The Beat-A-Bot Comment Challenge March 1 - March 7
Authors on AO3 are plagued with bot and scam comments, from those trying to sell us things to those trying to insult us. WE CAN DO BETTER!
Don't you hate getting a new comment only to realize it's from a bot? There's tons of fics out there that have NO comments from real people. Let's change that!!
The bots leave tons of comments, you can do it too! Join Baldur's Writers III in a week-long comment challenge where the only thing you need to do is comment and kudos on fics that have received ZERO comments from real people!
EASY MODE: Comment on seven fics that have received 0 comments or only bot comments
HARD MODE: Do the above... and also score BINGO!
Don't know how to find fics with no comments?
Go to search like normal, and then before hitting sort, put "comment<1" in the search within results box
Like this!
While we are a bg3 focused community, this event is open to all! Share it far and wide in your various fandoms and discords, have bingo fun!
Want to talk more about the event or bg3 fic in general? Join us!
Welcoming writers and readers alike who wish to share stories around their favorite characters. | 388 members
Largely inspired by @nomorezerocomments & @justleaveacommentfest.
As of this moment there are 68,344 fics on Ao3 in the Merlin fandom tag, and 9,741 of those have 0 comments, some which have hundreds and hundreds of kudos and even bookmarks but no comments.
There's plenty more that only have a few comments and yet are beloved by fandom. And this is just from a quick glance at ao3, I'm not even counting fanfiction.net, LiveJournal, here on Tumblr, and all the other fanfic places I'm not thinking of right now!
The goal of this is to (of course) comment on fanfic but also to interact with the community. Reblog fanfic, fanart, fan videos, edit, and all the other lovely things each other has made, as well checking up on fandom friends and just have a good time with each other.
And after all with the holiday season upon us, comments are the best gift to the fellow people in the community!
When will it start:
October 1!
When will it end:
January 10! So that it hopefully covers most of the holiday season for everyone!
Rules:
Comment on any Merlin fandom fanfic and tally up your comments!
Everyone is in charge of keeping track of the fics you commented on and how many comments you've left. This will work on the honor system as this is supposed to be as laid back as possible.
Show love to those fanfics that have 0 comments or barely any comments at all!
Show love to short fics/one shots, rare pairs, Gen fics, comment on those smutty fics that you never comment on!
No check in's, no sign ups, just commenting!
No AI fics! No AI comments! No AI at all!
What do I win:
The fandom old prize of Bragging Rights and having fun with your Community
But also if anyone wants to offer any fan creations as a prize incentive, I can throw some in for some extra fun 😃
Extra things to do:
Make a rec list of your favorite fanfics and/or the fics you've commented on and tag me in it so we can share them!
Send/tag me in your fics that you think deserve some more love
Send/tag me those fics that have 0 comments and let's work as a fandom to decrease those 9,000+ fanfics without any love
Any questions suggestions about anything? Send me a ask!!!
I'm on another roll to try to get writers to get half as much appreciation as a lot of artists do. So let's do a comment fest!
VVritten Vees Appreciation VVeeks
April 12 - 25
Rules
No minors
If it is a fic you've never read before, leave a comment! If it's an old favourite you've already commented on? Leave another comment!
Post and link to the fics you are enjoying on your socmeds!
Any combination of Vees in any possible ways are allowed. This includes: solo Vox, solo Valentino, solo Valentino, Valentino/Vox, Valentino & Vox, Valentino & Velvette, Valentino/Velvette, Velvette & Vox, Velvette/Vox, Valentino/Velvette/Vox, Valentino & Velvette & Vox
There may be other characters included, but the focus of the fic must be on the Vees
There are prompts, where you can focus on those sorts of fics to comment on and promote for the day, but those aren't hard or fast rules! Just some fun ways to think about the fics you are looking through.
Prompts
Main Character (Vox, Velvette, or Valentino)
Less than 500 words, Less than 5 comments, or Rated G
Less than 100 hits, Main Relationship (Valentino & Vox or Valentino/Vox), or Tagged Hurt/Comfort
Between 500-1000 words, Less than 10 kudos, or Rated T
A Oneshot, Main Relationship (Velvette & Vox or Velvette/Vox), or Tagged Fluff
Between 1000-5000 words, Less than 10 comments, or Rated M
Less than 200 hits, Main Relationship (Valentino/Velvette or Valentino & Velvette), or Tagged Dead Dove
Between 5000-10000 words, Less than 20 kudos, or Rated E
An Incomplete Fic, Main Relationship (Valentino & Velvette & Vox or Valentino/Velvette/Vox), or a Series
Between 10000-20000 words, Less than 5 public Bookmarks, or Unrated
Main Character (Shok.wav or Vark), or Unconventional Fic (Chat fic, CYOA, Ship Manifesto, Poetry, Slideshows, anything where there is still a good written portion while not being the usual narrative fic)
More than 20000 words, Crossovers, or Completed Chaptered Fics
With your favourite Tag, Fic which most surprised you (in any way), Promote your own fic!
Free Day! Share all the fics on socmed you haven't already that you have commented on during these two weeks!
to cap off Fluffy July this year, we've decided to host a comment fest during the second weekend of August (August 9th & 10th)
Both participants and supporters of Fluffy July are encouraged to go to the ao3 collection and support on as many fics as they can! Meaning, reading fics and most importantly, commenting on them!
There isn't any prize for the person who comments on the most fics, well except for having spread the most joy.
Thanks to @nomorezerocomments for the idea to host a comment fest! <3
okay, this is my first lot of fic recs for @merlincommentfest - fics I have commented on since 1st October and particularly recommend. If you like longer fics, this is the place to find them. They’re all Merthur and aall explicit this time, sorry if that’s not your thing.
No one mourns the wicked by asilentherald 151,956 words Explicit
Merlin and Arthur are taking part in a performance of Wicked that Morgana is putting on, as Elphrida and Galinda. But almost no one in the cast is actually doing it for love of the musical, and the mixture of the ulterior motives and the fact that, as someone who has never seen a performance of the show, my personal head canon of ‘Popular’ has Arthur performing it to Merlin makes this one of my fave fics ever.
Broken chains by Loopstagirl 124,713 words Explicit
Warning: non-con (not Arthur/Merlin), violence
Uther gives Arthur Merlin as a sex slave. Sorcerers have their magic bound through a collar. Arthur wants to refuse but realises worse will come to Merlin if he does. Merlin starts by wanting to and trying to kill Arthur but gradually realises he’s not the bad guy here.
Walk with me by Cookie 99,097 Explicit
A story in three parts. Part 1 has canon Merlin and Arthur transported to 1987 where Arthur meets someone who will change his life. Part 2 is after they go back to canon times, and how the 1987 meeting affected it. Part 3 is modern days. The three parts wind together in a really clever way.
Charting stars on a stained glass ceiling by mornmeril 80,017 words Explicit
Fantasy setting. Merlin works in a coffee shop when Prince Arthur’s coffee is poisoned with a love potion for him to fall for the first person he sees - Merlin. But who did it, why, and how can it be fixed? And meanwhile, is Merlin going to have to pretend to be Arthur’s boyfriend when the bloke is a prat?
We are all diamonds by Footloose 134,304 words Explicit
Arthur is a Deaf businessman taking over his father’s business after his parents die in a plane crash. Merlin is a burnt out opera singer who knows sign language and is brought in to help Arthur on a one off basis, but who becomes mixed up in more as it turns out that not all is as it seems within the business and with Arthur’s usual signer…
So with Comment Fest approaching - and with the possibility of bot-generated comments undermining the value of reader-writer engagement - I thought it might be helpful to provide a short explanation of some different approaches I use in crafting comments, in order to identify a few places to get started for anyone who has wanted to leave more (or more detailed) comments but who feels unsure how to get going.
This is far from an exhaustive list, and the categories are designed to allow for a mix-and-match construction with varying levels of development (from basic to more elaborate). At the heart of it, I think of commenting as a practice of paying attention to what I notice in a story and then crafting language to share those observations with the writer. So each of these categories starts from something we might notice when we read.
1. Affect: how the fic affected you/made you feel
This is a great place to start if commenting feels intimidating, because you’re drawing from your own emotional responses. A basic template might be something like “_____ made me ________.” You can pick a particular moment (the scene with the tooka infestation, the kiss in the Denny’s parking lot, the moment we realize character x was dead the whole time, etc.) or focus on the fic as a whole; and you can describe the effect in simple terms (made me cry, smile, laugh, feel soft, etc.) or extravagant ones (made me want to roll myself into the sea, made me feel like I had ascended to a new astral plane, shook me so deeply it registered a 10.3 on the Richter scale). The idea is to take one or more responses you had to the fic and let the writer know what they were/what about the story produced them.
2. Memory: what from the fic has stuck with you
If a story has an especially strong effect on you, you might also let the author know what particular moments, lines, or images are going to linger in your mind after you finish reading. After identifying the detail(s) you want to flag (if you were going to bookmark this fic with a note to remind Future You which one it is, what image or scene or plot premise or line of dialogue would go in the “the one with the ___________” slot?), you can describe the way it’s sticking with you in general terms (I’m still thinking about it, chewing on it, rotating it like a Hot Pocket in a microwave), or you can point to some of the reasons why it’s sticking with you (it captures character x’s whole deal so well, it reminds me of y moment in the film/tv show/comic, it crystallizes a larger theme in the story so effectively).
3. Appreciation: what in the fic seems beautiful, artful, striking
In this approach you’re giving a writer a sense of what stood out to you aesthetically about the story: the moments that made you feel like “put a frame around that fucker because I want to keep staring at it.” This category can feel tricky because there might be terminology specific to the form that we’re not familiar with, so it can feel hard to describe what exactly makes a moment strike us as well-crafted. But we might think about the appreciation approach as having a basic template: “_____ is so ________.” The first slot can be either general (the whole story, a larger scene, the way the author writes dialogue or description or a major character) or very specific (copying and pasting a particular line or passage, identifying a pattern of imagery, pointing out the way the author narrates a specific kind of experience). And the second slot can be just one adjective (beautiful, visceral, unsettling, powerful, stunning, lyrical) or a more elaborate evaluation (so effective at conveying emotions, so hard-hitting after the slow build-up, so vivid I feel like I’m actually there).
4. Discovery: what the fic showed you/made you think about
Sometimes you read a fic that makes you think about the media/the ship/the characters in a new way, and that’s a really powerful thing to share with the writer. As with the other approaches, you can frame this in terms of the fic as a whole or pull out particular lines or plot points, and you can either describe the effect on your thinking in general terms (this changed my brain chemistry, this blew my mind, this is canon for me now) or in specific ones (I’d never thought about x moment in the film that way before, but now I’m going to think about it that way every time; the line where character x says y was like a lightbulb moment for me - it clarified so much about x’s motivations; I would never have thought about this show as being about z theme, but after reading this fic, I’m seeing z everywhere).
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So there you have it: a non-exhaustive list of things we notice about stories and some ways to talk about that. I hope it’s helpful. And of course, when in doubt or when pressed for energy, a string of emojis, a keyboard smash, or an all-caps “I LOVED THIS!!!” are also wonderful ways to share a little love with fic writers.
Hey Revalink nation, hope you're excited for our upcoming Revalink Comment Fest! To celebrate the hard work of all Revalink fic writers, we've dedicated one of our event days to supporting fics submitted by authors on here.
The commenting prompt for April 12th will focus on supporting all the fics being promoted on this post, so authors, reblog this post with links to a couple of your Revalink fics! Include the title, rating, word count, brief summary, and link of each fic you choose to promote.
Commenters, let's get ready to support the hard work of our Revalink authors!
Got any questions that haven't been answered? Send an ask or dm this blog!
HAHAHA, I DID IT. I DID IT FUCKERS I GOT A FULL BINGO ON @feedthefandomfest's OG BINGO CARD, AND BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR! NOW ONTO OLD BINGO CARD-
Fic rec list time below the cut!
(Starting off strong with three fics by the same author, lmao)
"Casting Rain", "Phantom Pains" and "A Good Ol' Fashioned Hell-Raising" all by SilverSkye13
If you can't tell, I found and proceeded to fall head over heels in love with SilverSkye13's Undertale writings. Go check out their works, they're such a good writer!
Onto the fics I'm highlighting here-
Casting Rain
Walks in
Crumples to the ground
Sobs
This fic. Omfg this fic. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-
An Undertale Wartime!Grillby fic, follows our favourite fire boy's experiences from towards the end of the war all the way up until just after the barrier is created, and it is SO GOOD. Gaster's also there! It's not a Grillster fic, they're just friends, but I feel like they can be read as queerplatonic/platonic life partners (I certainly do, XD). And honestly, who can blame them, because HOT DAMN THESE BOYS GO THROUGH IT.
This fic is so fucking beautiful. It goes on the list of fics, a very short list, that have been able to make me cry, there are so many ups and downs to it, the characters go on so many interesting journeys (both physically and development wise), and the author's notes are also a really fun read. THERE'S ALSO CHAPTERS WITH MUSIC TO SYNC IT TO, AND LIKE?? THE SELECTION IS SO GOOD?? Seriously the music just ELEVATES the reading experience so much (personal favourite is Chapter 63, can't listen to or think about that song without the section it's meant to play in Casting Rain happening in my head, XD. A close second would be Chapter 74)
It is a LOOOOOOONG fic (90 CHAPTERS, OVER 400K WORDS, HUH), took me a week to get through it, but let me tell you it's so worth it.
It is also DARK. Chapter 48 onwards it just keeps getting darker and darker (ha). Not to say that the other 47 chapters previous aren't dark, but it's ESPECIALLY there after Chapter 48. There's gore, there's violence, there's a lot of death, there's a lot of grief and really dark headspaces, there's war and it's NOT sugarcoated, so be wary! Also, don't be me and ignore the "Character Death" tag. Cause it's there for a reason. And it drop kicks you in the face.
Distant wailing
Phantom Pains
Best way to describe this one is; don't fuck around with a timeline cause holy shit you do NOT want to find out.
Decided to save this one for later halfway through Casting Rain (since, fun fact, Casting Rain was created to expand on the Wartime!Grillby headcannons Phantom Pain touches on, although they're perfectly able to be read independently of each other), and like, oh my god I'm so glad I did?? It's so good, SO GOOD.
Like Casting Rain, this fic gets DARK. Sans isn't doing well mentally (neither is Papyrus, honestly... which, tbf, considering their situation, can't say I blame 'em, lol), and this fic doesn't sugarcoat it. So be careful! Trigger warnings for especially dark headspaces are in the top author's note at each appropriate chapter, but it's be a disservice if I didn't warn you guys about that.
I will admit, Sans' characterisation might not be for everyone (listen, early day Undertale fandom, give it a break, XD), but I say it's justified in the context of the story, especially as you learn more about said context as the story goes on. And! Papyrus' characterisation is definitely quite a world's difference from the characterisations of other Paps around during that time (I say it'd be more accurate to his canon counterpart, actually!)
Also, Grillby is a BAMF, absolute MVP (Sans and Paps BOTH would be so much worse off without him, XD), and has zero shits left to give. Which, if you do what I did and read Phantom Pains AFTER Casting Rain, it makes a lot of sense, lmao.
A Good Ol' Fashioned Hell-Raising
WE'RE GOING TO THE WILD WEST WITH THIS ONE, FUCKERS! Grillby is a retired outlaw just trying to make an honest living in a small town, but his life gets turned upside down when his old partner (in more ways than one-), Gaster, shows up out of the blue, with trouble from their old life close at his heels.
God, I love this fic SO MUCH. Also, when I had to take breaks from it for life, consistently ended up with my internal monologue having a southern drawl to it, XD.
There's a lot of violence in the one (obviously), so be wary of that!
"Nightfall" by Leletha
SUCH a good fic, good LORD
Hiccup gets kidnapped by Cloudjumper along with Valka as a baby and ends up being a feral dragon boy who's probably (read; definitely) platonic soulmates with Toothless.
SO. GOOD. URGH
The way Leletha handled dragon speech, behaviour and intelligence in this is SO GOOD and also a take I haven't ever really seen in the HTTYD fandom?? It's so animalistic but also not?? It's hard to describe and honestly best to experience yourself. ALSO THE WAY THE HUMAN CHARACTERS ARE TREATED WITH SO MUCH GRACE AND RESPECT (poor Stoick and his absolute mess and how that is handled is arguably my favourite, XD)?? Chef's kiss BEAUTIFUL! I need to reread it soon, lol. It's also part of a series! Bunch of little off-shoot stories, alongside a re-writing of both HTTYD2 and THW! I need to get around to reading those two, honestly.
This fic gets violent, and can be a mild mind bend at first in Hiccup's chapters (thanks to the way he acts and speaks and thinks, I love him, lol), but you get used to it. So be wary around the violence!
Aaaaaaand that is it! Probably start the Old Bingo card soon-ish (hopefully before the end of the year, but who knows, lol). Anyways, happy holidays to all, no matter what you celebrate, and I hope you all have a safe and warm (or cool if you're in Australia like me, lol) holidays! <3
