This blogger remembers when we had to put disclaimers at the head of our fics and pray that someone didn’t take it into their heads to sue us for what we created.
This blogger remembers brilliant artists and writers getting decades of work obliterated on LJ because someone who wanted to tell people what they were allowed to create went running to someone who wanted a profit, and told them the artists and writers had been naughty.
This blogger remembers just how hard the creators of AO3 worked to build the thing we all seem to take for granted now.
This blogger watched friends dive into the creation process so heartily and determinedly that they all but disappeared from the writing/gaming/artistic side of their fandom for YEARS while they worked to make the archive happen.
This blogger remembers the sense of giddy wonder that there would possibly be LAWYERS involved, willing to defend our right to create these works, and not leave us hanging at the mercy of corporate legal teams.
This blogger is aware that she reads between twenty to fifty books’ worth of material every year on AO3, and is never REQUIRED to pay a penny for the privilege of getting access.
This blogger is aware that she will not ever see advertisements on AO3, and that her personal data and reading preferences won’t be sold to advertisers in order to raise the money that AO3 needs to pay for the services they provide.
This blogger is aware that AO3 is, and has always been, a labor of love; by fans, for fans, and not for profiting off fans – and this is what makes it unique in the whole of the media universe.
This blogger has NEVER taken AO3 for granted, and has ALWAYS been damned glad to have access to it. Even in years when this blogger didn’t have the means to support it financially.
This blogger remembers.
I don’t understand why there’s so much hate towards AO3 lately??? This is literally THE ONLY website that never crushes, never forces you to buy/watch stuff you’re not interested in, never forces stupid and unnecessary updates on you, and lets you read quality fics FOR FREE. So they are asking for donations? Big deal, you don’t have to pay them if you don’t want to. You’ll still be able to use the website and all its features.
AO3 doesn’t have to change or update because it’s already almost perfect.
Every year, multiple times a year, they convince ppl to fork out thousands of dollars and….literally nothing changes. There’s no doubt in my mind they’re pocketing most of this money lol
Yep
That’s what’s so wild to me. They’ve made exactly 0 changes other than adding the ‘Exclude’ tags and that def doesn’t take 130k.
Actually you can see their budget right here, and, yeah, it cost about 100k. (For reference an entry-level, full time web developer makes about 40k a year, not including benefits).
Here’s where they talk about all the changes they actually made.
To understand why any of this matters, here’s what you have to understand:
In computers, time is expensive.
“Putting a strain on the Archive’s servers” basically means slowing down the website, which potentially means paying for and maintaining more servers, which is more expensive.
And that’s just bookmarks. Because everything on ao3 is interconnected, any changes made to the tagging system could completely break the functionality of the entire website. This means if you didn’t notice any changes somebody did their job really well. Somebody tested that code extensively, pushed it to it’s limits, fixed all the problems, and then tested it all over again.
And that’s just the things they’ve actively made changes to; every year there’s more fics added, which means more data they’ve got to store and maintain. They’ve got to back everything up that when they lose data (not if), they’ve got a backup so you don’t lose the 500,000 word fic you spent 2 years working on and isn’t stored anywhere else.
And that’s just what they’re storing. Every time you load a fic, every time you make a search, you’re communicating with a server, which can only send information out to so many computers at once. More and more people use ao3 each year, meaning they have to buy more servers (which cost money).
Now, I’m not an expert. And I haven’t thoroughly looked through their budget to see if they actually have spent their money wisely, or if there are cheaper contracting services they could have used, but I’m pretty sure the people working there have a better idea of how much something costs than a random person looking at a number and saying “that looks like a lot.”
Do you have to donate? No. Obviously not (although it is tax deductible). But I personally don’t consider paying somebody for a service they’ve provided to be them “pocketing my money,” especially when they’re a nonprofit, unlike, say, twitter, facebook, or… TUMBLR.
Maybe it isn’t worth anything to you to keep ao3 up and running, and that’s fine! But I use their service every single day, and it’s worth something to me.
People keep asking “How can anyone have a problem with AO3 doing fundraising!”
And I’m just like…. Have people not noticed all the virulent anti-AO3 hate on tumblr propagated by the anti shipping community? Antis have a problem with AO3 raising money because they hate the fact that AO3 won’t allow them to censor content they don’t like and doesn’t tolerate bullying. That’s who is putting out these posts like, “how can this nasty site raise so much money?” Read between the lines.
And for all the people who are just like, “If they don’t want AO3 to to raise money why don’t they just not donate?”
Because antis are incapable of saying “this isn’t for me so I won’t support it but I don’t care if other people support it. They have to actively discourage other people from supporting the thing. At the same time, they also won’t stop using AO3 because 1) they’re a bunch of fucking hypocrites who want readership and that’s where the readers are and 2) they’re too lazy to put together their own archive using AO3′s open source code because that would require doing coding and buying servers and doing all the moderating they want, which is hard, and they just want to engage in empty virtue signalling, which is easy
Anyway, my point is, people need to be aware that these people are out there and they hate AO3 and they want it to go away even though they’re actively using the platform. They’ve even said they want AO3 to fail so something “better” (re, something they control) can take its place. Some of them are blatant about it, calling AO3 a cesspit of pedophilia, and some of them are subtle about it, saying more innocuous things like ‘Does AO3 really need 130K a year?” “Shouldn’t you give your money to individual needy people doing gofundmes for stuff that’s more more important?”
But all of these people have the same end goal, which is the destruction of the archive, and the way they’re going about it right now is to try to discourage people from donating.
So instead of asking, “Why do people object to AO3 raising money?” start telling people “Hey there are people out there who hate AO3 and want to destroy it and we have to protect the archive from them.” And donate, if you can, and signal boost, if you can’t.
HERE THAT CHA-CHING SOUND THAT’S MORE OF MY MONEY GOING INTO THE MONSTROUS COFFERS OF THE OTW EVERYTIME ONE OF YOU IGNORANT SHITS SENDS AO3 NEGATIVITY ACROSS MY DASH
I want to be able to selectively subscribe to someone by fandom on AO3. I deleted a fair amount of notifications, because I love an author but they are currently writing in a fandom I know nothing about or have no interest in. There should still be the option for a blanket subscription. there are some people I would follow into any fandom and might get into a fandom because of them, but sometimes you just want The Sherlock stuff and not EVERYTHING. thoughts?
We recently received reports about one or more Tumblr accounts posing as “AO3 consultants” and contacting other users about their works on the Archive. In those messages, users are asked to take down their works “due to reports of abuse” or else have their works deleted by AO3 admins.
These messages are in no way sanctioned by the AO3 Policy & Abuse committee, who will never contact users via social media. All messages you receive from our Support and Abuse teams will be signed by the volunteer contacting you, and will reference specific abuse reports, requests for technical support, or other matters pertaining to your account.
All right, AO3, I love you and all (genuinely!), but I need an easy way to filter OUT certain tagged fics when I’m searching other tags. Especially pairings.
Because I love you guys, but when I’m trying to find Tony/Pepper fic, you can guess the problem I have pretty much EVERY TIME.
I would also really like a way to blacklist certain fics or authors I never want to see again.
I would also really like a way to sort bookmarks by fandom rather than just having them be one jumbled mess.
agreed SO MUCH.
I DO NOT WANT X/Y PAIRING WHEN I’M SEARCHING FOR FIC OF CHARACTER Z WHO IS IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH Y IN THE FIRST PLACE.
It’s actually pretty easy to do! Put the name of the pairing youdon’twant to see (I’m guessing in this cases Tony/Steve) in the Other Tags box with a minus in front of it. Like so:
(In this case I searched for Tony/Pepper in the Other Tags box first, and then after the fact went into the Relationship box and clicked the checkmark)
….. *RAPTOR SCREECH* YOU ARE MY NEW FAVORITE PERSON.
THAT WORKED LIKE A CHARM. AND NOW I CAN FIND THE FIC I AM ACTUALLY LOOKING FOR!!!!
MY FACE IS SERIOUSLY THE BIGGEST SMILE FOR YOU RIGHT NOW. 😀 😀 😀
I don’t even care that this is a total overreaction on my part, I’m just really excited at such an easy fix to my problem!
have disappeared. Any idea what’s up with that? Two sweet comments I had responded to don’t exist anymore. 😦
Update: somehow AO3 posted it twice and I don’t have the heart to fix it. there are comments and bookmarks on both versions. I feel dumb for not catching it immediately.
As a reader, as a writer, and as a fan I can’t think of a single website that has given me more happiness than Archive of Our Own. Thank you so much to everyone who works so hard to make it such a wonderful place.
god keep ur fucking kink meme shit out of ao3 tag y’all make this fandom even more insufferable than it already is and thats saying something!!! The kind of shit y’all post require a fucking trigger warning it doesnt belong in a safe space
Hello! I see there’s been some confusion! Allow me to clear something up: AO3 is not a safe space.
Let me repeat that. Archive Of Our Own is not a safe space, not in the way you mean it.
Why does the Archive have a goal of maximum inclusiveness?
There are a number of wonderful specialized archives. Our aim with this Archive is to provide a place to preserve as many fanworks as possible. At the same time, the Archive software can be used by anyone to create their own archives, including archives limited to particular topics, fandoms, or ratings.
What kind of content do you allow?
We will not remove content from the Archive because it contains explicit material, as long as it doesn’t violate any other part of the content policy (e.g., the harassment policy).
One basic consequence is that users are responsible for reading and heeding the warnings provided by the creator. Risk-averse users should keep in mind that not all content will carry full warnings. If you want to know more, you may also wish to consult the bookmarks that people other than the creator have used to categorize the fanwork.
Some creators do not want to put specific ratings or warnings on their works. Our policy aims to enable creators to choose appropriate labels or to opt not to use ratings and warnings, with the understanding that some users will avoid unrated or unwarned content.
The ratings/warnings policy is really minimal. Why is this?
We believe that appropriate ratings and warnings are often in the eye of the beholder. Users who feel that a fanwork lacks an appropriate rating/warning are encouraged to try to resolve the issue with the creator. Users may also add tags of their own to on-site bookmarks of a fanwork, which other users can consult for more information. When those tags are present, you can click on the “Bookmarks” link at the top of the work to see them.
The stated desires/goals when AO3 was conceived and initially developed can be found here, on a livejournal post from @astolat (founder of VidCon, Yuletide, and AO3, and all around fannish legend). In short, the goal was “allowing ANYTHING – het, slash, RPF, chan, kink, highly adult.”
And that, in fact, is precisely what AO3 hosts. You see, AO3 is a safe space for fanfiction. It’s a safe space for people to explore all kinds of fannish content without fear of banning, deletion, or legal reprisal. It was founded, designed, and developed to be a safe space for fandom and fannish works.
There also seems to be some confusion about the nature of safe spaces vs. trigger warnings. A fannish work that merits a trigger warning isn’t something that doesn’t belong in a safe space. The trigger warning is what MAKES something a safe space despite the presence of fannish works that merit warnings.
So holding individual women (because that’s what fandom primarily is, women exploring their sexuality in a safe forum filled with other women doing the same) accountable for their fictional exploration of things that a) exist in real life in genuinely damaging forms, b) have significant impact on women themselves, thus leading in some part to the urge to explore those things safely, and c) have existing in movies, television, popular culture, the Bible, and in all of literature since literature began? Well, that’s just an extension of the same culture that polices women’s sexuality in the first place and drives them to find safe ways to explore it.
Ding ding ding we have a winner 🙌🏼
AO3 was pretty much meant to be a safe space … FOR WRITERS.
FOR WRITERS TO POST PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING AS LONG AS IT IS ADEQUATELY WARNED FOR AND MEETS THEIR CLEARLY POSTED CRITERIA.
IT LITERALLY EXISTS TO PROTECT FANWORKS FROM BEING CENSORED, THREATENED BY LAWYERS, OR TAKEN DOWN OR ALTERED AGAINST THE WRITER’S WILL. THIS APPLIES TO ALL WORKS THAT MEET ITS TOS. ALL OF THEM. YES, INCLUDING AND ESPECIALLY THAT REALLY ICKY ONE.
THAT IS LITERALLY ITS PURPOSE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. IT WILL NOT CHANGE ITS PURPOSE AND SUDDENLY DECIDE SOME KINDS OF CENSORSHIP ARE OKAY NOW BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE YELL.
If this makes anyone personally uncomfortable, there’s a very easy way to avoid that. Just don’t use AO3. Problem solved.
Beltainefaerie's Flights of Fancy 