#ao3 hacks

[dnfao3tags]

Finding Deleted Fics: A Multi-Method Guide

i feel like we are the fandom who needs this post the most any fandom has needed it ever.

all of these methods require you to know the title, author and/or link of the fic.

[disclaimer: the fic i am using as an example is not deleted, i just can't think of any other fics to use as an example right now.]

Method #1: Wayback Machine

this is my go to method that i always try first.

steps:

every fic on ao3 has a url of archiveofourown.org/[specific-numbers]. you're gonna need that url, doesn't matter if it doesn't work anymore.

eg.

2. now you're gonna go to archive.org and enter your url in the search bar.

3. something like this will come up. it probably won't be saved as many times though, just once or twice.

just click any of the links now, either the dates marked blue on the calendar or the earliest/latest date. that's it.

drawbacks:

often, a problem arises when searching for fics rated mature or explicit.

the site will have archived this page but not the actual fic. though, maybe lady luck is on your side and clicking proceed will lead you to a saved version of the actual fic. but usually not. and not all fics are saved here. in those cases, i have some more methods.

Method #2: Search Engine Cache

search engines like google and yandex often save a cached version of sites, though yandex is much more reliable than google. i'll give you a tutorial for both.

steps (yandex):

the link isn't completely necessary, just the title and author of the fic will suffice.

go to yandex.com and search for your fic by either entering the url or entering the title and author as such.

3. this will probably immediately come up.

just enter the captcha and it should let you in on the first go but there's a glitch i've encountered where you could be entering the captcha completely correct but for some reason the site still won't let you in. for that, you just have to keep trying again and again until eventually the site lets you in. might take more than 10 tries.

4. once you're in, search results will pop up. directly clicking them will only lead you to the not found page. what you're gonna do is hover over the box of the search result and you'll see 3 dots pop up on the right.

click those and a dropdown menu will appear. click the first option 'saved copy'.

and thats it! this is a much more efficient method especially for explicit or mature fics.

drawbacks:

for some reason, when i open yandex in google chrome, i can't see the 3 dots. i can in firefox though. don't really know what thats all about.

i'll show you how to do it with google too just in case yandex doesn't work.

steps (google):

in the url bar, type cache:[link of fic]. that's pretty much it. google doesn't have a lot of fics saved though so you'll probably get a 404 page.

Method #3: Reddit

there's a subreddit called r/DeletedFanfiction that can probably help you out. either search for the fic as it may have already been posted or req it and someone will probably get you a google drive link soon enough. u/throwthisaway11112 is my lord and savior.

afaik it's still up and running fine despite the reddit protest thing (which i recommend taking a minute to look into).

Method #4: Archive.org Database

okay, now you're gonna need a lot of memory on computer for this one. i'm not gonna even bother and try to explain it, i'll just link you to the original post. thank you once again to the anon who sent me this method!

Method #5: Fandom

if absolutely none of those methods work, you can still just send me an ask and maybe my followers or i will have a saved copy. same for any other fandom, i recommend asking around in popular fandom spaces, someone is bound to have it.

[batcavescolony]

Have I mentioned how much i love ao3? So I'm currently watching a show and I like to look up fanfics but obviously I don't want to get spoiled so I just go to filters scroll down to 'date updated', look up the date the episode aired on, go 6 days ahead to the day before the next episode, and it filters out all the fics about episodes I haven't watched yet! It's great.

Link to my ao3 guide

[ellililunch-ao3-hacks]

Hi everyone! With ao3 trending for its birthday I just wanted to share some code I wrote to make your ao3 bookmarking experience super easy! My detailed Tumblr post about it is here: https://www.tumblr.com/ellililunch/723618493538418688/ao3-re-read-savior-userscript?source=share.

The gist of it is that it:

1. automatically adds the fic info (title, author, workID, and summary) to the bookmark notes while preserving any existing notes

2. adds word count tags or a "WIP" tag (and for wips will automatically add a "read up to chapter x" tag)

3. automatically sets all new bookmarks to default to being private as well

4. includes a "rekudos machine" that converts re-clicks of the kudos button into a random nice comment along the lines of "rekudos!"

5. duplicates the "subscribe" and "mark for later/as read" buttons at the end of the fic

It's a system I developed because of my rereading habits, and I just used it to add info to about 7000 bookmarks in under a week 😅.

Super helpful if you're tired of not knowing what that deleted fic was (and possibly finding it again with the workID url in a way back machine) or private collections "mystery works" 😡.

Happy reading!

[fandomsandfairytales]

YESSSS THIS CAME UP ON MY DASH AGAIN

This is SO COOL THANK YOU

Update: A couple things I discovered in checking out the code/script—

Two people left feedback 2 and 3 weeks ago (that is, 2-3 weeks before 5/2/24) saying the script wasn't working, even with deleting and reinstalling it. So I'm going to try it, but it may not be usable, we'll see!

A user figured out that there's a bug where if you're posting or editing a fic of your own, the script will add some random text to the bottom of the fic text entry box. However! There is a fix—another user put detailed instructions on what to change in the code so that that bug no longer happens: check out that fix here.

Update #2: The script works for me, yay!!!

It's super helpful to be able to just...take notes either as I read or when going back and skimming through. Also, it tells me how many characters I've used up in the box, so I don't have to make one whole comment and then divide it up into chunks, which is often what I end up doing XD I've used it for comments on one or two fics so far, and I love it.

In the spirit of encouraging people to comment on fanfics while also making it easier to do so, I feel obliged to share a browser extension for ao3 that has quite literally revolutionized the comment game for me.

I present to you: the floating ao3 comment box!

From what I've seen, a big problem for many people is that once you reach the comments at the bottom of a fic, your memory of it miraculously disappears. Anything you wanted to say is stuck ten paragraphs ago, and you barely remember what you thought while reading. This fixes that!

I'll give a little explanation on the features and how it works, but if you want to skip all that, here's the link.

The extension is visible as a small blue box in the upper left corner.

(Side note: The green colouring is not from the extension, that's me.)

If you click on it, you open a comment box window at the bottom of your screen but not at the bottom of the fic. I opened my own fic for demonstrative purposes.

The website also gives explanations on how exactly it functions, but I'll summarize regardless.

insert selection -> if you highlight a sentence in the fic it will be added in italics to the comment box

add to comment box -> once you're done writing your comment, you click this button and the entire thing will automatically copied to the ao3 comment box

delete -> self explanatory

on mulitchapter fics, you will be given the option to either add the comment to just the current chapter or the entire fic

The best part? You can simply close the window the same way you opened it and your progress will automatically be saved. So you can open it, comment on a paragraph, and then close it and keep reading without having the box in your face.

Comments are what keep writers going, and as both a writer and a reader, I think it's such an easy way of showing support and enthusiasm.

[batcavescolony]

A work around for wanting to search your 'Mark for Later' fics

This isn't how to search your 'Mark for Later' fics, you can't do that BUT with a little prep work you can do something similar.

Instead of 'Mark for later' chose ’bookmark' for whatever fic you want. now I can hear the uproar already, stay with me. It's RIGHT NEXT to Mark for Later and you have to do one little extra step but in the long run it will be better for you.

Now don't just bookmark it, add a tag, for simplicity I used 'For Later' you can use whatever you want.

Now it's in your bookmarks and to find them you go to the 'filter' section and

Go to 'Bookmarker's tags' and there's your new ' Mark for later' section. (Obviously you'll have more then one)

And if you want to EXCLUDE all the 'for later' fics you just exclude them from your bookmarks in exclude sections 'Bookmarker's tags'

That will make all the fics tagged 'for later' go away so it's just your bookmarked fics again!

This also means your new 'for later' tag can be filtered through just like your bookmarks.

Now obviously I'd take a bit of work depending on the amount of 'Marked for Later' fics you have but after you get them all sorted and start doing this regularly you'll be all set.

Link to my ao3 guide

[fandomsandfairytales]

Nooooooo the AO3 floating comment box script stopped working for me :/ after I had to reinstall Chrome, it seems like it just...doesn't work anymore. It's showing up as enabled in the Tampermonkey extension when I check it on an AO3 page, but the button itself is just not there. I'm going to try uninstalling and reinstalling the script tomorrow, since I'm tired and need to sleep, but hopefully I can get it back. It's been SO SO SO helpful and I'd be really sad if I couldn't use it anymore. Fingers crossed.

[sothisisablog]

[queermarzipan]

OH MY GOD

Well folks I've been sitting on this little script for ages and finally decided to just go ahead and publish it. What does it do?

you can enter any ao3 link - for example, to your bookmarks or an author's works page - and automatically download all the works and series that are linked from that page in the format of your choice. if there are multiple pages, the script will page through results for you until there are no more fics to download

you can check your fanfic-savin' folder for unfinished fics and automatically update them if there are new chapters. you can also check for new fics in series!

if you're a dinosaur who uses Pinboard, you can back up all the Pinboard bookmarks you have that link to ao3

don't worry about crashing ao3 with this! this baby takes forever to run, guaranteed. anyway ao3 won't let me make more than one request per second even if I wanted to so it's quite safe

I've been working on this for about two years and it's finally in a state where it does everything I want and isn't breaking every two seconds, so I thought it was time to share! I hope y'all get some use out of it.

note: this is a standalone desktop app that DOES NOT DO ANYTHING aside from automate clicking on buttons on the ao3 website. Everything this script does, can be done by hand using ao3's regular features. It is just a utility to facilitate personal backups for offline reading - there's no website or server, I have no access to or indeed interest in the fics other people download using this. No plagiarism is happening here, please don't come after me.

---

2024 update

This is now a fairly mature project that I've been maintaining for quite a while (3 years?? omg), so let's do an FAQ

Question 1: Wait, a python script? That's scary! I don't know anything about running python scripts!

Answer: You don't need to! When I published this program I knew that there would be people who would want to use it that did not know anything about running python scripts. To that end I have provided extremely detailed instructions (accessible at the link above), which have been fine-tuned over the last three years to make them as absolutely easy to follow as possible. Not only do you not need to know anything about python scripts to use this program, you don't even need to know anything about computers at all. Try it and see! ;)

Question 2: I already use Calibre and FanFicFare to download fanfics - isn't this the same thing?

Answer: Nope! In fact, one of the reasons I created ao3downloader is that I tried FanFicFare and found it unsuited to my needs.

- FanFicFare requires a lot of configuration to work well. I wanted something that would get out of my way and just do what I needed it to do with as little prompting as possible. ao3downloader has sensible default behavior that will do what most people want it to do without too much pre-work.

- FanFicFare doesn't handle multi-page downloads very well - you need to enter the link to each page of results individually. What if I want to download dozens, or even hundreds of pages of fanfic? (Honesly, even two pages is too tedious for me...) I want to download all of the results I'm interested in, not just one page at a time. ao3downloader can download up to five thousand pages of fanfiction in one go if you're willing to let it run for that long... and that limit is only because 5,000 is the maximum amount of pages that ao3 itself will show you in a search result.

- FanFicFare doesn't handle ao3's rate limit very well - you need to babysit it and fine-tune the amount of time it pauses between downloads. I want the downloading process to handle itself, so I can completely ignore it until it's finished. ao3downloader will automatically pause when it hits the rate limit, and automatically resume when the rate limit expires. You can also quit ao3downloader entirely, and it will do its best to resume at the same point you left off when you turn it on again.

- FanFicFare uses its own download format, which doesn't match the files I download from ao3 directly - I want them to be consistent. ao3downloader downloads fics using the native download buttons from ao3, so it's exactly the same file as if you downloaded them manually.

- FanFicFare has an option to check incomplete fics for updates, but it relies on you telling it which fics in your library are incomplete. I don't want to have to keep track of that. ao3downloader can scan your existing files for incomplete fics and identify them for you, then check ao3 for updates and only re-download the ones that have new chapters. (It can also scan for incomplete series, and do the same thing!)

Question 2a: That's all great, but I need Calibre's organizational features.

Answer: Me too! That's why I import all the fics I download using ao3downloader into my Calibre library after I'm done downloading them.

Question 2b: That's all great, but I prefer FanFicFare's download format and I don't want the native ao3 one.

Answer: ao3downloader has a special option for this which instead of downloading actual files, will simply harvest a list of links to give to FanFicFare. You won't get ao3downloader's rate limit handling or automatic update functionality, but you will get to avoid entering individual page links! If you choose, you can also include detailed fic metadata in the links download (such as title, author, summary, tags, etc) which will be saved in spreadsheet format.

Question 3: Do I need to enter my ao3 login information? What happens when I enter my login information into this program?

Answer: You only need to enter your login information if you want to use ao3downloader to download archive-locked fics, or to download a page that is only accessible when you are logged in (such as your history or subscriptions). Hopefully the reason behind this requirement is obvious. If you don't need those things, you can simply skip the login prompt and the program will work fine! That said, if you do log in, here's what will happen. 1) ao3downloader will save your login information to a file so you don't have to enter it every time. (If you don't want your login information to be saved, you can turn this behavior off using the included .ini file - just open up the file named settings.ini and read the instructions inside to configure it.) 2) then, ao3downloader will use your login information to log itself in to ao3... aaaand that's it. It's not stored or sent anywhere other than your own computer and archiveofourown.org. In fact, there is absolutely no tracking or spyware in ao3downloader of any kind - I don't even know how many people have downloaded it, let alone what you type into it. And that's the way I like it!

Question 4: I thought of a feature that doesn't exist yet that would be really cool! Can you add it?

Answer: Very possibly! Feel free to contact me via one of the options listed in the readme (that's the page linked above) if you have a feature request.

Question 5: Do I have to pay you?

Answer: Never.

Question 6: But I really want to pay you... do you have a ko-fi?

Answer: Yes. It's on the github page in the sidebar.

Question 7: Does it work on mobile?

Answer: No. :( but watch this space... there may be certain things on the horizon. we'll see!

[pasta-stuffed-possums]

[noxcheshire]

Still in love with the neglected reader trope, but make it unexpected in that Reader was actually breaking the fourth wall by CREATING those written tropes with the batfam narrative in their ao3 account.

They are happily typing away as another tragic chapter is released.

Sitting in their comfy chair that baba had bought them recently, tucked in with the fluffiest blankets that Dick had purchased, and hair pulled back by a cute kitty-shaped scrunchie that Damian had picked out for them. The picture perfect civilian sibling pampered and adored.

So why, Tim wondered as he stared at his phone’s screen to see a new batfam x neglected! Self Insert, why were you so swift in these chapters and one shots?!

And why were they so sad?

Couldn’t you write something cuter?

Nicer?

Why was it so dark and tear jerking?

Seriously — in what universe would the Wayne’s ever treat their littlest sibling/child in such a way?!

Sure their vigilante persona’s were propped up as some ‘found family’ situation, but it still hurt to ever imagine causing such heart ache to you.

Maybe… he should bring this up to Bruce.

[natt-writes]

~7 tips for stay focused while writing.~

1. Make sure to drink lots of water/tea and have a healthy meal shortly before. This will help to nourish your brain, which in turn will help you to write and stay focused.

2. Find a calm, comfortable location. Stay away from places with lots of sounds and distractions, instead try to find somewhere that you can relax and enjoy the writing process. It’s even better when the location has dim lights.

3. Exercise shorty before. just going on a walk down your street and back or going on the treadmill for five minutes can help to get rid of excess energy and make you less restless and distracted.

4. Set up a reward system. Maybe have a small piece of candy after every two sentences, watch an episode of tv every time you finish a paragraph, or do a fun activity after every chapter. This will help motivate you to finish up your work for the day.

5. Set a daily word count. Setting a daily word count can help you to feel like you’ve achieved your goals, even if they are small. Start with a couple hundred words each day and then work your way up to your desired amount. Checking how close you are to achieving your daily word count can help you to feel more more motivated and productive. (I use nanowrimo.org but you can use whatever work tracker you want!)

6. Listen to music. I like to listen to music that suits the tone of the chapter I’m writing, as it can help you to feel more immersed and focused. It’s best to listen to the music on a lower volume so that it doesn’t overwhelm you and just blends into the background.

7. Be gentle with yourself. Not every day is going to be amazingly productive. Everyone has days where they are distracted or don’t get much work done. Don’t beat yourself up about it and instead try to relax, have a nice day and get a good nights sleep. You’re doing really great, You deserve to take a self care day!

[nana-mizu-shiki]

Reblogging to save me

I was today years old when I learned that when you type “otp: true” in AO3 search results it filters out fics with additional ships, leaving only the fics where your otp is the main ship

[lezbianz]

me when my country is in the midst of a civil war: hey does anyone want to hack into popular fanfiction website “archive of our own” real quick

[evilkitten3]

can't people just use the ooc tag anymore

[llamawrites]

Writing Hack

If you are you bad at writing descriptions, use a reference photo. It helps me visualize more if I have a picture of the setting or thing.

Also, If it works for an artist, then it works for a writer

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistener]

Oh! And! When you luck out and find a fic that's so good it makes your heart sing, click on the author's name, see what else they've written! See what they have bookmarked! If the bookmarked fic is also amazing, check out /that/ author's other works too! Rinse, repeat, etc.

With this method I have found new fics, new fandoms, even new friends. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Another AO3 thing I’m curious about, how do yall decide if something is good enough to read? Usually I follow a rule of 1 kudos for every 10 hits. One because it’s easy math and two it’s yet to fail me. Thoughts? Do you just go for it and pray it’s good?