It's hilarious to me when people complain about AO3 and its policies, and what they allow on the site - but it's ESPECIALLY funny when people complain like "Why can't the freaks make their own site and just go there?"
Sweetie... AO3 is the site for that. Y'all invaded our space.
Wattpad and FFN still exist. Go there. They're as shitty and G-rated as you want. You can't have the luxuries that AO3 offers if you're gonna be a little bitch about its policies. Imagine walking into a strip club and complaining about the alcohol and naked ladies when there's a god damn Dennys next door you could have gone to. Christ.
AO3 is the equivalent of someone with oppressive family who - after their bedroom was ransacked, phone stolen, computer hacked, half their contacts deleted, and personal property thrown into a bonfire by said family - moved out and got their own place.
Except the fact that they’re successful and have such a nice house they invite all their friends, who obey AO3′s house rules, to visit who means that all the unwelcome family members want to come over as well because the house is just so nice.
Except those relatives are just as unpleasant and entitled as before and start trying to enforce their own house rules despite the fact that said relatives don’t live there, don’t own the house, and have never been invited to live there and are only allowed inside because AO3 is better than they are.
“If you don’t like my rules then get out of my house.”
AO3 didn’t like the rules. AO3 left that house. AO3 got its own place and set its own rules. But then the asshole relatives followed them home and started pretending they owned the place as soon as they were let into a guest room.
y’all this is so fucking funny. firstly, this kind of metaphor seeks to ignore that ao3, as a platform with a frankly huge budget for a nonprofit of its size (they have a $1 million excess budget - meaning, funding that they haven’t even planned to spend, and only about 25% of which they say is for emergency purposes), is not, at this point, just a house owned by a family. it’s an institution with power.
and that’s not inherently a bad thing! but we’re all nerds around here, and you know what they say comes with great power. so the leaders at otw (the organization for transformative works, who runs ao3), unlike perhaps some people who threw a house party, does have a responsibility to make sure that what’s happening on the archive are running well.
that means that when people talk about racism on the archive - which does not necessarily mean creators whose content was accidentally racist out of their own ignorance; it can also mean creators specifically targeting people of color with racist “spitefic” or by using slurs, all of which has happened - ao3 should take notice and act on it. when people are being harassed through the archives mechanisms, ao3 should act to protect its users. not least because otw/ao3 promised, three years ago after george floyd’s murder, to do exactly that.
sure, there are some bad actors who are seeking to tear ao3 down and/or ban certain types of content. but the important thing to remember is that those people do not have the institutional power here. otw/ao3 does, and their practice so far has not in any way indicated that they would change major foundations of the archive like non-censorship and maximum inclusiveness of content.
but people asking for change around bigotry and harassment have every right to expect ao3 to act, especially when they have already promised to!
it also infuriates me every time people mythologize the creation of ao3 as a way to obstruct change. y’all, i was there too. i was there for fanlib and strikethrough. i was super excited when otw was founded. i volunteered on one of the first otw committees in 2008-2009; i’ve been an ao3 member since 2008; i’ve donated countless times since otw was founded. (and you know what, i shouldn't even have to give my ao3 credentials in order to know that ao3 needs to be anti-racist and anti-harassment. people who are newer to the archive can believe that too.)
but as someone who has been here the whole time, what i’ve seen over the past 15 years is an outright refusal on otw’s part to take people of color seriously on racism and harassment. and it’s extra disappointing to see how ao3′s supporters will act as if those of us demanding change are "invaders", not valid members of the archive as well.
Classic reframing of ppl who criticize ao3 as ppl who want censorship and "g-rated and shitty" websites.
Classic reframing of ppl who criticize ao3 as outsiders invading a fan space instead of the reality that most criticism of ao3 comes from long term fans (of color usually) who want the space to be better
The anti-racists criticizing the AO3 for failure to follow through wholeheartedly on its own anti-racist pledge are not the same people who think that some pairings are evil and should be banned. They may think some specific forms of harassment should be banned, but that would be protecting people from active malice.
There is more than one kind of person who wants the AO3 to be better. The catch is, the anti-racists want it to be better in ways it has pledged to be better and has not yet achieved, while the Antis want it to be "better" in ways that are contrary to its mission.
Fanworks about any situation your heart desires: yes.
Permitting fans to abuse each other: no.