It would seem a whole new kind of AO3 reader/writer is emerging and it is becoming clear not everyone quite understands how the website community works. Here is some basic guidance on how most people expect you to go about using AO3 to keep this a fun community archive that funtions correctly:
Kudos is for when the story was interesting enough to make you finish reading. If it sucked or was badly written, you probably left. If you finished - you kudos.
If you liked it, you should comment. It can be long and detailed or a literal keysmash. Writers don’t care, we just love comments.
No critisism unless the author has specifically asked or agreed to hear it. Even constructive critisism is a no-no unless an author note tells you it’s okay. Many people write as a fun hobby or a way to cope with, among other things, insecurity. Don’t ruin that for them.
Do not comment to ask the author to write/update something else. It’s tacky and off-putting and will probably have the opposite effect than the one you want.
There is no algorithm, it’s an archive. Use the search and filter function to add/remove the pairings/characters/tropes etc. you want to read about and it will find you the fics that fit the bill.
For this to work, writers must tag and rate stories. This avoids readers finding the wrong things and missing the stuff they want. I don’t care how cringy that trope is in your eyes - it gets tagged.
Character A/Character B means a ROMANTIC or SEXUAL relationship of some kind. Character A&Character B is PLANTONIC, like friendship or family.
Nothing is banned. This is an implicit rule because banning one thing is a slipperly slope to banning another and another, until nothing is allowed anymore. Do not expect anyone to censor for you. Because of the tags system, you are responsible for your own reading experience.
People can create new chapters and sequels/fic series any time after they “complete” a story. So it’s considered perfectly normal to subscribe, even to a finished story. You can even subscribe to the author instead just to cover your bases.
Do not repost stories or change the publishing date without an extremely good reason (like a complete top to bottom rewrite). It’s an archive, not social media. No one cares what’s the most recent, only what fits their tag needs.
Avoid deleting a story you wrote if you hate it - orphan it so others can still enjoy it, without it being connected to you anymore.
This is a creative fanfiction archive. No essays on your insights or theories please. There are other places for that.
I KNOW there’s plenty more I missed but I’m trying to cover most of the basics that people seem to be struggling with.
I invite anyone to add to this, but please explain, don’t berate.
People are so entitled in the comments damn like no you writer don’t have to put up with you being rude they wrote you entertainment for free
To the people in the notes who are insisting that they have the right to leave negative feedback on AO3:
What you’re not understanding is that fandom is not a service, it’s a community. I saw someone compare leaving a comment on AO3 to reviewing a product on Amazon - if you didn’t like the product, you’re going to say so. But fanworks are not products and you didn’t pay money for them. They were shared with you.
Leaving un-asked-for criticism in AO3 comments isn’t like reviewing a product you were disappointed with. It’s like going to a friend’s house when they’ve cooked a meal and telling them all the things that are wrong with the food. Sure, you can do it, but it’s rude as hell and they are probably not going to invite you to dinner again.
(“Can you leave crit in comments” has been a debate as long as I’ve been in fandom, but 20 years ago the argument was “I’m helping the writer improve!” and not “I am a consumer with a right to complain.” Fandom has gotten more creepily capitalistic over the decades but jerks are evergreen, I guess.)
On the last point in OOP’s post, at the risk of, er, accidentally looking like and/or being a jerk who cannot read the room/tell the difference between what is technically allowed vs actually acceptable behavior - creative nonfiction fanworks are allowed under TOS. Liveblogging your reaction to the episode would be ‘ephemeral’ content and against TOS; TOS itself gives "an analysis of or commentary on multiple fanworks” and “an essay on a particular character’s narrative arc in canon or of the interaction between film and comics versions of a source” as examples of permissible works.
Hi guys! So I know we all don’t actually read the terms and conditions of things and just hit agree assuming there’s nothing important in there (I do it too oops) but if you take writing commissions or anything involving money, then there’s actually something in the AO3 terms and conditions to be aware of.
Linking to a personal website or blog/social network where you are taking donations, posting commissions or mentioning published works is permitted, but advertising it directly on the Archive is not, nor is using language which one might interpret as requesting financial contributions. For example, you can say something to the effect of “check out my Tumblr if you want to know more about me and my writing” and include the link to the site, but you cannot specifically state anything about donations, commissions or sales on the Archive.
Today someone reported one of my fics as violating this condition - presumably because I’d mentioned my patreon in the author’s note (I wasn’t actively requesting donations either… I’d literally just mentioned that it existed, and that the fic in question was written as a thank-you for hitting one of my goals).
I’ve written to AO3 to check whether just saying ‘thank you to those who support me on patreon’ is fine and I’ll let you guys know when they get back to me, but if it’s still going too far in terms of being a ‘commercial promotion’ then I’ll just avoid mentioning this in the future! :’)
As I said, someone did actually report my fic for this - so there are people out there who are noticing/reporting these situations. Please be aware of this if you take fic commissions, or use patreon or ko-fi, because your account could end up suspended, which of course no one wants!
<3 <3
UPDATE: AO3 got back to me - you’re not allowed to mention or link to patreon at all, regardless of how it’s phrased. Not sure if it’s the same for ko-fi but it might be better to be safe than sorry!
<3 @kahnah23 relevant to you and possibly some others~
That’s a fucking bullshit rule, I’m sorry. They shouldn’t deny you the opportunity to advertise your own work.
this isn’t just a self-determined descriptor; that’s a legal definition that requires adherence to specific rules and laws regarding income, profit, and donations.
this isn’t a “bullshit rule” just meant to prevent creators from advertising. in op’s post, the contact from ao3 offers a roundabout way to advertise. this rule ensures that ao3 and the organization for transformative works to stay a non-profit organization - this “bullshit rule” is essentially a way so that ao3 and the other services that the organization for transformative works can stay online.
Hey, folks! A bit of clarification on this point. Courtesy of the lovely people from our Legal and Abuse committees, here’s how things are:
What the TOS FAQ says is: “We want the Archive to remain a non-commercial space. That means that it isn’t the right place for offering merchandise, even fan-related merchandise. Linking to your personal page (not, for example, an Amazon author page) is fine, even if the personal page includes some items for sale, but the Archive is not advertising space.”
We made this rule to keep the Archive focused on its original mission of protecting noncommercial transformative works, and to avoid confusion about the relationship between the Archive and individual creators. Donations to individual creators are not donations to the Archive, so they don’t affect our status as a nonprofit as such, but we still need a rule that enables our small, hard-working abuse team to enforce an anti-commercialization rule as fairly as possible.
It is acceptable to mention something like “This work was commissioned by Mary Sue,” but creators should not link directly to their fundraising pages or solicit donations on the Archive. We do not want to suspend accounts over this, and creators are given notice if there’s a problem. We presume good faith, and if you think Abuse has made a mistake about your work, you can appeal any decision requiring the removal of a link.
Will humanity ever be free of the influence of Edna Mode? Can any of us so much as consider the character design for a hero or villain without her manifesting in the room, fully aware of our sins?
You know what, another layer of difficulty is when you’re thinking about villains, and the wise words of Megamind come into your head. You don’t just want your child to be just a regular villain. But how do you make your villain a Supervillain with no cape? Where is the drama? But Edna says no capes, you must deny them the flair. It is impossible to please them both, and it’s tearing this family apart.
this is crazy bc I remember when i was in school, if a guy had spare tampons in his backpack he was deemed the most universally popular guy by every single woman in school. The rizz you get from having tampons on you as a man is immeasurable.
Most of my friends since i was like 14 have had periods and they mostly stick to two brands, the day i started carrying them on my backpacks i unlocked a level of loyalty and care i could not articulate if i had a poetry degree. I met my soon to be wife because that day i was the only person around her who carried pads and she has never stopped telling people about it, i’m getting married because of the immeasurable rizz given to me by openly carrying pads as a dude
just overheard my wife spelling something on the phone and i shit you not saying the words “E as in Eeyore” i am on my hands and knees wailing screaming crying pleading and begging people to learn the NATO phonetic alphabet
Is Debian a good distro to run as a server? I initially wanted to have fedora server but backed out and when I opened the Debian website the server iso just isn't there. Does Debian have a separate server iso?
Server use is where Debian shines. There are no separate desktop/server ISOs afaik. The graphical installer has steps where you can choose to not install a desktop environment, and let you install SSH.
I’ve been using Debian exclusively for both on-site bare metal servers (old laptops lmao) and VPSes for years and would be very hesitant to switch to anything else.
The great thing about huge declarations is that the most times you’re ever going to have to deliver on them is ONCE. And even that is vanishingly unlikely. The dishes happen every day. My feet hurt now. The kids need a lift to piano lessons every week. The grenade is hypothetical.
But low key makes me think about how people with adhd have been raised their whole lives to value a day based on what they accomplished vs what they experienced
I think your point is excellent. But also consider:
That list might say things like “Paint a picture. Go birdwatching. Finish that great novel I started reading. Call my grandma. Learn to bake a cake. Visit my sister. Play piano.”
For me at least, the good/fun things are harder without meds too. I can have the best intentions, but following through is hard.
This addition is so important.
Also it turns out it is really helpful to your mental health to be able to accomplish boring chores like dishes when they are a quick few things and not an enormous pile of everything you own?? And then you find yourself doing things like not eating because it will add to the dishes and you know you won’t be able to do them any more than you could earlier so now maybe TECHNICALLY you don’t have an eating disorder but your eating habits look like one. And you feel horrible about yourself because why can’t you just do some damn dishes like a billion other people???
Like it or not being a functional human being does in fact depend on doing something other than ~experiencing things~. Getting rid of capitalism will not fix the fact that I have no executive function and can’t afford an actual adhd assessment and as a result spend a lot of my time just absolutely miserable because I physically cannot make myself start a task, any task. I hate the “value what you experience not what you produce” line SO MUCH because all I want to be able to do is produce clean dishes and laundry on a regular schedule and my brain just doesn’t work that way and it severely negatively impacts my life.
I’ve been trying to spread this around to everyone, especially writers and artists, without spamming anyone.
First: Sky Follower Bridge. This is a plugin that enables you to follow any Twitter users you follow who also have Bluesky accounts. I’ve been running it every few days as Bluesky gets more users.
Deleting your account could allow someone else (like trolls or spammers) to take the name. Also, keeping your account allows you to run Sky Follower Bridge regularly.
The new terms of service go into effect Friday November 15th 2024.
Each of these are $13 plus shipping, and are LIMITED in quantity, varying by keychain design. Each keychain will come with a sticker of the same design.
I did make some international shipping options available by request, but the cost of shipping one package internationally from the US is more than one keychain alone is priced, so please keep that in mind. Keep in mind these were not pre-order and were paid for out of pocket (and to test how I could do acrylic charm designs) so some of these designs are very limited in number.
My Kofi store will close on November 27th, and might reopen sometime afterwards, thank you! <3
Edit: Shop sold out quicker than I thought! Will update later.
The wedding charms are finally here and up for sale! I’ve only got a limited stock available from my last convention, so there are extra options for pre-orders as well! (And pre-orders will be shipped between December 15th-January 5th).
I’ve got a few extra products available that you’ll be able to see under the break (including Bishop charms), but other than that my shop can be found here!
Hi! I love your writing and think you deserve everything people give you on ko-fi (and more), but I just wanted to give you a heads up that you might want to remove the link in your AO3 profile. AO3 is super strict about “commercial activities,” and that includes posting links to things like ko-fi. If they catch you, you could get banned. And that would be terrible, because your stories are amazing!
Hi, thank you for the warning! I genuinely appreciate you looking out for me 😊
I’ve looked into it a few times, but you got me searching beyond the AO3 TOS because to be perfectly honest, they aren’t as explicit as they should be when it comes to things that could get their users banned.
I found this post that actually explicitly states that ko-fi/patreon links aren’t permitted, and it’s incredibly frustrating to me that it isn’t explicitly stated in TOS but in a post on Tumblr.
It is also frustrating because a donation link is different than a commercial link. A commercial link is advertising a service you are offering in exchange for money. A donation link is providing an optional place for funds to be donated with nothing expected in return.
If they don’t want people putting any link that could be related to funds of any kind, then they need to be explicit in their TOS and list the sites that are not permitted (or at least give examples), because they make it pretty clear in the Tumblr post that ko-fi and patreon links are ban-worthy offenses.
To be perfectly clear: I do not have a problem with them not permitting these links. I do, however, have a problem that they are not absolutely explicit in their TOS and it took multiple Google searches to find an explanation. I am well aware that this is likely my tisms on full display but fuck it this is frustrating as hell.
ANYWAY. Thank you again for your warning, sweet anon. Especially since you got me to go searching further for more answers! I’ve removed my ko-fi link from my AO3, so if anyone notices one that I missed, please let me know here! 😊
biologists will be like this is a very simplified diagram of a mammalian cell
chemists will be like this is a molecule
okay but this is what the best render of a human cell looks like
They are not kidding
We are full of so many fuckign guys
This is actually a full on interactive map! You can put your cursor over any structure to focus on it and see its name, you can focus on all the structures that are part of a specific pathway and, when you click on proteins, you open it up on PhosphoSitePlus, which is a curated database of proteins and their post-translational modifications. It has a helpful description and summary for each protein!
This is a HUGE complementary resource for learning molecular biology! It really helps to make sense of each individual pathway and it puts everything into perspective. It only focuses on human, rat and certain other animal cells, so it won’t have all the pathways one would wish to see… But for the pathways it does include, consider opening the image and accompanying it as you learn or revise them!
oh wow, thank you for the additional information, i had no idea, that’s so much cooler than just the flat picture.
1. Complete ban on abortions, without exceptions (pg. 449-503)
2. End marriage equality (pg. 545-581)
3. Elimination of unions and worker protections (pg. 581)
4. Defund the FBI and Homeland Security (pg. 133)
5. Eliminate federal agencies like the FDA, EPA, NOAA, and more (pg. 363-417)
6. Mass deportation of immigrants and incarceration in “camps” (pg. 133)
7. End birthright citizenship (pg. 133)
8. Cut Social Security (pg. 691)
9. Cut Medicare (pg. 449)
10. Eliminate the Department of Education (pg. 319)
11. Teach Christian religious beliefs in public schools (pg. 319)
12. Use public, taxpayer money for private religious schools (pg. 319)
13. End the Affordable Care Act (pg. 449)
14. Ban contraceptives (pg. 449)
15. Additional tax breaks for corporations and the 1% (pg. 691)
16. End civil rights & DEI protections in government (pg. 545-581)
17. Ban African American and gender studies in all levels of education (pg. 319)
18. End climate protections: (pg. 417)
19. Increase Arctic drilling (pg. 363)
20. Deregulate big business and the oil industry (pg. 363)
Not to increase anxiety, but I found this buried on Reddit. From six months ago. very good thing to have in your pocket so you are prepared
Interesting: not a single one of these is in the first ten dozen pages
Like the first 5-10% of the thing is mostly ranting about ‘woke cultural Marxist indoctornation’ and explanations of all the parts of the executive branch
ALT
