To all my fellow fanwriters:
Friendly reminder the the only duty fanwriters have when they publish their work online is to follow the ToS of the website they are posting on.
In particular when it comes to Ao3, when you use the website and access its content “you understand that using the Archive may expose you to material that is offensive, triggering, erroneous, sexually explicit, indecent, blasphemous, objectionable, grammatically incorrect, or badly spelled.”
All of that is allowed to exist on the archive. Your readers should know that, and it’s not your responsibility to change your work according to their moral policing. If it’s allowed on Ao3 you have every right to post it.
In fact, the ToS also state: “Unless it violates some other policy, we will not remove Content for offensiveness, no matter how awful, repugnant, or badly spelled we may personally find that content to be.”
Don’t let anyone stop you from writing what you enjoy. Moderate comments if you get nasty ones and don’t hesitate to issue a complain if someone harasses you, because while your fanwork is allowed on Ao3, harassment is not.
On Ao3, users can’t post:
spam and commercial promotion;
code and files that would threaten the integrity of the website or be hazardous to users' computers;
content covered by copyright without trasformative use and/or plagiarism;
non-fiction;
Everything else is allowed.
To be more detailed, fanwriters can post their fics on Ao3 even when they contain:
violence;
abuse;
underage sexual content;
non-con/rape, however badly you might think it’s portrayed;
death and/or suicide;
mental illnesses;
sexual and non-sexual kinks of any kind;
homophobic, racist, sexist, transphobic and/or albeist characters;
“glorification” of any behaviour;
“fetishizing” of anything;
badly written and/or unrealistic situations;
badly written and/or OOC characters;
other morally dubious content of any nature that I forgot listing;
And you don’t even need to tag anything. That’s a courtesy you’re doing to your readers, because according to the Ao3 ToS:
“Users are responsible for reading and heeding the warnings provided by the creator. Risk-averse users should keep in mind that not all content will carry full warnings. If you want to know more, you may also wish to consult the bookmarks that people other than the creator have used to categorize the fanwork.
Some creators do not want to put specific ratings or warnings on their works. Our policy aims to enable creators to choose appropriate labels or to opt not to use ratings and warnings, with the understanding that some users will avoid unrated or unwarned content.”
“Our goal is to provide the maximum amount of control and flexibility for all users of the Archive, both creators and audiences, so that each user can customize their experience. It's always possible for creators to use "not rated" or "choose not to use Archive warnings," but audiences will always be able to avoid unrated or unwarned fanworks if that's how they want to use the Archive.”
“This system is designed to offer numerous different ways to customize the experience on the Archive, which should in general accommodate users' desires for warnings or to avoid warnings, along with authors' ability to choose the appropriate warning or to choose not to provide warnings. In most cases, users can control their experiences by accessing only fanworks that have ratings and warnings that are acceptable to them, and creators can use their artistic judgment about what ratings and/or warnings, if any, ought to be on a fanwork.”
People who start crusades against your fics are childish and you should ignore them, report them or prevent them from commenting in the first place (by moderating comments or not allowing anonymous comments altogether, or both if necessary). If they harass you on some other SNS, block them.
I’ll say more: even if your fic went against the ToS of the archive you’re posting on, people harassing you and insulting you in the comments and outside of them would still be in the wrong. If your fic was against the ToS, another user could a) politely warn you explaining clearly what points of the ToS you violated; b) if you refuse to change/take it down because you think it doesn’t violate the ToS, then report your fic to the archive administrators and let them handle it. Not insult you, not bully you, not starting a crusade against you. That’s never right, and that’s always harassment.
Also, I’m going to quote myself and say:
Seeing that actual books and other forms of fiction (the ones they sell in stores) often do not explicitly condemn morally wrong actions, why do people on this website only go after fanworks written/drawn by literal nobodies on the internet and read/looked at by, what, 1k, 2k people? (if it’s a successful and famous fic/art that is) instead of going after books (ie, but also movies, or other) that sold millions of copies? (ie: some of the books I mentioned earlier, but also books like A Song Of Ice And Fire, some of Irvine Welsh and Chuck Palahniuk’s books and a lot more)
Since “fiction influences reality” (I have to see an actual study on that claim yet), where are your petitions and your criticism against actual literature that talks about problematic themes and reaches way more people than fanfiction? Why do you only want to censor fanworks? I don’t see thousand of posts and discussions about what piece of fiction should or should not be sold in stores. (And I’m glad I don’t, because I’m pretty sure George R.R. Martin would not be happy to be called “gross” and “disgusting” and he could even have the financial means to make you stop through legal measures if he wanted to.)
Think about it, fellow fanwriters. Did you really write something so “problematic” that no work of “official” art has never touched that theme before you? And since the answer 99% of the time is no, why are these people coming after you so concerned with your fic and you instead of being concerned with that book/song/movie? Isn’t it because you’re more vulnerable than a famous and possibly dead writer? Isn’t it because they can guilt you into deleting everything and feeling ashamed about producing something they didn’t like, while that’s not achievable with a famous and possibly dead writer?
What you write might be shitty or a masterpiece, but you have the right to publish it on the internet if it doesn’t violate the ToS of the website you chose. Go out and publish all the problematic content you want. And if someone gives you shit for it, please, please, please, do not delete it. As much as some nasty people might hate your work, others like it, others care. I care.
If you feel like you need support or advice about this particular matter, feel free to hmu. I’m here for you.