daedalusdavinci

[daedalusdavinci]

What do AO3's Archive Warnings mean?

Archive Warnings can be confusing to new users, both readers and writers alike, so let's take a moment and break them down. We'll start at the top of the list - which is ordered alphabetically.

Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings - when AO3 was being designed (by fans, for fans) there was a debate about requiring warnings. At the time, they were not a standard expectation, so some people didn't want warnings to be mandatory on every individual fic on the Archive. Other people did.

This warning - stating that the author was making a choice not to provide a warning - was a compromise. A creator could choose not to apply a warning to their fic and readers would then know to be wary because it would be possible that any of the warnings might be needed, or multiple of them, or none of them.

This warning (which I'll abbreviate to CCNTW from here on out) is also a good catch-all for other things that a creator might want to warn for that don't have a specific Archive Warning. Authors can also provide warnings of different kinds in the Additional Tags on a work, so it's a good idea to read those carefully as well.

You can read up on more of the history of this warning on Fanlore.

Graphic Depictions of Violence - This applies to stories where the descriptions of violence are very detailed and probably gory. The violent scenes will likely be brutal and easily imagined. This warning is generally accompanied by a rating of either M or E - meaning that the content in the work is aimed at adults only.

Some authors find it difficult to decide whether the violence in their fic is graphic enough to warrant using this warning, so they use CCNTW instead. For some fandoms, the source material is already full of graphic violence and so they might also use an Additional Tag to give more information such as, "canon typical violence"

Major Character Death - This can be interpreted in different ways. It might mean:

a character dies, and that character is a major character in canon (even if they might be a minor character in the fic).

a character dies, and that character is a major character in the fic (even if they might be a minor character in canon).

the character death in the story is a major component of the story or a particularly intense part of the story.

It is possible that the character who dies does not stay dead in the fic, in which case the author may decide to use an Additional Tag like "temporary character death" to provide more information.

It is also possible that an author will decide to use CCNTW instead because they want to avoid giving spoilers for the story.

No Archive Warnings Apply - This means that none of the other warnings in this list apply to this fic. The fic may still be given a rating that indicates it is for an adult audience.

Rape / Non-Con - This refers to different scenarios in which a character does not consent to sexual activity.

Non-Con is short for non-consent, which is a term from role-playing communities in which not giving consent is part of the sexual game. Non-con can also refer to the fact that in a fictional story, we might see a character verbally state that they don't want to have sex and then read their inner monologue in which they express that they do.

The various interactions and interpretations involved in consent can get very complex and nuanced, and some creators might use CCNTW because they aren't sure if what they're writing rises to the level of this warning.

Underage - This warning refers to stories that describe sexual activity (more than just kissing) between characters who are under 18 years old. This one is also up for interpretation when it comes to creatures, monsters, mythological beings, aliens that live for thousands of years, etc.

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All of the above warnings will be used a little differently by different creators and by different fandoms, and as you read more on the site you will likely notice these differences.

However, if you see a work on the Archive that should have one of these warnings but doesn't, you can report that work to the Policy Questions & Abuse team by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking the link to their reporting form.

To help the volunteers who manage these reports, you can give them some additional information. If it's a multi-chaptered work, let them know which chapter to look in or give them a keyword or phrase they can search for to find the relevant scene(s). If the volunteer decides a warning is required, they'll contact the creator and ask them to add it. If they decide that it doesn't, they'll let you know.

If the work has Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings on it, that includes all other warnings and that fic shouldn't be reported for missing one.

[daedalusdavinci]

About the AO3 "No Guest Comments for a while" warning

If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:

These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:

But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.

Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.

If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.

Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.

Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.

Update: There's now a Megathread about this on the AO3 subreddit.

[daedalusdavinci]

DAILY THEMES POST

ITS THE WEEKEND OF 4/20 AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!!

YUP, ITS TIME FOR JUST LEAVE A COMMENT FEST!!!

CURL UP WITH THE SUBSTANCE OF YOUR CHOICE THIS WEEKEND, RELAX INTO AN ADIRONDACK CHAIR IN THE YARD OR IN THE PARK, OPEN UP SOME FICS ON AO3 AND JUST LEAVE A COMMENT

THE 19TH - JUST RELAX MAN, FIND THOSE UNFINISHED WIPS AND COMMENT ON EVERY CHAPTER! TAKE YOUR TIME WITH IT, SAVOR EACH AND EVERY WORD THE AUTHOR WROTE AND TELL THEM HOW MUCH YOU APPRECIATE THEIR HARD WORK AND JUST LEAVE A COMMENT!!!

THE 20TH - WE ARE HYPER FOCUSING TODAY FRIENDO WE ARE IN THE ZONE WE ARE SINGLING OUT THE MODERN AUS IN OUR FANDOM AND WE ARE LEAVING THOSE COMMENTS!!!

THE 21ST - PASS THE FICCY ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE BRO!!! DON'T BOGART THAT FIC MY FRIEND!! COMMENT ON ANY FIC OF YOUR CHOOSING AND REC THAT FIC TO A FRIEND OR A MUTUAL! COMMENT ON ALL THE FICS YOU ARE RECOMMENDED AND KEEP THE CHAIN GOING!

AND OF COURSE, THE 22ND IS FOR POSTING YOUR COMMENT TOTALS FROM THE REST OF THE FEST!!!!

WE WILL HAVE A GOOGLE FORM TO INPUT YOUR TOTALS IN AND SEE HOW MANY COMMENTS WERE LEFT ACROSS THE WHOLE FEST!!!

[daedalusdavinci]

[daedalusdavinci]

okayyy im finally making some progress on the last chapter of that hs fic and i GUESS its not too embarrassing that i wont post it so...... maybe soon. maybe soon. if i finish this draft, ill post th efirst chapter

[daedalusdavinci]

If disabled bruce wayne (hearing aid user from point blank gunshots; cane and chair user post-knightfall) has a million fans i am one of them. if disabled bruce wayne has ten fans i am one of them. if disabled bruce wayne has only one fan and that is me. if disabled bruce wayne has no fans, that means i am no longer on this earth. if the world against disabled bruce wayne, i am against the world.

[daedalusdavinci]

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!!!!

ITS TIME FRIENDOS!!! NO EXCUSES, JUST RESULTS!!

[daedalusdavinci]

i made a character sheet. free to use as you wish, feel free to change whatever you want XD open source ass thing. spent all of ~maybe an hour on it.

Credit: the text in the insert-image box comes from this video, and the text for the top three lines (intense, complex, fruity) comes from this post. The actual image was made with the free NBOS character sheet creator, which is a sort of dated but free and solid text-layout sheet maker intended for ttrpg style character sheet creation.

#ask memes

[daedalusdavinci]

I heard that wattpad is doing a purge of NSFW works, so I'm going to be posting some general orientation type videos and some how to's to help folks learn more about Ao3.

If you want to follow (or avoid) those posts, I'm tagging them as welcome wattpad

[daedalusdavinci]

Fans' attitudes toward AI-generated works

Irina Cisternino, a PhD candidate of Stony Brooke University, is writing their research on topics related to technology, art and fandom. You can participate by filling out a survey and additionally, signing up for an interview. The survey is expected to last until at least the end of April, those, who signed up for the interview, will be contacted later. You need to be at least 18 years old to participate in either, be able to understand and speak English and identify as a fan.

After the completion of the research, it will be accessible as the dissertation of the researcher. If you have further questions, you can contact Irina Cisternino at [email protected] or Lu-Ann Kozlowsky at [email protected].

[daedalusdavinci]

poison ivy?

there are a lot of misconceptions out there about ivys character and a lot of really bad faith opinions. shes changed a LOT over the years in how shes portrayed in comics, but some of those earlier appearances really stick in my maw and make it difficult for me to get too far into her, especially with certain fandom discourses floating around, and comic bros being...... the way that they are about her. still, i appreciate what she is to some people and what they see in her

#asks #undescribed #mudp1es

[daedalusdavinci]

harley quinn

harley is the whole entire reason i got into batman and i havent read as many comics w her as i wouldve liked to but i will one day bc shes the best ever and one of the things that makes btas so goddamn great

#asks #undescribed #mudp1es

[daedalusdavinci]

killer croc

i dont know as much abt waylon as id like to but i know enough to know that i love him. he is like a little baby to me and i was devastated when he died in lonely city

#mudp1es #asks #undescribed

[daedalusdavinci]

jason todd

i basically wrote 100k words about how obsessed i am w jason and harvey so i cant imagine any of this comes as a surprise to anyone. jasons relationship to canon is complicated as any jason fan knows adnd i know there are weird jason fans out there but inever meet htem bc i only surround myself w ppl who are right about him

#asks #mudp1es #undescribed

[daedalusdavinci]

harvey dent

ok let me explain myself tho. im a strong believer in like. you have to know the rules of canon to break them first of all and second a LOT of my specific takes on this have to do w the fact that their character is like riddled w ableism and so is how theyre depicted in the fandom so

i just. AUGH. i have so many opinions about them

#asks #undescribed #mudp1es

[daedalusdavinci]

If there are other caveats to why it’s okay/not okay that I might’ve missed, y’all can add those too. This is mostly for general knowledge, because I’m curious. I have my own opinion, but I know the overall creative community tends to have a range of opinions.

#i really really think you should talk to the author first #fanfic is a community and we have to treat it as such

[daedalusdavinci]

If anyone wants me to say my opinion on a character with this bingo

#ask memes