fml

Alright so if you're active on AO3, you've probably heard about the bot problem. It's been going on for years but it's gotten way worse lately, so here's a breakdown of what's happening and how to protect yourself.

What Are AO3 Bots?

Basically spam accounts that leave comments on fics. They're automated and they've been plaguing the site since like 2021, but they keep getting more sophisticated.

Types of Bots You Might See:

Praise Bots - These leave super generic compliments that could apply to literally any fic. Stuff like "This is pure genius, I'm in awe of your world-building" or "This deserves all recognition." The dead giveaway is when someone praises your "heartwarming" fic when everyone literally died and the earth shattered around them lmao.

Hateful/Cruel Bots - These are the really fucked up ones. They scrape REAL AO3 usernames and attach them to horrible, cruel comments. So innocent people get their names attached to hateful shit they never said. If you see a mean comment, check if the username is clickable - if it's not linked to an actual profile, it's a bot.

Kudos Bots - Some authors have woken up to like 30-60 fake kudos dumped on their fics all at once, with no corresponding increase in hit counts. This completely destroys the metric system especially in smaller fandoms.

AI Accusation Bots - These accuse authors of using ChatGPT or other AI tools, sometimes on fics that are literally older than the AI programs they're being accused of using. Some link to "AI detection tools" which are likely just trying to get you to feed more fics into AI training databases.

Misinformation Bots - A newer type that showed up in May 2025 claiming AO3 was removing works to "conserve server space" and telling authors to delete their own work or risk being banned. Complete bullshit - AO3 has never done this and never will.

Mary Sue Bots - Accuse your OCs of being Mary Sues, even when your fic only has canon characters and no self-inserts at all.

Art Commission Scam Bots - Leave praise then offer to make comic/art commissions of your fic. They get you off-site to Discord or Instagram, take your payment, then either send AI-generated garbage or ghost you completely.

How Do They Work?

The bots comment as unregistered guests and scrape real AO3 usernames to attach to their comments. The username shows up but isn't clickable and has no actual profile associated with it (unless you search for that name directly, which makes it look legit at first).

The newer ones are getting smarter too - they scrape your fic's tags and use them to make the generic praise seem more personalized. So if you tagged "angst" they'll specifically mention emotions and tension.

How To Spot Them:

Username isn't clickable/has no profile

Generic praise that could apply to any fic

Comments that make zero sense for what actually happened in your story

Multiple comments hitting your fics really fast (like 7 comments timestamped over 9 hours)

Sudden spike in kudos with no matching increase in hits

Anyone trying to get you off-site for commissions or services

The Emotional Impact:

This shit genuinely hurts authors. Some don't realize they're bots at first and think the hate comments or AI accusations are real criticism of their writing. There's also concerns from neurodivergent and ESL authors who worry their real comments will be mistaken for bots because their writing style might seem stilted.

And if your username gets stolen? You might have to track down authors and explain that hateful comment wasn't actually you.

What You Can Do:

As an author:

Delete bot comments as soon as you spot them

If it gets bad, lock your comments to registered users only (Settings → Privacy → "Only show your work to registered users")

Report the comments if you can

As a reader/commenter:

Don't panic if your username got stolen - reach out to the author and explain it wasn't you

Keep leaving real comments! Authors need to know there are real people who love their work

Maybe make your comments a bit more specific/personal so authors know you're real

Everyone:

Spread awareness so people know what to look for

Don't feed fics into "AI detection tools" that bots link to

Why Are They Doing This?

Honestly? Probably to keep AI brands in the "fandom news" cycle and create controversy. Some are straight-up scams. Either way, they suck.

Stay safe out there and keep supporting your favorite authors with real comments. We need that genuine engagement now more than ever. 💜

support women who shave their legs and wear makeup every day

let's hear it for masculine men

reminder that two people of the same gender can have a close platonic relationship!! not everything is gay!!

skinny shaming is hurtful too guys

does anyone else think [ironic kink du jour] is strange and freaky and gross?

calling stranger danger rhetoric well-intentioned is giving it way too much credit. it was an expansion of parents' property claims over children with the added bonus of maintaining separation based on race and class. it wasn't an individual idea that parents independently came up with, it was a massive coordinated narrative pushed through popular media

kids can and should talk to strangers. stranger danger is not a good safety rule at all. isolating kids in their families puts them in more danger of abuse, not less.

increasing wealth disparities & the changing nature of work & the expansion of policing made in person socializing much more difficult (expensive & risky) than it used to be. this is especially true for children

people have been complaining about this generation's kids being ruder than before for like... many hundreds of years.

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.

I mean, there is a secret way to filter for primary ship if that's what you're looking for?

You need to install a userscript in your browser, so if you're a mobile user you'll want to use Firefox instead of Chrome (Chrome doesn't allow users to install scripts in the mobile version of the app).

The script is called AO3 Only Show Primary Pairing and what it does is filter out fics that don't have your indicated ship as the first (or only) relationship tagged.

If you've never installed a userscript before, click or tap on the ? in green next to where it says Install this script. That'll take you through the process of doing it for the first time.

The code itself is commented, so you should be able to to just drop your info into it. They give you an example ship in the relationship field and you can add in characters as well (or instead) if you prefer.

You can also adjust how many tags it looks at. Default, it just looks at the first 1 but if you want it to look at the first 2 or 3, you can just adjust the numbers.

Edit: also I just realized this is a branch of this post that doesn't have my correction. To remove oneshots, the syntax is actually

No one, *ever*, tried to persuade me to transition.

When I first met her, she used to joke about how her coach said, "I could get more than that out of a pig if I kicked it hard enough," and that was the nicest fucking thing he said. Two decades later, she's like, "Yeah, that man verbally and physically abused all of us for years."

There is at least one football game she played in high school that she simply doesn't remember, because she was a linebacker. She got a concussion. She got up and kept playing... or so she's told. She doesn't remember, because she had a fucking concussion and they let her keep playing.

We are not canaries in the coal mine whose deaths you can dismiss while you frame groups you actually care about as the sole human casualties of these policies. I need you to care that laws like the Online Safety Act lead sex workers to have to return to abusive third parties to find clients or to work in brothels we hate or to such poverty that we starve. I need you to care about payment processors refusing to pay out for adult content because it means sex workers cannot rely on online work when selling sex in-person becomes too much for our bodies or too risky.

you're conditioning them to act hyper, the sugar isn't doing it

I'm also light skinned and have recent white/european heritage

This gives me privilege over First Nations people that are brown (or Black!)

My last partner was also Native, but full blooded and very visibly Native.

I live somewhere where the police are very racist and dangerous. Someone like my visibly Native former partner is MUCH more likely to be harmed by police than I am

When we got pulled over by the cops (which was often) I knew that if I kept my calm, put on my best 'talking to white people' voice, and played nice with the cop, my partner was more likely to get out of that situation safely

I could use my privilege to help keep him safe

Every single one of us has privilege of some kind. Are you able bodied? Light skinned? Can you hear and see well? Are you straight or cisgender? Do you live in a "western" country? Are you white?

Having privilege doesn't mean that your life can't be hard, or that you can't be marginalized in other ways, but it does give you an advantage that other people may not have.

What are some ways that you could use your privileges to help people who don't have those privileges?

If you're a man, could you speak up in support of your female coworkers when your boss talks over them?

If you're able bodied, could you advocate for your physically disabled classmate when they need an accommodation for their disability?

If you're white, could you stand in front of a racialized friend at a protest, and help keep them safe?

If you're cisgender, could you speak up when your uncle says something transmisogynist at christmas dinner?

If you live in a wealthy western country, could you share and contribute to the fundraisers of people suffering through war and genocide?

Using our privileges to help others is how we level the playing field!