every time I see more of the ‘ao3 is evil’ crap circulating I think, ‘well, tumblr is evil too and I don’t see you stop using it’
You know, the more I think about this, the more I think the real complaint isn’t that AO3 hosts “evil” content, it’s that it doesn’t allow harassment/dogpiling of “evil” creators as easily as Tumblr. Abuse won’t remove or even re-tag a work except in a handful of very specific cases, but they will suspend or ban users for harassment, including filing repeated unfounded Abuse reports. Authors also have at least some ability to screen/block comments on works, and there’s no direct messaging system outside of commenting on works through which to pursue harassment. You can follow a creator but you can’t block them (much less encourage others to do the same).
Tumblr, by contrast, generally ignores any abuse report that doesn’t involve the DMCA, and aggressive anons can and have driven bloggers off the site entirely. The fact that the same tactics are used by social justice bloggers and neo-Nazis (for instance) doesn’t matter – they’re the affordances of the site, by accident or design, and an entire fannish generation have gotten very used to performing their fannish (and moral) identity in this fashion.
(I thinks it’s relevant that AO3 was designed by fandom’s LJ generation and in some respect mirrors the affordances of LJ circa 2010. Tumblr is a very different site and that, moreso than age differences, seems to be at the root of this – though of course age intersect with site experience in a non-trivial way.)
ding ding ding ding.
Ao3 requires you to police your own consumption of content. Ao3 won’t let you destroy someone’s online presence simply because you don’t like it. Ao3 won’t let you impose your own morality on other without cause.
If you have issues with this, and the fact that Ao3 requires you to have responsibility and agency, then you seriously need to sit down and have a damned good long hard look at yourself.
The question I usually fail to see being answered when people bitch about the content on AO3 is - so who gets to decide?
You? Me? A committee of my friends? Of yours? Of those who have the most kudos? Of those who have no interest in fandom, but want to protect other people from dangerous content, whatever it may be? Who gets that power, and how long will they have it?
Who are you comfortable with giving the power of regulating all the content? What happens in grey areas? What happens when something you like isn’t liked by the Decider? Is there an appeal? Who gets to make the arguments for and against something?
The world is complex and there are no easy answers.
As someone who was around during the LJ fandom days: AO3 is a luxury. The ability to post content without fear has been an amazing thing for fandom. Policing your own experience as a reader is a nearly insignificant issue compared to the freedom AO3 has given authors and readers.
If you can’t take responsibility for your own experience when you sit down to read fic, you should not be reading fic. Period.
I’m so grateful for A03.
As someone whose fandom experiences go back to the days when fic was
roneoed (google it) and distributed by snail mail, (especially when
living in a country where fandom cons were rare and small) AO3 is
something like a an unimaginable fantasy come true. More fic than I
could possibly read, in more fandoms than I’ve even heard of, instantly
and for FREE? Oh brave new world that has such wonders in it! And people
complain about it and want to censor it? Madness.
mlm: *exist for themselves and not for cis women’s fetishization, enjoy relationships that aren’t “readable” or “interesting” but still beneficial and comforting; are not performative in a heterosexual way*
I was going through my emails and one of my online orders has been dispatched and when I ordered it I had to put in a state but New Zealand doesn’t have states and I was annoyed so I put “New Zealand doesnt have states you fuckass” and now in the dispatch email under delivery addess it totally has “New Zealand doesnt have states you fuckass” as part of it woops.
referring to platonic female friends as their “girlfriends”
saying the words “dyke” or “lesbo”
“marrying” their female friends on facebook as a joke
assuming every lesbian/bi/pan girl is attracted to her
saying that theyre “gay” because they like men
telling trans men that they “make them question their sexuality”
7. Hitting on trans women and saying it’s straight cause “you have a cock and I like those.”
8. Purposely trying to expose and talk about their bodies in front of queer girls in a ‘you can’t have this’ way
9. Assuming something has definitely happened between their female queer friends
10. Saying they’re accepting then pulling a face at anything ‘lesbian-ish’ mentioned or done in front of them
11: Treat their LGBTA+ friends and aquaintances aß assecoires. “This is Brad, my gay.” We’re not your pets.
12: Say: “Oh, you wouldn’t understand, it’s about a guy”/“It’s a straight thing”. Like what, you think we lack basic empathy?
12. Talking about being “a gay guy trapped in a straight girl’s body”
13. Hypersexualizing achillean relationships, calling two men sharing affection “sinful”
14. Treating and referring to their trans guy friends as females
