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Also them the moment they step into ao3: “WTF IS THAT OHMYGOD THAT IS SO DISGUSTING IM REPORTING IT RIGHT NOW EVEN THOUGH ITS PROPERLY TAGGED BECAUSE IT DOESNT ALIGN WITH WHAT I LIKE OR MY PREFERENCES AND MORALS”

Ao3 users: “hey! Don’t report fics because of that, don’t like it don’t click it. That doesn’t align with my morals/preferences/likes either but this is an archive, it’s going to act like an archive.”

let’s say two ao3 users walk into a bar at the same time:

an anti might say “I only support no age gap fully consensual no kink vanilla fade to black sex scenes. everything else should be illegal.”

a pro-shipper might say “I believe in ship and let ship. your kink isn’t my kink and that’s okay. even depraved fic deserves legal protections”

#AO3 has no official app. All AO3 apps are from third parties – please be cautious about sharing your data with them. For information about why we don't have an app, and tips to make your AO3 experience more app-like, check out our latest news post: https://otw-news.org/yckzuv3v

I know a lot of people are going to be migrating to Ao3 from Wattpad soon. It is important to know that Ao3 was made by freaks and for freaks. This means you will never see: censorship, ads, or algorithms. You are responsible for what you see. Anything is allowed as long as it is properly tagged. This is a very basic guide about how to find what you want to see and how to be respectful of the freaks native to this website

Chapter 1: Creating an Account

There is no “create account” button. Instead, you will click this “get invited” button

It may take a few days to get your invitation. Everyone had to get one. But don’t worry, you can still access most of the features as a guest!

Chapter 2: Searching for a Fic

Ao3 will never recommend a fic to you, so you're on your own to find what you want. I have circlex the most important button on the search page

🩷 this is your new best friend. It will open a menu that lets you exclude any warnings, characters, ships, or tags that you do not want to see. You can also include tags, and it will only show you fics that have every tag you included

Chapter 3: The Top of a Fic

❤️this is how you save a fic that you want to reread

🧡this is how you save a fic to read later

💚this will give you notifications when a new chapter is added

💜this is the description. It tells you everything you need to know before going in. This fic is rated “explicit” which means there is at least one open-door sex scene or detailed descriptions of mature subject matter. No warnings apply, so it will not include depictions of SA, CSA, graphic violence, or death. If an author chooses not to use archive warnings, this means that a warning could apply, but the author doesn’t want to spoil the story. There is a difference.

Chapter 4: The Bottom of a Fic

❤️the bookmark button does the same thing it did at the top of the fic

🩷press this button to indicate you read the fic

💛press this button to indicate you liked the fic. You can comment on chapters, but not on individual lines. Even a single heart emoji is greatly appreciated. Do not criticize the fic unless the author explicitly asked for advice or they failed to tag something properly

💜this is the dislike button. It may look different depending on your device/browser. It may be at the top or bottom of the screen, but it will usually look like an arrow pointing to your left

Chapter 5: Downloading the App

Can’t believe I’m hyping the US on this one, but at least our laws easily distinguish this. It’s not possible to “exploit” a character because they’re not real.

Read the ToS and stop checking the “I agree” button for it if you actually don’t. Y’all are hitting “I agree” without bothering to read what you’re agreeing to, and then trying to enact your own rules that go against the actual ToS.