I write and maybe make art about problematic characters/ships/tropes so be aware if you don't want to see those.
I mostly make NSFW writings/ drawings.
All statements made here are that of fictional characters and relationships. DNI if you can't distinguish fiction and reality. Free feel to block me, no hard feeling here.
Current fandoms: DSMP, Genshin
---
My AO3. I post all my fics there. My twitter where I post art and not safe for tumblr stuff.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
I'm gonna go ahead and repeat: it is super, duper, extra scooper fucked up when you treat a character as if it were a living person while treating other human beings who are interacting with you like they are merely characters who can be written out of your personal story if you just find a remark mean enough.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
Based on both decent and not so decent replies, I have made some changes to my original post below.
It would seem a whole new kind of AO3 reader/writer is emerging and it is becoming clear not everyone quite understands how the website community works. Here is some basic guidance on how most people expect you to go about using AO3 to keep this a fun community archive that funtions correctly:
As well as likes, kudos is for when the story was interesting enough to make you finish reading. If it sucked or was badly written, you probably left. If you finished it, you liked it - so kudos.
If you really liked it, you should try to comment. It can be long and detailed or a literal keysmash. Writers don't care, we just love comments.
No critisism unless the author has specifically asked or agreed to hear it (so use your notes to say if you want some constructive feedback). Even constructive critisism is a no-no unless an author note tells you it's okay. No, posting it online is not an open invitation for that. Many people write as a fun hobby or a way to cope with, among other things, insecurity and just want to share. Don't ruin that for them. I've seen so many authors just stop writing coz they can't handle the negative emotions the critism brings, and it's only meant to be a fun thing shared for free (pointing out tagging errors is not included in this).
Do not comment to ask the author to write/update something else. It's tacky and off-putting and will probably have the opposite effect than the one you want.
There is no algorithm, it's an archive. Use the search and filter function to add/remove the pairings/characters/tropes etc. you want to read about and it will find you the fics that fit the bill.
For this to work, writers must tag and rate stories. This avoids readers finding the wrong things and missing the stuff they want. I don't care how cringy that trope is in your eyes - it gets tagged.
The tag exception is if you don't want to tag a million things or spoil your story, you can rate it as "chose not to use warnings," and maybe tag the bare minimum.
Don't censor tags. How can someone exclude a tag if the word isn't typed out correctly? There are no content bans for terms so don't censor them.
If the tags are mostly content/trigger warnings, especially if they are things considered very fucked up or graphic, you might want to use "dead dove - do not eat" to ensure people know that you're not messing around with tags and what they get is exactly what you've warned them about.
Character A/Character B means a ROMANTIC or SEXUAL relationship of some kind. Character A&Character B is PLATONIC, like friendship or family.
Nothing is banned. This is an rule because banning one thing is a slipperly slope to banning another and another, until nothing is allowed anymore. Do not expect anyone to censor for you. Because of the tags system, you are responsible for your own reading experience.
People can create new chapters and sequels/fic series any time after they "complete" a story. So it's considered perfectly normal to subscribe, even to a finished story. You can even subscribe to the author instead just to cover your bases.
Do not repost stories or change the publishing date without an extremely good reason (like a complete top to bottom rewrite or an exchange youve written for going public). It's an archive, not social media. No one cares what's the most recent, only what fits their tag needs.
Instead of deleting a story you wrote if you hate it - consider making it anonymous or orphaning it so others can still enjoy it, without it being connected to your name anymore. If you still want to delete it, fair enough.
It's come to my attention that metaworks ARE allowed on AO3, which is something I wasn't aware of. So if you do post an essay or theory, please tag it as such so others can choose to search for it or exclude it. Art is also allowed.
The only reason this archive works is because NON ONE PROFITS. Do not link to your ko-fi or patreon or mention monetary gain in any way or you violate the terms and risk having your account removed. If anyone does link, it leaves the archive open to people claiming it's for profit and having the whole thing removed.
I KNOW there's plenty more I missed but I'm trying to cover most of the basics that people seem to be struggling with.
I invite anyone to add to this, but please explain, don't berate.
I donāt know about others but the only reason I put both is so that whichever someone clicks on, they will find my fic. So if there is supposed to be rules, I guarantee you that no writer knows these ones. We can barely get people to comment, you think weāre going to specifically choose & or / ? Hell no.
Iāve been in fandom for twenty years, and ā/ā means romance and ā&ā means no romance was literally one of the first things I learned. It dates back to Star Trek fanfiction of the 70s. Iām boggled by the fact that anyone whoās been reading fic on AO3 for more than like five minutes wouldnāt know that, and Iām curious as to what fanfic community you come out of.
I donāt think that tagging with both is actually going to get your fic in front of more readers. People looking for romance often exclude the ā&ā tag if there are too many gen fics tagged with both. People looking for gen often exclude the ā/ā tag if there are too many fics with both. So rather than putting your fic in front of twice the people, you are in fact more likely to get your target audience ignoring your fic because it has a tag they donāt want.
Also, by overtagging you are more likely to annoy potential readers away from your fic than entice them. A fic tagged both & and / better have both romance and a ton of platonic interaction between the two characters, like a slow burn romance friends-to-lovers arc. If it isnāt, Iām going to be very unhappy because the author lied to me with the tags to try and trick me into reading a fic with deceptive advertising.
When Iām in a fandom and see tagging where some of the tags donāt really apply and are just there to get it in front of more eyes, Iām going to assume one of two things. Either the author is a newb who doesnāt know anything, or the author is purposefully spamming the tags because they donāt care about lying to their potential audience and think that āspray and prayā is an effective tactic. In the first case, their writing probably will not be very good, so why bother reading their fic. In the second case, the fact that I canāt trust the tags to be accurate means Iām not going to read it to see if itās interesting even if it has a tag I like. Chances are, that tag isnāt actually in the fic anyway, and even if it is, by spam-tagging the author is making the archive harder to use for everybody. Why would I reward bad behavior with attention? No. Far better to mute the author and move on.
So I'm not like an anti, I would never send death threats or anything to people but I do wonder if there is something to be said about perpetuating the sexualization of teenagers through fanart/fanfic? I recognize that that is a cultural issue, and I recognize that sexualizing fictional teens is not on the same level as sexualizing real teens, but it still perpetuates the concept. Even if society has normalized something, it's worth fighting back against it in smaller ccommunities.1/2
--
This isn't to say that people should be harassing others, nor is it to say that I think proship are child predators. I think there's a lot of reasons why someone might like a character that doesn't equate to them wanting to harm real people. I do think we have a responsibility to discuss these things in fandom. While fandom itself isn't activism, pushing back against concepts like homophobia has always been an important aspect of fandom. Fetishizing youth is a problem & should be critiqued. 2/2
LOL.
Okay, first of all, we've had this conversation about a billion times. The fact that you're still stuck at a 101 level does not make this new territory.
Second, where do you think YA fiction comes from? It's not written by teenagers. Lots of authors like to reminisce about their teen years. It's not about an older person being horny for teens. It's about remembering being that age.
Third, you might have no libido, but I was a horny little demon as a teen. It wasn't about ~fetishization~. Wanting to fuck was a normal part of my teen experience and the teen experiences of everyone around me. I didn't manage to get laid until 16 because I was a mega loser, but I'd have gone for it at 14.
The idea that teens are pure and sexless
FUCKING BONKERS
Come back when you've un-learned your regressive Christian purity bullshit.
I'm going on a tangent here, but I wanted to expand on this one sentence: "I do think we have a responsibility to discuss these things in fandom."
I've seen too many of these discussions at this point, and this argument has always stuck with me because it takes for granted that other peopleānamely, people who like things we might find disturbing or worryingānever ever think about why they like things. I my experience, this couldn't be less true.
People who like transgressive fiction often have specific tastes. There are people who only read underage content that it's minor/minor, or gentle adult/bratty jailbait, or adult with bad intentions/oblivious minor, or even minor with bad intentions/oblivious adult. Some people might not have specific tastes but do have specific distastes, and you'll never see them in the Severely Underage tag, or in anything that might imply dubious consent, or in anything that might imply explicit consent. Ironically, people who like transgressive fiction that's specifically referred to as transgressive fiction (by the tags, by the author, by the community) tend to have a pretty great grasp on what they like and what they don't like, and also why they like or dislike things. In turn, that means that they have a decent grasp on their own lived experienceāthat's because tastes have a connection with our experiences, and while the connection is not 1:1 (because correlation is not causation), it does tell us something about ourselves, both consciously and not.
When it comes to underage works, this is all the more true. We have all been young once. We all have memories (happy or not) and baggage (light or heavy), and some of us might wanna tap into that when it comes to the fiction we create or enjoy.
Now, in the current fandom atmosphere there are lots of people going around saying, "You can just like things, actually. You don't have to think about it". This behavior has always existed, and it can definitely be a synonym of not wanting to address actual issues (that's usually for issues that are social and cultural in nature, and therefore exists outside of fandom too). But lately that's also been a reaction to people implying that liking X makes you a predator, and as much as that doesn't make it less annoying, I feel that the distinction matters.
It's become pretty hard to have decent conversations lately, and that's because everything just gets flattened into black or white, with no shade in-between allowed to exist. It's like we cannot accept the idea that people might consume fanworks in different ways, for different reasons and with different effects and impacts.
This is easily explainable, by the way. We want to protect ourselves and other people, which is understandable and admirable, but the way we go at it by smashing everything into the two specific boxes of Right Or Wrong to make it easier might just not be the best.
Honestly, this feels like the usual discussions regarding cishet men watching lesbian porn. We like to forget that the issue is not cishet men enjoying fictional depictions of lesbian sex, but the fact that they have historically put their enjoyment of fictional content over the respect for and consent of actual human beings.
There is a distinction between enjoying the lesbian smut you find on the internet and expecting real women minding their own business to cater to your kinks. You can enjoy something in fiction and still have morals when it comes to real peopleājust talk to any feminist who's active in BDSM spaces.
Now, regarding the "critique" part. I find that often enough people love talking about why they love or don't love a trope or a kink, and what could be improved or not in their depictions. Like, fans who love omegaverse often offer criticism and open discussions because, yeah, some popular tropes and genre expectations do not spark joy. But that can only happen if the conversation allows the participants to be sincere without the risk of getting attackedāsomething that you won't find on public social medias, not in this day and age, and not on controversial topics (sometimes not even with uncontroversial ones, mind you).
Also, there is a time and place for discussion, and a time and place for fun. Maybe this is a topic for another day, but I have issues with the expectation that just because someone is online then they have to be psychologically ready to draw out a PowerPoint presentation on X topic to justify themselves, even under the 400 words long ficlet they posted as a gift to a friend.
And sure, there is a middle ground here. Sometimes a 400 words long ficlet is offensive and harmful. But why is it that when these discussions happen the criticism is often aimed at underage content as a whole for simply existing (an argument that often enough conflates the impact of mainstream media with the impact of fanworks for niche fandoms), instead of actually focusing on specific examples?
Like, there are some very interesting reviews and commentaries on fanservice and fetishization in anime when it comes to upskirt moments, for example, that actually manage to pinpoint the issue by taking apart specific scenes and re-contextualizing them in their genre and in current cultural and social norms. That's good criticism that is worth taking into consideration. Blanket statements are rarely useful and rarely develop into thoughtful conversations, also because a fanfic with 43 views that's correctly tagged as underage does not have the same implications as mainstream media, and it's probably also looked for and enjoyed for different reasons.
Like, there is a nuance there that people who criticize underage as a whole rarely want to explore.
Iād be far more open to discussions if āWe have a responsibilityā did not so often boil down to sealioning.
The expectation is that people spend their limited free time rehashing shit with a rando who assumes stupidity and bad faith rather than pleasurably engaging in fandom after already thinking about all this for 20 years.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
Full offense and pun fully intended, but I genuinely think the very existence of "dead dove, do not eat" was a fucking canary in the mines, and no one really paid attention.
Because the tag itself was created as a response to a fandom-wide tendency to disregard warnings and assume tagging was exaggerated. And then the same fucking idiots reading those tags describing things they found upsetting or disturbing or just not to their taste would STILL click into the stories and give the writer's grief about it.
And as a response writers began using the tag to signal "no, really, I MEAN the tags!"
But like.
If you really think about it, that's a solution to a different problem. The solution to "I know you tagged your story appropriately but I chose to disregard the tags and warnings by reading it anyway, even though I knew it would upset me, so now I'm upset and making it your problem" is frankly a block, a ban and wide-spread blacklisting. But fandom as a whole is fucking awful at handling bad faith, insidious arguments that appeal to community inclusion and weaponize the fact most people participating in fandom want to share the space with others, as opposed to hurting people.
So instead of upfront ridiculing this kind of maladaptive attempt to foster one's own emotional self-regulation onto random strangers on the internet, fandom compromised and came up with a redundant tag in a good faith attempt to address an imaginary nuance.
There is no nuance to this.
A writer's job is to tag their work correctly. It's not to tag it exhaustively. It's not even to tag it extensively. A writer's sole obligation, as far as AO3 and arguably fandom spaces are concerned, is to make damn sure that the tags they put on their story actually match whatever is going on in that story.
That's it.
That's all.
"But what if I don't want to read X?" Well, you don't read fic that's tagged X.
"But what if I read something that wasn't tagged X?" Well, that's very unfortunate for you, but if it is genuinely that upsetting, you have a responsibility to yourself to only browse things explicitly tagged to not include X.
"But that's not a lot of fic!" Hi, you must be new here, yes, welcome to fandom. Most of our spaces are built explicitly as a reaction to There's Not Enough Of The Thing I Want, both in canon and fandom.
"But there are things on the internet that I don't like!" Yeah, and they are also out there, offline. And, here's the thing, things existing even though we personally dislike or even hate or even flat out find offensive/gross/immoral/unspeakable existing is the price we pay to secure our right to exist as individuals and creators, regardless of who finds US personally unpleasant, hateful or flat out offensive/gross/immoral/unspeakable.
"But what about [illegal thing]?!" So the thing itself is illegal, because the thing itself has been deemed harmful. But your goddamn cop-poisoned authoritarian little heart needs to learn that sometimes things are illegal that aren't harmful, and defaulting to "but illegal!" is a surefire way to end up on the wrong side of the fascism pop quiz. You're not a figure of authority and the more you demand to control and exercise authority by command, rather than leadership, the less impressive you seem. You know how you make actual, genuine change in a community? You center harm and argue in good faith to find accommodations and spread awareness of real, actual problems.
But let's play your game. Let's pretend we're all brainwashed cop-abiding little cogs that do not own a single working brain cell to exercise critical thinking with. 99% of the time, when you cry about any given thing "being illegal!!!" you're correct only so far as the THING itself being illegal. The act or object is illegal. Depiction of it is not. You know why, dipshit? Because if depiction of the thing were illegal, you wouldn't be able to talk about it. You wouldn't be able to educate about it. You wouldn't be able to reexamine and discuss and understand the thing, how and why and where it happens and how to prevent it. And yeah, depiction being legal opens the door for people to make depictions that are in bad taste or probably not appropriate. Sure. But that's the price we pay, creating tools to demystify some of the most horrific things in the world and support the people who've survived them. The net good of those tools existing outweighs the harm of people misusing them.
"You're defending the indefensible!" No, you're clumsily stumbling into a conversation that's been going on for centuries, with your elementary school understanding of morality and your bone-deep police state rot filtering your perception of reality, and insisting you figured it out and everyone else at the table is an idiot for not agreeing with you. Shut the fuck up, sit the fuck down and read a goddamn book.
It would seem a whole new kind of AO3 reader/writer is emerging and it is becoming clear not everyone quite understands how the website community works. Here is some basic guidance on how most people expect you to go about using AO3 to keep this a fun community archive that funtions correctly:
Kudos is for when the story was interesting enough to make you finish reading. If it sucked or was badly written, you probably left. If you finished - you kudos.
If you liked it, you should comment. It can be long and detailed or a literal keysmash. Writers don't care, we just love comments.
No critisism unless the author has specifically asked or agreed to hear it. Even constructive critisism is a no-no unless an author note tells you it's okay. Many people write as a fun hobby or a way to cope with, among other things, insecurity. Don't ruin that for them.
Do not comment to ask the author to write/update something else. It's tacky and off-putting and will probably have the opposite effect than the one you want.
There is no algorithm, it's an archive. Use the search and filter function to add/remove the pairings/characters/tropes etc. you want to read about and it will find you the fics that fit the bill.
For this to work, writers must tag and rate stories. This avoids readers finding the wrong things and missing the stuff they want. I don't care how cringy that trope is in your eyes - it gets tagged.
Character A/Character B means a ROMANTIC or SEXUAL relationship of some kind. Character A&Character B is PLANTONIC, like friendship or family.
Nothing is banned. This is an implicit rule because banning one thing is a slipperly slope to banning another and another, until nothing is allowed anymore. Do not expect anyone to censor for you. Because of the tags system, you are responsible for your own reading experience.
People can create new chapters and sequels/fic series any time after they "complete" a story. So it's considered perfectly normal to subscribe, even to a finished story. You can even subscribe to the author instead just to cover your bases.
Do not repost stories or change the publishing date without an extremely good reason (like a complete top to bottom rewrite). It's an archive, not social media. No one cares what's the most recent, only what fits their tag needs.
Avoid deleting a story you wrote if you hate it - orphan it so others can still enjoy it, without it being connected to you anymore.
This is a creative fanfiction archive. No essays on your insights or theories please. There are other places for that.
I KNOW there's plenty more I missed but I'm trying to cover most of the basics that people seem to be struggling with.
I invite anyone to add to this, but please explain, don't berate.
Mischaracterization in fics is annoying and can sometimes make me be likeĀ āhe would not say thatā EXCEPT when I do it. he would say that because I am holding him at gunpoint to do so
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming