Regarding Fandom Trees & AMTs

Tag wrangling is, on the whole, a fluid process. It's meant to be, because the way language is used and the way tags are used change over time. We're the first to admit that we don’t always get it right, and that we do sometimes make mistakes despite our best intentions. This is why wrangling decisions are not set in stone and are reevaluated periodically as circumstances change or as new information becomes available. 

In light of the impact that removing the Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms metatag has had, we have put that metatag back in place. 

When it comes to fandom metatags and fandom trees, there is no 'one size fits all' approach that works for all fandoms. Consequently, we have placed a hold on all structural changes to fandom metatags, All Media Types fandoms (commonly called AMTs), and fandom trees while wranglers discuss the need for additional guidelines and adjustments to our approach regarding these tags going forward. 

This hold will remain in place until tag wranglers have had ample time to fully reevaluate our fandom wrangling guidelines with the aim of making it easier for Archive users to find the content they’re looking for and filter out the content they aren’t. This guideline reevaluation process is something we are actively working on, but it will likely take some time to complete. We will update again once these fandom guideline discussions have come to a close.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

(From time to time, ao3org posts announcements of recent or upcoming wrangling changes on behalf of the Tag Wrangling Committee.)

figured out a meme to explain the difference between blocking and muting on AO3

Blocking someone on AO3 means that they can't comment on your works or reply to your comments elsewhere on AO3.

Muting someone on AO3 means that you won't see their works posted in your search or tag results anymore.

To add to this, posting multiple one-shots as chapters of a single fic can also get pretty inconvenient when it comes to filtering depending on how you tag.

Anon didn't specify what the range of their one-shots would be, so I will give different examples here.

If you are doing one-shots for multiple different fandoms:

If you are posting one-shots for the same fandom, but with different ships in different one-shots:

And even if your one-shots are all for the same fandom AND ship, you can still run into filtering issues depending on how broad you are getting with the tone of the one-shots and how you are choosing to tag it. Some examples:

And in the end, even if you have one-shots of the same fandom, ship, and generally in the same tone/setting with similar tropes, you are still gonna run into the issues of wordcount filtering and 'WIP vs Completed' filtering that OP talked about. I just figured pointing out the stuff with the tags might also be useful for those who may not care about the wordcount or completion, but care about the tags when filtering.

Of course, as OP said you are free to do as you wish. But at least you should know what the potential negatives are so you can weigh them against what you consider to be the positives before doing it.

Im gonna reblog to ask because I am planning to write little One-Shots about a silly AU i whipped up and this is very helpful so far.

How exactly does a Series differ from a Collection on AO3? Because up until running across this post I had been planning to post the One-Shots individually and throw them all into a Collection that would nicely group whatever I made for said AU, but now I am also considering making it a series of the one-shots.

So.

Can someone share some insight to me here?

Both a series and a collection will group the works together in a way that's easily accessible for others to be able to view the whole set. However, there are differences.

Because a series is meant for works that are meant to be read together and (generally) in order, there will be a link at the top of each fic that will take the reader back to the series landing page, where all other fics in the series are listed. But there is also a handy link to whichever fic is listed as next in the series. Readers won't have to return to the series page to get to the next fic.

Series also have a subscription feature, which collections don't. That means that a reader can subscribe to receive an email notification every time there is a new work in the series, as well as any time there is a new chapter added to an existing work in the series.

Collections are more often used for works that are meant to be enjoyed separately. A collection landing page doesn't have a subscription button. However, collections may have a list of tags that applies to the collection as a whole. Collection moderators can provide a list of tags to be used and apply various restrictions about how many tags beyond that are allowed.

I started a poll yesterday to see which way people preferred authors to handle this sort of situation, and if you read through the notes you'll find a lot of people who suggest a series for related works within a particular shared universe or that should be read together and a collection when there are multiple fandoms or multiple ships that don't interact from fic to fic. Cases where you're writing for an event with a list of prompts, but you're applying those prompts to several different fandoms, for example.

It's your archive. It's in the name. Don't be afraid to take up space. Each work deserves to be its own work, even if it's short, even if it's incomplete. Who are you helping by putting your one shots into a chaptered work? Not most readers who want to be able to find things reliably.

In the AO3 Demographics Survey 2024 - an unofficial demographics survey of 16,131 AO3 users - 68% of respondents identified as solely white, including 68% of those living in North or Central America.

To see more analysis, including a discussion of issues we identified with the phrasing of this question, please view the full results on AO3.

I can proudly say that I contributed to this!

Blocking a user prevents them from:

That was not there before 2024, and it's because of a situation where someone harassed me because THEY couldn't fucking read basic English and then got mad when I told them that if they're going to criticize my writing, at least use things that I actually put in the story. It's not my fault if someone convinces themselves of a bunch of shit and decides to take it out on me.

And when I blocked and muted them, they came into my comments under Anon. When I shut Anon off, they then wrote 1K words of them bitching, posted it as a fanfic under my fav ship tag, and 'gifted' it to me so I'd see it. I saved screenshots, reported the fic, and THEN dragged them in the comments. They were forced to remove it an hour later and got in SERIOUS TROUBLE. Even tried framing me as a bully to the moderators of AO3. And I pointed out to the woman I spoke to that it's suspicious to issue a warning to a person because SOMEONE ELSE made the decision to publicly harass them by circumventing all the ways they were stopped from being able to do it.

That I found it very telling how, based on recent behavior of the OTW, that they'd threaten the victim of stalking and harassment. I was assured that it's just a warning and there's no actual mark on my account, but damn was it hella sus to do that anyway. In the end, they did at least make it so people cannot 'gift' works to you so they can get around the block, mute, and anon features. I even had screenshots of everything that was said so they couldn't pull the 'it was deleted so we have no record' thing.

Who knew it'd require someone getting thoroughly harassed for days for AO3 to think, hey, we should have thought of that first.

@Fanfic writers:

My friend send me this link, is a series on a profile on Ao3 (tumblr) that has different tutorials to insert things to fanfics via html code, I thought I would share bc it’s really cool

Lists of tutorials:

This is a tutorial/live example on how to make large images fit on mobile browsers but remain normal size on desktop browsers.

This is a tutorial/live example on how to mimic the look of letters, fliers, and stationery (as well as other forms of written media) without using images. For all your epistolary fic needs.

This is a tutorial/live example on how to create a "Choose Your Own Adventure" fic. While this has been explained before (see here), this particular tutorial shows you how to use a work skin to hide the next parts from the reader until they click through to get to them.

This is a live example of how an author can create linked footnotes in their work with only a little bit of HTML and no workskins required. This is best viewed by clicking "Entire Work". While I've included the actual coding in bold and italic once you click "Hide Creator's Style", there's a more detailed explanation here.

This a tutorial/live example on how to have text change or appear once a cursor is hovering over it. Helpful for pop-up spoilers, language translations, quick author's notes, etc.

Anonymous on tumblr: do you have a skin that would mimic the author’s notes and review/kudos buttons section from the end of a fic? the desired effect being that the fic could go on after the “end” of the fic, so after the author’s notes and review/kudos buttons

Here's a tutorial/live example to do just that, with some of the buttons actually functioning. I'll explain more inside!

This is a tutorial/live example on how to align images to the left or right of the screen and have text wrap around them.

This is a tutorial/live example on how to mimic email windows on AO3 without the need to use images.

This is a tutorial/live example on how to mimic iOS text messages on AO3 without the need to use images. There's also a chapter on how to have emojis displayed on AO3 as well.

Bored with the default page dividers? This is a tutorial/live example on how customize your page dividers with no images needed (though I do show you how you could use images if you wanted to do such a thing).

This is a live example how to make invisible text that can only be seen by highlighting the text. Tutorial is included in text, and you can always leave comments about questions you may have.

MOBILE USERS: Sadly, this probably won't work for you, since highlighting in a mobile browser is different than web. I've tried correcting this, but have yet to find a solution.

Original coding and design is from layouttest. I make no claims for it, just tweaked it so it will work on AO3.

This is a live example of my AO3 skin that allows the author to recreate the look of lined notebook paper in their work. To learn more about it, you can find the tutorial here.

This is a live example of my AO3 skin that allows the author to recreate the look of sticky notes (aka Post-Its) in their fic. To learn more about it, you can find the tutorial here.

This is a live example of my AO3 skin that allows the author to recreate the look of Deadpool's thinking boxes in their fic. To learn more about it, you can find the tutorial here.

This is a live example of my AO3 skin that allows the author to recreate the look of a newspaper article in their work. To learn more about it, you can find the tutorial here.

This is really useful and I'll always reblog it.

I've seen a lot of fics disappear from my bookmarks, some 10+ years old, because they were added to an unrevealed collection. It makes me wonder if people realize what your fic being added to a collection actually means and if the authors approved it automatically without realizing what would happen.

If someone adds your fic to their collection, they can hide it! They can mark the collection as unrevealed and your fic will be unreadable to anyone other than them! If you're writing works for a surprise event, like a Secret Santa, this is really nice.

But if you're just writing and someone adds your fic to a collection for their own personal use and marks it as unrevealed, that. . . really sucks.

I bookmarked this fic in 2017, almost 5 years ago. Knowing me, the fic itself was probably at least a couple years old at the time I bookmarked it.

This is a 5+ year old fic that is completely inaccessible now because it was added to a collection that, as far as I can tell, is literally just for the collection owner's own reference. There's almost 30 fics in the collection, all of them unrevealed.

Please don't blindly accept collection requests and if your works ARE in a collection, make sure that they aren't being hidden without your knowledge or consent.

Are you able to remove a work from collection after you allow it or is it just a story that's just fucked?

Yes, you can remove your works! From the faq:

I'm not sure if you get an alert if your fic is marked as unrevealed though, so keep an eye on the collections that your works are part of.

There's also an option in your preferences to accept collection invitations automatically. I would highly recommend making sure that that option is not selected.

I realize this might be a dirty trick pro-censorship fandom harassers might try to pull on some people, so yeah.

Boosting for visibility.

Boosting because this is really, really important!

Please stop circulating this version with FALSE/OUTDATED information. AO3 has changed this feature. Now, works can only be Unrevealed if the collection is Unrevealed at the time works were approved by the author for addition to the collection. Changing a collection to Unrevealed only affects works added after that change. Authors can remove their works from collections at any time unless they have orphaned them. This is why adding to an Anonymous Collection is so much better than orphaning them.

This was an issue in the past, as Unrevealed collections were designed for events where fics get "revealed" at certain times and were not designed to prevent bad actors or just ignorant actors from using them to "hide" existing fics, just like the tagging system was not designed to prevent bad actors from tagging every possible unrelated thing to try to increase their readership or just be a jerk. It's a testament to our wonderful fandom community that sometimes it takes years for features to be abused in a way that reveals these weaknesses.

That said, most people would benefit from making collections of bookmarks rather than fics. AO3 has a lot of information about this, and has in fact debunked this concern about hiding fics specifically in recent years but unfortunately the debunking info is harder to find than FAQs which described mostly how to use the site features properly. https://archiveofourown.org/faq/collections?language_id=en#whatiscollection

as I'm sitting here, watching ao3 get stuck in the dreaded loading screen of heck, it begs the question...

If @transformativeworks is only answering support questions that are submitted via form through their site, idk how that supposed to work then the site is inaccessible.

I'm not even being sarcastic, I'm honestly baffled about how that is supposed to work.

because I do get that spammed asks and complaints are counterproductive.

but so too is making your only support function reliant on site functionality.

bc, that leaves only spamming socials as an option. like...do y'all have a...regular support email address that doesn't require the site to be working??

bc I honestly tried to do the thing the right thing, and? yeah, here I am, posting this into the void like a fool bc...surprise...I can't access ao3's support page, either.

I have an answer!

So in general when someone is having a problem with AO3, we would direct them to the AO3 Support Form - if there are bugs or weird errors, parts of the site aren't working, questions about how things work or what the policies are, etc.

If you can't get to the AO3 support form (because the site won't load, for example) you can go to the OTW Support Form - which is hosted separately but still has an option in the drop down menu to contact AO3 Support!

.. if you cannot get to either of these contact forms, then either your internet is doing a fail thing or ours is. If it is our servers being down, there will be a post up on the various socials.

It's not that sending an ask to me, the tumblr mod, is Wrong.. it's just that there is nothing I can do to help if you are having site access issues. The social media mods are not on the Support Staff, so we cannot even get the information you give us to people who would be able to use it.

I hope this helps

~ Mod Remi

yo so here are some things the ddos attack on ao3 should NOT provoke you to do:

what it should provoke you to do - push the otw board to make changes, including:

tbh there's so much dysfunction in this org that it's really hard to know where to start. but the knee-jerk racist and "it's the antis out to bring ao3 down!!!" reactions are ridiculous, come on

DDoS Attack Against AO3: Correcting Misinformation

Normally I don't make any posts like this, but I have an interest in cybersecurity and sadly I've seen people are being really ignorant about this recent DDoS attack against the site AO3 (Archive of Our Own), so I thought I'd remind people of a few things:

My advice to people who've noticed this attack is two-fold: calm down since this is part of a larger pattern that has literally resulted in basically no loss for the end-user of any of the sites, and... I don't really know a better way to put this, but don't believe everything you read. A religiously-motivated hate group wouldn't use terms like "LGBTQ+" and "smuts," and it's so blatantly obvious that the timing of every single one of these attacks is being used to smear Muslims and Sudanese people if you think about current events for like. One second. And if you look up Anonymous Sudan, you'll see their string of attacks and how all experts know that they have nothing to do with Sudan at all. Even AO3 itself told everybody that the group is lying about their motivations... though I think I'd go further than that personally because even their name itself is almost certainly a total sham.

To be clear: this post isn't targeted at anyone in particular. I've just seen a lot of people falling for this overall or not realizing this is part of a pattern, and I also wanted to remind everyone that this isn't anything to be concerned about. What is something to be concerned about is not doing research or thinking critically and then unwittingly spreading racist ideas.

Resources

Feel free to use these resources ss part of our ongoing effort to keep the OTW accountable to their commitments.

AO3 Creator's Note Template

Social Media Toolkit

A Sample Message to send to the OTW Board

Had a dream this morning that Archive of our Own had a Random button which would simply take you to a random fanfic, like Wikipedia has. (AO3 does not appear to really have this, I checked and couldn't find one, but I kinda wish they did.) Someone had started a game where whatever fic you got, that was your new fandom, which is very fun! I would love this meme in real life.

The problem came in where so many people used the button that it broke and just started sending everyone to Stealing Harry, and like...I have fond memories of Stealing Harry but it's not my best work and nobody should be assigned to be a Harry Potter fan in this day and age.

So I decide to go off and find Astolat and demand she fix this but when I finally did (there was a whole quest) she turned to me like the baddie in a horror flick and said, "But that's the most random story there is" in a dark voice and I was terrified and woke up.

In the cold light of day I know there are more random stories by me on the archive, let alone by others, but I'm not going to try to get back there to argue my case. Pretty sure whatever I spoke to was actually the demon specifically assigned to plague fandom and not Astolat at all.

I'd say "get thee behind me, demon" but I know just how many porny fics on AO3 begin with that premise. (I've written some.) Begone foul spirit, and take your Satanic Panic with you!

This made me laugh so hard - of all the things a sleeping mind can offer up as entertainment, poor Copperbadge was visited by a demonic Astolat impersonator.

I wanted that Ao3 random button though.

SO I MADE ONE

It's a generator that produces a link to a random work page on AO3, using a number generator in the link.

Fair warning, it turns up 404 errors pretty often, because many works have been deleted. Keep clicking, you'll get something eventually.

Also, this is literally any work on AO3, so remember the back button and browse responsibly.

Hold the OTW to its word

It's FEBRUARY and you know what that means! That's right, it's been six months since the OTW published its Vision Statement 2022-2025. During that time there's been little communication of the progress being made on those goals despite one of those goals being increased transparency. Let's hold the OTW to its word.

I've asked the Board to commit to publishing regular progress reports on the organization's work making its platforms a more welcoming space for BIPOC fans, and you can too. Just cruise on over to the OTW's Contact Us page, select OTW Board of Directors from the drop down menu, and let them know how you feel about their extended silence on this matter.

Here's what I wrote:

Feel free to copy or adapt this letter. If you need further inspiration, check out fiercynonym's excellent Twitter thread of questions for the OTW. I've also compiled the thread on Dreamwidth with fiercynonym's permission.

If you write your own letter, considering sharing it to encourage others, and please, spread the word.

Can I just say, I literally went to look this up and one of the numbers was looked up by someone else, but...

Fics tagged as incest on AO3: 1%

Fics tagged as rape/noncon: 2.7%

Fics tagged explicit+underage: 0.7%

...

Honestly, you'd find a higher percentage of objectionable reading material in the Ancient Greek section of your local library. Though probably not as explicit, to be fair.

But yeah, I still don't understand why "Don't Like, Don't Read" is such a difficult concept for people nowadays.

i'd like to see tags for say racism and ableism, although i'm not sure i'd trust creators to use them appropriately. that would make my "don't like don't read" curation a hell of a lot easier.

I was today years old when I learned that when you type “otp: true” in AO3 search results it filters out fics with additional ships, leaving only the fics where your otp is the main ship

Gamechanger

Here’s a cheatsheet of all the available hidden search functions. “-creators:[whatever]” is another exclusion that can be particularly useful.

rt, to make my life easier

Jesus Christ.

WOW. Sending love their way!! This site is a life-saver. Literally!