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Entry tags:

!thursday recs,
bts

Community Recs Post!

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fancrafts/fanart/fics/fanvids/podfics/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here

AO3 Releases 0.9.427 – 0.9.432: Change Log

Posted by Caitlynne

https://www.transformativeworks.org/ao3-releases-0-9-427-0-9-432-change-log/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=269038

In September, we deployed a major upgrade to our HTML sanitizer (which interprets formatting tags) and introduced new features to collections! We also made a variety of fixes across different areas of AO3, including clarifying some confusing language and making new site elements translatable as part of our ongoing internationalization work.

Special thanks and welcome to first-time contributors brooke x, Jamis Gelvin, katieyang, Kylia Miskell, ömer faruk, Samridhi, and Yanpei Wang!

Credits

Coders: Bilka, Brian Austin, brooke x, Jamis Gelvin, katieyang, Kylia Miskell, Jo Kingswood (Littlelines), ömer faruk, Potpotkettle, Samridhi, sarken, weeklies, Yanpei Wang
Code reviewers: Bilka, Brian Austin, Hamham6, irrationalpie, redsummernight, sarken, ticking instant, weeklies
Testers: Allonautilus, ana, Aster, Bilka, Brian Austin, Lute, lydia-theda, megidola, ömer faruk, Pent, Sam Johnsson, Sanity, sarken, Teyris, therealmorticia

Details

0.9.427

On September 5, we deployed some improvements to get our HTML sanitizer up to date for HTML5 and fix a number of tiny but annoying parser-related bugs.

[AO3-5801] – We changed the sanitizer and parser to use Nokogiri’s newly available native HTML5 features.
[AO3-3282] – If your summary or notes had formatting followed by blank lines, extra blank lines would appear each time you edited those fields. Now the spacing stays the same, like it’s supposed to.
[AO3-4599] – We prevented the parser from modifying the formatting inside of <pre> tags, since that defeated the point of marking text as preformatted.

0.9.428

On September 8, we deployed a lot of changes by first-time contributors. If you’re interested in contributing code to AO3, check out our GitHub Contributing Guidelines.

[AO3-5552] – We removed some unused code as well as the tests for it.
[AO3-7110] – We fixed an automated test for the database data we use for development, which was failing intermittently.
[AO3-6921] – We made it so the commas used in series browser page titles are now translatable.
[AO3-6924] – The browser page title translations for some user-related pages (e.g., the Change Password page) were in the wrong place, so we moved them to the right locale file.
[AO3-7089] – We cleaned up some duplicate code in our automated tests.
[AO3-5769] – We updated the phrasing of the text you see when you hover over the “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings” icon in the work blurb.
[AO3-6581] – We changed the title on the page that lists works you’ve marked for later to “Marked for Later,” so you don’t get it confused with the overall history page.
[AO3-6914] – We clarified the error message site admins may see when updating language codes.

0.9.429

On September 15, we did a small release to improve the technical implementation of how certain AO3 pages are accessed.

[AO3-5953] – Some actions, such as marking a work for later or switching back to the default site skin, could be performed by simply visiting a URL. That isn’t great for a number of reasons, including security, so we’ve updated those actions to use more standard routing.

0.9.430

On September 26, we moved collections to Elasticsearch and added collection tags and better filtering options when browsing collections.

[AO3-6026] – We added collections to Elasticsearch for better filtering capabilities, made it possible to tag them, and also automatically added tags to existing collections.
[AO3-3748] – We changed the Collections page to also list subcollections, not just top-level collections.
[AO3-7122] – We updated the default value of two database columns in the collections table to work better with Elasticsearch.

0.9.432

On September 28, we made two more changes as part of our collections upgrades as well as a few low-impact updates that were easy to get done at the same time.

Additionally, our deploy script accidentally bumped us a release ahead and skipped 0.9.431 so this ended up being released as 0.9.432 instead!

[AO3-7141] – When we moved collections to Elasticsearch, we inadvertently started sorting items on users’ Collections pages and collections’ Subcollections pages by date. We’ve changed the sorting back to alphabetical order.
[AO3-6133] – The service we were using to deploy code to our testing environment will be discontinued in 2026, so we switched to using GitHub Actions instead. This switch also brought us some sweet speed improvements and better integration into GitHub and Jira, so it’s a win all around!
[AO3-7117], [AO3-7118] – Our friendly dependency updater bumped the version of two GitHub actions.
[AO3-4698] – We added a missing hyphen to the browser page title for the New Challenge Sign-up page.
[AO3-7123] – We added the ability to filter for collections based on whether they are marked as multifandom.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/ao3-releases-0-9-427-0-9-432-change-log/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=269038

Entry tags:

October Theme + Request Post

Recs of any sort may be posted at any time, but in addition we have monthly themes.

tardis_library's theme for September is now closed, and here is our new theme for October:

Second Doctor // Fall

"If we'd have fallen into the Master's trap, we would have become fiction."

This month is for celebrating the Second Doctor's era and your favourite work involving anything and anyone from it! You can also rec works that involve the theme of fall in any way - from the season, to pitfalls, pratfalls, falls from grace, pride going before a fall, falling into a trap, etc. etc. Or, as ever, both combined!

Post your recs to the community in the normal way any time from now until midnight on 31st October 2025 in your timezone. (See Info & Guidelines for posting template and instructions). Recs posted for monthly themes have their own tag with banners at the end of the year for reccers who posted a rec for 6 or more of each year's themes.

When making your post, add the tag "other: monthly theme". (The mods can take care of any other needed tags if you prefer, but a challenge/theme tag could easily be missed.)

Request List
Anyone may also request any specific recs they'd like to see. (e.g. "Fourth Doctor fic, not on Teaspoon," "Cheerful Bill Potts artwork," "Leela vid," "recent Ten/Rose," etc.) If you are only interested in one medium (fic/vid/art etc/), don't forget to specify.

Current requests:
* Classic Who fanvids, any Doctor/TARDIS team (music, no/minimal audio quotes preferred), especially out there on tumblr/YT -

thisbluespirit
* Twelfth Doctor h/c that's not on AO3 (any pairing or gen) -

ruuger
* Rose/Nine fic, any genre, anywhere - anon
* Jack/Esther fic (Torchwood) -

chamilet
* Babyfic and/or de-age fic, any era/any team -

romanajo123
* Fanworks in more unusual media (not Art, Fic, or Vids) -

lurking_latinist
* Gen fic featuring the Doctor's scarf any era -

liadt
* fic set after Planet of Giants that focus on the events of that story -

scifirenegade

Make your requests in the comments here to be added to the list. (Anon commenting is on.) If you make a rec that fills any of these requests, please add the "other: request" tag to your entry so it can be found easily.)

Any other questions? Ask here or at the Info & Guidelines post, or PM the mod.

I know Drawtober is on

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: sleepy

Entry tags:

Checking In - 1 Oct. 2025

The results on the French skills tests came back. I'm not going to get that particular job. Clearly, I need more practice. Fortunately, there are places where I can get that practice without much cost.

The knee x-rays will happen tomorrow morning if I get my way. The lab is relatively convenient to my travel routines as it is, and the last I checked, they still require everyone to mask up. I hope that's still the case.

I am getting more sleep again. Productive sleep.

More job applications are going out this week. This is good.

And this is how October started for me.

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Fandom 50 July-September Roundup (5 Recs: Art, Fic, Vids)

Continuing with my goal to make fifty rec posts in my journal this year, here's a roundup from July-September.

( 1 x Dimension 20: Cloudward, Ho! Art (Daisuke Bucklesby/Monty LaMontgomery) )

( 1 x Karaoke Iko! / Famiresu Iko Art (Narita Kyouji + Kyouji/Oka Satomi musings in rec) )

( 1 x Our Flag Means Death Fic (Izzy Hands/Benjamin Hornigold) )

( 1 x Our Flag Means Death Vid (Izzy Hands + Izzy/Ed Teach breakup) )

( 1 x Star Trek Vid (multiple show ensembles) )

Measure Twice, Cut Once

https://xkcd.com/3149/

"Measure zero times, cut zero times." --carpenter who has achieved enlightenment and realized the wood is fine where it is

https://xkcd.com/3149/

Entry tags:

movies

More fake movie listings

A Few Good Men (2009). After a string of gory murders, the owners of Studio 54 are placed on trial for operating a secret sex dungeon in the basement of the nightclub, behind the regular sex dungeon in the basement of the nightclub. Meanwhile, a detective (Guy Pearce) finds evidence that the killer will strike again, and hires a former dominatrix (Helen Mirren) to get him 'in the right headspace' to solve the case. (R, 96 minutes, also NC-17 version at 110 minutes. Four out of five stars.)

The Hunger Games (2009). Young prison camp inmates compete to see who can make the most appealing food items out of dirt. They are discovered by the warden (Bruce Dern), who arranges a multi-prison musical bake-off, during which they plot a daring escape. (93 minutes, PG-13. Two out of five stars.)

8 Mile Island (2011). A rabbit farmer named Rabbit, living in an illegal bunker deep in the exclusion zone around Pripyat, opens a petting zoo. KGB agents arrive to shut it down, and discover that the rabbits can freestyle rap. The farmer avoids prison by training the animals to produce propaganda. 'Rabbit's Rabid Rapping Radioactive Red Rabbit Revue' becomes famous throughout the USSR, and when the Soviet Union collapses, they begin a von-Trapp-family-style secret exodus from Ukraine into Belarus to avoid slaughter, hopping through forests and hiding in basements. (PG-13, some scenes of animals in peril, 105 minutes. Three out of five stars.)

Smile (2003). While brushing his teeth one night, a young boy comes up with an idea for a new toothpaste flavor. He and his friends sell jars of toothpaste out of the family garage, prompting lawsuits from big corporations. The "Toothpaste Kid" is elected major, then runs for president. As the election results are being announced, it is revealed that the boy is actually in a coma triggered by hitting his head on the sink in the opening scene of the film, and everything else was a hallucination. (79 minutes, PG-13, zero stars.)

Twilight (1988). A high school student (Martha Plimpton) is cursed by a homeless man (Pete Murphy) after hitting him with her truck, and begins to transform into either a werewolf or a vampire any time she hears the phrase 'like, oh my god'. Most of the student body is drained or eviscerated before her father (Christopher Walken) performs a ceremony to lift the curse. (85 minutes, R. Three out of five stars.)

Note: Spawned a whole series of Twilight sequels, where the curse moved to a procession of wacky victims: The high school principal, a sex therapist, a pilot on a mission to Mars, and finally, a squirrel. Decades later, fans continue to debate over whether it was more fun to watch the staff of an auto shop be terrorized by a werewolf vampire squirrel, or watch a werewolf vampire sex therapist try to do her job.

(The last episode.)

Entry tags:

LJ & DW

Interesting to see there looks to be a small, but active community on both sites although they now look to be more fully separated then they used to be.

It's nice to see some familiar names subscribing back on here though, so suspect this is where I'll be more active.

Entry tags:

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)

Spooky season is here! This month I'll be reviewing books and games with a horror or generally Halloween-ish theme.

This vampire novella is said to have been an inspiration for Dracula (which I'll be reviewing next week) and gothic horror in general. It follows a lonely teenaged girl named Laura who lives with her widower father and their servants in a remote Austrian country house. When a passing carriage crashes near their property, they rush to help and find that the occupants are two older women and a girl Laura's age. One of the women begs them to take in her daughter Carmilla and allow her to recover from the crash, promising to return for her in a few months after she's finished her urgent but nebulous business elsewhere. This is all a bit suspicious given that Carmilla doesn't really seem injured and her mother has given strict orders that she's not allowed to reveal anything about herself or her family. But Laura is starving for the company of a girl her own age, and as for Carmilla, well... the modern reader will have already guessed that she's starving too.

I really enjoyed this. It definitely is rich with gothic atmosphere and prose that's literary but very clear. (Victorian prose can sometimes be a bit... much for me.) It is also very very very gay. It's not subtle or subtextual; Carmilla's passionate desire for Laura is overtly romantic as well as vampiric. Laura responds to this with flustered confusion, feeling both intense attraction and fear. It could be read as a cautionary tale of not inviting the scary lesbian into the house, but I found it more complex than that.

spoilery thoughts

Though written by a man, much of the narrative centers women. It does evoke the idea that women's agency is scary, but it's less in the way of men being threatened by it, and more from the perspective of a young woman who is fearful of claiming it and abandoning the safety of gendered expectations and conformity. It's a man who eventually takes over the action of identifying and destroying the vampire (though at first Carmilla physically overpowers him!) which makes sense because he doesn't see the ambiguity, he only sees the threat. The conclusion leans into the ambiguity, though, saying that Laura was never quite the same after her encounter with Carmilla, even though she survived. I think it is important that Laura's first-person narrative is framed as being told to a woman, confiding her past experiences to someone who might understand them.

I thought it was interesting that Carmilla's mother and her female companion are never seen again. I assume that the mother wasn't her birth mother, but rather her vampire-mother, the one who turned her, and maybe the other woman was her vampire-grandmother then? I wasn't completely sure how this worked beyond the maiden-mother-crone imagery of the trio. It did seem obvious that the "carriage crash" setup was a con—pretend Carmilla is hurt, play on people's sympathies to get them to invite her in. The loose thread of what happened to the others also resonates with the idea that once female agency is awakened, there's no closing the book on it.

Carmilla is in the public domain, so you can read it on Project Gutenberg if you like. It's a quick read!

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Bread and Roses - Bobby Mcgee

you ever met a talking cat befure?

Name:
Sparklecat, they/them

Age:
bodily 23, mentally being rubberbanded back and forth through time

I mostly post about:
things that are inspiring/recovery related, things related to my studies (religion, demonolatry, sociology, folkways/folk music, appalachian history, union/labor history), fannish ramblings, any art. I feel i will probably use this as a bit of a diary, but im not sure......

I am very much a breaker of the rules of grammar, and a questioner of the rules of society. a slut who overthinks EVERYTHING.

My hobbies are:
(light) writing, crochet, making mix cds (like physically, which im trying to figure out how to translate into shareable art), looking at pretty pictures, about a million other things on any given day. I also make puzzles and have a website for it!

My fandoms are:
I write fanfic for Five Nights at Freddy's and Undertale/Deltarune. My main fandom is The Daycare Attendant community, a subcommunity of FNAF. we are small but mighty, lol. I have a vested interest in x readers and I enjoy self-ship. I also enjoy any form of monster/creature, not really limited to community. i guess you would call me a monsterfucker/lover/appreciator. A friend to monsters, hopefully?

I'm looking to meet people who:
ramble! share their thoughts! want to speak asynchronously! I am very new to this form of social media, being a tumblr native since 2015, and want to make friends!

My posting schedule tends to be:
hopefully multiple times a week, but i want to try to put out more "together" posts at least once. dont hold me to this however. Im hoping to use this journal as a mix between a diary, pinterest, and tumblr.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
No Minors, sorry! also no fascists/bigots/maga. I am against AI usage on environmental grounds.

Before adding me, you should know:
I am plural/a system and will post about that/other parts will make posts every now and again. we are interested in the experience of other systems and their concept of healthy multiplicity. Also genderfluid and aromantic(ish) and like to ramble about that too.

Current Mood: curious

Entry tags:

Echo? …Echo?? ....Standing at the mouth of the cave, listening

So, a couple of things have happen recently. LJ emailed me to say my account is now 20 years old (yay! - although seems a bit of a cheat when there's been no posts to it for 11 years) and life seems to have turned completely upside-down (perhaps something for another post me thinks). Guess I could do with somewhere to post my thoughts like I used to...

My friends feed is ominously empty though. Did LJ die quietly while I wasn't looking or is anyone still lurking out there?

Did everyone move to DreamWidth or did that not pick up where LJ left off? Have transferred this blog there in case I'm not too late to the ball.

Guess I'll post this to both to see what response I get...

Entry tags:

Yuletide etc.

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: sleepy

Entry tags:

Checking In - 30 Sept. 2025

No word on the skills tests from Sunday yet. I'm expecting that tomorrow.

My visit with Mom was shorter than I'd planned, because of chores and a newish job lead I needed to look into.

One of my map projects' requirements was something different than what I expected, and the news has come as both a relief and an entertaining challenge.

(no subject)

Name: ace (short for alex, but please just call me ace!)
Age: 48
I mostly post about: tennis, fannish rambles, book reviews, occasional football nostalgia, and random life musings
My hobbies are: reading (historical fiction, romance + the occasional sports biography), writing emotionally messy fanfic, cozy farming sims (stardew valley hours are ridiculous), traveling when i can, and yelling fondly at tennis players and footballers
My fandoms are: tennis (lifelong), historical fiction nerdery, bridgerton, and a splash of nostalgic 90s/00s pop (yes i still love take that and one direction, no regrets)
I'm looking to meet people who: are fannish, bookish, or just like chatting about their passions. bonus points if you also get tennis brainrot or historical-fiction cravings.
My posting schedule tends to be: sporadic — sometimes i post a lot, sometimes i vanish into the void with a book or a video game.
When I add people, my dealbreakers are: no bigotry, no cruelty. fannish disagreements are fine, but being mean about real people (especially athletes/actors etc.) is not my jam.
Before adding me, you should know: i ramble a lot in lowercase, i treat my journal more like a diary/archive than a performance space, and i’m always happy to chat if you are!

Entry tags:

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

After rewatching the Original Trilogy,

sdk and I allowed our enthusiasm to carry us forward into rewatching the Prequel Trilogy. That was... well, it was certainly a decision that we made.

I saw this movie in the theater and had not seen it since then. I knew it wasn't a cinematic masterpiece, but I did go in with a positive attitude hoping to enjoy some cheesy silliness and at least have fun razzing it. I'm afraid I was not able to maintain that attitude; I actually found the movie unpleasant to watch. So if you love it, maybe skip this post.

( cut for length and negativity )

In conclusion, I don't recommend this movie. I do, however, recommend this:

Embedded video: Music video for Weird Al's song "The Saga Begins", which retells the plot of the movie to the tune of "American Pie" by Don McClean.

Watch on YouTube

Nonetheless we plan to persevere with Attack of the Clones, which I think I have seen part of. Maybe it will be better! Let me dream!

OTW Signal, September 2025

Posted by an

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-september-2025/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=269013

Every month in OTW Signal, we take a look at stories that connect to the OTW’s mission and projects, including issues related to legal matters, technology, academia, fannish history and preservation issues of fandom, fan culture, and transformative works.

In the News

On September 23, SenLinYu’s Alchemised joined Rose in Chains by Julie Soto and The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley as the third “Dramione” fan fiction-inspired novel to be traditionally published in 2025. In their article “‘The Year of Dramione’: Fan fiction’s leap to bookstore shelves”, United Press International (UPI) spoke with OTW’s Rebecca Tushnet about the growing appeal of fanworks outside of fandom spaces. Many publishers are fans themselves, Tushnet noted, commenting on the—often fraught—relationship between fandom and traditional media publishing. She also highlighted the deeper, intrinsic worth of fanworks:

… the value in fan fiction writing extends well beyond the potential for publication, Tushnet said.

“To me, it’s never about making the jump to getting paid for it,” she said. “People develop all sorts of skills and passions and connections through fan fiction and I would never want to flatten that.”

UPI posited that it’s perhaps, in part, this passion at the heart of fandom that serves as a beacon for fans and publishers alike. Ali Hazelwood, whose “Reylo” fan fiction inspired her novel The Love Hypothesis, reflected on what binds her to fandom:

“… it’s also just great to feel a sense of community and to get to know people, to find someone who’s like-minded and interested in similar things. It’s very hard to make friends as an adult. And I feel like I truly found my adult friends through fanfiction and through the fandom community.”

Hazelwood’s experience embodies a core purpose of sites like the Archive of Our Own (AO3). “As long as there are humans, they will ask what happens next [beyond canon],” Tushnet said. “The fight we have is their ability to find each other.”

Rae Johnston, presenter of the Download This Show podcast, asks, “What does it take to keep a website alive when every other platform is chasing advertising dollars or subscription fees?” The podcast’s new episode, “How fanfiction took over the world (and stayed free)”, explores how AO3 has risen to the challenge. Johnston spoke with OTW Board Director Rachel Linton to learn more:

The vision was to have a space for fans, created by fans, to make sure that it was a noncommercial space and to make sure that it didn’t restrict content. And those were driven by concerns that were raised by FanLib and by Strikethrough, and trying to make sure that there was a space that people could post what they wanted to write without having that controlled by what corporations wanted to support or promote—and to keep ownership over that work.

… There was definitely a desire to have a very clear vision of why we think that [creating fanworks] is allowed and why this is legal, and as part of that, we’ve had a Legal Committee from the beginning who … exists to support AO3 and to support fans—and make sure that their work is protected and that they know what they are allowed to do and can’t be intimidated.

… On the technical side, [AO3’s] code base was created for the Archive … we own all of our own servers, which is great for having control over the work that we host and the work that we do. … we’re entirely volunteer-run, so any work that we’re doing in terms of coding or in terms of upgrades or anything like that is all done by volunteers. … All of our funding is through donations. … we are essentially completely run by fan volunteers, but also run by the money that fans donate.

An incredible testament to community, Johnston concludes that “Archive of Our Own has managed the near impossible: staying free, staying independent, and keeping the culture alive.”

OTW Tips

Looking for more OTW news coverage? Visit our Press Room! Here, you’ll find a catalogue of notable media mentions of the OTW and its projects—dating back to its founding in 2007. Browse articles, podcasts, and more to learn about how the OTW and its work and volunteers have been recognized across the media landscape.

We want your suggestions for the next OTW Signal post! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or news story you think we should know about, send us a link. We are looking for content in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in an OTW post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-september-2025/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=269013

100% All Achievements

https://xkcd.com/3148/

I'm trying to share my footage of the full run to prove it's not tool-assisted, but the uploader has problems with video lengths of more than a decade.

https://xkcd.com/3148/

Entry tags:

Fan Art for The Politician's Wife

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

But wait, there's more!

Apparently, unless his Secret Service can somehow argue him out of it, our Dear Leader is going to be attending the giant military meeting at Quantico and address all the officers.

Jesus H. Particular Christ on a pogo stick.

Now it really IS the ENTIRE chain of command, several layers deep, in ONE location. Less than a week's notice for a Presidential visit, and barely a week for the whole gathering.

There are SO many ways this can go wrong, even ignoring the "why the hell are they even HAVING this meeting" speculation.