Welcome to @battling-the-bots! This blog exists for one reason only: to support writers and protect them from spam/hate bots on Archive of Our Own.
So first, to answer the question you may be asking yourself,
What is an Ao3 hate bot?
Hate bots come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common; they hate. You can find them in the comments of all kinds of fanfiction, spreading across thousands of fandoms on Archive of Our Own (more commonly referred to as Ao3 for short). These bots can be extremely detrimental to young, rising writers, who cannot tell the difference between what is a bot and who is an actual human.
So... what can you do to help?
Whether you're a reader or a writer, you can help our cause! If you're reading a fic and notice either a spam or hate comment, report it to us by sending in an ask with the fic link. We have a team of actual humans who will read that fic and leave genuine comments, noting things they liked and empowering writers. Don't forget to leave a comment yourself!
Please do not submit any NSFW/explicit fics!
There are minors here, and although we believe that every fic needs love, minors should not be reading NSFW. In the future, once the community gets larger, we may add locked channels on the Discord for NSFW, but for now, we will be reading strictly SFW fics. Thank you for understanding and keeping Battling the Bots SFW.
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**IMPORTANT**
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In ord
What does a hate bot comment look like?
Hate bot comments can vary a lot. Some are simple and short, and some are incredibly complex and use sophisticated language. They almost always do not mention any specific details about the fic they liked. They are also usually a guest account.
It’s important to remember that those details mentioned above do not apply to all bot comments. Some will mention things about the fic, and some may have accounts.
Here are some examples pulled from Google with the search, “ao3 hate bot comment”.
You might see this too; the bot will accuse the writer of using AI.
Some hate bot comments feel very clunky and AI generated, while others feel like it might have been human written. But rest assured, these are all bots.
What about spam bots?
Although spam bots do the opposite of hate bots— they praise— they are just as harmful.
First, they might simply praise the author, again, giving general feedback with absolutely no details. These bots are basically harmless, but they are still not real humans who are actually reading your writing, which can feel pretty terrible.
Again, these are some examples pulled off of Google with the search “ao3 spam bot comment”.
Or, you also might see this; the bot will ask if you would like to join their club/discord or that they would like to make art of your fic (or also could be something completely different). These bots, although they are praising the work, are also incredibly dangerous. Some may not know that these are bots and lead themselves into dangerous situations, or pay money directly to a scammer.
The comment on the right was actually received by blog mod, @i-love-zelda-16.
Again, writers may be excited seeing these kinds of comments, thinking that someone is actually interested in their work, but unfortunately, rest assured that once again, these are all bots. Do not pay any money to them. Do not trust them.
At the end of the day, this blog is here not to battle the bots, but to support our fellow friends on the Archive. We're here to protect and preserve Ao3 authors so writers can keep writing and readers can keep reading.
This is gonna be a bit all over the place cause I’m tired but it’s really important…
I could totally be interpreting this wrong, and I’m not saying people can’t have opinions but I’ve seen a huge uprise in people taking hits on ao3 writers?? I clicked on this ao3 thing cause I was like oh cool I’d love to see how the most popular ones influenced people!! And then not only are they dissing on the people in the fandom (which sure some people can be a little extreme, I’ve INTERACTED with some people who werent great but don’t go on ao3 and publish something in the fandom that people are in???) but also ON WRITERS ?? HELLO? The fact they are literally blaming the writer for manipulating the readers throws me the most as well as the “mischaracterization is wrong” umm… like fyi? This is ao3. Not everyone is a professional writer and some people interpret characters different than you.
it’s okay not to like fics, but to go online and complain about the fandom your in just gives me weird vibes... but idk guys
AM I LIKE... INTERPRETING THIS WRONG OR SOMETHING???
You missed the mark. I’m a woman in her 30’s with a full time job. lol, I’ve turned on guest comments and all I’ve fished up is bots lol. This is the second one in a week.
So...think I just got my first hate/spam comment on Ao3 for my current fic. Initially, it did kinda upset me, I won't lie. However, looking at it rationally, I can see that it's probably spam because it mentions nothing specific about the story (they commented on chapter 18 and mention nothing about the story progression? huh, bit sus) and, quite frankly, is just ludicrous in its accusations.
I'd love to know what they think my own agenda is.
(Also, I looked up the username: it does exist but having looked on their profile, I'm more convinced that it is a spam commenter using someone else's username. Which, quite frankly, is awful.)
If, on the off chance, that this is real and is a genuine comment, why would you read a fic this long (over 100,000 words at the point of comment) and comment something so: 1) nasty and 2) vague? And also, why hide behind a guest user? Just be brave and log in if you're going to hate. Or, better yet, click the little back button and exit the fic.
I literally started laughing at work when I saw this comment. I wish I knew who this person was (I have the sneaky suspicion it's not actually that person, I did a search for their AO3 name and literally nothing they have could be related to RNM...no fics of their own (save 1 for Good Omens) and all of their bookmarked fics have nothing to do with RNM, so I believe this is an imposter using this person's penname to go around spreading hate...but I digress), just so I could thank them for the laugh.
See, here's the thing...
1) I have the fic TAGGED as a human AU, that there's no aliens in the fic at all. So, kudos to them for not reading tags.
2) They commented on chapter 10, which means either they read all the way thru it, or they skipped straight to the end to comment. Either way, didn't force them to read it soooooooo....
And lastly
3) I cut my teeth on FanFiction.Net waaaaaaaay back in the day. We're talking, at this point, 20+ years ago, okay? Like, this little "hate" comment is NOTHING compared to the flaaaaaaaaames I use to get on FFN. Like, literal comments of "This story sucks! It's absolute trash! Do us all a favor and kill yourself" kinda deals back in the day, okay?
Coming at me to say it's OOC and "stupid" and that they aren't fond of "human alternate universe bullshit" is just honestly kind of adorable.
Someone woke up today and tried to be a bitch, but ultimately came at the wrong person if they were hoping to upset me or hurt my feelings about the fic.
