Our fandom forbearers did NOT suffer through Anne Rice, strikethrough, and other bullshit for fucking ACOTAR and Harry Potter fans to fucking ruin it for all of us by selling fanfiction. I am not losing novel length yaoi epics because some of you don't know how to act in fannish spaces and yes I do blame the booktokification of fanfic but I also blame those of you that treat fandom like content to consume and not a community to engage with.
Alright, to ao3's soon to be arriving Wattpad Refugees, a basic guide to general user culture:
1.) Unlike Wattpads vote system that let's you like each chapter, the ao3 equivalent kudos only allows one per work. Everyone is generally quietly annoyed about this. To engage with each chapter, you're heavily encouraged to comment. Trust me, it makes people's day.
2.) Ao3 has no algorithm. By default it's latest updated work first. You can find things to your taste through searches, filters and tags.
3.) 'No archive warnings apply' and 'user has chosen not to use archive warnings' mean two very different things. No archives warnings means the work is free from any content that could require a warning tag (character death, graphic depictions of violence, non-con, etc). User has chosen not to use archive warnings means it could contain any of the warning content, be it hasn't been explicitly tagged. Treat it like an allergen. No archive warnings apply is allergen free. User has chosen not to use archive warnings, may contain traces or whole chunks of the allergen. If you're likely to have a bad reaction, maybe don't take the risk.
4.) Speaking of warnings, ao3 has very few restrictions on the type of work that's allowed. Whatever your personal thoughts or feelings on that are, thats how the site is. You're likely to run across some dark subject matters and a lot of people are uncomfortable with reading that. You're well within your rights not like these works and have your opinion on whether they should be allowed, but harassing the authors of such works (or any works) is more likely to come back on you than them. Ao3 operates on a strong policy of 'don't like, don't read'. Use the tagging system to your full advantage to only engage with the kind of works you want to see.
We look forward to welcoming you all and seeing the fantastic works you create. Happy writing!
Another AO3 app that's pretending to be official when it's not (or at least isn't making it clear its unofficial.) They're using AO3's name and logo, and embedding ads.
There is no official AO3 app
Someone else is gathering your data, potentially your log in information etc and making use of it how they please. (They say they're not but their privacy policy says otherwise)
They are making money from the ads without the fic writer's consent.
They've also rated it Pegi 3 (which is ludicrous)
Please, even if you care about nothing else, for the safety of your data, please don't use this app. Certainly don't give it your AO3 log in details.
I've told AO3 that it's infringing on its copyright. I will be requesting they remove access of my work as I do not consent to my creative content being used to generate ad revenue for them.
I will be reporting it as incorrectly rated.
The only email address I can find is [email protected] which is included in their privacy policy, and [email protected] as their developer.
Allow me to demonstrate my beautiful Dark Urge children. Some of them reached the end of the game, some only at the start. But I love them all the same
And one Tav who is not happy to be in this room of sickos. She canonically didn't have a name btw.
SEND ME YOUR TAVS AND DURGES I WANNA SKETCH EM 🫵🫵🫵
Meanwhile, fun fact: Eshra is my first and one of the most thought out dark urge MC I have
Also probably the creepiest in uncanny valley type of way
I made her with the thought thst Dark Urge mc looks just a bit "not right". A bit uncanny, which won't really be noticeable at the first glance, but start to feel strange when you think longer than a moment.
The more close she is to an "urge episode" the more noticeable those small details become, like a mask slipping off from her true face. Her mouth gets unnaturally wider, revealing that the marks at the corners of her mouth rip open to form a wicked smile; limbs twitch, get just slightly longer, itching, burning, all that good stuff. Kind of like Beldam from Coraline maybe
I also headcanon durges in general to be able to unnaturally twist and bend their bodies, possibly breaking bones and such without any actual consequences, when they have to, and Eshra one of those who utilizes that ability quite often
When I was in the hospital, they gave me a big bracelet that said ALLERGY, but like. I'm allergic to bees. Were they going to prescribe me bees in there.