PSA
Just to add a bit more.
AO3 literally explains the fields for you. If you hover over or click the little “?” next to rating, warnings, relationships, characters, categories, summary, etc., it tells you what belongs there. Please use that because it helps readers find what they want and avoid what they don’t.
Also, please stop posting loose ideas as if they’re finished fics. I don’t mean “short fic.” Short fic, drabble, or flash fic are all great. I have found many gems in there.
But opening something that has no summary, barely any tags, and then finding 200–400 words of “idk maybe I’ll write this someday” author rambling is not good. That belongs in a Tumblr post, a prompt meme, a notes app, or maybe a clearly labeled “fic idea dump,” not in the archive as a normal completed work.
And the 200-word chapter updates just to bump the fic… bro. I get life gets busy and wanting to keep momentum. But if the chapter is basically just “sorry, update later,” or nothing plot-relevant is happening. It's better to wait. Readers would rather get an actual chapter later than click through five tiny updates that don’t move the story forward.
FYI, I’m really not that nitpicky. I’ll read messy grammar, odd formatting, weird ships, niche AUs, whatever, if the idea is good and the characterization works enough. But tagging and summaries are basic archive manners. They are not decoration. The whole site functions based on them.
Please tag major content properly; don’t use the summary box for “lol idk.” Please don’t mark something complete if it’s just a concept or abandoned notes, and use author’s notes for author’s notes.
Hope this helps newer folks.
