The moth circling your ceiling fan

So some fanartist drew a “sexy” (read: booby) version of a (cartoon) character who is traditionally very non-sexualised. Fans of the character got mad about it because it’s kind of groundbreaking how that character is written and portrayed and this art totally ignores the entire point of the character. They demanded the art be deleted. In response to that other people said, well what the fanartist did may be distateful but they have every right to draw what they’re into. The two sides fight for days and each starts a harassment campaign and even report their “opponents’” accounts.

So far so typical. But things eventually come to a head and they decide that this will be settled by votes - not through a poll. Through donations to a children’s education charity via each side’s portal. Whoever can get the highest amount of donation wins.

step 1.

Go to skins tab

step 2.

create site skin (not work skin!! Site skin)

step 3.

This is where the magic happens.

you’re only interested in that big box (though you will have to give your skin an unique title)

in there, you paste this:

(This just an example, obviously)

.blurb:has(a:is( [href*="*s*reader" i], [href*="*s*you" i], [href*="goncharov" i], [href*="goncharov*s*katya" i], [href*="goncharov%20dies" i], [href*="top%20goncharov" i])) {   display: none !important; }

in my method, if I want to filter something new, I'll duplicate a line of this code like such (comma at the end is important)

[href*="goncharov" i],

temporarily, it'll look like this:

.blurb:has(a:is( [href*="*s*reader" i], [href*="*s*you" i], [href*="goncharov" i], [href*="goncharov" i], [href*="goncharov*s*katya" i], [href*="goncharov%20dies" i], [href*="top%20goncharov" i])) {   display: none !important; }

and now I replace that duplicate with whatever tag I want to mute, replacing only what is inside quotation marks, like so:

[href*="piss" i],

and now it looks like this

.blurb:has(a:is( [href*="*s*reader" i], [href*="*s*you" i], [href*="piss" i], [href*="goncharov" i], [href*="goncharov*s*katya" i], [href*="goncharov%20dies" i], [href*="top%20goncharov" i])) {   display: none !important; }

Mind that you replace spaces with %20 and slash with *s*. For example, "coffeshop au" won't filter it; "coffeeshop%20au" will. Similarly "/reader" won't work, and "*s*reader" will. Remember, only write inside the quotation marks. You can also copy the tags you want to filter directly from your browser’s search bar, then they’re already formatted correctly, like:

And presto, save your site skin, use it, and you will forever filter anything you want. You can add more tags to filter any time you want.

This, as an enabled site skin, will work across all your devices. Mind that the filtered works are hidden, but still count into the 20 fics per page that ao3 offers. Therefore if you're, like me, terminally picky about fic, you might end up with 3 works per page.

Is this nice, clean coding? Probably not. But it works!

I know it doesn't help with tumblr experience, but you can make ao3 way smoother!

Bonus reading:

very good ao3 writeup on all the skin filtering possibilities

This and more, on reddit