Thank You for Your Support!

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2018-10-16 04:08:03 UTC

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Organization for Transformative Works Membership Drive, October 11–15, 2018

As our October fundraising drive comes to a close, we at the OTW are yet again blown away by your support and enthusiasm. We began the drive with the goal of raising US$130,00.00, and thanks to you, we've beaten that goal. With 7823 donors from 93 countries, we raised a total of US$193,068.87. Thank you!

Your donations make a difference. They allow us to continue our work with Open Doors, Legal Advocacy, Fanlore, Transformative Works and Cultures, and of course AO3. We can't tell you how grateful we are. And don't forget, even though the drive is over, you can still support the OTW. We accept donations year-round!

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Paulinha (Guest) Tue 16 Oct 2018 06:02AM UTC

No, thank you! ^_^

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TelWoman Tue 16 Oct 2018 06:52AM UTC

Congrats on a great result. This is a great achievement and it just underlines how much you are valued, by so many people.

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Neko_Positive Tue 16 Oct 2018 07:52AM UTC

AO3 forever!!! X3

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Level4Chaos Tue 16 Oct 2018 09:55AM UTC

That's wonderful news! Awesome work, everyone!

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RaiMagnolia Tue 16 Oct 2018 10:23AM UTC

YES...
Now back to the Symbrock porn

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1. belialsvoice Wed 17 Oct 2018 02:17AM UTC
  
  Amen to that!
  
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2. JotaroVapes (radioaction) Wed 17 Oct 2018 02:58AM UTC
  
  Oh h ell yeah someone else gets it
  
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3. peppersoap Wed 17 Oct 2018 03:36AM UTC
  
  i feel
  personally attacked
  
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SisterMu Tue 16 Oct 2018 11:50AM UTC

93 countries! I didn't realise the AO3's reach was so wide.

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1. Kari_Izumi Tue 16 Oct 2018 07:32PM UTC
  
  I just learned today AO3 is the second largest literary site in the world! <3
  
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Oralain Tue 16 Oct 2018 03:12PM UTC

Yay!! & Thank you for all that AO3 does & provides!

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Nice! (Guest) Tue 16 Oct 2018 04:53PM UTC

Nice! That should be more than enough to add a block feature, right? So we can block people who harrass/leave mean comments/write child porn/are pedophiles? I mean, come on, it's been like a decade? If you won't take them off the site at least let us avoid their interaction. Thanks.

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1. a_ndromeda Wed 17 Oct 2018 12:27AM UTC
  
  facts lmao
  
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2. WolfKomoki Wed 17 Oct 2018 06:40AM UTC
  
  You do realize that you can just put a filter on that stuff?
  
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hevyn Tue 16 Oct 2018 05:44PM UTC

Great job! I'm so happy there was some excess money raised so OTW can grow its reserves. And I support all that OTW stands for, especially freedom of expression and the fight against censorship.

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(Previous comment deleted.)
1. Small wins (Guest) Wed 17 Oct 2018 02:12AM UTC
  
  Good news! They have a tag filter system now where you can input a list of tags for content you never want to see. It’s a great way to avoid content for anything with a tag!
  
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2. peppersoap Wed 17 Oct 2018 03:34AM UTC
  
  there is no child porn on Ao3
  there is fiction, using fictionalized characters, in settings of fiction. as stated below, you now have tag exemption settings to filter out the 'underaged' tag. enjoy!
  
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3. 1. RaiMagnolia Thu 01 Nov 2018 01:46AM UTC
    
    It's considered child porn to many governments and online communities, so I suggest next time just saying you like that kind of stuff and go >>
    
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  2. 1. peppersoap Thu 01 Nov 2018 04:00AM UTC
      
      it's literally not child porn tho
      like
      i'm not a fan of fettucini alfredo, i think it's gross and it approximates the whole meat-is-murder that vegetarianism talks about - but there is no actual meat in fettucini alfredo, even if i don't like it i don't get to call it cow murder. literally no cows are murdered to make fettucini alfredo, literally no children are harmed to make illustrations or writing.
      even if i don't like it, *i* don't get to reclassify reality just because other people like whitesauce pasta. i don't get to treat fiction or imagination or art the same as i'd treat reality, neither for good nor ill, and if *you're* having trouble with that distinction then *you* might as well refrain from all stories with violence, with murder, with theft or dictatorships or weapons or even just with any sex, at all, since fictional characters now have agency that we have to keep in mind same as real persons -
      might as well consume or create no art at all, since the relationship between writer and fictional character is inherently controlling, and therefore abusive.
      or just stop being a silly git.
      
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    2. 1. RaiMagnolia Sat 03 Nov 2018 03:57PM UTC
        
        Once again, just say you like it n go. You literally cannot change the minds of entire governments, and the citizens of them, on the stance that it is child porn. And then comparing it to a preference of food...
        Look, personally, Im not foaming at the mouth against it since it's been debated as whether fictional child porn serves as a deterrent of the real stuff, or motivates pedophiles towards it. What bothers *me* though...is the lack of a real life “play”.
        Thing is...rape porn is *rape* porn, and it's not merry-coddled by anyone trying to say that it magically isn't a rape fantasy; not even by those who enjoy it.
        Thing is, there's the option of “rape play” available in the nonfictional world.
        For the fictional child porn (fictional, but still child porn), I've been trying to think of what the real life equivalent of the fetish could be...legally. I guess you could just date some who LOOKS really young, or JUST turned the legal age of their country, but that's so specific and narrowing of options, would that *really* be good enough? And I feel like that's why child porn (and I mean like, there's even ones with elementary students) is condemned harsher than rape porn. Or furry/animal porn. Because there *is* a ready outlet in the real world that allows them to succumb to their fetish and sexual wants in a legal way. I had actually read others' and your comments (essays) and I have given it a lot of thought, and I really can't come up with anything besides what i had mentioned before.
        
        Last Edited Sat 03 Nov 2018 04:01PM UTC
        
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      2. peppersoap Sat 03 Nov 2018 09:38PM UTC
        
        It's a very dismissive attitude to say that someone has to like or prefer a thing, simply to support the rights of others to enjoy that thing. i use food as an example because it is a thing we consume, that has realworld effects on both our environment and the inside parts of us, and just like food, there are healthy limits to the amount or type of fiction and entertainment we consume. and, also just like food, what is healthy or preferred for some is not always healthy or preferred for others, but either way we're not allowed to mislable something that we dislike eating as 'poison' and deny all other diners.
        i say animal cruelty in relation to choosing what dish to consume because remember, the subjects in smuttfic are not people. they are fictional characters for audience consumption, and thus, do not get the same legal rights as actual human beings. alfredo sauce literally has no meat in it, no characters are being preyed on by pedos in naruto fics, so when livejournal MASS DELETED every smutty fic with characters aged <17 and called it CP they were literally flipping a table of whitesauce pasta and calling it cow murder.
        fettucini alfredo makes me queasy, just like ageplay in fiction, but i'm not running around slapping plates off other peoples' tables like a fucking maniac and claiming it's because i give a shit about the affects of the food on the environment at large, nor even on the other diners, because my grudge with whitesauce pasta is my own - and yes, while some pasta dishes do actually contain meat, just like some fanfictions or illistrations do contain underage and abuse and rape, it's STILL NOT MY PLACE to tell other ppl what to consume, because again it's just a cow that dies to make that burger, it's just a fictional character that is being acted against. no actual real people are being harmed.
        your examples of government are like restaurants that were forced to go vegan by radical hippies in office - like, okay, most governments of any abrahamic country straightup outlawed sexy books in their entirety, but we know better that what was considered 'morally abject' was just code for 'this concept is gross/ embarassing /ideologically threatening to me personally and i have control issues about it'.
        And there are TONNES of rl 'play' equivalent with youth fantasy or ageplay, between consenting adults, depending on what fetishes you know or what dungeons are having what Q and A brunch. (quick aside, yes it's gross that western anglo societies infantilize rl grown-ass women by pressuring them to be hairless and petite and stupid and reliant AND MAYBE WE NEED TO EXAMINE THAT but) like, the spectrum of dom/sub runs the fucking gamut, for starters, from size difference to financial or authoritative fantasies to puppy or daddy dom (idk the actual terms) to breast feeding fantasies alllll the way to diaper town my dude. and then there's the lighthearted stuff like may/december or slutty prep school outfits.
        like i could not look a mommy/son play enthusiast in the eye, neither the dom nor the sub, that ish is so far out of my wheelhouse it orbits the moon, and i understand why someone would *feel* like their full-bodied disgust is an intrinsic and necessary emotion on which to base laws and legislature - i mean what kind of lizard creature would ever want that - but while my disgust and alarm probably feels very goddamn justifiable *it is still not my place* to claim that what they're doing, as consenting adults, hurts anybody - much less actual mothers or sons.
        the rape fantasy equivalent isn't actual rape, the incest fantasy equivalent isn't actual incest, the beastiality fantasy equivalent is just goddamn furries, the pedo fantasy equivalent isn't actual pedophilia. your response is just one big baffling lean on your own ignorance, so, maybe just say you don't like it and go?
        
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        RaiMagnolia Wed 07 Nov 2018 03:38AM UTC
        
        ...What is with you and food? Are you hungry? I almost couldn't even finish reading that, it got so convoluted with you addressing several random topics (and being really persistent about dietary opinions for some reason), that it got reeeally difficult to fish out the counterpoints in this. You may have to change your debating strategies...
        That being said, you seem to want to immediately call me ignorant, and all else, but you can't compare governments and felon charges....to a restaurant. Just...what? Once again, what is with you and food?
        Listen. MY point is that, if you're willing to actually learn and accept that there are countries that will see an age or situation as noncon or pedophilia, you're going to have to just accept that in your country or local society it's okay, while in others, it isn't. That's just that. It's why I'm telling you (though at first, jokingly, but now I think maybe seriously) to just say you like it and go. Because this is a battle you will never win. Age play can only go so far, and as I've said, there is porn out their featuring characters that are elementary age. As I've said, research articles lean abstaining from these kind of desires and pedophiliac porn, cuz there's really no real world outlet or equivalent of fucking, say, a ten year old. Hence why people are against it. Frankly, until something's more concrete, I'm fine with its EXISTENCE... The only thing happening here is you getting upset over the NAME. So you dont like it being called child porn? Pedophilia porn? On this site, on this site right here, it has an underage porn tag... Are you okay with THAT terminology?
        
        Last Edited Wed 07 Nov 2018 03:41AM UTC
        
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LaxusMaster Wed 17 Oct 2018 02:24AM UTC

Bro, I can't even name 93 countries, congrats

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belialsvoice Wed 17 Oct 2018 02:27AM UTC

Since some people here are bringing up child porn, I can't stay silent...
Let me say that I appreciate that you defend fic writers freedom to write whatever the hell kind of material they want, and I think that's why people come here after having fled fanfiction.net and livejournal. Let us not forget livejournal strikethrough, and all the Harry Potter comms and such that were deleted because of "underaged" content.
"Child porn" is absolutely impossible to define in the context of fanfiction, and writing stories about underaged characters is totally legal in most countries. Is 17 underaged? How explicit is explicit? Is any Harry/Draco smut set before graduation child porn? That's what LJ decided during strikethrough. Are you going to turn tens of thousands of fanfic writers into child pornographers? Because I don't think most, if any of these people are actually pedophiles or a danger to anyone. And let's not forget the most important fact: no actual children are being harmed, here, it's not the fucking same as actual child porn. (and spare me the "grooming" excuse, if you can think of one example of someone actually being groomed with fanfiction, then we'll talk.)
What's the boundary between a story about child abuse that is the author's vector for recovery and "unredeemable" child porn? Who is qualified to make that distinction? Would you ban Lolita from the library? How about Game of Thrones? It features sex with underage characters.
IMO, nobody is qualified to make that distinction, and any fanfiction site that starts censoring and banning content on moral grounds is going to fracture the base and cause people to leave. That's what happened with Fanfiction.net, and that's what happened with Livejournal.
I'm seeing so much moral high horsing and shaming in fandom lately--either about what qualifies as underage, or about incest ships, or about darkfic and whump. And frankly these tendencies scare me. Fandom has always been a place where we can express taboo things, and that's what I, and a lot of other people like about it. Your personal disgust is not enough of a reason to ban something. You need to show me that there are actual harms going on.
So kudos to you for being a site for free expression. I'll be giving you my money as long as you remain that way.

Last Edited Wed 17 Oct 2018 02:39AM UTC

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1. peppersoap Wed 17 Oct 2018 03:32AM UTC
  
  ♥
  
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2. Devilc Wed 17 Oct 2018 04:44AM UTC
  
  PREACH!
  
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3. Account Deleted Wed 17 Oct 2018 05:12AM UTC
  
  You've said exactly what I wanted to say, much more eloquently than I ever could have. Wish I could give comments kudos.
  To everyone complaining about so-called child porn and pedophilia on AO3: this comment.
  
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4. kaz_shirakawa Wed 17 Oct 2018 06:48AM UTC
  
  Well said.
  
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5. NotThatSpooky Wed 17 Oct 2018 09:33AM UTC
  
  Very well put!
  
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6. saffronbunbaker Wed 17 Oct 2018 01:23PM UTC
  
  as others have said, very well put!
  
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7. Gracerevealed Wed 17 Oct 2018 06:47PM UTC
  
  Well said! You’re amazing for breaking it down like this. May we never go back to the dark days of the fanfiction exodus/apocalypse of Livejournal and FFN!
  
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8. Snowgrouse Wed 17 Oct 2018 09:35PM UTC
  
  Thank you. I've literally just come from a conversation where an obnoxious guy defended a real child pornographer and rapist and claimed his victims were just trying to "get attention" or to "sell books" by going public. Fanfic is a world away from victim-blaming and apologism like that, particularly as it's often written by the victims themselves trying to make their way out of a world that's so deeply fucked up about girls and women and our bodies, that for anyone to start moralising about it... they're missing the point entirely and really don't realise how different these things are for men and women and the people who are neither. Sexual abusers work by dehumanising, objectifying and othering their victims, thinking of them as something less than human beings, so it's easier to use them as tools for their satisfaction. Fanfic works through characterisation, through humanising the characters and expanding upon them, bringing personhood to sex: it's re-inserting the exact things that the abusers and society as a whole tend to remove from its depictions of sex. I honestly doubt a pedo could whack off to ordinary fanfic, given that it has all these pesky things like agency and emotions and human beings attached to the orifices and pieces of meat they'd prefer to think of others as. If they come to any of *my* darkfics, they'll be very disappointed. (Funnily enough, you can always tell when it's a creep writing porn--it doesn't read like fanfic because the emotions and the humanity are missing.) Good fanfic is pretty much creep-proof for the most part exactly due to its characteristics.
  
  Last Edited Wed 17 Oct 2018 09:37PM UTC
  
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9. 77_Percent Sun 21 Oct 2018 03:57AM UTC
  
  Thank you.
  
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peppersoap Wed 17 Oct 2018 03:30AM UTC

woohoo!
also, i'm not really sure where to report this, but there have been double bookmarks and double kudos showing up, where a username will repeat in the list of kudos, or a bookmark will show up twice (as well as double the usrrname in the list of who bookmarked). possible bug?

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1. Account Deleted Wed 17 Oct 2018 05:16AM UTC
  
  I've noticed it too.
  Any chance of letting us know what this is?
  
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2. 1. zessa Wed 17 Oct 2018 05:40AM UTC
    
    That happens when someone’s connection is slow or there’s a miscommunication between the archive and the person who just, say, bookmarked something. The computer will keep trying to bookmark it until it gets confirmation from the archive that it got bookmarked. When that doesn’t happen the first time it keeps doing it until it get the “done!” Back. Obviously it ends up registering a few times.
    
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  2. 1. peppersoap Wed 17 Oct 2018 06:20AM UTC
      
      nifty!
      so the doubles go away once connection is ping'd back?
      
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    2. 1. zessa Wed 17 Oct 2018 01:08PM UTC
        
        No unfortunately. They'll just say as artifacts. If it's a double bookmark and it's yours you can delete one. The Kudos...well. Just enjoy it?
        
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Account Deleted Wed 17 Oct 2018 05:17AM UTC

Thank you to everyone who donated! You're keeping the site free for broke fans (aka me).

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WolfKomoki Wed 17 Oct 2018 06:41AM UTC

Right I need to rant a bit about the people that are saying that archive of our own doesn’t deserve donations.
1. No one is forcing you to donate.
2. These people run a free website where you can write and share stories about things you love, so you’re damn right they deserve donations for their hard work.
3. You can filter out the things you don’t like. Do I like some of the stuff there? No, but here’s a wild concept: don’t read the things you don’t like.
4. The fact that people are trying to get one of the major fanfiction websites shut down because of triggering content pisses me off. Grow up and use the damn filters.

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1. Nightcandle Thu 25 Oct 2018 06:59PM UTC
  
  Thank you for this comment.
  
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eelguera Wed 17 Oct 2018 10:44AM UTC

Love your site but your new consent requirement keeps kicking me out of what I am reading even after I log in. Is there a fix in the works? I get kicked out after only about two hours on my iPhone

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1. Diamond_Raven Mon 22 Oct 2018 01:57AM UTC
  
  Do you have something in place that's clearing your cookies/history etc after you leave a site? I'm not very technical, but I heard that if you have an automatic clean-up effect like that, then the website won't remember that you clicked the consent requirements the next time you access the site.
  
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BlueSimplicity Wed 17 Oct 2018 06:17PM UTC

Just echoing what everyone else has said. I started off as a reader and am now a writer. And none of that would have been possible without all of the time and effort the OTW team has so generously donated. I know my contribution wasn't much, but I hope it helped. Again, thank you SO MUCH for everything you guys have done for fans, for fandom and the creative community as a whole. <3 <3 <3

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gootarts Fri 19 Oct 2018 02:16AM UTC

Thanks for keeping this going! Would it be possible to create some sort of 'block fic/author' category in the future, perchance? I tend to browse small archives, and there's typically a couple of fics that I'd rather not scroll past every time I visit (like those fics with 500 different tags and fandoms, troll fics, etc), and it's a pain to constantly have to reinput my filters on mobile.
Or save your filters, maybe?

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1. MidnightFragments Fri 19 Oct 2018 05:45AM UTC
  
  All the functions you mentioned are actually already available through userscripts! (Though, I will admit I don't know if they work for mobiles, as well. But it's worth trying)
  You can find them all in the FAQs (under Unofficial Browser Tools) :)
  
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2. Qem Sun 21 Oct 2018 04:09AM UTC
  
  The filters modify the address bar, so after you put your filters in, you can bookmark the page to reload it with all the filters, down the track.
  
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AgathasAjax Sat 20 Oct 2018 12:09AM UTC

I cannot tell you how much AO3 has meant to me. I hope to be in a financial situation where I can donate in the coming months. Thank you all, so much.

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aralias Mon 22 Oct 2018 10:42PM UTC

Thank you OTW! Everything about you is amazing. Google is pretty great, but apart from that (or maybe even more so), AO3 is my favourite website. And part of it (apart from all the amazing fic) is the knowledge that it's being maintained pretty much out of love alone. I love that it has no ads, and that it's part of this awesome network of great projects, like Open Doors, Fanlore and the Legal Advocacy, omg. I haven't had need of it, but it is such a cool thing to provide.
So yes - thank you once again! Keep up the great work. (I know you will.)
I missed the drive, but I've donated late.

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Paulinha (Guest) Tue 16 Oct 2018 06:02AM UTC

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TelWoman Tue 16 Oct 2018 06:52AM UTC

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Level4Chaos Tue 16 Oct 2018 09:55AM UTC

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belialsvoice Wed 17 Oct 2018 02:17AM UTC

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Nice! (Guest) Tue 16 Oct 2018 04:53PM UTC

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hevyn Tue 16 Oct 2018 05:44PM UTC

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Small wins (Guest) Wed 17 Oct 2018 02:12AM UTC

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RaiMagnolia Sat 03 Nov 2018 03:57PM UTC

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peppersoap Sat 03 Nov 2018 09:38PM UTC

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RaiMagnolia Wed 07 Nov 2018 03:38AM UTC

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77_Percent Sun 21 Oct 2018 03:57AM UTC

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zessa Wed 17 Oct 2018 01:08PM UTC