That thing you wrote that isn’t “good enough” to put up on the AO3. You can put it up there! The AO3 isn’t meant to be The World’s Classiest Showcase. It’s an archive. It exists because most other forms of hosting fannish work eventually degrade or disappear. Accounts get deleted. Websites shut down. The AO3 preserves those things. Ten years from now you’ll be like, “Shit, there was this really great tag essay, but the person changed their Tumblr URL and then Tumblr closed up shop…” (look, even Tumblr will die eventually) and your only hope of finding it will be if the page was cached, or if somebody uploaded it to the AO3.
The AO3 exists to preserve ephemera as much as substantial works. You know how valuable it is for archaeologists to be able to read the graffiti on the walls of Pompeii? The little things, the notes, the headcanons, the notfics, the meta, the back-and-forths, are all important too.
YES YES YES THIS.
Tumblr’s likely to die sooner than you expect, and suddenly – it’s owned by Yahoo. (Anyone remember
del.icio.us, later delicious.com?) Yahoo’s trying really really hard to squeeze money out of tumblr and it’s not working, for all the reasons discussed in synec’s post and because a huge portion of its userbase is 13-18 years old and HAVE NO DIGITAL MONEY so can’t buy things online even if they wanted to.
There is no “worthy to be on AO3.” None. The early fics were often really well-written; it was a high-standards archive – not because “it strove for high standards” but because the only people who knew it existed, who cared about a new multifandom archive, were the ones who’d been around watching archives disappear for years; they were veteran fic writers who wanted a permanent place to share their stories. It took a long time for AO3 to have enough server capacity to allow open invites; in the early days, it was friend-of-a-friend for invite codes. (They wanted more people; they couldn’t handle a flood. So they handed out a few codes at a time)
We even talked about it while setting up the original terms of service – knowing that by saying, our standards are less restrictive than ff.net, less restrictive than LJ, we were going to eventually have HUGE amounts of really bad fic. FF.net got the nickname “pit of voles,” and AO3 was going to outdo that… eventually.
And. We wanted it ALL. All the reader-insert Mary Sue “date with hot dude” fic; all the “quiz to find out which power ranger you would be” fic; all the “band came to my home town and their bus broke down in front of my house and they needed a coffee and…” fic. And later, all the meta: the thinky character analyses; the “who’d be best on a first date” discussions; the “why the new movie sucked rocks and should never have been made because they ruined my favorite sidekick” rants.
ALL. WE WANT IT ALL.
AO3 is not about “the best of fandom;” it’s about “the truth of fandom.” And the truth is, fandom is not comprised of 90% well-written tightly-plotted carefully proofread fic. Fandom is comprised of people who love their favorite shows and books and characters and want to share that love with others.
AO3 are not the fanfic standards police. We’re the ones cheering for the “GLOWING BLUE SKELETON DICKS” tags.
Someday, some fandom archaeologist (and yes, there will be fandom archaeologists, isn’t that awesome?) will sift through the badfic, the quick drabbles, the Mary Sues, and write articles for peer-reviewed journals chronicling the complete collected works of some of the 21st century’s greatest authors and how you can see in THIS self-indulgent Protagonist/OC clusterfuck the origin of those characterization tactics and flow of prose that make your subsequent masterworks truly shine as beloved classics, and THIS short character drabble gives THAT story arc in your well-known later story an exceptional poignancy and depth if one considers it backstory.
Also that fandom archaeologist’s teenage daughter will think the self-indulgent Protagonist/OC clusterfuck is the best thing she’s ever read.
GUYS IT’S HAPPENING!
PLEASE POST ALL OF YOUR PROMPT FILL FICS, YOUR METAS, YOUR HEADCANONS, ETC, TO AO3 SO THEY’RE NOT LOST FOREVER! (If you don’t want to spam people, just do it as one big multichapter “Tumblr export” fic!)
THERE IS SO MUCH GOOD CONTENT ON THIS SITE, PLEASE SAVE YOUR STUFF!
Like.. filling that hole in her heart where Maggie used to be via adopting a kid just seems like the most unhealthy coping mechanism and a recipe for disaster and emotional trauma for the kid. Alex needs some gd therapy to deal with her parental neglect and her alcoholism if we wanna call it that/basically just all her bad coping mechanisms that keep her from actually coping. And then she needs a few months or a year and then some to heal from that emotional mess with Maggie and coming out.
It isn’t just Maggie, tbh.
Alex has had a big year, that involved lot of people leave her, especially now with Kara going. Maggie and Kara are the big ones, but she’s also lost any leads on finding her father (who told her she wouldn’t understand why he was working for Cadmus until she was a parent, like, hello motivation right there).
But, yeah, I could def see her latching onto getting a kid to justify leaving Maggie as part of the reasoning, or a reason for it needing to happen sooner.
And, it def isn’t a good idea for her or for any kid brought in.
At this point I ship Alex with Therapy and not much else.
No joke I would pay good money to see a live-action “Kim Possible” featuring Zendaya as Kim Possible, Tom Holland as Ron Stoppable, and Jacob Batalon as Wade.
nothing has made more sense to me in my entire life
writers: how are we gonna top ourselves! we got tons of exciting stuff in store!! at least eleven big bads this season!!!! whos gonna survive who won’t????!! 3 love triangles and 2 quadrangles!!!!
me: I’ll Pay You 5$ To Let The Characters Just Simply Talk To Each Other For Once
Ok but, I have thought about another gay chick flick idea and I like this one more! Get ready y’all…
Lets call our two main heroines girl A and girl B
Girl A is a super popular cheerleader at her school, she’s the hbic and everyone is terrified of her, like girl channels her Regina George on the reg. Girl B transfers from another school. Now at her school she was the soccer captain and they were like the state champions so at her school she was the most popular girl, but she was actually nice and everyone liked her. When girl B transfers to the new school she meets a girl in her class who is on the soccer team and while they’re discussing it girl A enters and goes all Malfoy on B, like : “The soccer team sucks, join the cheerleaders instead because you’re hot and we can be friends.” B, in true Potter fashion, is all like I’ll choose my own friends, thanks biatch, and proceeds to ignore A and talk to her new soccer bud. Thus an epic feud is started.
B is so good she is elected new captain of the soccer team and turns it around. The team starts winning and the whole school starts to find them cool and cheer for them at their games. A is pissed of at this so tried to sabotage B at every turn. Their pranks and competitions gets so big and elaborate that they’re called into the principal’s office and given an ultimatum- either they will work together or they will be kicked off the cheer and soccer teams. So now the cheerleaders have to cheer for the girls soccer team and all the girls actually become friends, apart form the captains who are really stubborn and keep being mean to each other.
Their teammates get tired of this so on their away game they force their captains to share a room so they work their shit out. A and B get into another fight in the middle of which B shuts A up with a kiss. At first A kisses her back but then she freaks out and runs away. After this they stop fighting but are now instead avoiding each other. B is heartbroken because she thinks A rejected her and is terrified that she will out her to the whole school. A overhears B confess this to one of her friends in the bathroom before prom, and she realises that she actually has had a crush on B this whole time. So when A gets crowned Prom queen she makes a speech and she confesses to B in front of the whole school, and they slow dance and make out… the end.
Question of Smoke 