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! 😊
Have a good day!! 💕