AO3 Collections Advice

with the advice on how to collect bookmarks, yes do this

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sparxwrites https://sparxwrites.tumblr.com/post/689872238916337664/ao3-collections-advice :

just a gentle reminder to say that i do not, and will never, accept unsolicited invitations to add my fics to collections on ao3. doing so gives the owner of the collection power over my work https://archiveofourown.org/faq/collections?language_id=en#collectionoptions - they can then make the work anonymous without my consent, or even hide it from view entirely on ao3. whilst i can undo this by removing the work from the collection, i prefer not to take the risk of this happening and me not noticing and ending up with a missing/uncredited fic

readers: using collections as a “i’ve read this and i liked it” list is a poor use of the many, many features ao3 gives you to save and rec stuff. what you are looking for instead is ao3′s bookmarks https://archiveofourown.org/faq/bookmarks feature! you can make a bookmark of a work (they even have specific bookmark types for recs!), and then add that bookmark to a collection https://archiveofourown.org/faq/bookmarks?language_id=en#bookmarkscollection without any of the issues i mentioned above (i.e. if you make the collection anonymous/hidden, it won’t affect the bookmarked work). you don’t even need author permission to do add a bookmark to a collection! and probably the authors will be delighted because, hey, more exposure without any risk of to work. using collections this way is a good use of collections, especially if you label them clearly (e.g. “the best of dsmp h/c fic”, rather than “ouoguguh hurty”), and is of huge benefit to the fandom community at large because it helps people find recs!

also, even if you’re going to ignore everything else i’ve said here, you should absolutely not be trying to add author’s works to collections titled “okay fics” or “fics that are a solid 5/10″. i will get an email telling me you are trying to do this, letting me know exactly what you think of my work just the same as if you’d left a rude comment. if you do this with an author who is on auto-accept, every other person who reads that fic will see that collection title just below the fic’s tags. if you want to remind yourself to avoid a fic, use a private bookmark; you can tag that with whatever you want because it’s between you and god. just don’t be a dick in public, please.

even with collections that don’t have derogatory titles, this is still worth thinking about; do authors really want “subtext is buttsex spelled differently!” in all caps or “uwu squirm worm” on their work? probably not. i get emails trying to invite me to collections like this maybe once a week, and it is phenomenally annoying (though, self-admittedly, i’m a grumpy old bastard). more importantly, it also makes your collections functionally useless to anyone other than yourself - no one is searching for “worm” or “buttsex” when they are trying to find collections of good fics. a clearly-titled collection that gives you a good idea of what’s in it, whilst less funny to you personally, turns it from a personal list into a community resource!

other authors: you, also, should probably not be allowing random people to add your works to collections. by default, people should have to request permission to; (if you’ve changed that to auto-accept, you can change it back by doing the opposite of the instructions here https://archiveofourown.org/faq/preferences?language_id=en#agreecollect), and i would strongly suggest rejecting unsolicited requests. anyone who’s not e.g. the the trusted admin of an event/challenge/etc. who is running a collection for those purposes should not have control over your work’s visibility. (Your picture was not posted)

further on dreamwidth

understand it, so i can't fix it

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LOL i also can’t reply to comments.

No, when I reblog posts, I used to append a note to say this was a reblog, but the IFTTT crossposter would strip that out and put it in strange places. Tried to use tags, those don’t come through either. Often I have appended commentary to the end, usually adding image descriptions, but there’s no reliable way to make sure that’s gonna come through as an obvious thing. (Often my captions wind up as the first thing in the post, which I am aware is a bit weird. However, it is all quite a bit less terrible and crusty than it used to be, so overall the functionality is better. I just know, i can’t really rely on anything coming through along with the posts, so there’s no point in trying to mark them, and since I can’t log in to Dreamwidth– hilariously, I opted NOT to use a password manager for Dreamwidth, but somehow the password I have, and the one I fed into the crossposter, is not allowing me to log into the site, and I know if I reset it I will break the crossposter. I am very bad at technology and I know once I break that crossposter I will not be able to repair it, so I’ve opted to leave the site I actually use being reposted to the one I don’t functional in lieu of just disappearing from Dreamwidth entirely.)

The only thing that’s foolproof is that there’s always a link back to the Tumblr post at the top, and if you click through, it’s very regular and coherent and easy to see what’s a reblog on Tumblr. (Your picture was not posted)

robertogreco: By burning incense [we] know the o’c

worldbuilding

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robertogreco https://robertogreco.tumblr.com/post/700285809773903872/by-burning-incense-we-know-the-oclock-of-the :

By burning incense [we] know the o’clock of the night, With graduated candle [we] confirm the tally of the watch.

Those are the words of sixth century poet Yu Jianwu referencing incense clocks https://daily.jstor.org/keeping-time-with-incense-clocks/.

The incense clock takes the basic concept—timing by combustion—and elevates it to a new level of gorgeous complexity. Examining the example held by the Science Museum, I was struck by its diminutive size: no larger than a coffee mug. Yet its small compartments are carefully packed with everything it needs to operate. In the bottom tray, you’ll find a bite-sized shovel and damper; above that, a pan of wood ashes for laying out the incense trail; then, stacked on top, an array of stencils for laying out the labyrinths. As Silvio Bedini, historian of scientific instruments, explains in his extensive study of the use of fire and incense for time measurement in China and Japan, the variety allows for seasonal variation: longer paths to be burned through the endless winter nights, while shorter ones serve for summer

[…]

To set the clock, start by smoothing the ashes with the damper until they are perfectly flat. Select your stencil, then use the sharp edge of the shovel to carve out a groove, following the pattern, and fill it with incense. Finally, cap it with the lacy lid to vent the smoke and control the flow of oxygen.

To track smaller intervals of time, place small markers at regular points along the path. Some versions had little chimneys dispersed across the lid, allowing the hour to be read based on which hole the smoke was venting through. And some users may have used different kinds of incense at different parts of the path, or inserted scented chips along the way, so that they could tell the time with just a sniff.

If you are interested in reading more about incense clocks, there is much more in the article the above passages come from https://daily.jstor.org/keeping-time-with-incense-clocks/ including pointers to longer documents about them too.

A dragon-shaped fire clock offers a particularly beautiful example. The dragon’s elongated body formed an incense trough, across which stretched a series of threads. Small metal balls were attached to opposite ends of the threads. Dangling below the dragon’s belly, their weight held the threads taut. As the incense burned down, the heat broke the threads, freeing the balls to clink into a pan below and sound an alarm. (Your picture was not posted)