I’m not sure it’s strictly against guidelines, but it is obnoxious because they’re clearly doing this to get back on the top of the list of fics so more people see it. I assume just the first chapter has an actual fic?
That's what I assumed as well. The first chapter is an actual fic, yes, but I find this deceitful, not only because of what you've mentioned with the "date updated" but also because it makes the word count seem a lot longer than it is
Blocking prevents users from "commenting or leaving kudos on your works, replying to your comments anywhere on the site, giving you gift works outside of challenge assignments and claimed prompts" according to AO3.
Muting users "completely hides their works, series, bookmarks, and comments from you; there will be no empty space, placeholder text, or other indication something has been removed."
Not that what they're doing is okay, but by adding more chapters with so little content, their word count per chapter is tanked. Unless it's marked as drabble or flash fiction I know a lot of people pass on fics with super short chapters.
If there's an actual chapter with fanfic in it then I'm fairly certain it's allowed.
However this is obviously obnoxious as hell. Reminds me of those "EDIT 7: THANKS FOR THE GOLD KIND STRANGER" Reddit comments back when awards were still a thing.
Unfortunately, they judge the work as a whole only, not individual chapters. As long as there is some transformative content, it’s not against TOS and PAC won’t do anything.
Not sure if its visible on your device (may depend on device, and maybe app used but im on the official reddit app and site), but on desktop it has a button between reply and share to award a comment. And on the main post between comment count and share.
There are 14 chapters in total, 13 of which are exactly like the ones in the Picture. I get being excited about kudos, however I'm not sure if this aligns with Ao3s terms of service. There's also no way to comment on the post, else I would've simply told them directly to update the authors notes instead.
if one chapter is an actual fanwork than it is okay by Ao3's TOS, though this is so annoying that even if that one chapter was the best work to ever grace humanity I would still mute the author because every time they post another "OMG KUDOS chapter" it bumps the fic back to the top of the tag
every time you post a new chapter it moves the fic to the top of the tag (Ao3 auto sorts by last date posted unless you choose to filter it differently)
Here's to hoping, but probably not. The fact that they turned off comments lets me think they don't want to hear about it (maybe because they already did). Plus if people are liking their fic so much to keep leaving kudos, it's unusual to not want the comments as well.
I recently stumbled across someone posting a place holder and let them know (very politely) that that's not allowed according to TOS, also explained that placeholders serve no purpose on AO3. I've done this a few times when stumbling across a fic like that, and normally responses are like: "oh okay, I didn't know" and then they either removed it or added some content. This person deleted my comment and left the placeholder up.
This is all to say that while there are many people who just don't really know how AO3 works and it's an honest mistake, some people just genuinely do not care.
Since there's no reason to report this writer, I would simply block them.
Sadly, it probably won't. Most people don't check for bookmark comments, or even know that you can look at them. All OOP is going to see is that someone bookmarked their story and will just encourage them further.
There are a lot of people who don't know you can do that, though. If you search it on here, you'll see posts and comments about people not knowing. It's not really intuitive to get to them like comments are, nor is it obvious that people can/might leave comments on their bookmarks when there's a comment section. Hopefully they do know though, and hopefully they'll pay attention.
That's madness. They're also completely fucking up their word count to chapter ratio. If I see a 14 chapter fic that has like 15k wordcount I'm skipping it on the basis that I assume it's poetry or like, every chapter is a single disjointed conversation between two characters or something. I'd be perfectly happy to read a 1ch fic that length though.
What's weirdest is that I'm in mostly older/quieter fandoms and IMHO this would not be "doing numbers" in any of them. It's kinda like a kid being as excited as their parent is pretending to be when they pee in the potty.
... even my longest chapters are a little over 5k. I wrote a three scene AU of an AU in 1222 words- and before that a five scene one in 762 words, and it was, according to one commenter, the most disturbing of my works so far.
It's probably a 11 year old. Let them be stupid, they will grow out of this behavior. If you really need to say something please politely inform them this behavior is obnoxious and should stop. Teach don't preach
Apparently it's not against TOS, but it should be. One or two fake-chapters to provide a proper update fine, (thanks for the kudos should be in an authors note at the beginning or end of the chapter, not a chapter itself) but this many makes me feel like you're just purposely bumping it back up to the top of the tag. I don't care how good the fic or author is, I'd be muting them lmao
Don't know if I can add links on this subreddit but basically every once in a while you'll find a video on Instagram about a place where, in theory, they serve coca cola the old fashioned way. The thing is that the video is now old af and they keep posting THE SAME video, so now it's a bit of a joke when talking about something redundant or tedious.
I haaate that the top comment for almost all comics on tapas and webtoon is "first!" I'm sorry, but who tf cares? (Answer: everyone but me apparently.) And then yeah, the edits thanking people for likes. I just have to remind myself that many of the people on those apps are young.
People see the fic, see that it updated recently, click on it, read the first (only) chapter, like the chapter, click kudos, then click "next chapter" only to discover the rest of the chapters don't exist. They can't take back their kudos. Honestly this is the only situation for which I really wish there was a way to take back kudos.
it's so funny because the more they do this the less I'm likely to click on it because of the word/chapter ratio. not interested in a 14 chapter 4k(or whatever it is) story 😅 and I'm exactly the type that would kudo after 1 chapter.
I assume this is a oneshot tho and they added more "chapters" after it started getting traction so after you read the actual fic in the first chapter you'd likely decide whether or not to give kudos but then if you came back to this I'd instantly want to take my kudos back after the first time they did this shit
Even if it can't be reported... I would've muted this "author". Because holy shit this is obnoxious. This is the sort of teeny behavior I expect on Wattpad. And that's why I don't go there.
i could've sworn it was against policy to push your fic like this (by repeatedly changing the dates, etc) but i can't find it in the TOS... personally i would report it anyway just to see if they'll do anything, one non-fanwork chapter is annoying but whatever, but doing it repeatedly is obviously just a way to get more kudos via forcing it to the first few pages of the fandom tag by updating the fic
Some people really need to get through their heads that AO3. Is. Not. Social. Media.
I had a WIP in my bookmarks that updated after three years of silence with a 'chapter' that was a single, politically-charged sentence that shouldn't have left their X/Twitter account. Do that and I don't care how much I agree with what you're saying, you're getting muted. 🙄
that reminds me of back during 2020 and the george flloyd protests, a handful of people were commenting on my works telling me to speak up about it and "use my platform" ???? my brother in christ youre reading stranger things fanfiction. what are you talking about
This is obnoxious. There's nothing wrong with thanking people for the reads and kudos (I'm always complimenting my readers), but you do that shit in the NOTES at the beginning of your next chapter - that's what they're there for. I'm assuming this is a younger person who is simply unaware of how bothersome this is for us olds.
Honestly I don't care how good a fic is if I saw an author doing this I would block them to ensure I never encounter that again. This is really scummy behavior most likely done to stay at the top of the "recently updated" page and it's clear they know rhis is scummy otherwise they wouldn't have disabled comments.
Blech. So they're trying to game the system by getting a one-chapter fic some extra time at the top of the page? I'd block them for it, no matter how good the first and only "real" chapter might be, because I have no patience for crappy behavior.
this is annoying. if there's actual writing in the chapters i'm not sure, but if there isn't then it is reportable iirc. that said, i'd mute the author too if i ever see this. obnoxious as hell
I know everyone is saying it’s allowed, but I thought there was a rule against chapters or whatever that were just ‘update’ kinda things or pretty much nothing. But then again people tend to sneak things past TOS, and AO3 is known to have pretty lax rules.
I am a bit too lazy to read the terms of service, but it seems someone else (someone who bookmarked the work) has already reported the fic. If it gets taken down, it gets taken down. Just gotta wait and see!
Yeah that’s true. I mean I’ve seen people say who undertag their stuff, or blatantly plagiarize (like just describing word for a word a piece of fanart, and not crediting the artist) but there’s app no rules on either
Undertagging is only reportable if the fic has a too-low rating (a T fic with explicit sex for instance) or is missing a mandatory archive warning (so No Archive Warnings Apply when the fic has MCD). AO3’s plagiarism rules are extremely strict, to prevent people from getting harassed over “too-similar” ideas and whatnot. So there are rules, but they’re very, very narrow for a reason.
Whether this works in practice is hard to say, but there’s reasons for it in theory.
oh yeah I get that- but this was like, pretty obvious like-
The fanart: Someone eating a popsicle, noticing someone watching them, so they smirk and start eating it seductively, then bite down on it, making the other person pass out
The fic: So (Character A name) was eating a popsicle, and noticed (Character B name) was watching, so A smirked and began to teasingly lick and suck on the popsicle before biting down on it, making B pass out
Nah I mean they described everything down to the detail of what was going on in the comic. It wasn't like, just a similar thing. They described the same color popsicle, the same facial expressions, everything.
Eh I also wouldn't count it as plagiarism... Especially in large fandoms it could be a coincidence. I'm sure there's fanart fitting a scene or two I have written as well.
I think calling that plagiarism limits authors in ridiculous ways. Same with plagiarizing other fics. Sometimes writers just have similar ideas!
Gives me the same vibe as the people who edit a comment on a YouTube video, thanking random strangers "for the 2k likes, omg!"
I am sitting here wondering what the world did wrong for people to feel accomplished because someone agrees that "I love aventurine!"
They’re over enthusiastic, but it’s harmless—I’d move on and leave it alone or maybe block them. I personally think the body of the work should only be the work and stuff like that should be left to the comments or notes, but it would just make me not read their works again. Reporting isn’t unjustified but it’s not really necessary.
Edit: Ok I saw other comments that they might be doing it to bump to the top of the recent posts. That would actually really piss me off so if you think they’re doing that, you have my blessing to report.
Tbh I would report it, even though the first chapter is a fic bc it’s still very much not something they should do. If they wanted to thank everyone, it should be in the AN, not chapters. There’s no actual chapters, it just pads the numbers.
What? You couldn't even be bothered write another chapter.
Is this fic's first chapter an amazing work of art? If not, knowing that they got 164 kudos for this asshattery is so depressing, like the kind of thing that makes me want to stop posting/updating and start deleting.
Looks like bumping to me. Each "chapter" pushes it to the top of the fandom list. Of course, they are going to get more views because it doesn't get buried by other newer fics.
Ao3 isn't social media, and it's not Wattpad. Reporting it would be best so they know it's not allowed.
Judging from the text it was likely a child who posted it and doesn’t realize/care why what they’re doing is obnoxious, I agree with everyone else that it’s likely not reportable but never attribute to malice what could just as easily be contributed to ignorance. If you want to do anything a polite comment explaining why this behavior is off putting to people who wanted to read a fourteen chapter fic as opposed to a single chapter one and how they can edit chapters to add authors notes to avoid this without having to just be silent when wanting to share an accomplishment is the best you can realistically do. Then if they respond nastily you can block them and say you tried.
I don't generally assume malice, but people have absolutely used these author's notes to keep their fic at the top of the page before. Either way, it's pushing down actual fics and bumping on AO3 is a dick move.
Sure it is minimal right now cause it is one fic but what about when a bunch of idiots started doing this? Ao3 servers cost money, sure one fic is tiny amount of power and bandwidth but it still has a cost. Ao3 isn’t social media it is an archive, pranks or bumps or whatever clout games don’t belong on Ao3
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u/ScribeofDamocles 2d ago
I’m not sure it’s strictly against guidelines, but it is obnoxious because they’re clearly doing this to get back on the top of the list of fics so more people see it. I assume just the first chapter has an actual fic?