I am having a very stressful problem right now, and I guess I just want to complain.
I had this long term reader with multiple accounts that commented on most of my fics. I noticed they had some odd behavior like the speed at which they commented on my work - like within five minutes of posting a 15k chapter, they had commentary involving details that there's no way they could have read in five minutes.
So I outright asked them if they were using AI to scrape my fics, athey didn't even deny it. They said they're working on a project to make as make TVTropes pages for as many chaptered fanfics as they could, and AI is tool they use to make it go quickly.
So I told them that doing so upset me and I didn't want AI used on my fics. They didn't stop doing it, so I blocked all 3 of their accounts and set my stories to private.
Well, since then they've made 3 more accounts (they tell me who they are when they start making comments, so I'm not just guessing) and I've blocked all of them. At this point I feel like I have a stalker.
I'm anxious about updating my work, and my main fic has more than 200 chapters before its finished. I dread them showing up again. It's sucking all the fun out of writing. Part of me wants to delete everything and give up.
I'm not doing this as a callout post, I haven't shared their usernames with anyone but one of my writing friends in private. I'm not trying to start a hate campaign. But I feel kinda hopeless about the whole thing at this point.
I don’t really understand how someone can claim to love fanfiction culture and want to preserve it via tvtropes but completely ignore the author when they keep begging them to stop using AI. Every time they show up again I just feel so violated and I don't know if fandom is worth this.
I've written over a million words that I've poured my soul into and it's like I'm not even human to this person. I don’t believe they've read a single word themselves, they're just here to tick a box for their "project" all while pretending they love fandom without a care for the person behind the effort.
I just don't know what the world is coming to anymore. Is there even a point in being part of fandom when this kind of thing happens? It's just miserable.
I’m very sorry to hear this, anon. if you’ve already told them your boundaries and that you’re not comfortable with them running your work through ai and they are still doing it, with 3 different accounts, then they’re either a troll or someone who genuinely has no idea how to respect people and what boundaries are. unfortunately I think they’re a troll/stalker, because you blocking them should’ve been clear enough. but them making more accounts just for this is vile.
I don’t know if you can report them to ao3 for stalking, but it’s worth a try.
I may not have a magic solution for this, but I am very sorry you have to deal with this.
if anybody has any advice for anon, feel free to chime in
