maverickk

For anyone who hasn't seen them before, Hidden Search Operators are handy tricks you can use when you're either searching or filtering AO3.

summary: string is a generic way of explaining that you can search AO3 for a specific word that appears in a summary. You can do this from the search bar in the header, from the Any Field box at the top of the Advanced Search form, or from the Search Within Results box at the bottom of the filter menu.

Examples:

summary: Bruce

summary: "Bruce Banner"

summary: Bruce OR summary: Banner OR summary: Hulk

You need to put quotation marks around your search term if it is more than one word. The quotes make sure that the site searches for those two words together.

The other two operators listed work best in the Search Within Results box.

expected_number_of_chapters: 1 will return results where every fic has only 1 chapter currently posted.

You can use -expected_number_of_chapters: 1 if you want results where every fic has more than 1 chapter currently posted.

Any time you want help with how to use AO3, look for the question mark bubbles. Clicking or tapping on those bubbles will open up a pop up window with information on that specific part of AO3. For example, here's the information for Include filters.

2. When you log into AO3 for the first time, you'll have a banner on your dashboard that gives you a ton of links and information that's useful for new users. A lot of people will dismiss this banner without ever reading it, but you can get it back at any time.

Go to your Preferences, scroll down to Misc. and check the box next to Turn the new user help banner back on. Update your preferences, and the banner will return.

3. When you first tap or click into the search in the header bar, a little popup tip appears below the text box. This is showing you an example of a search that you can do.

4. If you've never seen the filters before, click or tap on any tag that you're interested in. On a wide screen like a laptop, the filters will appear on the right hand side of the screen. On a narrow screen like a phone, you can tap on the Filters button for the menu to appear.

5. The FAQ has a series of questions related to Searching and Browsing on the Archive. You can find the FAQ in the dropdown under the word About in the header.

6. You can also just click on stuff and see what happens. For example, if you're wondering what the four icons at the top corner of each fic blurb mean, you can just click on them and get a popup with the key. Same thing if you're wondering about the icons at the top right of a bookmark.

7. I almost forgot ☝️If you want to see fics based on the primary pairing but you're okay with additional ships being in the fic (so otp:true won't work for you) - there's a script for that! AO3 Only Show Primary Pairing.

There's some people in the comments saying "fandoms have always been like this" and others saying "No, it's worse than it was." And both are to some extent right. Fans (or at least a small percentage of fans, and the larger a fanbase gets the larger a group this will describe) have always been Like That; but they did not always have the level of access to creators and actors that they have now.

The notion that a performer needs to be constantly available to public scrutiny, that their personal information should by default be available to any rando with google, is pretty new. It used to be that actors would only be expected to engage with the public on limited, specific, and controlled occasions, usually with security provided. Now they're being asked to rawdog exposure to the mob 24/7 on their own.

(Also, production companies have always always always been exploitative cowards, just to get that straight; reading the biographies of literally any actress from golden Hollywood years makes that clear. It's just, again, more public now.)