Writers. Could You Reblog This If You Edit As You Go. I'm Trying To See Something

I got this comment on a story from my Other AO3 Account this morning.

(Info redacted because I prefer keeping these accounts separate but no one follows me on the side blog I have for that account.)

The story was posted almost a year ago and is relatively “popular” by my average statistics even though it has tropes and themes that are big turnoffs for a lot of people (hence separate accounts). This popularity is undoubtedly because it’s a Marvel Loki story and that fandom is massive.

So there is obviously an algorithm or a bot scrubbing ao3 statistics and leaving this comment on fics that meet a certain metric with the main character of the fic inserted into the comment.

I had a little time to kill this morning so I decided to investigate further. And y’all this is so predatory. Come on this journey with me. It made me mad. It may make you mad.

First, if you go to Webnovel’s website, you HAVE to choose between male lead or female lead stories before you can go any further. WTF?

And that’s weird, but this gets so much worse. This is basically a pay-to-read site that has different subscription models. Which… okay BUT! The authors don’t get paid! Look at that comment again. They’re promising a supportive and nurturing community, but zero monetary compensation. It’s basically, “post your stuff here so we can get paid and you can get… nice vibes?” I mean look at this Orwellian writing:

Using the phrase “pay-to-read model” in the same sentence as “qualitative changes in lifestyles for authors” deliberately makes you think that you can get paid and maybe even make a living on this website. But that’s not actually what it says and authors will not receive one red cent.

Oh but wait, the worst is still to come. In case this breaks containment (which I kind of hope it does) this is where I mention that I’m a lawyer in the US.

I don’t do intellectual property or copyright law but I do read and write contracts for a living. So I went to look at their terms of service. It was fun!

Highlights the first, in which Webnovel gets a license to do basically whatever they want with content you post on their site. This is how they get to be paid for people reading authors’ writing without paying them anything.

Highlights the second, in which Webnovel takes no responsibility for illegally profiting off of fan fic. This all says that the writer is 100% responsible for everything the writer posts (even though only Webnovel is making money from it).

Highlights the third which say that by posting, the author is representing that they have the legal right to use and to let Webnovel use the content according to these terms. So if a writer posts fan fiction and Webnovel makes money from people reading the fan fiction, and the House of the Mouse catches wise, these sections say that that’s ALL on the writer.

So that’s a little skeevy to start off with but the thing that is seriously shitty and made me make this post was that these assholes are coming to ao3. They are actively recruiting people in comments on their fan fiction. And they are saying they are big fans of the character you’re writing about and that they share your interests.

They are recruiting fan fiction writers and giving every impression that you can make money from posting fan fiction on their site and hiding the fact that you absolutely cannot but they can make money off of you while you try, deep in their terms of service which no one but a lawyer who writes fan fic and has some time to kill will read.

I see posts on here regularly from people who don’t understand how this stuff works, don’t understand that they (and others) can not legally make a financial profit from fan fiction. And there are tons of people who will not take the time to dig into the details.

Don’t deal with these bastards. Fuck Webnovel.

My mood for the last week

@/alwaysuncanny on Instagram, but with a twist

reblog if you think boys can wear dresses

proving a point to my entire family

"no honour among thieves", a queer, crime-thriller visual novel by - wait. mod galen?!

that's right folks! you might've noticed i kinda vanished off of the face of the earth for a hot second there. reason being, i've been creating my very own visual novel, day in and day out - and today i can finally present a piece of it to you all. the demo is officially out!

what's no honour among thieves about, you may ask? the short answer would be sexy felons fucking each other over in every meaning of the word. as for the long answer...

no honour among thieves stars you, the unnamed, never-shown mc so you can project and create to your hearts content, a criminal of many trades, con art being one of them. when the ex-boyfriend of a hot mafia boss asks you to seduce and break the heart of said mafia boss for a shitton of money, you find yourself tangled up in one hell of an adventure as the resident biker gang's leader also wants a piece of the action and is acting as a glorified guard dog. there's also a girl who's willing to sell your soul to the devil for a cornchip.

as you can tell, i'm great at summaries.

memes aside, i've been working really hard on this project for months now, so if you could support it, it'd mean the world to me! you can find me on:

twitter

itch.io

and patreon!

the kickstarter to fully-fund this originally small, but now rather ambitious project, will be launching anywhere between a few days time to a week or so, depending how things go, so keep your eyes peeled (but don't worry, i'll be sure to share it on here, too.)

now, the characters!

afrom left to right - navin devraj (he/him), mercury jackson (he/she), xanthe wilde (he/they), and the siren, a.k.a siren lewis (she/her).

xanthe and mercury, the mafia boss and biker gang leader, respectively, are so far the only love interests in the game - and yes, they're both nonbinary because i can! we need more rep and i do what i want! but one of the kickstarter stretch goals is to give navin and siren route as well. either way, they will remain important side characters that the mc can become fwbs with if they so wish ;)

none of the romances are gender-locked, as they're all bi or pan anyway, and you can choose your mc's gender, attire, pronouns, title - later on you can even specify the petnames the li's will call you. that's on inclusion for everyone, babey!!

this is getting long, so i'll wrap it up.

check out the demo here!

mod galen, checking out~

-

ps: be a dear and reblog this so i can get the word out, will you? rts on my twitter also help a ton!

oh yeah have i ever told yall of the academic war i have been an unwilling soilder in for the past two years

coming up with titles is p a i n

Me: finally, my fic is done

AO3:

Me: not this again

youre nb but you call yourself a bitch (bitch is a FEMALE dog btw) why???

i am on the FLOOR

Don’t attack me like that