Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

I haven't written anything akin to poetry in years, but oh man, I saw the funniest thing on Tumblr this morning and I've had one of those weird non-rhyming beat poems bouncing in my head ever since. Someone's blog was listed as "Minors DNI"... but they also listed their age as 24. And all I can think is, Sweetie, I am literally twice your age, and you are telling kids six years younger than you not to interact with you. Maybe you shouldn't be interacting with me.

I didn't say it was a good poem. 🤣

It's spring break here, and 10yo is in an art camp every morning for three hours. So far he's really enjoying it: they are painting and drawing and making a mess, and he's made a friend and has a couple of much younger fans who clearly think he is Coolness Personified. (Which he is.) The rec center where the class is has a pretty awesome skate park next to it, too, so we spent about 45 after class having a picnic while he fretted over going down the inclines on his skateboard, after which he confessed that he likes watching better than doing it himself. Which, fair. I like watching baseball, I don't particularly enjoy playing it. But I did go down one of the smaller inclines on his scooter, and I did not die, so I think that's one point for setting good examples.

15yo is dying to get out of town; at this point, the only time we have is this coming weekend. Not that any of us particularly care about Easter, beyond the scope of "do I get any presents." I'm a sucker; I'd rather give them each Playstation or Roblox gift cards than another chocolate bunny that they'll invariably ignore and which I'll end up eating myself because it's there. Which is also fine -- no candy, that is -- because it's not like any of us need any of that anyway. Anyway, he wants to go to Philadelphia; I'm not entirely sure why, I'm a little worried he has ideas about seeing all the sports games he can, but that's not something I really want to do with 10yo in tow because 10yo has limited patience for sports games (and frankly, so do I). But the Revolutionary War museum is really good, and I think they'd both like that, and I can drag them to the Liberty Bell where they will be unimpressed and I can thoroughly embarrass them, which let's face it, is the whole point to having kids anyway.

I do wish taking the train was easier/cheaper. There's a station near us but it only gets one train a day (and it's not particularly a convenient time), plus using it doubles the cost of the ticket. And the ticket's not that inexpensive to start with. Times like this I miss Poland.

I promise I'm not going to blather endlessly about writing things, but sometimes, I just gotta.

So there's a post that popped up on my Tumblr feed this morning, and had me spinning in circles. It's yet another riff on the "writers want engagement, please reblog/comment, likes and kudos do NOTHING" song and dance that has been around for... well, ever.

And generally speaking... I do agree that a lot of times, it feels like engagement is down and it's hard to get traction on a story in the immediate aftermath of posting it. If one of my Tumblr chapter announcements for NAFTK gets more than 30 notes, I consider it a success. And that's with two or three people who are guaranteed to reblog it.

But this person... this person, who posted the post I saw this morning, they went another step further. They said that they plan to start blocking readers who only like their stories, and don't comment or reblog them.

Yeah. They are blocking active readers.

And I just... my jaw dropped. I can't... I can't even. I don't know where to start with that. Except that it's pissing. me. off.

Because they were basically outright threatening readers with: If you only like my story and don't talk to me, then you aren't allowed to read them at all.

And went on to say, and I quote: "I am not a free content mill."

I'm sorry, what the fuck.

Sweetie. Darling. Sugar pie. YOU ARE WRITING FANFICTION, AND YOU ARE NOT CHARGING FOR IT. THAT IS THE ACTUAL LITERAL DEFINITION OF FREE CONTENT. The only person making you into a "mill" is YOU.

So I wrote this in response. Not a direct call-out, because I don't really want to call them out (although I also kinda do). But seriously? You don't get to threaten readers with blocking if they don't respond the way you want them to.

I am a free content mill*, and you know what? I'm proud to be one.

(*The actual definition of "mill" here is probably debatable.)

Just... ugh. Yes, I'd like comments. Yes, I'd like reblogs. But you know what? If all you have to give me are likes and kudos, then I'll happily take those too. And anyone who says otherwise maybe should rethink the reason they're sharing at all.