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On the AO3 all these years later
The tenth anniversary of the OTW and all the AO3 discussion going around this week inspired me to go look at astolat’s original post about creating an An Archive Of Our Own, and found my comment on it:
“I think this is needed and long past needed.
There are of course huge fanfic archives out there like ff.net, but the bigger and more public the site, the more restrictive it is, the more stuff around the edges gets cut off. I don’t WANT the public face of fanfic to be only the most easily palatable stuff, with the smut and the kink and the controversial subjects marginalized and hidden under the table.
And I particularly don’t want to see us all sitting around feeling frustrated while this fabulous community is commodified out from underneath us.
I’m not fit to be a project manager, but I’m great with details and general organizational work. If someone takes this and runs with it, I’d love to help.“
Eleven years and rather a lot of volunteer-hours later, I stand by every single word.
This is the most beautiful way to describe fic, transformative storytelling and collective mythmaking. He gets it.
Manifesting that ill truly internalize this one day and won’t feel the need to remind myself on it sdjfldsjhfk
see i think it is 100% normal and fine and whatever to be annoyed by other people's terrible takes on your favourite lil guys like god knows i'm a hater when it comes to people being wrong having different opinions than me, but at the end of the day you do gotta remember that this is not a moral issue and simply not that deep. like yeah yeah the horrors but also this is all made up and not real and literally fine and people smashing dolls in a way you personally don't like is nothing to start throwing sand about. in fact starting to throw sand is how you lose
Fandom PSAs
Dont’ Like, Don’t Read
or DL; DR
You are responsible for curating your own online experience.
If something upsets you, makes you angry or queasy or triggers you, stop reading/looking at it. Avoid things that might make you feel that way.
Learn to use the Sort and Filter function on AO3, especially the Exclude tools.
On social media, block and mute accounts / tags / words when necessary.
If you hated something, you don’t need to tell that to the creator or start pointing fingers at them publicly.
The Back button is free. Use it.
Addendum:
Yes, for this to work, creators need to tag their works accordingly, so that people know what sort of content they are about to engage with and can nope out if necessary.
I will probably make another PSA about the importance of proper tagging later.
Ship And Let Ship
or SALS
You are allowed to ship whatever you want.
Everyone else is also allowed to ship whatever they want.
You are entitled to dislike or even hate a ship. If you want to do this online, in public, don’t use the ship tags for hate posts.
If you see someone posting about a ship they like and you don’t, there is no need for you to start arguing with them in their replies / comments / QRTs / reblogs. Don’t throw your hate in their face.
Do not harass fan creators or fans for shipping something you disapprove.
All of this also applies to liking / disliking an individual character.
Addendum:
”I agree with this, except when…”
No, then you are NOT agreeing with this.
Let me make this VERY clear. There are NO exceptions. None.
You don’t EVER harass real people over pixels.
If you disagree with this, kindly block and move on.
Your Kink Is Not My Kink
or YKINMK / YKINMKATO
The longer version is ”Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That’s Okay”.
People have different tastes. Not everything is for everybody.
Even if you don’t like a specific kink, other people are still allowed to use it in their creations.
You are entitled to dislike kinky content and think that it’s ”weird”.
Don’t kink shame or judge people based on their kinks.
This goes both ways: your kink is not someone else’s kink, so don’t push it onto those who are not into it.
Be Kind
or Don’t Be An Asshole
Focus on the things you like instead of the things you hate.
Create and unite instead of destroying and dividing.
Don’t harass real people over fictional things.
Stop stirring up petty drama just to get some attention on social media.
Stop trying to ”win”. Fandom is not a competition.
Remember that your own experiences aren’t universally shared. Your perception of things can differ from someone else’s, but that doesn’t mean either of you is necessarily wrong.
Fandom PSAs
Dont’ Like, Don’t Read
or DL; DR
You are responsible for curating your own online experience.
If something upsets you, makes you angry or queasy or triggers you, stop reading/looking at it. Avoid things that might make you feel that way.
Learn to use the Sort and Filter function on AO3, especially the Exclude tools.
On social media, block and mute accounts / tags / words when necessary.
If you hated something, you don’t need to tell that to the creator or start pointing fingers at them publicly.
The Back button is free. Use it.
Addendum:
Yes, for this to work, creators need to tag their works accordingly, so that people know what sort of content they are about to engage with and can nope out if necessary.
I will probably make another PSA about the importance of proper tagging later.
Ship And Let Ship
or SALS
You are allowed to ship whatever you want.
Everyone else is also allowed to ship whatever they want.
You are entitled to dislike or even hate a ship. If you want to do this online, in public, don’t use the ship tags for hate posts.
If you see someone posting about a ship they like and you don’t, there is no need for you to start arguing with them in their replies / comments / QRTs / reblogs. Don’t throw your hate in their face.
Do not harass fan creators or fans for shipping something you disapprove.
All of this also applies to liking / disliking an individual character.
Addendum:
”I agree with this, except when…”
No, then you are NOT agreeing with this.
Let me make this VERY clear. There are NO exceptions. None.
You don’t EVER harass real people over pixels.
If you disagree with this, kindly block and move on.
Your Kink Is Not My Kink
or YKINMK / YKINMKATO
The longer version is ”Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That’s Okay”.
People have different tastes. Not everything is for everybody.
Even if you don’t like a specific kink, other people are still allowed to use it in their creations.
You are entitled to dislike kinky content and think that it’s ”weird”.
Don’t kink shame or judge people based on their kinks.
This goes both ways: your kink is not someone else’s kink, so don’t push it onto those who are not into it.
Be Kind
or Don’t Be An Asshole
Focus on the things you like instead of the things you hate.
Create and unite instead of destroying and dividing.
Don’t harass real people over fictional things.
Stop stirring up petty drama just to get some attention on social media.
Stop trying to ”win”. Fandom is not a competition.
Remember that your own experiences aren’t universally shared. Your perception of things can differ from someone else’s, but that doesn’t mean either of you is necessarily wrong.
does anyone else suddenly, for no conceivable reason at all, remember a ship they used to really love and then three hours later find themsleves re-reading all their favourite fics after they’ve checked out the new ones in the tag even though they’ve done this at least three times before and they know the plot of the fics by heart?
ao3 wrapped
-> you read 2,690,420 words, none of which are in the bible
-> your preferred genre is an abomination
-> you found one writer and read everything they've ever written...
-> ...only to find out they're into some weird shit.
-> and now you are too. congratulations!
-> the data we've collected has shocked us to our very core and we wish we hadn't done it. we won't see you next year. please seek professional mental support
Publicly here involves anything that anyone in a broader community can see without having to join, say, a discord server. You can be more specific in the tags. If your answer would change based on which fandom or community the fic belongs to, vote for the option that best reflects the community most open to public criticism of an author's work.
Hey, if you don’t have something nice to say about other people’s creations (gifsets, art, fic etc)
then
don’t say anything at all.
When you're posting a work on AO3, one of the options you have is to add relationship tags to your work. Sometimes you'll see tags that look almost exactly the same and you might wonder what the difference is.
A/B indicates that person A and person B have a romantic or sexual relationship in this fic.
A&B indicates that person A and person B have a non-romantic and non-sexual relationship in this fic - they are friends, colleagues, family members etc. who have a platonic relationship.
If you want to add more specific information about what kind of relationship the characters have in your story, you can use the additional tags or the summary to let readers know more about what they're in for.
Editing to add: Oh yes! And it doesn't matter which character you list first in your tag. They both filter the same way in the site's database.
"I don't want to read this" is totally valid.
"This is disgusting to me" is totally valid.
"I don't want to read this because it is disgusting to me" is totally valid.
"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.
All hail the Content Whacking Stick
to the beautiful writers that might see this, ao3 is currently being scrapped by an AI company called RIVD. this isn't your usual AI text scrapping, they are specifically targeting ao3 to feed their own AI / "tech-orientes" fanfiction site
their "takedown form" demands that you give them your full legal name and address. they do not say what they're doing with your personal details. there's no proof that this form works
until ao3 comes out with a proper statement or manages to lock their scrapped, just lock your fics for registered users
i recommend being a fan of 1 problematic piece of media at least once in your life