Hopefully, this post isn’t the first you’re hearing about the adult content ban on Tumblr. Just in case, though, here’s what we know right now.
First, on Dec. 3rd, Tumblr’s staff blog announced all adult content would be banned. They had criteria to define adult content. They stated this ban would begin Dec. 17th. Almost immediately, however, people began to see their content being flagged. Once it is flagged, it will not be visible to anyone but the original poster and those that reblogged.
Second thing that was noticed was that there appeared to be no rhyme or reason for the content being flagged, or the vast majority of it. It if was visual in nature, it was coming down. The bot had been let loose by late afternoon with no end in sight.
Everything after that happened in rapid succession. People were deleted without warning if enough of their content was flagged, even if they were in the middle of appeals on things that were legitimately NOT adult content.
Now, onto the ‘who is safe and who isn’t’ section. In short, no one is safe. We know what the post says, in full, backward and forward. We also know what is happening is not matching up with that post. If you are a fanfiction writer, whether you write about adult content or not, YOU ARE NOT SAFE FROM THIS PURGE!
Again, we know what it says and we know what is happening. People are being deleted, whole blogs gone, with no warning. Don’t let this happen to you. Rumors and misinformation will abound in these situations. If you reblog a post from someone saying it’s not true and doesn’t have anything to do with fanfic writers, or writers in general, know that they’re wrong. Unless they work at Tumblr, they have no way of knowing what’s really happening. End of story.
What can you do?
Back up your stuff. Download your content. Find a new home. We can help with this. Come talk to us. We have a ton of posts on our blog. Tags aren’t working right now for a lot of people, so if you can’t find it shoot us a message or an ask and we’ll link you as fast as possible.
Put your name on our fanfic author masterlist. In the horrible event that you get deleted, we will be able to post information for your readers and followers on where else they might find you and support you. There’s a separate one for fan artists with the same premise.
Refute any flagged content you feel was done so in error. If you know that the gif set, picture, or other visual content clearly goes against their criteria, do not refute it. It’s bogging Tumblr down and not allowing them to reinstate those users who did nothing wrong. Only the original poster of the content can refute the flag. A lot of people have tons of content. Don’t assume they are seeing all of these. There is no notification system for this, despite what Tumblr says. If you see a reblog that’s been flagged, let the original poster know so that they can dispute it.
We have a Discord server set up for fanfic writers and readers. This can include original writers and writblrs as well, but we are a digital magazine about writing fanfiction, so we’re going to concentrate our efforts on that crowd, but everyone is invited. There are sections for news and updates on where people can find your new chapters while we all work through this mess together. If you can’t find us, or need us to add you manually, send us a message or an ask.
Our website will include a blog section when it’s up and we’re going to invite all those that have their own blogs removed or censored heavily to come over to Lemon’s website and contribute. The topics do not have to pertain to writing fanfiction or writing in any way. We know that the LGBTQQIAAP community is being hit harder than most and Tumblr is an outlet for everyone to be able to find support. We will not let that fade away. At this time, we don’t have the capabilities to do GIFsets or pictures in large quantities. We’re going to concentrate on the text post side. We will pull several articles a month to be featured in the magazine as well, with author permission, obviously.
Alternatives for writers and readers:
*If you need more information on these, or other websites, we have it. Come talk to us.
Doesn’t include a MA rating any longer. This means no explicitly sexual chapters are allowed. They also do not allow RPF or reader-insert stories. The other two do allow these things, with AO3 being the most relaxed on that situation.
It’s not a server, like the others. It’s your own private website. There is no directory or search function. There is an easy way to get your content downloaded from Tumblr to WordPress, though. Make sure you check out our reblogs or let us help you find them.
Lemon was founded on the principle that all fanfiction writers deserve a voice and the confidence to succeed, no matter what they want to write. We stand by that now more than ever. We want to help. We want to keep all the content safe, no matter how good you think it is. If you spent any amount of time on it, it deserves to be saved. You are a creator and deserve to be protected. Don’t let anyone tell you fanart and fanfiction aren’t important and a valid creative outlet. It is and we’re not going anywhere. Lemon will be here until the bitter, bitter end. And we’ll go wherever the fanfic writers and fan artists migrate.
I think the real problem here is that big media corporations seem to believe that social media userbases are fungible, and persist in acting on this belief no matter how many times it’s demonstrated to be wrong.
There’s a specific pattern of events that plays out over and over (and over) again, and it looks something like this:
1. Social media platform becomes popular
2. Social media platform is purchased by big media corporation in order to gain access to it large user base
3. Big media corporation realises that social media platform’s demographics are not the demographics they want to sell things to.
4. Big media corporation institutes measures to drive away “undesirable” users, apparently in the honest belief that the outgoing users will automatically be replaced by an equal number of new, more demographically desirable users
5. This does not, in fact, occur
6. Social media platform crashes and burns
You’d think that, by the sheer law of averages, at least one person who’s capable of learning from experience would become involved in this whole process at some point.
Anyway, these wiki entries can give you an idea of what documentation of a tumblr post and its responses might look like. We’ll never document every single little thing, and we wouldn’t want to, but we can make a record of major conversations and schools of thought so that fans who come after us know how people were feeling on tumblr back in the day.
Fanlore uses the same wiki markup as Wikipedia et al.
Fanlore has a “Plural Point of View” policy: treat it like oral history where you want to document all sides of a controversy rather than Wikipedia’s attempt at ‘One Universal Truth’. (But feel free to correct factual errors.)
Fanlore is about any fandom history, so minute details of canon don’t belong on there, but minute details of meta, fanworks exchanges, any zine ever, any significant online fic, tropes in fanworks, etc. do.
Since tumblr is getting harder and harder to search, even aside from deletions, now is a great time to document important tumblr posts on Fanlore or add information from tumblr posts to existing articles.
Right now, Fanlore is an amazing resource on pre-internet “Media Fandom”, old print zines, the LJ era, and a lot of slash fandom history.
But it’s only as good and varied as its editors.
In my experience, it could use a lot of help in the realm of anime/manga fandom, including BL fandom, fandom not in English and/or outside of the English-speaking world, fandom on places like Quizilla or Wattpad, femslash fandom, etc. If your area of fandom is not represented, it’s only because the current editors don’t know enough!
You are welcome! We need you!
If you know how wikis work, you’re all set to edit Fanlore. If you’ve never used a wiki, we can help you figure it out.
Reblog this if you want readers to come into your ask box and ask for the “director’s commentary” on a particular story, section of a story, or set of lines.
Or, send in a ⭐star⭐ to have the author select a section they’ve been dying to talk about!
I don’t write much on here, but I will take the time right now to say that ya’ll should go cheer on your communities fanfic writers. If you wanna ask me stuff go for it.
the found family trope in fiction is an inherently queer trope because it directly involves deconstructing the heteronormative notions of what family is and involves defining what family is for oneself rather than assuming that the people you are biologically related to are always going to support and care for you. Furthermore it inherently deconstructs and challenges amatonormativity because rather than focusing on a central romantic relationship as the genesis for a family and on forming a romantic partnership as what constitutes making a family, it is focused on close non-romantic bonds. In this essay I will
Where’s the essay OP
Well enough people mentioned it so…
The found family trope in fiction is an inherently queer trope because it directly involves deconstructing the heteronormative notions of what family is and involves defining family for oneself rather than assuming that the people you are biologically related to are always going to support and care for you. Furthermore it inherently deconstructs and challenges amatonormativity because rather than focusing on a central romantic relationship as the genesis for a family and on forming a romantic partnership as what constitutes making a family, it is focused on close non-romantic bonds. There is an overwhelming preoccupation with family as something immutable and constant because you’re related to them and challenging that is valuable for anyone who for whatever reason is no longer in touch or on good terms with their family. This is a discussion that extends beyond the context of challenging heteronormativity or amatonormativity, but that is the aspect of it that interests me and which I will be focussing on. For the purposes of this essay I will be using queer to encapsulate LGBTQIA+ identities due to the terms wide acceptance in academic circles in the context of queer theory, and because of the application of queer as a verb. This is not just about dismantling heteronormative assumptions and constructs, this is about queering the idea of what family can be and how it is formed.
The found family or family of choice trope, is described by TV Tropes as when characters “mourn the lack of family in their lives and decide to build [a family] of their own out of people they care for and who care for them in turn”. This is important, because the trope often occurs because of stressful or unpleasant family circumstances for one or more of the characters in question, though it is not necessary that this be the case. Because of this, the found family need not be as homogenous and monolithic as a family related to each other, and as such is a great exemplification of solidarity– a very important part of what makes the queer community a singular community rather than many fragmented ones. Disparate members of the community may not face the same challenges, oppression, or stigma, but that does not mean they cannot find common ground and support each other through those various tribulations. Likewise, the found family need not be unified by the same background, the same lived experiences, or even the same reasons for seeking a found family. It is the decision and dedication to loving and supporting one another, to coming together on the common ground they do have and expressing solidarity for that they do not. Beyond it’s values, the trope also serves a valuable role for queer viewers in that it provides a reassuring and valuable alternative to queer folks who are not accepted by their biological families. When as story tells you that a family can be whatever you choose, that the bonds between them are ones of choice rather than biological or legal factors outside their control, that is greatly reassuring to people who need to find a new support structure outside the one they were raised with. At its core the found family is not just representative of quee values, it unseats traditional notions about family structures and challenges heteronormativity– as does any familial unit that does not fall into the narrow confines of a monogamous, straight cis couple and their biological children to varying degrees. It removes the typical vision of a straight couple at the core of a family, the parental homestead as a place always there to come home to, and replaces it with a chosen group to form a trusted and loving community.
The archetypal family unit is deeply tied to heteronormativity as it is centred around a straight marriage as the immutable core of a family, but even more so it is tied to amatonormativity. Amatonormativity is a term originated by Elizabeth Brake to, in her words, “describe the widespread assumption that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship”. Again, it is a concept that has application in a number of contexts, but it is chiefly interesting to me in the context of aromantic identities because that is where my personal experience lies, thought it should be noted that there is a large overlap in the ways it harms aromantic and polyamorous people. There is a widespread conception that settling down and starting a family is a universal goal and moreover, is accomplished in a universal way. Amatonormativity manifests itself in this assumption, and unlike heteronormativity, it is not exclusive to that idea of the archetypal family. While it is mainly concerned with the (monogamous) romantic relationship aspect of “settling down”, it often goes hand in hand with the assumption that settling down means children as well, because what else would a family consist of? What else are you going to do make meaning in your life? This brings us back to found family. Rather than prioritizing a romantic relationship as the most important part of a family– if not one’s life– it prioritizes non-romantic bonds. This is not to say that there cannot be romantic relationships as a part of a found family, but they are not the focal point. By challenging just what a family is, the found family challenges the idea of settling down as the only way to have close supportive bonds, not to mention that those bonds must originate with a romantic relationship. Moreover, since the trope more often occurs among characters who are earlier in life than people who would be getting married and having children, the trope rejects the idea that family and children are the only way to make meaning. A found family is no less important for its early formation, but it is no longer the goal of life but rather a support structure that is a part of a larger whole of a life. It directly opposes the amatonormative notion that romantic love is the most important part of anyone’s life, and leaves room for varying degrees of closeness between the members of said found family, allowing for those who do not prioritize or do not experience romantic attraction to still find a way to make family should they choose.
Found family is a trope that keeps occuring and stays present because it is relatable to a great number of people in a great number of situations. It has always and will always have applications outside of the context of the queer community and aromantic circles, but those lenses hold a lot of value for consideration.
So I’m going to do my best to sell people a little on DWrp, particularly rpers, but note that this really is a site that works very well for writing and fandom communities as well.
What’s DreamWidth?
Dreamwidth is a community based website that derived its original coding from LiveJournal- yes, that LiveJournal that had it’s servers moved to Russia and ran out the majority of the fandom through very bad coding decisions, amongst other…really big issues.
DW is advertiser free and has already shown that the small, US-based team is ready and happy to accommodate communities looking to go elsewhere- see the majority of 2012 when tens of thousands of new accounts were created by LJ’s rping community, including transferring the data and entries from communities several years and tens of thousands of comments old. Whilst you can buy paid accounts, this is not obligatory, and namely the benefit to doing so is having access to more icon space and the capability to create polls.
For rping, DW is a bit of a dream in comparison to Tumblr, considering that your threads are actually retained on the same page and are easy to navigate:
A single thread between two people, on the same page, staggered, and collapsible? Amazing!
Dreamwidth already does have a relatively stable community of rpers – you can see a masterlist of all the currently active games in that link right there! In addition to this, there’s meme and testing communities that allow people to test out new characters or just enjoy singular scenarios without feeling obligated towards a game.
Is DWRP different to tumblr rp?
From my own experience, absolutely. Tumblr rp is a lot looser and generally sticks to independent blogs interacting with each other- there are games and communities on tumblr as well, but unlike DWRP, indie is (or was, back in 2015 when I rped here) more widely used than in DW.
Another difference most games have is applications; generally these are sources of information that show how well you know your character and how you play them. They’ve been a staple in comm-based rp since the LJ days, and for some communities, this information serves a further purpose for settings that are AU (you’re changing your character’s history entirely for the universe in game, or play a non-canon version of that character) or have nerfs (certain powers, magic, or abilities are damped or cut entirely as to not break the game’s setting).
Writing in DWRP is generally formatted through HTML, which can feel intimidating when you first start using it. The styles of how you write are usually formatted to action (with brackets showing actions your character is taking) or prose (generally used for more introspection originally, but now it’s more of a tastes thing).
One of the biggest benefits to DWRP is that each comment has a subject header, which we usually use to warn if a cw has come up in a response (self-harm, abuse, etc)
There are a million and one guides on how DWRP works in comparison to tumblr rp, so hey! Have a look around, see if dwrp offers something you like, and maybe dive in!
This is one of many dwrp guides out there; I’m not even going to begin linking every single one, but google and you will find them.
I have talked to four journalists today and have agreed to write a press piece that I need to start on, but obviously it’s important that I finally sit down and post on Tumblr, too.
This is a weird feeling: I literally think that I am the world’s foremost effort on the potential impact of Tumblr banning adult content.
Here’s why: I’ve done a bunch of research about the genesis of AO3/OTW, and most recently, a large-scale study of fandom’s migration across platforms over time. I can tell you for a fact that both fanfiction.net’s and LiveJournal’s bans on adult content resulted in fans leaving those sites–and in LiveJournal’s case, essentially the death of that platform for fandom.
The image above, if you haven’t seen it before, shows fandom platform use over time, and the red line that dips drastically is LiveJournal, after “Strikethrough 2007.”
Here’s another finding from that study: That policy was the #1 reason that fans left LiveJournal. For every other platform, fans mostly left because something better came along, but nope, for LiveJournal, it was specifically because of their crackdown on “obscene” content, and what that signaled to fandom about how they were unwelcome there.
Plot Designing 