the passing down of fandom history

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

I've got a tiktok account where I post videos about how to use AO3. It helps people who are new to the site learn how to navigate and search/filter etc. and I also get to teach people who've been around for a while some new tricks they might not otherwise know. 

Yesterday, I someone asked about the Citrus Scale, so I posted about that. Which lead to posting about the FFN purges of 2002 and 2012. Which led to posting a brief and incomplete timeline of fandom purges. 

And somewhere in there, someone left a comment that said, "Wow. I hope AO3 never purges adult content."

And that's when I realized that so many people who are either new to fandom or new to AO3 have no idea how it came to exist or why it is the way it is. 

So I guess I'll add that to my list of things to make videos about? 

Brainstorm time: what do you wish your fellow fans knew about? What are cool tags or tropes or traditions or history that you think would be interesting to share? 

Comments

[petra]

I would love to see more people educated on the difference between "squick" and "trigger." "Squick" is such a helpful concept.

[razia]

Seconded!

[independence1776]

Thirded!

[svgurl]

Yes, this!

[ermingarden]

Yes please! I think so much drama would be avoided if people really internalized that you don't have to justify disliking certain tropes. Like, I'm personally not a fan of a/b/o – it just doesn't float my boat – but I don't have to have a reason for that, or articulate a reason my dislike is somehow justified. I worry that there's a tendency for people to come up with criticisms of things they dislike because they feel they need a "reason" not to like them.

[scrawnytreedemon]

Yeah, absolutely. It's like everything has to be this grand, moral statement that reflects on *exactly* who you are as a person and how you act...

It's tiring.

[pikkugen]

Indeed. I've been using squicks in my fanfic requests for a long time, and I was frankly a bit surprised when the younger generations didn't seem to get it or think it was somehow cringy? Like, why is it cringey to take into account something that your fic exchange recipient doesn't want to read?

[petra]

They've reinvented the wheel with Do Not Want, I think, but that feels different than a squick.

[pikkugen]

For me, a DNW is usually situation-specific, like "I'd prefer to have Fluffy Comfort Fic for this specific fanfic exchange, DNW angst or HURT/comfort" whereas a squick WILL make me stop reading the moment I realize it's coming.

[petra]

That makes sense. Thanks for the examples!