r/archiveofourown

does anyone want any ao3 skins ?? i make a lot and id be happy to share css codes for ones i’ve made or even make some custom ones !! i just think its super fun to make!!
dm me if you wanna see some ! i’ll try my best to reply

Like when someone uses it as a name or title. As i reader i always express my gratitude to the author and their work, like “Another good update, thank you lovely Author” and now as i writer i’m getting similar comments on my work. i just think it is so cute that we do that🥰

Maybe I’m an outlier, but I can’t help finding hate comments absolutely hilarious. Like dawg, I’m making two fake people kiss to amuse myself and you’re mad about it?????

Anyways, drop some gems you’ve gotten, if any. AI doesn’t count (unless it’s funny).

Posting this because I keep seeing people confused about why some AO3 users and authors are nervous about the influx of Wattpad users. And before anyone assumes I’m just being an elitist: I WAS A WATTPAD USER. 😭 That’s literally where I started.
I went Wattpad → manga → anime → FanFiction.net → AO3, and the difference in fandom culture was VERY noticeable.
When I was younger, Wattpad was mostly Y/N, romance, and pretty tame stories. If there was smut, it was usually pretty vanilla. Then I got older and discovered AO3, where fandom was MUCH broader. Niche interests, darker themes, kink, complicated dynamics, morally questionable characters, longfic, etc.

And that’s fine. That’s literally what AO3 is for.
What worries people isn’t “Wattpad users existing.” It’s seeing some of the behavior that already happens in fandom spaces and wondering what happens when that becomes more common on AO3.
Because I’ve seen it myself. On TikTok especially, people constantly make posts about how “AO3 is disgusting” or “AO3 users are gross” because they found some absolutely insane fic, and then suddenly millions of users are being lumped together with whoever wrote it.
But genuinely…

HOW TF ARE YOU FINDING THESE FICS??? 😭

AO3 isn’t TikTok. It isn’t randomly putting a 2011 fic on your FYP. Half the time the examples people are posting are literally 10+ years old.
So you had to get there somehow.
You searched the fandom.
You searched the tags.
You searched the ship.
You clicked through pages.
You found it through bookmarks or recommendations.
Like babe, you didn’t accidentally trip and fall into a 2010 non-con fic. 😭
And I’m not even saying genuinely illegal content doesn’t exist or shouldn’t be dealt with. Obviously that’s a completely different conversation.

I’m talking about people finding the most extreme example possible, then going “SEE??? AO3 USERS ARE ALL DISGUSTING.”
Meanwhile I’ve been using AO3 for years, know how to filter, and there is SO much stuff I literally never encounter.
Which brings me to another thing I keep seeing:
“I only filtered out non-con and now my fandom has four fics.”
Buddy… I genuinely don’t think that’s an AO3 problem. 😭
If removing ONE tag makes your fandom go from thousands of fics to four, maybe that’s a fandom problem.

And if you’re constantly stumbling across stuff you supposedly don’t want to see, either you genuinely don’t know how to use AO3’s filters or your fandom is just freaky as hell. 💀
Because fandoms like Naruto , Supernatural ,Harry Potter , Marvel, DC, etc. have an absolutely ridiculous amount of fic.
Want fluff? Tag it.
Want slow burn? Tag it.
Want longfic instead of one-shots? Filter by word count.
Want hurt/comfort, romance, established relationship, whatever? Search for it.
AO3 literally gives you the tools to curate your own experience.
And when I was younger, if I clicked on something that wasn’t for me, I went:
“Oh absolutely not 💀**” → click out → find something else.**

I didn’t mass-report the author. I didn’t go into their comments calling them a freak. I didn’t ship-shame them. I didn’t decide that everyone who enjoyed the fictional thing must secretly support it IRL.
I just didn’t read it.

That’s the part I’ve personally seen that makes people nervous: ship-shaming, authors getting attacked for fictional dynamics, people throwing random labels at other users, and this increasingly common idea that if YOU personally find something uncomfortable, nobody should be allowed to enjoy it.

And yes, I’ve seen this stuff specifically from people on TikTok complaining about AO3. I’m not saying every Wattpad user acts this way. Obviously they don’t. I was literally one of them.

I’m saying I’ve seen enough of this behavior that I understand why some AO3 users are worried about a culture shift.
Because AO3 isn’t supposed to be a website where every fic has to pass everyone’s personal morality test.
You don’t like a ship? Don’t read it.
You don’t like a kink? Filter it.
You hate a character? Block the tag.
You found something uncomfortable? Close the tab.

You are allowed to curate your experience without trying to curate everybody else’s.
And honestly, I think that’s the biggest difference people need to understand.
I’m not asking Wattpad users to stay away from AO3. I’m asking people to understand what kind of space they’re walking into before demanding that the space change around them.

Because some of us came to AO3 specifically BECAUSE it wasn’t Wattpad. 😭

Okay so I’m on twitter and I’m just there as a person, not as a part of a fandom or anything and I just— I spotted my fic in the wild and someone’s accusing it of AI because I posted 70k words in under a week. It’s a pretty popular one in a rising community.

Granted, it wasn’t all at once, I had meant to do a schedule but I just get the itch to post, so.

I didn’t interact with it or anything, but it did leave me dejected, because it just sucks. I didn’t use AI, I had pre written some chapters, I even said so in my author notes in one of the chapters, and yet.

I guess I just wish ppl understood that a lotta words in a short period of time DOES NOT mean AI. Some people just don’t post at once.

I ask because I was planning on doing an A/N at the very beginning of the story (which will be quite long) explaining that the fic is a mixture of book and show canon and then going into detail about what exactly happened prior to the fic taking place.

I'm going to do my best to explain it all in the actual fic itself but I was just wondering if the majority of people just skip A/Ns. As a reader I'm guilty of skipping like 90% of them.

Have you ever become disengaged because someone gives a character the job you have and get it completely wrong? I get that this is fiction but idk if it’s happened to someone else or just me.

I need bts fic recs with fairy themes (small creatures). e.g. fairies, elves etc. angels will be fine too, I like it when they have feathers/wings.

I like rare pairs, poly relationships and long fics.
but doesn’t matter, I don’t care. anything is welcomed. (doesn’t have to be on theme or completed.)

e.g. uprise by kpopismydrug on ao3

i have obviously no clue if this is the right flair or anything cause im new on reddit and also kinda new to fanfiction, but that is also the point.
here on reddit and on ao3 too people are so nice, at least for now!
giving recommendations, helping with posts, fanarts, comments, all of it, every interaction i’ve had was sooo nice and im really happy about this, it really puts me in a good mood and i love the community

I just received the following comment on my fic that is tagged dead dove:

“I dont feel like honors the tag Dead Dove do not eat, I was expecting something gory”

Am I going insane or does the dead dove tag not just mean take the tags seriously ??? obviously it will accompany some fics that are more gory because of the nature of the tag. My fic is a psychological thriller, exploring themes of manipulation, stalking, alienation, Stockholm syndrome etc.

Should I have not used the tag, or is this reader just misinformed?

Like when the work is so gorgina you just want to cuddle it and have it in your bookshelf forever because its such a piece of literature??? The fic im reading is SO peak and it has words i dont know in it and its just PERFECT and i wish it was cannon so bad bro