~ what to watch uhhh what to watch ~

This may seem like an exaggeration, the idea that one can learn how to properly think like a criminal by learning how crime stories work. On a personal note, let me tell a story from the Leverage writer’s room.

Apollo Robbins (http://www.istealstuff.com/) runs a crew of professional thieves who consult for law enforcement. He was also our criminal consultant on Leverage. Every few weeks he would visit the writer’s room to advise on the scripts and keep us up to date about new cons and the latest in criminal technology.

One day during the third season he sat in with the writers while we broke a story. We posted the details of a real-life white collar criminal up on the room’s whiteboard, using him as the basis for our Mark. We looked at his weaknesses, how he moved his money, what his hobbies were. Once we were happy with that element of the story we added a Vault to the mix, one that used an interesting new alarm technology we’d researched. We then spent about an hour figuring out how to circumvent that alarm. We even sketched out a map of the imaginary building so we could keep track of our Crew’s movements during the Job.

“Well, I’m done here,” Apollo muttered. Noting our confusion, he pointed at the board and index cards cluttering the wall. “This is exactly how real Crews plan these things. This writer’s room is now a fully functioning criminal gang. You could be thieves.”

Of course writing television pays better than crime (usually), with far less chance of being arrested (usually), so we all managed to resist the temptation. But aside from the day a US Attorney asked us to change a plot because we’d created a scam that was a little too foolproof, or when a Homeland Security Agent admitted they were spooked by a security hole we’d exploited in our season finale, it was certainly one of the proudest moments I had on the show.

WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW TO SPOT THEM

okay, I thought I should make this post since there has been an influx of scammers plaguing AO3 comments section and people are falling victims to them. so here it is;

WHAT THEY ARE

so far, there are three main types of these scam bots

bots that tell you AO3 is deleting works, and that you should delete the works yourself because your entire account will be affected if your works get deleted by AO3

bots that tell you your works are terrible

bots that tell you they want to draw comic panels from your works

ALL OF THESE ARE SCAM WITH MALICE INTENTIONS

bots that tell you AO3 is deleting works, and that you should delete the works yourself because your entire account will be affected if your works get deleted by AO3 are just trying to get you to delete your works, most certainly because they want to steal and/or use your works to train their AI and, once you delete your works, it becomes extremely difficult, almost impossible for you to claim ownership of your works when the original works have been deleted. AO3 IS NOT DELETING ANY WORKS.

bots that tell you your works are terrible are also just trying to get you to delete your works, most certainly because they want to steal and/or use your works to train their AI and, once you delete your works, it becomes extremely difficult, almost impossible for you to claim ownership of your works when the original works have been deleted. (another example here)

bots that tell you they want to draw comic panels from your works are trying to hack your password, personal data and credit card information (they will say they see potentials in your work and are interested in drawing comic panels from it, and then they will ask you to discuss this with them on discord where you will have to pay/commission them for the “comics” you will never get, but you will get your password hacked, personal data and credit card information breached and stolen instead, do not fall for them).

HOW TO SPOT THEM

what all these 3 types of bots have in common is that;

most of them (keyword, most, not all) are guest users or empty accounts that have just been recently created.

their comments are all the same copied and pasted scripts that they mass leave on lots of authors’ works at random.

their comments are all vague, in the sense that there will be no mention of any specific characters’ names, no mention of any specific scenes or events from your works (granted, they need to be vague because they are bots, they never actually read your works, and they have to be able to use the same comments on other writers’ works too).

EDIT: I’ve been told they got “smarter” and are now mentioning characters by names and also specific scenes from the story. Most definitely because they ran your fic through AI and let AI write comments for them. So basically, if a comment, from someone you don’t know, ends in something along the lines of “I’d like to draw a comic panel about this”, “can we chat on discord (or anywhere outside of ao3)” or anything that’d require your email or other personal information, always assume that it’s 90% a scam.

report them for spam then delete their comments when/if you get them.

please spread this if you can. us writers gotta look out for each other. stay safe, everybody ♡

EDIT (Dec 10, 2025): NEW TYPE OF BOTS WHO THREATEN PEOPLE WITH LEGAL ACTIONS

EDIT (Dec 15, 2025): BOTS IMPERSONATING LEGIT USERS, WITH REGISTERED ACCOUNTS, BY USING THESE LEGIT USERS’ AO3 NAMES AS THEIR GUEST-USER NAMES IN THEIR GUEST COMMENTS

Do NOT allow some street urchin to peer pressure you into eating moldy bread. We’ve lost too many agents to that one

Also again we do NOT authorize use of the company machines to get in more study time for the cultural sensitivity training. Taking risks with the fabric of space time is not permitted for personal use.

like-

Yeah! Girls can absoLUTELY look like this-

But also! Like this-

yes their makeup can be bold and perfect!

but also- They don't always wear it!

Yes they're dainty and delicate.

But they can be bold and messy!

yes they kan like and dislike people based on silly things!

But also form genuine connections based on important boundaries.

Yes they can be cute and strong and pretty.

But they can be weird, and sad and angry.

Yes they're talented

But they also put in so much effort

Yes. They know what they're worth.

But they're also critical of themselves.

Yes. They can wear something fancy and bold. And do something crazy and tell the world what they do

And they can wear casual clothes, and eat food at a back alley restaurant with their best friends.

yes they work hard!

And yes! They can be lazy!

And they can wear whatever they want and STILL look flawless!

Look-

The point is

I love girls

And I love these girls

Because these girls are probably the most realistic fictional girls I've ever seen. And they're literal profession is one of the most unrealistic ones in the wORLD!

I love this movie so much and I am so eternally grateful that people are learning and loving girls!

Because all of these are are what real girls look like. And how real girls act, sure its unrealistic in the sense that its fictional, but the context and ideas are there. Girls ar girls.

Okay, They're funky and weird and funny and gorgeous and angry and loud and sad and strong and special, and talented, and adorable and hardwroking and lazy and just soooo Awesome!

He definitely did, but since the whole book is supposed to be a translation of something he found and not something he personally wrote, they’re switched for the audience’s convenience. There’s a lot more to it, but here’s a chart of Shire months from the appendices at the end of RoTK. Elves and men are different, but there was no handy chart.

An old version of the Tumblr app trying to load on an iPod.

Tags that read: This was posted the day before I was born and I think that’s amazing, Is it still loading?

A reaction image of a skeleton in a suit typing on a laptop.

the Tumblr app trying to

load on an iPod.