lydia is a ninja kitty @lydia-theda - Tumblr Blog

StripAllEmpties: Remove extra blank paragraphs from AO3 works

When you're reading on AO3, you may encounter fanworks that have lots of empty space between each paragraph.

AO3's help text (select the question mark at the top of the main text field when posting or editing a work) says this:

If you have two blank lines in a row between paragraphs, we will add extra whitespace in for you (with  ).

The site can't tell the difference between when a creator intends to add extra spaces (some people use blank paragraphs as scene break markers, instead of the <hr /> line code or text symbols) and when they do it by accident. Which means that there are a lot of AO3 works with unintentionally large spacing that can be hard to read, especially on mobile.

AO3's Unofficial Browser Tools FAQ links to the StripEmpties bookmarklet by carene-waterman as a solution for readers who dislike these empty spaces. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on all fics. This is because StripEmpties looks for the code   (a paragraph containing a single non-breaking space) – and nothing but this code. Which means if there's an empty paragraph with two spaces in it, or one that's actually made up of a bunch of line breaks, those paragraphs won't get hidden.

That's why I made my own version of the StripEmpties bookmarklet. This one looks for paragraphs that contain nothing but whitespace – regular spaces ( ), non-breaking spaces ( ), empty line breaks ( ), etc. – and hides them from view temporarily.

This is the code for what I'm calling the StripAllEmpties bookmarklet:

javascript: void(function (){var paragraphs = document.querySelectorAll('#workskin p');for (const para of paragraphs){if (!/\S/.test(para.innerText) && !para.querySelector('img')){para.style.display = 'none'}}})();

Bookmarklets can be used on any browser or device. To add a bookmarklet to your browser, the easiest way I've found is to create a new browser bookmark of any random page (by selecting the bookmark/star/heart/etc. icon on your browser) and then edit the bookmark to replace the URL with the bookmarklet code. (You should also change the name of the bookmarklet too.) Save your changes, and you're done!

You can use the bookmarklet by going to any AO3 work, opening your bookmarks folder, and selecting the StripAllEmpties bookmarklet. If there were any blank paragraphs in the work, they will now be removed.

The bookmarklet's effect is temporary. If you want to bring the spaces back, all you have to do is refresh the page.

I hope this helps! Happy reading.

lydia-theda

Tumblr really hates code so all future updates can be found on AO3

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

lydia-theda

StripCreatorEmpties: Remove blank paragraphs from your own AO3 works

A few weeks ago, I posted about the StripAllEmpties bookmarklet, a tool that lets you hide extra blank paragraphs in fics you're reading. But then some people asked if there was a similar tool for removing those extra paragraphs as a creator.

As I said on my last post, AO3 can't tell if you meant to add extra spaces or if you (or your word-processing program) did it by accident. Which means that there are a lot of AO3 works with unintentionally large spacing that can be hard to read, especially on mobile.

Most word processors have find-replace tools that you can use to clean up your text before you copy it over to AO3. If you use Google Docs, I recommend trying this Google Docs to AO3 converter by mikhail-zex on Reddit (modified from Min's original script, it adds support for right-aligned text and horizontal line breaks!)

But what if you want to remove the double spacing from a fic that you've already posted on AO3? Or if you clicked Preview on a chapter you're about to post, but found that AO3 added in extra paragraphs you don't want? It's a lot of work to copy all the text over to a different program, fix everything up, and paste it back in. Wouldn't it be so much simpler if we could just open up the Edit page and remove the extra paragraphs on AO3 itself?

So that's what this post is for. I made a bookmarklet that looks at the Work Text editing field and removes all HTML paragraph tags that contain nothing but whitespace – regular spaces ( ), non-breaking spaces ( ), line breaks ( ), empty span tags, etc.

This is the code for what I'm calling the StripCreatorEmpties bookmarklet:

javascript: void(function (){document.querySelector('.mce-editor').value = document.querySelector('.mce-editor').textContent.replaceAll(/\n\n<p[^>]*>(\n|\t|<\/?span[^>]*>| | | | |%C2%A0)*<\/p>/g,'').replaceAll(/(\s|| | | | |%C2%A0)*/g,'').replaceAll(/(\s|<\/span>| | | | |%C2%A0)*<\/p>/g,'').replaceAll(//g,'')})();

Bookmarklets can be used on any browser or device. To add a bookmarklet, create a new browser bookmark of any random page (by selecting the bookmark/star/heart/etc. icon on your browser). Then, edit the bookmark (you may need to open your browser's Bookmarks Manager first) and replace the URL with the bookmarklet code. Change the name of the bookmarklet, save your changes, and you're done!

You can use the bookmarklet on any work or chapter that you've already posted/previewed/saved as a draft. Just click on the Edit or Edit Chapter button, open your bookmarks folder, and select the StripCreatorEmpties bookmarklet. If there were any blank paragraphs in the work text, they will be removed. If you want to make other edits to your fic, you can do that now too. Don't forget to click Post to save your changes!

Again: the StripCreatorEmpties bookmarklet (this post) is for creators who are editing their own fanworks.

If you're trying to remove spaces from fanfics you're reading, click here.

lydia-theda

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62451598/chapters/160120879

Tumblr really hates code so I decided to post this on AO3 instead. All future updates can be found there.

ao3org

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In October and November we prepared for and then deployed the updated Terms of Service. We also included a variety of smaller improvements from as many contributors as we could.

lydia-theda

it me :3

I coded a thing on AO3 (actually three things but who's counting)

and now I'm being credited on this post four times (first-time contributor, coder, reviewer, tester)

achievement unlocked, I guess?

five year testing streak

most number of credits possible in a single release notes post

(note: testing is open to all OTW volunteers regardless of committee. coding is open to anyone)

#ao3

a Self-Serving Teapot ought to have an attitude.

apollos-boyfriend

the fact that we only have “herculean task” and “sisyphean task” feels so limiting. so here’s a few more tasks for your repertoire

icarian task: when you have a task you know you’re going to fail at anyways, so why not have some fun with it before it all comes crashing down

cassandrean task: when you have to deal with people you KNOW won’t listen to you, despite having accurate information, and having to watch them fumble about when you told them the solution from the start (most often witnessed in customer service)

feel free to chime in i ran out of ideas much faster than i anticipated

sherbertilluminated

Promethean task: opposite of a Cassandraean task. You have the right information, and SOMEONE has to share it. But it's all in the delivery and if you're the person to identify the problem you WILL be hated forever.

thearrogantemu

Oedipal Task: (1) Attempting to avoid an unspeakably awful outcome and in doing so creating the circumstances that will bring it about. (2) Trying to solve an problem and discovering that you are in fact the problem you are trying to solve.

theoppositeofprofound

Odyssean task: you’ll complete it but it’ll take 20 times longer than it should and involve multiple side quests and mini-adventures

lierdumoa

Pandorean task: some people fucked around and now it's your job to make sure they find out

ao3commentoftheday

Is there a way to ask the tag wranglers if they could change the way a tag is wrangled? There’s a few tags I feel don’t need to be synonymous with each other because they don’t really mean the same thing

Tag Wranglers don't have their own inbox, but you can write in to Support and they'll pass the message along.

You can find the Support email form at the bottom of every page of AO3. Go down to the footer (the red block) and select Technical Support & Feedback from the list of links.

Whether that actually ends up changing how a tag is wrangled I can't really say, but the only way to find out is to ask!

kkxradreams

i actually contacted support about an issue like this once! i had noticed that the tags "Baby Ben Solo" and a fan-made tag, "Ben is baby", had been marked synonymous when the second tag usually didn't even refer to Ben Solo at all, it was characters from other fandoms named Ben. i contacted support, providing as much links and context as i could, and this was their reply:

"Thanks for contacting us. We passed your feedback along to the tag wranglers, who have reviewed the issue and agreed with your assessment. Most of the works under the tag "Ben is baby" did not refer to Ben Solo, and those that did, did not mean that he was a literal baby. As such, this tag has been desynned from the tag "Baby Ben Solo".

Thanks for drawing this to our attention, and please feel free to contact us again if you have any further questions or issues!"

so yeah, if there's an actual issue, it can really help to contact support about it! they can be really helpful :)

naryrising

As the person who gets/responds to all of those emails, here are a few things I'd add!

Tell us what tag is wrong, and what you think is wrong with it specifically. For example: "I think there's a mistake with Tag X" needs more information, because I will probably have to write back to you and ask what the issue is. "I think there's a mistake with Tag X, as it's bringing up works for Tag Y too and that seems wrong"= great!

If you have supporting evidence for why you think the tag is wrong, you can include some links/extra info. For example: if it's a name spelled incorrectly, and you provide a link to a source that shows the correct spelling, that's useful.

However, you don't need to write an essay. A simple few lines is fine, if you can summarize the issue.

You'll probably get an answer faster if you ask about one fandom per support ticket. This is because if you ask me about 10 fandoms, I need to get answers from all 10 of those fandoms before I can reply to you, which will take longer.

More tickets doesn't make an answer come faster, it just makes more work for me to reply to. Please don't encourage write-in campaigns.

Be prepared that the answer might be no.

Please be patient. I am but one person, and updating tags takes time (if it can be done at all).

I would love to say it doesn't need to be said, but please don't swear at us, call us idiots, accuse us of deliberate malice, etc. People are doing their best but they can make mistakes, or maybe the use on the tag has just changed since the time it was wrangled, which is not a mistake on anyone's part. Or maybe it's just impossible to untangle the tag without causing bigger problems, or maybe they're following guidelines that require them to do it a certain way even if it isn't ideal. Anyway the wranglers will never see the rude/insulting messages, but I will. And I'd love not to, as I'm just the go-between and don't actually make the decisions.

lydia-theda

please don't swear at us, call us idiots, accuse us of deliberate malice, etc.

Don't be mean to the Support volunteers. Seriously.

Also, people who are really nasty (slurs, death threats, etc.) get handed off to Policy & Abuse (PAC) so they can be told off for harassing AO3 volunteers.

PAC is more than happy to tell them that not only are they now suspended, their issue isn't going to be passed on until they can manage to be polite.

#AO3 PAC #harassment isn't my favorite ticket type but I'll cheerfully take this kind

ao3commentoftheday

Is there a way to filter fics OUT? Like exclude fics from a search that have a certain tag, or certain pairing? (Like, I want to see fics that have pairing A/B but DON'T want to see fics that have pairing B/C, so fics with both pairing A/B and B/C in them shouldn't come up)?????

There is! You can use the search term otp: true - that will return fics with only the A/B ship tagged and no other ships in the relationship field.

1. Click on the filter button at the top of the works page (on mobile. On desktop the filters are in the right hand sidebar)

2. Scroll down until you see the box labelled search within results. In that box, type otp:true and then hit the sort and filter button.

3. Enjoy your OTP-only search results!

If you don't mind other ships and just want to get rid of that one NOTP, then you can use the exclude filter instead.

In the same filter menu, find the Exclude section. In that section, click on the word Relationships to expand a list of the top 10 relationships that are tagged along with whatever tag you're currently looking at the works for.

Once you see that list of ships, just click the x button next to them in order to exclude them from your results.

Click the Sort and Filter button again and you're good to go with no more NOTP 👍

reloha

What if you get the Top 10 list but you want to exclude certain pairings because they are & pairings or you want to exclude the top 10 and see what 11-20 (or 50 or 100) is? Amy tips?

Thanks

ao3commentoftheday

To exclude a tag that isn't in the top 10, you can type it into the box labelled "other tags to exclude".

When you start typing, it'll autofill options, so you can type the whole thing or choose it from the list it populates. This is for canonical tags (ones that have been added to the system)

I've never tried to find a full ranking of tags from most to least popular. I'm not sure if it's even possible 🤔 If anyone out there knows how, please share?

lydia-theda

AO3 just released an update that allows you to sort tags by number of uses! Go to Tag Search, enter the name of your fandom in the Fandoms field (it'll autofill and you can pick from the dropdown), and change Sort By to "Uses" and Sort Direction to "Descending".

You can also add criteria to narrow your search. For instance, if you want to see the most popular relationship tags featuring your favorite character, put their name in the Tag Name field and select the Canonical and Relationship radio buttons. (Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to say "I only want / tags not & tags".)

ilikeit-art

A blogger from China built a miniature cat house inside his wife's pet store.

The animals have their own elevator, mini-TV, forge, bedroom and even a full bathroom with running water.

clubmedea

translation note: the friends didn't just call it "excellent" - they called it "niubi." they left the second word "b" untranslated because literally this means "cow cunt," so figuratively this more like saying "holy fucking shitballs this is so fucking beyond cool."

also named his male cat "pretty good" and his female cat "very good."

lydia-theda

StripAllEmpties: Remove extra blank paragraphs from AO3 works

When you're reading on AO3, you may encounter fanworks that have lots of empty space between each paragraph.

AO3's help text (select the question mark at the top of the main text field when posting or editing a work) says this:

If you have two blank lines in a row between paragraphs, we will add extra whitespace in for you (with  ).

This is the code for what I'm calling the StripAllEmpties bookmarklet:

javascript: void(function (){var paragraphs = document.querySelectorAll('#workskin p');for (const para of paragraphs){if (!/\S/.test(para.innerText)){para.style.display = 'none'}}})();

The bookmarklet's effect is temporary. If you want to bring the spaces back, all you have to do is refresh the page.

I hope this helps! Happy reading.

lydia-theda

Reminder that the StripAllEmpties bookmarklet (this post) is for when you're reading other people's fics. If you're a creator who wants to remove the extra paragraphs from your own fics, check out my other post here.

StripCreatorEmpties: Remove blank paragraphs from your own AO3 works

This is the code for what I'm calling the StripCreatorEmpties bookmarklet:

Again: the StripCreatorEmpties bookmarklet (this post) is for creators who are editing their own fanworks.

If you're trying to remove spaces from fanfics you're reading, click here.

#AO3 #fanfic #ao3 fanfic #posting #editing #tools #resources

lqtraintracks

Okay, so do vampires drink from arteries or veins or both? Asking for a friend.

l0vegl0wsinthedark

@lqtraintracks This drew me in too easily, what the hell 👏😂

renthebarbarian

This guy is the Gordon Ramsey of blood.

“THIS BLOOD HAS SO MUCH FUCKING ACID IN IT, I’M SEEING TECHNICOLOR DEMONS!!!”

anotherdayforchaosfay

@vampireapologist

salarta

“I’ve never met a vampire” exactly what a vampire would say.

awhimsicallaugh

Very suspicious about this “educated guess”

official-lucifers-child

Wiggle

c4pyb4ra

it did not work, but i can help

big wiggle

bonersniper

might-be-somebody

the only super long Tumblr post I love

heyitself

my brain has Died scrolling this and i Love it

ambrosiaoctober

heyitself

SEE ITS SO COOL

a-different-kind-of-human

THIS IS ONE OF MY TOP 10 FAVOURITE POSTS ITS SO FUN TO SCROLL THROUGH

the-haiku-bot

THIS IS ONE OF MY

TOP 10 FAVOURITE POSTS ITS

SO FUN TO SCROLL THROUGH

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

StripAllEmpties: Remove extra blank paragraphs from AO3 works

When you're reading on AO3, you may encounter fanworks that have lots of empty space between each paragraph.

AO3's help text (select the question mark at the top of the main text field when posting or editing a work) says this:

If you have two blank lines in a row between paragraphs, we will add extra whitespace in for you (with  ).

This is the code for what I'm calling the StripAllEmpties bookmarklet:

The bookmarklet's effect is temporary. If you want to bring the spaces back, all you have to do is refresh the page.

I hope this helps! Happy reading.

#AO3 #fanfic #ao3 fanfic #reading #tools

alex-0-0-0-0-0-0

naryrising

Hi there! I'm sorry if you've answered this before, but how did you get involved volunteering with AO3, and what's it like? I'm a current MLIS student and it's something I'm interested in doing in the future. Love your blog!!

I got involved in volunteering with AO3 in 2010, when you could get involved by saying "Hi, I'm interested in helping out" to the people you probably already knew from other fandom spaces, and they would give you some work to do. It was much a smaller team then and there was enough of everything to do that basically anyone who wanted to help out could do what they felt like working on. So I can't really recommend my way of getting involved, as it doesn't exist anymore.

But if you do want to get involved, keep an eye on when recruitment opens up for various teams. This will always be posted in multiple places: the news page, AO3's official twitter and tumblr accounts, and the Transformative Works volunteer page. Pick whichever one appeals to you/is easiest for you to keep up with, and keep watch on that. Pretty much every month there will be some team that's recruiting (other than in December, we don't recruit in December). Some large teams (like tag wrangling and translation) typically recruit about 3 to 4 times a year, but they often have specific things they're looking for, such as particular language skills, familiarity with specific fandoms, etc. Smaller teams may only recruit once a year.

If you see a position you would be interested in, jump on it and apply quickly. Applications are almost always capped (for instance, will close after 50 applications are received, or whatever number the committee is able to review), so if you take a few days to think about it, you may miss your chance.

The first secret I'll tell you is, once you're involved, it's much easier to find other ways to be involved. So if you really want to be, idk, on the Open Doors team, but they aren't currently recruiting or you don't manage to apply in time, try applying for Support. If you want to do graphic design but what's open is tag wrangling, apply for tag wrangling. Now, I'm not suggesting you apply for something just because you want to jump ship to another team as soon as possible, or for something you're going to dislike doing - that will just make people annoyed, and won't be a good experience for you either. But what I mean is, internal movement around various committees can happen much more easily than external recruitment, and often outside of regular recruitment rounds. For my part, the Support team recruits externally once a year, usually in spring, but if someone who's already gone through training as a tag wrangler and has been successfully doing that for a few months comes and talks to me about their interest in also trying Support, I'll likely be willing to take them on outside of regular recruitment season. Familiarity with one team's processes and procedures helps make you a better deal for another team, if you've already proven you can do the type of work we do, and other chairs are willing to vouch for your reliability/enthusiasm/ability to get along with others.

The second secret I'll tell you is that the most important characteristic for a volunteer, and the most impossible to train for, is time/energy/willingness to sit down and do the (sometimes unfun, often unrecognized and unrewarded) work. In my position as Support chair, I can look for people who have, say, previous tech support experience, and that's great, they probably have useful knowledge they would bring to the role. But knowing whether they have the right temperament to do a part-time job without extrinsic motivation (no pay; no boss standing over your shoulder to make you work) is more important. I can teach people the technical knowledge they need to have. I can't give more time, motivation, or energy to someone who doesn't have the personal headspace necessary to come home after work/school and sit down and do more work. So if you are interviewing for a volunteer position, the thing you most need to convince them on is your willingness and enthusiasm to do the work. Some things I look for include: does the person reply promptly to emails? Do they follow instructions well? Do they show up on time for interviews/training, or do they communicate with me if they need to reschedule to another time? Do they complete requested tasks in the requested time? All of those tend to be promising signs that someone is likely enthusiastic and responsible enough for a position like this.

#seconding that last paragraph in particular

mono-red-menace

copper my beloved

mono-red-menace

rose gold, brass, bronze, what cant she do

mono-red-menace

beautiful base colour, beautiful patina, and it mixes to make beautiful alloys. 10/10 best metal.

mono-red-menace

she also makes up so much of your wiring, she’s a working gal too.

what CANT she do

kirby-left-front-away-from-me

Don’t forget about the most beautiful blue made by copper sulfate!!

mono-red-menace

my absolute FAVOURITE comments on this post are ones like this.

where they just add on something ELSE that copper does. it’s great.

aspiringwarriorlibrarian

When you need to work in an atmosphere where a stray spark could cause an explosion, you switch out your steel tools for copper alloys since it conducts heat much better and thus won’t spark easy.

swan2swan

So when Tumblr user @mono-red-menace hypes up copper, it’s a 60k-note banger, but when I, Ea-nasir,

mortimermcmirestinks

I saw the word “copper” on my tumblr feed and I was like “oh I know where this is going to end up. I don’t see the road but by god I see the destination.”

textsfromhetalians

me, 11 chapters deep in a 25 chapter slowburn fic at 2 am, eyes burning and the phone keeps slipping out of my fingers:

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