#there is no algorithm

[awakefor48hours]

me trying to make a post that’ll get the TikTok girlies to listen

[apoptoses]

ALSO BECAUSE I FORGOT IN MY POST ABOUT COMPARISON:

Stop checking your stats!

I never look at my hits on ao3. I never check my bookmark numbers. I never check overall comment counts. STOP LOOKING AT THESE NUMBERS THEY WILL ONLY TEAR YOU APART.

I used to look at the number of comments until I realized I was whining in my head about ‘this fic got 5 comments but on THIS fic i only got 3!! WHY!!!’ and started spiraling. Nothing hurts like thinking you did something wrong just because the numbers on thing X are lower than the number on thing Y.

These stats say nothing except ‘when this fic was posted a lot of people  happened to be online and think to comment/bookmark’. It’s lightning in  a bottle. You cannot analyze them and you cannot do anything with them.  They are USELESS.  

A fic posted in 2016 is always gonna have more hits than one posted in 2023. It’s a fact. A fic posted when a fandom was HUGE is always gonna have more comments than one posted when fandom has dwindled.

Your stats are not you.

In fact, find some way to block yourself from looking at these stats whether it be an extension from github or some setting in ao3. Just cut it out. Capitalism wants you to believe you’re just a number and your worth is tied up in numbers but it’s not, and every time I see a good friend who is a great writer biting their nails over stats I wanna scream for them.

Remove the temptation to look at numbers and I promise half your comparison issues will leave too.

[tricky-bastard-pokemon]

Daily fucking reminder there's no god damned censorship on Tumblr.

get your heads out of your asses and say exactly what you mean with your full pussy

[angryraptor13]

I recommend employing accurate and descriptive tags. They're used for searching and filtering results! Best way to get it in front of the faces of people who want to read it.

Also, I recommend a descriptive summary. It's like the cover page for your story: you want about a paragraph describing

who the main players are,

what they're trying to do,

when & where the story takes place,

why they're Doing the Thing, and

how they plan to do it.

This is the spot you should highlight where/if you plan to diverge from canon!

Finally, formatting. Formatting is important. Paragraph breaks are all that prevent your story from coagulating into an incomprehensible wall of text! And formatting can be tricky to get right on AO3, especially if you're copy-pasting from a word processing program like Word or LibreOffice.

This link has a pretty good breakdown on how to do formatting on AO3:

There are many new friends on the archive, and many are young and have only known social media, which is why I wanted to say something!

Ao3 does not have an algorithm! It isn't a social media site, it's an archive.

Posting fics on Tumblr isn't the same as posting fics on Ao3

Ao3 is like a giant virtual bookshelf, and everyone is able to add their own stories to the bookshelf, all stored with different tags and different fandoms. Works are automatically sorted by newest to oldest, but filters, looking at bookmarks, and using the search function can change that.

Certain works are not pushed to the top like social media posts. More kudos and reads don't push a single work to more viewers by some algorithm. Unless otherwise filtered, works will be at the top of the page based on how recent it was posted.

Smaller fandoms get less views, less kudos, less bookmarks, and larger fandoms get more simply because of the number of people inside the fandom.

Ao3 is a giant virtual bookshelf- there is no algorithm, and there is no man behind the shelf pushing certain books forward.

Happy reading, and if you'd like to have more people notice a fic, why not share it with them! Send a dm to a fandom friend and it might turn into one of their favorite fics!

[mias-back-from-the-dead]

tbh i think the funniest phenomena that's been happening in the last couple years is "youtuber, having gone too deep into the research hole, has been made an investigative journalist against their will"

[peggycatrerr]

today on the train home the guy next to me was on his phone and at one point i saw him go on tumblr and he just had like. a normie dash. like it was all photography. of nature and architecture. he was using tumblr the way a heterosexual landscaper for rich people might use instagram. i actually had to watch his screen for a few seconds to be sure it really was tumblr because i was so taken aback by the content he was viewing. this is why algorithmless websites are so beautiful btw because i genuinely didn't know that this side of tumblr even existed. he didn't even so much as scroll past any text posts.

EDIT: look i'm not going to turn off reblogs but i cannot stress enough that THIS WASN'T A HIPSTER BLOG DASH IT WASN'T AN AESTHETIC BLOG DASH IT WAS THE MOST WILDLY GENERIC COLLECTION OF IMAGES YOU HAVE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE. I AM NOT EXAGGERATING OR BEING A QUIRKY FANDOM TUMBLRINA WHEN I SAY "NORMIE" I GENUINELY MEAN "SO NORMAL THAT IT CIRCLES AROUND TO WEIRD". CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME? HELLO?

[shelandsorcery]

I am mad about cellphone cameras hiding the processing they do, and I am glad about software that lets me control it and opt in and out, and I dictated this rant on insta so I am resharing the images here and will attempt to turn this into a useful text post on my blog in future, when my hand is working better 🤘👍

[bohba13-writing-den]

FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST IF YOU LIKE SOMETHING REBLOG IT!

Why do you reblog your own fics so much?

Because someone might as well!? And look at this. Look. At. This.

Does this look right to you??

These are just the last three fics I wrote. I appreciate the likes, believe me I do, but you have to understand. Likes do nothing for content creators. It’s the reblogs. Because that’s how you find shit on your dashboard. Through reblogs. Not likes. This isn’t twitter or tiktok or instagram. This is a website that’s run by the reblog system.

Reblogging helps content creators put their stuff out there. Why do you think so many people stopped writing fanfic and creating beautiful fanart and edits? It’s because they put in hours of work and don’t get nearly enough notes for their masterpieces. Yes we do this because we enjoy it but like...some validation won’t hurt. A boost of confidence here and there might be all someone needs to finish whatever thing they started and left.

Anyway, I’m still going to reblog my shit...

[terradyction451]

I love Doom scrolling Tumblr and just seeing some random guys cock, very cool thank you

[brittlebodies]

Ian Stone, Doubting Thomas, oil on linen, 12x16 in, 2023

[ddrqoyote]

new fandoms tumblr's decided i'm interested in are red dead redemption 2 (which i've never played and i only know the main character's NAME cause of tumblr) and robin. not batman and robin, i rarely see batman, JUST robin.

[fantome-sans-opera]

Unearthing niche tags/tropes, read through all the fics and then blame your striking muse that you can't write your own contribution to it is half the appeal of ao3.

A few of these are probably referring to the date posting bug thing, but AAAAAAAAAAAH!

[aropride]

jobs for autism boy NO phone call NO schedule NO talking to people NO emails NO computer programming or sex work NO becoming a youtuber NO starting a band NO leaving my house NO one gets mad at me. $27 per hour please

[8pxl]

bluesky is honestly so nice and wholesome. the communities there reminds me a lot of tumblrs, i’ve really felt at home 🥹 my bluesky

some of the unique things i’ve liked:

- moderation lists: massive human made blocklists. they have lists for MAGAs, Nazis, genAI users/posters, NFT bros, spammers bots etc. truly amazing.

- starter packs: again human made lists of people they recommend to follow. there’s so many starter packs, from artist to follow, musicians, writers, even shitposters lmao.

- feeds: customizable, public timelines. you can create your own or join one of the thousands of feeds out there. you can also create a feed just for your art, so if you have a messy media tab, it keeps your art posts clean and organized!!

- blocking/muting: they have an amazing blocking system. when you block they can’t see your posts or even search you o. the site. they also allow you to mute people, delete specific replies, and even let you detach your post from a quote reblog if they’re trying to cause drama. honestly the best for a drama free environment. they also have very nice post filters so you can mute or completely block posts containing specific words or phrase!

- community: after blocking all the moderation lists it really just seems like a nice oasis for artists, creatives and others to connect with each other and get new followings. i’ve had a lot of people discover my art there and immediate support. it was super sweet.

- NSFW: not really something i like but i know a lot of others will; they allow NSFW content, art and otherwise. They have GREAT moderation so if you’re not interested in seeing those types of post be sure to turn on your content moderation settings.

[smallidarityfan]

bro let the thoughts win

[razziecat]

IMPORTANT TAGS:

#for real don’t do this#it is false advertising#this is like lying on food labels#saying there is chocolate in your spinach puffs#people search ao3 and use tags and filters so they can read what they want#people have fic allergies just like food allergies#these allergies are known as Squicks#if someone reads your fic and it does not contain the thing you said it did#best case scenario they are gonna be annoyed#worst case scenario they may end up traumatized#please please please for the love of god tag your fics honestly

nothing pisses me off more than when i see a fic on ao3 talking about reach. "this ship isn't here but i added them for reach" "this fandom tag isn't necessary but i'm adding it for reach" "reposting for reach" STOP IT!!!! this is not tiktok this is not twitter this is an ARCHIVE this is not how it works!!!