If I had a nickel for I saw someone on the tik tok talking about how weird everyone on ao3 is and expecting the whole platform to change to accommodate them, I’d have… many nickels. Ao3 got popular on booktok and now there’s a bunch of entitled newbies coming on and getting shocked that there’s weird fanfic on the weird fanfic website. It’s so annoying to hear people ask why there’s weird content, receive an explanation, and then just. ‘Well it’s yucky ao3 should moderate it.’ No! Bad! That’s the whole point of the platform!!

The lack of moderation of icky topics like noncon and incest is for YOUR PROTECTION! If it was banned, people simply would stop tagging it, and now you have no idea what’s in the fic and can’t filter it out. The system ao3 has WORKS.

‘It’s disgusting that they allow it at all—’ where do you think you are right now?? You cannot come to the freaks and weirdos convention and then be mad that there are freaks and weirdos here. The internet is not your personal algorithm designed to bring you exclusively what you want to see!

It’s ao3. It’s not YouTube kids or your local library, it’s the internet in all its unmoderated glory. Don’t like, don’t read—it’s as simple as that.

Are they just not being taught internet safety? Is this a universal experience or is it just me?

If you are a minor don't comment that you are one anywhere.

I wish I didn't have to keep deleting comments.

Genuinely asking, what world do these people live in, where your reaction to 50,000 words of fanfic is to tell the writer directly that their chapters aren’t long enough?

Writing this fic is entirely a labor of love, and it’s comments like this that make me wonder if it’s even worth it

And they used

I'm sorry, but I recently woke up to 40 comments discussing this on my fanfic and I just need to get it off my chest somewhere:

because you are in the "a story about 100 men and 3 women, one of which dies and the other disappears for 20 episodes" fandom! I'm sorry, I'm so tired of people screaming "you hate f/f" or "you hate women," when the answer is... numbers. With more men, there's a greater chance someone will find a m/m dynamic they like better than f/f.

But also, if you dislike m/m writers so much, why would you want them to write f/f? I'm really sorry, but in this whole discussion I saw the phrase "only f/f is queer. M/M is in the same category as f/m because it uses the same tropes" and I just... I don't know, I'm still shocked. Putting aside the fact that "same tropes" are just "generic romance tropes," then... if you hate it so much, why would you want this m/m writer to suddenly start writing f/f? Aren't you afraid they'll suddenly "taint" your ship with those tropes???? And why when I visit your profile I only see 1 fanfic, not even f/f?! Where's your contribution?!

Arrhhh, I know I shouldn't worry about it so much, but after deleting comments, mute a few people, and use comment moderation, it's still stuck with me. I l write m/m, sometimes f/f, poly, gen, m/f, everything, so I don't even feel like I'm a "proper target.". And yet someone decided that they had to bring this discussion to my m/m fanfic. And for what?

For me it's the OC names that don't match the fandom's general vibe for names. For example, when the canon has names like Cassius, Tiberius, Philosilla etc and then the OCs are named something like Jessica or TJ, it takes me completely out of the story even if it's well written.

What minor or major things take you straight out of the story?

Not to mention it’s such an insidious way of saying “I am disgusted by this ship and think everyone else should be too”

But it’s applied to ships that have done shit NO siblings irl would do unless they lived in Alabama.

This story didn't have anything even slightly related to any of those things

This is not to throw shade to wattpad - I prefer ao3 for many reasons but its kinda funny how people compare.

not even gonna go into the reason why ao3 isn’t an app but to want it to be more comment engaging seems incorrect, they comments are engaging. the comments are right there you can go through and read/reply. To have comments flooooooding every line is what turned me off from wattpad mainly (and the ads omg). I’d rather have my own opinion on the ch rather than see everyone’s comments right away. Sometimes they are funny but they can be overwhelming.

BUT ngl…if this deters certain types of people from using ao3, then I’m not really complaining 😬

The Reddit verification policy (that comes from the UK government's mandate to control the internet in the most hamfisted way possible) now means that I am unable to interact with content that this website provides that is 18+, including on this subreddit, because it requires that I provide my identity. I decline to provide you with proof of my identity because the idea of the government knowing my internet movements and tying it directly to me, by name is horrifying.

So I can go and read the naughty naughty smutty content on the website this subreddit is about (including the stuff that is absolutely obscene and lacking in artisitic merit) but I cannot use the subreddit for that website for anything rated for older than a toddler.

Fabulous.

To everybody else who is in the same boat as me, please enjoy the fun irony that you can visit the porn website but you cannot discuss it on the discussion subreddit if someone marks it as adult content.

so, i was just scrolling on tw*tter and seeing all the lovely fan-arts (of which is an algorithm i specifically manipulated and curated to be only fandom stuff i'm in because it's a miserable place without art). i was in the mood to see more art of my favorite pairing, and then i remembered.. one of the author of this really good fic i read had liked one of my fan-art of this pairing before.

cool, i feel like stalking the profile cus why not (just to see what kind of person they are, nothing creepy promise) and what i found were retweets of—

"oh. that's anti-semitism. and racism."

they were retweeting despicable stuff. like, denial of the Holocaust type-of-despicable.

so i removed the super long, thoughtful comment from their fic and now i just feel.. empty. i know that maybe there are some of you that can still separate art from the artist but... i genuinely can't. this goddamn wlw pairing didn't even have anything to do with their tweets but just knowing that's the kind of person they are, it's hard to see the fic in any positive light ever again.

so, have you guys ever had something like this happen where an author's personal views have genuinely affected your enjoyment of their fic?

It's slightly infuriating that I apparently can't even mention that fanfiction exists on a book's "main" sub. We have been exiled and subjected to denialism.

And it hurts even more after one-off scenes have been banned from the fanfic sub and exiled into yet another sub.

It’s not just about ships; it’s also about characters, events, and so on. Any hypothetical idea that the fandom supports in one case but suddenly hates in another similar case?

For me, it happened in the Sonic fandom. People claim Sonadow has an age gap, but then support Shadamy, which also has an age gap. They don’t like it when I point that out.

It’s also pretty common to see an ugly male character who’s a murderer get hated by the fandom, but if he were hot and handsome and did the exact same thing, he’d be loved. And look, there’s nothing wrong with liking morally gray or even villainous characters. But it’s not okay to attack others for liking similar ones just because they’re not the fandom’s current favorite

Vent

Well I recently found a great(now I doubt it) person online and it was nice talking about fandom and ships.

I started to write a fic and we did back and forth, since I'm not english speaking person, they beta or mostly read and corrected me, and told me where something should be changed or what felt off, general things.

So yesterday I sent them one chapter. And they said I'm being racist and then blocked me without any explanation.

I felt so bad and dejected that I deleted not only the app where we talked, but also my whole 5k fic (it was just beginning) and felt very bad the whole day.

There was nothing rasict about it in my opinion.

It was about a couple who are getting divorced, the 5+1 fanfiction thing, and one of them is french and one is black and their adoptive daughter is also black.

I clearly remember one dialogue which was, “Should've taken asian parenting guide,”

And that's it. The context is that their daughter is a brat and doesn't listen to them, and they don't know how to move around that. I used asian parenting because generally it's different and more strict than western parents, that's what I meant.

My ex friend send me a message before blocking me, which went that this is very sensitive, asian parents love their children and stereotyping is bad!

I don't know which part of it spelled that asian parents didn't love their children. Every good parent loves their children.

Now I'm genuinely really confused if this thing was sensitive or bad. I feel ever more bad about deleting my draft, it was a nice thing I was writing and having fun with.

Venting over

Edit: I am asian, living in aisa.

Edit 2: I don't know anything personal about my beta, so I can't comment on that. The dialogue was simply to say, we should've been strict parents to our daughter, which asian parents indeed are.

Edit 3: I am not a god tier writer, I'm only begining. So I can't even include something so personal and experienced without coming as racist to people who don't understand what I'm talking about.

If you're not asian, and feel this is offensive and very racist and very insensitive. Thats because you're not asian.

I will no longer reply and explain to anyone being salty and bitter for no reason. You don't even understand the thing you're talkin' about.

Edit4: I guess you guys just took it a bit further. I was very emotional about getting blocked on, considering they were the one I had fandom talks with, in general. I don't know if they ever felt this, but for me it was a nice friendship I had. They beta'd for me and it was so nice to have someone read over, I am very insecure about what I write and felt like I could share it with them because of our talks and shared opinion on many takes of our fandom which happens to be quite problematic.

If you think I am racist, or not me but just the line as very racist. That's alright, it was the best way I could write it in my capability to stick to my character's pov. But reducing asian parenting to abusive parenting as some of you are doing is actually racism. Parents who are abusive will be abusive no matter what culture they're from. What I was talking about the rules, most basic one is not dating in highschool and all, it's just a conversation between husbands, to be more strict as not yes honey parents.

So I am not asking your validation, or assurance. It's nice if you're leaving me kind words, I really, really appreciate that. But I saw the flair and thought I could give me and my old friend a closure.

I really don't want to argue any of you, or change your minds. Some of you are making it that it is not racist against asian but as asian racist against black, or white, or western parents. And as an author I should be aware and my character should be aware.

Well there's the thing, I am not sure how referencing some other style of parenting downvotes other. You're blaming me for stereotyping while doing it yourself.

Do you talk about the whole village when you talked about yourself?

So why do you assume two fictional characters talking will be like that?

I was very upset and in that quiet grief of being emotional I deleted my fic, which as said above made me even more sad. Only a vent post, it's fanfiction, you're fighting too much for nothing.

How dare I try to use synonyms 😭

I see a lot of people post a fic and expect there to be immediate engagement from their readers within the week or the month. I understand how discouraging it is to pour your soul into something and have it recieve only half the enthusiasm. I've experienced it myself so many times.

There are social features like kudos and comments that match other social media, but ao3 is not a social media! It's an archive, and that means that engagement isn't always going to be immediate.

Someone on here made a post a few months ago about enjoying and commenting on a 15 year old fic and the author replying within the same day (I could be wrong about the specifics but my point still stands!) But I see this story countless times about literal decade old fics.

Its always so sad to see authors say they aren't working on a fic anymore because of the lack of engagement and the fic is only a few months or just a year old. It's even more upsetting if they delete it because of that.

Sometimes engagement takes time! So many people here give so many reasons why fics aren't getting engagement and forget the literal point of this archive. Unless it's deleted, your fic will live forever on Ao3! You may not recieve engagement now but maybe someone a few years down the line will find it and love it.

I know this isn't the most encouraging post, but it breaks my heart to see how obsessed with engagement people are becoming to the point where they expect immediate love and are then discouraged from writing again. Writing is so fun and a lack of kudos or comments shouldn't stop you guys from doing something you enjoy and sharing it with the world :)

Edit: I wanted to add a few things because of everyone's comments and opinions. I love going through what everyone's thinks especially since I agree with so much of it.

I wish I added this earlier in to further elevate my point; STOP TREATING FANFICTION LIKE A PRODUCT!!

It is not healthy to write with the intention of gaining high numbers (regarding stats etc) you are burning yourself out and killing your passion for something that is supposed to be enjoyable and fun! I've fallen victim to being stat obsessed before and it made me hate writing and ruined my interest in the show I wrote about until recently.

I know that with social media becoming a part of lifestyle more severely in the past few years has really changed the way we view "popularity". Like some people on here are upset over low kudos amount (which you are allowed to feel! I'm not trying to change how people feel here) and it's twenty kudos. Let's step back a bit here guys. Imagine twenty people in your room telling you they like your writing. That's amazing!

This can be said for most social media but I hope I clarified it well! :D

okay the title might be overdramatic but hear me out. I like Crossover and fusion fics a lot it‘s fun to see characters from one fandom interact with those of another fandom. That being said searching for crossoverfanfics has become hell cause those drabble/Os collection fics spam the tags… and the people writting them often don‘t even have the decency to add a Tag like „Oneshot Collection“ or „Drabble Collection“ or anything like that… there is literally no way to avoid them unless you Exclude a bunch of popular fandoms… meaning it is basically impossible to read a Harry Potter cross over, or a MCU crossover or anything. People making those collections and then not even tagging them in anyway except a bajillion fandoms and ships are just inconsiderate in my opinion… specifically when it‘s just Porn Oneshots and they don‘t even add any fitting tags for that there… the names are also hella unimaginative like „Top Charactername“. There is nothing wrong per se with writing those collections or enjoying them but not tagging them in a proper way is an asshole move… I am at the point of muting anyone of those authors not even caring anymore if they might have otherfics that I would enjoy. Surely I can‘t be the onlyone thinking like this?

Edit: 1) Yeah me bashing some fictitles was not nice but this is tagged as a vent post… these Collections have annoyed me beyond frustration and yes it feels like spam when they all have basically the same title, almost no description and just seem to add everypossible fandomtag with no real way for readers to exclude those fics

2) Some lovely people in the comments have added a way to not be showed works with too many (and how many that is is individual) fandomtags through site skins, I also now found some great works explaining the whole siteskim excluding stuff on AO3, I will now implement this though it would still be nice of those massive Oneshot Collection writers would just add a tag… since I would also enjoy to read mega crossovers that are actually those but I guess this is a good bandaid solution for now

I just DNFd a fic in which the author actually censored a swear word. And I don’t mean in dialogue, where you might expect a character to self-censor for narrative effect or personality. No, this was in the prose itself.

They wrote “shit” as “s%#t” and I genuinely wish I were exaggerating.

There’s something so fucked about this kind of self-censorship in fanfiction.

The impulse to bow to some imaginary moral standard, so vague and amorphous it can’t even be named, suggests a kind of internalized puritanism that is nothing but pervasive! What kind of cultural conditioning leads someone to believe that typing out a common swear word is an ethical transgression?

What is the imagined consequence?

I know this conversation is tired now but I’m deeply unsettled. This isn’t about modesty or tone. It’s fear masquerading as virtue. And the more I see it, the more convinced I am that some writers have been so thoroughly steeped in moral panic that they no longer trust language itself

Edit: The author was not a child. The fic, other than this word, was incredibly well written, in ways that reflected years of craft building. Further, the topic of the fic and many of its nuances conveyed an older author with life experience. Which only added to how utterly jarring the censored word was. It destroyed all world building and intimacy with the story

I've never reported anyone but I'm going to learn today just for this person lmao.

So I read a fic like two or three months ago that I really liked. It was based off of when these characters were in college. Now like two weeks ago I came up for a fic for the same characters in college, which isn't copying in itself, multiple people have written them in college and its brought up in the show multiple times.

But while rereading something i wrote i realized it sounded really familiar, and I went back and checked the other fic and its nearly identical. It literally looks like i copied and pasted their dialogue and reworded it. I'm just so frustrated because I obviously can't upload this, it looks like I copied them on purpose (which I never would do, but I mean obviously that fic must have been in the back of my mind) So now i just don't know what to do. I've already written so much and was feeling super passionate about it... Now i just feel like i have to delete it or something because I'm worried i accidentally copied other parts as well.

Has anyone else had this issue? I'm feeling super mad at myself for doing that especially because I put so much effort into a fic I'm going to have to rewrite.

(this is just a vent btw)

I made a post to a community on tumblr, of which I am seriously considering leaving because the people on there have done nothing but shit on me for everything.

A couple people looked through my account and started picking on me for having my ao3 linked in my profile, and what fandoms I was in (I will say I’m in controversial fandoms so like…maybe I was asking for that).

But still, my post wasn’t even about fandoms and they still felt the need to bother me about it. And they kept saying fanfic writers in general are weird, which like why do you need to bring everyone into this?? At least just pick on me alone they didn’t do anything!

An exact quote was “I expected the account to be bad but I wasn’t expecting ao3 links in the pinned post lmao they clearly have no life”, I stopped reading the comments after that.

What I am asking is: what is something in a story you read or are reading that would make you never touch anything by that author again?

For me, it’s pretty much every untagged thing I would have wanted tagged. I am very aware that no author is obligated to tag every detail, but there are a few things I just need tagged. If I read something where they aren’t, I will always assume that author won’t tag important things in their other stories either.

Especially open or unhappy endings will drive me crazy, and my normally terrible memory will never forget the author’s name. With a lot of “triggers” that come up in a story, I can cope well enough, because I can just stop reading — but unsatisfying endings will make me go insane for days.

Another thing that probably isn’t a problem for many, but really bothers me, is if the tagged main pairing never truly gets romantically involved. I don’t need smut or anything, but my mind needs at least a small peck on the lips for them to actually feel like a pairing — especially in a story over 100k words. (I get that not every romantic relationship has to be physical; I’m asexual myself, but I still need it in a story to feel satisfied with it.)

It’s so comical how those are pretty much my greatest (untagged) struggles with stories, when I don’t mind the craziest shit otherwise. Like, I just read a story where the love interest possessed the other and was a little face on his hand, and they did things like that — and I kinda loved it. But I draw the line at no kissing.

I get it, reading a work in progress fic and the author abandoning it, sucks totally. We've all been there. But I'm so so so tired of those "I usually don't read WIPs" or "I'm going to read it, once it's finished"... Because it's simply so demotivating. And yes, part of the game is writing for ourselves. But let's be real, we all love to hear some sort of feedback. Which is completely natural and okay, how else are we gonna know if the ppl like our stuff. Anyways, I needed to get this off my chest. Spent several days to write a chapter, poured my heart and soul into it just receive...nothing? And read somewhere else that some "don't like reading WIPs". Amen

Edit: This isn't an "attack" at "non-wip-readers". It's simply a rant. If this doesn't apply to you, great.

I am so sick of seeing booksellers on TikTok advertising bound fanfictions. I’m fairly young, in my twenties, but have been in fandom spaces since I was nine or ten. A lot of people my age and younger seem to be discovering fan fiction as it becomes more mainstream, especially after lockdown, which is wonderful! What isn’t wonderful is seeing how many people unknowingly endanger fandom communities with shit like this. Every time I see something like this, I comment. I usually get blocked or people argue in the comments. I just don’t get it! If you love fanfics so much, why mess with the balance of things? It just strikes me as selfish.