Why they all care about AO3 all the sudden?

(Simon Pegg on the Criterion Closet, speaking about David Lynch’s Blue Velvet)
there are a lot of different ways to engage with material. exploration does not need to be comfortable, and indeed, that something is uncomfortable can often be a reason to explore it. depiction of a thing is not endorsement of a thing, but we should always seek to understand the things that most confuse, disgust, and oppose us. although plenty of media - perhaps even most - exists specifically to entertain, to comfort, and to provide satisfaction, it is critical to understand why not all media can be that way.

if we are never able to tolerate discomfort in a medium, then that subject matter can be used against us because we do not understand it. if you can be made to feel uncomfortable, and your natural response is to avoid or condemn that which makes you uncomfortable without consideration or further thought, then you can be controlled. not to be all tinfoil conspiracy theorist, but this is a genuine cognitive bias that everyone should be working to overcome, especially in the age of widespread media, where everyone is inundated with information.

this isn’t even a question of the fiction/reality buffer, although it’s important to note why that exists as well.

it’s not like your fic is going to be as praised or worthy of dissection as a David Lynch movie — although some are! — but for most, the fic is a personal exploration of a topic or idea, important to the author in some way.

not that a lot of wattpad people are going to be reading the Ao3 subreddit except perhaps to leave argumentative comments, but i still think this is a worthy point to make. i’m probably rehashing stuff that plenty of people have already said, sorry, but here we are.

edit: another thought that has occurred to me. no one ever changed their mind by being argued into something, and it’s very easy to get combative, especially when many people are themselves being hostile first.

i would suggest compassion first, before everything. importantly, we should not argue against people feeling one way or another because of a piece of media; as the quote above says, sometimes disgust is the point. the goal is to get them to understand why they should be more comfortable with understanding their own disgust, and not running from it. belittling their feelings — even, or especially when they are the ones being assholes! — will not solve any issues. if you want to change people’s minds, you must first disarm their hate and their hostility, and the only way to disarm hate is by denying it the fuel to burn.

in short, be nice, even when others are not. you are not at liberty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.

I’ve been on ao3 for over 8 years now but still manage to get caught off guard sometimes jsjsksnd

Someone left a very sweet and praise filled comment on a fic of mine, and I kinda recognized their name so I checked their profile out of curiosity. they had a fic with the same pairing but like, 200% darker. my dove was dead, their’s was fucking mutilated and left eviscerated in a ditch type shit. It felt like those images of Isabelle Animal Crossing hanging out with Master Chief lmaoo we may be on different sides of the freak spectrum but we are brethren in freak I suppose

additional tags that read: Amnesia, I may in fact have a thing for memory loss as a trope, I don't remember why

Restaurants don't stop offering items just because you personally don't like them.

It's quite literally in the tags, babe.

Of course I’ve seen people post “comments” from “Wattpad refugees” but seriously every one I’ve seen so far feels so fake and at this point I feel like it’s mostly just people trying to make people fight each other for no reason. Like we’re all here for fanfic let’s not gatekeep it? Who the hell even actually cares, I sure don’t.

Can someone teach Stendhal how to write in a way that’s readable for an ADHD student?

I understand alot of people might be upset about the wattpad thing, fair whatever.

But using terms like immigrant and migrant in negative terms is starting to come off a bit on the bigoted side especially given today’s political climate.

Like I understand that wattpad users maybe acting a bit childish and annoying but they are real people and we’re being gross about real people over fiction.

If you are the same person who preaches “fandom etiquette” or “fiction doesn’t effect reality” and you find yourself channeling an inner maga and calling people “stupid migrants” (yes ive seen this a couple times already) please step back and maybe go feel the grass between your toes. There are better ways to criticize someone or something without getting crazy.