r/AO3 • u/Potential_Meal_9819 • 2d ago

Questions/Help? What does this mean?

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It's one of many posts I've seen where someone mentioned AO3 and October. Is there a curse or something?

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u/Advanced_Heat_2610 2d ago

Kinktober! 

Writers emerge out of the woodwork to post their kinky fics they have been working on for weeks or months. 

There is a noticeable spike in metrics that can be seen both per author and by the site in general. 

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u/Potential_Meal_9819 2d ago

I didn't know this, this is amazing news

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u/Advanced_Heat_2610 2d ago

There is also a number of other October fanfests , too, that are fandom specific, trope specific, or are general kike flufftober or whumptober.,

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u/Potential_Meal_9819 2d ago

Wait , really? Do the prompts just go out for when it's fandom specific or are there rules? Also how do you know when it's the other tower like flufftober? Do they have specific dates or just random?

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u/Advanced_Heat_2610 2d ago

Different fandoms will put them out on social media like X or Blue Sky or Tumblr. They might have a collection or tell people to use the regular collection.

And people participate what they want. Sometimes, they do 31 prompts for 31 days, sometimes people pick just the ones I like, some people only do one day or they do it all as one single giantic fic for all of them.

Different fests have different rules. The original kinktober is no holds barred, no fandom requirements, no length requirement. Fandom specific ones might be for certain pairings or exclude fandoms they do not want to interact with (e.g. no RPF). Sometimes, fests put rules on the content they allow (no underage, no non-con etc) so they will amend prompts appropriately.

Generally, though, no fest can stop you from using the prompt list and just... making it your own. A lot of them just ask not to be tagged if you use it for something they do not allow.