hii, with all the stuff that's happening recently and rpf fanfics getting shared outside of fandom spaces i'm wondering if there's a reason why you don't lock your fics on ao3?
hello there! that’s a very interesting question, excuse if my reply is a bit long.
well, at first i mainly didn’t lock them because when i started to consume fanfics on ao3 i also didn’t have an account, and then it took three (?) weeks to get one, so when i decided to write again i wanted to keep my works open so people that also started like me and didn’t have an account yet could also have the opportunity to read the stories that i had to share. till today this is the main reason i haven’t close it yet.
of course, i’ve seen it happening with people (fanfics being shared outside fandom space) but it never crossed my mind that it could happen to me, because i’ve always seen it happening with big fics that have way more audience than i do. but yeah, sounds naive but i never thought it could happen to me (and it hadn’t, as far as i’m aware of). most of these thoughts come from a place of awareness i have with my own writing and a pretty low self steem, it didn’t/doesn’t make sense to me that someone would be out there sharing my fics when there’s better works. again, naive but it just wasn’t a worry.
i’ve been thinking about closing them for a while now, especially after seeing other people doing it, the first reason i mentioned is what held me back. i already close the comment section because of bots, and if things continue like this (the increasing issue that multiple fandoms have been facing) i’ll have no other option but to do so and fully lock them.
thank you for asking this, anon! it’s nice to share these bits here and your question is something i’ve been wanting to bring up for some time now, excuse me if i sounded rude or incoherent in any point, feel free to question anything. <3