Hey bbg, so like how doth one useth the Ao3’eth search filtereth???
Fr fr I’ve had account for years, still Neva found out how use tha search filter
I got u bbg!
So youre new to Ao3's search function. (or old and just suck at it, all good no judgement)
Here is your crash course. On desktop.
we have our homescreen!
Im not logged in to show that anyone can use the edit search function, even as a guest.
But bear in mind that certain fics are locked and can only be accessed by registred users
then you go to your trusty search bar! (indicated with red arrows for clarity)
now we look up something mundane and random I have chosen vore because it is not really my cup of tea so its unbiased ground for me. But you can search anything
Examples:
Fandom names: My Hero Academia, Kung Fu Panda, The Owl House, etc. (abreviations work for we'll known fandoms as well, suck as MHA, JJK, TOH, etc.) Ship names: BakuDeku. DreamNotFound, Lumity Trope/Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Only one bed, etc ('vore' falls under this category) Objects/Actions: (Personally I think think these apply more to whump or smut fics) Torture, Fisting, Whips, etc
PRO TIP!!!
Details is key. If you're looking for something specific, use multiple key words.
Ex. BakuDeku - angst - misunderstandings
then you click the search button! Or the enter key if you wanna do that too!
WHOAAAA
SO MANY RESULTS!!!
BUT WAIT-!
This is how you find what you like or wana read.
The red shows us what you searched for, so 'vore' in this case.
The blue is meant to resemble where you find it in a library, what cateogories, ships, rating, archive warnings, complete/incomplete.
here are all the things in case you were wondering (you can also just click on the squares to pull up this key if you forget)
BUT back to the search results!
Next, we look at the green and black underlines. These are important. Specifically for what we're looking for.
The green indicates how the results are being shown. In this case we're being shown "Best match decending"
this relates to the black underlines, The titles.
If you're not too detailed about your search, and only look up one word, (like 'vore') Chances are pretty high that you will get a bunch of works TITLED vore, but not necessarily tagged as vore.
But lets say, you only want... WLW (or F/F in Ao3) results. Or you want a smutfic or you want a specific fandom or ALL OF THE ABOVE! THIS is where we get into the
Edit Your Search
feature!
:D
Back to the screenshot!
See that button there?
PRESS IT!
it will take you to this form thingy!
(dw about the size i'll zoom in and teach you all about each section individually <3)
First off we have work info
Any Field: This is basically what you initially searched
Title: This is if you're looking for a specific fic. Like "Butterfly Reign"
Creator: This is again if you're looking for a specific creator, maybe a friend/mutual or a recommendation.
for vore, we dont really want any specifc title or author so we'll leave this blank
Completion status: Goes back to the square categories from the search results.
Crossovers: Basically means if you want multiple fandoms in a fic or not.
So lets pick... All Works, and Exclude crossovers for our example.
Single chapter refers to Oneshots if you dont feel like getting invested in a multi-chapter fic.
Word count has many options. If you type up 1000, It will try to find fics with that specific word count. If you have a maximum/minimum word count that you can read you simply put the less than/grater than symbol. >1000 or <1000. Or you could also put a range, such as 500-1000
Language is pretty self explanatory, and maybe you'll find somethhing pretty niche if you look for it. (you can also skip this one and it will show you fics in all languages)
For our example, we've picked single chapter (oneshot), with a word count below 1500, and in english
Next we have Work Tags!
Fandoms: refers to which fandom (media) that you're looking for. This can be video games, movies, shows, musical artists, streamers the list is long.
Rating: Follows the square categories from earlier. You can choose which rating you want depending on either what you like or what you DON'T like!. Ex. if you don't like smut for example, you can select General Audieneces or Teen and Up and that should filter out most of the smutfics.
Warnings: ARE IMPORTANT, these act like Trigger warnings before the tags. If you DONT wanna see something where warnings apply, you can select the "No Archive Warnings Apply" This should filter out all the morbid / triggering stuff. And remember! There is no shame in using that selection or in not wanting to see certain things. Thats the whole reason teh filter exists, you pick. Don't feel bad for liking the freaky stuff or for not liking it. It's all fine <3 :)
Categories: So this is ships. This means all ships (relationships) F/F, M/M, F/M, are considrd more romantic/sexual/something else ships. Gen means there is not clear indication of a main relationship, or ships are not the focus, or it is a platonic relationship. Multi means different kinds of ships, dynamics, people, etc. Or other relationships.
This is how we've picked for our example, We picked Arcane as a fandom, put the rating to explicit, applied the content warnings that we wanted and the ships we would accept.
This part lets us get REALLY specific.
Characters: Pick whatever characters you may want from the fandom
Relationships: These can be romantic or platonic Romantic relationships are denoted by: Jinx / Ekko Platonic relationships are denoted by: Jinx & Ekko
Additional tags: this is where you put all the seasoning, all the stuff you like in a fic goes here.
for our example, we dont particularly care for specific relationships, so we listed the main characters and our extra spices (tags)
ON TO Work Stats!
This part is based on the statistics of the work rather than the content. All of these can be filled in the same format as word count 1000 | <1000 | >1000 | 500-1000
Hits: How many people have read/opened the fic (Guests and Users)
Kudos: How many people left Kudos (Guests and Users)
Comments: How many comments have been left (Guests and Users)
Bookmarks: How many bookmarks the work has (Users)
We dont really care for this in our example, so lets leave this one blank and move right on to:
SEARCH!!
Rember that screenshot from earlier? Of the original results? Remember the green underline? THIS is where that applies.
Heres a screenshot of all the options, they're all pretty self explanatory.
I think for our example, we can just leave thsi part as is.
and now
NOW comes the magic.
CLICK IT!!!!
....
D:
...
all that...
for nothing....
well. You heard what it said
lets go back
And make it less specific.
...
:O
AFTER
REMOVING NEARLY EVERYTHING!
WE GOT IT!!
:D
YIPPIEEEEEE
And now.
My dear students.
What did we learn?
That's right.
Sometimes Ao3 wont have what we're looking for..
AND THATS WHY
YOU SHOULD WRITE IT!!!
WRITE WHAT YOU CANT FIND!!!
>:D
