✨Fuck off✨
the idea that ppl deserve to "go to hell" because they donate to AO3 a place that gives ppl something to enjoy and live for and have fun and EVERYTHING! that is done in a charity fashion is so....stupid? evil? ridiculous? knowingly malicious?
how is that different from buying a book? or am i not allowed to buy books either? does that make me a bad person too? 😞
must i spend every lil bit of money i have donating to other ppl? is that it? that'd make me a good person? and why can't i donate to AO3 and to ppl that need it? if i do both am i still a bad person?
like i genuinely don't understand how y'all think????? EXPLAIN IT. actually pls don't explain lol don't bother, just shut up.
it will never fail to confuse me how people get so mad at others for donating to ao3. like... its a service that a lot of people use and they are invested in it so of course they’ll spend money on it the same way people will donate to podcasts or other free online content. they use it so of course they want it to stay up. why don’t you donate to charity instead? idk why didn’t you donate 50 dollars to charity instead of buying animal crossings or whatever.
This has always been about people not liking that ao3 hosts content they dont like and you can feel however you like about that but the point is that not all content on ao3 is “problematic” and this is just as nonsensical as telling people to stop funding public libraries because I can assure you there is a ton of questionable original work that they too host.
Its That Time Of Year Again!!!!
Some reminders:
- Websites require money in order to function. Where do you expect the money for the running costs to come from on a free website that doesn't host ads? Donations are the ONLY way to meet costs unless you want them to start shoving ads down out throats the way fanfiction or Facebook do.
- Ao3 takes a LOT of work from an extremely dedicated team who are constantly working to improve the website even further so as to give users the best possible platform. You get to use it for free, and yet you would begrudge them the funds necessary to meet costs? Fuck off.
- Donating is voluntary. You dont want to/cant afford to donate? You dont have to.
- March 2021 saw 358 million visits to Ao3. Thats over eleven and a half million visits per day, just for march. ELEVEN AND A HALF MILLION VISITS PER DAY. Thats an insane amount of traffic.
- "Why are you donating to ao3, why not donate to a charity?" A) how do you know they're not also donating to a charity? B) how do you know how much each donator is giving? Maybe they're flush with cash and generosity and gratitude and they're giving hundreds of dollars. Or maybe they're next-door to broke but want to contribute to their favourite website so theyve given a single dollar. You have no idea how much people are donating, and its also none of your goddamn business how much people are donating. C) ao3 has been credited by multiple professionals as being a mental health aid. Ao3 is good for people's mental health. Ao3 does a lot of good for its userbase, simply by existing. "Why don't you donate to a charity" I mean ao3 is serving a function that's helpful and supportive to people who need support. Is that not a similar spirit to what many charities do? No, they're not housing people or feeding people, but they're supporting the mental health of thousands if not millions of people. I'd say that's pretty damn worth funding.
- They are completely transparent with how they spend the money. You can look up their budgets on the site. They are completely accountable for every single dollar. Thats more than most actual charities do.
- YOU GET TO USE THIS SITE. FOR FREE. THERE ARE NO ADS. THERE IS NO SIGN UP FEE. THERE IS NO SUBSCRIPTION FEE. ALL THEY ASK IS THAT TWICE A YEAR PEOPLE WHO ARE WILLING AND ABLE TO, THROW A FEW DOLLARS IN THEIR DIRECTION SO THAT THEY CAN KEEP GIVING US THIS AD-FREE, SUBSCRIPTION-FREE, F R E E FUCKING SERVICE, AND YOURE BITCHING ABOUT IT. FUCK OFF.
- As said above: if you dont like the way that Ao3 operates, feel free to stop using it. You wanna keep using it? Then quit complaining about the voluntary donation drives that are done so the site can keep fucking functioning, oh my fucking God. Go use fanfiction.net and deal with the ads, or go make your own platform and fund it yourself. "Oh but all the best work is on ao3" so it is. Thats because its the the most popular fic site (seeing around 11m visits per day) so most authors use it over other platforms, on account of it being best-designed site of those available; one thats being constantly improved by a team that devotes hours per day to building it and making sure it doesn't crash. All for the measly cost of seeing a "please help us keep this site running" banner twice a year. If you wanna access the site and all the amazing content on it, then stop bitching about the fact that it needs money in order to function.
Like, I don't understand. These people are complaining about other people spending their own money as they see fit? Why do you bother how others spend their money? How does it affect you in any way??? Like, you don't have to donate if you don't want to and literally no one is gonna judge you for that.
also i'm sorry but it's hugely interesting how i haven't seen anyone telling people to 'go to hell' or 'kill themselves' because of their netflix, spotify, amazon, hulu, disney+, etc. subscriptions, instead of donating to every personal post on their dash -- companies which literally cause active global harm and oppression, abuse their workers and spearhead anti-worker legislation and campaigns, bend to incorporate imperialist and anti-worker messages into their media products, and contribute to capitalist actual neo-colonialization.
but we're all big mad about people supporting a user-owned-and-operated repository that is actively anti-monetization and anti-commercialization of creative works.
it really makes you think.
