➡️ Not every medium of fiction and storytelling has or is expected to have content warnings or extensive tagging.
➡️ Print novels do not traditionally warn for content in any way.
➡️ Until AO3 came along, fanfiction did not traditionally warn for content in any significant way.
➡️ An author is only obligated to warn for content to the degree mandated by the format they publish their fiction on.
➡️ Content warnings beyond the minimum are a courtesy, not an obligation.
➡️ 'Creator chose not to warn' is a valid tag that authors are allowed to use on AO3. It means there could be anything in there and you have accepted the risk. 'May contain peanuts!'
➡️ Writers are allowed to use 'Creator chose not to warn' for any reason, including to maintain surprise and avoid spoilers.
➡️ 'Creator chose not to warn' is not the same thing as 'no archive warnings apply'.
➡️ It is your responsibility to protect yourself and close a book, or hit the back button if you find something in fiction that you're reading that upsets you.
➡️ You are responsible for protecting yourself from fiction that causes you discomfort.
I wish more ao3 users made their bookmarks public. Or maybe a lot of users don’t use bookmarks at all? Hard to tell. It used to be a great way to find new authors - go through the comments or even kudos of fics I liked, check out those users’ bookmarks. But I’m noticing a trend that a lot of people don’t have any public bookmarks anymore.
ooooh people should know more about Bookmarks! You can make collections of them! You can often find excellent new-to-you stories by searching the bookmarks of your fav authors!
“You are responsible for the minors in your fandom!!!”
No, I’m fucking not. I’m not your parent. My past-times do not automatically sign me up to act in loco parentis. If you need someone else to monitor your own content consumption online, go get mommy and/or daddy to set up a content blocker on your computer.
1. Making a good faith effort to include relevant and informative tags and labels on my creative works.
2. Making a good faith effort to use the “author chose not to warn” rating, a “contains potentially upsetting content” note, cuts or community ratings, or otherwise indicating that there might be untagged, triggering content if I’m not up to or don’t want to tag it.
3. Being a good fandom citizen; not sending death threats or hate, not bullying people, being kind and thoughtful to those I interact with, and leaving alone things that would prompt me to act otherwise.
4. Curating my own experience; not engaging with people or material that I know will be harmful or upsetting to me, disengaging when I realize that something is harmful or upsetting to me, and using tools such as blocklists and tag filters to hide content I don’t want to see.
5. Doing the opposite of whatever the fuck bullshit is going on in tiktok at all times.
Being a good fandom citizen; not sending death threats or hate, not bullying people, being kind and thoughtful to those I interact with, and leaving alone things that would prompt me to act otherwise.
It is simply JUST that easy. All the fandom shit exists because people choose to behave badly and it’s too often younger ones holding fandom spaces as societal influence & activism spaces instead of a HOBBY SPACES.
AO3 has recently seen a rise in guest spambot comments making false accusations about work creators or other users. For example, they may claim that a particular user is discriminating against minorities, trying to hide the fact that they use AI, or are at risk of having their works stolen or deleted.
These comments often copy existing AO3 usernames in order to make their accusations seem more legitimate. They may also try to lure people onto other platforms (similar to the art commission scam), or use fake links that actually lead to pornographic images.
As always, we recommend that you do not click on any suspicious links or give your contact information to scammers. Instead, simply mark the comments as spam or report them so that the Policy & Abuse committee can remove comments left by these spambots.
Learn how to recognize them and what to do below the cut!
How to recognize this kind of spam:
The comments come from guests, not logged-in users.
The comments may start with praise for you and your writing, trying to lull you into a false sense of security. Or they may claim that you are a bad writer, trying to make you too upset to realize that the comments are fake.
The comments may accuse you or another user of promoting discriminatory beliefs, deceiving fans, or similar behaviors that might cause other people to shun or harass the accused individual. They may claim that they checked social media to find that the accused user is "brazenly sharing hateful content" or "bragging about using AI".
The comments are often pleading or angry, asking you to "stop lying to your readers", "don't remove the AI prompts from your work", or suggesting that you "consider adding more diverse characters" to "repair the trust you've lost with your audience".
So far, these comments have all been from guests. Our advice is to flag them as spam to better filter them out.
To help train our automated spam-checker to block similar guest comments in the future:
If the comment is on your own work:
Go directly to the comment on your work, either by clicking on the link in your email or in your AO3 inbox.
Click on the "Spam" button to mark the guest comment as spam and remove it from your work.
Note: The "Spam" button only appears when viewing a guest comment directly on your work. This is because the AO3 comment inbox is merely a copy of the work's comments – deleting a comment from your AO3 inbox does not delete the comment from the work itself.
If you see comments like these on someone else's work:
Feel free to let the creator know the comment is from a bot, and that they should mark it as spam.
You can also report the comments as botspam via the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form linked at the bottom of every page on AO3.
If you are reporting multiple guest comments, please submit only one report, and include all comment links in your report description. (You can get the direct link to any comment by clicking the "Thread" button on the comment, and then copying the URL of that page.)
As of December 2025, bots have also left guest comments harassing users by:
threatening to report you/your fic to the authorities or your employers
alleging security concerns like your email being compromised or spyware on your computer
claiming that they know your address and are going to visit you at your house
saying that you will die alone and unemployed over the holidays
What these bots claim is not true. These accusations do not mean your work will be deleted or that your accounts are insecure. We recommend that you mark these comments as spam following the instructions in our previous post.
These examples also do not represent the full range of harassment comments that you may receive. We will continue to try and keep you updated about trends; however, please note that the exact wording the bots use will continue to evolve.
If you're not sure if something is a spambot comment, you're welcome to contact Policy & Abuse for assistance. Refer to the original post for more information!
I have had multiple of the commission scam comments on multiple works of mine recently (not works that could in any way ever plausibility make a good comic as they often try to say 😂). Fortunately I do not allow guests to comment or even view my work for this very reason (also ai scrapping). This makes me so sad to see on anyone's fic, I will always put extra effort and love into my comment if I see someone being harassed by nasty stuff.
Me and my current fanfic imagining chapters waaayyyy into the future with no idea how I'm going to connect them. (At least half of what's written in not in the correct order)
There's such recency bias in fandom. As an author you post something, get a few reactions, and then it goes off into the bin. As a reader you check the tags, see what's new, and move on. But a lot of old stuff is really good. It's just sitting there, gathering dust, waiting for someone to take a peek.
I think that we should all make a random side blog and leave the post sharing ai gobbeling setting on and post purely nonsensical unhinged shit to feed whatever ai is eating our tumblr posts.
yes, please do that, that's definitely how that works. please put a lot of energy into doing things out of hate for a disability aid. it will definitely be worth it. cocksucker.
Oh look its someone who's riding the dick of generative ai. Please try reading this post before you make all these claims. A disability aid, come on, that's the MOST offensive reason to defend generative ai use and so incredibly ableist. Disregard all disabled artists, writers, and creators prior to the last what five or so years since gen ai has become mainstream why don't you. Generative ai is not a disability aid, it is for those who are lazy and don't care about the environment or theft of art and writing. I'll watch from here as your brain turns to mush.
Mmmmh yes big hard throbbing ability for people to express themselves. Stretch me out ough. Fill me uuuuup with your freedom of expression until I'm leaking aaaaahn.
"disregard all disabled artists" bitch where. Show me on the doll where the big mean advocate hurt you. You are the one who's disregarding people. Advocating for one type of disability aid, and defending it from genocidal eugenicists like you, is not saying anything about people who don't use that aid! Where are you getting this shit? You going to put some inspiration porn up next? ooh look at this guy he paints with his mouth? you think I hate him? I don't! He's expressing himself and I think that's great! Everyone should have that right... INCLUDING the people YOU are calling lazy for gasp oh no!, EXPRESSING THEMSELVES. Fuck. I can't even be polite about this anymore! I'm out of "nice"! There's no more left in me! You are fucking toxic! That link is so bad it's laughable, and you knew that when you used it. You are a hateful, angry, small, shriveled little excuse for a human being and I can't wait for you to grow out of it so we'll have one less ableist asshole in the world. So how about you get to work on that sweetie. You've got a long way to go.
Fuck you. You're eqating AI to a prosthetic or a pair of glasses. It's more like telling a machine to eat and taste for you and then spit out an analysis sheet so you can go to a place, claim you're an expert, and then use the analysis to "wow" your friends and strangers.
You. Do. Not. Need. AI. To. Imagine. For. You.
You just want to look like a more skilled person.
Helen Keller was deaf and blind and she wrote books. She didn't need a machine to imagine prose for her.
Beethoven was partially deaf. It didn't stop him from imagining sound. It didn't stop him from composing music.
Sarah Biffin was a woman who used her mouth to hold her paintbrush while she painted, because she didn't have hands.
You don't need a fucking thinking machine, you idiot. Being disabled doesn't excuse you in the art world. There's a million ways to "express yourself" that don't involve plagiarism by bot.
It is absolutely not "disability aid". Disabled people were just fine in the art space before AI came in. AI's there for able bodied people who refuse to learn, think that skill is useless, want instant gratification and clout, and don't care for the effort and time put in something that's meaningful.
Ahhh @batabingbataboom thanks for a reblog worth reading from someone who's brain is not slowly being turned to mush by ai. Thank god there are still some of you left!
And as for you @sufferingisbad you are clearly beyond help and reason, deep in your hole of agrerative ai, stupidity, and laziness. People who use generative ai are not in any way expressing THEMSELVES they are expressing (and mass plagiarising) EVERYONE ELSE who's work was (unconsentingly) fed into said ai. Oh and you're "out of nice" huh, may I remind you that YOU have been hostile from the start (over a joke shitpost I might add). Or is calling someone a "cocksucker" what passes for nice these days? Tell me you didn't read the post without telling me you didn't read the post. Because you say you don't disregard actual disabled artists and then you go and do exactly that by calling their contributions and stories "laughable". And don't you think that's a stretch "genocidal eugenicist"? Fuck, well my head would be the first on the chopping block. Also ANY environmental distruction is bad of course and should be sought to be made more sustainable but; cows are necessary for meat and dairy products (and no we can't all be vegan thats ableist and stupid), and the internet has become necessary in our everyday lives for work and school (some might say too necessary) and there is also value in the enrichment we get from our internet use, these things are not HEEDLESS (you didn’t get ai to explain the new word to you?). But you have a small shrivelled excuse for a human brain so I won't hold your ignorance against you.
Okay, good thing I got to this one first thing in the morning because it's going to take some work. Strap in!
Brain not being turned to mush, at least according to your metrics, as I've never used (the kind you're mad about) AI. Nope, not even the results on google. I scroll past and look for actual sources, because shocker, AI isn't good at everything! I draw traditionally with pens and colored pencils, and digitally with autodesk sketchbook, although a friend of mine is slowly getting me into clip studio paint. When I write I don't use AI. I don't feel the need or want to, and it doesn't interest me. You don't have to be one of the people who uses something to support it, but I'm not sure you really understand that, so take some time to process if needed. Think about a person with working legs who helps their friend in a wheelchair, if that makes it easier to break down, since you seem so obsessed with mobility aids.
Agrerative AI. Fascinating. Fascinating stuff. What is it exactly?
Calling a disabled person lazy and stupid is NOT the flex you think it is.
That's not how AI works and this has been disproven to death please do some research
I was hostile on your post about trying to intentionally damage a disability aid, yeah. I would call somebody a cocksucker if they were talking about going out with a sledgehammer and smashing a wheelchair ramp, too.
Tell you I didn't read the post? I'm sorry Bill, I'm afraid I can't do that! Because I have read that post so many times, I just don't agree with you on it. It is fucking laughable to say, 'my disabilities don't keep me from doing this, therefore NO disability exists that keeps ANYONE from doing this', while calling yourself an advocate! Many of the 'artists' on that post were putting words in the mouth of aidvocates as well, claiming that we said disabled people can't make art (without AI). The only place I've ever seen that sentence is in reactionary bullshit accusations. The only one saying that is your side. How you're getting that meaning out of "this is a disability aid that some people use", I really, really do not know.
No, yeah, it is eugenics and is potentially genocidal. Claiming that if you can't do certain things you just don't deserve a full life. That's... that is. I'm not sure how to put it more clearly for you, the things you're saying are eugenicist. They are used to support genocide. And don't worry, I'm sure your ability to jump onto whatever side is the most hateful will serve you well.
Never said anyone needed to be vegan. I'm not. I also drive in a car and take hot showers and run my air conditioning. The idea that we as individuals need to make personal lifestyle changes to bring about climate stability is, I hesitate to use this term because you don't seem to like it, laughable. Again.
I'm having trouble with this one, these things are not heedless? What does that even mean? What exactly are the processes of consumption of meat and dairy and AC and gasoline supposed to be heeding? Did you perhaps mean to say "needless"?
Just an fyi to anyone reading this post in the future. This person is an idiot. And you should block them, I gave them the time of day for as long as it was entertaining for me. But if you value art or writing by humans and don’t think disabled people need to outsource their creativity and imagination and thinking then you should just block them.
I think that we should all make a random side blog and leave the post sharing ai gobbeling setting on and post purely nonsensical unhinged shit to feed whatever ai is eating our tumblr posts.
yes, please do that, that's definitely how that works. please put a lot of energy into doing things out of hate for a disability aid. it will definitely be worth it. cocksucker.
Oh look its someone who's riding the dick of generative ai. Please try reading this post before you make all these claims. A disability aid, come on, that's the MOST offensive reason to defend generative ai use and so incredibly ableist. Disregard all disabled artists, writers, and creators prior to the last what five or so years since gen ai has become mainstream why don't you. Generative ai is not a disability aid, it is for those who are lazy and don't care about the environment or theft of art and writing. I'll watch from here as your brain turns to mush.
Mmmmh yes big hard throbbing ability for people to express themselves. Stretch me out ough. Fill me uuuuup with your freedom of expression until I'm leaking aaaaahn.
"disregard all disabled artists" bitch where. Show me on the doll where the big mean advocate hurt you. You are the one who's disregarding people. Advocating for one type of disability aid, and defending it from genocidal eugenicists like you, is not saying anything about people who don't use that aid! Where are you getting this shit? You going to put some inspiration porn up next? ooh look at this guy he paints with his mouth? you think I hate him? I don't! He's expressing himself and I think that's great! Everyone should have that right... INCLUDING the people YOU are calling lazy for gasp oh no!, EXPRESSING THEMSELVES. Fuck. I can't even be polite about this anymore! I'm out of "nice"! There's no more left in me! You are fucking toxic! That link is so bad it's laughable, and you knew that when you used it. You are a hateful, angry, small, shriveled little excuse for a human being and I can't wait for you to grow out of it so we'll have one less ableist asshole in the world. So how about you get to work on that sweetie. You've got a long way to go.
Fuck you. You're eqating AI to a prosthetic or a pair of glasses. It's more like telling a machine to eat and taste for you and then spit out an analysis sheet so you can go to a place, claim you're an expert, and then use the analysis to "wow" your friends and strangers.
You. Do. Not. Need. AI. To. Imagine. For. You.
You just want to look like a more skilled person.
Helen Keller was deaf and blind and she wrote books. She didn't need a machine to imagine prose for her.
Beethoven was partially deaf. It didn't stop him from imagining sound. It didn't stop him from composing music.
Sarah Biffin was a woman who used her mouth to hold her paintbrush while she painted, because she didn't have hands.
You don't need a fucking thinking machine, you idiot. Being disabled doesn't excuse you in the art world. There's a million ways to "express yourself" that don't involve plagiarism by bot.
It is absolutely not "disability aid". Disabled people were just fine in the art space before AI came in. AI's there for able bodied people who refuse to learn, think that skill is useless, want instant gratification and clout, and don't care for the effort and time put in something that's meaningful.
Ahhh @batabingbataboom thanks for a reblog worth reading from someone who's brain is not slowly being turned to mush by ai. Thank god there are still some of you left!
And as for you @sufferingisbad you are clearly beyond help and reason, deep in your hole of agrerative ai, stupidity, and laziness. People who use generative ai are not in any way expressing THEMSELVES they are expressing (and mass plagiarising) EVERYONE ELSE who's work was (unconsentingly) fed into said ai. Oh and you're "out of nice" huh, may I remind you that YOU have been hostile from the start (over a joke shitpost I might add). Or is calling someone a "cocksucker" what passes for nice these days? Tell me you didn't read the post without telling me you didn't read the post. Because you say you don't disregard actual disabled artists and then you go and do exactly that by calling their contributions and stories "laughable". And don't you think that's a stretch "genocidal eugenicist"? Fuck, well my head would be the first on the chopping block. Also ANY environmental distruction is bad of course and should be sought to be made more sustainable but; cows are necessary for meat and dairy products (and no we can't all be vegan thats ableist and stupid), and the internet has become necessary in our everyday lives for work and school (some might say too necessary) and there is also value in the enrichment we get from our internet use, these things are not HEEDLESS (you didn’t get ai to explain the new word to you?). But you have a small shrivelled excuse for a human brain so I won't hold your ignorance against you.
I think that we should all make a random side blog and leave the post sharing ai gobbeling setting on and post purely nonsensical unhinged shit to feed whatever ai is eating our tumblr posts.
yes, please do that, that's definitely how that works. please put a lot of energy into doing things out of hate for a disability aid. it will definitely be worth it. cocksucker.
Oh look its someone who's riding the dick of generative ai. Please try reading this post before you make all these claims. A disability aid, come on, that's the MOST offensive reason to defend generative ai use and so incredibly ableist. Disregard all disabled artists, writers, and creators prior to the last what five or so years since gen ai has become mainstream why don't you. Generative ai is not a disability aid, it is for those who are lazy and don't care about the environment or theft of art and writing. I'll watch from here as your brain turns to mush.
