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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You can help us battle the bots too! Minors welcome, we do not read any NSFW.
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**IMPORTANT**
READ ALL INFORMATION PLEASE
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.
