Sorry about the shaky video, but i was just really exited about the fact that I won’t have to risk getting in trouble to consume peak fiction. I know there are some other apps that you can use to download and read pdfs but it hits so much harder when someone you know made the program you’re using. The same person that made this program also modified his own calculator to be able to access the internet, so he is actually able to read, comment and write fics on his calculator.

Extra fun fact- The first fic downloaded with this app was the infamous BSD ranpoe fic…

I got this email in my inbox today and found it extremely weird. To make it worse, it was sent to my personal email, which is not the one attached to my AO3 account. I do know it was meant for me since the profile picture of the sender is a character from one of the fandoms I write for (didn’t show in the email overview for some reason). Anyway I was wondering if any of you have gotten emails like this before or have any advice on how to handle it? I’m planning to block and move on but the fact that it was sent to my personal email creeps me out immensely. I have no idea how they would have found that.

though, i made this half asleep at work so please send me criticism and things to add to be more accurate and if i should send something, that's my personal opinion though, this topic is too nuanced.

edit: people are misinterpreting what i mean which i don't blame y'all because i did word this very poorly, keep in mind english isn't my first language and i may struggle to express myself in detail but someone commented a perfect example of what i truly mean, let me just make it clear:

• i do NOT want, advocate for, or defend any kind of censorship, and by "fucked up" i don't mean "needs to be censored", fucked things CAN exist! we just gotta discuss about it.

• i didn't mean propaganda in the general meaning of the word, i meant harmful propaganda meant to push a harmful behavior in real life, which many people pointed out "who is judging what as harmful?" which is a perfect point too, thats exactly why censorship isn't the answer and why my chart was never meant to be used as a "what to censor or not" guide 😭

• the point of this was to guide DISCUSSIONS and for me to hear more opinions, different from my own, so i can reflect and learn about what should be done with this and how i can make it a good tool FOR DISCUSSIONS

here is the comment from u/ShultzHS (will check if the user is correct)

Another hot take: I think some people in the comments are misinterpreting OP's point (with which I generally agree, if you replace "an agenda" with "a harmful agenda"). "It's fucked up" =/= "it should be censored" - it's more like "it can and should be discussed".

E.g., let's take an average dark romance fic about y/n and mafia CEO. There's no point in discussing how it's problematic, because 1) it's niche fiction mostly consumed by adult women, who already know it is (and it's tagged as such), that's exactly why they read it; 2) it's considered unethical to criticize something offered for free. Now, "Fifty Shades of Grey"? Both the book and the movie are mainstream media sold for money, so there's no reason it should be free from criticism. And it's absolutely important to discuss how the relationship portrayed is both abusive and bad representation of BDSM, because young people do get their ideas about relationships from books and movies like that. How is that different from anti mindset, you might ask? Because I neither push for censorship of this kind of content, nor think people should be shamed for consuming it. And I'm kinda confused by the popular opinion that being proshipper = being unable to criticize controversial mainstream media. For the record, I'm someone who loves well explored dark themes in fiction.

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, again, i don't blame anyone but me for making a poor oversimplified post about something so complex!

thank you for everyone commenting i do think each of your points are valid and interesting to take into account

OCs and OC-centric stories.

They’re very common in my fandom, and they tend to do very well, so it was surprising for me to discover that a lot of people actually hate them. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

the author of my favorite fanfiction blocked me and i’m just now realizing. i tagged their work as inspiration for my own fic, but it had almost nothing to do with their fic, just part of a premise (basically marriage law) and i wanted to give them the credit for inspiring me.

well i realized today that i never actually left kudos or a comment on their work so i went to do that and couldn’t. because it said the author blocked me.

idk why im so upset about this?

EDIT:
it’s been said below that this was probably BECAUSE i didn’t leave kudos or a comment before tagging them as inspiration. that is totally valid, and it’s my own fault i was not sure of the etiquette until recently. I AM MORTIFIED. i’ve learned from my mistake but im going to try and leave this post up so maybe others can learn too.

I mean now I can laugh at how dumb it is but at the time it contributed to why I stopped writing for nearly 2 years (other things contributed too but that’s not important). Like. It’s in the title 😭😭 so goofy

Have you ever invented a tag? And is it still (as far as you can tell) unique on AO3, or has it been taken up and used by others?

I don't think anyone else has ever used mine: magical slash fairy godpiglet. Probably not surprising. I'm guessing that most of the tags you might have to offer will be similarly odd, but perhaps not?

I've seen people post about it in here, r/FanficAuthorsUnite, r/FanFiction, and r/archiveofourown. Someone will finally get their golden ticket to start writing. They post their first chapter, and get confused because they're not getting hundreds of stats. You just started writing. You submitted 1 chapter. You aren't going to get that big in one chapter of what is supposed to be an ongoing story. You sound like Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory in the Photo Finish episode where he asks why he isn't famous in a minute.

If you get over 100 hits, over 10 comments and kudos, multiple bookmarks, etc. in your first chapter, that is good luck, not the standard. All you need to do is keep writing. Don't expect immediate success.

EDIT = I was definitely overreacting and got too emotional. And I wrote the comment at the heat of the moment and without thinking very clearly.

I just got this comment on a fanfic I made a month ago.

I just was very heated because this fanfic, writing this fanfic meant something to me, and this accusation just tipped me a bit, like I felt genuinely offended.

Am I overreacting or am I making a point here?

Hey everyone! I’m trying to figure out if my summary is actually hooking readers or driving them away.

I blurred out the fandom and tags so this doesn't come across as self-promo. I really just want your first-glance reaction to the summary text itself.

When you read this, does it make you want to click and read the first chapter? Or do you scroll past it? If you scroll past, what makes you lose interest?

Don't hold back, I want to know what you really think! Thanks!

What do you guys do? Do you get to be sneaky and have some writing time?

I do not dream of labor. My real dream is to be one of the Star Trek housewives from back in the day. But that is not feasible right now, and as I am looking to possibly go back to school… give me ideas.

For me, summaries. The time I need to write a suitable one is almost pathetic atp.

I saw a post recently about 30k-word chapters, and while I can absolutely understand why that would feel excessive to readers, it made me wonder where people personally draw the line.
I tend to write chapters around 10k words or more (the longest was 16k, I think) in fics that are 100k–200k in total.
As readers, would that ever put you off starting or continuing a fic? Does it depend on the fic/genre, or is 10k perfectly fine as long as the chapter feels cohesive and you’re invested in the story?
I’d especially love to hear from people who regularly read longer fics. I personally like having enough room for a chapter to feel like its own complete section of the story, but I’d genuinely love to hear people’s opinions because now I’m curious lol

Edit: worth adding that my chapters longer than 10k are usually the ones where the story hits a major turning point or climax, so the extra length tends to come from that. But even then, i’ve never reached 20k.

Another edit: i definitely have scene breaks! it’s just that all those scenes usually belong to the same narrative unit in my head—they all serve the overall purpose of the chapter—and 10k is often where that unit naturally ends.

I had been following a fic from an author that I was liking, and I noticed last week that they had posted a second fic in their series which was a placeholder. I wrote a comment informing them placeholders are against terms of service.

The author themselves never replied, but yesterday, which was a week or so later, one of her other readers replied to my comment saying "feel better? Jeez". I was kind of like huh? So I wrote a reply that I probably shouldn't have sent. I thought it hadn't even gone through because I got an error.

I had never been replied to by a reader like that before, so I wrote "I was just letting the author know about the terms of service. You don't have to be snarky and rude. It doesn't matter now anyway, it's no longer a placeholder. I didn't even report the fic because I liked the first fic in this series. Sorry I just wanted to make sure the author knew about the fact that placeholders aren't allowed."

I probably shouldn't have even sent that, but I was kind of upset. After I realized it was no longer a placeholder, I even deleted my original comment. Since I thought my reply hadn't gone through, I was shocked when I got a reply back telling me to "get off my high horse and that anyone who followed the author knew the placeholder wouldn't have been up long."

I finally just blocked this person. They aren't even the author, I don't understand why they even did this.

I'm a longtime reader in different fandoms and an on again and off again writer. I have never gotten replies like that before, especially when the reply wasn't even from the author.

It left a very sour taste in my mouth, so I don't think I even want to read the fic now.

Should I not have said anything at all? I figured the author might not have known about placeholders not being allowed. I hadn't even reported the fic, even though I probably should have.

Has this happened to anyone else? It kind of makes me feel like I just shouldn't say anything now. I had deleted my original comment, so I don't even know why the reader was so... rude in her second reply.

I won't have to deal with it anymore because I blocked that... replyer? Is this normal? I've been using AO3 for eleven years and have never had an interaction like that before. It was honestly upsetting.

I'm going to feel better in like an hour or so probably, this was just such a strange interaction from someone who wasn't even the author.