Do you ever see something like this:

and think, "This'll be a fun little thing to read while I wait."

And then you read it and you're fundamentally changed as a person and you're left staring off into the middle distance as you contemplate life and love and connection and what it all means?

What do AO3's Archive Warnings mean?

Archive Warnings can be confusing to new users, both readers and writers alike, so let's take a moment and break them down. We'll start at the top of the list - which is ordered alphabetically.

Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings - when AO3 was being designed (by fans, for fans) there was a debate about requiring warnings. At the time, they were not a standard expectation, so some people didn't want warnings to be mandatory on every individual fic on the Archive. Other people did.

This warning - stating that the author was making a choice not to provide a warning - was a compromise. A creator could choose not to apply a warning to their fic and readers would then know to be wary because it would be possible that any of the warnings might be needed, or multiple of them, or none of them.

This warning (which I'll abbreviate to CCNTW from here on out) is also a good catch-all for other things that a creator might want to warn for that don't have a specific Archive Warning. Authors can also provide warnings of different kinds in the Additional Tags on a work, so it's a good idea to read those carefully as well.

You can read up on more of the history of this warning on Fanlore.

Graphic Depictions of Violence - This applies to stories where the descriptions of violence are very detailed and probably gory. The violent scenes will likely be brutal and easily imagined. This warning is generally accompanied by a rating of either M or E - meaning that the content in the work is aimed at adults only.

Some authors find it difficult to decide whether the violence in their fic is graphic enough to warrant using this warning, so they use CCNTW instead. For some fandoms, the source material is already full of graphic violence and so they might also use an Additional Tag to give more information such as, "canon typical violence"

Major Character Death - This can be interpreted in different ways. It might mean:

It is possible that the character who dies does not stay dead in the fic, in which case the author may decide to use an Additional Tag like "temporary character death" to provide more information.

It is also possible that an author will decide to use CCNTW instead because they want to avoid giving spoilers for the story.

No Archive Warnings Apply - This means that none of the other warnings in this list apply to this fic. The fic may still be given a rating that indicates it is for an adult audience.

Rape / Non-Con - This refers to different scenarios in which a character does not consent to sexual activity.

Non-Con is short for non-consent, which is a term from role-playing communities in which not giving consent is part of the sexual game. Non-con can also refer to the fact that in a fictional story, we might see a character verbally state that they don't want to have sex and then read their inner monologue in which they express that they do.

The various interactions and interpretations involved in consent can get very complex and nuanced, and some creators might use CCNTW because they aren't sure if what they're writing rises to the level of this warning.

Underage - This warning refers to stories that describe sexual activity (more than just kissing) involving characters who are under 18 years old. This one is also up for interpretation when it comes to creatures, monsters, mythological beings, aliens that live for thousands of years, etc.

---

All of the above warnings will be used a little differently by different creators and by different fandoms, and as you read more on the site you will likely notice these differences.

However, if you see a work on the Archive that should have one of these warnings but doesn't, you can report that work to the Policy Questions & Abuse team by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking the link to their reporting form.

To help the volunteers who manage these reports, you can give them some additional information. If it's a multi-chaptered work, let them know which chapter to look in or give them a keyword or phrase they can search for to find the relevant scene(s). If the volunteer decides a warning is required, they'll contact the creator and ask them to add it. If they decide that it doesn't, they'll let you know.

If the work has Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings on it, that includes all other warnings and that fic shouldn't be reported for missing one.

how to get dark mode on AO3

Step one: log into your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can get invited here.

Step two: scroll all the way down to the bottom of any page on AO3 and tap on the word Reversi in the footer

Congratulations! You're now in dark mode! 🎉

Your AO3 will continue to be in dark mode until you log out. If you want to continue being in dark mode after logging out and logging back in again then

Step three: tapping on Reversi will take you to a new page showing the code for the Reversi site skin. Scroll allllll the way to the bottom of that code and tap on the Use button.

This will make Reversi permanently attach to your account until you remove it by changing to another skin or reverting to the Default.

I'm in the midst of writing a *very* long post about how to find things on AO3 where I go into the details of both Searching and Filtering. I'm worried about destroying your dashboards, so here's a poll:

a "cut" is the Read more link that shortens the post visible on your dash. To read the rest of the post, you'll need to visit the page on my blog.

When you're posting a work on AO3, one of the options you have is to add relationship tags to your work. Sometimes you'll see tags that look almost exactly the same and you might wonder what the difference is.

A/B indicates that person A and person B have a romantic or sexual relationship in this fic.

A&B indicates that person A and person B have a non-romantic and non-sexual relationship in this fic - they are friends, colleagues, family members etc. who have a platonic relationship.

If you want to add more specific information about what kind of relationship the characters have in your story, you can use the additional tags or the summary to let readers know more about what they're in for.

Editing to add: Oh yes! And it doesn't matter which character you list first in your tag. They both filter the same way in the site's database.

new user guide to posting on AO3

This video walks a new user through the required steps to post a work on AO3. It does not cover the entire New Work form.

To begin, the narrator is on AO3's home page. They zoom in on the header, specifically the word Post. They instruct the user to tap on that work and then select New Work from the dropdown.

On the Post New Work page, they zoom in on the words * Required information and they point out that only sections that are in red are required. The rest of the information is optional.

Next, they zoom in on the word Rating. They say that any time you are confused by something, you can tap on the question mark icon to open a pop up with definitions and examples.

In the Archive Warnings section of the form, they explain that the first item in the alphabetized list of Warnings, Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings, means that any of the other warnings may be present in the fic. If an author wishes to let readers know that none of the warnings are present, they should select No Archive Warnings Apply.

For the section requiring the user to indicate the work's Fandom, the narrator points out that users should enter the name of the TV show, movie, comic etc. and not the name of a particular character or ship. It's not said in the video, but the reason for this is because AO3 has a separate area where you can tag the ship(s) and character(s) in your story.

They next tell users to give their work a Title and choose the work's Language (they open up the menu and scroll to show how many there are available). Then they scroll down to the Work Text box, which is where authors enter the text of their stories.

Their recommendation is to use Rich Text instead of HTML so that the interface looks more familiar. They do not explain that choosing HTML requires you to manually enter the HTML tags to format your work.

Finally, they scroll to the bottom of the page and zoom in on the Preview and Post buttons. They explain that selecting Post will make your work go live on the Archive for everyone to access immediately, while selecting Preview allows you to look at your work first and reread it for typos or test the formatting.

If you find it difficult (or annoying) to post on AO3, considering changing from the default HTML to the more familiar Rich Text. You can find these buttons at the top right of the box where you enter the text of your fic.

If you dislike the Rich Text format, or if you're having issues when you copy/paste from somewhere else such as Google Docs, then I have a post over here with a tool (and instructions) that will convert your fic into html for you so you can just copy/paste it in without any worries or additional effort.

Also, AO3 recommends that you don't write your story directly in that AO3 form because your work isn't saved until you hit the button at the bottom of the page. To avoid the risk of losing your work, consider writing your story somewhere else and copying it over into AO3.

I heard that wattpad is doing a purge of NSFW works, so I'm going to be posting some general orientation type videos and some how to's to help folks learn more about Ao3.

If you want to follow (or avoid) those posts, I'm tagging them as welcome wattpad

A video that shows the Ao3 homepage with the user not logged in. The narrator says, "This is what Ao3 looks like when you don't have an account."

The background changes so that Ao3 is in dark mode (Reversi) and the narrator says, "This is what it can look like when you do have an account."

Upbeat music begins to play and the video shows the homepage of Ao3 with various different skins applied. Each skin is listed below.

If you don't yet have an account and you want one, go to the Ao3 homepage (by tapping on the site name at the top of the page) and tap on the Get Invited! button.

You need to provide an email address in order to get an account. This should be your own address and one that you can access. Your email is the only way that Ao3 will ever contact you. I recommend not using a school or work email address to sign up for Ao3.

Invitations are sent in batches, and they're currently sending out 6000 per day. They limit how many they send in an effort to reduce spam on the site. You can see where you are on the waitlist by entering your email address on this page. Right now, the wait time is about 11 days.

You can still read fic on the site without an account, but you need to have an account to change the site's appearance, to post a fic of your own, to save bookmarks of fics and various other things. You can leave kudos and comments without an account, but your kudos will be listed as guest. Once you get an account, it will list your username instead.

girls will say, "I know a place" and then take you to the AO3 you know and love and show you what it looks like with a site skin on it