#ao3 problems

[frozenfrogz]

Here starts the 15 hours of ao3 being down. Stay strong my soldiers, we’ve braved these storms before and survived. We can do it again.

[asarajaa]

guys it’s been down for 30 minutes i don’t know how much longer i’ll be able to manage

[dementeddaddydexter]

[battling-the-bots]

Let’s stop the bots on Ao3.

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.

***JOIN US!***

You can help us battle the bots too! Minors welcome, we do not read any NSFW.

Battling The Bots Application

Are you interested in becoming part of Battling The Bots? Fill out this form and join us! **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.

[aftertherockshow]

pop punk musicans + text posts 9/ထ

[crxwnedalex]

THE SCREAM I SCRUMPT WHEN I CLICKED ON AFIC AND GOT THIS!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGHHHGGGG

[divinefics]

BESTIES IS AO3 DOWN AGAIN AHHHH

[thenerdyindividual]

Did you know that the “A+ Parenting” tag on AO3 was sarcastic?

Yes

No

I don’t use AO3

Voting ended onOct 7, 2024

So if you’re in a fandom like mine that has a shitty dad character, chances are you have come across the tag “[character]’s A+ Parenting”. I’ve used it multiple times, and it’s one that I’ve seen used across fandoms.

However, in the last weeks if you’ve tried to use that tag on your fic you may have discovered it missing. I recently tried to tag a fic A+ Parenting, and it didn’t come up. It remained on my other fics but I couldn’t tag my new fic with it.

I reached out to AO3 support asking about it, and this I was I received back.

“Hello,

Thanks for writing to us. There has been a general push to rename tags like this because the sarcastic use of "A+ Parenting" might not be clear to all users. For this reason, the tag "Uther Pendragon's A+ Parenting (Merlin)" has been made a synonym to "Bad Parent Uther Pendragon (Merlin)", and you should be able to find it in the dropdown under the new name.

If you prefer to use the other tag, you are welcome to copy/paste it into the Additional Tags field when you post a new work. Because it's a synonym of the new canonical tag, it will show up under the works listing at

https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Bad%20Parent%20Uther%20Pendragon%20(Merlin)/works

Please let us know if you have further questions.

Warm regards,

AO3 Tag Wrangling Support”

Personally, I find this frustrating. It seems like a pointless consolidation that takes away nuance. For me, “Bad Parent” implies active bad parenting, or that the character’s bad parenting is going to be a core tenant explored in the fic. Whereas “A+ Parenting” acknowledges, with a comedic tone, that the character should be doing a better job. Or is behaving in a way that is contradictory to good parenting, but the parenting isn’t a focus in the fic. It’s passive.

Regardless, given the proliferation of the tag, I think most people are aware of its use. It’s a fun linguistic quirk in fandom that is now being wrangled away.

But you can tell me your opinion.