ao3commentoftheday

[ao3commentoftheday]

So far, I've done the home page? But here's where we're at 🤣

Video has no sound. It shows a logged in user scrolling down the homepage of AO3. The site is styled to look like the New York Times or a similar outlet.

Changes are listed below the cut because there are quite a few!

At the top of the page, in the center, is Archive.org in bold, italic Times New Roman. Below it in call caps Tahoma in smaller letters are the words Of Our Own.

The user menu no longer shows the user's icon or hi, username! instead it simply says Menu in all caps Tahoma font. The logout button has a pale blue background.

The header is all white, with a black line denoting where the bottom of the header is. The dropdown menu names are the same, but they each have a ⌄ after the word to denote the dropdown.

Instead of being named Favourites, the section is now called Top Stories. Below the top stories is an article from The Onion titled "Beautiful Cinnamon Roll Too Good for this World, Too Pure." There is an image of a cinnamon roll as well as the text of the article.

The News section is now called Tech News. Comments are now called Local News. There is no heading above the social media section, but the text and buttons are still present.

Below the social media section there is an article with the movie poster for Goncharov (1973) and an image credit to beelzeebub on tumblr. The article is labeled "critic's notebook" and the title is, "Scorsese's Lost Film- Is It Really The Greatest Mafia Movie Ever Made?" There is no article text.

The footer of the site has a black line denoting where it begins. At the top left of the footer section, we see the same masthead as at the top of the site. The background of the footer is white.

[ao3commentoftheday]

WIP Wednesday

what if AO3 but it looked like the New York Times?

for those of you who need a stealthier way to read fic

[ao3commentoftheday]

hiding stats on ao3 - a detailed explanation

First, a note about CSS. The way it works is:

this is the thing that you want to change { this is how you want to change it; }

If there are multiple things that you want to change in the same way, put a comma between them. There's a semicolon at the end of the line for every change that you make.

thing 1, thing 2, thing 3 { change goes here; and maybe a second change goes here; all of these changes will affect all three of those things; }

In order to change a thing, you need to know what it's called. This is where I use the Inspect feature of my web browser. Each website names its own stuff, so you need to Inspect it in order to find out what any particular thing is called. I explained the Inspect feature in the answer to this ask.

So now, let's get to the names for all of the stats! Each stat will have 2 names. One for the word/label itself and the other for the number.

dl.stats dt.language dl.stats dd.language

dl.stats dt.words dl.stats dd.words

dl.stats dt.chapters dl.stats dd.chapters

dl.stats dt.collections dl.stats dd.collections

dl.stats dt.comments dl.stats dd.comments

dl.stats dt.kudos dl.stats dd.kudos

dl.stats dt.bookmarks dl.stats dd.bookmarks

dl.stats dt.hits dl.stats dd.hits

There are a few ways that you could change these elements, but the most common ones are:

display: none; visibility: hidden; color: #ffccbb;

The first one removes the element entirely, including the space that it takes up. The second one removes the words/numbers but leaves the space that they take up. The third changes the colour of the text.

If you want the language to stay, but you want to change the colour you could do something like

dl.stats dt.language { color: #ffccbb; }

dl.stats dd.language { color: #baeeff; }

And you'd have a peach colour for the label but a blue colour for the name of the language. I have separate sections for the code because I want to modify them in a different way from each other.

If I want to never see the comments or kudos counts on fics, I could do this:

dl.stats dt.comments, dl.stats dd.comments, dl.stats dt.kudos, dl.stats dd.kudos { display: none; }

This should be enough to help you hide exactly the stats that you don't want to see. But if there are things you want specifically for your own works rather than for all works, you'll need to specify that.

.own dl.stats { display: none; }

Will remove all stats from your own works. You could also throw .own in front of any of the more specific elements if you just want to hide your own hits or bookmarks etc.

Depending on what other code you have implemented, you might need to throw an !important on the end of the line:

.own dl.stats { display: none !important; }

to override existing styles.

[ao3commentoftheday]

you mean only hide your own and show everyone else's?

.own dl.stats { display: none; }

I don't know if anyone would be interested in this, but here's some code to hide the stats on fics by anyone *but* you

li.blurb dl.stats { display: none; }

.own dl.stats { display: initial !important; }

[ao3commentoftheday]

I don't know if anyone would be interested in this, but here's some code to hide the stats on fics by anyone *but* you

li.blurb dl.stats { display: none; }

.own dl.stats { display: initial !important; }

[ao3commentoftheday]

do I purposefully choose my more deranged-seeming fics when I'm taking screen shots of site skins?

of course. I like adding a little whimsy into the timeline when I can

[ao3commentoftheday]

another site skin add on

This time, the add on is a combo deal! I was scrolling through @ao3skin's blog looking for something else, and I came across their code for changing the blurb icons into plain text. I liked the way they did it better than the way I did it, so I took that code and modified it a bit. I removed the archive warnings (since they're in the tags already), and I separated the sections Rating ◆ Category ◆ Status.

Then I stole the Byline code for separating each tag type onto a new line, and I modified that so that it's single spaced (and so that the last tag type is labelled Additional Tags instead of Freeforms).

The last thing I did with this add on was to put a little extra space between the title/fandom/plain text icons and the tags, as well as extra space between the tags and the work summary.

If this looks like a thing that might be fun to try, you can grab the code from github.

[ao3commentoftheday]

These skins are, in order:

Dark mode galaxy

Gold and floral

Pastel plaid (it's actually gingham, but I love alliteration)

Byline

[ao3commentoftheday]

what accessibility features are folks looking for in ao3 site skins?

I'm aware of text size and high/low contrast colour palettes, but what else can I work on taking into account?

[ao3commentoftheday]

i hope that podficcers know they provide an invaluable service to society, which is "can enjoy a damn good fic while doing laundry/dishes" and "bedtime story except i dont have to sear my eyes out" and "the act of transforming this into spokenform has added another layer to the narrative" and so on and so forth

[ao3commentoftheday]

thank you podficcers 🫡❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🩷

also just going to add 2 things real quick:

you can have ao3 in dark mode if you log into your account, scroll down to the site footer, and tap on Reversi

in order for podficcers to be able to transform your text into their spoken art, they need the author's permission. you can give them that permission easily by putting a permission statement on your profile (or by using the tag podfic welcome on your fic)

i hope that podficcers know they provide an invaluable service to society, which is "can enjoy a damn good fic while doing laundry/dishes" and "bedtime story except i dont have to sear my eyes out" and "the act of transforming this into spokenform has added another layer to the narrative" and so on and so forth

[ao3commentoftheday]

I have no overarching idea for what I want to do with this site skin, but I learned how to do a cool thing with buttons. Is this anything?

this is literally the only thing I've got going on in this skin so far so suggestions welcome 😆

[ao3commentoftheday]

I'm editing an old fanfic that I want to publish, but I found out I actually don't like the ending, but it's a very extensive rewrite. What can I do about it?

If this is a fic that you like or care about, then delete the old ending and write a new one. Don't try to work with what you have, just lop it off and start fresh from wherever the last part is that you still vibe with.

If this is a fic that you're just publishing because you don't want to have it hanging around in a drafts folder anymore and you might as well just post it, then post it as is. Just because you no longer like the ending doesn't mean that others will agree with your assessment.

You can add on an author's note that you've changed your mind about the ending, if you feel self-conscious about it. You could even include the alternate ending as a note or an epilogue chapter if you want.

These are the two options I'd choose between if I were in your shoes, but I know that my writing decisions aren't always what you might call 'normal' 🤣 so I'll open it up to the blog and see how they'd handle the situation

[ao3commentoftheday]

I'm editing an old fanfic that I want to publish, but I found out I actually don't like the ending, but it's a very extensive rewrite. What can I do about it?

If this is a fic that you like or care about, then delete the old ending and write a new one. Don't try to work with what you have, just lop it off and start fresh from wherever the last part is that you still vibe with.

If this is a fic that you're just publishing because you don't want to have it hanging around in a drafts folder anymore and you might as well just post it, then post it as is. Just because you no longer like the ending doesn't mean that others will agree with your assessment.

You can add on an author's note that you've changed your mind about the ending, if you feel self-conscious about it. You could even include the alternate ending as a note or an epilogue chapter if you want.

These are the two options I'd choose between if I were in your shoes, but I know that my writing decisions aren't always what you might call 'normal' 🤣 so I'll open it up to the blog and see how they'd handle the situation

[ao3commentoftheday]

I'm editing an old fanfic that I want to publish, but I found out I actually don't like the ending, but it's a very extensive rewrite. What can I do about it?

If this is a fic that you like or care about, then delete the old ending and write a new one. Don't try to work with what you have, just lop it off and start fresh from wherever the last part is that you still vibe with.

If this is a fic that you're just publishing because you don't want to have it hanging around in a drafts folder anymore and you might as well just post it, then post it as is. Just because you no longer like the ending doesn't mean that others will agree with your assessment.

You can add on an author's note that you've changed your mind about the ending, if you feel self-conscious about it. You could even include the alternate ending as a note or an epilogue chapter if you want.

These are the two options I'd choose between if I were in your shoes, but I know that my writing decisions aren't always what you might call 'normal' 🤣 so I'll open it up to the blog and see how they'd handle the situation

[ao3commentoftheday]

long post

This got long and I apologize but I really needed to put this into words somewhere.

I recorded my own podfic. The finished project will probably be under 1 hour of audio, is straightforward (one "character"), and due to the nature of the content, I genuinely feel that my attempt would be better than anything someone else could've done on my behalf.

I'm confident in the emotion/tone in the recording, I'm satisfied with the room acoustics, and I think my diction was generally coherent, but I keep hitting other roadblocks and secondguessing myself.

I was a semi-professional singer for years, but my voice in this recording occasionally isn't the oily smooth quality that many people demand from narrators (there aren't sudden jarring mistakes like voice register breaks, but yeah, I got a little gravelly or fatigued in some emotionally difficult sections and didn't notice at the time when I recorded it). Re-recording isn't a viable option because I needed a specific set of circumstances and logistics to do this the first time.

Also, although I have about 7 years of sound editing experience and a variety of software tools, editing the audio is very challenging on this because my mouth is anatomically prone to adding a plethora of weird non-speech noises that range from distracting to disgusting. Despite trying a slew of "magic" plugins/tools (even some AI stuff, to my shame), they did little or nothing in my case and the only truly effective option is to edit them out one by one. I know exactly how to do that, but it's going to mean HUNDREDS of spots to manually edit and consequently MANY hours of effort…for something that will probably only get a few listeners due to its niche content.

I really don't want to outsource the labor to finish this, partly because I have zero money to pay anyone to do it but also because it's extremely personal writing and I don't want anyone to hear it before it's finished. But I also don't want to actually scrap the project because I do think the overall voicing was authentic and I've wanted to do something like this for a long time. It helps my motivation if I only work on a tiny portion of audio each week, but at that rate (because life and employment are things), it will easily take YEARS to finish it.

I welcome your thoughts but don't have a specific question here. Thank you for letting me unload.

*hugs* I'm glad you were able to get this off your chest anon. It sounds like it's weighing on you a lot.

I think this is a labour of love that you're doing, and I think that you should put in as much effort as you want to put into it. If that means not editing out the random noises, then that's totally fine! This project is important to you for a lot of reasons, and you're doing all of this with the expectation that very few people will be interested in listening to it.

That tells me that you're doing this for you. Not for anyone else. Those concerns about narration quality or popping plosives or whatever else seem to me (just based on this ask) like they're more like intrusive thoughts. You're trying to protect yourself from a negative response, and you're identifying all of the issues that a potential listener might have with your recording.

But with something as personal as what you describe, I think the protection is more likely tied to how important this work is to you. I know that, for myself at least, when something I've made means as much to me as this work seems to mean to you, it's really hard to hear even a little bit of negative feedback.

I'll let the podficcers and listeners share their thoughts in the notes, of course, but I think you're better off deciding whether or not you want to post this publicly and whether or not you want to allow comments on it. This one might just be for you, and that's okay. You're the most important audience member you have. 💗

[ao3commentoftheday]

medieval times work skin

I decided I wanted to attempt a work skin instead of learning javascript, so here's a version of the medieval times site skin that you can put onto an individual fic so that other people can see it (instead of just you)

To create a work skin:

Go to your Dashboard

Select the link to Skins

Select the button labelled My Work Skins

Select the button labelled Create Work Skin

Give your work skin a unique title (otherwise it won't save)

Paste this code into the CSS box

Select the Submit button to save the work skin

To use the work skin on a fic:

Edit or create a new fic

In the Select work skin box (located below where you choose your language), type the name you gave the work skin

Post the fic

Anyone who allows the site to show them the creator's work skin will see your fic with the parchment background, illuminated border, and drop capital letter on the first paragraph.