#you'll find more in my bookmarks on ao3 if you want to search by yourself

[littlethingwithfeathers]

How to Use A03 if you're used to Algorithm Fed Content: A kind primer.

There's a post making the rounds where someone, I'm going to assume earnestly, asks the question, "How do people figure out what's good to read on AO3?" And predictably, while there have been some people trying to answer that question assuming that it's being asked in good faith, there have been some people ridiculing this person. Basically, spewing out the fandom equivalent of "git gud noob." Like I said... I'm assuming this person was asking out of actual ignorance and curiosity, mostly because I see a lot of people also lamenting the fact that algorithm-fed apps and fandom spaces are creating a generation of fans who don't know how to actively search for and curate the content they consume. So when they get on a place like AO3 or even Tumblr to an extent, they don't know how to find the things they want and how to curate their experience. And so I guess that's why I pulled up short when this person's question has been getting so much snark. Here's a teachable moment. Even if they are being a troll in this case (which I doubt) here's the chance to give the facts on how AO3 works so they can use this amazing archive themselves. And not just them but anyone who happens upon the post. So... I'm not an AO3 whiz by any means. I don't spend a lot of time digging around in the tags and tools and bells and whistles of the search engine. If someone else wants to reblog with some tips there, go for it. It's the best thing about AO3 in my opinion... other than the lack of censorship. But here's my tips on how to find something you'll like. This is pretty much what I do.

-Go to your fandom of choice's tag. Filter for the rating you want (Teen, Explicit, etc), and then just start scrolling. Take a peek at things that sound interesting from the tags or summaries. You might have to scroll for a bit, and you might hit some stuff that's not for you, but you'll find something eventually. Especially if it's a bigger fandom like SPN, MCU, Hannibal, or Critical Role. -If you discover/know that there's something that bothers you (unfinished work, ABO dynamics, whatever) you can filter for those tags! This is how you curate your experience. It's an active process and there are no shadow-bans or anything in place to keep sensitive content corralled into a certain area. There's a rating system, and there's tags, but nothing to actually make those mean anything unless the user blocks them. While it takes more thought than mindless scrolling, you get to play a role in actively searching out new things for yourself that an algorithm might gloss over. -Likewise, if there's something you really like or are in the mood for, search for that tag in particular. Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Coffee Shop AU... whatever your jam is. -Be careful using metrics like views, comments, and kudos as benchmarks. They fluctuate wildly by pairing, and from fandom to fandom, and are heavily influenced by date of publishing. And just because the majority of people like something, doesn't mean it's for you. If something sounds interesting... read a few paragraphs and see what's up! -Check out the Collections page under the "Browse" tabs. Often these are curated lists either from individual fans or from fanfic writing events like Big Bangs, Zines, and gift exchanges. Fanfic events like these often attract pretty experienced writers so not only is the quality likely to be very good, it's also likely to have some pretty prolific authors -When you find an author you like, and have read your fill of their offerings, see what they have bookmarked or what collections their works are in. You might find some similarly interesting stuff. It's also worth seeing if they have a blog or other social media listed on their about page. They might post some links there or be part of communities elsewhere on the internet that can open up new search avenues for you. -Don't be afraid to read old stuff. Fandoms change and evolve. There's a golden age of MCU fanfic in the 2010s that's just unlike anything else. And the Hannibal fandom has been and always will be a trip, but man it's been a wild ride through some interesting places and obsessions. -And lastly... for the love of god, comment on old stuff. It's not creepy or weird. In fact, if you like someone's writing who hasn't written in a bit, leave them a nice comment. There's this magical thing that happens when you do. Sometimes... THEY START WRITING AGAIN! (saying this from experience here.) Remember... the A in AO3 stands for Archive. It's not a social media platform. It's a library. There is -supposed- to be old stuff there. And you are absolutely allowed to read it and enjoy it and tell the author that. In fact... please do. As I said, feel free to add on if you want to give tips of your own. But be kind. I see a lot of talk about how algorithms are changing the face of fandom and how people interact with fan made content. Let's reach out and educate instead of ridicule.

[roma107]

ooo i’d love a rec for something with bruce and dick, or damian and dick please!

i’ve been really trying to pick apart their dynamics <3

ooo dear you've definitely come to the right place. i was just going through my dick&dami tag

bruce and dick

count the stars by emavee He doesn’t know what to do. It’s not like he can stop the storm. If he could wave a magic wand and make the sky clear—or even if he could call up someone from his large contact list full of metas who could control the weather—he would. He would honestly disrupt Gotham’s weather patterns if it meant Dick would stop crying. Or: Dick doesn’t like thunderstorms, so Bruce takes him somewhere where they can’t touch him.

Recogitare by lapsedpacifist A stranger shows up in the Batcave, claiming to be one of Bruce’s adopted children and a hero in his own right. Bruce has never seen him before, so why are his other kids calling the intruder ‘Grayson’ and believing that this ‘Nightwing’ really exists?

a home not yet a home by Mayarene Rose (Paradise_of_Mary_Jane) Dick just likes climbing to the roof sometimes. He doesn’t mean anything by it. He doesn’t. He just needs to be high up sometimes. He likes looking at the stars. Stars are hard to come by in the city and you need to be high up to even see them properly. He misses the strong wind, the clear air. Gotham doesn’t have either of those, but he sometimes feel a gentle sea breeze when he stands on top of the manor’s roof at midnight. And he definitely doesn’t need Bruce Wayne going after him. Or trying to. Struggling to fit out of the window Dick climbed out of and potentially break his neck. He doesn't need Bruce Wayne pretending he’s going to break his neck to guilt Dick into going back inside.

by all means rome by dustorange “Does this mean you’ll be joining us on patrol tonight, Richard?” Dick smiled again, eyes crinkling at the edges. “Maybe even the rest of the weekend depending on how long the case goes.” He glanced at Bruce, hesitating. “Assuming that’s okay with you?” “Of course,” Bruce answered—so quickly he nearly interrupted Dick.

" Sometimes I Think He's The Only Thing I Ever Did Right." by GallentKnight Injured and drowning in the depths of Gotham Bay, Bruce reflects on his relationship with his eldest son.

Almost, Nearly by CKBookish Dick was just supposed to go with him to lunch. He wasn't supposed to get shot. He wasn't supposed to be bleeding out in the pouring rain on the steps of Wayne Enterprises. But then Bruce hadn't expected that sniper and he had seen it far to late.

damian and dick

Even in the Midst of Grief by Ellegrine Richard Grayson has never hurt Damian. It’s unforgivable that anyone should believe otherwise.

the city without stars in its skies by Alienu “Gotham is filthy,” Damian says flatly, honestly. “I understand now why Mother sent me here instead of coming herself.” Nightwing’s face is turned to the left, but the smile on his lips is audible. “It’s not all bad,” he says. Damian thinks of Grayson, and the too-sweet donut he had given him, and the Chinese restaurant with the nice Asian lady and the park and the stray cat that had crossed through the grass in the darkness. “No,” he admits grudgingly, “I suppose not.” (Or, in a world where he was never sent to live with his father, Damian al Ghul is contracted to assassinate one Dick Grayson.)

Statera by HuiLian Moments in time, where Damian discovered who Dick Grayson is

Paint Cans and Sneaking Out by Batshit_Bogs Shadowed corners were far more dangerous to Damian Wayne than to Robin, and he didn’t know what to expect as a civilian. A year and half later and he’s grown used to it. Now, the promise of anonymity on the streets is enough to make his steps lighter. The buildings no longer loom, they invite. The city is full of blank canvases ready for him to paint. - Damian has picked up a hobby that he's determined to keep a secret. It's a good thing he has friends to back him up.

The Colours Are Illusions by Laquilasse (laquilasse) Wake up.

Choices by cadkitten A drunk driver almost kills Dick and Damian's having a hard time not falling apart.

damian, bruce, and dick

I Hope You Will Understand by lapsedpacifist What if after that shitshow that was Bruce's return from the death there was the last, brief moment of co-existence between Dick, Damian, and Bruce before they separated again. Dick didn't want to leave Damian behind, Damian was not as excited to meet his father again as he wanted to be, and Bruce… and Bruce could never seem to say the right thing.

Do You Feel the Way My Past Aches? by fishfingersandjellybabies Bruce finds a wayward Damian asleep on his couch. Dick then find them both. An unexpected conversation ensues.

Handle with Care by takadainmate Dick is sick. Alfred isn't around. Bruce and Damian do their best.

dick and jay fic rec dick and steph fic rec dick and tim fic rec

[destielficarchive]

Sometimes, AO3 Is Really Fucking Weird

There are several ways to effectively remove a fic from AO3. Obviously, deleting it is the most straight forward, and orphaning is a choice too, but there are several others. For example, some people just abandon the entire account and make a new one that can't be associated with their old identity. Others do a "fancy" version of orphaning, where they turn their username into a pseud and specifically orphan the pseud, so that a search will turn it up as "(original username) (orphaned)". I could go on, but listing the options isn't really the point of this post.

The point of this post relates to another of the methods some people use. Recently, I've noticed an uptick in authors who want to delete/remove their works from AO3 choosing to put them into unrevealed/hidden collections which they themselves own. This has multiple advantages - the biggest and most obvious is that it preserves kudos, comments, bookmarks, and hits. It enables the author to still see their own story if they want to, but they also don't have to. Further, if they're ambivalent about out-right deleting it, they don't have to, and they don't have the loss of control that comes with orphaning - by putting it in a collection, they can always always choose to either delete it later, or re-associate it with themselves later. They can edit it easily, c&p easily, all that jazz. Links to it will still work, too, they'll just show that it's in an unrevealed collection. This is how both HazelDomain and Moosefeels handled their recent mass "deletions" - nothing was actually deleted, it was all just stashed in a collection. It struck me as a very elegant solution to a lot of the problems presented from deleting (like, losing all the feedback) and orphaning (losing all control).

But.

Today while doing some of my pre-new-survey maintanence for the Destiel Favs survey, I discovered something that (as I indicate in the title) is really fucking weird, and is something that anyone who is considering this method of removing their works should know.

If you put a work in an unrevealed collection, and it's in one or more other collections, the owner of the other collection(s) will still be able to see the entire work.

I hadn't realized this sooner, because I almost never log in to the alt I use for the Destiel Favs stuff. I did all the checking for Hazel and Moosefeels using my main - which is a moderator on the Destiel Fan Survey Favs Collection, but not an owner. I'm only logged into the alt now cause I'm doing my semi-annual clean up of the bookmarks and such. And what I found was...

Well, see for yourself. When you click this link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9007867/chapters/20560327

This is what you'll see:

Nothing else about the fic will be visible, not even it's name, much less tags or anything.

But when I, in my alt as DestielFanFavsSurvey, owner of the collection, click it?

There's the fic.

Which is to say: moving a fic to an unrevealed collection ONLY completely hides the work IF it's in no other collections. If it's in a collection, it will be visible to the owner(s) of that collection, even if it's been marked unrevealed in a different collection. The "unrevealed" does NOT take precedence over a collection owner's ability to see the work regardless of the revealed/unrevealed status of the fic in another collection.

(Sorry if this is confusing, it's surprisingly hard to explain I'm finding? Basically:

Fic A is in Collection A, Collection B, and Collection C.

The owner of Collection C decides to switch the Collection to "unrevealed."

Even though the owners of Collection A and Collection B have absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with Collection C, they can still see the work.

Why does this matter?

Basically, based on my thinking about it thus far since I found out like half an hour ago, I see three ways this potentially matters:

1. For people actually running challenges, who actually WANT the capability to make a work unrevealed, make sure that the author doesn't put it into other collections, because it will still be revealed to the owners of those collections.

2. For authors who are worried about adding their works to collections and having the owners subsequently fuck them by reverting it to hidden, if you make your OWN collection, and add all your own fics to it, you can at least maintain your own access. (which you can do anyway by going to https://archiveofourown.org/users/(YOURUSERNAME)/collection_items?approved=true, and you can remove them there too I think, but still).

3. For people who want to use this as an alternate means of deleting their works, people like me will still be able to see it. If you REALLY want to make sure no one has access? You'll have to make sure you remove the work from all collections other than your own, because otherwise, the owner(s) of other collections the work is in will still be able to see it, bookmark, kudos, or subscribe. They will NOT be able to comment or download it (I checked) but they CAN copy and paste it.

I honestly have no idea if this is meant to be a bug or a feature, and the frequency with which it'll matter to folks is likely nil, but still, it's a pretty noticeable loophole in the "I'll just pseudo-delete by putting it in an unrevealed collection" thing and I thought people should know.

Someone with more time than me can probably figure out more fucking weirdness related to all this, but I'm out of time. I have checked that, as the owner of the non-hidden collection, I cannot reveal the fic myself, nor can I do anything other than my usual moderator/owner options (add it or remove it are about all I can do.)

But basically: be aware, if you really want to use the unrevealed collection method to hide your work, make sure you remove it from any collections you don't own!!!

@ao3commentoftheday sorry for the random ping but this seemed like the kinda bizarre-ass AO3 shenanigans thing that might be of interest to you and the people who follow you. (And sorry if you already knew this - I knew that the owner of the unrevealed collection could see the works, that's not news to me, but that the owners of OTHER, separate collections can ALSO see it is, uh, a shock, at least to me.)

[fanishjuli]

no Steph!! I love your fic recs and I'm sure that so does everyone! you are the one I (we) come to when I wanna find a really specific fic that I can't find, there's a high chance you'll know it, or worst case scenario you share my ask with your followers and one of them will help me. you've built a community out of sharing fics and that's amazing.

I've tried myself doing fic recs, and it's hard and time consuming, and I've read a ton of fics, I've got over 5000 bookmarks on ao3, but I couldn't search and find for one specific fic for the life of me, so I can't even imagine how much time and effort you put into this, but know that I am very glad and I really fucking appreciate it.

what does it matter if they're "recycled" fics? you've been doing this for how many years? and you've recced how many individual fics? and you've helped find how many others? you do literally so much Steph, it'd be unfair of anyone (yourself included) to expect more of you than what you can do. and also, what does it matter if they're "recycled" fics? no matter how much I've stalked you and your recs I probably would never have the time to read everything, so if you "recycle" recs I may just see something you posted a while ago but I wouldn't have found otherwise!

and let me tell you, you've given me so many new fics to read, fr, I literally couldn't count them all if I wanted, but if it weren't for you I possibly would've never found some of the best stories I've ever read like, in my life, and I'm so grateful and thankful for that.

basically the point of this is that you do great work Steph, and you do it well, and a lot, and that's amazing and we appreciate you and skskskks I don't want u to feel.bad about this, so see it from our side. you're great Steph and u do great things.

I've been on the Sherlock fandom for less than two years and yet I've read at least five thousand stories, how can that be? (other than my obsessive personality and fast reading) it's because of all the amazing people here on Tumblr reccing fics; it's because of you, helping me find the "biggest" stories in the fandom back when I was a baby new to it, you, helping me find cute fics that fitted my very specific interests, you, posting new fic recs all the time and knowing that if you recced it it'd be a good fic.

ok that got too long and I'm.sorry, I've been in a Mood lately, it may be the quarantine or the fact that I just woke up or both, but seriously Steph, you're great.

I just want to say that I'm an idiot but I decided that I'm gonna try and read every rec on @alexxphoenix42 masterlist, excluding things that I really can't stand (rape, incest, just those things that maybe some read but I really can't stand it). I'm going insane in quarantine and it shows. Dunno how long it will take me but it's... very long whoops

Hey Lovely!

Aww, well hope you enjoy! (mainly ‘cause I don’t rec many fics that I haven’t read), so I hope you find some fantastic reads in there