#ao3 anonymous

[xtreme-cringe-warning]

CAN I GET AN AMEN🗣️🙏🙏‼️

[youaremysoulmate1330]

Ok seriously. What is up with the surge of new fics in the buddie fandom that are all “anonymous” posted and involve a whole lotta non con with Christopher???

Did we suddenly get completely fucking weird as a fandom? And not in a good way.

[ao3-anonymous]

there is a dip in the fic count of all fandoms between february 26 and march 3, is there a reason for that? just something I noticed while looking at the dashboard

So I finally had time to look into this properly - at first I couldn't figure it out, because I didn't make any changes to my workflow around that time.

However, I had a hunch and checked everyone's favorite RPF fandom (Hockey RPF) and the drop was wayyy more dramatic there. This confirmed my theory that my stats were no longer including locked works (since RPF fandoms tend to have a way higher percentage of locked fics).

It looks AO3 made some changes to how web scrapers can interact with their site, likely due to the DDOS attacks / AI scrapers they've been dealing with. That change caused my scraper to pull all fic counts as if it was a guest and not a member, which caused the drop.

~

The good news: I was able to leverage the login code from the unofficial python AO3 api to fix it, so future fic counts should be accurate.

The bad news: I haven't figured out what to do about the drop in old data. I can either leave it or I can try to write some math-based script that estimates how many fics there were on those old dates (using the data I do have and scaling up based on that fandom's percentage of locked fics). This wouldn't be a hundred percent accurate, but neither are the current numbers, so we'll see.

~

Thanks Nonny so much for pointing this out! I wish I would've noticed & had a chance to fix earlier, but oh well!

[sicktember]

oh, i have found a fun new writing challenge blog that appeals to my interests, i said. i'll participate to finally get myself comfortable with writing this kind of thing, i said. i won't blush like hell and look over my shoulder in the EMPTY ROOM whilst just copying down the prompts for myself, i said-

Hahaha! We're so glad you found our blog/prompts! And we're thrilled that your want to participate!! But it sounds like these prompts might be a little outside of your comfort zone. However, we're super proud of you for wanting to tackle them!! Self-growth? We love to see it!

Just remember that it's okay to feel a little insecure from time to time. Many creators have moments where they are unsure if they are ready to write/draw/share something they've branched out to produce. But we can assure you that anything that you decide to write is going to be amazing because you did it! And that alone is something to celebrate!!

We have full faith in you!!

However, if it makes you feel more comfortable, AO3 has several collections that allow you to post anonymously on their website. [ie. anonymous (anon) or Anonymous (Anonymity)] That doesn't help you much with tumblr... but it gives you an outlet for quietly posting your work.

And! AO3 allows you to post in more than one collection, so you could still add your work to the AO3 sicktember 2021 collection and it would still show up as 'by anonymous'

We're cheering for you!!

[geminiofpluto]

Damn, I really did just come across those nasty fanfics by that one writer. I was just tryna read some fluff SkyStar, not some nasty Jetfire and Starscream.

[xtreme-cringe-warning]

Me writing fics normally: Oh my god this is so bad I’m sorry I’m sorry imsosorry-

Me writing anonymous fics: I AM GOD!! I’M FUCKING UNTOUCHABLE!

[xtreme-cringe-warning]

Summer break's starting soon and my plan for it is to write as much anonymous ao3 fics about my otp as possible to the point where the ship becomes popular again and everyone will be wondering who would do this and why they even did it in the first place

[ao3-anonymous]

Alright y'all - I know you've been asking forever (and I've been procrastinating forever) but I have FINALLY updated the screenshot methodology for my posts. Which means.... (drumroll please...)

MUCH CLEARER SCREENSHOTS!

You can see a sample post I just posted with this week's data, but moving forward they should all have the prettier pictures. As always, let me know if anything looks wonky!