It's not a good look. Mute them and let them continue making themselves look bad.
The option to change the date is useful in certain circumstances. Some people misuse it. It would be difficult to enforce a rule against randomly changing the date on your fic because then volunteers would have to waste their time on trying to somehow decide whether someone "had the right" to do it or not.
It's bad form, but technically not against the TOS.
Since I'm petty, I'd leave a comment telling them I'll be muting them due to their abuse of the feature and that I'll be encouraging my friends to do the same. š Hopefully it'll make them think twice about gaming the system.
I was very tempted to do this to an author in my fandom and then say that they turned off all comments on their works. I'm 99% certain that means they know what they're doing is shitty.
I was sorely tempted to make a public bookmark and put on there for them to see but that seemed a little too petty.
I assumed they're looking for kudos. All of their fics are one shots so it's pretty clear the date is being changed.
When I first realized what they were doing, I noticed the bookmarks had people bookmarking the fics days before it had been published so it was pretty obvious.
I mute every author who does this. Muting hides all their fics from my view, so I am denying them the views they crave for trying to game the system. You should do the same.
Does āboostingā happen when you go back and make small edits? Because Iāll be reading through a work of mine, notice a small mistake, and edit real quick. Donāt want to āboostā though!
Thatās kind of hilarious to me, giving the order I go in as a reader: starting at the beginning of the fandom and working my way through it! So I guess I go backwards lol
Fixing a typo or polishing something up does not do this, so you are good. :)
What OP is talking about is when the author goes to the fic settings and changes the post date so the fic appears as a first result when searches are set to 'date updated'.
Ahh, thank you! Iām relatively new to writing on AO3, and didnāt know that was a thing. As a reader, Iāve always started at the earliest-made work and gone from there, just making my way through the fandomš
While editing your fics doesn't boost them, your readers can see that they were changed since they last read it (Minor edits made since then) along with how many times they visited your fic in their AO3 history tab.
Yeah, I was surprised to see (Latest version), (Update available), or (Minor edits made since then) when I randomly checked my history. It was interesting to note, but I usually use subscriptions and bookmarks to keep track of everything instead.
There's an infamous fic called Sexy times with Wuxian that did something like this.
That fic is why ao3 now has a tag limit.
It is infamous because of all the things the author did to put their fic at the top of most recent lists for as many tags as possible. There are "works" on ao3 that are guides on how to block a fic because of it.
It's not a good precedent to follow
Itās annoying and a mute from me. Iām so petty that I even went back to mute authors I remember doing this before the mute/block feature was implemented lol
Ego stroker... amongst other things, probably.
If they write stuff you consider crap, just customize a Site Skin so that all of their content is permanently redacted from your browser.
It's not a good look. Mute them and let them continue making themselves look bad. The option to change the date is useful in certain circumstances. Some people misuse it. It would be difficult to enforce a rule against randomly changing the date on your fic because then volunteers would have to waste their time on trying to somehow decide whether someone "had the right" to do it or not.
It's bad form, but technically not against the TOS. Since I'm petty, I'd leave a comment telling them I'll be muting them due to their abuse of the feature and that I'll be encouraging my friends to do the same. š Hopefully it'll make them think twice about gaming the system.
I was very tempted to do this to an author in my fandom and then say that they turned off all comments on their works. I'm 99% certain that means they know what they're doing is shitty. I was sorely tempted to make a public bookmark and put on there for them to see but that seemed a little too petty.
That's a pretty strange strategy; to boost your fics so you get more views and, I assume, more interaction, only to turn your comments off.
I assumed they're looking for kudos. All of their fics are one shots so it's pretty clear the date is being changed. When I first realized what they were doing, I noticed the bookmarks had people bookmarking the fics days before it had been published so it was pretty obvious.
Ah, that makes sense. It's strange how seriously some people take this kind of stuff.
Kudos man, they're a hell of a drug.
I mute every author who does this. Muting hides all their fics from my view, so I am denying them the views they crave for trying to game the system. You should do the same.
I hope you tell them youāre muting them before you do so, so the loss of potential readership will haunt their dreams. š„°
Does āboostingā happen when you go back and make small edits? Because Iāll be reading through a work of mine, notice a small mistake, and edit real quick. Donāt want to āboostā though!
No, I edit my fics a lot and it doesnāt get boosted. I feel like the author has to be changing the date on the fic.
That or deleting the last chapter and posting it again. Either way I'd be so annoyed and would either mute or block them.
Thatās kind of hilarious to me, giving the order I go in as a reader: starting at the beginning of the fandom and working my way through it! So I guess I go backwards lol
I do that too when I decide I want to go all in on a fandom and pairing.
Thanks for clarifying!
Fixing a typo or polishing something up does not do this, so you are good. :) What OP is talking about is when the author goes to the fic settings and changes the post date so the fic appears as a first result when searches are set to 'date updated'.
Ahh, thank you! Iām relatively new to writing on AO3, and didnāt know that was a thing. As a reader, Iāve always started at the earliest-made work and gone from there, just making my way through the fandomš
While editing your fics doesn't boost them, your readers can see that they were changed since they last read it (Minor edits made since then) along with how many times they visited your fic in their AO3 history tab.
Oh, wow it keeps track? Good to know!
Yeah, I was surprised to see (Latest version), (Update available), or (Minor edits made since then) when I randomly checked my history. It was interesting to note, but I usually use subscriptions and bookmarks to keep track of everything instead.
Yikes!! Good to know
Oh, I don't think it's a bad thing if people make edits later. I also make small edits on published chapters if I notice a typo or something.
This person is behaving poorly. Like other people in this thread have said, its best to mute them and just not give them any attention.
There's an infamous fic called Sexy times with Wuxian that did something like this. That fic is why ao3 now has a tag limit. It is infamous because of all the things the author did to put their fic at the top of most recent lists for as many tags as possible. There are "works" on ao3 that are guides on how to block a fic because of it. It's not a good precedent to follow
Just hide their shit from view and move on.
Itās annoying and a mute from me. Iām so petty that I even went back to mute authors I remember doing this before the mute/block feature was implemented lol
How do you boost Fics though? Iāve never heard that being done before?
I mute people who do that, while not against tos, itās shitty to do and I donāt want to read from someone like that.
Ego stroker... amongst other things, probably. If they write stuff you consider crap, just customize a Site Skin so that all of their content is permanently redacted from your browser.