#ao3 how-tos

[drgrlfriend]

Comments versus Bookmarks on AO3

A few people seemed appreciative of my post about how to use AO3's Marked for Later feature, so I thought I'd follow up with another tip about comments versus bookmarks. As part of the amazing @justleaveacommentfest I noticed a few people mentioned leaving nice comments in bookmarks, and I thought it might help to have a little info about how comments are different from bookmarks, and why it's better to send a comment if you want to make an author happy or make fandom friends or have an interesting discussion.

Bookmarks *are* viewable by everyone, unless you make them private. If you plan to say anything negative in your bookmark, please make it private. It's not really the flip side, however, that leaving positive statements in your bookmarks will reach the author, though.

Most authors are alerted when they get new comments, either through their dashboard or via email if they choose, or both. Yay! Serotonin boost, and also the ability to reply back and start a conversation! Plus, readers can have great discussions with each *other* in the comments section of a fic! If you're super into a fic you can read comments on the chapter even years later, and sometimes find the author adding additional thoughts or discussing their thought process while writing! It's like DVD extras for fanfic! (Do kids these days know what DVD extras are any more? Damned if I know).

You don't really know, as an author, when someone bookmarks one of your fics. Some authors, particularly when they are feeling low (cough cough) may also look at bookmarks to see if there are nice things there. This would basically just involve clicking on the bookmarks for each of your fics individually to see if there's anything a.) new and b.) nice in them.

This is an act of desperation. It's not really a wise thing to do, as 99% of bookmarks have no comments, or just list the title and author in fear of the fic being deleted some day and not knowing what you're missing. Even worse, if you, as an author, get desperate enough to cruise your bookmarks, you are as likely to see someone say something like "Meh" or "This got boring so I stopped reading at Chapter 5" or "Too many werewolves 3/10" in a werewolf fic than you are to see a nice compliment.

So, if you loved a fic and want to memorialize your love in a bookmark, be an extra super-duper sweetheart and cut and paste that into a comment for the author! Make the AO3 environment enriching for both authors and fellow readers in the comments section, and protect your friendly local author by not providing intermittent positive reinforcement for the negative behavior of scrolling through bookmarks!

I still recommend bookmarking fics. Bookmark those favorite fics you want to come back and read later, or use bookmarks to leave yourself little reminders if they are nice or in private bookmarks if they are not nice. Bookmark good resources, like how to code things in html or how to use AO3 filters most effectively. Find awesome new things to read by looking through the bookmarks of your favorite authors, because if you vibe with someone's writing you may also vibe with their favorite fics to read!

[iamprchung]

I got this right just once, and I thought I had Word set properly, but when cutting and pasting text into A03 using the rich text format, I end up with extra line spaces that I have to manually remove.

I'm really hoping this resolves the aggravation.

Formatting Tips - From Word and Docs to Ao3

Both writers and readers have probably noticed formatting inconsistencies when reading fics on Ao3. Who wants to work hard for weeks or months on a fic, only to have it reveal distracting formatting issues with extra spacing, italics, or punctuation once it’s published? Nobody we know! So we thought we’d put together some tips to prevent this annoying problem, which usually arises from transferring work from Microsoft Word or Google Docs to Ao3.

Extra paragraph spacing can be prevented by adjusting the line spacing setting in Word or Google Docs before you start writing.

If using Microsoft Word: The default style for a new “Blank” document in Word includes a 10pt. space after a paragraph break. If you are not sure how your document is formatted, just open your document. From the “Home” tab, you will see the styles in the menu at the top. Make sure “Normal” is highlighted. When you start typing, then hit “enter” for a paragraph break, a space will appear in between your paragraphs so you won’t have to hit enter twice, and no empty paragraphs will be brought over to Ao3.

If using Google Docs: Make sure your line spacing settings for your document are set to ‘Insert Break After Paragraph.” This will make it so that every time you hit “enter” to move to a new paragraph, it will insert space automatically for you. This means you shouldn’t hit enter twice when starting a new paragraph. This will prevent extra paragraph spacing when moving to Ao3. Find this setting in the “Format” menu, under “Line Spacing.”

If You Have Already Started:

If you already have your work partially or completely written, you will need to locate the extra paragraphs (created by extra “enters” to create space between your paragraphs) and delete them, so they don’t carry over and show up in Ao3. 

Here is a post describing how to remove empty paragraphs from Word if you have already written your fic. These instructions show you how to make the coding visible so you can delete extra paragraph spaces.

If working in Google Docs, you can copy your document into Word and follow the above instructions. 

Alternatively, here is a post describing how to remove empty paragraphs if you’ve already written your fic. This method will work if your original document is in Word or Docs, and involves moving the content of your document into a text editor and removing all of the code that causes empty paragraphs.

[spirkbitch]

i love that when you wonder where a fanfiction trope started, if you just guess Star Trek you’ll be right at least 90% of the time

[kaffkanya]

parted from me *sobs* *drinks beer* *slams it down on the counter* and never parted

[starseeker95]

Do not complain to me about how hard it is to navigate ao3 on mobile, young one. I hid under the bleachers and read Spirk fanfics on a BlackBerry during gym class. We are not the same.

[chapollynh]

I'm excited to announce that "For many a lonely day sailed across the milky seas", a story written by with CaelumCalamitas, or @scribblerinthestars, and illustrated by me, will be coming soon to AO3!

The story will follow the Enterprise and her crew as the first negotiations with the alien spacecraft orbiting Earth, V'Ger, fail and the subsequent search for who it thinks it's creator is, an old demon named Crowley.

This collaboration was formed for the Do It In Style Silver Screen Bang and you can follow them here on Tumblr at @do-it-with-style-events, their Twitter (or X ig) or BlueSky to know more and see the other beautiful projects!

[mistylacrimosa]

Obligatory post to scream to the internet that AO3 is down and my life is meaningless until it comes back.

[odekiisu]

I made the amazing Butterfly series by Moreta1848 into a book!

A6 size, cream white paper, body font is Coelacanth and title font is Empherian. The butterfly motif is my own design.

Now brb, I’m going to get a nice cup of tea and some muffins and read this series for the nth time.

(You can go read it here.)

[holdy-caulfield]

You know the fanfic is good when at some point you are not sure if the thing you remember was in canon, or you have read it in fanfiction, and you mix it up.

[butevrythinggoesaway]

People on ao3 AND tumblr stop tagging Noir when he has nothing to do with your work/post challenge

[batcavescolony]

Hey do you know what’s up with ao3s policy about processing data ?

I'm gonna preface this with I'm not expert, so take what I say with a grain of salt. If you want an expert opinion go find an expert, but here we go.

So a while ago Ao3 e-mailed everyone this

Basically saying they're updating their Terms Of Service, this is a thing they do when it's needed. This particular update is about

Really this doesn't change much from what I can tell?

Now what I see people worried about it the privacy policy but really it looks like basic stuff to me (grain of salt, I'm no expert)

Ao3 is a USA based corporation so your data needs to be transferred to the USA (this doesn't affect me, in from the USA)

They say for legal reasons they might share your date but they'll contact you (unless urged not to).

There's something about how you can't create an account if you're a resident or national of any country with which the U.S. has prohibited transactions by mandating a comprehensive trade embargo.

I don't know enough about that so see if that affects you ig? (Update: it's a precaution to cover them, it probably won't affect anything)

Basically to me (again grain of salt) it looks fine, it's nothing I wouldn't expect from any other site.

The only physical difference is gonna be the change of 'underage' in the warnings is now 'underage sex' but that won't change anything really.

TL:DR I'm no expert but it looks fine (but can't state this enough I'm no expert)

Link to my ao3 guide

[drgrlfriend]

How to Use "Marked for Later" on AO3

People seem to be unaware of/confused about this, and I know it's a little tricky to find "how to use the site" info on AO3, so here's a little guide.

Log in to your AO3, this won't work if you're a guest I don't think.

When you find a fic you like and open it, at the top there should be a button that says "Mark for Later."

When you click it, it puts the fic on your "Marked for Later list."

3. To find your Marked for Later list, hover over your name and choose "My History."

4. The history opens to a default page that is Full History, but next to that button is one that says "Marked for Later." Click on that to view the fics you've marked for later.

5. If you are reading a fic that you've marked for later, once you're done (and have left comments and kudos of course!) you can go back to the top, and where the "Mark for Later" button usually is you will see a button that says "Mark as Read" instead.

Clicking the "Mark as Read" button takes the fic off your Marked for Later list, but if you think you will want to find it again in the future it will still be in your Full History (unless you've deleted that fic from your history or cleared your history altogether, either of which you can do) and you can always make a Bookmark for the fic as well! Remember, authors can and do read bookmarks so be kind or make your bookmark private, and please do not try to add fics to Collections just for your personal tracking purposes.

[muirmarie]

when i see a post of the three of them, and the only ship tags are sp/rk and mcsp/rk.......i see you. sp/nes will MAYBE be on there. but ppl really be out here in two thousand and twenty-five looking at the trio and saying t.o.s. mck/rk? never heard of her.

and from the bottom of my heart, you're missing so much, it kills me

[sak-supernatural]

Thought I’d check in on an old friend, I waisted many good hours here as a teenager. While I never had an account or even thought of posting anything back then I was an avid reader. It was my ao3 before I understood ao3.

I was so happy when I heard about the movement to ao3 but it’s been too long since I last checked in on Spirk and I was feeling like something familiar.

K/S archive evokes a distinct memory for me of reading fanfic sitting on my bedroom floor next to my radiator with my back leaning against my TV unit. Anyway, that’s my nostalgia for the day!

[theoktiste]

AO3 is updating their terms of service (nothing major, mainly clarifying and streamlining the wording of existing policies), and there's currently an open comment period before the board votes on it.

The change being talked about the most in the comments seems to be changing the name of the "Underage" Archive Warning to "Underage Sex". They're not going to change the meaning of the warning or its intended use. Literally all they're suggesting is making the name clearer because apparently a bunch of people have been using it incorrectly for shit like underage drinking or even just the existence of a minor character in the fic (?!?!).

You would not believe how many people are just showing their whole asses in the comments. Apparently 'reading the description of the warning' was too hard for these people on the reading website. If I were as clearly and demonstrably wrong as these dipshits I'd never show my face in public again, but instead of going "Oh, whoops, looks like I misunderstood", most* of them are doubling-down and insisting that no, actually, their purity-addled, moral-crusade-driven, willfully ignorant misuse of the warning is correct, and who cares what the TOS say, no one reads those anyway.

Anyway, if you have an AO3 account, I recommend you check out the proposed changes and leave your own thoughts in the comments over there. (And also read the other comments if you have the time; some of them are pretty insightful, and some of them are just so ??? they're funny.)

*Most, but by no means all. There were plenty of "Wait, really? That's good to know" comments as well.

[ent-is-indecisive]

Quick question, would people actually like to see fanart on ao3?