http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5603

alierak posting in

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3109/

It's important for devices to have internet connectivity so the manufacturer can patch remote exploits.

https://xkcd.com/3109/

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Characters/Pairings: Harriet Vane & Mary Wimsey
Rating: Gen
Length: 1951
Creator Links: Beatrice_Otter on AO3
Themes: Female relationships, Female friendship, Female characters

Summary: "I was complaining to my brother about how few friends I had, and he suggested that you might be an interesting person to know."

After Harriet is exonerated, she and Mary Wimsey meet for tea.

Reccer's Notes: A lovely, quietly perceptive story about two slightly lonely women finding commonalities and starting to become friends - one of Lord Peter's more successful machinations. It's beautifully written and the author's note at the end is interesting if you're a fan of the Wimsey books.

Fanwork Links: Tea For Two

fred_mouse

Today's annoyance with YouTube auto-craption:

"Current university"

Locals, who know what the tiny set of options are, can possibly identify what 'Current' is relatively easily. In my case, given that I was watching this from within Curtin University, it was even easier, once I worked out that that was what is going on.

But oh! it annoys me that people don't review the captions for even that level of obvious mistake (I'm not calling that one egregious. The ones that mess up the name(s) of Country included in an Acknowledgement of Country are egregious. I've never seen the same error for a Welcome to Country, which I assume is because the Indigenous people associated with the production of such know too well how badly it can be messed up).

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Deadloch
Characters/Pairings: Dulcie Collins/Eddie Redcliffe/Cath York
Rating: Explicit
Length: 5010
Content Notes: not kidding about the rating
Creator Links: kirazi on AO3
Themes: Female relationships, Femslash, Polyamory, Friends to lovers

Summary: “This is not a good idea, love,” Dulcie says, keeping her tone level. “I know I said I’d try to be more open to change, and I hear and respect your opinion, I truly do, but this is — it’s like the hobby farm. It’s really not going to work.”

“I just think,” Cath says, bright-eyed and earnest, “that it would be a healing experience for me. For us both! To share that kind of intimacy. I am committed to working through my anxiety about you fucking your partner and I’m sure that would be so much more manageable for me if we fucked her first. Together.”

(Eddie needs a gruck. Dulcie and Cath offer to help her out.)

Reccer's Notes: This is a polyamory fic where Cath decides she and Dulcie should have sex with Eddie so as to manage her anxiety that Dulcie might be unfaithful with Eddie (as happened in the past with a former partner at work). There's some nice psychological and historical exploration as Dulcie tries to work out what's going on, and the eventual sex is hot and well-written. What I like most is the character voices and dialogue for the three of them, which are spot on. It's also very funny, as are Eddie's creative takes on the English language.

Fanwork Links: Keep On Gruckin'

fred_mouse

Now that I've written up the six month summary of how my 2025 New Year's Resolutions have gone, I'm looking at what I want for the next six months. Which might turn out to be a 12 month set of goals; I'm kind of being flexible with whatever works.

But!

One of my intentions is that I have goals for each of the areas of my life that are important to me--there is no rating of how big that area has to be, just that I see it as an important circle. Two of these I did not manage to get a coherent goal for across the last six months. I'm not sure that it is possible to have coherent goals, but that might be me looking from the wrong perspective.

Which is where my question comes in: what suggestions do people have as to goals for 'Family' and 'Social'? I'm okay with drive by commentary from people who aren't familiar with the limitations of my life, because not knowing those details might be an important part of different perspective.

fred_mouse

Given that the last three weeks have been a completely different pace, and my expectations of my self for the rest of the year are quite different to where I was at the beginning of the year, I'm going to close out the set of goals I set myself at the beginning of the year (Note: I'm not working from that page, but from an offline edited version). The last update I did was May 20th. I contemplated writing a new set of resolutions in this post concurrently with wrapping up these, but have decided instead to create an offline document of Mid-Year Resolutions. I might get around to posting that, but chances are low.

( Lots of details, possibly only interesting to me )

tl;dr: great progress for work; good progress on craft, reading, physical - exercise and health; not great on house, organisation, decluttering, writing, garden, learning, money. No goals to compare to for family or social. Having a list continues to be useful.

otw_news_feed

Posted by xeno

https://www.transformativeworks.org/tos-spotlight-commercial-promotion/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265750

The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for enforcing the AO3 Terms of Service (TOS). To help users better understand the TOS, we’re posting a weekly spotlight series about the TOS and our policies. We’ll also be reading comments and answering questions on this and our other spotlight posts.

For our last post in this series, we’ll be talking about our non-commercialization policy. AO3 doesn’t allow users to engage in commercial promotion of any type, which includes everything from paywalls to tip jars, and quite a lot in between. In this post, we’ll discuss why AO3 doesn’t allow commercialization, what kinds of activities are considered to be commercial promotion, and what to do if you see commercial promotion on AO3.

Don’t go looking for things to report.

Please do not start searching for works to report after reading this post. We know that commercial promotion frequently appears on AO3. However, when people deliberately search for works to report, we end up getting a lot of duplicate tickets about works that have already been reported. Every ticket we receive is reviewed by a PAC volunteer, so we only need one report in order to investigate an issue. We know it seems like sites only respond to mass reports, but on AO3, duplicate and mass reports increase the time it takes our volunteers to investigate.

What is commercial promotion?

Commercial promotion covers all references or links to commercial sites, monetized features of non-commercial sites, and anything else that makes it clear someone is asking for or has received financial contributions.

On AO3, you can’t encourage anyone to give other people money, or talk about anyone having given people money in the past. This applies whether you are promoting yourself or a friend, or even if you’re collecting donations for other people or causes. If there is money changing hands, then it likely violates AO3’s TOS.

AO3 is a non-commercial space.

AO3 was created and is managed by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), a nonprofit organization committed to the defense and protection of fanworks from commercial exploitation and legal challenges. The OTW is entirely staffed by unpaid volunteers, and AO3 is itself entirely non-commercial. No one involved in AO3’s creation or management profits from it. The site is made available free of charge to all fans who wish to share their works with other fans and fan communities.

We understand that many people today choose to monetize their creative activities. However, in order to keep AO3 as the non-commercial space it was designed to be, users are not permitted to engage in any commercial activity on the site.

When you use AO3, you agree to follow our Terms of Service, which includes the non-commercialization policy. This applies to all parts of the site, whether you’re posting a work based on an existing source or creating content entirely original to you.

AO3’s non-commercialization policy applies to the entire site.

Real-world commercialization is banned everywhere on AO3. This includes:

Profile pages
Usernames, pseuds, and pseud descriptions
Works (including all tags, beginning or end notes, chapter notes, summaries, and titles)
Series (including titles, summaries, descriptions, and notes)
Bookmarks (including tags and notes)
Comments
Prompt memes, gift exchanges, and other collections
Any other part of AO3

It’s okay for fictional characters in fanworks to talk about fictional monetization. For example, it’s fine if a character has a fictional OnlyFans or Patreon within the story, as long as that commercial reference doesn’t direct the reader to a real-world OnlyFans or Patreon account for the work creator or anyone else.

What are some examples of commercial activities?

There is a wide variety of things that are not allowed under AO3’s non-commercialization rules.

Links or references to any commercial site or service. A “commercial site” is any site whose primary purpose is to facilitate the transfer of money. This includes, but is not limited to:

Storefronts like Amazon or Etsy
Crowd fundraisers like Kickstarter or GoFundMe
Tip jars or membership subscriptions like Ko-Fi or Patreon
Payment platforms like PayPal or Venmo

Links or references to the monetized features of non-commercial sites. This covers any site that has features you can enable or opt-in to earn revenue, but the primary purpose of the site is social media, sharing artwork, or anything else that isn’t inherently payment-focused. This includes, but is not limited to:

Paywalls or early-access content like Wattpad Paid Stories or Webtoon Canvas
Storefronts like DeviantArt Shop or Instagram Shop
Tip jars or membership subscriptions like TikTok Donation Stickers or Twitch Prime

Previews and other promotions for paid content. This covers situations like excerpts or teasers shared in an attempt to entice people to purchase a book or become a paying subscriber. It also includes references to paywalled or early-access content (e.g. “Patreon subscribers get the new chapter one week early before I post it on AO3”).

Advertising content or services involving an exchange of money, such as buying merchandise, collecting donations, offering paid commissions, or selling published works.

Any other language which one might interpret as requesting or having requested financial contributions, whether for yourself or others. This covers indirect references, euphemisms, or other language intended to get around the TOS. Some examples of this include:

Thanks for the coffee!
My ☕ username is the same as my username here
This chapter is brought to you by my patrons
You know where to find me if you want early or bonus chapters
Check out my Twitter to learn how you can donate to me ~~since I’m not allowed to discuss it here~~
If you want to hear more about my ideas, talk about fandom, or find more of my stuff for a coin, visit my Tumblr

Solicitation is not allowed, whether it’s for yourself or on behalf of someone else.

Commercial activity is not permitted on AO3. It doesn’t matter if you’re promoting yourself or a friend, or even if you’re collecting donations for other people or causes.

This means that if you paid an artist to create artwork for your fanfic, you’re not allowed to mention that they have a Patreon or use any other language that suggests people should also commission or donate to them. If you like a book by a particular author, you are certainly welcome to gush about what a great book it is, but you can’t link to the Amazon page where it’s for sale or encourage others to buy it.

What is the difference between a commercial site and a non-commercial site that has monetization features?

As mentioned above, a commercial site is a platform that is first and foremost intended to facilitate the exchange of money. For example, while you can use Ko-Fi as a blog, the site’s primary purpose is to encourage people to give each other money. Ko-Fi’s social features are secondary to its purpose as a donation and paid membership platform. This means you cannot link to or mention your or anyone else’s actual Ko-Fi on AO3 whatsoever.

An example of a non-commercial site that has monetization features is DeviantArt, an art gallery that is mainly intended as a place to share artworks. DeviantArt also allows its users to opt-in to additional monetization features, such as the DeviantArt Shop. Because DeviantArt’s paid features are both optional and not the primary reason people use the site, you can talk about or link to DeviantArt on AO3 – as long as you aren’t directing anyone to a paywalled post or referencing DeviantArt’s paid features in any way.

Can I link or mention a social media site where I talk about making money or collecting donations?

You’re allowed to link or mention social media like Tumblr or personal websites like WordPress, even if you sometimes post about commercial activities on those sites. However, you cannot reference commercial promotion on AO3 itself, nor may you link, mention, or give instructions for finding an account, page, or post that is solely promoting paid content.

Statements such as “Follow me on social media” or “Check out my Linktree” are fine. Directing people to an Amazon author page or to the Ko-fi link in your Twitter bio would not be allowed. This includes things like “Check out my Linktree to learn how you can support me” in cases where you are clearly referring to monetary support.

Can I post a fanwork created for a charity drive or for-profit zine?

While you cannot promote, solicit, or otherwise ask for donations on AO3, you are allowed to add your work to a collection or otherwise briefly mention why you created a fanwork, as long as you do so in a non-commercial manner. This means you can say “This was created for [Event]” or “Originally Written for [Name of Person/Zine]” as long as you do not directly link to a donation page or ask others to donate to them.

Keep in mind we also do not permit mentions of monetary transactions, regardless of when they occurred. A note such as “This was a $100 bid for Fandom Trumps Hate” would still be considered commercialization.

I’ve seen authors say their works are commissions. Is this allowed?

You are allowed to gift your work to someone else or otherwise briefly mention why you created a fanwork, as long as you do so in a non-commercial manner. Because not all commissioned fanworks were created for pay, we do permit usage of the word “commission” as long as there is no indication that a monetary transaction was involved in the creation of the work or that you are available to create other paid commissions.

For example, phrasing like “This is a commission for X” is acceptable, but “Commission for my Gold Tier Patron, Julie” or “My client agreed to let me post the first chapter of their commission” isn’t. The context makes it clear that both “patron” and “client” are references to a paying sponsor.

I’ve seen others ask for donations or advertise paid commissions. Why can’t I?

As our TOS FAQ explains, we don’t review content until it’s reported to us. You may have seen somebody else mentioning their paywalled content or otherwise engaging in commercial activities on AO3, but that doesn’t mean that it’s allowed. All it means is that nobody has reported that content to us yet, or that we haven’t finished processing the report.

What will happen if I get reported for commercial promotion?

First, we’ll review the reported work to confirm that you violated our TOS by engaging in commercial activities on AO3. If we determine that you did, we’ll send you an email telling you to remove the violating material.

If your work can be edited to fix the issue, you’ll be asked to edit the work. Your work may be hidden from other users until you do. If you choose not to edit the work, or if your work cannot be edited into compliance with the TOS, it will be deleted.

PAC will only ever contact you by email, and only after we’ve determined that your work violates our Terms of Service. We will never comment on your work or contact you through social media. Please make sure to keep your account’s email address up to date and check it regularly (including your spam folder), or else you may miss our warning email.

If you repeatedly post works that violate our commercial promotion policies, you may be temporarily suspended. Continuing to violate the TOS will result in your being permanently banned from AO3. You can learn more about warnings and suspensions in our TOS FAQ.

What should I do if I encounter commercial activity on AO3?

You can give the creator a heads up by politely commenting on their work and linking to the TOS FAQ or this post. Alternatively, you can report the work to us.

What about spam comments?

The best way to deal with spam comments, commercial or otherwise, depends on whether the comments are from registered accounts or guests.

How do I report commercial activity?

Although we ask that you do not deliberately seek out commercial promotion to report, if you come across commercial activity while browsing, you can report it using the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form, which is linked at the bottom of every page on AO3.

Please don’t report more than one user at a time or submit multiple reports about the same user. When reporting multiple works by the same user, please submit only one report with links to each work you’re reporting, so that all information about that user is in the same place.

Please tell us exactly where in the work the commercialization is. The best way to do this is to give us a description or short quote that we can search for in order to immediately find the content. If you are reporting multiple works by the same creator, please group all the works into one report and provide this information for each work.

For example, a report of commercial promotion might look like this:

Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.org/works/00000000

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Commercial promotion

Description of the content you are reporting:
This work by USERNAME advertises a ko-fi in the end notes of chapter 3.

If you are reporting additional works, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:

Description of the content you are reporting:
This work by USERNAME advertises a ko-fi in the end notes of chapter 3.

Some of their other works also contain commercial promotion:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456789 encourages readers to purchase their book on Amazon: “If you’re curious what else I’ve been working on or want to support me elsewhere, check out my new short story on Kindle Unlimited!”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34567890 contains an embedded image with a Patreon watermark. Underneath, the sentence “If you want more like this, click here” takes you to their commissions price sheet.

You can add more details if you like, but this example provides the basic information we need:

Who posted the commercial promotion: Tell us their username or if the work is anonymous or orphaned.
Where we can find the work(s): Enter one URL in the “Link to the page you are reporting” field, and (if applicable) include links to any other violating works in the description of your report.
What violates the TOS: Explain why you think commercial promotion has occurred, for example by including a quote and/or providing context for a comment exchange. A brief description of the situation is fine; you don’t need to be very detailed or quote an entire TOS or FAQ section.

You’ll receive an automatic email confirming that we received your report, and our volunteers will investigate when they get a chance. Please be patient and do not submit another report about the same work. While PAC investigates every report we receive, it can take several months for us to process a report, and not every report will receive a reply.

What if I have more questions about commercial promotion?

PAC follows a strict confidentiality policy. Therefore, while you are welcome to ask general questions in the comments of this post, we will not give information on specific cases, publicly rule on a work, or update you on the status of a report you have already submitted. Comments on this post that discuss specific works or users will be removed.

If you think you’ve found commercial promotion on AO3, or if you want to know whether a particular work contains commercial promotion, please report the work to us as described above. For more information, you can read our TOS FAQ on Commercial Promotion.

If you are still uncertain, you can comment below or submit a question through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/tos-spotlight-commercial-promotion/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265750

reeby10 posting in

fancake

Fandom: Midsommar
Characters: Dani Ardor, Hanna, Siv
Rating: T
Length: 4,212
Creator Links:

Selkit
Theme: female relationships

Summary: In her dreams, dark smudges crowd the edges of the world. One looms larger than the rest, twisting into impossible shapes, morphing into a figure with many faces, all of them howling with rage.

When she jolts awake, the dream-figure lingers. She tries to ignore it. She’s no stranger to nightmares. Her whole life has been one ever since her family’s deaths.

But things are different now. This is a new life. A new family.

Right?

Reccer's Notes: I love seeing what happens with Dani after the events of Midsommar, and this is such a good look at the continued ritual of being the May Queen! I am a known ho for ritual, but especially building off of the existing worldbuilding in such a believable way. I really enjoyed seeing more of Dani interacting with the other women of the Hårga as she learns to be part of her new family and culture. Plus the parts with Maja’s (and Christian’s) daughter were just perfect.

Fanwork Links: on AO3

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: original work
Characters/Pairings: powerful mage/warrior bonded to her
Rating: G
Length: n/a
Creator Links: creators have been revealed but the artist chose to make the work anon.
Themes: Female relationships, Femslash, Female characters, Characters of color, Magic

Summary: none provided

Reccer's Notes: Another gorgeous work from the recent Everything is Femslash exchange. It's in a fantasy setting, featuring a mage and her warrior. I love the warm earthy colours, and how, the mage being a little shorter, their faces and bodies fit together perfectly, and the way they're linked by the swirl of the magical bond. Beautiful. (Note that the post is locked to AO3.)

Fanwork Links: Always with you

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3108/

To combat the threat, many airlines are installing wing-mounted spray bottles.

https://xkcd.com/3108/

sinesofinsanity posting in

fancake

Fandom: DC Comics
Pairings/Characters: Pamela Isely/Harleen Quinzel, Bruce Wayne
Rating: Teen
Length: 1,882 words
Creator Links: Unpretty on AO3
Theme: Female relationships, Canon lgbtq+ characters, humour, superpowers

Summary:
Bruce Wayne deals with supervillains almost as much as Batman does.

Reccer's Notes:
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy break into Bruce Wayne's office to stop Wayne Enterprises from doing evil corporate stuff. Or kill him. Bruce plays dumb. It's glorious.
I love Harley and Ivy's relationship in this. They're so true in how they love and support each other but are definitely super-villains who will definitely kill and/or main whoever gets in their way. Also Bruce's line about how Pamela probably wants to kill him because Harley finds him hot :D Bruce being smart by playing dumb is one of my favourite things.

Fanwork Links: Office Meeting
Also has a podfic!

otw_news_feed

Posted by choux

https://www.transformativeworks.org/ao3-releases-0-9-409-0-9-413-change-log/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265742

In May and June, we made some security additions for user accounts by adding email notifications when an account’s username or password is changed. We also made some improvements around tag sets and challenge signups. As one more security change, we also permanently disabled image embedding in guest comments.

A special thank you to our new contributors Ashley Tan, dismayonnaise, Grayson von Goetz, Jen Mann, kitbur, and ryelle!

Credits

Coders: Ashley Tan, Bilka, Brian Austin, Ceithir, Connie Feng, dismayonnaise, EchoEkhi, Grayson von Goetz, Hamham6, Jen Mann, kitbur, marcus8448, ryelle, Sarken, Scott, slavalamp, weeklies
Code reviewers: Bilka, Brian Austin, Ceithir, james_, lydia-theda, redsummernight, slavalamp, Sarken, weeklies
Testers: Bilka, Brian Austin, choux, Deniz, Eskici, LilyP, Lute, lydia-theda, Maine, megidola, Runt, Sam Johnsson, Sarken, Scott, Tal, Teyris, therealmorticia, wichard

Details

0.9.409

On May 11, we deployed some improvements to tag sets and added an email notification whenever the username on your account is changed.

[AO3-5513] – Admins can now successfully create and rename media tags without running into 500 errors or caching issues.
[AO3-5714] – When a canonical fandom and a non-canonical character or relationship were added to the same tag set, the non-canonical tags were automatically listed under the fandom. However, this is just how the tags were displayed in the tag set. They weren’t really connected to the fandom, which meant they weren’t included in autocompletes and couldn’t be used in challenge sign-ups. We’ve stopped automatically listing the non-canonical tags under the fandom and will instead only do it if the tag set moderators set up an association (which will also make the non-canonical tags usable in sign-ups and help ensure they appear in the autocomplete).
[AO3-5919] – We updated the code for kudos emails to avoid using a method that wasn’t particularly efficient.
[AO3-6757] – When an admin hides a comment, any embedded images in the hidden comment will now be replaced with the image URLs.
[AO3-6844] – We fixed a whole bunch of display and page structure issues on pages that list the tags in a tag set.
[AO3-6977] – We’ve started spam checking edits to comments from new users and stopped spam checking any comments a work creator leaves on their own work.
[AO3-6981] – To improve account security, we now send you an email when you (or someone logged in to your account) change your username.
[AO3-6984] – Our dependency updater bumped our version of net-imap to 0.5.7. It’s not something we use, but keeping dependencies up to date is good.
[AO3-6988] – We started caching the package installs involved in our automated tests, making each test run faster.
[AO3-6990] – We bumped our version of the rack gem to 2.2.14 to get the latest security fix.

0.9.410

On May 16, we added an email notification whenever the password of your account is changed. We also made a number of small improvements all around the site.

[AO3-5712] – Under certain circumstances, it was possible to sign up for a challenge using a character or relationship that wasn’t permitted by the challenge’s tag set. Now you’ll get an error if you try to do that.
[AO3-6267] – If a draft chapter was added to a work in your History, your History would lie to you and say an update to the work was available. Now it will only tell you an update is available if a new chapter has been published since you last accessed the work.
[AO3-6627] – Whenever a site admin tried to update the roles for a user who already had roles outside the admin’s purview, those existing roles would be removed. (For example, when a Tag Wrangling admin gave the tag wrangler role to a user who had the Open Doors archivist role, the user would lose their archivist role.) We’ve fixed it so any existing roles will stay in place.
[AO3-6994] – We fixed an issue that was causing our spam checker to run on comments from accounts with recently changed email addresses.
[AO3-6005] – We used feature tests somewhere we should’ve been using unit tests, so we changed them over.
[AO3-6975] – At some point the admin setting for how long to keep around unactivated accounts had become disconnected from the code it was meant to control. We fixed this so the setting once again affects the right piece of code.
[AO3-6970] – When the Policy & Abuse committee hides a work, you get an automatic email to notify you. To prepare for some future changes, we’ve updated the email text to allow for multiple works in the same email.
[AO3-6973] – Another account security enhancement: you’ll now get an email when you (or someone accessing your account) change or reset your password.

0.9.411

On May 24, we deployed an improvement to word counts for multichapter works on the Statistics page. We also took steps to fight abuse in guest comments by preventing them from ever displaying embedded images.

[AO3-3818] – On some specific browsers on certain devices, leaving comments or submitting support tickets would result in an error. We’ve now fixed that.
[AO3-4190] – Every time invitations were sent, the log on the site settings page updated to say the settings had been modified. We’ve fixed it so it will only say the settings have been updated when an admin updates them.
[AO3-7000] – One of the external links in the Creating a Skin help pop-up pointed to a site that had been taken over by a crypto magazine, so we’ve replaced it with a new resource for learning about CSS.
[AO3-6995] – In a previous release, we tried to drop an unused database column. Unfortunately, we had to put it back when it turned out Rails was still looking for the column due to caching. We’ve now made a code change that will let us drop the column for real after a future release.
[AO3-5270] – The yearly word counts on your Statistics page will now only count words written in chapters posted in that year. That means if you add a chapter to a WIP you started last year, the words you wrote last year will still count toward 2024’s total instead of being added to 2025’s total.
[AO3-5347] – The notification you get when someone cites your work as a related work has now been prepared for translation.
[AO3-6092] – A while ago, we unintentionally fixed a bug where the chapter title didn’t display in Entire Work mode if the work only had one posted chapter. Now we’ve added an automated test to make sure we don’t unintentionally break it again.
[AO3-6684] – The close button on the banner we use for sitewide announcements uses an ×, which typically makes sense if you’re looking at the page, but which gets read as “multiplication sign” if you’re using a screen reader. That was confusing, so we’ve made sure screen readers will now say “hide banner” instead.
[AO3-6967] – We’ve added a second save button to the top of tag edit pages to make things a little more convenient when the page is long and a wrangler is just changing something at the top of the form.
[AO3-6987] – Under certain circumstances, we strip embedded images from certain fields. We used to just show the image URL when we did that, but now we show all of the HTML.
[AO3-6991] – As a safety measure, guest comments with embedded images will always show the HTML instead of embedded images. (This includes existing guest comments.)

0.9.412

On June 5, we deployed a small release with some bug fixes.

[AO3-6166] – If you knew the ID of an unrevealed work you could access a few subpages of the work, such as the collections page, and find out the title of the work that way. Since that’s meant to be unrevealed, we’ve changed these pages so you can no longer access them if the work is unrevealed.
[AO3-6937] – We changed the browser page title on inbox pages to a format that matches other user pages: “username – Inbox | Archive of Our Own.”
[AO3-6953] – We made sure you’ll get an error message if you attempt to clear your History and it fails.
[AO3-6993] – The Edit Multiple Works page will no longer display a bunch of unusable options when you don’t have any works. Instead, it will simply tell you you don’t have any works.
[AO3-6550] – When displaying work titles, we used to call a function on them that had already been called. We’ve stopped doing that since it’s redundant.
[AO3-6948] – We added some code to enable us to monitor the performance of the job that sends invitations to people in the invitation queue.

0.9.413

Our June 16 deploy added the ability to embed media from audio.com in works.

[AO3-6515] – We fixed an error 500 that occured when a work with end notes was marked as published, but only had draft chapters.
[AO3-6912] – We changed the browser page title for unrevealed works to include the site name at the end.
[AO3-6437] – We removed some unused database tables.
[AO3-6996] – We finally dropped that unused database column and removed the code we added to make that go smoothly.
[AO3-6235] – Admins from the Policy & Abuse committee can now turn invitation requests on and off from the site settings page.
[AO3-6588] – Admins from the Open Doors and Support committees can now give users the role that disables password reset emails for their account.
[AO3-7003] – You can now add embeds from audio.com to your works.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/ao3-releases-0-9-409-0-9-413-change-log/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265742

fred_mouse

thestory inside is doing July signups. I'm not taking on any extra commitments, not even suggested reading, at the moment, but I have very much enjoyed the suggestions I have had from this group. If you have a TBR list you can share, you too can have this excitement in your life!

It works on a buddy system - they pick three books from your list for you to read, you pick three books from their list for them to read. Sign ups close on the 1st July.

questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5601

MEANWHILE:

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5601

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Star Trek: Reboot
Characters/Pairings: James Kirk/Leonard 'Bones' McCoy
Rating: G
Length: n/a
Creator Links: storietellers on AO3
Themes: Female relationships, Domestic, Femslash

Summary: "Having fun, Bones?"
"Just working out the tension. You really keep it all in your wrists. Keep reading, darlin'. I wanna know what happens next."

Reccer's Notes:
The 'Everything is Femslash' exchange has just revealed creators, and this is a gorgeous artwork of Rule 63 (always a girl) Kirk and McCoy chilling out. The lighting is warm and their likenesses are really well done. It's relaxing just to look at.

Fanwork Links: Relaxing

questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5600

Bok bok

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5600

skygiants

I was traveling again for much of last week which meant, again, it was time to work through an emergency paperback to see if it was discardable. And, indeed, it was! And you would think that reading and discarding one bad book on my travels, dayenu, would have been enough -- but then my friend brought me to books4free, where I could not resist the temptation to pick up another emergency gothic. And, lo and behold, this book turned out to be even worse, and was discarded before the trip was out!

The two books were not even much alike, but I'm going to write them up together anyway because a.) I read them in such proximity and b.) though I did not like either of them, neither quite reached the over-the-top delights of joyous badness that would demand a solo post.

The first -- and this one I'd been hanging onto for some years after finding it in a used bookstore in San Francisco -- was Esbae: A Winter's Tale (published 1981), a college-campus urban fantasy in which (as the Wikipedia summary succinctly says) a college student named Chuck summons Asmodeus to help him pass his exams. However, Chuck is an Asshole Popular Boy who Hates Books and is Afraid of the Library, so he enlists a Clumsy, Intellectual, Unconventional Classmate with Unfashionable Long Red Locks named Sophie to help him with his project. Sophie is, of course, the heroine of the book, and Moreover!! she is chosen by the titular Esbae, a shapechanging magical creature who's been kicked out into the human realm to act as a magical servant until and unless he helps with the performance of a Great and Heroic Deed, to be his potentially heroic master.

Unfortunately after this happens Sophie doesn't actually do very much. The rest of the plot involves Chuck incompetently stalking Sophie to attempt to sacrifice her to Asmodeus, which Sophie barely notices because she's busy cheerfully entering into an affair with the history professor who taught them about Asmodeus to begin with.

In fact only thing of note that nerdy, clumsy Sophie really accomplishes during this section is to fly into a rage with Esbae when she finds out that Esbae has been secretly following her to protect her from Chuck and beat her unprotesting magical creature of pure goodness up?? to which is layered on the extra unfortunate layer that Esbae often takes the form of a small brown-skinned child that Sophie saw playing the Heroine's Clever Moorish Servant in an opera one time??? Sophie, who is justifiably horrified with herself about this, talks it over with her history professor and they decide that with great mastery comes great responsibility and that Sophie has to be a Good Master. Obviously this does not mean not having a magical servant who is completely within your power and obeys your every command, but probably does mean not taking advantage of the situation to beat the servant up even if you're really mad. And we all move on! Much to unpack there, none of which ever will be.

Anyway. Occult shenanigans happen at a big campus party, Esbae Accomplishes A Heroic Deed, Sophie and her history professor live happily ever after. It's 1981. This book was nominated for a Locus Award, which certainly does put things in perspective.

The second book, the free bookstore pickup, was Ronald Scott Thorn's The Twin Serpents (1965) which begins with a brilliant plastic surgeon! tragically dead! with a tragically dead wife!! FOLLOWED BY: the discovery of a mysterious stranger on a Greek island who claims to know nothing about the brilliant plastic surgeon ....

stop! rewind! You might be wondering how we got here! Well, the brilliant plastic surgeon (mid-forties) had a Cold and Shallow but Terribly Beautiful twenty-three-year-old aristocratic wife, and she had a twin brother who was not only a corrupt and debauched and spendthrift aristocrat AND not only psychologically twisted as a result of his physical disability (leg problems) BUT of course mildly incestuous with his twin sister as well and PROBABLY the cause of her inexplicable, unnatural distaste for the idea of having children. I trust this gives you a sense of the vibe.

However, honestly the biggest disappointment is that for a book that contains incestuous twins, face-changing surgery [self-performed!!], secret identities, secret abortions, a secret disease of the hands, last-minute live-saving operations and semi-accidental murder, it's ... kind of boring ..... a solid 60% of the book is the brilliant plastic surgeon and his wife having the same unpleasant marital disputes in which the book clearly wants me to be on his side and I am really emphatically absolutely not. ( spoilers )

Both these books have now been released back into the wild; I hope they find their way to someone who appreciates them. I did also read a couple of good books on my trip but those will, eventually, get their own post.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3107/

Once you add the balloons into the model, it makes forecasting easier overall--the forecast is always 'cold and dark, with minimal solar-driven convection.'

https://xkcd.com/3107/

fred_mouse

in the paper I'm reading right now, I found the sentence

"All these models end up being specific cases of a generalized stochastic differential equation."

and actually laughed out loud (it helps that I'm working from home today; specifically from bed, so that maybe my lower back will stop hating me. I can read just as well in bed, having spent a lot of the last year training to read from the laptop in exactly this position :) And thus laughing is not disruptive)

Why did I laugh? As I explained to artisanat, that is the first jargon filled sentence where I've understood every word and what it means. And then I was asked for examples of words I don't know, which at this point I can think of 'constructivist framework' and 'epistemological' (I'm starting to get a feel for the latter; the former I have zero idea)

ETA: the next sentence read

"We cannot provide a detailed account of these models since they require a certain level of mathematical expertise."

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3106/

'This HAZMAT container contains radioactive material with activity of one becquerel.' 'So, like, a single banana slice?'

https://xkcd.com/3106/

questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5599

rofl

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5599

wondermark_feed

Posted by David Malki !

https://wondermark.com/c/1569/

https://wondermark.com/?post_type=webcomic1&p=18242

[ Comment thread on Discord ]

https://wondermark.com/c/1569/

https://wondermark.com/?post_type=webcomic1&p=18242

savagelove_feed

Posted by Tracey Cataldo

https://savage.love/savagelove/2025/06/24/situation-critical/

https://savage.love/?p=10695

I’m 27-year-old Italian guy. I just got out of a situationship with a woman five years older than me. It was a total mess. She wanted everything to revolve around her and be in control of everything because she had bad relationships in the past. She wanted to date other people, but I was always … Read More »

The post Situation Critical appeared first on Dan Savage.

https://savage.love/savagelove/2025/06/24/situation-critical/

https://savage.love/?p=10695

savagelove_feed

Posted by Nancy Hartunian

https://savage.love/lovecast/2025/06/24/rainbows-unicorns-mermaids/

https://savage.love/?p=10689

Her boyfriend of one year is perfect in every way! Except…he is stoned literally all the time. But he’s a great lover, communicates well, and truly loves the caller. So is this really a problem? Will it be eventually? A gay man was raised Mormon, and got the hell out. Now he’s living his best … Read More »

The post Rainbows! Unicorns! Mermaids! appeared first on Dan Savage.

https://savage.love/lovecast/2025/06/24/rainbows-unicorns-mermaids/

https://savage.love/?p=10689

otw_news_feed

Posted by callmeri

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-june-2025/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265723

Every month in OTW Signal, we take a look at stories that connect to the OTW’s mission and projects, including issues related to legal matters, technology, academia, fannish history and preservation issues of fandom, fan culture, and transformative works.

In the News

The Conversation’s article “The lore of ‘lore'” explores how fandom fueled the reinvention of a 1,000-year-old word:

Now essential online slang, [“lore”] can be traced back to Old English, where it referred primarily to learning, as in the act of teaching or being taught. Over time, lore came to be associated with more informal knowledge, passed on through word of mouth … [but then it] largely slipped out of common usage … So, how did “lore” come to hold such contemporary relevance?

“Lore” still carries shades of its original meaning, but just as fans expand and transform canon, modern usage reimagines it. Oxford University Press—which shortlisted “lore” for their 2024 word of the year—explains:

In recent years, people have been using “lore” in different ways and in new contexts. For example, they might now talk about the lore surrounding a particular celebrity, or a character in a book or film, or even refer to their own personal history as their lore. Online cultures and social media have seen the emergence of new kinds of celebrities and highly-engaged fandoms, and the word has been applied much more widely.

From its popularity in K-pop to the semi-eponymous Fanlore, the rise of “lore” is a great example of how fans build cultural meaning through shared language and creative reinterpretation.

The Geekiary’s article on fandom holidays speaks on how fans mark time within their communities. Be it May the Fourth (Star Wars Day) or Destiel’s confession anniversary, fandom holidays are not an uncommon phenomenon. Some humorous, some profound, these unofficial yet widely beloved holidays are often tied to moments from canon (such as a character’s birthday or an in-universe event) and serve to foster community building.
These observances turn the ordinary calendar into a timeline of shared emotion and meaning. As an act of tradition, they become ritual anchors that give structure to the fan’s calendar, offering a sense of comfort and familiarity in an ever-changing world. The article notes how this act of building new traditions and creating opportunities for community bonding forges a sense of cultural memory for fans.

In her book Rogue Archives: Digital Cultural Memory and Media Fandom, Abigail De Kosnik describes how “Memory has gone rogue in the sense that it has come loose from its fixed place in the production cycle. It now may be found anywhere, or everywhere, in the chain of making”. Celebrating holidays online or by digitizing photographs/experiences allows these memories to be accessed later on, rather than be fixed to just a specific person or place. It lets our fandoms live outside of us as individuals.

Like lore, fandom holidays demonstrate how participation itself becomes a form of authorship—each contribution adding another thread to the tapestry.

OTW Tips

Fandom is global, and many amazing fanworks are written, drawn, or subtitled in languages other than one’s own. Whether you’re tagging fanfiction in your native language or collaborating with international fans, your efforts enrich fandom’s diversity and inclusivity.
The OTW is recruiting for Tag Wrangling Volunteers (Russian), Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution Volunteers, and Support Volunteers (Chinese).
Consider volunteering for one of the OTW’s teams to support and celebrate global fan participation!

We want your suggestions for the next OTW Signal post! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or news story you think we should know about, send us a link. We are looking for content in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in an OTW post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-june-2025/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265723

alias_sqbr

Local radio station triple J is doing a Hottest 100 of Australian Songs, and I thought it would be fun to make a playlist of Australian songs, in roughly descending order of how much I like them, and then compile my ten votes from there. My actual vote included less white dudes/took into account what was already in the system etc. And I am sure if I made this list on a different day it'd have been different songs!

Watch on YouTube

wondermark_feed

Posted by David Malki !

https://wondermark.com/bolted-production-update-playtests/

https://wondermark.com/?p=18237

Some quick updates on my Wondermark card game Bolted!

I’m working on getting this game finished and off to print, but there are still a few things to iron out.

Specifically: One big change that I’ve introduced is an extra mechanic that allows for additional strategic choice in the game. If you don’t want to play a card onto your creature, you can instead “scrap” that card for a variety of different effects.

This opens up a new dimension of strategy and also allows for the creation of combos that can be really fun to pull off! I think it’s a great new wrinkle for the game.

Join Virtual Playtesting With Me

I’m now doing more playtesting to confirm:

That the secondary effect options are interesting without being too overwhelming.
That the effects I’ve designed are fun, and affect the game flow positively.
That what you can do is clearly explained to players.

To get in more reps with the updated rules, I’m hosting more virtual playtesting this week:

Feel free to grab a slot at: picktime.com/wondermark

If you’ve played before, I’d love to have you back! If you’ve never played, I’d love to have you too!

Unsupervised Playtesting

Pretty soon, I’m going to be sending out the rulebook to folks to confirm it’s clear and understandable. Please feel free to sign up here if you want to be on that specific review list!

(If you’ve signed up for this earlier, I’ve still got your info and will be in touch soon enough.)

Other Updates

I THOUGHT I was basically done with the art for this game, but then I unfortunately stumbled across thousands of additional vintage images. (As documented here.) This might necessitate some new additions.
I’m going into much more detail on the finer points of game updates and design over on my Discord. Feel free to pop in there to ask any questions or get into the nitty-gritty with me!
If you happen to be in Seattle, I’m also doing in-person playtesting most Wednesdays at the Playtest Northwest meetups. Drop me a line on Discord if you want to connect in-person at one of those.
I’m pretty excited about this game, friends!!

*The end-game state of the creature first shown at the top of this update*

[Comment on this post on Discord]

https://wondermark.com/bolted-production-update-playtests/

https://wondermark.com/?p=18237

questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5598

Turn off your feed, Bubbles

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5598

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Neuromancer | Sprawl Trilogy - William Gibson
Pairings/Characters: Gen; Sally Shears | Molly Millions & Yanaka Kumiko
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 1,225
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply (but a character’s dark backstory is hinted at.)
Creator Tags: Cyberpunk, razor girl, Friendship, Mentors, Mentor & Protégé, Yakuza, Missing Scene, Female Friendship, Backstory, Fanon
Creator Links: (AO3)

LizzyChrome; (BlueSky):

lizzychrome; (DeviantArt)

lizzychrome; (Facebook)

LizzyChrome; (Instagram)

lizzy_chrome
Theme: Female Relationships, Backstory, Book Fandoms, Female Friendship, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Older Characters, Worldbuilding

Summary: How do Molly's claws and lenses actually work? Kumiko pries. (Missing scene from "Mona Lisa Overdrive.")

Author’s Notes: If you havne't read MLO yet, I won't spoil anything. I'll just set the scene, without giving anyway any important story elements: Molly is now middle-aged, goes by "Sally Shears," and is working as a body guard for a Japanese girl named Kumiko.

I do not own "Mona Lisa Overdrive."

This oldie was written probably over ten years ago. I originally posted it to Fanfiction.net, then took it down, feeling it was pointless. But in light of the new "Neuromancer" show coming out, I want to preserve this little ficlet, to see how my fanon explanation for how Molly's claws work compares to what (if anything) the show gives us regarding that explanation. After a quick re-read, I decided that no edit was needed. What you see here is what I originally posted ten or eleven years ago.

Reccer's Notes: This vignette expands upon an exchange in Mona Lisa Overdrive between aging cyborg mercenary Sally Shears (AKA Molly Millions, Cat Mother, Steppin’ Razor, Rose Kolodny, and Misty Steele—this lady’s got more names than a Wuxia hero) and her charge Yanaka Kumiko; Sally confides measured bits of her backstory to the crushstruck Kumiko, including stripping to bare a torso-long scar (from a near-fatal cagefighting injury, kept “to remind her of being stupid.”)

It’s a precious moment of trust, an elusive commodity in both women’s lives; LizzyChrome elaborates upon this to let Sally hold forth on how her prosthetics work—a question that Gibson chose to bury under Rule of Cool, and that’s challenged two generations’ worth of illustrators and cosplayers.

With the upcoming Neuromancer series on Apple+TV, Molly finally leaves the roster of visually iconic SFF characters not yet defined in the popular imagination by a screen adaptation (1). The Molly in my head admittedly didn’t resemble Briana Middleton, but I look forward to seeing her interpretation of the role (as well as how faithful to the spirit of the book the script gets to be, now that Hollywood has gotten their hands on

(A) a Beloved Property™,

(B) whose cyberpunk dystopia is feeling uncomfortably real in a number of respects—thanks in no small part to megacorporations like Apple.)

(1) Gully Foyle from The Stars My Destination and Elric of Melniboné also come to mind.

Fanwork Links: Shears, by

LizzyChrome.

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: (attraction only) Teyla Emmagan/Sora, Teyla Emmagan/Elizabeth Weir, Laura Cadman/Teyla Emmagan, Teyla Emmagan/Kate Heightmeyer, Sam Carter/Teyla Emmagan
Rating: G
Length: 2928
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: tielan on AO3
Themes: Female relationships, Female characters, Friendship, Ambiguous relationships

Summary: Desire is a fine line. Five women in Pegasus walk it with care.

Reccer's Notes: This is a well-written exploration of how five women on the Atlantis expedition or elsewhere in Pegasus feel about Teyla. As a twist on the title, they all do or did want Teyla, even if they can't pursue that attraction for a number of reasons. It's also unclear if Teyla reciprocates any of their feelings. Excellent character pieces that ring true.

Fanwork Links: Five Women Who Never Wanted Teyla Emmagan

questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5597

Go away Chet

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5597

otw_news_feed

Posted by Caitlynne

https://www.transformativeworks.org/2025-otw-elections-candidates-announcement/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265719

Candidates Announcement

The Organization for Transformative Works is pleased to announce the following candidates for the 2025 Election (in alphabetical order by given name):

C. Ryan S.
Elizabeth W.
Harlan L.B.

Because we have 2 seats to be filled and 3 candidates, the 2025 election will be contested – that is, the members of the OTW will vote on which candidates fill the seats.

The Elections Committee is excited to introduce the candidates to all of the members of the OTW! Included in this post are links to short Bios and Platforms written by the candidates. This post also marks the beginning of our Q&A period, during which we invite the public to submit questions for the candidates. Additionally, we will be holding a series of live chats – dates and times for those are to be announced based on candidate availability. Information on the voting period and how to vote will also be posted shortly.

In the meantime, there is a timeline of Elections events available here for your reference. Read on to learn more about our candidates and how you can submit questions for them!

Platforms and Bios

We asked each candidate to provide us with a Bio that sums up their professional and fannish experience, as well as to write a Platform about their goals for their term on the Board by answering the following questions:

Why did you decide to run for election to the Board?
What skills and/or experience would you bring to the Board?
Choose one or two goals for the OTW that are important to you and that you would be interested in working on during your term. Why do you value these goals? How would you work with others to achieve them?
What is your experience with the OTW’s projects and how would you collaborate with the relevant committees to support and strengthen them? Try to include a range of projects, though feel free to emphasize particular ones you have experience with.
How would you balance your Board work with other roles in the OTW, or how do you plan to hand over your current roles to focus on Board work?

You can read both the candidates’ answers to these questions and their bios by following the links below.

Question & Answer (Q&A)

To better accommodate the time constraints of the election and the workload for candidates, we are asking voters to limit to one question per message. Additional questions in the same message will be discarded. Limit of three questions per person.

Anyone may submit questions via the Elections form. Please submit all questions by 11:59pm UTC on June 29 (what time is that where I live?). All candidates will answer each question submitted, subject to the following restrictions:

Questions must be a maximum of 50 words long.
Any submitted questions repeating what is already addressed on Platforms will be ignored. This is to allow candidates to dedicate more time to answering new questions.
Similar questions will be grouped together to avoid candidates giving repetitive answers. Elections volunteers will decide which questions are similar enough to group.
If you have a follow-up to a Platform question, please specifically mention it is a follow-up so Elections volunteers know not to treat it as a repeat.
One question per message. Additional questions in the same message will be discarded.
Maximum of three questions per person.

The posting date for answers will be chosen depending on the number of questions received. Posts will be spread out, arranged by topic, to make it easier for voters to read all the answers.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/2025-otw-elections-candidates-announcement/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265719

skygiants

When I'm reading nonfiction, there's often a fine line for me between 'you, the author, are getting yourself all up in this narrative and I wish you'd get out of the way' and 'you, the author, have a clearly presented point of view and it makes it easy and fun to fight with you about your topic; pray continue.' Happily, Phyllis Rose's Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages falls squarely in the latter category for me. She's telling me a bunch of fascinating gossip and I do often disagree with her about what it all means but we're having such a good time arguing about it!

Rose starts out her book by explaining that she's interested in the idea of 'marriage' both as a narrative construct developed by the partners within it -- "a subjectivist fiction with two points of view often deeply in conflict, sometimes fortuitously congruent" -- and a negotiation of power, vulnerable to exploitation. She also says that she wanted to find a good balance of happy and unhappy Victorian marriages as case studies to explore, but then she got so fascinated by several of the unhappy ones that things got a little out of balance .... and she is right! Her case studies are fascinating, and at least one of them (the one she clearly sees as the happiest) is not technically a marriage at all (which, of course, is part of her point.)

The couples in question are:

Thomas Carlyle and Jane Baillie Carlyle -- the framing device for the whole book, because even though this marriage is not her favorite marriage Jane Carlyle is her favorite character. Notable for the fact that Jane Carlyle wrote a secret diary through her years of marriage detailing how unhappy she was, which was given to Carlyle after her death, making him feel incredibly guilty, and then published after his death, making everyone else feel like he ought to have been feeling incredibly guilty. Rose considers the secret postmortem diary gift a brilliant stroke of Jane's in Triumphantly Taking Control Of The Narrative Of Their Marriage.

John Ruskin and Effie Gray -- like every possible Victorian drama happened to this marriage. non-consummation! parent drama! art drama! accusations that Ruskin was trying to manipulate Effie Gray into a ruinous affair so that he could divorce her! Effie Gray's family coming down secretly to sneak her away so she could launch a big divorce case instead! my favorite element of this whole story is that the third man in the Art Love Triangle, John Millais, was painting Ruskin's portrait when he and Gray fell in love instead, and Ruskin insisted on making Millais keep painting his portrait for numerous awkward sittings while the divorce proceedings played themselves out and [according to Rose] was genuinely startled that Millais was not interested in subsequently continuing their pleasant correspondence.

John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor -- this was my favorite section; I had never heard of these guys but I loved their energy. Harriet Taylor was married to John Taylor but was not enjoying the experience, began a passionate intellectual correspondence with John Stuart Mill who believed as strongly as she did in women's rights etc., they seriously considered the ethics around running off together but decided that while all three of them (Harriet Taylor, John Taylor, and John Mill) were made moderately unhappy by the current situation of "John Mill comes over three nights a week for passionate intellectual discussions with Harriet Taylor while John Taylor considerately goes Out for Several Hours", nobody was made as miserable by it as John Taylor would be if Harriet left John Taylor and therefore ethics demanded that the situation remain as it was. (Meanwhile the Carlyles, who were friends of John Mill, nicknamed Harriet 'Platonica,' which I have to admit is a very funny move if you are a bitchy 19th century intellectual and you hate the married woman your friend is having a passionate but celibate philosophical romance of the soul with.) Eventually John Taylor did die and Harriet Taylor and John Mill did get married -- platonically or otherwise is unknown but regardless they seem to have been blissfully happy. Rose thinks that Harriet Taylor was probably not as brilliant as John Mill thought and John Mill was henpecked, but happily so, because letting his wife tell him what to do soothed his patriarchal guilt. I think that Rose is a killjoy. Let a genius think his partner of the soul is also a genius if he wants to! I'm not going to tell him that he's wrong!

Charles Dickens and Catherine Dickens -- oh this was a Bad Marriage and everyone knows it. Unlike all the other women in this book, Catherine Dickens did not really command a narrative space of her own except Cast Aside Wife which -- although that's probably part of Rose's point -- makes this section IMO weaker and a bit less fun than the others.

George Eliot and George Henry Lewes -- Rose's favorite! She thinks these guys are very romantic and who can blame her, though she does want to take time to argue with people who think that George Eliot's genius relied more on George Henry Lewes kindling the flame than it did on George Eliot herself. It not being 1983 anymore, it did not occur to me that 'George Eliot was not primarily responsible for George Eliot' was an argument that needed to be made. "Maybe marriage is better when it doesn't have to actually be marriage" is clearly a point she's excited to make, given which one does wonder why she doesn't pull any Victorian long-term same-sex partnerships into her thematic examination. And the answer, probably, is 'I'm interested in specifically in the narrative of heterosexual marriage and heterosexual power dynamics and the ways they still leave an imprint on our contemporary moment,' which is fair, but if you're already exploring a thing by looking outside it .... well, anyway. I just looked up her bibliography out of curiosity to see if she ever did write about gay people and the answer is "well, she's got a book about Josephine Baker" so I may well be looking that up in future so I can have fun arguing with Rose some more!

alias_sqbr

Watch on YouTube

fred_mouse

Between one thing and another, I haven't been keeping up on dreamwidth. I'm spending the next hour or so attempting to clear out - there were 317 tabs open in the dreamwidth window when I started; it will be interesting to see where I get to. So many posts from mid-May I was going to reply to; giving myself permission to abandon. And then I'm going to do the same thing with the backlog of my inbox.

And how do I get to 317 tabs? By every day or two scanning my reading list, and opening everything longer than a paragraph that I expect to want to read. This means I can get 'caught up' over breakfast, even if not everything gets read!

otw_news_feed

Posted by xeno

https://www.transformativeworks.org/tos-spotlight-plagiarism-and-copyright-infringement/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265704

In today’s post, we’ll discuss two categories of TOS violations that have a lot of overlap: plagiarism and copyright infringement.

Don’t go looking for things to report.

Please do not start searching for plagiarized or infringing works to report after reading this post. We know that plagiarism and copyright infringement can happen on AO3, as on any site. However, when people deliberately search for works to report, we end up getting a lot of duplicate tickets about works that have already been reported. Every ticket we receive is reviewed by a PAC volunteer, so we only need one report in order to investigate an issue. We know it seems like sites only respond to mass reports, but on AO3, duplicate and mass reports increase the time it takes our volunteers to investigate.

AO3 is for transformative fanworks

AO3 is an archive for fanfiction and other transformative fanworks. Transforming a work means that you are adding a new expression, different purpose, or alternate perspective to the source work. A transformative fanwork doesn’t copy the original source; instead, it uses the characters, setting, or other inspiration from an existing work to make a new, distinct creative work.

Transformative fanworks can be posted without requiring permission from the creator of the original work. When considering whether a work is transformative, we apply the same standards to fanworks as to professional works. This means that a fanwork based on another fanwork is allowed, just as much as a fanwork of a professionally published novel is. You are allowed to write a story or create fanart about someone else’s original character, or to use the same general ideas, tropes, or story structures as someone else. Two works can share the same premise, setting, and plot while still being transformative.

However, replacing names, swapping out words for their synonyms, or making other superficial changes to the source work is not considered transformative. A transformative work needs to have a large amount of creative expression that is original to you.

Plagiarism vs copyright infringement

Plagiarism occurs when a person reproduces large portions of someone else’s work or very heavily bases their work on another without adequately transforming it, and doesn’t credit the source. This lack of credit makes it appear as though the copied work is entirely their own original, unique idea and expression.

To avoid potential issues of plagiarism, you can cite your source by linking back to the original, for example by using AO3’s Inspired By feature. However, just because you provided credit doesn’t mean you’re automatically okay: your work may still be in violation of our other policies, such as copyright infringement.

Copyright infringement occurs when a work reproduces large portions of a different work, whether verbatim or with very little alteration (i.e. not in a transformative manner), without the authorization of the copyright owner. Even if you credit the source, reproducing too much of someone else’s content is still a violation of their copyright unless you have the copyright owner’s explicit permission.

Permission is not required for short quotations. Use a limited amount that’s reasonable for your purpose, such as:

2-3 lines of lyrics per song
2-3 lines of text per short chapter of a novel
10 minutes of screentime per TV episode or movie

If you want to include longer excerpts, you will need the copyright owner’s permission. This applies regardless of whether the original work is a fanwork or published professionally.

Permission to reuse fanworks

Some fan creators will give other people permission to reproduce larger portions of their works than would ordinarily be permitted by copyright laws alone. They may do this by granting blanket permissions for particular uses (for example, “Anyone can translate or podfic my work, but I don’t allow reposts or nameswaps”) or by applying an official license (such as Creative Commons) to the work, which grants various permissions based on terms specific to the exact license.

If permission to reproduce the work is accompanied by specific terms, then you must follow those terms. For example, a creator may say, “You can translate my fic so long as you link back to the original.” In that case, if you post your translation without providing a link, you’re violating our policies. In order for your translation to be allowed, you would need to include the link as requested.

Common types of infringement

Unauthorized reposts

If you want to upload someone else’s work to AO3, you need to have their permission. It doesn’t matter how difficult it might be to contact them: even if the original creator posted their work a decade ago and then vanished from the internet, they still have copyright over their own work.

If you can’t get permission but you still want to save or share somebody else’s fanwork from another site, you can create an external bookmark that links to the work on that site, and add tags and notes to your bookmark so that other AO3 users can also find and enjoy the work.

Minor edits and adaptations

Making minor changes to a work doesn’t make the work original to you. If you’ve only changed the characters’ names and/or pronouns, or corrected the original author’s grammar or formatting, that isn’t transformative. You’ll need the creator’s permission to adapt their work like this and post it to AO3.

Too many quotes: transcripts and “character reaction” works

Transcripts (whether of TV episodes, movies, plays, video games, etc.) are protected by copyright. You cannot repost canon material on AO3, as this is typically a violation of our copyright infringement and/or non-fanwork policies.

If you’re creating a fanwork where the characters are reacting to another piece of media (such as by reading or watching the book, show, or movie that they were originally from), then that is allowed if and only if you don’t include too many quotes from the original source. Even if the lines of the original book or script are broken up by the characters’ reactions, you still can’t reproduce more than a few lines of the original text. If you’d like to post a work in which characters read or watch another work, then we suggest heavily reducing the number and length of your quotes, and/or briefly summarizing the events they’re reacting to instead of quoting directly from the original work.

Songfics with lyrics

Song lyrics are protected by copyright, which means you can’t reproduce large portions of lyrics without permission. This includes both songfics where the lyrics are interspersed throughout the story text and fics with characters singing songs as part of their dialogue. If the part of the song you want to highlight is more than a few lines, we suggest instead linking to a licensed source, such as the artist’s official YouTube channel.

Embedded artwork

Copyright doesn’t just apply to written text, but to all types of creative work regardless of the medium. In order to embed or upload someone else’s images, audio, or videos onto your AO3 account, you must have the original creator’s permission and credit them appropriately.

If you don’t have permission, or don’t know how to credit the original creator, then we suggest instead using HTML or AO3’s Inspired By feature to link directly to the creator’s own original post.

Unauthorized podfics & translations

If you want to podfic or translate someone else’s work, you need their permission to do so. According to United States law, audio recordings and translations are considered derivative, not transformative. AO3 welcomes fan-podficcers and fan-translators. However, your content must comply with U.S. law for us to be able to host it, which means that you must have the permission of the copyright owner in order to post your podfic or translation on AO3.

Infringing on orphaned works

Orphaning a work does not mean the original creator is giving up their copyright, even if their username is no longer displayed on the work. The only thing the original creator did when orphaning their work was agree to transfer that specific copy of their work to AO3’s orphan_account.

Just like with any other work, if you wish to podfic or translate an orphaned work, you will need permission from the original creator. This can come in the form of an author’s note on the work or an additional tag such as Podfic Welcome. If the work contains no such statement, and you don’t know or can’t find the original creator to ask for permission, then you may not podfic or translate the work.

If you plan on orphaning your works and you want to ensure that other users can continue to adapt or translate them, consider adding a permission statement to each of your works before orphaning them.

Posting public domain works

While public domain works are no longer protected by copyright, reposting someone else’s work is not transformative. AO3 is an archive for fanworks and for original works created in a fannish context. Therefore, you cannot upload other people’s public domain works to AO3.

However, as public domain works are not protected by copyright, some types of derivative works (such as your own translation) may be posted on AO3.

I’ve seen others post plagiarized or infringing works. Why can’t I?

As our TOS FAQ explains, we don’t review content until it’s reported to us. You may have seen somebody else posting an unauthorized translation or public domain work on AO3, but that doesn’t mean that it’s allowed. All it means is that nobody has reported that work to us yet, or that we haven’t finished processing the report.

What will happen if I get reported for plagiarism or copyright infringement?

First, we’ll review the reported work and any provided sources to confirm whether or not your work contains plagiarized or infringing material. If we determine that your work is in violation, we’ll send you an email telling you to remove the violating material.

If you repeatedly post works that violate our copyright and/or plagiarism policies, you may be temporarily suspended. Continuing to violate the TOS will result in you being permanently banned from AO3. You can learn more about warnings and suspensions in our TOS FAQ.

What should I do if I encounter a work that contains plagiarized or infringing material?

You can give the creator a heads up by politely commenting on their work and linking to the TOS FAQ or this post. Alternatively, you can report the work to us.

How do I report a work for plagiarism or copyright infringement?

Although we ask that you do not deliberately seek out violating works to report, if you encounter one while browsing, you can report it using the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form, which is linked at the bottom of every page on AO3. The copyright owner or their authorized legal representative can also file a DMCA claim, as explained on our DMCA Policy page.

In order for us to uphold a complaint, we need you to provide us with specific information about exactly what was copied and from where. Without these details, we may not be able to action your report.

If the work in question is no longer available online, but you have a copy of the work (such as a PDF), please say so. We may ask you to provide that copy to help us in our investigation.

Please be specific in your report. If you send us a link to an 80,000-word fic and say only “This work rips off mine!” without providing any details (such as a link to your own work), that’s not enough information for us to act on. We will need to email you back asking for more information, and if you don’t provide us with that information, we won’t be able to investigate. If we can’t verify the infringement for ourselves, then we won’t take any action.

Please don’t report more than one user at a time or submit multiple reports about the same user. When reporting multiple works by the same user, please submit only one report with links to each work you’re reporting (correctly matched up with the original source), so that all information about that user is in the same place.

If you give us a link to one work and say “All of their other works look like plagiarism too!” without giving us details about those works or their sources, that isn’t enough information for us to act on those other works. If you give us a jumbled or incomplete list of links, or if you report each work by the same user separately, this makes our volunteers’ work much harder.

For example, a report might look like this:

Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.org/works/00000000

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Plagiarism

Description of the content you are reporting:
This work by Ernie is plagiarized from Bert’s work, “Fifty Shades of Oatmeal”: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456789

The entire thing is copied, Ernie just swapped out Elmo’s name for the Count’s and changed some of the colors.

If you are reporting additional works, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement

Description of the content you are reporting:
This work by Ernie is plagiarized from Bert’s work, “Fifty Shades of Oatmeal”: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456789

The entire thing is copied, Ernie just swapped out Elmo’s name for the Count’s and changed some of the colors.

Another of Ernie’s works plagiarizes from Big Bird’s “If You Give a Monster a Cookie”:

Ernie’s work (plagiarism): https://archiveofourown.org/works/34567890
Big Bird took down their fic when they published it as an original story. Here’s a link to the published version: https://www.monstercookiebooks.com/books/9876543210/if-you-give-a-monster-a-cookie

I also have a downloaded copy of the original fic I can give you if you need it.

The plagiarized section is in Ernie’s chapter 2, where it starts at “Every time that Cookie Monster goes to the store, he can’t resist going and picking up more chocolate chip cookies.”

This is plagiarizing chapter 3 of Big Bird’s work, which starts, “Whenever Cookie Monster went to the store, he couldn’t resist buying more chocolate chip cookies.”

The entire rest of the fic is like that, with only minor edits to each sentence. It’s over ten thousand words long!

Finally, this other work contains the full lyrics of “I Love Trash” as sung by Oscar the Grouch: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45678901

Here’s a link to the song on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJekxVILnhw

You can add more details if you like, but this example provides the basic information we need:

Who posted the violating work(s): Tell us their username or if the work is anonymous or orphaned.
Where we can find the violating work(s): Enter one URL in the “Link to the page you are reporting” field, and (if applicable) include links to any other violating works in the description of your report.
Where we can find the original source material: Include a link to each original source and tell us what parts of the source were copied, for example by including chapter numbers or quotes from the relevant scenes.
What violates the TOS: Explain why you think each work you’re reporting is infringing and match each reported work to its original source. A set of links and a brief description of each work is fine; you don’t need to be very detailed or quote an entire page.

You’ll receive an automatic email confirming that we received your report, and our volunteers will investigate when they get a chance. Please be patient and do not submit another report about the same incident. While PAC investigates every report we receive, it can take several months for us to process a report, and not every report will receive a reply.

What if I have more questions about plagiarism and copyright infringement?

If you think you’ve found a plagiarized or infringing work, or if you want to know whether a particular work qualifies as plagiarism and/or copyright infringement, please report the work to us as described above. For more information, you can read our TOS FAQ on Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism.

If you are still uncertain, you can comment below or submit a question through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form.

ETA: Edited to improve wording

https://www.transformativeworks.org/tos-spotlight-plagiarism-and-copyright-infringement/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265704

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disability and how it's portrayed in cnovels

2025 Summer Anime Season Preview

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https://xkcd.com/3105/

We're getting a lot of complaints from commuters who were routed onto a coaster, but the theme park patrons who spent hours stuck on an intercity line are also not happy.

https://xkcd.com/3105/

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Continuum 8: June 8-11, 2012

December 2012

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...in the car

Reading

Don’t go looking for things to report.

What is commercial promotion?

AO3 is a non-commercial space.

AO3’s non-commercialization policy applies to the entire site.

What are some examples of commercial activities?

Solicitation is not allowed, whether it’s for yourself or on behalf of someone else.

What is the difference between a commercial site and a non-commercial site that has monetization features?

Can I link or mention a social media site where I talk about making money or collecting donations?

Can I post a fanwork created for a charity drive or for-profit zine?

I’ve seen authors say their works are commissions. Is this allowed?

I’ve seen others ask for donations or advertise paid commissions. Why can’t I?

What will happen if I get reported for commercial promotion?

What should I do if I encounter commercial activity on AO3?

What about spam comments?

How do I report commercial activity?

For example, a report of commercial promotion might look like this:

What if I have more questions about commercial promotion?

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In the News

OTW Tips

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Unsupervised Playtesting

Other Updates

Candidates Announcement

Platforms and Bios

Question & Answer (Q&A)

Don’t go looking for things to report.

AO3 is for transformative fanworks

Plagiarism vs copyright infringement

Permission to reuse fanworks

Common types of infringement

Unauthorized reposts

Minor edits and adaptations

Too many quotes: transcripts and “character reaction” works

Songfics with lyrics

Embedded artwork

Unauthorized podfics & translations

Infringing on orphaned works

Posting public domain works

I’ve seen others post plagiarized or infringing works. Why can’t I?

What will happen if I get reported for plagiarism or copyright infringement?

What should I do if I encounter a work that contains plagiarized or infringing material?

How do I report a work for plagiarism or copyright infringement?

For example, a report might look like this:

What if I have more questions about plagiarism and copyright infringement?

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