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A Reader’s Plea

It makes me sad to see authors stepping back from this community because of the unnecessary situations that keep popping up. There’s been a few over the last few weeks in the fandoms I enjoy. 

I’m a reader before I’m anything else. I’ve been here a long time under a reader account before I ever decided to write in this arena. I come here for the stories, wonderful free stories to escape into by wonderfully talented people. I share stories all the time that I read the night before. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day.

But the more authors disappear, the less stories and content we’re going to get. Period. And doesn’t that sound like the reverse of what we want considering we’ve got a global pandemic hanging over our heads? 

I don’t blame any of them for stepping back. I only hope it’s not permanent. And as an author, you can understand when one does it, others consider it. They’ll think maybe they’ve got a point. Maybe a break is a good idea.

Readers have been stepping back too.

So as a reader, I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone who reads this. Treat each other well. Treat each other with kindness. If you don’t like someone, you can still be respectful. I’ll be honest. Over the last 8 or 9 years I’ve been skulking around Tumblr reading fics, I found a lot of amazing authors and stories. I left comments. I shared. I knew how important that was. I didn’t always get my comments answered. I didn’t mind. It takes time to craft stories. Maybe the author doesn’t have that much time between writing, asks, DM’s, questions, and everything else in their lives.

I can also tell you that I ended up leaving a lot of blogs over the years because of controversies that dusted up. That’s in no way a criticism of anyone, any situation, or how they choose to handle it. Their blog, their business. Cool. But as readers, we get all that every day in real life and we’re here for the escape, the stories, the fantasy. The beautiful words from those authors we’re grateful for. I was grateful for the stories but when there was just as much controversy as story? It wasn’t even intentional sometimes. I just mostly lost interest.

Help me cheer on our content creators. Please? As a reader, I’m greedy and I don’t want anyone else taking off. Help me cheer on each other as readers. If enough of us make an effort to redirect the dialogue to being supportive of each other instead of instantly assuming and passing judgment, this would be an amazingly awesome place. We have a lot of good people. It wouldn’t be that hard to do.💕🙏💖

I’m off to look for those good stories for the night. I hope you find some too. Have a good night. Promise I’m off my soapbox for the next six months lol I don’t normally do this. But a couple of folks stepping back are people I love and it hit me hard tonight. That and I see a lot of writers asking for things. I figured the readers should be able to share some thoughts too.

Love you guys. 🙏

Underrated biological design no. 84: the tendency for bottom dwelling marine browsers to become helmet shaped munchkins.

idk why introverts have a reputation of being quiet and shy people who’d rather be alone. have you ever been friends with an introvert who’s decided you’re worth their time? we turn into the clingiest, most needy pieces of shit on the planet because there’s so few people we actually can stand

I mad agree with this.

The only straight I am is straight from hell

With the idea of being a black man and becoming Captain America, it’s been a daunting task because I think, at this day and age in America, I think we are open-minded to the idea of having my face represent us as a country, my race represent us as a country, because we’re truly a melting pot. So there is no distinctive look or feel or design of an American. We’re all Americans.

jesus christ. my friend lives in southside (about 2 miles away, on the other side of the river) and it’s still mental down there because it’s a large foreign immigrant area and none of the advice has been given in languages other than english so they’re all carrying on as normal because THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S HAPPENING

[bottles up feelings and lets them age for 10 years like a fine wine]