Do you all miss the way tumblr used to be with people sending each other prompts and asks about their fics and just asks in general? Because I sure do!! People talk about stony fandom dying, and I get it because if people don’t reblog or send asks or comment on fics then of course it feels like the fandom is dying!! I think that if we want this fandom to be more lively then it’s incumbent upon us to create a community again!

So what can you do?

There’s so many ways to build a community and keep a fandom thriving, but it’s on all of us to keep our fandom alive!!

Fandom only dies if you let it, so let’s all work together to create a vibrant, thriving community!!

Let’s treat this like an ask game—If you reblog this I’ll send you some asks, if you too pay it forward and go to a stony blog and send asks, prompts, etc.!

We’re working together to create a fandom space that is vibrant and fun—so ask those burning questions about someone’s fic, compliment someone on their art, discuss meta, just engage!! We can do this!!!

I challenge everyone who loves stony to reblog this and send asks to the folks in the notes (likes/reblogs)!!! Don’t know them? Who cares!! We all like the same thing and this is how community is built—through connection and fun!

Cap wants YOU to be a hero and connect with your community!!

Go send an ask!

Comment on a fic!

Reblog some art!!

Guest comments back on!

Guest comments have now been turned back on! We'll continue to keep an eye out for any spam issues and make further adjustments as needed. (22:08 UTC April 23, 2024)

I cannot possibly express how amazing it feels to get repeat commenters on a fanfic. When I was writing my first long form fanfic last spring I could have dedicated it to my first reader, that's how inspired I felt that they commented so consistently.

I remember having the slightly hysterical thought that *I* should check to see if *they* had a Kofi so that I could donate to it since they were the reason my fanfic got finished so quickly.

Detailed commentors are A M A Z I N G. They feed my soul.

Alright, to ao3's soon to be arriving Wattpad Refugees, a basic guide to general user culture:

1.) Unlike Wattpads vote system that let's you like each chapter, the ao3 equivalent kudos only allows one per work. Everyone is generally quietly annoyed about this. To engage with each chapter, you're heavily encouraged to comment. Trust me, it makes people's day.

2.) Ao3 has no algorithm. By default it's latest updated work first. You can find things to your taste through searches, filters and tags.

3.) 'No archive warnings apply' and 'user has chosen not to use archive warnings' mean two very different things. No archives warnings means the work is free from any content that could require a warning tag (character death, graphic depictions of violence, non-con, etc). User has chosen not to use archive warnings means it could contain any of the warning content, be it hasn't been explicitly tagged. Treat it like an allergen. No archive warnings apply is allergen free. User has chosen not to use archive warnings, may contain traces or whole chunks of the allergen. If you're likely to have a bad reaction, maybe don't take the risk.

4.) Speaking of warnings, ao3 has very few restrictions on the type of work that's allowed. Whatever your personal thoughts or feelings on that are, thats how the site is. You're likely to run across some dark subject matters and a lot of people are uncomfortable with reading that. You're well within your rights not like these works and have your opinion on whether they should be allowed, but harassing the authors of such works (or any works) is more likely to come back on you than them. Ao3 operates on a strong policy of 'don't like, don't read'. Use the tagging system to your full advantage to only engage with the kind of works you want to see.

We look forward to welcoming you all and seeing the fantastic works you create. Happy writing!

To add to this: AO3's tagging system is significantly more sophisticated than Wattpads, and it might be harder to grasp at first. Thats okay! Here's a little primer (and you can ask questions or read the FAQ whenever you want)

[Disclaimer: I am really autistic about AO3 tags and want to be helpful]

Okay so:

The only mandatory tags on AO3 are:

The Rating: What general age range it is written for. This is where a reader can check quickly how graphic a fic is going to be, so its important to be honest.

The line between M and E is a hot topic of debate: you will find porn and violence in both in varying degrees of on-screen visuals. Generally speaking, I like to think M ends before the pants come off and E keeps going, but your mileage may vary.

The Archive Warnings: OP told you about these above but I'll mention them again: They are:

They're organized just like that in Alphabetical order as a multiple choice list. You have to tick off at least one, and you can tick off as many as are necessary. Remember that "No Warnings Apply" means none of the archive warnings are relevant to the fic, and "Chose Not to Warn" means any of them could be but there is no guarantee.

The Fandom Tag: what source material, be it a show, comic, boyband, book, or ancient Mesopotamian poem, goes here.

The Work Title: You have to name your fic something

Language: AO3 is open to all cultures and backgrounds, so it hosts works in a lot of different languages. You have to tag what language your fic is written in.

After that, the tags are optional, but they are very very useful, and I'll explain some more!

OPTIONAL TAGS!!

The Category tags are also multiple choice style, and these are where you tell readers what kind of Ships are in your fic:

Lastly we have the Longform Tags! (These are my favorite).

Although users can generally write these out however they want, AO3 will "wrangle" them (re: sort and relate them to) a searchable tag with a specific syntax. I'll talk about them only in relation to their AO3 standardized syntax, since thats how they get Auto-suggested when made filterable.

Characters tags are where the canonical name of the character from the Fandom goes. Some characters may only have one name (like "Mario (Nintendo)") while others may have a first and last name (like "Cloud Strife"). Some may have fandom suffix appended to them to disambiguate them (like "Burgerpants (Undertale)") and some may not. Some may have a pipe separating two equally important names in canon (like "Zelda | Sheik").

Relationship Tags are tags where you define what characters are in what relationship with other characters. They are written in alphabetical order of character name, first by the character's last name, then their first name, as one would write them in the Character Tag field.

A relationship can be written with either a slash (/) or an ampersand (&), and these mean different things. / means that it is a romantic or sexual relationship and & means it is platonic or familial. Therefore: "Sokka & Zuko (Avatar)" means that Sokka and Zuko are in a platonic or familial relationship with each other, and "Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)" means that Sokka and Zuko are in a romantic or sexual relationship. This makes them very different tags in term of content indication.

3+ characters in a single relationship tag is quite common and appreciated! However, it is AO3 standard for relationship tags to only contain one kind of relationship sign, either all / or all &. It would be standard-noncompliant to tag "Aang & Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)". For such complex relationship dynamics, multiple ship tags are recommended [such as: "Aang & Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)"]

Additional Tags (aka Freeform Tags) are the most varied! This is where tropes, detailed content warnings, kinks, Alternate Universe tags, and everything else goes. Once you get to the Additional Tags, you have to get to know your fandom to see what tags look like. Every fandom has fandom-specific tags and it is a lot of fun to figure out what tags end up being prevalent in yours <3

Welcome to AO3!

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - Deleted Scene

sometimes you gotta run before you can walk

the creators struggle of "yes I absolutely made this for myself and I should absolutely appreciate that I made this thing that turned out amazing and be proud of it on that merit alone" vs "man it'd be cool if everyone liked this thing I made as much as I do"

Every single fic update there is an author trying frantically to find the right balance between a nonchalant aside of "leave a comment if you enjoyed =)" and clinging desperately to the coat tails of a random stranger, dragging along behind them on the street wailing "Please, please! I have to know what you thought! I'm desperate to talk to people about this! Ask me about the alliterative repetition! Ask me about the symbolism!"

someone I follow on the bird app just announced they're starting a very exclusive private fic server because they and a bunch of other people want to talk about how much they love the fics they're reading, and as an author can I just say that a really great place to talk about a fic you love is in the comments for that fic

I understand that people are trying to create safe spaces, but as the number of comments that I get on my fics dwindles with each passing year, knowing these spaces exist where my fics are being discussed, places that I am excluded from, makes me want to write fic LESS

I mean I guess who cares, right, because if I stop writing, there's 10,000 other people that will continue...but if you participate in a fic "book club" server and you say nice things there about a fic you loved, maybe copy and paste that into a comment on AO3?

the only thing fanfic writers are asking for in return for hours of hard work is attention. please don't rob us of the one thing that we hope for when we hit "post"

hehe

Why fight when we can have this? :)

one of the best feelings is waking up and getting your daily ao3 kudos email and seeing one person has blown through like 5 of your fics in the past 24 hours 🥰

Hey, you wrote today! Congratulations! It doesn't matter if it's 1000 words or half a page. You still did it, you're moving forward! Keep going!

You've got this ⭐

“it’s not canon” TO YOU. they’re fucking nasty in my google docs right now

I often see posts about curating your own online experience that make the point, “content creators aren’t your parents.” And, yes, that is absolutely true! And I try not to be like “as a parent,“ but as a parent…

EVEN PARENTS ARE SUPPOSED TO ENCOURAGE RESPONSIBLE READING/VIEWING BEHAVIOR. NOT filter everything ahead of time for their kid.

When my kiddo was 5, his pediatrician was asking him the usual Well Child Visit questions (“What are your favorite foods? What do you do to get your body moving? Do you know what to do if you get lost in a public place?” Etc.) and she asked, “What do you do if you see something on TV that scares or upsets you?”

I piped up like, “Oh, he doesn’t watch TV without one of us in the room,” which was true at the time and is still largely true now. She said, “Yes, but that won’t always be the case, so make sure you’re talking to him about what to do if he sees something that upsets him.”

So we started talking to him about that, and the answer is simple: “Turn it off or leave the room, and talk to someone you trust about what you saw and what you’re feeling.”

The answer is NOT “Ask your parents to make sure you never see anything upsetting again,” because that’s just not possible — and ultimately that would be doing the kid a disservice, since sooner or later he’s going to be out in the world where we can’t control what he watches or reads. That doesn’t mean we don’t try to make sure he’s watching/reading age-appropriate stuff, it just means that’s not the only safeguard he has — and that’s a good thing.

So yes, content creators aren’t your parents and aren’t responsible for making sure you never see anything you don’t like — but also, your own parents should have taught you what to do when that happens. So if they didn’t, take it from me, your internet mom:

Turn it off.

Walk away.

Talk to someone you trust about how you’re feeling.

And leave the person who created the thing that upset you alone.