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.

I love this.

I don’t know if anyone has ever done this before but, here ya go… The Different Types of Fanfiction! 

I probably left a few out, but these are the most common, compared to their base fiction’s canon plot. Enjoy! XD

The crack fic is enough for a reblog.

then there are these favs….  ;)

always reblog

Um yes this is genius. 

DELETE THIS POST

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

*clicks play in morbid curiosity*

*hammers reblog button*

I think I find this post every April Fools Day and I am so happy that I do

Bleeeeugh om niom niomniom blereegh

@bruvebanner

UNMUTE UNMUTE UNMUTE

baby snoopy this, baby clifford that, baby gromit blah blah blah. what about baby kermit???????

baby kermit. you agree. reblog

um i love this cat

"can you fucking not"

A Timeline of Women’s Fashion from 1784-1970 (source: http://kottke.org/17/07/a-timeline-of-womens-fashion-from-1784-1970)

such a useful reference to see the transition of styles 

THIS IS THE SHIT

I'm from Ireland so I can approve this joke

Thank you. Here, for you:

I'm British, I'm stealing it

My precious gift :(

i’m half-irish half-british i’m stabbing that last guy

Wait! Maybe he will put the potato on display in the British museum next to all the other things they stole

GLORY TO MY BRETHREN

There is no glory in being stolen from your purpose and shamelessly put on display in a glass cage; to be gawked at by the public while you slowly rot. There is no glory in imprisonment, where your absence leaves thousands to starve. There is no glory in being a trophy when you are destined to be a hero.

Okay. Stab it is 🔪

@eowyn-igneelcheshire you know what? After reading your reply I don’t feel stabbing would be enough. Get in line everyone and choose your weapon:

This is how my bedroom sound at 3 am

Unmute for ARE YOU SLAPPIN'

Tumblr needed to see this

leave your laundry on the floor for them

the 'what if you played it a little risky' post literally Changed my life but i cant fujkign find it in my blog because its. a tiktok screenshot

is this it?

[Image ID: A screenshot of a Tiktok. A person stares into the camera blankly with text overlaid ontop of them. The text reads: "what if you start playing it a little risky? Even just in the slightest. say hi to the bus driver every morning, smile at people in public, go to the gym even if you're worried about being seen, take that class, talk to that person. start posting those videos you want to make, sit with the person sitting alone, start a new hobby, find a new interest, buy them flowers, go on that trip. Be who you truly are and not a watered down you." End ID.]