If you follow me on AO3...
If you’ve been to my AO3 page lately without logging in or without an account and you see the page looking “empty” or “blank”
Know that my fics were NOT deleted. They’re still there, so don’t panic.
I just had to “Lock them” (Notice the little blue Lock next to the title). So they’re set to “Only show your work to registered users”. Meaning that now in order to read my stories you may need to get an account (I know of ALOT of artist who have Invites and codes they’re giving away to help anyone who needs an account, but doesn’t wanna go through the hassle of waiting for an Invite.)
I ended up having to take this really difficult decision after all the drama that went down yesterday with those (unofficial) Apps that started appearing out of nowhere and people everywhere were freaking out after being told these apps had not only stolen all our fics on AO3, but that they were also making profit out of them through the use of Ads,“asking for tip$” from the users of said apps and also offering “Premium Content” that sometimes allowed the users to “Unlock” stories that were set Private. (WHY would you pay a total stranger money to view content that’s already available for FREE??)
(I also heard that the apps stole logging info if people logged into their AO3 through it. So these apps are all one big SCAM.)
The second reason why I did the Lock-Up was because many of my fics contain Companion Art/Fanart, I created specifically for the story/chapters which are added through Direct Linking through here on Tumblr.
It just sucks that authors and artists, like myself, get pushed into taking these drastic measures in order to protect our work from online parasites. ‘Cause fanart or not, Fanfic or not, it is still our hardwork. Something that we’re proud of and enjoy sharing with others. But if we, as the creators, are not allowed to profit from said work without receiving a Copyright Infringement Report or worse, having it taken down from the pages we upload it to (or you know... face a lawsuit).
Why should someone else who didn’t even put their two cents into their creation?
And like many have said, it sucks because a lot of our traffic and Kudos♥ come from Guest/People without accounts. So every time we have to restrict access/hide our stuff or move to another page that offers more security, it takes a huge bite out of the Feedback we usually get.
It’s not like on Deviantart, where I did ended up having to make both my accounts Private years ago so that its only visible to Members, after it was brought up that people from Photobucket, 4chan, Danbooru, ect kept coming into DA to steal drawings, recolor them and then upload them on other sites like it was theirs. And I think several companies do this as well (*coughcoughHOTTOPICcoughcough*). But in the end it made no difference on the way I receive Views/Feedback, since you still need an account in order to give anyone Like/Fave and Comments/Feedback anyway.
But places like AO3, Fanficition.net, Wattpad ect are different.
ALOT of people read fics from sites like these without the need from an account because the pages themselves make it easier for the readers to leave feedback/kudos/likes on the works without the need and hassle of having to get an account UNLESS you’re a writer yourself and would like to upload your own stories.
*SIGH* So yeah... I hope this all clears out and the “Lock-Up” will become a Temporary thing. TT
Until then I’ll still be updating on Ao3 when I can (also here to let everyone know if a new chap is up), and if you have a Deviantart account, I’ll be updating the fics there too (you can find me as LoKiRaseNgAn there).
