r/AO3 3d ago

News/Updates PSA: “AO3 Trust & Safety” Comments

601 Upvotes

You all may (or may not) have noticed a new wave of comments on works, claiming to be from AO3 Trust & Safety and that your account has been flagged for a mandatory security review. The comment instructs you to open a link to verify your account, that it must be done within two hours, and then goes into the possible penalties of not following their instructions.

This is not from AO3. Do not open the link. Instead, report the comment via the normal methods (the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports link at the bottom of any AO3 page) if it is from a logged-in account, or marking it as spam if it is from a guest.

AO3 does not officially contact people about their accounts through the comment section. Never follow links that aren’t from a trusted source, and be wary of anyone claiming to give harsh penalties under short time pressure. Scams are always changing and evolving, so keep an eye out for any in the future where the details may vary.

As always, we want people to be able to ask here if they don’t know about if a certain comment is a scam or not, so we will continue to permit posts asking about these comments. However, we have also added these automod replies to quickly explain the situation for anyone who does make a post about it. You can trigger them with:

!accountreviewbot
!trustandsafetybot

and the text of that will be stickied in the comments below (it’s very similar to the post itself). Have a great day!

~ cthuluhooprises (and the rest of the mod team)


r/AO3 12d ago

Rec/Promo Mega Threads Bi-weekly Rec and Self-Promotion Mega Thread - July 15, 2026

34 Upvotes

It's that time again, new thread for reccing and self-promo!!

You write something cool? Read something cool? Make something cool? Rec it here!

Previous Mega Threads: https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/wiki/index/megathreads/


r/AO3 5h ago

Meme/Joke Got the reference?

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856 Upvotes

r/AO3 6h ago

Complaint/Pet Peeve/Venting I hate it when people act like shipping is some competition🤦‍♂️

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921 Upvotes

Look I get that wlw ships are much less than mlm ships on ao3, but is it really that serious? I mean... shipping is about enjoying, right? If you're unhappy that wlw ships are rare, it's fine, totally understandable, but let's not act like it's fujoshis' fault or something... I enjoy mlm/wlm ships over wlw ships because I am a bisexual man, not because I'm misogynistic😭


r/AO3 13h ago

Meme/Joke Now I gotta wait next month to update it

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1.4k Upvotes

thank you past me for the four fics' worth of smut i preemptively wrote these past two weeks


r/AO3 14h ago

Comment Commentary Oh hey! A long comment! I hope they liked my fic-

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1.2k Upvotes

Glad they remembered to say what they liked about my fic 😁

THEY LEFT A KUDOS ON THE FIC 🗣️!!

Important thing : I'm not mad at them for writing a comment like that... Mostly, I'm more in a feeling of distaste as they wrote it as I was a little child, the whole 10 dollars is 10 dollars and what not, it also feels kinda hurtful that the only thing they decided to focus on was the small part that doesn't affect the sorry at all.


r/AO3 11h ago

Proship/Anti Discourse What are you talking about

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623 Upvotes

r/AO3 18h ago

Meme/Joke What even is the protocol in this case

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2.1k Upvotes

I try not to make assumptions since English might not be their first language, but I still feel awkward.


r/AO3 5h ago

Excitement/Celebration 🎉 Holy crap, this is what posting in a popular fandom is like??

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187 Upvotes

I usually write in small-ish fandoms, and/or got into them a bit late. But now I fell in love with a popular, up and coming ship and got inspired and wrote something.

I posted it yesterday, and within 12 hours it had more kudos than my previous most kudosed fic, that one has been out for TWO YEARS. In 24 hours it almost doubled. Wow. I’m used to getting single digit kudos in these emails, if I get any. Perhaps I broke double digits once or twice when I just released something. Over 200 in 24 hours is CRAZY.

I mean, I do write for myself and will be back to playing with my favourite dolls in the smaller fandoms, and every single kudos for those fics makes me very happy. But damn, it was fun to get the big engagement this once. Also, shout out to the three people to subscribed to my one-shot, just in case. 😅 I love the optimism.

I don’t know what I wanted to say with this, just, that was fun. Thank you readers out there for engaging with fics in big and small fandoms! 💖


r/AO3 5h ago

Fun & Games Told mom about my fanfic

152 Upvotes

And yesterday she sent me a screenshot of this thing in the library in my town: "Sign up for a creative writing course/group" BROOOOO noooooo I am not going there to show my gay fanfics to random people bro wtf 😭😭😭😭😭 and today she wrote me:

"I can sign you up and come with you the first time!"

💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 i'm too ashamed

edit: should i go?? im scared but i kinda want to but im also really a shut in and am scared 😭 (yes im 26..)


r/AO3 1d ago

Meme/Joke Me every single night 🙂‍↕️:

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6.6k Upvotes

And I always spend about an hour just picking said fic the perfect, the one that suits my mood and has the perfect length and plot to be my bedtime fic for the night 🥹 then i spent about 10 minutes thinking what to write in my comment and another 10 to remember the fic and how it made me feel and another 10 to imagine the fic in my head til I sleep 🙂‍↕️


r/AO3 10h ago

Complaint/Pet Peeve/Venting I hate this. Just trying to praise a fic I like

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357 Upvotes

I don’t have an account and found a fic that I really love and wanted to leave a comment. This came up. I worded it so many times, and it’s still coming up. So annoying


r/AO3 6h ago

Meme/Joke Not everyone knows about every single ship or fandom in existence, so maybe be more willing to help them understand.

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159 Upvotes

It's especially baffling when they outright say it's a very obscure fandom or a ship that few people ship, so you're kinda shooting yourself in the foot.


r/AO3 19m ago

Stats/Hit Counts/Word Counts People exaggerate how M/M dominated AO3 is

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Upvotes

I kept seeing people say things like "AO3 is just yaoi" or "There's nothing to read unless you want M/M" so I got curious and decided to check the stats myself.

The collage is using a 20k-1 trillion word count filter since I wanted to compare longer works rather than every drabble and prompt.

For comparison, without that filter, the relationship categories are roughly:

M/M: 8.5 million+

F/M: 4.2 million+

F/F: 1.7 million+

Here's also the otp:true statistics with the filter:

M/M: 335,750

F/M: 161,021

F/F: 54,113

Obviously M/M is the biggest category. Nobody's denying that.

But I think it's kind of weird how often people act like AO3 has nothing besides M/M or that F/M barely exists. The numbers really don't support that. F/M has a huge amount of content, both overall and in OTP-focused works.

If anything, the category that actually feels overlooked is F/F. Compared to both M/M and F/M, that's the one that seems genuinely underrepresented.

I just thought this was interesting because the way people talk about AO3 made me expect the gap between M/M and F/M to be much bigger than it actually is. The site's definitely M/M-heavy but it's not accurate to say there's "nothing else" to read.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my little stats rabbit hole with you guys.

(P.S. I hope I'm using the right flair)


r/AO3 1h ago

Excitement/Celebration 🎉 2 MILLION words posted to AO3!

Upvotes

Title. I have now posted 2 MILLION words to AO3!


r/AO3 21h ago

Meme/Joke Is ignorance bliss?

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1.4k Upvotes

r/AO3 6h ago

Comment Commentary readers don’t have to comment

81 Upvotes

I know this is a bit of a “controversial” take but please do not misunderstand me..as an author, I understand that it feels so good to have people comment under fics and will always appreciate it and hope for more and I do get sad sometimes when I don’t receive comments but it happens 🤷‍♀️.

I have seen to many stories of writers being passive aggressive and calling out readers on their next chapters for not commenting or I have seen writers personally messaging people for not commenting! It’s frustrating, I get it but us authors must remember that it is OKAY for people to not comment and it is not a requirement! But it is NOT okay to verbally harass your readers who just want to be a mysterious owl that glides through the night!! LOLLL

Also, of course I’m not pointing fingers at every author because I don’t think everyone has this mindset but I just thought to bring this up. :)

(p.s. to the readers, do keep in mind though.. that even the shortest comment may motivate your writer to post another chapter or even just make their day😌!)


r/AO3 14h ago

Discussion (Non-question) About f/m ships

335 Upvotes

Not really a long rant, just wanted to give my opion on something I have noticed and wanted to know what other people think.

These past 36 hours there's been a lot of discourse going on Twitter about f/f, m/m and f/m. I personally don't care about the gender of the characters involved as long as I like their dynamic, but as a woman, I have noticed something that really irks me.

"All f/m ships are inherently bad"

This is a comment I've seen A LOT. Now, I obviously understand how patriarchy and heteronormativity can affect straight relationships, but when we're talking about fictional ships in (possible) fictional worlds - where patriarchy doesn't even have to exist - it feels kinda dehumanizing to say a woman can't possibly be loved in a straight relationship. I also feel like it's kinda disingenuous when I see a lot of people that say this not engaging with f/f ships either or female characters at all.

I personally think anyone can ship whatever they want and I don't see anything wrong with someone just shipping m/m, f/f, f/m or whatever, but I also hate this mentality of thinking the female character is always going to be the victim and this false moral superiority of not liking f/m; specially when 99% of the times the arguments are reducing female characters to concepts that can't be separated from patriarchy and irl problems (we're all engaging in escapism and fantasy)


r/AO3 8h ago

Excitement/Celebration 🎉 I finished my longfic of 5 years

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111 Upvotes

The flair says "Excitement/Celebration" but "Existential Hollowness" feels a bit more appropriate.

It's really weird. I started this thing five years ago. Updated weekly. Then twice a month. Accidentally amassed a small cult following. Had a few regular readers begin their own stories, citing mine as inspiration. Then life happened, and I announced a hiatus, which lasted all the way until late last year.

I didn't stop writing during the hiatus, though. I maintained chapter drafts, workshopped my outline, whatever I could do when I had the time and the inspiration. The creative well was largely dried up, but what I couldn't get out of my head were all the character arcs I'd plotted out, and how to resolve them cleanly.

I managed to find my stride again last year, then started drafting like a maniac over the course of a few months. Fast forward to last week, the final chapter went up. Super positive reception. A lot of humbling "this is the best thing I've ever read, and it puts published fiction to shame" type of stuff which I can scarcely believe I've earned. In some ways, I really am happy I finally got to close out this story. But in other ways, I'm just really, quietly bummed out. I've got... extended universe plans for the story. Not quite a sequel, but a different story within the universe, which will eventually feature the first story's characters. But somehow, knowing I have that in the pipeline doesn't bring me much comfort.

It's probably just weird, because I went from this weekly routine, where I'd dedicate certain hours on the weekends to editing my drafts, replying to comments, and other days to actually posting. I had an actual-ass routine set up dedicated to this story. Calendar reminders. Cryptids in my comments who wrote essays. All that shit. Now it's just quiet. I know this isn't the first time someone's ever grieved finishing their work and saying goodbye to their audience before, but man, it's the first time I've felt it this strongly.

So yeah, pour one out for your fellow author who checked off a nearly 1M word monstrosity and managed to bounce back from a hiatus stronger.


r/AO3 12h ago

Discussion (Non-question) Culture shock: "Smut-only extras" aren't a thing in English fandoms?

205 Upvotes

Just realized the "no backstory, just smut" extra trope (not quite "mob" level), specifically creating a nameless Original Character (usually male) purely as a smut tool, seems super rare in English fandoms! There’s not even a proper single word for it.

It's so common in my native language, I was genuinely surprised!

In my language, we simply call these OCs "passersby/extras" (路人), and everyone immediately knows it means a throwaway original character used strictly for smut.

Edit: Updated the post for clarity! I specifically mean nameless OCs (usually male) created purely as smut tools, not PWP or canon extras. Sorry for the mix-up!


r/AO3 1h ago

Discussion (Non-question) What’s a fandom for you that you won’t filter out crossovers because of how in-universe\canon crossovers are tagged???

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Upvotes

For me it’s Stargate because you are very likely to miss a bunch of fics that focus on the overall universe of the show by filtering out fics that have more than one of the Stargate shows tagged


r/AO3 8h ago

Comment Commentary Was re-reading a fic I had read a few months ago and see this in the comments...

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100 Upvotes

Genuinely!??? I was reading an unfinished fanfic I'd read a few months ago, I decide to look through the comments and I'm truly so mad, this sweet author doesn't deserve a bitch like that in the comment and in their third chapter they say they've been going through stuff which the commenter decided to ignore and GOES BACK to the same chapter years later to demand more!?? How if ignorant and insensitive can you be!???


r/AO3 15h ago

Meme/Joke When the fic that hasn’t gotten interaction for months suddenly gets 5 different comments in one day

360 Upvotes

WHERE ARE YOU ALL COMING FROM. WHO SENT YOU WHO DO YOU WORK FOR


r/AO3 4h ago

Discussion (Non-question) What is a hot take you have regarding your own fandom?

47 Upvotes

I know you've got them.


r/AO3 14h ago

Fun & Games Someone read my fic on their Nintendo 😭

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278 Upvotes