AO3 is Removing 'All Media Types' without Public Input or Announcement. What Can We Do?
What's Happening?
For those who don't yet know: AO3 and the Tag Wranglers have begun to slowly remove the 'All Media Types' tag for older fandoms. Aka, removing the 'umbrella' tag for many franchises, and forcing franchises to be split by media, or to be shoved under one umbrella that does not accurately reflect the types of fics or source medias they come from.
This has been slowly occurring with no official announcement, under the pretense that things will be 'easier' to manage, or that some users claimed that the 'All Media Types' tag was confusing. This has begun in secrecy, without genuine input from the userbase, and without any public announcement. (As of 9/5/2024 9:30 AM PST)
Many of us are pretty confident in AO3 staff's decisions, but the fact that this decision is not only incredibly impactful, but made without public input, has deeply violated the condition of the site as an archive... an archive of OUR own.
Current seen issues and active risks:
Removal of 'All Media Types' automatically makes fics from different sources in the same franchise a 'crossover', forcing users to consider non-crossover fics 'crossovers'. So, any fanfic that spans or implements elements from multiple pieces of media in a franchise are now considered a 'crossover', despite being from the same franchise and not a crossover.
Removal of 'All Media Types' forces users to manually search for the fics and ships they want one by one through each fandom tag in a related franchise. (Imagine looking through all the separate DC or MARVEL movies one by one).
The 'include crossovers' and 'exclude crossovers' filters are now useless, and removing genuine crossovers (crossovers between franchises) must be done manually through the filter system, which can take upwards of half an hour, if not longer, with the amount of one-off genuine crossovers that exist.
Slightly smaller franchises are being shoved under the umbrella of a single, super popular fandom. (See, Sherlock Holmes. All Sherlock Holmes media has been relegated to the tag 'Sherlock TV', which confuses users, as the tag now includes not only BBC Sherlock, which is the umbrella tag, but any works based off of Arthur Conan Doyle's original works, the 2009 Sherlock Holmes films, and the 16+ Sherlock Holmes adaptations and international TV shows... none of which are BBC Sherlock.)
Anime and manga fandoms (especially smaller ones) are being automatically split by media type, without regard to the fact that many anime and manga adaptations are very similar, and/or authors tend to often implement elements from both anime and manga.
As far as we are aware, no one is going to be correcting any improper sorting resulting from this.
Accounts that are no longer active/accessible, memorial accounts, and orphaned fics and no longer be corrected by their original authors and are at risk of being misplaced into incorrect fandom tags. Unfortunately, no one can fix this but the tag wranglers, who were supposedly removing 'All Media Types' in the first place to prevent MORE work. Counter intuitive, isn't it?
Already, fandoms are being improperly split, others being improperly merged, and still more being far more confusingly sorted. This deeply damages AO3's integrity as an ARCHIVE.
What Can I Do?
As soon as it's back up again, make sure to stop by the Contact Support page!
There, you're able to let them know exactly how you feel about this, and what fandoms your fear will be impacted by these changes. Many already have been.
In the meantime, make sure to contact AO3 on Twitter (or X):
ao3org (AO3's general twitter page), ao3_wranglers (AO3's tag wrangler page), and OTW_news (the parent host of AO3).
There is also tumblr:
ao3org (AO3's tumblr page) and transformativeworks (OTW's tumblr page).
And finally, the Organization for Transformative Works contact page.
If you are aware of any additional medias, please add them below to ensure that AO3 thoroughly understands the negative impact of this decision, especially the violation of trust resulting from making such a massive choice without impact. Be sure to share this information elsewhere, repost, share the links, and make a stink.
Furthermore, if you are able, letting AO3 know that you are no longer comfortable financially supporting them in the future.
Be sure to also repost and list any fandoms you have personally noticed have been impacted by this change!
Already Impacted Fandoms:
MARVEL, MCU, Marvel Comics, Avengers, and related tags
Any Sherlock Holmes based Media
A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon)
World of Warcraft
Assassin's Creed
Monogatari
BanG Dream!
Jujutsu Kaisen
Disney (all media, now: Disney Theatrical Animated Universe)
DC and DC Comics
AND MANY, MANY MORE!
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A Day That Will Forever Live In Television Infamy
5 Years Ago Today, Two Very Infamous Series Finales Have Aired. They Both Are:
While Game Of Thrones Has Its Reputation Improved By House Of The Dragon (Whose Second Season Is Coming Next Month), Star Vs On The Other Hand? Of The Two, SVTFOE Was The Only One I Watched, And That Show's Finale Left Me (To Borrow A Phrase From A Movie That Is Technically Owned By Disney) Whelmed.
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HOTD Original Character Ask Game – Disney Edition! 🏰
I’ve seen many posts about people complaining about “boring HOTD OCs,” so I challenge everyone to put their money where their Disney trivia’s at! Send in a prompt from the list below, and I’ll create a drabble with a unique OC based off the Disney character, like Disney-bounding, but for fanfics~ If you’d like, attach a pairing, a kingdom, or challenge multiple requests together! The characters can be from popular or obscure houses!
I started with female presented characters, mainly because there’s already too many to fit, and some characters were left off for various reasons.
Feel free to reblog and take requests of your own! I’d love to see what everyone can come up with! Reblog and state if you’d want requests from Levels One, Two and/or Three because they get a little wild and crazy. Mwahaa.
Level One: The Classics
🧹 Snow White
🍎 Evil Queen (Snow White)
🪡 Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)
💜 Malificent
👑 Cinderella
👿 Evil Step Mother (Cinderella)
🕊 Wendy (Peter Pan)
🧚🏾♀️ Tinker Bell
🍬 Alice
🧜♀️ Ariel (Little Mermaid)
🐙 Ursula
🐯 Jasmin (Aladdin)
🌹 Belle (Beauty and the Beast)
⚔️ Mulan
🐸 Tiana (Princess and the Frog)
🏹 Merida (Brave)
🍳 Rapunzil (Trangled)
🌻 Gothel
❄️ Elsa (Frozen)
⛄️ Anna (Frozen)
🌊 Moana
🏠 Mirabel (Encanto)
—
Level Two: A Fun Challenge
💅 Wicked Stepsisters (Cinderella)
💙 Blue Fairy (Pinocchio)
🎃 Fairy Godmother (Cinderella)
👽 Lilo
🏄♀️ Nani (Lilo and Stitch)
💕 Charlotte La Bout (Princess and the Frog)
🏛Meg (Hercules)
💎 Kida (Atlantis)
🐵 Jane Porter (Tarzan)
—
Level Three: lol Good Luck!
🦁 Nala (Lion King)
🎤 Giselle (Enchanted)
🐵 Jane Porter (Tarzan)
🐰 Judy Hopps (Zootopia)
🐶 Lady (Lady and the Tramp)
🐱 Marie (Aristocats)
🐠 Dory (Finding Nemo)
👾 Boo (Monsters Inc)
🤖 Eve (Wall–E)
🦜 Kevin (Up the bird)
☠️ Yzma (Emperor’s New Groove)
🕶 Roz (Monsters Inc)
🦌 Bambi’s Mom (oops)
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