Ep 398: Wattpad Censorship
Transcript Info:
Sounds Fake But Okay Podcast
September, 13th, 2026
Speakers
Speaker 1: Sarah
Speaker 2: Kayla
Ep 398: Wattpad Censorship
SARAH: Hey, what's up? Hello! Welcome to Sounds Fake But Okay, a podcast where an aro-ace girl (I'm Sarah, that's me.)
KAYLA: And a bi-demisexual girl (that's me, Kayla.)
SARAH: Talk about all things to do with love, relationships, sexuality, and pretty much anything else we just don't understand.
KAYLA: On today's episode: Wattpad Censorship.
BOTH: Sounds fake, but okay
SARAH: Welcome back to the pooooood!
KAYLA: It feels as though it has been years.
SARAH: It does. I started doing the intro and I was like, wait, do I know it?
KAYLA: I tried really hard to match your cadence today.
SARAH: Thank you, I appreciate that.
KAYLA: I hope I did a good job.
SARAH: I hope you did too.
KAYLA: We'll see.
SARAH: Hi, everyone. Thank you for tolerating our week off/I hope you enjoyed it. The reprieve from our…
KAYLA: The reprieve!?
SARAH: Silly voices.
KAYLA: The great reprieve.
SARAH: Yeah, that's all. I had a grand time at the BTS concerts.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: What a delight.
KAYLA: Do you have any updates on your debacle?
SARAH: What!?
KAYLA: Well, the last we heard of you, you were being scammed.
SARAH: Oh, right. So, Rita blocked me on PayPal.
KAYLA: Nooooo!
SARAH: But she hasn't blocked me on Venmo, I should request her again. I'm kind of leaving it alone for right now. I think maybe next week if still nothing happens… Oh, also, she's back to… Okay, so you know how her MO was she reached out to my girl Sienna and was pretending to buy a ticket from Sienna?
KAYLA: No, I didn't know that.
SARAH: Okay, so her MO… that's how she got Sienna's ID
KAYLA: Ah!
SARAH: Because Sienna was selling tickets and she was like, hey, can I… and I need your Ticketmaster email, I need… whatever. And then she like tried to get… so, she's doing that. Now, I think because she knows that she's kind of got got as Sienna…
KAYLA: Oh, she needs a new identity.
SARAH: So, like, she needs a new identity. So, last I checked, she was doing that. And then everyone who she was like tagging and reaching out to, I was being like, hey, she's a scammer.
KAYLA: Don’t! Don't do it!
SARAH: And then someone else posted about it and I was like, ooh, another victim. But then I realized it was the partner of the person that I'm already in touch with.
KAYLA: Ooh, I love your little club.
SARAH: So, I think maybe next week if nothing becomes of it. Also, of course, I've not heard from the police because they suck.
KAYLA: Oh, of course.
SARAH: Next week, if I've heard nothing of it, I might start reaching out to her children.
KAYLA: Huh! Right.
SARAH: Oh, she changed her profile, it's now… she's in Harry Styles-mode. She's trying to ‘buy’ Harry Styles tickets.
KAYLA: Right
SARAH: She has changed her @ so many times, she has posted… I don't know… I don't know what she's doing. But yeah, not a ton of updates, next week perhaps in earnest.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: Anyway, BTS was good. To get to soundcheck, we had to walk down approximately seven flights-worth of ramps.
KAYLA: Oh, good.
SARAH: And then when we left, we made the mistake of going out the same way…
KAYLA: Ooh
SARAH: We had to walk up approximately seven flights-worth of ramps.
KAYLA: Mm
SARAH: Kayla, what are we talking about this week?
KAYLA: This week, we're talking about Wattpad.
SARAH: Which was more relevant last week.
KAYLA: Yeah. But I’m sure there's still something ongoing, I'm sure.
SARAH: Yes
KAYLA: I understand there's some censorship happening. I don't have too many details, but I am here to listen.
SARAH: She's here to listen and learn, and I'm here to attempt. Okay, so here's… let's back up, fanfiction. There are a couple of places that are most known for fanfiction, some people just straight up post their fanfiction on Tumblr. The OG big one was fanfiction.net.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: Funnily enough, the reason that that kind of fell from grace was because of censorship.
KAYLA: Mm
SARAH: And out of that, out of those ashes, bloomed Archive of Our Own. Which their whole thing is that there is zero censorship on Archive of Our Own. It was literally founded so that people could write supernatural incest.
KAYLA: Right!
SARAH: And that's kind of like the premiere fanfiction website these days, we'll get more into how it works in a moment. But then the other one that popped up in the last 10 years or so has been Wattpad. What is your impression of Wattpad?
KAYLA: I thought it was older than that, to be honest. For some reason, I had thought that Wattpad was around at the same time as fanfiction.net.
SARAH: Okay, it was founded in 2006, fanfiction.net was founded in 1998.
KAYLA: Oh!
SARAH: And AO3 was 2008. So, Wattpad is actually older than AO3.
KAYLA: Okay
SARAH: But at least I personally was not familiar with it as a fanfiction site until I was well into high school.
KAYLA: Yeah. I remember using fanfiction.net and I think Archive of Our Own a little bit. I don't think I've ever been on Wattpad. I don't know if this is because the name for some reason reminds me of like Lilypad, which then reminds me of those little frog tablets.
SARAH: Uh-huh
KAYLA: But it just gives me the impression that it's for babies
SARAH: Like the villain in Toy Story 5.
KAYLA: Yes. For some reason, the name of it makes me think it's fanfiction for babies.
SARAH: My impression, and this is not necessarily accurate. This is just what my impression that I've gleaned over the years about what Wattpad is. Is that Wattpad has a, on average, younger audience
KAYLA: Yeah, that's like the vibe I get, I feel like.
SARAH: That Wattpad has a much higher rate of self-insert fanfiction? Dean is creeping away in the background.
KAYLA: I told him he wasn't allowed to be clinking and clanking around, so he's being very silent.
SARAH: I interpret it as having a lot of self-insert fanfiction. I interpret it as being, on average, much less gay.
KAYLA: Interesting
SARAH: Not to say that there isn't gay stuff, but it feels straighter to me.
KAYLA: So, it's like normie.
SARAH: Yeah, it's normie, it's a lot more normie.
KAYLA: Okay
SARAH: There's also, I think, a higher ratio of original works that are written with the intention of being read as original works.
KAYLA: Oh, interesting
SARAH: You can do that on AO3, but it's just less common.
KAYLA: I guess, yeah, a lot of the fanfiction that has become novels, hasn't a lot of that come from Wattpad?
SARAH: A good bit, not all of it, Heated Rivalry came off of AO3. I think the... what was the Reylo one? That came off AO3.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: I encountered at work today, there was a book, and I was like, why is that book called what it was called? Like, it didn't seem to like match the description, and then I read further, and I was like, oh, this was originally Dramione fanfic on AO3. Okay, yeah, okay.
KAYLA: Uh-huh, indeed.
SARAH: But yes, so I perceive it as being younger, straighter, and more self-insert-y.
KAYLA: Sure.
SARAH: I also perceive, this is my bias, I also perceive the writing as being worse than AO3 on average.
KAYLA: Okay, sure.
SARAH: I don't know if that's actually accurate. Obviously, AO3, there is bad writing on AO3, trust me. But I think my expectations for what the average is, is higher on AO3…
KAYLA: Sure
SARAH: And maybe that's partially because I expect the average author age to be older, and just more experienced.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Not to say that there aren't 14-year-olds writing smut on AO3, because there are.
KAYLA: Sure.
SARAH: I think this is also partially because my own very limited experience on Wattpad was like, that was what I encountered.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: So, it could be completely skewed, that's just my biased interpretation.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: As an AO3 girlie, as a long-time AO3 girlie, I actually checked today, I made my account in March of 2015.
KAYLA: Wow!
SARAH: And I think I had been on there for a little bit before that, like before I made the account.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: I perceive AO3 as being like more adult, not necessarily in content, although also in content.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And higher quality. Again, I'm not saying this is objectively true, this is my bias
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: I'm an AO3 girlie. Am I inclined to look down on Wattpad a little? Yes! That's my problem.
[00:10:00]
KAYLA: What are you going to do about it?
SARAH: Okay? So, that's the general vibe, at least personally. If other people listening have different impressions of Wattpad versus AO3, I would be happy to hear them. I've heard a lot of people talk about Wattpad as like what they read as a teenager until they graduated to AO3.
KAYLA: Interesting.
SARAH: Like Wattpad as a gateway drug to AO3 sort of deal
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: So that's that. But yeah, there are also like original stories and like full books basically on Wattpad.
KAYLA: Yeah. I wonder, what is the UI on Wattpad like? Because I know AO3 is a bit complicated.
SARAH: Yes
KAYLA: It is a learning curve learning the search engines, which is part of the reason it's so good, it is because it's such a robust search engine. But is Wattpad more beginner-friendly?
SARAH: Yes. So, we're going to get to that a little bit, but it is a lot more… I don't know how algorithmic it actually is, but compared to AO3, which is not algorithmic in any way at all, it feels like things are served up to you on a platter a lot more than they are with AO3.
KAYLA: Sure, yeah
SARAH: So, basically what happened is recently Wattpad, as people have been describing it, basically banned smut. Now, I'm looking right now at the terms and conditions. Or, okay, it's a screenshot of the terms and conditions.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And here is what it says. So, always allowed for everyone is romantic or sexual relationships as a part of a broader story and non-explicit or implied sexual content, that's fine.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm.
SARAH: What's listed under the mature heading, so it would have to have a mature marker on the work, is explicit sexual scenes between consenting adults, 18-plus or as otherwise applicable under local, national, or international laws.
KAYLA: Okay.
SARAH: And sexual content that supports the story, but is not the main purpose.
KAYLA: Okay.
SARAH: What is banned from this point forward is pornographic content created primarily for sexual arousal, any sexual content involving minors. They have a zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation material. They may report suspected child sexual exploitation material directly to relevant law enforcement authorities worldwide.
KAYLA: Wow!
SARAH: Sexual exploitation, coercion, and non-consent something, and then it cuts off. You get the vibe though.
KAYLA: Okay, interesting. When you first started talking, I was like, oh, they're just putting things into more like specific headers. And I was like, that's actually probably good.
SARAH: Yes.
KAYLA: But...
SARAH: But smut for smut's sake is banned.
KAYLA: Yeah. I mean, I get the certain things that are like illegal.
SARAH: Mm-hmm
KAYLA: That I understand wanting to ban.
SARAH: Yes.
KAYLA: Just banning... And I would understand putting a stricter guideline on sexual content of like, okay, you have to make an account and say that you're this age, and then we're going to block you from seeing whatever content, I get that.
SARAH: Mm-hmm.
KAYLA: But a little intense just to take it off wholesale.
SARAH: Yeah. Especially if you're taking it away from a place that already had it, like when they banned porn from Tumblr.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: Like, there was like a huge outcry.
KAYLA: Because it's kind of like the whole thing.
SARAH: Right. I mean, because Wattpad is the home of such iconic stories as my mom sold me to One Direction.
KAYLA: Right.
SARAH: Like, come on.
KAYLA: Like, what are we doing?
SARAH: Right. So, a lot of people are mad about this, and so, they're choosing to leave Wattpad and go to other platforms. The primary platform that they're going to, because it's the other primary fanfiction platform, is AO3. Now, as I mentioned, AO3 has no censorship; that is the whole point of AO3. Archive of Our Own, if I haven't mentioned that that's the full name of it.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: It was founded, as I mentioned, because of increased censorship on fanfiction.net. You can put anything on AO3.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: It can be the most horrible, nasty, perverted, horrifying shit you've ever heard of, and it is allowed on AO3, the rules are that it is tagged properly.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: AO3 has a very robust tagging system, and you have to use it right. There is no algorithm on AO3. If you're looking for something, you have to look in the fandom tag, or the ship tag, or whatever other tags. But you can specify down to very... like, you can put a lot of... when you search… what's it called?
KAYLA: Like search terms?
SARAH: Yes.
KAYLA: Parameters?
SARAH: Parameters. You can apply a lot of parameters in your AO3 search. So, if you're like, okay, I want to read a Hollanov fic, but I want it to be tagged not as the TV show, but only as the books. You can say that okay, I want to exclude G-rated fics. I can do that. If you want to exclude E-rated fics or M-rated fics, you can do that. Or you can say, I only want T-rated fics. Like you can do all of that. You can say, I only want it to be between 8,213 words and 9,412 words; you can do that. You can say, I would like it to include only things that are tagged as ‘Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.’ You can say that I only want it tagged as this… whatever relationship. You can also... There are certain fandoms where there is over-tagging of side relationships sometimes. And so, in the special queries, if you write OTP colon space true, it will give you only ships or only fics where that is the main ship.
KAYLA: So much.
SARAH: Yes. But there's so much you can do to filter out what you do or don't want to see.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: So yes, literally anything is allowed on AO3, but you don't have to personally see it.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: A lot of times you have to be… actually, pretty much all the time, you would have to be actively seeking it out.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Now… also, Wattpad has ads and AO3 by its very nature is a non-profit, you are not allowed to make money off of your AO3 because otherwise that puts them in legal jeopardy.
KAYLA: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I think I have further, I guess like thoughts on legal stuff like that, but I will let you continue.
SARAH: Well, because there was some drama a couple of years ago of AO3 taking down a fic that was basically just like a free Palestine sort of thing. And they were like, oh, so you hate Palestine, whatever. And it was like, no, the reason they took it down was because they had linked a GoFundMe.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And that is against the terms and services of AO3 because you cannot… nobody can make any money. Like, the people who work for AO3 are volunteers, to this day. No one gets paid to run AO3; it is a community-built thing.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: So, I'll stop there for now. Thoughts?
KAYLA: My thoughts are… I mean, this is making me think a lot. I'm thinking about the censorship primarily in terms of teens because I think when it comes to adults, it's like we're all adults. Like, you can decide for yourself what you are or are not going to consume.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: I think it's different with teens, especially as we see a lot more regulations coming out about phone usage for teens, social media usage for teens. Like, there are countries that are putting limitations on like you cannot have any of these accounts until you're 16 or 18 and… you know, it's a lot stricter. Which I understand could be frustrating for a teen, but also, I think is a step in the right direction, to be honest. Like, I think there's a lot of nasty stuff out there that just hasn't been regulated. And it's easy to say, well, I was a teen and I grew up seeing crazy shit and I was fine. And it's like, yeah, but also, like… you know? I don't know.
SARAH: Yeah, not to get too sidetracked by this, but I think it's difficult because I think it is good for teens to not have the access to the full internet. At the same time, the lengths that you have to go to to ensure that they do not get full access to the internet often means giving up a lot of personal information.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And then that can be a privacy issue.
KAYLA: Oh, yeah, sure
SARAH: Like, you have to show your ID… in some countries, you have to show your ID to Twitter to let you see certain things.
KAYLA: Yeah. I mean, it’s… The system is not great because then also when you start talking about censorship, you also get to the point a lot of times where it's like, well, we're going to rate gay stuff as like E, even if it's extremely like PG-level.
[00:20:00]
SARAH: E being explicit, not everyone.
KAYLA: Yeah, explicit just because there's one person who said they identify as gay, they don't even do anything explicit, whatever. So, it's sticky.
SARAH: And they'll always find a way to get around it. Like, the ones who really want to get around it, like, they'll find a way.
KAYLA: Yeah. But I think in general, especially with AI and stuff, like, there's just a lot… Teens are able to access a lot of things that I think are just not great for a developing mind. And so, like I said, on one point, if this was a step towards censorship of like, okay, legally as a business, they need to protect their ass to be like, okay, you're 60, you cannot be seeing stuff like this.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: Like, you wouldn't be allowed into an R-rated movie at whatever age you're at. Like you can't… we legally can't be doing this.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: That is like, sure. But again, when you build a fanfiction site, I mean like fanfiction was invented for a smut. Like that's just like why people started writing it. So, it’s like…
SARAH: I don't know if that's factually true, but it's emotionally true.
KAYLA: Well, fanfiction started with…
SARAH: It might be factually true, I just don't know.
KAYLA: From my understanding, the history of fan fiction is it started with slash fic of Spock and Kirk, which I guess I don't know how explicit it was.
SARAH: Right. Like, I just don't know. So, I'm giving that disclaimer.
KAYLA: No, that's fair. But in my heart, it's true.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: So, I don't know, I don't want us to be on here and be like, I'm pro-censorship and I think teens are stupid and shouldn't get anything. But like, I think there's a… you know, like, if you're a child.
SARAH: There's so much onus on parents to raise their kids properly and just… they're not fucking doing it.
KAYLA: No, but I also think it's hard...
SARAH: Oh, yeah, it’s not easy
KAYLA: Like if I was a parent right now, I have no idea what decisions I would be making about like what my kid is and is not allowed to have access to and like…
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: I don't know, it's freaky out there.
SARAH: I saw a tweet recently where this user had a child who was requesting more screen time on AO3 and they screenshotted it and posted it. They were like, you know, like mother, like child. But then people were like judging them for letting their child on AO3, but it's like…
KAYLA: Yeah, you can find anything on there.
SARAH: But like if you outright ban something, it's only going to make…
KAYLA: Right… I mean, I think… yeah.
SARAH: As long as this person is teaching their child to use it responsibly…
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: It's complicated.
KAYLA: I mean, that's the thing, I think a lot of this like sexual type content too is like, I would feel infinitely better about a child or a teen having access to it if they have been through proper sex education and know… I don't know, like you have a teen who's just going to like be reading non-consensual smut and an adult may be able to intellectualize like, oh, this is a kink thing and it's a whatever and that's not okay to do in real life. But then you have a teen who hasn't been through sex ed or they don't have the concept for that. And then they're reading it and it's like, well, I guess that's just how life is. Like, I think a lot of it does come down to the education and the parenting of the child to like be able to understand content like that, which just isn't happening, so
SARAH: To that end, I would like to bring us to the controversy, I mean, the controversy is Wattpad banning it, but the resulting controversy between Wattpad and AO3 users. A lot of Wattpad users have been migrating to AO3; there is a learning curve.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm.
SARAH: A lot of them are seeing the kind of content that is sometimes on AO3 and being like, holy shit, that's crazy, that shouldn't be here.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: So, they're migrating to AO3 because Wattpad instituted censorship and then they're going to AO3 and asking for censorship. They figured out how to report fics; I didn't even know you could do that.
KAYLA: These poor volunteers.
SARAH: And so there has been a big kind of reckoning…
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Of like, okay, I'm sorry that this happened to your website…
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: But you are coming into our space and you have to follow our rules.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And so, there's this tweet that says, “Dear Wattpad refugees, one, Archive of Our Own does not have an algorithm…” because people are like, how do I find?
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: “Two, you cannot mass report a fic on AO3.” Basically, what happens is if you've… there's some way to report it. What happens is the AO3 mods reach out to the author and say, “hey, can you please add X, Y, Z tags?”
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: It's basically if it isn't tagged correctly. But if it is tagged correctly, they're not going to do anything.
KAYLA: Yeah, because it's not… yeah.
SARAH: Recently, someone posted the entire communist manifesto on AO3 and it has gotten quite a lot of hits.
KAYLA: Love that.
SARAH: “Three, no one receives an email notifying them that a fic they reported was taken down. Four, the person who wrote AO3's terms and conditions is a leading expert in the first amendment and a Harvard law professor.”
KAYLA: Wait, really!?
SARAH: Uh-huh.
KAYLA: Who?
SARAH: I don't know, you could look it up
KAYLA: I’ll google it. I work with them.
SARAH: Find out. “If you cannot handle the content you are finding on AO3, stop making up lies and go back to Wattpad before Kinktober.”
KAYLA: Kinktober!?
SARAH: It's coming up.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: So, there was just a lot of discourse. People just like not understanding that it was a different platform and it works differently. Like, there's this TikTok that was like, I tried to switch from Wattpad to AO3, but why didn't anyone tell me it's basically just fanfics?
KAYLA: What!?
SARAH: Like, I want to read other genres. Also, why are the books like 2k to 10k words with one to three chapters? Like, no way, someone help me find good books on there.
KAYLA: No, go read a book, nice try though.
SARAH: Well, people… and people were like, “go to the library.”
KAYLA: That's what Kindle Unlimited is for, from my understanding.
SARAH: I know. And they were like, well, no, like, I do read traditional books, but like sometimes I want like Wattpad books and it's like, okay, well, you're not really going to find a ton of that on AO3 because it's just a different place.
KAYLA: Wattpad Books? What genre is this?
SARAH: I don't know.
KAYLA: To me, that's like what Kindle Unlimited is, because you can… like, anyone can put a book up on Kindle Unlimited.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: Like, to me, that must be the same level of like self-publishing that a Wattpad Book would be.
SARAH: Yeah, I don't know, man. So, then there's this… this doesn't go into detail, but it's… this post from InkFi Creates on Twitter that says, “the Wattpad censorship is exactly what was going to happen with these antis. The exact same shit happened with fanfiction.net. People complained about icky content they could have avoided, the site got censored and then they went to another site to repeat the cycle. None of these people will ever learn, they will always make these platforms worse for everyone else and then wonder why the content they liked got censored. Censorship is inconsistent and not uniformly enforced. Companies don't care about that. They will just ban all of it. I defend AO3 to the death because of these people. They will make these places, which are the last areas of the internet without major censorship, a worse place. I'm glad AO3 has just learned to ignore these people and has the legal backing to fight back if needed.”
KAYLA: Yeah, I mean, it's… yeah, it's giving like, well, I don't want my stuff to go away, but your stuff is icky. But it's like, well, the stuff you like is also icky to someone else, probably. So, like…
SARAH: Mm-hmm. And because Wattpad has ads, they have advertisers to answer to.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And they don't care what you think if they're making money off of it.
KAYLA: No, no, no.
SARAH: AO3, by definition, cannot make money off of existing and they do care what you think, to an extent.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: They mostly care about free speech. So, there's that.
KAYLA: Yeah. I'm so interested now about the legal stuff behind AO3 because it's like, you can really just go on there and post anything. It's like, well, what if I start posting slander about someone else? Certainly, they could sue me.
SARAH: I don't know.
KAYLA: Like, you can't just post anything.
SARAH: I mean, the Obama/Trump fic got a lot of kudos.
KAYLA: But don't you think that could be sued to be taken off if someone wanted to pursue that?
SARAH: You look into that.
KAYLA: I’m not going to
SARAH: Meanwhile, Dex Bonus on Twitter says, “the fanfic discourse kind of boils down to Wattpad gave people the name of the chips and their flavor. But AO3 gives you a full ingredient list. And sometimes people don't want to come to terms with what's in their food.”
KAYLA: Huh! That's funny.
SARAH: To that end… because they're not even reading these fics, right?
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: They're just seeing that it's tagged with X, Y, Z, and they're like, “oh my God, that's horrible.” This person, FoxDoesThings, says… it's the surprise Pikachu meme. And it says, “Wattpad users, when they are told that their favorite sold-to-One-Direction fic is, in fact, non-consensual slash dubious consent.”
KAYLA: Yeah
[00:30:00]
SARAH: And then there was some continued discourse about how, because Wattpad doesn't have the same tagging system, you get surprised by stuff.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And this person says, “I think that the AO3 babies who come from Wattpad hate certain tags so much because they materialize what they were actually reading all along.” I don't think materialize is the right word, but this was translated from Spanish. “When they realize that student seduced by the mafioso is the same as underage sex or rape slash non-con, they get scandalized.”
KAYLA: Mm, yeah
SARAH: Like, all of these things are in the fics that they're loving.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: They're just not being faced with the ingredient list; they're just looking at the chips.
KAYLA: Wait, because if you think about… If you're reading a Riverdale fan fiction, technically that's… and it's like smut, technically that's underage sex. Right? Like, these are… any fanfiction of a high school media…
SARAH: Correct
KAYLA: Is going to be tagged as underage sex
SARAH: Underage sex; which is now banned on Wattpad.
KAYLA: Right. But you don't want to think about it like that, because it's fine when the Pretty Little Liars people on the TV have 16-year-old sex because we don't have to think about it.
SARAH: Or when they have sex with their fucking teacher on Pretty Little Liars.
KAYLA: Yeah. I think they did that on Riverdale too. They did! It's season one, I think. It like kicks off with that.
SARAH: Yeah. This other person says that like, people on A03 write horrible things, but they acknowledge it and they tag it as such, but on Wattpad you find rape and abuse disguised as dark romance.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Because sometimes I read about these like dark romance whatever…
KAYLA: There's crazy stuff going on in those.
SARAH: And I'm like, that is horrifying.
KAYLA: Yeah, though… sometimes that pops up on my TikTok of like, it'll be a couple of screenshots of pages from like a Kindle Unlimited dark romance and it's scary in there.
SARAH: It's horrifying. This person says, “I started reading fics on Wattpad when I was about 12 years old. And one of the first ones I read had the guy kidnapping her, beating her, branding her with a hot iron and raping the main character. The difference between that and AO3 is that on Wattpad you find out by reading and on AO3 you see it in the tags and decide whether to read it or not.”
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Which like I think maybe that sort of experience that this user had at 12 years old is part of the reason why the censorship is being brought to Wattpad.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: But it's a slippery slope.
KAYLA: Right. I mean, I think it's a different way of addressing the same thing of like, oh, we want to make sure people aren't seeing things they don't want to see or shouldn't be seeing. And one way of going about that is just taking it off for everyone. And the other way to go about it is just providing people more information so they can decide what they do and don't want to see.
SARAH: Yep. Or this person with kind of the opposite. They were an AO3 girly, I don't know their gender. They said, “Pro-censorship Wattpad refugees’ drama is so funny to me because when I started using AO3 as a kid I was a devout Mormon and I thought that reading anything even remotely pornographic was a sin and would ruin my life. So, when I was 13, I found AO3 and I went, oh, awesome I found a fanfic website with a filtering system so I won't ever randomly stumble into porn. This is great. I was really worried about seeing something I didn't want to on these other platforms. I didn't read any smut online until like three years later. If a Mormon 13-year-old can figure out ‘don't like, don't read,’ Wattpad users can too. Come on you guys, I believe in you.” And then there's a reply that says, “you're less internet savvy than a 13-year-old Mormon is a diabolical thing to say to someone. I support it.”
KAYLA: Do you think there's a level of just like laziness to this?
SARAH: Absolutely. There have been so many posts about like, it's so complicated, it's difficult. There's a learning curve. Yes, that's true, we all experienced it.
KAYLA: Yeah, it's not to say there's not, like it's not difficult.
SARAH: Mm-hmm
KAYLA: I do think also though it's a good skill to learn.
SARAH: I think it goes hand in hand with the fact that kids these days can't read. Like actual studies are showing that they are not… they can't read.
KAYLA: Yeah, it's bad out there.
SARAH: That people are losing all critical thinking skills. They're losing problem-solving skills and a lot of this is the fault of fucking AI.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And AO3 is not fucked with that. And it forces you to like use your brain in nominal ways, it's not fucking rocket science.
KAYLA: Yeah. But you have to make decisions for yourself…
SARAH: You do
KAYLA: About, I want this, I don't want that. Instead of your algorithm deciding for you what you do and don't want.
SARAH: You do. Like, sometimes I'll be like, I want to think but I don't have a lot of time, I want it to be less than 8,000 words. That's great, I can do that, how fun.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And I think people just want everything handed to them and it's getting worse and worse and worse and worse; and it horrifies me.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: Like no shade, but shade. If you're a person who uses like ChatGPT or Claude or whatever to do basic daily tasks that you could otherwise do, I am judgmental of that.
KAYLA: Oh yeah.
SARAH: And there's always going to be people who are like, well, it helps for those who are like disabled, whatever. I'm not talking about that.
KAYLA: We're not talking about that.
SARAH: I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people who are like, I don't know what time the movie theater closes, let me go ask chat.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: When I say, when I talk of chat, I'm talking about the invisible made up chat on my stream, I'm not talking about that fucking AI bitch.
KAYLA: No.
SARAH: And like there was an interview, a clip from an interview with one of the actors from Clarivus, maybe. She was just like on some like local morning news show and the other hosts were like talking about like asking ChatGPT and she was like, oh yeah, I don't… the actor was like, I don't do that. And they were like, like, you would never… like, you've never done that? And she was like, no. And they were like, well, you never would? Like, what about X, Y, Z? And she was like, no. And they were baffled by that. There was a situation recently where a person who knows that I don't like AI, I don't like generative AI, like… and also, we're not talking about AI that's like helping solve cancer, that's not what we're talking about.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: We're talking about like generative AI, like having conversations…
KAYLA: Recently, I was at the nail salon and there's AI in my nail salon now, but it's in the thing you put your hand in to cure your gel and the AI is making it so it only blasts your fingertips, not your whole hand, that's nice AI, I’ll take that
SARAH: Aww! That's good AI. Or like the AI that combs through data faster than any human possibly could. That's… sure, great.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: But this person knows that I don't like generative AI, I don't like it in like creative contexts and they… it was supposed to be a nice thing, it was like they created an image of something and they were like, haha, I won't tell, like so-and-so who is like more pro-AI will never know. And I was like, it's not about them not knowing, it's about me… it's like a moral thing. And so like, I appreciate that this came from a good place, but you missed the point entirely.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And I don't like that you did it.
KAYLA: That's what a lot of people at work know that I don't like it and so they'll like use it and they'll be like, don't worry. Like, I am going to like skip my shower for the day or whatever. And I'm like, okay, it's not… okay.
SARAH: Yeah. Anyway, we got… how did we get here?
KAYLA: I don't know.
SARAH: There was one other tweet. This was crazy. This was on TikTok. There were people talking about the Wattpad refugees and this person goes, A03 is too much for me, everyone overly weird and freaked out. Freaked out being like freaky.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And then this person replies and they go, no, for real. I thought I was reading a cute story, they started cracking with detail, I was too stunned to speak, which is a funny thing to say.
KAYLA: Hello!?
SARAH: And then someone replies with, a third person goes, most normal shit ever, I'm crying.
KAYLA: Yeah, like, what do you mean?
SARAH: And then the second person, the one who was talking about the cracking, responds, my apologies, porn is normal now, I guess.
KAYLA: Why did you… if you had an issue with porn, why didn't you stay on Wattpad?
SARAH: Kayla?
KAYLA: Because that's what they took away from you.
SARAH: You want to know the funniest part?
KAYLA: Uh…
SARAH: The user who was talking about cracking and porn is normal. You know what their handle is?
KAYLA: Porn Lover 69.
SARAH: Luna Gooner 49.
KAYLA: No way they know what that means, there's no way they know what that means.
SARAH: I'm like, bitch, you cannot… your account is called Gooner and you're mad about porn? Do you live in 2018? Like, that's the only way I can think of…
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: That really sent me… There's also some… by some discourse, I mean, there's one person…
KAYLA: Oh, no
[00:40:00]
SARAH: In like Heated Rivalry, like Hollanov fanfiction spaces, who anytime someone posts a fic where they are not professional hockey players, and they don't include the tag, Shane Hollander is not a professional hockey player or Ilya Rozanov is not a professional hockey player, they leave like increasingly aggressive comments, being like, “you need to tag this.”
KAYLA: Okay
SARAH: There is such a thing as too much tagging.
KAYLA: Yeah, I mean…
SARAH: And in all of these cases, the people are like, so, this is obviously tagged as an AU.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: Like, it is tagged as this type of universe AU.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: Of course, they're not fucking professional hockey players in this AU where they are both EMTs. Like, of course not, and because this person is being so aggressive and commenting on lots of people's fics, people are like really pushing back. If they had like politely asked
KAYLA: Sure
SARAH: Like, maybe some people would have done it, but these people are… now, they're being like, no, you're being a bitch, you're being a dick about it.
KAYLA: Well, it’s also like… it would be one thing if it was a tag that could be triggering for someone, of like, hey, I really cannot be seeing this and I need you to tag things.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: I can't imagine someone being triggered so much by them not being hockey players, that it becomes like a medical situation for them that would warrant being aggressive.
SARAH: Yeah. Most of the Hollanov fics I read are… they are hockey players, ones where they aren't, I find difficult because, what? Shane Hollander not a hockey player? Shut the fuck up
KAYLA: Who is that? Who is he anymore then?
SARAH: I have read a couple, but like I'm particular about them, right?
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And like, I can tell that this person who is angry about it, they're just trying to filter it out in our searches.
KAYLA: Sure
SARAH: But if it's clear in the tags that it's an AU, just fucking scroll past.
KAYLA: Also, why can't they then just filter out AUs?
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: Like, there's already a tag for that.
SARAH: I just like… this person is just like being a dick in everyone's comments and making them get their backs up, and it's so dumb.
KAYLA: Duck.
SARAH: Because then if you over-tag, like if you tag every single minor side relationship…
KAYLA: Then you've just rewritten your entire fanfiction in the tags at that point.
SARAH: Yes, and also if, say you're looking for a rare pair, you're looking for Bob the Builder, and… I was going to say Dora the Explorer, but she's a child.
KAYLA: Thomas the train.
SARAH: Thomas the train, that's probably not even a rare pair, but let's pretend that's a rare pair. Say you're looking for that, and there aren't a lot of fics of that. There are like 55 total fics on all of AO3 with that pair. If you are writing a fanfiction of some other character in the Bob the Builder universe, with some other character in Thomas the train universe, and Bob and Thomas are together in your fic as like a background thing, like, it's like acknowledged once. If you tag them, if you tag that pairing, then someone's going to looking for that rare pair, and they're going to be like, oh cool, a fic that has this pairing, but they're not actually in it.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: So, if you over-tag, that's a problem. So, like when I'm tagging stuff, if there's like minor background stuff, I'll usually just like say it, not use the tag, but in the tags, I'll be like, there's also… pretty much everyone else is here.
KAYLA: And also, these people.
SARAH: I love to be silly in the tags, but I sometimes get too silly and I have to stop tagging because then there's too many tags. Anyway, that's the other thing that just seemed relevant.
KAYLA: I think my takeaway from all of this is that people are stupid and karma is a bitch, because you can't come into a space and be like, I demand censorship because I don't like this thing. And then when things become censored, you can't then be like, wait, no, but I didn't mean that thing because that's not… it's not how it works. And also, like you said earlier, I think there has to be a fundamental understanding that these companies and websites don't care about you.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: If there is an ad on the screen, you are just a number.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: They might start caring if clicks decrease so much because the smut is gone that advertisers don't want to pay them anymore because there's not enough people on the website, maybe then they would bring the smut back.
SARAH: But that would have to be a pretty extreme result.
KAYLA: But that is purely because you are a number, not because of your personal whatever. Like, they don’t give a fuck
SARAH: Even if they started out as a fashion project, like a thing that someone really cared about, it's fucking 20 years down the line, this is capitalism, baby.
KAYLA: Yeah, like there's just no way it's the same anymore.
SARAH: And AO3 is not capitalism, and that's what makes AO3 so great.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And I totally understand like, yeah, there's some fucked up shit on AO3, like, absolutely.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: But there are tags for specific things, and there's also the ‘dead dove’ tag, which is kind of like an overarching umbrella tag that's like, hey, there's fucked up shit in here.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: So, if in general, you don't want like, just filter out anything that's tagged ‘dead dove.’
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: Like, I understand the concerns with children and whatever, but I think the best-case scenario is having a robust tagging system that is enforced and is used.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: So that if you're a sex-repulsed ace person, you won't accidentally run into that. And if you do, then it's tagged improperly, apparently, you can report that, it’s what I’ve learned.
KAYLA: Yeah, great. I don't know, I think sometimes people just like forget that they're on the internet. Like AO3 aside, you can put anything on the internet. Like AO3 just happens to be a website where you can put anything. But like in general, if it wasn't on AO3, this stuff could be elsewhere.
SARAH: On the Dark Web
KAYLA: Like I think people need to remember where they are. Like it's the internet and like what you do and don't see, what you keep your children from seeing is like largely up to you because it is a very unregulated space.
SARAH: Yeah, and the places where it is regulated are usually regulated for that place's economic and legal protection.
KAYLA: Right
SARAH: It's not about protecting you.
KAYLA: No, it's never about protecting… it's literally always about protecting their asses. They are only going to do what legally protects them; they're not going to further than that, they're not going to do less than that.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: Like it's truly never about you, it's just not.
SARAH: Yeah, I think it's so easy to say like, well, back in my day, like kids, like not even kids, but just like people, they're too sensitive these days. Back in my day, you just snuck into a rated-R movie, whatever, whatever, whatever. I think it's easy to say that. I don't think people are necessarily en masse more like purists or more like hoity-toity than they've ever been. I think some people are going to be like that and some people won't. And it's just the level of power they have and the megaphone they have.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And there were times in history when they had a big ass fucking megaphone and you couldn't look at someone's ankles without being beheaded.
KAYLA: Yeah, I mean, I think it also happens with every new type of media, right? Like every… when novels came out, everyone was like, eww, a novel, that's trash for stupid people, you know? And now that's like the height of being an intellectual, it is reading a novel, right? So, like, I think there are certain things about like we have more access than ever because the internet is just there for most people.
SARAH: It's a great equalizer.
KAYLA: But again, yeah, I think there are these like panics and scares that happen with everything.
SARAH: Well, in any small group of people, if they get a big enough megaphone, if they drum up enough controversy, they can make themselves heard on the internet and it can be blown up into something that feels much bigger than it actually is. Which again, like it's the blessing and the curse of the internet. It's like anyone can say anything and be heard by anyone.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: So, in conclusion, if you are a Wattpad refugee, just respect the rules of the new community you're in because it's not a new community to any of the people that are already there.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: And you had rules in your community and the rules in our community are don't like, don't read, don't leave bad comments because you didn't like something. So, there's a thing in the corner of your screen; it's an X. If you read something and you don't like it, you can X it out. I've done this before and I recommend it.
KAYLA: Okay, good to know.
SARAH: Yeah, any particular like aspec thoughts on this? I just feel like it's… like, A03 is great for aspecs.
KAYLA: No, I think you're right. Like, you were saying because, and like with the little Mormon girl, right?
[00:50:00]
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: Like because the tagging is so robust, like yes, if you look at the website of AO3 in general, you might be like, oh, there's so much nasty sex stuff on here, it's not going to be safe for me. As compared to somewhere like Wattpad where now it's like banned.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: But again, I think that's where it comes, like, there are two different approaches to this and one is much better than the other because everyone can coexist happily in one where you can use your tags and you can filter things. And so, everyone can be safe and free in their own ways.
SARAH: Yeah
KAYLA: And then you have Wattpad, which is just like, well, these people don't like it so now no one gets it. You know, like… I can understand how it would be intimidating as a new person to be like, oh my God, like anything is allowed here that's dirty and nasty. I can understand having to adjust your mindset to that. But again, that's kind of just like how the internet and the world works in general. It's like there's a lot of dirty nasty things in the world in general that you're not going to like, you just need to learn how to not look at it.
SARAH: You just have to deal with it, life's not fair. I just looked up my total word count of words I've posted thus far on AO3, which will change. But it is 381,536 words that I have published on AO3. You know what none of that is?
KAYLA: Smut?
SARAH: Explicit porn. Crazy how that works.
KAYLA: So wild.
SARAH: That's like so silly and crazy how that could be possible.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: That's all. Kayla, what's our poll for this week?
KAYLA: What do you think about a censorship?
SARAH: Mm-hmm
KAYLA: I guess I'm curious about it from an aspec perspective of like, do you see a benefit of what Wattpad did for you personally? Because I can see it, especially for a place like Wattpad where you're saying because there's no tags, you just stumble into things.
SARAH: Yeah. And my impression is that they have an on average younger audience, which again, I don't know if that's accurate, but…
KAYLA: So, I could see a sex-repulsed ace Wattpad user being like, oh great, I'm not going to stumble on the stuff that's going to make me sick anymore, that's nice. I could see that. But also, I think…
SARAH: But that was always true on AO3.
KAYLA: Exactly. I think there's a level of selfishness to that of like, well, you benefit, but now a lot of other people are sad.
SARAH: Yeah. I don't want it, therefore, the rest of you can't have it even if you want it.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And if you see a tag on an AO3 post and you're like, I don't know about that one, but I'm willing to give it a try anyway, you might learn something new about yourself.
KAYLA: Mm
SARAH: Or you might read something where you're like, I don't think this is for me. But then you've heard so many good, it's like a famous fic and you're like, I guess I'll give it a try. And you read it and you're like, I like this fic, it didn't make me want to read more of this stuff, but I did like this one.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: Here you are.
KAYLA: Here you are.
SARAH: I know a lot of people who read ABO fics. And it's not for me, but it's for them.
KAYLA: Uh-huh
SARAH: And you know what? Sometimes you see a really great fic premise and you're like, oh, this sounds good. And then you look in the tags and it's ABO and you're like, damn. So, then you don't read it, because you're like, that's not for me. But you knew from the jump, you didn't get surprised by it halfway through.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: Anyway. Kayla, what's your beef and your juice for this week? Oh, also, I want to know if you're like a fanfiction girly or girly non-gendered, what your experience with what platforms are. Like, are you only an AO3 girly? Are you a Wattpad girly who is now migrating? Did you go straight from fanfiction.net to AO3? Have you only ever read One Direction Imagines on Tumblr? You know, tell me.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: Okay, Kayla, what's your beef and your juice for this week?
KAYLA: Okay. My juice is I got some little ouchies.
SARAH: Ouchies?
KAYLA: You know about a little ouchie?
SARAH: Yes.
KAYLA: I got a sample pack of three, which means that it's one of each ouch level.
SARAH: Can you tell the class what a little ouchie is?
KAYLA: A little ouchie is… it's kind of shaped like a pepper spray. It's like a cylinder, right? That's what the shape is, a cylinder.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: And it has a bunch of little like kind of sharp bumps on it. And so, it's really nice for like pain stimming. Like I really like to be picking at my skin and things like that. And so, it's kind of a nice… like if you've ever laid on like an acupuncture mat, it's like that but little.
SARAH: Mm-hmm
KAYLA: I mean, it's just a fidget. And they have different ouch levels. And this one is the most ouch, so, it has like a bunch of little or spikier spikes, but some of them have like bigger duller ones. And they make some that have clickies. They make a lot of things, there's like little things you could put at the ends of your like sweatshirt tassel, your sweatshirt string.
SARAH: The aglets.
KAYLA: The aglets. They have a bunch of different things. But I got a thing, I got it on TikTok shop, but from the… it's official Little Ouchie, don't worry. And I got one of each ouch.
SARAH: Wow.
KAYLA: And I think it's neat.
SARAH: That's great.
KAYLA: And I would recommend ordering from TikTok shop because if you order from their website, it takes sometimes like a month to get to you. But on TikTok shop, it took like three days, so
SARAH: You know, I have something that I've been waiting for on TikTok shop for a while that I just keep forgetting about, I should check on that.
KAYLA: Mm. My beef is I don't know who I am anymore.
SARAH: That got existential quickly.
KAYLA: I have not had a normal week since late July, early August, where I've had like a completely normal, like on my schedule, everything is fine week. And I'm not going to get one until I think mid-October.
SARAH: Great.
KAYLA: So, just having a little bit of a crash out about it.
SARAH: Tee-hee.
KAYLA: Tee-hee. So, I guess my other… my gravy is that my bachelorette party is this weekend. As you're hearing this, we're there.
SARAH: We're there.
KAYLA: We're checking out of our Airbnb at this time.
SARAH: Well, if you're listening to it on Sunday.
KAYLA: I suppose, if you're listening to it right when it comes out.
SARAH: If you're listening to it like in like three weeks, no, we're not.
KAYLA: Then we're not… we’re still there. So, I'm very excited, but I also like don't have the energy to be as excited as I would like to be. And so, I'm having a lot of shoulding about like, oh, I should be so much more excited, blah, blah, blah.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: So, you know.
SARAH: You'll be excited when you get there.
KAYLA: I will. It'll be fun. And it's just like all my favorite people together. So, I know it will be good.
SARAH: That's why I'm not invited.
KAYLA: And that's why Sarah actually is banned and will be arrested on site if they show up.
SARAH: Exactly. Um, slay. My juice also that, but also that, the whole thing. I've been very busy the past, like three weeks
KAYLA: The whole thing?
SARAH: The past like three weeks. And I just have… also have not… I've not been working out normally because people have been here and I have been going places. And then… it's just a whole mess, but like I'm enjoying the things I'm doing, it's just, they're like throwing me off and they're stressing me out a little.
KAYLA: Yeah, that's the thing, it's like everything I've had going on since August is good except for like one thing, which was like a busy work season, which like… everything else was good, but I'm still like, ugh.
SARAH: Yeah. My other juice is that we got the outline for the first episode of the next season of our show Wild Cards and they named a character after me.
KAYLA: Did they really!?
SARAH: They did.
KAYLA: Ah!
SARAH: We'll see if it makes it all the way to production.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: But I was like, “Costello!?” They have a different first name, but I was like, “Costello!?”
KAYLA: That’s me
SARAH: And then I was like, “me!?” And like they'd done that before. Like they'd given characters like names of like various people who work on the show. And I was like, oh my God, me. And then I was like, well, maybe it was not on purpose. I was like, how could they all know me? I talk to them all the time.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: But then we happened to have a call with the writer, like the show runner and one of the other writers, the one that made me kind of late getting home from work for another show, but with them. And I was like, what a great name, the name choice you made.
KAYLA: For me!?
SARAH: And they were like, yeah, we did that for you. So.
KAYLA: Oh my gosh! That's so nice.
SARAH: Hee hee. My beef is that it's so fucking hot out. Let's see. Okay, it's currently 9:24 p.m. The sun has been down for about two hours, it's 92 degrees.
[01:00:00]
KAYLA: Oh my God!
SARAH: It's 92 degrees. Earlier today, it was 103, but it felt like 106. Yesterday, it was super-humid for some reason. This is so not Cal, it does not get humid here, but I walked out of my house and I said, well, am I in Florida? What's going on?
KAYLA: If it makes you feel better when you are here, it will not be like that.
SARAH: Yipee! Yeah, that's the fucking thing about LA is that like in September, everywhere else it's cooling down, it's starting to become autumn, the leaves are turning and in LA, it's like 90 degrees every day.
KAYLA: Yeah. I mean, we haven't quite hit that point. Like, we've been in the mid-70s, which has been really nice with a few days where it's like back to the mid-80s, so it's kind of annoying, but
SARAH: It's like the hottest months in LA are August, September, like, September is kind of the worst. And then it's still hot in October, which is so sad because I love having an October birthday because it's like fall, my birthday is mid-October. So, it's like, it's the perfect part of fall where it's like cool and leaves have changed, but it's not usually like horrible weather yet. But here it's still fucking 90 degrees in October.
KAYLA: Yucky!
SARAH: Yucky! Although, I was just invited to another bachelorette party.
KAYLA: Okay!
SARAH: I was shocked, frankly, but it's in October, it's in Joshua Tree.
KAYLA: Ooh la la! I'm feeling cheated upon.
SARAH: Well, I didn't expect to be invited to this bachelorette party, so.
KAYLA: Well…
SARAH: I've never actually hung out with this person one-on-one. Like, I've definitely hung out with them and I know them, but never one-on-one. So, I was like, huh…
KAYLA: Well, it won't be one-on-one at the bachelorette party if it makes you feel better.
SARAH: I made the cut
KAYLA: Congratulations
SARAH: Anyway. You can tell us about your beef, your juice, your bachelorette experiences. Are we recording anything at the bachelorette party this weekend?
KAYLA: Um…
SARAH: Didn't we have an idea of interviewing people? What was it?
KAYLA: I have absolutely no idea.
SARAH: I was hoping you would know because I didn't remember.
KAYLA: Nope!
SARAH: All right. Tell us about your beef, your juice, your bachelorette party experiences on our social media @soundsfakepod. We also have a Patreon, patreon.com/soundsfakepod if you'd like to support us there. We have a new $2 Patreon.
KAYLA: Whoo!
SARAH: It is Ash_Artworks. Thank you, Ash. I'm sure your artworks are great. I haven't seen them, but I assume because you're a supporter of this podcast and therefore you are by nature a talented artist.
KAYLA: Right.
SARAH: All of you, I hope you know you are talented artists, just because you listen to this pod.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: Our $5 patrons who we are promoting this week are SammyO, Scott Ainslie, Simon, Snordstorm, and Sophia P. Our $10 patrons who are promoting something this week are Martin Chiesl who would like to promote his podcast Everyone's Special and No One Is. Purple Hayes who would like to promote the musician Vinther. Quartertone who would like to promote World Central Kitchen & Doctors Without Borders. Barefoot Backpacker who would like to promote their YouTube channel rtwbarefoot. And SongOStorm who would like to promote a healthy work-life balance. Our other $10 patrons are Sydney Price, Val, Alastor, Ani, Arcnes, Benjamin Ybarra, Clare Olsen, Danielle Hutchinson, Derick & Carissa, Elle Bitter, Eric, my aunt Jeannie, Johanna, Kayla's Dad, and Maff. Sometimes it sounds like I say that Maff is Kayla's dad and that's not true.
KAYLA: It’s not true as far as I'm aware.
SARAH: Our $15 patrons are Ace who would like to promote the writer Crystal Scherer. Nathaniel White who would like to promote NathanielJWhiteDesigns.com. Kayla’s aunt Nina who would like to promote katemaggartart.com. And Schnell who would like to promote accepting that everyone is different and that's awesome. To be clear, I'm going to this bachelorette party but I will not be invited to the wedding.
KAYLA: That's crazy! What do you mean?
SARAH: It's a really small wedding.
KAYLA: Okay, fine.
SARAH: I think it's like 50 people and it's like basically all family.
KAYLA: Okay fine.
SARAH: But that was also part of the reason why I was like I'm not getting invited, you know?
KAYLA: Maybe that's why they invited extra people to the bachelorette; it is because they can't have extra people at the wedding.
SARAH: Yeah. Anyway. Our $20 patrons are Changeling & Alex who would like to promote their company Control Alt Access (dot com). Dr. Jacki, Dragonfly, my mom, and River who would like to promote Addie not putting her claws in my chair. Me and my mom did try and cut Addie's nails and she made noises.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: I have some of it on video. Thanks for listening, tune in next Sunday for more of us in your ears.
KAYLA: And until then, take good care of your cows.
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]