coaltide | Morbane's coal

Morbane's coal

In quantum wankchanics, Morbane's coal is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, of quantum wankerposition. In the thought experiment, a hypothetical gift may be considered simultaneously both the fic of your dreams (TFOYD) and coal, while it is unread state, as a result of its fate being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur.

The Coaltide interpretation implies that, after a while, the gift is simultaneously TFOYD and coal. Yet, when a coalie clicks on their gift, the coalie sees the gift either TFOYD or coal, not both TFOYD and coal. This poses the question of when exactly quantum wankerposition ends and reality resolves into one possibility or the other.

Madness Opens: Tuesday 26 December
Author Reveals: Monday 1 January

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+1

The mental hoops of "just not commenting on a treat is more polite than rejecting a gift"!

Noncommenters are the worst.

Sorry, is your logic then that someone - again, in this extremely convoluted and unlikely hypothetical scenario which by nonny's own admission happened to them once many years ago - should comment on their treat they hate and then reject it? Why are you assuming your giftee will notice the rejection? Should the comment be polite or should it be informing them you hate it?

The scenario never happens if you just reject gifts you hate. They likely won't treat you again. And if they do and you hate it, you reject it too. At some point they'll get it. Or they'll run into you in a non-Yuletide exchange where you can send DNM requests and the mod will tell them for you. Problem solved.

How is rejection and not commenting any different from not commenting? It sounds like you want to be excused from the social contract (of saying thank you for a bad gift) while not being accountable for your behavior (removing your name from the gift via rejection).

Sorry, but that is in fact the kind of behavior that, if most people did it, would make exchanges impossible. Which is why it is rude.

How is rejection and not commenting any different from not commenting?

Noncommenters suck because they don't acknowledge the gift and leave you in limbo. Do they hate it? Do they love it and are too anxious to comment? Did something terrible happen to them? Did they never get the gift notification? There is no way of knowing, no closure.

Rejection might sting, but at least it's a reaction and you know where you stand.

But AO3's rejection button was designed for extreme cases of DNW breaking, harassment, or other scenarios where the gifter might know what they "did". Because of this, the feature design doesn't notify the gifter of rejection. You're assuming people who get their gifts rejected are checking the gift over and over and noticing that it's been rejected. I'm saying I think that's a reach.

You don't even need to check the gift itself, you can already see it on your profile. If you never go to either the gift or your profile again after you posted that gift, then it's probably a non-issue anyway lol.

Maybe rejecting a gift after two weeks or two months will fly under the radar. Insta-rejecting a gift rarely does.

...do people typically have their assignment count memorized? Do people typically browse their own fic profiles and actually notice the details? This is not consistent with my experience.

Most people will notice if a work they just gifted someone and are eagerly waiting for comments and kudos on suddenly isn't gifted to that person anymore.

A couple months later? Maybe not, if you really must reject a gift and you wait a couple months to do it probably nobody will notice. But in the anon period they almost definitely will.

I think you are assuming a level of surveillance and investment that is inconsistent with many exchange participants'.

I really don't think they are.

What are you even talking about? Rejection doesn't change your assignment count, so memorizing it isn't relevant. If you look on your profile or the fandom page or the ship page or literally anywhere where your fic appears, it says "[title] for [recipient]". When the recip rejects, the "for [recipient]" is gone. You'd have to be incredibly unobservant not to notice that about a fic that only just revealed.

Nonny, I can count on one hand the number of times I have looked at headers of my own work after posting. I scroll right to the bottom. Half the time I don't even remember which things I've posted are gifts. This is what I'm saying, you are relying on a feature that isn't intended for this use and making wild assumptions about what other people will do or notice that I am dubious actually play out how you expect IRL, all so you can avoid having to either explicitly communicate distaste or suck it up and tell a white lie for the sake of the group activity.

You don't have to look at the header, you don't even have to open the work at all. It shows directly on your dashboard and on your works page.

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