@copperbadge - Tumblr Posts

Hey, I’d kill a man for some of my discontinued Koop’s Deli-Style Mustard, so in my stocking instead would have been ideal

Clearance mustard

My sister and I were browsing the discounted Christmas candy at Wal-Mart. Somehow, a display of powdered mustard had gotten mixed in with all the candy, under a sign that read “stocking stuffers.”

My sister: Mustard is a terrible stocking stuffer. Who wants a condiment in their stocking?

Me: Well…I follow this guy on Tumblr named @copperbadge and he’s the only person I can think of who would appreciate mustard in his stocking.

My sister: Huh. Well, let him know it’s on clearance, I guess.

please watch this person shred on a hurdy gurdy

To give a concrete example on what Sam says above:

I recently got a lovely comment on a fic I wrote. At the end of the nice comment on the fic itself, they politely stated that I had placed an aigu accent on a French word that should have had a grave. Which, intellectually, I actually know, having studied French for 5+ years. However, I don’t have a French keyboard, so I obviously used the wrong key combo to accent it. 

I couldn’t help the little kick of hurt, given that the word in question was maybe used one or two times. Like, what the fuck does it matter? If you liked the story, you couldn’t just say so? And assume since the REST of the French used in the story was used and accented correctly, it was literally just a typo? What purpose did it serve to call me out on it?

That said, what other reaction COULD I have had other than grace when I thanked them, given the rest of the comment complimented what I wrote? Doesn’t mean I still didn’t think it was an unnecessary call out. 

Unless someone specifically says in their author’s notes to let them know about mistakes, please, just DON’T. Because you truly have no idea how it might affect that person and their desire to write more stories. 

Question as an oldster and fandom lurker, since you are an author and fandom dad. Sometimes when I am reading a story I'm knocked out of it by a "newer than they think" mistake. As in, flashbacks where Steve and Bucky use backpacks for school, or sit "criss cross applesauce" and using that term. I normally just give compliments to authors, but I wonder sometimes if I shouldn't tell them. Would you want to know?

Honestly, most writers in fandom don’t want constructive criticism in comments. I know it seems strange at first, but it’s a general norm in fandom that unless someone says “Concrit welcome!” you probably should confine yourself to saying what you liked about the story. So you’re doing exactly right, and it’s good of you to think about this and ask before changing. 

Follows a lecture for people who are not as thoughtful, so please don’t think the rest of this is me yelling at you :D The general drift of the idea is 

1. That they wrote the fic as a gift to fandom at large, and one doesn’t criticize gifts; 2. That if it didn’t actually make you stop reading and backbutton, could it have been that awful? 3. It’d be a bit like going up to a stranger on the street and criticizing their haircut. They don’t know you and didn’t ask for fashion tips.  

The most common argument for concrit is “I’m just trying to help!” but well, nobody asked for that help. A lot of people write fanfic as a way to enjoy themselves, and turning it into something to Improve Yourself Upon kind of ruins the fun bit. And even if none of these convince a person to avoid giving concrit, the fact that it’s a social norm in fandom means that it’s just considered rude. “I didn’t like your fanfic enough to respect social norms” is not the message most people want to send. 

I also think there’s a larger discussion to be had about the grave sin of “knocking someone out of a story” (again, not yelling at you, it’s a very common thing that comes up in the concrit discussion). It’s come to be seen as this truly awful thing, to perturb a reader with an anachronism or a typo or an awkward turn of phrase, and I question why. There are moments in almost any story I encounter – fanfic, movies, television, novels, comic books – where I see a strange phrase or something untoward happens and I have a moment of “whoa, that was a weird choice the author made.” 

But then I generally go right back to enjoying the story. 

I think it is extremely rare that people get pushed so far out by something minor that they can’t keep reading, that one small moment of “what?” ruins the story completely. There are legit reasons to stop reading a fic, and if people are upset or angry or hurt they should stop; I’m not talking about triggers or untagged adult content or what have you. My point is, if it didn’t stop you from reading the story, then you must have enjoyed the fic more than you were bothered by the single moment, right? So why focus on that? 

But above and beyond the idea of focusing on what you liked instead of the one moment you didn’t, this is a problem that is very specific to fanfic. I think we’ve really put up an altar to this idea of the purity of experience, that nothing can come between us and our enjoyment of a story ever, and we apply it very unfairly to fanfic, particularly since it is produced by amateurs for free. It’s not something I ever see in criticism of non-fanfic media, by fandom or by professionals. 

Anyway. I’d really like people to examine why fanfic is held to such a stringently high standard that a moment of discomfort in the middle of one’s pleasure reading is the only thing that starts to matter to some people and sometimes the only thing they comment on. And maybe if we collectively rethink how view that moment – not as something vital but as a byproduct of vast quantities of free entertainment, like a commercial or mosquito bites at the beach – then perhaps it would even stop bothering people as much. 

Your catsle, if you will

“NO YOU REALLY SHOULDN’T HAVE..” Cat Edition In Six Photos

What I expected moving to texas: oh hm, cowboy boot... steak..,? the ole' prairie. youve been invited to,come lasso a tumbleweed,! 'howdy there sherriff' as a tramp stamp tattoo. Sweet teA hp potion... country girls make do

What I got when I moved to texas: i cant really leave the house bc theres about 20-30 of these big blue crabs that came up from their underground tunnels bc of the wet and rainy weather all standing on the patio having a fucking clawnference meeting

Excuse me?! I am going to need a full version of this shanty from these two IMMEDIATELY.