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1) Social media use is declining world wide but still going up in the U.S. Yet younger users are increasingly posting and using less as they develop privacy concerns. ( Read more... )

2) Speaking of investing more time in crafts, I'm taking part in

nacramamo for the first time. The goal is to post daily about crafts in progress or finished. Here's what I've got so far.

Also, as I was asked about this on one of my posts, yes, the necklaces are available for sale. I am also offering them in exchange for donations to Pillowfort.. Pillowfort also applies donations towards Premium features.

3) Over on

tv_talk there's been various conversations about things that have changed since short seasons and irregular hiatuses. I was reminded today that one of them is Halloween episodes. I know that in the UK one-off episodes for Christmas are fairly common but not so in the US. And not all shows take note of Halloween either regularly or at all. But it is fun to guess the release date of an episode when you see what seem like definite Halloween themes in them.

4) Strangely enough when I caught up on S2 of Hacks, there wasn't any indication there were further seasons available. I blame Max, which is really wonky about these things. ( Read more... )

5) I've posted the last of my May trip photos over at

common_nature, featuring Mount Shasta, San Francisco and the San Luis Reservoir.

Poll #33717 Kudos Footer-544

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
6 (100.0%)

morbane posting in

yuletide

It's letters time! If you're writing a letter along with your Yuletide sign-up, you can comment here with a link to your letter and also enter the details in the 2025 tagset app. For browsing convenience, the app also generates a google spreadsheet you can access directly. (Bookmarking will be available in the app once tag set corrections are complete.)

What's the deal with letters?
Letters are an optional tradition of Yuletide. When you sign up to the event, there's a space in the form for linking to somewhere in your own space (journal, public document, etc) where you can go into detail about what you like in fic and fandom. This post collects these links. The prompts on AO3 are hidden through sign-ups, but letters are visible as soon as you want them to be.

Letters are an optional extra in Yuletide. If you only post a letter here, you haven't signed up. To get an assignment and a gift, you need to sign up at the collection - open Oct 14-24. If you're using this post before sign-ups are open, please check back on AO3 to sign up there!

What makes a good letter?
Mileage varies. We encourage you, at minimum, to include your AO3 name, the fandoms and characters you're requesting, your Do-Not-Wants (DNWs), and whether or not you can receive treats. [This is a feature you can set in your AO3 preference settings. New accounts have permission to receive treats turned off by default, but participants with older accounts should check if they have not checked this in a while]. There are additional posts here and here discussing how to use DNWs.

How to post your letter

Finish your letter and make sure it's publicly visible. Here's the tagset to check what you can request

Enter it in the app*! You can edit your letter after submitting it - save the key, or ask the mods for the key if you lose it

Comment below! Include:
- Your AO3 name
- A link to your letter
- The fandoms you are requesting (3-8)
- The characters you are requesting in your fandoms (1-4, or Any)
If you post to the app first, it will spit out a handy chunk of text with all these details for you to use when commenting.

*Please reach out here if you're having trouble with the app! Characters can be selected by clicking on them.

!!! We ask you to add your letter both places to make sure it gets to people who are excited to read it. If for whatever reason you can only comment on a post, then please include the following line in your comment:

Mods, please add my letter to the app.

We will sweep the post occasionally and add letters to the app.

Warning: Locked or placeholder letters will be removed. You can add your letter when it's done.

If you have a question, contact a mod on Discord or comment here

Mini-challenges
As mini-challenges are posted, they will be added below.
( See links to this year's mini-challenges under the cut. )

The opening (and closing) of sign-ups will be announced at the admin comm.

Enjoy! And thank you to karanguni for the app!

garryowen

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yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

Tag set housekeeping

We've removed Mouthwashing (Video Game) as that was approved in error. Sorry for getting your hopes up, nominator!

烏は主を選ばない | Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master (Anime): It’s come to our attention that Nazukihiko and Wakamiya are the same person, so we’re merging those characters.

Nominator of Luca (The History of Sound) - it looks like the Wikipedia page for this movie incorrectly listed Luca as the name of Lionel's lover in Rome; according to IMDB and the original stories this movie is based on, it's Vincent (who was also nominated), so we're deleting Luca.

Thank you for all the tag set issues you’ve let us know about so far! Please continue to check the tag set and let us know of further corrections we should make. Please tell us about these corrections before 9am UTC, Monday 13 October, so we can fix them before sign-ups.

Limited Do-Not-Match option

Most of the time, the person assigned to create for you in an AO3-based gift exchange, and the person assigned to receive a gift from you, are determined by the tags you select in the sign-up form.

Some exchange moderators also offer participants the option to say "Please do not match me up with [ExampleUserName] or [ExampleUserName2]. I don't want to receive a gift from them or create for them." This feature makes it easier, for example, to offer a fandom requested by six different people including someone you'd prefer to avoid, and have peace of mind that you can still avoid that person.

A Do-Not-Match option is difficult to offer flexibly in Yuletide because of the large number of participants and the large number of people who have only one possible creator or recipient. However, we see a Do-Not-Match option as a valuable tool to reduce friction and make everyone happier, so we intend to offer a limited version of this feature in Yuletide, on a trial basis. Please note that this is not an absolute guarantee you won’t receive a story from one of the people you list.

How it will work

When you sign up on AO3, the sign-up form will also link out to a Google form where you can list the AO3 names of up to 3 people you do not want to match to and can tell us if you want to avoid writing for a person, receiving an assigned gift from a person, or both. We will also ask for those people's AO3 ID numbers, which you can find on their AO3 profiles, and for the email associated with your AO3 name. We will not ask for the reason you wish to avoid a person.

After we run the matching process, we will check all matches against our master Do-Not-Match list. We will take the following actions:

If your assigned recipient or creator is someone you asked to avoid, we will attempt to match you to someone else.

If your only possible recipient is someone you asked to avoid, we will email you to recommend you expand your offers. However, we will leave the match in place if you do not respond in the first 24 hours following the close of sign-ups.

If your only possible creator is someone you asked to avoid, we will send out your requests with initial pinch hits.

If you are the only possible recipient for a creator you asked to avoid, we will leave the match in place, but will prioritize your requests for double-assignment to two creators. [Because of how matching works, there will always be Yuletide participants who start out with two assigned creators; generally we try to choose them at random.]

We will not take the following actions:

We will not ask a creator to drop out or expand their offers if their only possible recipient is someone who would prefer to avoid them.

We will not inform a participant that someone else has asked not to match to them. [This information will be restricted only to the core Yuletide mods, Isis, Morbane, and pendrecarc, and will not be shared with the larger pool of Yuletide assistants.]

We will not review treats for unwanted matches. Putting someone on your Do-Not-Match list will not prevent them from creating a treat for you (but please see FAQs below for other tools to achieve this).

We will not prevent someone on your Do-Not-Match list from claiming you as a pinch hit. We will check our master Do-Not-Match list when assigning pinch hits, so if the first person to claim you is a person you prefer to avoid, we will leave a short amount of time to see if another claim comes in. But we will not hold your pinch hit indefinitely or tell the first creator they aren't allowed to claim you.

We will not ask you why you wish to avoid a particular match.

FAQs (foreseeable/anticipated questions)

Who am I allowed to put on my Do-Not-Match list?
Any three AO3 accounts you would prefer to avoid matching to. This can be for any reason, serious or unserious. Do not tell us the reason, please. If the reason is harassment or similar, we recommend reaching out to the Policy & Abuse team separately. You may only give specific names, rather than a description like "anyone who mostly wants porn".

Can't I just block people I don't want to match to?
No. Adding other users to your block list stops them from giving you a treat (see item AO3-6502 on this news post). It also stops them from being able to comment on your work. However, it does not affect challenge matching. A person you have blocked can be assigned to create for you, and you can be assigned to create for them.

Wait, am I allowed to block people in Yuletide?
Yes. Feel free to use the blocking feature to improve your AO3 experience. However, blocking someone and also matching to them could lead to unhappiness for both of you - so please consider using all the tools at your disposal to avoid matching to people you have blocked. This could mean choosing not to offer a fandom if you suspect it has been requested by a person you wish to avoid, or it could mean using the Do-Not-Match option for people you have blocked.

What other AO3 tools exist to manage my gift experience?
If you wish, you can choose to receive gifts only from assigned writers in a gift exchange or people who have claimed your prompts in a prompt meme. This is sometimes described as turning treats on and off. If you created your account after February 2022, please review this setting in your AO3 account preferences. If you select the setting "Allow anyone to gift me works", you can receive treats. If you do not select this setting, only an assigned author can give you a gift in Yuletide.

Will this be a feature of Yuletide going forward?
Maybe, maybe not. It will depend on how well it works out this year!

Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Tag Set App | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth

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james

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philomytha

This one is part of the Marie/Erich married-with-children AU I wrote last year for FIAB. And I apologise for doing this, but the trouble is I wrote the story in the wrong order and this was part of it in my head before I wrote the scene where Leo was born. So now it's extra horrible, but here it is.

( double drabble, WW2 and child death warning )

james

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mxcatmoon posting in

thisfinecrew

The YouTube Channel Parkrose Permaculture is doing a video series on Nonviolent Resistance.

With military invading our cities, I think this is very helpful knowledge to have. It comes from the information this person obtained from attending a Nonviolent Resistance Bootcamp. They live in Portland, Oregon, one of the places troops have been sent in a show of force against non-violent citizens exercising their Constitutional Rights, so they are a good source of factual information for what's really going on there, as well. They are calm, rational, hopeful and insightful and I've found their videos very helpful in putting things in perspective when I'm starting to freak out. They aren't pandering to sensationalism the way many channels do. I highly recommend all their videos.

isabrella posting in

yuletide

A mini-challenge for anyone who would love to see more femslash in the world and especially in this year's Yuletide!

Femslash Festivus is a collection post for femslash requests that you are making for Yuletide. Posting here doesn't obligate you to do anything, but it helps other femslashers find you and treat you.

Posting guidelines:

Your request must center around a femslash pairing or poly arrangement involving at least two women.
The femslash should be front and center of your requests in this post.
You can include any characters you want - if you're requesting gender-bending, please do note that clearly in your post.
Use your good judgement about ships with non-binary, gender fluid, genderqueer etc. characters; I'm thinking along the lines of the Femslash Ex rules, where you can include them if you'd be comfortable tagging any works about them as femslash.
If you are asking for femslash in a fandom where you requested Worldbuilding, no characters, or just one character, this is perfectly fine! Just talk up the kind of pairings you'd want to receive in your comment.
Another idea is to note whether you're interested in porn or prefer more G/T-rated content.

In your comment, please include:

AO3 Username:

Fandom:

Requested Characters/Ships (if applicable):

More suggestions:

One sentence pitch for your ship:

Letter Link:

Prompts:

Any Other Details:

Please do use the tag 'Femslash Festivus' for works inspired by this challenge!

Edited based on the 2020 post and inspired by other mini-challenges from 2024.

rivkat

I’ve been rereading Stephen King for comfort reasons, and I have a couple of observations. First, The Dead Zone—which posits political assassination as an actual solution to a potential presidential madman—hits a bit different these days. Second (and not unrelatedly), while I am happy enough to get the expanded version of The Stand, it was a huge mistake for King to try to change the setting from 1980 to 1990; random updated pop culture references can’t disguise the fact that America changed substantially in that decade, such that characters and settings that made sense in 1980 were no longer plausible in 1990. The teenaged, white Nick Andros would almost certainly not have used the word “Negro” to describe an old woman in 1990. The singer Larry Underwood would have different beliefs about music from the 70s, when he was a young child rather than a teen/early adult. From attitudes towards single mothers to how racism was expressed to the dumping practices of fabric mills, the revised version still reads like 1980, but with a mention of rap on the radio, and it’s not good.

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

The 2025 tag set is available here! Please browse and enjoy!

Fixes and Polishing

We're ready to work on corrections. Please tell us what we need to fix! We may make posts with further queries, depending on the issues you raise. Please keep an eye out for those! Sign-ups are projected to start October 14. If nothing's wrong in your fandoms - or if you can multitask - take part in activity at

yuletide!

If your fandom is the wrong category. (such as Books when it should be Celebrities & RPF - etc.)...

first, please check if it is also in the right category. If it is also in the right category, we can't help.

If it's only in the wrong category, please tell us what it is and what category it should be in.

(Please note that if it's a canonical fandom on AO3, we can't change it in the Yuletide tagset - however, we can notify the wranglers of the issue.)

Tell us about…

if you nominated something, but you can't find it at all

if you nominated characters in a particular fandom, but you can't find them there

if the fandom or characters you nominated were changed to something incorrect

if you see the exact same character tag (including disambiguation) in multiple fandoms

if a character or fandom name is mis-spelled (we don't care as much about disambiguations, so if the words in brackets entered after your fandom name are wrong (mis-spelled, misleading), feel free to tell us, but this may not be corrected.)

if you see something that doesn't belong

if you see two fandoms that are duplicates of each other

if you see the same character twice under one fandom

if your new fandom has been categorized in the wrong media category (and it isn't in any other category).

For missing nominations and corrections to your nominations, please provide your nominations link.

DO NOT tell us:

if your fandom is in the wrong media category (a book under movies, etc), unless that is the only category that it is in. Please check ALL the categories before you report a problem.

if your fandom is in Uncategorized Fandoms. This is a work in progress, please be patient as we work through these fandoms.

if the characters in your fandom all belong, but the disambiguation tags entered in brackets after their names aren't all the same. Sometimes we have to enter really long strings after a character name to keep the character where they're supposed to be. We only care if the information in brackets is wrong.

Suggested template for corrections requests:
Fandom tag (current):
Problem:
If correcting a tag or tags:
The current tag(s):
The correct tag(s):

Some Stats

This year, we approved 16,466 characters across 4,278 fandoms!

The most nominated fandom this year was Murderbot (TV), with 15 nominators. Close behind it was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game), with 13 nominators.

Nine Worlds Series - Victoria Goddard is far in the lead by approved characters for a second year in a row, with 39 to select from. Lymond Chronicles - Dorothy Dunnett has 30, and The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison is in third with 27.

At the other end of the spectrum, 82 fandoms were nominated without characters.

Worldbuilding was nominated 356 times this year! John edged out Jack for the most common first name. Our review suggests the most ubiquitous characters of 2025 are, once again, Dracula and Sherlock Holmes.

Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth

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james

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westiec posting in

pinchhits

Event: Sex Pollen Plus is a multi-fandom exchange focused on sex pollen and other fuck compulsion tropes. Minimum for fic and podfic is 1000 words and minimum for art is a finished artwork. Works must be rated M or E.

Event link:

sexpollenplus Event rules are in the sticky!

Pinch hit link: Please see the current PDPH post for full request details and claiming!

Due date: October 18 at 7PM GMT

PDPH 4 (fic) - Robot Series - Isaac Asimov, Lilywhite Boys Series - K. J. Charles, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Baldur's Gate (Video Games)

PDPH 10 (fic) - Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon)

PDPH 13 (fic) - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game), Challengers (Movie 2024)

garryowen

Yes, Season 2 of Brilliant Minds has begun, so the shirt project is underway again! Here are the shirts from the first three eps.

The palette is a little darker this season, I think. The costume designers are super intentional with the color choices, and the palette suits the mood of the episodes so far.

( Shirts from 2.01, 2.02, and 2.03 )

flowing_river posting in

pinchhits

Event: AspecEx
Event Link:

aspecex
Pinch Hit Link: Current Pinch Hit Post
Due Date: October 12th 10PM PST

aspecex is an Asexuality and Aromanticism themed multifandom exchange. You must create a fanfiction that is a minimum of 300 words. We have 1 post-deadline pinch hit and reveals will be delayed if it is not filled by the deadline.

Assignment Requirements

~~PH 5 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Stranger Things (TV 2016), The Walking Dead (TV), Schitt's Creek~~

For more details/to claim, view the pinch hit post.

james

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toastykitten posting in

thisfinecrew

Per Trans News Network, there are currently 10 bills on Gavin Newsom's desk that support LBGQT+ rights:

Trans Rights Bills

AB 82 / SB 497 – These privacy-focused bills provide needed confidentiality for patients, providers, and volunteers involved with trans healthcare. AB 82 offers important protections for reproductive healthcare, and prevents prescription data about drugs like testosterone and mifepristone from being stored in databases that could be accessible by other states.
AB 1084 / SB 59 – This pair of legal name change bills includes one that streamlines the process of updating legal name and gender, and another to ensure that older court records of name changes can’t be used to out or dox trans people.
SB 418 – Bolsters nondiscrimination protections for health insurance plans and requires the plans to cover up to a 12-month supply of prescription hormones.

LGBTQ+ Rights Bills

AB 554 – Requires insurance coverage of all FDA-approved medications that prevent HIV such as PreP, without prior authorization.
AB 727 – Mandates that schools and universities must provide all youth suicide hotline information, including numbers for LGBTQ+ hotlines in the wake of Trump’s defunding of the Trevor Project hotline.
AB 678 – Requires state housing programs to coordinate with LGBTQ+ communities to ensure homelessness programs remain inclusive and nondiscriminatory for queer people experiencing homelessness, directly combatting federal efforts to force homeless shelters to ban trans people.
SB 590 – Expands paid family leave protections to include the diverse caregiving needs of queer families.
SB 450 – Clarifies California adoption law to allow for LGBTQ+ couples who live outside of California to adopt children born in the state through California proceedings, which are more inclusive than many other states.

Call him at (916) 445-2841 to ask him to sign these bills into law.

james

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philomytha

I started this earlier in the year, inspired by the 'stabbed and pinned to the wall' tag in the h/c exchange, and also by watching MASH and thinking that if someone was impaled to the wall in a serious way they would need some really good trauma surgeons really quickly. It's been sitting around unfinished for a while, but today's whumptober prompt is also 'pinned to the wall', and so I have taken the hint and finally written an ending for it and posted it. Whumptober seems to be doing well for getting me to finish longer things that I haven't quite had the impetus to get done, long may it continue.

Title: Lime Jello and Other Dangers
Content: impalement, blood and gore, h/c, MASH crossover, canon-typical relationship dynamics, whatever the h/c equivalent of PWP is, not medically accurate, 7800 words
Summary: Von Stalhein is seriously injured. Biggles won't leave him. Algy knows a guy who runs a field hospital. And Hawkeye just wants more sleep.

( Lime Jello and Other Dangers )

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January 2022

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Page Summary

james - If I could turn back time
yourlibrarian - NaCraMaMo Here at Dreamwidth
morbane in yuletide - Dear Yuletide Writer Letters 2025
garryowen - Fic: First We Ever Met, You Thought I Was an Asshole
yuletidemods in yuletide_admin - Do-Not-Match Option - LIMITED Yuletide edition
james - Looking for a book
philomytha - Whumptober: there's nothing you can do, nothing you can say
james - Halloween Cards!
mxcatmoon in thisfinecrew - Nonviolent Resistance Training
isabrella in yuletide - Femslash Festivus 2025
rivkat - I have an icon for this!
yuletidemods in yuletide_admin - Yuletide 2025 Tag Set Open!
james - Writing
westiec in pinchhits - Sex Pollen Plus 2025 Due October 18
garryowen - The shirt project continues!
flowing_river in pinchhits - AspecEx Post Deadline Pinch Hit - Due October 12th 10PM PST
james - School approval thingy
toastykitten in thisfinecrew - CA trans issues - call Gavin Newsom
james - Tell me why
philomytha - Fic: Lime Jello and Other Dangers

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ariadnes_string

Reading

If I could turn back time

NaCraMaMo Here at Dreamwidth

Dear Yuletide Writer Letters 2025

Fic: First We Ever Met, You Thought I Was an Asshole

Do-Not-Match Option - LIMITED Yuletide edition

Limited Do-Not-Match option

How it will work

FAQs (foreseeable/anticipated questions)

Looking for a book

Whumptober: there's nothing you can do, nothing you can say

Halloween Cards!

Nonviolent Resistance Training

Femslash Festivus 2025

I have an icon for this!

Yuletide 2025 Tag Set Open!

Fixes and Polishing

Some Stats

Writing

Sex Pollen Plus 2025 Due October 18

The shirt project continues!

AspecEx Post Deadline Pinch Hit - Due October 12th 10PM PST

School approval thingy

CA trans issues - call Gavin Newsom

Trans Rights Bills

LGBTQ+ Rights Bills

Tell me why

Fic: Lime Jello and Other Dangers

Profile

January 2022

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