Now that we have people talking about a different fanfic platform, it's a great opportunity for Ao3 users to learn about a feature that is often overlooked despite being one of the reasons for the creation of the platform.

I'm talking about External Bookmarks, of course.

What are External Bookmarks?

External Bookmarks are a special type of bookmark that Ao3 users can create: rather than bookmarking an existing fic on Ao3, it allows users to bookmark fics that have been published on other websites. These include (but are not limited to) fanfic platforms like FFnet or Wattpad, forums, personal websites and yes, even blogs!

How do I use them?

It's easy! Once logged in, go to Your Profile and select My Bookmarks. On the right side of the screen you will see the "Bookmark External Work" button. Fill in the required information: fanfic name, author, link to the fic...and presto! You now have a bookmark to you favourite fic from your old platform!

Ok but what's the point?

The point is that fandom doesn't need to be centralised. There are countless places where people write fic, and as amazing as Ao3 is, we can't possibly move every fic there. When people leave platforms behind, sometimes they leave authors too, people that used to be active there until one day when they never logged back. These literary treasures can be forgotten if people don't keep their memory alive, and it's frustrating to see people complain about the lack of fics for a fandom or ship, knowing those fics are out there and nobody knows about them...

But by using the fabulous Tagging System on Ao3, we can make the search for obscure fics accesible to everybody! No more "somebody reuploaded my fic onto a different platform without permission" or "there are no fics for this old fandom! this show was never popular!" And specially, no more "I can't use [platform], the search system sucks! There's nothing good there anyways!": we can now bypass tedious search systems by directly linking to these fics, just like in a recommendation list!

How come I've never heard about this?!

The reasons are twofold:

Firstly, many people ignore the FAQ, which is a shame, as there are tons of tips and info on the platform!

But second, the centralisation of fandom has had the negative effect of people forgetting why Ao3 created the Bookmarks feature to begin with. One does not need Ao3 to bookmark fics for oneself, any internet browser nowadays has that function (for free!). The reason Ao3 implemented Public Bookmarks by default was due to Social Bookmarking: the idea of sharing links among your community to help eachother find things that would otherwise be difficult to find. In an era where algorithmic recommendations were non-existent and fandoms were often times not centered around one particular platform, sharing links was the only way to find stuff that might exist outside your orbit.

At the time, the role of these fandom archivers was greatly appreciated, and with the launch of Bookmarking Services, entire communities dedicated themselves to the classification and preservation of fanfic links: these people wrote out summaries, implemented detailed tag classifications and kept track of updates to keep everything up to date. This is because often times, authors did not add summaries, warnings, tags, or any key information to their fics, hence why the responsibility fell on readers and bookmarkers. It was a joint effort, by readers, for readers, even against the wishes of those authors who refused tagging due to spoilers or twists.

Sadly, as it tends to happen, these platforms rarely last forever, and many were lost to time due to new owners, increasing monetisation, advertiser friendly policies and the like. Fandom decided they couldn't rely on third parties anymore, hence the inclusion of a Bookmarking Feature, meant to share links among users of a new platform that never sought to become the one stop for all fanfic.

But that is precisely what happened: victim of its own success, Ao3 became so popular nobody ever used other platforms anymore, and so the role of bookmarkers was lost to time. The use the feature became increasingly personal, used as a reading list (despite the Mark for Later feature) as well as a tracker of sorts, which prompted users to ask for a Private Bookmarks option, and that leads us to...today.

So next time somebody asks "where's all the [something] fic?" or "why aren't bookmarks private by default?" and even "bookmarks are not a readers' space, what does that even mean" you remind them of all the people in fandom that contributed to the search for fics, the people who wrote fics in the past that haven't yet been forgotten, and hey, perhaps you direct them to the Bookmarks section to start a new recommendation list! Find your new favourites, and help others find theirs too! 💕