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.

URGENT: KOSA GOING TO HOUSE TODAY!!

[ID: a screenshot of a discord message from user @Taikeero-Lecoredier which reads: "@everyone

‼️URGENT: KOSA has been officially introduced in the House as of today.

We need to spread the word on social media and urge people to send emails to Congress through stopkosa.com.

https://www.stopkosa.com/

• There will be a hearing on Wednesday (17th April) where KOSA, along with some other bad internet bills, like the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act could be pushed.

• We will be having a calling day on TUESDAY (16 th April) to make clear to Congress that there is still a ton of opposition to these bills.

https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/chair-rodgers-and-ranking-member-pallone-announce-legislative-hearing-on-data-privacy-proposals-1

• House Energy and Commerce is holding the hearing so they are the best offices to call this week ‼️

https://energycommerce.house.gov/representatives

DONT FORGET: You can go to what-to-write-and-say and check pins to know what to say !!

• You can use http://badinternetbills.com/ to contact your congress people!

• And https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative to find all of the phone numbers of your House Representative, and faxzero.com to send up to 5 free faxes a day

SPREAD THE WORD !!" End ID]

^^ PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD AND CALL, EMAIL AND FAX YOUR REPS ASAP!!

here's another site where you can find your Reps if the one provided above gives you trouble.

here's a perma link to the Stop Internet Censorship Discord, where there are loads of resources and petitions to sign and actions you can take to keep the Internet censorship free.

edit: to be clear, KOSA hasn't skipped the Senate vote. in order to become law, KOSA still needs positive votes from both the Senate and the House, which is why it is being introduced to the House today. while KOSA still has lots of support from the Senate, much of the House still either opposes it or is neutral.

don't panic, and don't give up! just keep sending emails, faxing and calling. raise your voices! make yourselves heard!

I think it is incredible that President Biden is actually feeling the pressure from our protests. No, he hasn't done everything he needs to and he hasn't redeemed himself for his role in all this, but the fact that he was caught on a hot mic saying Netanyahu needs a "come to Jesus meeting" about how horribly he's treating Palestinians? That's incredible. All our protests and boycotts have not been in vain. If we weren't making trouble, these governments could keep pretending that they've done no wrong- but they can't escape the blame.

It's encouraging. When you feel like our protests are falling on deaf ears, remember that McDonalds started the year with a loss of over a million dollars, Starbucks fell below it's quarterly sales and is considering closing locations, and people are paying attention- they're changing their opinions. And while these numbers may not be groundbreaking, they are the signs of real effects. Real change.

Never Shut Up About Palestine. Never let them think we are silent and complicit. Let history remember that our governments did not stand for us in this moment, and we did everything we could to make them listen.

So p/atreon is amping up its lockdown on nsfw material, gumroads is amping up its nsfw material-

Pornhub is currently not available in texas.

KOSA keeps coming closer to getting actually passed-

Can people please just admit that nsfw is being driven underground? That adult artists are being banned and pushed out of their spaces?

And dont start saying "oh just the yucky stuff." No, this is *ALL* Nsfw.

We are losing spaces left and right...

Not only that, it feels like we creatives are being killed. And that isnt exactly hyperbolic.

Paypal implemented taxes not that long ago, a hit to those who use it. Artists especially. Midjourney and other ai, stealing artworks, having people think less of artists.

Platforms kicking and banning artists left and right.

It feels like being an indie creator is being choked out of possibility. That you have to be born rich and lucky for your creative dreams to come true.

"oh you're just a porn addict its not that bad"

Its not that bad until your stuff is banned.

We had ROE VS FUCKING WADE thrown out the window. You dont think we could have LGBTQA+ rights thrown out too!?

The internet is becoming SO HOSTILE to creatives of all sorts. Its fucking heartbreaking.

Its like we're entering nsfw prohibition of the internet, buy a 160 dollar keychain for a 'free' picture of a dragon fucking a Volkswagen 😭

Exactly. And if people think it's just 'porn' being banned, they're wrong.

The lgbtq community is going to be the first to be thrown under the bus, especially with states like Missouri proposing laws where teachers are not even allowed to address a trans student by their preferred pronouns.

In other states, merely dressing as you identify is now being deemed as 'pornographic' and a crime.

It doesn't matter how 'wholesome' you think your queer art or writing is. It's going to be lumped in with anything lgbtq, and as far as the alt-right is concerned, it will be seen as immoral 'porn'.

This ban is the alt-right taking yet another step over the line to see how hard we will fight back.

Give. Them. Hell.

KOSA is the next step, and if it passes, we're fucked.

There is a planned lawsuit against mastercard nsfw policies (as it all trickles down on every monetized platform that USED to host nsfw) i hope it goes somewhere https://www.tumblr.com/taikeero-lecoredier/745142469891670016/lawyer-up-literally-i-think-itll-be-the-only-way?source=share As for KOSA,take the time to learn about it and help fight against it https://www.tumblr.com/taikeero-lecoredier/709890130733826048/these-twos-bills-are-very-bad-for-the-future-of?source=share

Also, for the people still uncertain what counts as 'nsfw'

Michaelangelo's David counts.

The Willendorf Venus counts.

Every millennia old stone or bronze statue depicting nude men and/or women. Every painting, every tapestry, every painted vase.

This isn't just 'icky porn', it's stuff that is entirely nonsexual depictions of nude human bodies too.

(I'm pointing this out bc every time I see this argument SOMEONE chimes in with 'oh but they don't mean REAL art!'. Yes, yes they do also mean your narrow definition of artistic nudity as well)

all of this is important & true but worth mentioning that the first people being thrown under the bus in online sexual content policies are sex workers. we can’t leave sex work out of these conversations.

Patreon, Squarespace, Gumroad. What do all these online spaces have in common? A monopolizing payment processor. My hand slipped and I contacted the ACLU, the FSC, and the MA Bar Association for legal assistance. If you’ve been fucked over by draconian nsfw bans please join my Mastercard Injury Mailing List.