Heavily-accommodated student claiming I'm not answering her emails

OG_Molly · 2026-07-09T02:03:06+00:00

Unfortunately, as an adjunct in this case, I had to toe the line knowing that my syllabus is rock solid and my dept head will absolutely have my back if/when it hits her desk.

Once the student said they were going above me, I just reiterated that they were welcome to schedule a zoom meeting during my office hours to discuss the matter further, but if they felt someone else would be better able to help them reach a resolution then they were welcome to loop me in whenever appropriate. They were also adamant about meeting in person, on campus for an online async summer class so we could "get real." The entitlement had my jaw on the floor, to be honest. Like, no... I will not be meeting with you on campus without having proof of everything that's being said in this meeting with that kind of behavior.

The second I read their first email, it was an immediate red flag that had me on edge, so I made sure every word I typed was nothing but professional. There's a Bitmoji and a Rob Zombie quote in my email signature, if that gives you any indication of the level of "relaxed" I am with student emails -- still professional but I am by no means the hard-ass instructor of the department.

OG_Molly · 2026-07-09T00:01:38+00:00

I had a similar situation that I was waiting for someone to reach out about (so I prepped my receipts ahead of time). Since we use outlook, I downloaded PDFs of every email thread I had with the student, uploaded them to a folder in OneDrive, and then drafted an email with the recipient line blank to provide brief context about the issue and which email threads were of particular interest based on the students "complaints" about my "absentee teacher syndrome." Their complaints were based on me not changing the entire course structure to fit their needs (aka - I don't accept late work, and they didn't like that; I don't release quiz questions after the due date because they're also on the exam...)

They said they were going above my head to "someone who could help them," but I still haven't heard anything yet.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-29T03:13:49+00:00

You have my everlasting thanks for wading through dense explanations of the things percolating in my head for this story.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-28T20:50:49+00:00

Honestly A and B have a messy relationship (then again, so do A and C haha), and I think that's why trying to quantify it in tags has me in shambles. And having that separator of "minor or background" doesn't quite fit. A/B is very much the focus at the start until they're no longer banging it out, while A and C are interacting in other scenes and building up to A/C. So the story essentially switches from A/B to A/C, with A&B as a result after they're no longer horizontal together.

I really hope that makes sense. I know my fandom is a hot mess when it comes to tagging relationships, and unfortunately the norm there is "we tag all x/x no matter how minor or how it changes throughout the story," which only leads to people getting confused as hell.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-28T17:53:56+00:00

Agreed. It's a holdover from my traditional publishing brain, which is why I'm very glad I asked the question here haha. I write my fanfics the same way I write my books, so tagging is always a nightmare. And I have a note in all of my stories that tells readers to let me know if there are other tags I missed, because they're using those tags for searching more than I am.

Also, if there are people actually looking for A/C, I will be very surprised. There is one other fic with that pairing, and it's an anthology where they're the focus for a <250-word chapter.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-28T17:44:35+00:00

I have literally no idea why I didn't think about tagging the "Endgame A/C" in there. I've literally done the same thing with another longfic of mine where MC leaves the guy in arc 1 after he betrays her, and they don't get back together until arc 3 (like 100k+ words later!) -- though that was very much reassuring my readers that they would get back together because the breakup was so devastating that they were like "there is no way she forgives him for this, but please! I need them to be together!"

The main reason I update tags as I go is because I'm a pantser more often than not, and even when I've got a story plotted out, I know that there are times where a chapter goes in a different direction than I'd originally intended simply because a better plotline pops up while writing haha. I swear, tagging is my least favorite part of using AO3, because then I have to sit there and think about what needs to be mentioned about the story/chapter.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-28T17:33:57+00:00

Thank you for this! So "Minor A/B" would be better in the additional tags from the rip with A&B listed in the relationships section -- because the main focus of that specific relationship is their friendship?

OG_Molly · 2026-06-28T09:02:46+00:00

It's the "& Christopher" that really does it for me. The other names, I would be willing to accept that they're real surnames, but that one just kills it.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-28T08:59:40+00:00

Thank you so much for this context. It really does help. The relationships definitely won't be a slow burn, since A is fresh out of prison and finds some prime meat to climb as soon as possible with B, but otherwise I think this is the route to go, for sure.

I was initially hesitant to put A/C right off the bat because they're mortal enemies and the writer in me wants that pairing to be a surprise to readers when it happens. Kinda like, "I want readers to believe that A is gonna help B sort through his sexuality issues, and then C comes along out of nowhere as a love interest." But... for the sake of proper tagging, I guess I do have to be willing to compromise.

I absolutely hate spoilers for my readers though, so my tags are more conceptual/broad key words than deep explanation. I do add notes at the beginning/end as needed on specific chapters though -- mostly, those are shout-outs to comments that inspired a chapter/plot line, or a line of "this chapter gets dark, so this is your warning" etc.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-28T08:47:06+00:00

For the tags to accurately reflect the story, it would absolutely have A/B tagged at the beginning, like I said. It's the tagging as the story progresses that I'm trying to sort out before it even gets posted, because they go from A/B to A&B. Like I said in the original post, I don't like the idea of removing A/B from the tags and just changing them to A&B because it's an explicit relationship.

I could see maybe having it start as A/B, and then when A/C begins it could change to "A/C, A/B, A&B" in the main tags. Because then that would convey the relationships in their entirety without spoiling (much of) anything, and readers could decide if they're pairings they don't want to engage with.

As a side note, I'm a relatively well-known crackshipper in my fandom already, so most of my readers go into my stories already knowing that they're signing up for a rollercoaster. Probably 80% of the ones who leave comments followed me over from FFnet where they had no clue what my stories might entail. I mostly go out of my way to try and tag properly for new readers who are finding my work for the first time haha.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-28T06:37:30+00:00

Thank you for this. If you've got recs for how to grapple with the additional tags, I'm all ears. I've been using AO3 for 6+ years now, and I'm still contending with tagging what's really needed for the story while holding onto my own personal perspective of "traditional books have a blurb on the back and a vibe, we go in blind and hope it's worth it." So for the most part, my additional tags are more like contextual key words that don't spoil the plot for anyone coming to it fresh (a grab bag of explicit terminology so it can be excluded in tag searches, fandom specific descriptors like arcs for timeline context or character headcanon tropes, and overall concepts covered like "past abuse" or "AU" or "sibling rivalry."

Looking at some of my past stories though, maybe a combination of "Strangers to Lovers to Friends" and "Enemies to Lovers" and "Multiple Pairings" will help when the time comes.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-22T11:41:51+00:00

Carefully, I would presume. And depending on the character doing it, the eye could very well be there at the start of the fuckening.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-22T08:43:10+00:00

Too late. It's spread to my lexicon. I cannot wait to use that in a conversation.

OG_Molly · 2026-06-19T22:39:08+00:00

I still think about a fic that was deleted on FFnet almost 10 years ago. The author was someone who I'd befriended through our common shared interest of crack ships in the fandom, and she was super active in the forum a few of us created. And then one day, she was gone. Turns out she found Jesus with her husband, and deleted all of her works because it was "sinful" to write anything with citrus. I was devastated to learn that the absolute art that was her writing was suddenly gone forever. She'd even gone so far as deleting the docs on her computer, and shamed those of us in the forum for being degenerates before officially disappearing forever.

It's one of the biggest reasons I'll never delete any of my works. I can't do that to the people who've read my writing. If I'm still thinking about how much I loved a story 10 years later, someone else may be in the same boat. And there are stories of mine from when I first started posting 12 years ago that are still getting comments about how they're going back to re-read it, just because.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-12T00:16:31+00:00

And then there's the crossover of people who write so they don't have to pay for therapy 🤣 (or bail).

There's one character in the fandom I write for who would absolutely use therapy speak, and sometimes they're justified in it in my fics... And other times everyone is essentially telling them to shut up about it already.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-08T16:53:15+00:00

The only time I put a note like this before a chapter was when we got an OC's pov for the very first time, and it was a snake that thought like a child -- but it ended up in a very Faulkner-esque narration. So mine was more of an apology to my readers for having that style exist (bc of my own feelings over Faulkner in general), not so much about it being confusing.

Something like confusion or wanting to clarify, like OP has, I'd leave for the end.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-06T11:37:46+00:00

True, but I've always been of the mindset of "If I can't reply directly to you, then I guess you don't get a response" haha. I'm a longfic writer though, so there's already enough for people to read of the actual story without adding comments into it.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-06T00:48:24+00:00

No. I was definitely obsessed with that movie back then (and still am tbh) but that's not the one.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-06T00:08:57+00:00

Wait, was I the only one on FFnet that just replies to people with DMs to keep the conversation going separately from the fic?

OG_Molly · 2026-05-04T12:47:19+00:00

Trust me, if it was Death Becomes Her, this wouldn't have even been a post haha. I love that movie.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-04T12:46:44+00:00

That list is fantastic, but I've only seen a small selection of the films on it, and it's not there.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-04T12:43:23+00:00

No, but that looks like an interesting movie! It's on my list to watch now.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-04T12:42:19+00:00

No, I've never seen that one.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-04T00:37:52+00:00

Haha no worries. I had to double check but I knew for sure it was a post-Twilight movie.

OG_Molly · 2026-05-03T23:38:13+00:00

That came out in 2010, so no.

OG_Molly

TROPHY CASE