not to be a killjoy but it’s still crazy to me that it’s considered mean to be like “maybe you should read / play / watch the source material before creating fanworks and diving into the fandom” bc every time i see somebody going “i havent played disco elysium or know anything about it tbh but uwu here’s harry and kim kissing” idk maybe you should engage with it. maybe you should play the anti-capitalist surrealist game where you investigate the murder of a mercenary who led the gang rape of a foreign girl and process that for a bit? and then you can do cutesy mlm or whatever idc. but like at the absolute bare minimum you should understand what the source material involves otherwise we get the phenomenon of people joining a dragon age server and wanting content warnings for like, mage racism. like it’s fine to ship and transform the genre into whatever but if you arent comfortable with discussions of the actual source content itself then maybe the fandom isnt for you and a different one is. peace and love.
actual peace and love would involve letting anyone who wants to do things do them, without judgment.
I don’t think there is anything unreasonable about the idea that if someone isn’t comfortable with actual discussions of the source material they should probably not insert themselves into the fandom. And I struggle to see how this has anything to do with ableism as per your tags.
Well, when you demand a certain amount of effort to be input before you consider someone’s creative work valid, that’s ableist.
The issue at hand isn’t one of the validity of transformative works (and I agree with you there that art doesn’t derive meaning or validity from the amount of “effort” poured into it) but of fandom social dynamics and the very simple fact that people involved in a fandom will find people who have not engaged with the source material yet insist on inserting themselves into the fandom annoying. This user articulated it well imo and I’m tired right now:
Unfortunately it’s still gatekeeping and still ableist.
I genuinely think it’s neither of those things.
i show up to the Planes Enjoyer Convention to talk about how pretty planes are. to my shock i learn planes fly which is awful because i’m scared of heights.
despite me being very passionate, nobody wants to hear about my novel where i imagine planes as types of burrowing creatures. instead people tell me i don’t seem very interested in planes or the Planes Enjoyer Convention. this is very mean and judgemental.
eventually i strike up a conversation with someone and they reveal that planes are sometimes used for wars, and they actually like historical “war planes”. my heart sinks.
they seem surprised and suggest that i read up about planes. that’s just unacceptable. i call them an ableist gatekeeper and protest as i mime being forcibly escorted out of the convention by the security guards i made up in my head.
Everyone wanted to be thicc but nobody wanted to be fat. Everyone wanted the dad bod but nobody wanted to be fat. Everyone wants fat mommy milkers but nobody wants mommy to be fat. Everyone wants to be a bear but not like, an actual fat bear. You get what i’m saying
Everyone wants the mistique of fatness or use the language of fatness to denote hotness without actually being fat or acknowledging that fat people or fatness can just be hot.
Something I need to be reminded of often. Yes, I’m very lazy and also have executive problems up the wazoo (the difference? laziness is fun), but the cultural expectation of being productive every waking moment isn’t healthy either. And the business of feeding ourselves is especially fraught these days.
This is the same topic and screenshot that gave some of my chudliest chud haters such a meltdown after I posted it myself once, they raged at me for days and one by one dropped off of Tumblr forever. This subject kills idiots.
Note how these columns are designed to perfectly allow the climbing of small lizards up and down their faces. This is a typical example of Gecko-Roman architecture
Can I Please Eat In The Computer Room Tonight? by Nicole Nikolich (2025)
THIS IS CROCHET!!!!
Also, here’s the creator’s blurb about this piece from their instagram:
“can i please eat in the computer room tonight explores the positive and transformative view of tech from a preteens perspective growing up in the early aughts. this installation is a memorial to this fever dream of a time period where you could only access the internet in a specifically designated computer room, often decorated in brown hues and overstuffed with knickknacks and office supplies. this space, an escape to another part of your life, often felt like an oasis to explore who you were becoming for the first time without the microscope and confinements of adults and societal expectations. swapping sandboxes for CD-ROM games and mixed tapes. inside jokes with friends in chat rooms and staying up until way too late messaging your crush in your own secret language. taking selfies on the front facing camera and looking at yourself in a slightly different way for the first time. learning about yourself and the world all from the glow of a little square box in the middle of a little square room.”
Please send me the training or tutorial in a written format with maybe some screenshots if necessary. I don’t want a video tutorial. I don’t want to waste time trying to scroll to the exact moment in the instructions that I need and then have to pause and replay it because I missed the .01 seconds of actually relevant information.
Please. Text. Maybe some images for clarification. I can read. I promise.
Skimmable, SEARCHABLE instructions. If they’re long, there should be a hyperlinked table of contents.
Elder Millennial here cosigning HARD
If you really need to show a movement, embed a gif or 15-scond-or-less video in the text, like Jod intended.
I work in science communications and I am constantly hearing about how we need to try to do video to appeal to the newest generation of scientists and it’s like do you think physicists who can’t read are a good idea?
Maw-rch art challenge: Drednaw! 4h41! Little details I’m proud of here: neck slightly extends for extra snapping turtle-ness, all the little toes, the shell ridges, has a little tongue that can go blehhh!
This is probably the last pokemon I’ll be able to make this month which would mean 3 Maw-rch March pokemon 😵💫
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