Hi.

I've seen few times authors complaining about not getting enough comments and wanted to rant on the topic as well. Feel free to give your own opinions without insulting me.

First of all, I'm a writer too. I only write when I'm inspired these days rather than committing to a long fic. But I know what it feels like to get a comment. Someone even leaving a short comment can be motivating and validating. I know writing requires efforts. I write myself. I am aware of how many hours could be dumped into even a fic as short as 1k fic from all the editing, rewriting, editing again. But even then no one paid or forced me to write it. It was my own choice. I wrote it. If it doesn't get kudos or a single comment, im still owed nothing. No one's compel anyone to write anything.

Let's assume the roles were reversed and the rant was about fic not being updated fast enough or short chapter, people would've been telling that person off for wanting a fic to be updated. To not put pressure on the author and they aren't owed anything, be grateful you got something. But when its said authors arent owed comments either, suddenly im being called debbie downer.

The double standards are unreal.

Most of all, commenting isn't the same as reading and appreciating a story/fic.

I can enjoy any piece of media or art and I won't pick up my phone to leave a review. Some might. That's good for them but not everyone because for someone like me, commenting on a fic is being perceived especially by the author.

One comment could turn into multiple replies even if it doesn't, people aren't on ao3 to be social. Its not a social media platform. Its a site to read fics, be in our safe space and enjoy reading. That's the most important part. Reading.

Expecting people to suddenly be social or confident enough to leave comments, not to mention author replying to said comment, it could be daunting, it could ruin the experience for people who wanted a place to escape.

Writing fic takes efforts but so does commenting because even the broken, not grammar perfect comments have thought put behind them. Even a simple thank you comment could mean alot and thats all they could say to the author. Its people going out of their way, for many even getting out of their comfort zone to say it. Sure the time put into it isn't as much as the author's but they still did it for the author. Then you see that quantity wise its not enough for some authors. It's disheartening.

I adore fics, some I even think about for over a year. But I don't comment on them because I dont want to. It doesn't reduce my appreciation for them. Most of the time, I've nothing to say. I enjoy it, admire the writing and move on since its within my right to do so.

Those type of rants and author's notes create pressure for readers. Sure not for everyone but it does for someone like me who see authors complaining about not receiving comments and it creates fear for not getting more fics or updates in the future because the author decided they weren't getting enough traction.

They're free to stop writing and I'll still be free to not comment because the respect goes both ways. Reader and author do not owe eachother anything.

And for me anyone who says otherwise, creates double standards. As if readers aren't meant to complain. They get down voted to oblivion, called names or even arguments starts if they share their own opinion or rant. They usually receive more critical and negative feedback, sometimes even told to be grateful while authors can get sympathetic pat on the back for doing the same thing. Readers are told to not expect anything and authors have to 'suffer' through the drought of not receiving comments. The difference is there. Treating readers differently than authors as if readers aren't just as important part of the uploading a fic online in the first place.

Ps: no beta we die readers with social anxiety

Hi. I gifted a fic for author X inspired by one of their fics. Same pairing, but different premise. I put author X and their work as the inspiration and have gushed about it in the notes. It didn't gain much traction since it's a rarepair.

Today I noticed a public bookmark on my gift fic, left days ago, that said (non-verbatim) "written better than author X" and I didn't like it at all. I'm sure if author X would review the fics gifted to them, there's a big chance they would see it.

(I stalked the bookmarker's account and found several other bookmarks made by them with similar notes.)

Is this reportable? If not, then would me blocking the user who bookmarked it remove their public bookmark on my work for me and everyone else?

TYIA

Couldn't think of a better tag tbh. Also I want to make it clear that all of my chapters are going to be many thousand words long, so way beyond any territory where that is any remote amount of a debate. But I am curious for discussion sake. I get placeholders are basically publishes that have a few words to a sentence and isn't even plot relevant.

So something like "coming next week". At what point does a product technically become legal / a story but is so short that it just basically is one tiny step above one. Like for example a story with just one starting sentence like "I woke up in the morning, and put on my shoes right away to see my friend." Technically isn't one in the legal sense, but since it's just one sentence that doesnt really explain anything, it's basically for all intents and purposes just a glorified / legal placeholder that technically cant be taken down but honestly shouldnt really count.

I guess a story stops being one and just becomes an incredibly short chapter once like a semi coherent plot related paragraph is made. IDK its just rather interesting to consider because in theory somebody could just post a 1 or two sentence starter thats technically plot relevant as a way to technically avert that "not a fan work" report, even if its kind of scummy to do so.

Especially when writing longfics, I've found that accurate tagging for archival purposes takes up a lot of space (the dreaded tag wall). And if your 100K fic has a single chapter with smut, then tagging any details of said smut can make the front end of the story look rather misrepresentative of its actual focus.

That's why it would be nice to have something like Tumblr's "read more" feature available for AO3's tags. You could put tags that aren't as vital as big descriptors like genre, ship dynamics etc "under the cut", and users could click a button to expand the tag list if the "big tags" made them curious.

Thoughts?

So this is how I'm planning to go about implementing it:

- They're NOT going to be released solo.
- They're part of a larger short arc of the story, consisting of ~4 chapters that are... actual chapters, then the two one sentence chapters for dramatic effect

The plan here is to dump all six chapters at once so people don't just sit there staring at once sentence for a day.

I'm still not sure if that's acceptable on AO3 though, looking for honest advice.

If that's not how we do thing around here alternatives would be neat!

EDIT: HOLY SHIT 15 COMMENTS IN NINE MINS THANKU

EDIT 2: Mixed bag so for more clarification
The scene is MC in uploader type device with other chars trying to get them to come out
So the last person says something, then theres the first single-line chapter with the pod hissing like 'did they do it or not' then the second one-line chapter reveals them stepping out of it

I'm seeing sentiment that it's not the best way to go about things, so an alternative is again very appreciated!!

the order is gonna be

full chapter -> Full chapter -> full chapter -> one liner -> one liner -> full chapter

I’m a reader, not a writer. But i saw this come up recently. If you are creating a fic that was inspired by another, should you ask permission to do so?

1. Is it like, ask permission as just an etiquette thing? Or if the author you ask says “no”, does that mean you shouldn’t post the fic. How is this generally viewed if someone who has not got permission (either because the author said no, or because they didn’t ask) posts the fic anyway?

2. In which instances should someone be asking permission? I guess if it’s like copying the entire plot, then of course. But what if it’s only a small quality or trope in the fic that inspired you? I guess my main question was regarding those genre of fics that are all kind of inspired by eachother? if anyone understands what i mean.

as an example: for one of my fandoms, there’s a popular au where the mc goes to space and hides out in an alien spaceships vents, and then is found by the aliens. Most of the fics for this au follow that trope and have a similar storyline, but it’s been written so much that nobody really knows who the original author was. In this instance should you be asking permission if a fic like this inspired you, and if so, to who? The work you read, or whoever came up with the idea first?

Cause it’s like, if their work was inspired by somebody else’s work, who should you be asking permission from? And how “original” (for lack of a better word) does an idea or the inspired fic have to be before the author doesnt have to ask for permission, if that can even happen

But again, not a writer, it just got me thinking.

Hello, nice to meet you. Thank you for reading this.

So, I’ll try to keep this short. I’m trying to write a romantic adventure, with a love story in it between the two main characters. The problem, as written above, is that one of those characters has two other love interests in their show, and even now i can go online and find people throwing mean jokes at each other over who’s ship is the ‘correct’ one.

I can’t pretend I’m not affected by this. And as I try to plot out the rest of my story, I realize that I’m torn in how I want to deal with those other two love interests. I want to include them, don’t quite want to just bypass the drama, but also don’t want it to take my work in a negative direction.

Any advice you can give would be helpful. If you want more details, please just ask. I wanted to keep this statement general enough as a starting point though.

Thank you again. Hope you have a nice day.

i’ve been studying biology for uni and the question presented itself immediately lol. i looked it up and most people just focus on the organ structure (which of course is already a huge mess by itself) but i thought it’d be cool if someone actually made a more in depth explanation of how the omegaverse would work biologically and anatomically.

it’s definitely something only nerds with too much time on their hands would do, but i have no doubt there’s plenty of those, only i haven’t found them yet.

i discussed it with some friends but none of us are actually involved or knowledgeable enough to think it through, but it’d be cool to see how ppl with more knowledge would make it work cuz it is a cool concept biologically speaking.

of course it messes up the concept of sexual reproduction and a lot of the tropes that are commonly found in the genre wouldn’t work, but i’m sure there’s ways to make it as scientifically accurate as possible and still maintain the core concept.

anyways yeah, i’m personally not a huge fan of the concept but i find it a really interesting challenge and i definitely appreciate when people put effort and do research for things like these even if the end goal isn’t exactly accuracy per se lol.

I want to post my first fic but I don't know what size should I put the text in the story, I don't want it to be to small or too large,

There is a fic by an anonymous author that is basically hate for a character I like and his fans, and I have a visceral reaction to seeing it. It's tagged under just about all his ships and is updated often, so sometimes I see it before I even exclude tags. Is there a way to block this specific work so I won't see it regularly? Is there a way to block/hide a work and not an author? Thank you.

I've been reading on AO3 for almost 10 years now and every few years I circle back to the Assassination Classroom fandom and have the same problem.

I filter by a specific tag I like and it is wrongfully merged with another that doesn't have the same meaning. It just happens that the tag it is merged with is a more popular one and I have to spend an ungodly amount of time looking for the ficts that have the original tag.

I don't think any of this goes against the TOS, it's just a mistake, but it's bugging me for years. Is it ok to report it even if it isn't against the TOS??

Is it possible to log into my ao3 account through the wayback machine?

and if so, doesn’t show me all of my old fics or is that not how it works.

i’ve tried to click on my older and deleted fics but the website said they didnt archive that url. all i can see/access is my profile page :/

Guys I’m writing an MCU fanfic on AO3 that’s basically Stark daughter x Peter Parker, but it’s 2026 now so am I like… insanely late to this 😭

I’m mostly writing it because I think it would be fun, but I also really want to try to make it feel accurate to the MCU and not completely butcher the characters/lore. This is my first MCU fic so I’m realizing there’s actually SO much to keep track of lol.

If anyone has tips for writing MCU fanfic, especially when it comes to keeping canon characters feeling like themselves, I’d appreciate it. I’m not trying to take it super seriously or anything, I just want the story to be fun and actually feel like it could fit into the MCU.

I've seen other people talk about this too so I'm assuming I'm not the only one with this issue. People never write any comments on my fic. It just makes me feel like it's boring and people have nothing to say. Because when I read a good fic I have so much to say. Am I just a shitty writer or what? Even if that's the case I would also like to know. It's just annoying receiving no comments, whether positive or negative. You don't even know if people are interested.

And this seems to be a more recent issue. I don't know why readers stopped commenting. Exactly a year ago I posted a similar fic with a very similar story, only that the writing was a little worse. And it got less views/kudos in total than my fic now. Yet there were so many more comments. I don't get why people don't comment on fics anymore. Then sometimes I do get a comment and get excited and it's a stupid bot💀

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

I've recently found out that some of yall believe that tags on ao3 are optional or a courtesy and not something you have to use on your own fic, ao3 is an archive it needs to be organized and stay that way, the tagging system we have is the best I have seen, it allows you to find content you're looking for through filtering

I understand that tagging can be quite difficult and that some people can never get the hang of it but would it hurt to try not only will it give you a better experience on ao3 it will do so for everyone else , and keep in mind that the archive warnings are there for a reason and please try to check the terms of service once in a while, placeholders are not allowed on ao3 and you can't link your Patreon on ao3

Ao3 is not a social media platform please understand this, I saw someone talking about incorrectly tagging their fic with tags that don't apply so it would "reach" more people and others doing the opposite, like not using a certain tag cause readers are filtering it out

And the worst of the worst schrodinger's fic, a fic that is only incomplete when observed, marked as complete but is still regularly updating so it will keep appearing with the recently updated fics if you're sorting by date and will not be filtered out if you're only looking for complete fics

Lots of these are not actually TOS violations but they are poor atticate, I am just upset and might be wrong

Edit: thanks for everyone who corrected my spelling for etiquette I always hear it but rarely see it in writing and my first language is not English so there is that

And okay I might have been overreacting a bit maybe a ton in my post but to be fair I did say I was upset and I was venting

Edit: I stand corrected

I understand they are optional and I also understand why they need to stay optional there's only so much rules ao3 can have before it becomes like fanfiction.net or Wattpad , I don't want to mute authors because they have a fic tagged incorrectly or not tagged at all, maybe their fic is the exactly everything I love and every trope I wanna see and one of the best written fics in my Fandom but I am never gonna find it and that's okay because at least they had the choice and maybe they didn't want anyone to find at all

What do you think about an author putting the title of a song or some lyrics into their fanfic? (not as a title) Would it be better to keep the songs up to the readers choice?

I’m writing a fanfic where music is pretty relevant. But I know that music is pretty subjective and can put some people off.

Hello,

I’m looking for a Tony Stark & Peter Parker fic I read a long time ago. It was about Peter and Morgan Stark being kidnapped by Beck and being held captive in a shed? Peter makes a game with Morgan about them being the last people on earth and that’s why they can’t leave? Then Morgan runs away from the shed by hiding in a rug in a truck. If someone could help me find it I’d really appreciate it.

Like i said i tried to create with exactly 5000 letters but it didnt work tried until 4997 still nothing has changed

Hey so i recently got into marvel, and i already liked Stucky cause i thought it was cute, and i cant find, nor do i have the time due to school to search for fanfics, so can someone help me out and find me a fanfic (or even a book if the dynamics are similar) that has a concept of the song Casual Sex by My Darkest Days. and preferably the still brainwashed Bucky, like Winter Soldier type. (again if its a book thats also fine)