
2005 - Sheezyart bans adult content; y!gallery founded
2005 - Viacom/Paramount goes after fansites again
2006 - Sakura Lemon Archive suddenly closes
2007 - Strikethrough, Boldthrough on Livejournal
2007 - Youtube institutes Content ID, deleting many fanvids
2008 - Slash Cotillion closes, taking much historical m/m with it
2009 - GeoCities shuts down, taking old fannish websites
2009 - Greatestjournal shuts down; RPGs deleted
2009 - Marvel gets scans_daily deleted
2009 - imeem, major vidding hub, closes suddenly
2010 - FFN forums purged for inactivity
2010 - DeviantArt purges adult fanfic
2010 - Literate Union goes after Twilight fandom on FFN
2011 - Delicious destroyed by Yahoo’s incompetence
2011 - China arrests women for writing m/m; destroys danmei.org
2012 - major FFN crackdown on porn
2012 - Megaupload deleted for piracy; also destroys vids, podfic
2013 - Max-Dan-Wiz.com purged of fan-generated content
2014 - Quizilla shuts down
2014 - China purges m/m story websites; arrests female authors
2014 - Blip.tv deletes vids
2014 - Viddler deletes vids
2015 - Journalfen’s servers become fully robust, deleting Fandom Wank
2016 - y!Gallery deleted
2016 - Elfwood goes offline
2016 - Audiofic Archive corrupted; major blow to podfic
2017 - Chinese author jailed after being ratted out over fandom drama
2017 - Parents get queer Warrior Cats fic purged from Wattpad
2018 - Tumblr deletes pro-shipper blogs
2018 - Tumblr announces NSFW ban
2018 - Wattpad deletes accounts/fics without warning
2019 - China purges weibo of m/m; more women jailed
This is only a small taste of the many times that:
Fannish moderators got bored, ran out of money, or had a falling out, deleting a site/list/forum along the way.
Sites got bought out and closed for being unprofitable.
Fandom got hit as governments targeted piracy or political dissidents.
Fans grudge reported each other.
Official forums got deleted when the canon finished.
It’s not always malicious. It’s not always about us. But we lose every time.
Some of these purges hit everyone. Many of them hit m/m content specifically or female gaze-y material in general. This is why antis are dead wrong. This is why anti-fujoshi policies end up being anti-m/m policies. This is why we need clear labeling, not content restrictions.
This is why we need AO3.
And it’s why we need a solution for audio, visuals, and video too.
the barbie (2023) experience as an afab non binary person is just [reconnecting with your femininity and love for pink bc you couldnt when u were younger bc being too girly will get u made fun of] [feeling guilt bc u dont identify with being a girl but girlhood is so inherently beautiful and magical and no experience is truly like it] [healing the inner child in you by allowing yourself to enjoy dolls and pink and maximalism] [unapologetically letting yourself wear pink and be stereotypically girly in a society where being non binary means you have to be presenting androgynous 24/7] [getting your heart shattered and then put back together again with sparkly glue over and over in the span of two hours] [realizing that no matter what you do you have somewhat experienced girlhood and it shaped you to be the person you are today and you will never get to erase that experience or truly disconnect yourself from it] [appreciating and understanding your mother in a way that you thought wasnt possible without experiecing motherhood]
Detail of Portrait of Princess Sibylle of Cleve, 1526, by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)
I can't keep having the same conversations about love languages, mbti, iq, bmi, "brain fully formed at 25" and shit over and over again...
I’m so fucked up about simon. His character arc in the main series was set up that ice king becoming a simon again was inevitable. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when and how.
but now that it’s happened, it’s the worst thing that could’ve happened to him.
he had friends! a special secret club of wizards he had matching rings and would go on roadtrips with! he wasn’t even really a problem anymore!
betty’s character is so fantastic. she traveled through time for him. She went insane for him. She become a god for him. But him being Simon was easier for her. Did she ever truly consider if it was what he wanted? She’s not even there with him. She’s not there and now he’s Simon and he’s more isolated than ever.
He lives with humans! At this point, Finn has known him longer as Simon than he knew him as Ice King. Ice King is just an old memory now. But Simon is over a thousand years old. “Simon Petrikov” is just an old memory too. He’s human again, but not really.
What’s worse is how smart he is. He’s an intelligent and emotionally competent man. So he really, truly, profoundly knows how deeply fucked up his life is. He’s so aware of it.
wouldn’t it be easier? If he was stupid and naive and magical? does he miss magic? maybe not ice, but magic itself? would he try to learn? Does he remember the password to Wizard City? Would they even still let him in? there’s a school. He could learn magic again. but would he? Doesn’t Simon Petrikov like learning about magic?
Everything Stays. He’s still here. But he’s different now. Everything is different now except it’s not because the world stayed the same and he’s the one who changed. He can’t go back. Except he did, in a way, and it wasn’t even his choice.
Honestly, it's kinda disappointing that the reason I was pale and had cold hands was this, and not me turning into a vampire. :(
Turns out I have iron deficiency and I wasn't faking being tired so I could skip class ! Who would have thought ???
St. Joan of Arc (detail, 1909) Paul Antoine de la Boulaye
anyway i looked up the post about seeing your grandma's boobs and tumblr has deleted the screenshot of the story where the finnish dude says that americans are "like that" because they haven't seen their grandma's tits
good job tumblr 👍
I can’t even watch shit like pixar movie rankings anymore cause I just can’t stand the idea of having to watch people slander Turning Red like Im not gonna say it’s peak cinema or the most amazing movie ever but it hits DIFFERENT
University life is so goddamn weird because I don't understand anything and the only reaction my teacher had to "I'm going to write a paper about my Immortal" was a genuine "Ok, sounds very interesting."
"I'm not lazy, I'm just tired. and I don't mean because I've been working hard. Not at all. I'm tired from forcing myself to get out of bed everyday. I'm tired of distracting myself from the thoughts in my brain. I'm tired because all my energy is put to surviving and people don't understand that because all they see is how unproductive you are."
— depression is a disease and it's tiring
French. Posts sometimes. Can't pass up an opportunity to apocalypse. (Yes, I know it's not a proper verb.)
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