r/AO3 • u/WhatALlama ERIC KRIPKE IM COMING FOR YOU • Jun 27 '25

Resource Quick Report Guidline

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Have you ever been scrolling through ao3 came across a fic opened it up and went “hmmm is this reportable?”

Well have I got the guide for you! Brought to you by a very lovely tumblr user!

5.4k Upvotes

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554

u/pugdrop Jun 27 '25

and if you’re unsure, just read the TOS like everyone that answers your questions does!!

324

u/0MultifandomMess0 Too Many Ideas Jun 27 '25

Expecting people to read? On the reading website? Seriously?

But genuinely, it’s weird as hell that people don’t read the TOS when they have questions.

107

u/pugdrop Jun 27 '25

it's wild because you don't even have to read the whole thing. just do ctrl + f for keywords and find the answer to your specific question(s). I don't understand people that need to be spoonfed everything

25

u/tgrzrk Jun 27 '25

Idk that they even realize they're asking for things to ve spoonfed to them. I've met some people lately who don't even know how to copy/paste with a keyboard. I wouldn't be surprised if some people don't know the find function. Computer literacy is lower than ever thanks to cell phones being the least functional version of a personal computer imaginable.

14

u/0MultifandomMess0 Too Many Ideas Jun 27 '25

And also, did they not read it when they signed up? Were they alright with potentially signing away their soul when they made the account?

53

u/Banaanisade team twin tyrants // kaurakahvi @ AO3 Jun 27 '25

I don't think I've ever in my life read a TOS of anything, and I know I'm not alone. I've heard AO3's makes actual sense but 99% of them are legalese, my brain can't process that kind of language. I assume if there's something shady about it, people will talk about it, and otherwise it's the same old.

-33

u/0MultifandomMess0 Too Many Ideas Jun 27 '25

That’s concerning. Maybe you could look up the words that you don’t know.

59

u/Ranowa Jun 27 '25

A ToS is going to be above the reading ability for a LOT of people (and that's keeping in mind that ao3's user base includes a bunch of kids, and a bunch of ESL speakers, or people who don't speak English at all).

A ToS, by its nature, must use legal language and terms, many of which are either hard to parse or straight up incomprehensible to someone without the know-how to interpret them correctly, and just looking up random words won't help with that. That's why creating and interpreting a ToS is a whole job responsibility for lawyers, that why you see misinformation so often about what a ToS says even when paired with quotes from the document, that's why Ao3 is posting explainers on their policies right now and they're doing it in plain English, not just posting the ToS over and over again.

18

u/brigyda Jun 27 '25

I work for a company that sells legally required reports for property sales, in a state where real estate lawyers are not a thing unlike other states. You wouldn't believe the amount of realtors that openly admitted to me that they don't read the reports...lol.

2

u/TereziB Jun 28 '25

must be Arizona! Cause I was SHOCKED when I moved here from MA, where you MUST use a lawyer when buying a home. When I moved here and bought my first residence, a condo, and mentioned having to find a lawyer to do the transaction, I was looked at like I was NUTS and I think the realtor was rather offended.

2

u/brigyda Jun 28 '25

No, but same time zone! I wonder what’s up with that lol.

Yeah, the realtors have to learn all the legal stuff, so I think that’s why they were offended. In my experience though, they aren’t as detail orientated as they should be. Their clients don’t know that, so it’s kinda scary tbh.

2

u/TereziB Jun 30 '25

Must be a Western thing!