Questions from the A+ Inbox were taking up such an enormous portion of the A+ Insider that we started dedicating an entire post to them instead! This A+ feature is now bi-monthly and advice questions go into our twice monthly Into the A+ Advice Box. We think this will be a lot of fun for the whole family. We’ve included as many questions as we can. We love you and your hair looks fantastic today!

MERCH, BUSINESS AND TECHNICAL CONCERNS

I’ve always wondered why the image used for the story teaser isn’t included when I open the story itself. For example, I was stunned by Chrishell’s red dress… And I was unfamiliar with her, too. So after reading the story, I naturally wanted to see her photo again but I had to leave the story to do so. Small beans, but I experience this tiny annoyance regularly.

Viv: This is an oddity of the original website design before my time! I have noticed it before and will be sure to take it into account as the website grows and improves.

Carmen: We had an A+ member also bring this up last year (maybe it was you? Maybe it was someone else?) and we had a long discussion about it as a senior team. Ultimately where we landed is that for original artwork or illustrations, we include those inside the post. For stock images/getty images/ etc, we do not.

There’s a few factors in play here, including that some of our articles (link roundups, quick hit posts, etc) are so short that including the image twice isn’t always helpful and can take up a lot of space. Also sometimes we use stock images because we need something for the website homepage, but it’s not necessarily contributing to the piece (You Need Helps are sometimes a classic example of this, also once again, link roundups). So as you can see, lots going on that needs to be taken into account before a blanket policy gets implemented. And now we have a new Art Director who may feel differently about these policies altogether! So we’ll see what happens. Thanks for writing in.

Just wanted to say I love the “Celebrate Queer Joy” graphic novels ads I’ve been seeing recently! They’re super visually appealing and even convinced me, someone who doesn’t typically read graphic novels, to click through the ad.

Anya: Awww, we love to hear that! I loved those ads as well, and Oni Press really does have an amazing selection of queer books. Thank you so much for sharing this feedback with us!!

I blocked tracking cookies on Safari (because privacy is great) but now I’m worried you won’t get money when I click on your ads! Do clicks still count when cookies are blocked?

Anya: This is a great question! So, the long and the short of this, which I arrived at after more than a few conversations with my tech enthusiast brother, is that yes, clicks will be still be attributed to us, even if tracking cookies have been blocked. Essentially, that behavior is still attributed to our site — it’s just that the user/IP address associated with that action is not tracked. So Google Ad Manager (which we use to run our ads) will record that someone clicked on an ad, but not the particular user (so you won’t be followed around the internet with ads similar to whatever you clicked on).

Also, just to say, thank you so much for asking such a thoughtful question! Our ads are a great way to keep our revenue strong (thereby supporting our incredible editorial team!) so we really appreciate that you wanted to make sure that we are getting all the clicks we can! ❤️

ALL-CONSUMING NEEDS TO SHARE

I saw this tweet which lead me to this Reddit post and I (??!) am even more pissed at how the L Word turned out when we could’ve had a leather butch Kit The Captain (!!!) the utter disrespect to Pam Grier

Nicole: There is another universe where this version of The L Word was made. What do you think the ultimate ramifications of that are?

I see Heather and Natalie are so ready for basketball! 🤭The NWSL is rolling into the regular season after the challenge cup now and I for one am always interested in the fabulous lesbians making waves over there like Christine Sinclair and Jess Fishlock and Rachel Daly and Kristie Mewis and so so many others. (And Sophie Schmidt and Quinn 🇨🇦 Although I don’t know if Quinn identifies as a lesbian per say – but regardless they are deadly in the midfield! I do love all the Canadians!) I’d love to see some kind of spotlight on nwsl comings and going and other leagues where cool lesbians are being visible!

Omg I forgot Megan Rapinoe. (Pretty sure that’s illegal!) Anyways, please please please 🙏🏻

Thanks for listening to my lesbian soccer rant too!

Heather: Thank you for reminding me we need to get on top of our soccer coverage! I get so myopic about the WNBA that my excitement takes over everything else! Your notes here made me so happy and psyched about soccer!

Carmen: Yeah, we’ve been purposefully growing out our WNBA coverage over the last two years as a test case of “how can Autostraddle cover sports in a way that’s viable and our readers will read,” but definitely soccer is where we will grow next! (specifically I meant non-World Cup soccer! Because we’ve had a lot of success with covering the USWNT during the World Cup season). So… soon!

This is mostly for Heather:
A graphic novel recommendation:
Der Oracle Code_ by Marieke Nijkamp
It is originally in german I’m pretty sure, and that’s how I read it, but there might be a translation.

I really loved it! It’s a short graphic novel staring a teen in Gotham City who is newly disabled and goes to a center for teens learning to live with disabilities. She is a hacker and solving puzzles is her thing, so the whole plot is like her solving the mystery of this old mansion she is now in, while making new friends with the other teens, and coming to terms with her new life. I recommend it for Heather cause a DC comic about a fiery young lady trying to solve a weird mystery seems to go great with Heather’s interests of Batwoman and (I think) stories of fiery young ladies. This was also the best book I have read with disability being a central part of it, and I know Heather cares about that too

If you can’t find this book in a language you read, I think the author has written or contributed to other things in English though

Heather: Oh wow, I am SOLD! Thank you so much for sharing this recommendation with me! A “fiery young lady trying to solve a weird mystery” is an automatic buy for me!

Hello! You, perhaps especially Heather?, may be interested in the podcast The Best idea of All Time where they watch Carol every week for a year then discuss. So far a much more relaxing listening experience the inspiration podcast The Worst Idea of All Time where the hosts watch a terrible movie every week for a year and slowing lose their minds.

Heather: Ahahaha! This is amazing! I’ll check it out! I’ve seen Carol like 20 times, it’s my favorite, but I cannot imagine watching it every week. I wonder if it changes their minds about anything about the movie? I guess I’ll find out! I just downloaded it!

Kayla: Okay I am actually fascinated by this as a project; I truly wonder what the experience of watching the same movie every week for a year is like??? It sounds like a performance art piece tbh haha. It could either be super illuminating or just unnecessarily dull. I’m a big fan of repetition though.

Nicole: I have been watching (usually) terrible movies (with the occasional classic) nearly every week with my girlfriend and our friend virtually for the past 2 years and I have to wonder what that says about the state of my mind, now. I should listen to The Worst Idea of All Time!

Bridgerton! Shondaland is skipping Benedict’s story and moving right to Penelope/Colin. I get that. Benedict’s story was about him sexually harassing his romantic interest. They should scrap the problematic storyline from the book and let TV Benedict be queer. How do we make this happen?

Carmen: I mean, if we’re skipping over problematic Bridgerton plots from the book series, we could have started with the sexual assault plot from Season One. But alas, we did not!! I agree I’d love to see Benedict be queer! But I’m still not giving up hope on Eloise, the #1 gay Bridgerton of my hearts (it’s really unfathomable to me that we’ve gone two full seasons of a Shondaland drama and literally no person is gay! I mean I loved season two, it was one of my favorite tv experiences this year, but c’mon!!)

I just read this newsletter from benevolent gay advice columnist JP Brammer and thought maybe other queers here would appreciate the message too 🥲 made me tear up a bit

Heather: I love JP Brammer! He’s doing some of the most thoughtful, relevant, real, and funniest writing on the internet right now! And I love his book! And I love his tweets! Thank you so much for sharing this; it made me tear up too.

Laneia: Damn but if there’s a truer statement out there I want someone to show me because I highly doubt it!!:

“The idea that this community, of all communities, has any kind of working consensus on anything is laughable. This shit is like herding cats if all the cats were hopped up on Four Lokos and also had wings and could fly somehow.”

Kayla: JP is the best!

Carmen: Just another person here to talk about how much I love Helo Papi and JP, that’s all.

Nicole: Just here to say wow “Are we really considering ourselves imposters until Hulu gives each and every member of our community their own limited series?” yeah, waiting for representation to be given to us…not nearly as satisfying as making our own and omg also this: “Community isn’t something you are, it’s something you engage in. It’s like a house where you find people you like and people you don’t, people who are similar to you and people who are different, where you have certain obligations to each other in good times and bad, where you will be frustrated and delighted, helped and hurt.” True and good and good and true!

I hope you all have enjoyed watching the AS team geek out over JP’s newsletter now.

I just wanted to share that I am in LOVE and it’s so CRAZY and I’ve never felt like this before and I’m in LOVE!!

Kayla: I love this for you, pal! Love feelings can indeed be very overwhelming, but it’s also great! Let yourself feel it all! Embrace joy! Embrace the newness of it!

Carmen: I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOUUUUU

Nicole: YES! I LOVE THIS FOR YOU! Don’t feel like you have to rush to come down from this. In this world, you deserve to bask hedonistically in the love feelings for a while. <3 Again, so happy for you.

HAVE YOU WRITTEN ABOUT THIS / I NEED INFORMATION / ARTICLE IDEAS

Could we get an updated version of this article? Or maybe one about websites? https://www.autostraddle.com/14-good-womens-magazines-stuff-thats-worth-your-time-money-136118/

Now that Bitch is gone I’d like to contribute to another independent media entity (or maybe I should increase my AS contribution).

Nicole: Bitch closing was especially sad because while there are a number of new indie publications at any given time, the opportunities to publish at a feminist publication with something like Bitch’s reach that they built over a quarter of a century significantly decreased with their closure. That’s not just bad for writers. It also means that there are fewer places where readers can go to access thoughtful work, or fewer places that are collecting such work and publishing it in one spot under the care of thoughtful and experienced editors. All that being said, I am SERIOUSLY grateful that you all have decided to be here and I hope you’ll stick around — because one thing I noticed prior to Bitch’s closure was a serious decline in their member numbers over the past two years. (Anyone can see this if they look at a couple years of their Rage Reports in the print mags.) Which, a publication closing down is a complex event with what I’m sure are a number of factors I’m not privy to, but at the same time, we only get to keep the indie media we choose to support. That’s just the reality of it. There’s no safety net, and thinking about Bitch makes me really sad!

And I’ll leave it to Carmen to talk about the post!

Carmen: I’d love to see that article updated, I’ll put it in my ideas notebook, thanks. Damn… the day we lost Bitch was such a sad, hard day.

Have yall written anything about Minx on HBO? I coulda sworn I saw something but it was before I watched the show so I didn’t read it and now I don’t see anything so maybe I made it up???

Heather: We haven’t, actually, but I know both Shelli and Drew loved it! Maybe I can get them to do a conversation post about it for you!

Can we get some Dykes to Watch Out For content? The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for is perhaps my favorite queer cultural artifact of all time, but even among my IRL queer friends I have no one to talk about it with! I want to rag on Sydney, crush on Thea and Jezanna, and mourn (or debate) Clarice and Toni’s fate- can we make this happen on Autostraddle?! In my reading, it’s also held up remarkably well, if not perfectly, over time–but I’d be interested to hear if others feel differently.

Kayla: Okay, so you’re the second person to request Dykes To Watch Out For content. There seems to be a cultural resurgence happening? I mean, not that Bechdel ever went out of fashion lol but it is interesting! How about this: 2023 is the 40th anniversary of the comic starting, so I will start putting together a fun and splashy way to celebrate that when the time comes.

Carmen: Seconding this plan!

Hey! I’ve been loving the coverage of Crush because it looks adorable. But I remembered there was a previous article about one of the costars calling out the others’ biphobia. When I googled it, I saw the earlier article (https://www.autostraddle.com/aulii-cravalho-calls-co-star-rowan-blanchard-biphobic/), but the link to that old article now just links to the interview with Auli’i Cravalho (https://www.autostraddle.com/aulii-cravalho-interview-crush-hulu-tiktok-coming-out/). Did you delete the first article?

Carmen: Oh I just temporarily took it down for a week and simply forgot to put it back! I’ll fix that.

(The reason I took it down for the week is because we have an “end of article” widget that encourages readers to “check out similar posts” — but we don’t have the ability to customize or adjust it. So, underneath the Auli’i interview it was telling readers to read my Also.Also.Also link round-up from the fall about the supposed behind the scenes drama between Auli’i and Rowan. Auli’i herself took down the TikTok even before the original article’s publishing, and I didn’t want it to be the very first thing underneath Analyssa’s very sweet Auli’i interview because that just didn’t seem fair. Rowan and Auli’i seemingly don’t get along and anyone who followed their press tour for Crush could see that, but Auli’i also seemingly doesn’t stand by that TikTok since she took it down, so I’m actually fine at the moment with that old article just staying in hibernation. Anyway, there are fancier versions of that same widget that will allow us to pick specifically which articles go underneath which piece, which would be so useful because sometimes the automated widget makes strange choices! But sadly we cannot afford them.)

You know what? In retrospect, I should’ve just changed the title so it was less gossipy? That would’ve been simpler! But wow that did not occur to me back in April.

I would love more Heartstopper content??? I’m a 30 year old professional queer woman who can’t stop obsessing about this absurd show and I just… need more things to read.

Heather: I agree with you! Riese recommended Heartstopper to me and so of course I watched it immediately, and it is just… so perfect for this moment in time. So good! Did you read Drew’s review — it’s so lovely!

Carmen: If I am a 30something professional queer woman who is a Love, Victor faithful, will I like Heartstopper? Who can tell me?!?

hiii <3

I have been waiting eagerly for the return of “wait is this a date”— do we have an estimated s2 launch date? need guidance on my hot queer summer endeavors ;P

Xo

Carmen: OH MY FRIEND. You just wait. 😉

Nicole: 😉😉😉

I know she’s not queer per se but could we get a Nadia Russian Doll style thief pretty please? Her style is so awesome!

Kayla: I will keep this in mind! I do think Nadia’s style can mostly be summed up by: Good Coats, which as a certified Coat Dyke, I appreciate. Christina put together a good coat guide. Which I know isn’t exactly what you’re looking for! Maybe when fall comes along, I’ll write something more Nadia-specific. Her looks don’t scream summer to me!

When is A-Camp happening again? I didn’t learn about it until COVID Years so I’ve never attended. I’d love to gay camp with other queers!

Laneia: I’m writing my answer before Riese has written hers, but I feel like I know what she’ll say, so I’m simply going to share in your disappointment and anxious need for community because SAME ! A-Camp was a messy imperfect magical space for so many people — I watched hundreds of campers find themselves and build a family among those trees and I wish every single queer person could have that experience. Camp started off being Autostraddle IRL (and grew into so much more obviously, but) so I hope we’re still bringing that vibe to everyone through the website, insofar as it’s possible. I wish there was no Covid, and that we had the kind of funding that would make full-time camp directing/planning positions possible, I really do. And I’m sorry I can’t see you getting off a chartered bus and coming to our sign–in table so I could point you in the direction of your cabin and welcome you home!

Nicole: Not Riese, but, I can say that due to the ongoing pandemic among other factors (EVERYTHING being more expensive, for example), we both can’t afford to take the financial hit that would come from having to cancel camp after putting money into it up front AND we don’t currently know how we would make a safe and accessible camp situation with the ongoing pandemic. I know some other organizations or companies have put on events, but A-Camp involves people coming from all over the country and world and rooming together for multiple nights. I personally feel like it’s nearly impossible right now to figure out how to do that safely and inclusive of disabled / immunocompromised community members. From a financial perspective, we wouldn’t recover from planning and then having to cancel or postpone an A-Camp due to something like another COVID surge (which we can’t predict) or something like Monkeypox (JFC). We — not to mention YOU ALL — fought way too hard over the past two years to go down like that!

I also have never been to an A-Camp and sometimes I think about it wistfully, in the same way I think about meeting my coworkers who aren’t Carmen lol. (To clarify, that is because Carmen and I have met up exactly once!) But sometimes we can’t have nice things! (Often, in fact, I’d say.) Anyway, all that is to say, if we were to schedule another A-Camp, you would definitely know about it! We would shout about it everywhere! It definitely wouldn’t be a secret! :)

I know yall have about a bazillion competing needs & a very tiny budget. I am also a technologist who works in & w orgs that are & will be increasingly targeted if the fascists have their way. I want to nudge yall if you’re not there already to think about what it looks like to securely archive parts of Autostraddle, well before you think you need to (it may involve add’l fundraising, which takes time). I think one of the angles of fascist elements trying to conflate queer rights with pedophilia is to help normalize eventually censoring all queer content online to take us back to 1950 (there is an effort on books in VA, and yall know more than I do about FOSTA/SESTA). Much love, take care everyone.

Laneia: This is so real and so important ! I’ll be honest, I had not considered this need until reading your message, but it’s definitely on my radar now.

REALLY NICE THINGS YOU TOLD US

Editor’s Note: Sally got many messages about TIRTL! These are the three most recent.

“Thank you Sally for 100 TIRTLs! I feel good about the one I got first guess. I feel great about getting BENCH in two guesses.”

“I’m sad to see the TIRTL go but I had so much fun with it, thank you for making it!! Also I always play “tears” for my first word so it was a treat to get the final word on my first try :)”

“Woah, I’m a little sad that tomorrow is the last ever tirtl, (Sally’s wordle game.) I’m glad I’ll be able to play the old words because I definitely missed a few.”

Sally: Thanks to everyone for playing and enjoying! Also, feel free to suggest any other weird queer version of your favourite game!

Carmen: One of my very best friends played TIRTL from its first day to the very last day, completely unprompted by me. Sally’s impact!! Her power!!! (Truly there is no one like Sally, and I am SO appreciative and thankful, all the time really and truly.)

Nicole: TIRTL was what made me finally learn wordle (though I”ve never played any other version but TIRTL). It was a relatively small, but very fun era, our TIRTL time. Also so impressive that there were 100 words!

if you are looking for a sign that today is a good day to get yourself a treat or take a nap, or both, this is the sign!!!!

thank youuuuuu for being here & please keep taking care of yourselves <3 <3 <3

Laneia: Aaaaah I read this and immediately went to my fridge and put six of those break-apart cookie dough squares onto a sheet pan! Bless!

Carmen: I wish I had cookie dough squares, but I did just drink a big thing of water! This is the nicest! Thank YOU! <3 <3 <3

Nicole: Thank you!!! Seriously have not had enough rest recently but this was such a nice reminder to receive.

I wrote an article about erotica and of course had to give a shout out to Autostraddle and SLICK as the number one option! Doing my best to get more A+ members on board :)

Carmen: HI! Yes! I included it in one of our Also.Also.Also’s, so I hope you got to see it! Thank you so much, I loved this write up a lot. I know it made my day and Nicole’s day, too!

Nicole: This was so kind of you!! Thank you for thinking of us <3

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