This blogger remembers when we had to put disclaimers at the head of our fics and pray that someone didn’t take it into their heads to sue us for what we created.
This blogger remembers brilliant artists and writers getting decades of work obliterated on LJ because someone who wanted to tell people what they were allowed to create went running to someone who wanted a profit, and told them the artists and writers had been naughty.
This blogger remembers just how hard the creators of AO3 worked to build the thing we all seem to take for granted now.
This blogger watched friends dive into the creation process so heartily and determinedly that they all but disappeared from the writing/gaming/artistic side of their fandom for YEARS while they worked to make the archive happen.
This blogger remembers the sense of giddy wonder that there would possibly be LAWYERS involved, willing to defend our right to create these works, and not leave us hanging at the mercy of corporate legal teams.
This blogger is aware that she reads between twenty to fifty books’ worth of material every year on AO3, and is never REQUIRED to pay a penny for the privilege of getting access.
This blogger is aware that she will not ever see advertisements on AO3, and that her personal data and reading preferences won’t be sold to advertisers in order to raise the money that AO3 needs to pay for the services they provide.
This blogger is aware that AO3 is, and has always been, a labor of love; by fans, for fans, and not for profiting off fans – and this is what makes it unique in the whole of the media universe.
This blogger has NEVER taken AO3 for granted, and has ALWAYS been damned glad to have access to it. Even in years when this blogger didn’t have the means to support it financially.
Same.
AO3 is an archive of the content fandom has produced, not a curated collection. The point wasn’t to be a home for GOOD fanworks it was to be a home for ALL fanworks, to provide free access to them and preserve our history as a subculture.
This blog will never apologize for supporting that.
If you look at how AO3 is built, consent is also at the core of its infrastructure. The concept of Archive Warnings, how it’s implemented, and the content of these warnings are all about consent. Warnings are all about allowing readers to make informed choices – to give informed consent – to the kind of content they engage with. And two of the four things you can warn for (rape/non-con and underage) are directly related to consent. The interesting thing that does is that when you are writing your fic, when you are posting it, you are prompted to think about and engage with consent issues. And if you don’t, readers will comment on that and start a conversation. So thinking about consent is a community norm that is baked into our infrastructure.
I hear a lot of people bitching that they can’t leave kudos multiple times per story, or can’t leave kudos on every chapter, or whatever.
Well, take a page out of this marvelous book, because I swear I’ve never been so happy to receive kudos as waking up to multiple people having done this on multiple chapters on a story I just posted.
The bar just got raised, folks.
Would… would writers be glad to read a comment, that is saying “kudos”?
We’re happy to get a smiley face, honestly. Leaving another kudos like this is great. Anything that tells us we aren’t just screaming into the void
^^^^^ This. Even the smallest comments are golddust.
Seconding, thirding, and fourthing all of this. Saying or typing anything is amazing.
writers are happy with anything that isn’t ‘update pls’ when you just uploaded. type the alphabet and we’ll be grinning like fools cuz ‘sames’.
Dang I know what to do now!!!!
Oh, but you can get creative with your extra kudos!
LOVE LOVE LOVE!
(✿◠‿◠) – “I heart this so much!!” ⊂◉‿◉つ – “OMG, the surprise was so sweet! ☆(❁‿❁)☆ – “AHH! Love it!” ≧◠‿◠≦ – “All the feels!” ٩(˘◡˘)۶ – “Woot!!” ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) – “I see what you did there and/or that smut was on point.” ┑(￣▽￣)┍ – “Sweet praises for you!” ლ(╹◡╹ლ) – “I love this story so hard, I get tingles when it updates!” ʘ‿ʘ – “WHat?!” (●⌒∇⌒●) – “Squee!!” (❁´◡`❁) – “Oh dear god, cavities!” (ﾉ´▽｀)ﾉ♪ – “This made me siiiinnnnnggggg!!” ┏(＾0＾)┛ – “Happy dance!” ヾ(＾∇＾) – “Wonderful fic! Thanks again!”
OMG sadface.
(┬＿┬) – “Literally crying, rn.” (^)o(^) – “Holy moly!” (◕﹏◕✿) – “How … how could you do this to me?!” ಥ‿ಥ – “I’m not crying you are!”
FLAMES!
ᕕ(◉Д◉ )ᕗ – “WTAF?!” (⊙…⊙,) – “Did yoU JUST.” ᕕ(˵•̀෴•́˵)ᕗ – “HOW DARE YOU! With my OWN EYES!” (ノ°Д°）ノ︵ ┻━┻ – “TABLE FLIP, you son-OF-A-!”
I canNOT with you!
(@[]@!!) – “WHAT IN THE HOLY HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” ＼(◎o◎)／！– “WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT.” (´･_･`) – “I do not know how I feel about this.”
Assorted.
><((((’> – “This fish is delicious.”
Feedback means everything to fanfic writers and hitting a like or kudos button doesn’t really give that. Even one word reviews do wonders
jinlinli 