Burma would have been so nice

adding the ability to search, filter, and sort bookmarks by word count

making sure bookmark search results are correct when you use tags containing letters and numbers

preventing series blurbs from listing tags that were only used on draft works

preventing series blurbs from listing tags used on restricted works for guests

updating series bookmark search so it only searches the tags on works you can access

So, there's this fic author you found. They write for your fandoms, they respond to comments, and they've written some of your favorite types of fics.

The problem is, they also write things you're not comfortable with. I'm talking incest, child characters being aged up to be shipped with other characters, etc. I don't know if I should keep reading their fics, because on one hand they write some great fics and I'm all for creative freedom, but on the other hand...yeah.

Should I stop reading all their fics?

This is like saying “should I stay friends with this person because I found out they like slasher movies and slasher movies are bad because violence and gore and murders are bad!!!!”

Honestly do whatever you want. But you can’t “police” how other people create their art, or what type of art they create, that’s not your business. Also fiction and dark fics aren’t a reflection of the artist’s moral compass.

Also this sorts of censorship and “writing fanfiction about taboo things makes you a bad person irl” mindset are lowkey fascist beliefs. So I think it’s a good thing that a talented and skilled writer isn’t, you know, a fascist.

Also also, AO3 (assuming the fic is on AO3) is literally a site for freaks lol. Giving a platform to dark fics about rape, incest and other fucked up things is literally the main reason the site was created in the first place. Because these types of fics were banned on other platforms, people came together and created a new site that was safe for all taboo fics. And surprise, that site is AO3.

So anon, if you don’t like dark fics, if you have a problem with it and have to check if an author is “pure enough”, then maybe AO3, a site created mainly for taboo fics, may not be a place for you, with all due respect.

I love writing and reading non-con, and I was never raped before. (most of my fics are about my favorite fictional characters getting raped.) I also write about murders and cannibalism, but I was never murdered or cannibalized before, nor have I ever actually consumed human’s flesh.

I don't mean co-writing either. I mean having a friend or two who you talk through plot ideas with, who you bounce ideas off of, who you trust to tell you if something doesn't work.

Because it was trained on pirated work—including freely accessible online writing (like fanfic, academic texts)—ChatGPT picked up patterns and quirks native to human writing.

Including (sigh) the em dash.

There are other victims here (RIP tapestry and delve 🫠), but the appropriation of the em dash—a punctuation mark beloved by writers everywhere—feels especially personal.

A kind of low-grade panic is ensuing. Writers who once memed their own em dash overuse—the greatest punctuation mark ever to grace the control-freak’s lexicon, frankly—are suddenly backing away to avoid accusations.

No. More. We have centuries of dash-abusing writers behind us. We will not sit quietly while AI repurposes our beloved stilted aside—or the just-one-more clarification the sentence demands—or the dramatic pause your comma could never—etc.

You don’t write like AI—AI writes like you.

Defend the em dash.

(Feel free to download/share/stick it where it matters!)

Also the irony of someone posting a "How to tell a fic is AI" post and then the number one thing they tell you "I don't know why people deny it, it's literally free to copy paste in a AI-detector". Do you see what the problem is. Not only are you accusing writers of using AI because they're... *check notes* writing the way humans do, you're actively feeding their work into AI so that AI can copy their style.

This is why the "it's not that x, it's that y" structure is being shouted as an AI tell. Because people feed others' works into AI and AI copies it. Because people use this structure, AI uses it too. Not the other way around. And it's because of people posting these "unmistakable AI tells" that I, who spent 3 months writing a 40+k fic, had nightmares several nights in a row because I remembered I had that structure in the second chapter of my fic and worried that people would think I used AI. I spent days wondering if I should change it before choosing not to, because I am not going to change the way I write for people who'd sooner discourage anyone from ever writing than encourage the authors they like.

You cannot tell when a fic is written by AI. No you can't even guess. Maybe what you read was the first fic written by a ten y/o who doesn't fully speak English yet and just wanted to have fun writing a story they just came up with. Maybe what you read was someone who just wanted to have fun. If you think a fic is AI? Click the back button, block/mute the author. You do not have the right to accuse an author of using AI, no matter how many "tells" they check.

Anyway in those trying times, I beg of you. Support your local fic writers. Between bots and these "AI finders", it's terrifying to post, knowing that someone will probably feed your work into AI to then accuse you of using the slop machine just so they can feel good about themselves. Now more than ever, fandom needs human interaction so please, whether it be a "Second kudos", a ❤️ or a "I liked this", if you have two seconds after reading a fic 🥹