Thank you for this info, this is very valuable (and relieving) knowledge.
So please, as readers, this is a MUCH BETTER option!!
And in the notes I have found several other things:
Some people have wondered why this is a thing, or if it’s a bug. This is a FEATURE not a bug. The collections feature is often used for things like big/mini/reverse bangs, fic exchanges, challenges etc where authors and/or artists and/or other fannish content creators submit their work early to the collection and the collection is left unrevealed until the set public reveal date of the event.
This is a GREAT feature. We LIKE this feature A LOT. It’s just that if you aren’t aware of this feature and what it can do, it can negatively affect you outside of those purposeful situations.
Someone confirmed that the “mark collection anonymous” feature does turn the story from being written by you to being written by anonymous.
You can also remove your work from a collection if you go to the “edit” page of the story (not edit chapter, but the main edit), scrolling to where it says “post to collections/challenges” and clicking the (x) by the collection you want to remove the work from. If you only have one or two stories in collections this is fine; if you have a lot, the manage collections page will let you do them all at once.
You can check if your story has been affected by logging out and going to your works page. If your work in the collection is not visible (and you have not marked it as “must be logged in to see”) then it may be that the collection is unrevealed.
Someone suggested that the bookmark collection feature would be a great way to make a private collection, since you can make bookmarks private.
I checked and found that authors cannot remove a bookmarked story from a collection. This makes sense, as bookmarks are not FOR the author, they’re for the reader. They are reader spaces.
You do not have to own a collection to add a bookmark to it.
If you, as a writer, have your story in a collection currently and you would like your story to still be able to be found in that collection without the risk of your story “disappearing” if the collection is made private, you can create a bookmark of your own story, and add it to the collection before removing your actual story from the collection (providing the collection is not closed).
If you do the above, you can link to the collections your story belongs to in the notes of your story (beginning or end notes) if you’d like to foster folks in the community being able to find similar stories easily. Slightly more work on your part, BUT a boon to fandom community as a whole because it will allow for readers and writers to collaborate and maintain networks of stories. Adding your story as a bookmark is also something you can do if someone requests that you add your story to their collection- if you want to reject the request to add the story, you can then add a bookmark for them after, and a link to the collection in your story notes.
Collection owners should get an email when bookmarks are added to your collections that you didn’t add (providing you have selected the option “Send a message to the collection email when a work is added” in the collection settings).
If someone adds a bookmark to your collection that you do not want them to add, you can just go to the manage collection items page and reject it, which will remove it from your collection.
Alternately, you can switch your collection to “moderated” instead, and it will cause your collection to require you to approve additions BEFORE they are added, so you can still monitor what goes into your collection.
Alternately, you can prevent anyone from having the option to add anything to your collection by selecting the “collection is closed” option in the collection settings.
If your works are in collections currently with no problems, there’s no reason to panic. You don’t have to remove your works unless you want to. Most people really are just grouping up works with no ill intent. I just wanted folks to be aware of what it means for you to be in a collection, and give anyone that needs it the tools to fix it if it does become a problem. And also to make folks who DO make collections aware that they should not be marking those collections unrevealed or anon because it screws with the writers.
I want to be VERY CLEAR and say again that the ability to turn stories unrevealed/anon is a FEATURE of the site. It is a really, really great tool for events. It is NOT AO3 that is the problem here; the shift in how users use the feature is what causes this to become a problem. This feature is supposed to be for collections, challenges, exchanges, etc. It was not originally intended to be a way for users to group their favorite stories. But humans, being the creative little shits that we are, were given a toolset and found a way to use it that benefits us. Unfortunately, the toolset includes tools which can be harmful to some if people aren’t aware how and why to use those tools, or use them without permission. This is just a PSA on what tools exist, how they can be used, and what risks there are for using them.
