#admin answerin'

[nomorezerocomments]

Do you avoid reading and leaving comments on fics that have content that's...not necessarily triggering, but just more disturbing? Like I'm always excited to read a fic no matter what, but if I see there's incest or underage sex past like, a mention, I'm like, "This is illegal, how can I support this?" sort of thing. It's not a morality thing about the person who wrote it, it's more a "am I a terrible person if I read this," sort of thing. I can always find something good to comment on in someone's writing, but yeah.

no im not catholic

seriously, no. you are not a bad person for reading (or writing) fics that contain incest or underage sex. if it makes you uncomfortable, that's fine, that's your personal boundary, but you are not a bad person for reading it

[nomorezerocomments]

Do you have any advice / know any good guides for adding additional tags to fics? Additional tags are one of the main ways I filter when I'm looking for something to read but I never know what to add when I'm tagging my own work

god i suck at additional tags. if anyone has any more specific advice, please feel free to add on or link any advice posts you have. but this is what i do.

when im tagging, i reread the fic im posting. it helps me remember what actually happens in the fic so i know what to tag

first, i always tag fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, or smut appropriately. this is a major thing people filter for

always tag an unhappy ending, and tag anything that could be trigger (abuse, sexual assault, etc)

if youre using a specific headcanon for a character (say your headcanoning a character as trans, gay, ace, or... alive) tag that

if youre writing for a series, when in the series does it take place (pre canon, post canon, during which book/episode/film).

do they kiss, hug, fight (verbally or physically). tag that

does anyone die, minor or otherwise? tag it

is it a specific "type" of fic? a fix-it, an AU, a sickfic, a songfic, an alternative POV? tag all that.

tag the pov character if you want (i forget to do this all the time)

[nomorezerocomments]

People always talk about live blogging a fic and I don’t fully get what that means? Because my brain sees blog and thinks tumblr but this is the comment on ao3 so authors see your comments blog

so basically, as i understand it, while you're reading the fic, you write down exactly what you're thinking (usually with quotes so the author knows what you're referencing). that way the author gets a long comment with every bit of the fic you liked and why instead of one comment at the end (which is also a perfectly valid way to comment on a fic). hopefully that makes sense!

[nomorezerocomments]

i see people starting to freak out about ao3 being down for 20 hours on the 26th (honestly same) and as always when the archive goes down for a time i think that's a splendid opportunity to issue a reminder that if ao3 is so important to so many people said people should totally consider telling their favorite authors just how much they love their work and how much it matters to them ^^

live admin reaction

also a good time to remind people that they can download fics from ao3 to read during the downtime. and that you should get comments in while you can!

[nomorezerocomments]

It hasn't been a week, so my fic doesn't count for the spreadsheet. I just wanted to vent a little how demoralizing it is to post a fic, and then 24 hours still not have gotten a comment. It wasn't even long. 1.5k. And I get 10+ kudos and *no* comments? Not even an emoji? It hurts. It's a small fandom, so sure, I should expect a trickle, but *come on.*

yeah :( i have had fics get close to 100 kudos without a comment. it can be very demoralising, but you have to remember that this is a cultural issue we're facing, it's not because you suck at writing or anything like that

[nomorezerocomments]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I don't really like the 20 fics per fandom limit...big fandoms like idk One Piece or Doctor Who or Supernatural simply have more fics overall, so the total number of commentless fics is of course also higher if compared to smaller fandoms. And that way it kind of feels like the bigger fandoms get a punishment/penalty simply for being popular

I know, but that also means theres more readers for that fandom and therefore they get through the spreadsheet faster

[nomorezerocomments]

Being in the same Discord server with multiple authors you've been fangirling over is both fun and anguish. Wdym one just droppes a snippet on me. Wdym i get to watch the word counts for said fic go up in the sprints. Wdym i get to suggest ideas to fix plot holes?? What is this otherworldly locked commenter level am i unlocking here.

And they all love teasing me abt it lmao. Especially those who know that the last chapter was left on a cliffhanger and I'm left to theorize as they drop tiny, subtle hints that i can't stop noticing for some reason..

Nevertheless, fun!

-Candy anon

my friend citrus likes to torture me with snippets of their fic that im obsessed with and its sooo fun

[nomorezerocomments]

I know this is nobody's fault (especially not yours or the other participants)...but seeing all these happy stories about people finding friends through commenting, or secretly submitting their friend's fics, or someone getting a comment and it makes their day always make me feel quite bittersweet. Of course I'm happy for all these people and it's great that the project is such a success for them, but I also can't help but wish that for once it would happen to me too :'( (I know it won't happen and I kinda made peace with that knowledge, but it would make fandom feel less lonely idk)

thats literally why im here. because fandom is feeling lonelier and lonelier, and honestly, fuck that. you have to make the change yourself. you have to make the fandom friends yourself. you have to build the damn community yourself if that's what it takes. the only way out of this engagement slump fandom has found itself in is through hard work.

be the change you want to see in the world. give more than you take, and eventually it'll come back to you