Okay, sit down, guys
*drags up chair and second cup of coffee*
I am way too tired for this, but here we are regardless.
Writing this because of all the Asks and messages I’ve gotten over the last few days regarding Tumblr @staff being dumbasses trying to censor everything rather than listening to people sooner about the problem and dealing with it better. Also the fact they are trying to ban “female presenting nipple” (which is sexist and transphobic AF, btw, @staff. You and I need a sit-down about this.) while not doing anything about the Nazis or White Supremacy asshats on this website.
Okay, getting off my soapbox.
SO! “Tenoko, why aren’t you freaking out more?”
Because I have already lived through this several times. And I’ve warned y’all before this would undoubtedly happen again.
First, it was on FanFiction.net. They came for the LGBT+ content, then came for all “adult content inappropriate for minors” to cover up for their homophobia and act like it wasn’t happening.
Then, it was LiveJournal for the exact same reasons: LGBT+ then all “adult content” (LGBT immediately made it ‘adult content’ regardless of rating).
Why am I not freaking out? Because I am really tired and feeling very old at the moment. “Disappointed, but not surprised.”
Also, I’m not an artist or graphic artist, so as far as who they are targetting, I am relatively safer this time around, whereas the previous two were directed at writers specifically.
No offense, but it’s oddly sort of a relief to not have to live through being the target a third time, while I am utterly sympathetic to artists and their concerns regarding a platform or followers scared about losing people they enjoy.
Let me start by saying that I am ‘Tenoko1′ across the board for this very reason. My AO3 holds all of my fics and podfics. I’m Tenoko1 on Twitter. Having lived through this twice is why I save all my favorite fics and have backup copies. My backup copies have backup copies.
I advise you do the same if you’re an artist, have copies of your works on your computer, save them on a separate server, have other copies, as well. Google Drive, Media Fire, a physical hard drive, etc.
If you are a fic writer, put all of your fics on AO3 and freaking donate to support it. This is why AO3 is so freaking important. Appreciate it.
What happens next? Well, eventually this cluster duck will calm down and we see what to make of it after the storm. Given history, another will rise up to take its place and everyone will eventually migrate there and Tumblr will die a slow death until taken over by spam, bots, and a few others because everyone has left. It’ll be the new MySpace or FFN. Pillowfort has been brought to my attention as a promising contender, but we’ll see what happens. I do not recommend DeviantArt for artists because TOS states (or did) they can sell your art to vendors and such and you may see it in HotTopic on a shirt and can’t do anything about it. You gave them permission.
Why am I not freaking out? Because we never just accept this kind of garbage for the profit of people in suits. We get indignant and angry, we create something new. It’s how AO3 came into existence.
Yes, I’m calm. Mostly because I’m just tired. All this got from me was a heavy, weary sigh of “Not this crap again”. We’ll get through it and things will be fine. But @staff is garbage and this is gonna bite them in the ass so hard they won’t have anything left to sit on.