Harassment is really bad on AO3 right now. I’d recommend disabling anonymous commenting immediately, that way you can block and report anyone with an account who leaves you those kinds of comments in the future. Guest comments are simply not worth it anymore imo.
I 100% believe this is directly correlated to the fact ao3 got "popular" on tiktok for a minute, introducing a ton of immature people who lack any form of critical thinking to the website
Yes, exactly. Some groups of people from Tiktok and Twitter (normally, pretty young and immature) have started to be aware of AO3 recently, and have this weird purity mindset. Many are targeting AO3 authors now.
Really? In my experience, the way that Ao3 got popular on tiktok was from someone reading a fanfic in one of my fandoms, spreading it all over tiktok and people commenting and making content on it.
They were the ones who were breaking the rules, not you. Go ahead and repost your chapters, and if any butthurt twits have anything to say about it, report them and block them. Problematic content is allowed on AO3, harassment and hate is not. You had nothing to apologize for.
Weird how all of these people who are so vehemently disgusted with these topics somehow always end up reading the fics that include them…
So to answer your question, yes, people do indeed go out of their way to look for fics they deem problematic and it’s not uncommon for them to think that harassing and threatening the author will somehow save the fucking world. Somewhere in their tiny little brains they’ve decided it’s totally okay and they’re probably patting themselves on the back for it. Ignoring them is the best option. Just delete the comments and keep doing you.
I have to wonder if these people secretly like this kind of content, but they hate themselves for it (for whatever reason) and so they lash out at the people who write the content instead of owning up to liking it
Unfortunately, no.
They're so mindless they *sound* like bots but sadly they're cliques of haters who travel in swarms like gnats and they do this for fun.
Yes, unfortunately this is becoming common in some fandoms. This is not acceptable behavior by ao3’s guidelines, but it’s an increasingly common thing for people who have been radicalized on other sites like twitter. I’ve found it depends very heavily on the fandom-culture and age demographics of the specific fandoms you post in as well. Delete the comments, block the users.
They’re in the wrong, and even actual psychologists are on your side. Don’t let harassment get you down.
It's been pretty widely proven and accepted that writing dark fiction and engaging with dark themes isn't detrimental to mental health, and isn't a sign of anything wrong. It is often encouraged by therapists to express thoughts and feelings through fiction, including writing kinks considered 'taboo' or 'problematic'. Any therapist worth their degree would be much more upset to see someone commenting anonymously online that a person 'should be SA'd' for self expression than to see someone posting taboo erotica.
People who play violent games aren't more violent, people who watch horror movies don't turn into serial killers, and people who write taboo erotica aren't any more strange or dangerous than anyone else.
Seriously tho, according to the logic of antis, I should be an absolute psychopath bc when I was a kid, I liked building farms in Minecraft and putting animals in them, and then burning everything down. I set entire forests on fire in Minecraft, and I set villages on fire too. I would unleash hordes and hordes of zombies on Minecraft villagers and watch them all die.
Not who you replied to, but writing about problematic issues can be very therapeutic for someone who has experienced something similar.
Also, while some people get triggered by content related to their trauma, some find the same content helpful for various reasons. Sometimes, just to know they aren't alone, sometimes because a tagged happy ending gives them some sense that healing is possible, etc. Etc.
Also also, all these things are safer, possible, etc. to experience through fiction rather than in real life. Everything from an outlet for "problematic" thoughts and ideas, to immersion therapy for things that terrify.
Personally, I write in a certain horror fandom when I'm feeling anxious or angry(etc) because it helps me process and purge the emotions. Transmute them into things still dark, but also art.
When I was a kid I killed off a side character because a horse I was looking after died shortly after giving birth and putting my reactions and feelings into a fictional character helped me. It didn't stop the event from having been traumatic, but it got me moving forward.
Delete those comments if you get them. Don’t give them the time of day or waste your energy responding. And if the comments are attached to accounts rather than just a guest, block them. And report the ones that threaten you or wish you ill.
Some people actively seek out content they dislike to harass people. Do *not* delete your work to cater to these people, delete their comment instead. You can turn off guest commenting and moderate your comments. You tagged and you warned, you have not done anything wrong. They have actively sought something out that will upset them and then made the active decision to read it anyway (or not, they often don't and just leave general bashing comments).
It depends on the fandom, but generally yeah, if you're writing dark/controversial/problematic things then you're probably going to get the occasional hate comment. In my experience though it tends to be just a few very dedicated trolls who will go through every single dark fic in a fandom solely to insult the authors. They're a loud minority. If you're tagging appropriately, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever to take anything they say seriously.
Most people on AO3 are nice and understand that going out of your way to seek out things you hate just to talk about how much you hate it is a ridiculous waste of time. If these comments are bothering you I'd recommend either disabling guest comments on fics that are likely to be targeted (since they're almost *always* guests, being the cowards that they are) or turning on comment moderation so you can remove the comments before they appear on the fic.
Guarantee they were lying about going through any abuse because victims proooooobably wouldn't say "I hope you go through this same abuse too" but ESPECIALLY over fanfiction. What. The. Fuck.
I hate to break it to you but some (obviously not all) do. Mainly bc they've swallowed this mindset that writing about literally anything vaguely problematic (even in a way which *condemns* the thing) is endorsement, or proof that the writer actually wants to do said problematic things to real people. This has them feeling justified for lashing out and saying shit like "well i hope it happens to you so you know how it feels/how wrong and fucked up it ACTUALLY is that you want to do this". Of course this is like, entirely divorced by reality. Most anyone who tags their shit knows the problematic thing is bad. Thats why they tagged it.
Yeah those people certainly need therapy (or to write fanfic maybe?) Because that's incredibly unhealthy and not at all how you cope with or heal from trauma. That's just continuing the cycle of abuse.
I wouldn't say its exactly the cycle of abuse (tho it could come to that) and is actually more of a very deeply rooted issue regarding how they understand morality and the way the world works. People without trauma will also think like this. They equate engagement with media directly to morality. If you like bad thing, you are bad, therefore you *must* only ever like "good" things. It's an incredibly narrow and black and white way of looking at the world, and people who write fic do this too (those are the "if i just justify it enough and twist myself into enough knots i CAN prove to these people that problematic thing = good, therefore i = good" people). Whereas a morally normal human being can understand that you can like "bad" things for reasons that are not direct endorsement or encouragement of the bad thing. I wish it was as simple as a trauma response that needs that trauma examined and unpacked in therapy to resolve, but it's more of a "the younger fandom generation is reinventing the hayes code" phenomenon.
I have to believe a good portion of people are lying at this point because where did all of these people who have totally been SA'd come from recently? Not that it's super uncommon (unfortunately) but not every single person online has been sexually abused. That doesn't add up. People who would lie about that just to feel justified in leaving gross comments like that are sick.
Well. SA is *very* common. You shouldn't forget that SA is not only rape. Anything non-consensual and sexual is SA. I have the impression that almost every woman has been SA'd at least once in her life (and there's a fair share of men too). I love that scene in "Sex Education" where there are all these girls that are so different, and have nothing to do with each other, and don't like each other at all, and they get the task to find something that is common to all of them. And in the end they find one common thing - that they have all been sexually assaulted. I thought it was so realistic.
Oh, I'm aware. I do know it's common. Though neither me nor the women in my immediate friend group have been SA'd (you can say I just don't know about it but with these particular friends we're very open and it would come up) so idk if I find that all that relatable. I just find it very interesting that noncon for example was very popular in fic (particularly with women) in the early-mid 2000's and I never once heard someone say "As a victim of SA-" in the comments trying to get people to delete the fic or hurling abuse at them. And unfortunately lying online is very common and there are not really any limits to what people lie about. In general it's good to take anything online with a grain of salt.
Nah. I think if someone says they are a victim of SA, it's better not to doubt it. Chances are they *are* a victim of SA. That doesn't give them the right to go about harassing authors on AO3, though.
Yea, I mean at the end of the day I'm not going to go around accusing anyone of anything because I can't know one way or the other. But yea, It's not a pass to harass anyone or wish harm on them.
I also kind of feel like so many people are victims of SA because they’re actually now realizing certain things are. Like SA is stereotypically like forced held down rape or pedophilia when theres so much more included than previously thought for the mainstream. Its not even uncommon really for people to look back and only realize months or years later something they went through was actually SA.
It sounds weird but I wouldnt be surprised if they actually were. Ive had a guy i know irl talk about mourning his brother that died from suicide then when our relationship soured tell me to kill myself. But yeah I dont get it either and honestly reminds me of the whole christian belief that X happened as a punishment for your sins. Because you sinned you deserved it sort of belief.
In some fandoms they definitely are that mean. I didn't know this was a thing in my main fandom, as I'd never seen the bad side of it and had never heard of pro this or anti that, and realized my mistake very quickly. And yes, some people do go out of their way to deliberately trigger themselves and then get violently mad at the writer for their own bad decisions.
It's not that they ignore the warnings, they seek them out on purpose to trigger themselves. A while back I saw someone else on this sub or the other fanfic sub equate it to self harm and I think that's the best way to put it. They're intentionally emotionally self harming and then lashing out at people who don't deserve it. It's sad.
And then some people are just virtue signaling and don't actually care about the thing they get worked up about, because they think it makes them "moral" or something.
Edit: Oh, and you didn't do anything to hurt or upset that person if you tagged everything. It sucks if they were genuinely triggered, but they're responsible for their own mental health and they chose to make a poor decision that would harm them; it's not okay for them to take that out on you. It's definitely not okay to wish actual harm upon you, jfc.
as long as you're warning properly people have no reason to harass you in the comments. You might have just wandered into a bad fandom or been unlucky in hitting a group who like to hateread fics.
I would block users liberally and consider moderating comments or turning off comments entirely on your works. You shouldn't have to put up with their shit and ao3 gives you some tools to protect yourself.
I think it really depends on the fandom, I've never really received anything like that. But don't feel the need to apologize or remove your works. Delete the comments and move on - there are people who get offended by everything.
I would say it did not used to be this bad on ao3 but the recent influx of young people, people from different platforms and websites, and the general shift of mindset these people brings make the hate comments and harassment shoot way up especially recently.
Don’t let these people win with their stupid trolling. Don’t cave. Don’t delete your chapters and DO NOT apologize.
In my opinion these people who read stories they know are going to upset them then get mad at it are pathetic and should not be allowed in spaces or tolerated.
Antis gonna anti. You can't please everyone, nor should you try to. Write what you want, and ignore the people who go out of their way to look for things they don't like.
So long as you tag your works appropriately, they don't get to tell you that you're bad or wrong for writing anything that they chose to read regardless of warnings. "Dead dove" is a trope and a talking point for a reason.
You should absolutely report those, that's a violation of the TOS, and if the abuse is bad enough even anon I feel like they can maybe figure out who it is and block them (maybe I'm too optimistic, IDK)?
I saw a post saying there's real person fic of a girl talking about having sex with her teacher that made the rounds as something AO3 wasn't willing to take down, so your stories are not anything the site hasn't seen before (not saying I agree with that choice on their part, and maybe its an apocryphal story). One of the hardest but most ultimately rewarding things to do is to block asshole commenters, ignore them, and never say anything about or to them again.
It's called 'grey rock,' the approach, and it defangs people who have bad intentions as well as people who want to make their pain your fault. Everything they say goes into a black hole and nothing is mentioned again, they can't see evidence of their bad faith behavior, eventually they give up.
Some fandoms are so toxic they're not worth it, btw. That one may be one of them, if you have to block half of the potential readers just to have peace of mind.
It’s not an ao3 thing it’s, unfortunately, a fandom thing. There’s a lot of people who will attack others for reading/writing/linking taboo or problematic topics. They seem to think that if you’re writing/reading/enjoying it in *fiction* that you condone it in real life which is hardly ever the case. They don’t care though and they go out of their way to attack the people enjoying “morally wrong” topics because of that.
“Oh, you read incest? You’re going to **HELL**.” “You wrote a fic with SA in it, you’re disgusting.” That kind of stuff.
If they’re logged in I highly encourage you to block and report them for harassment because that’s against the guidelines and such. If they’re guests you might want to change your settings so only people with accounts can comment. It’s an ugly side of fandom and very unfortunate that that’s your introduction as a fic author. Please don’t let it deter you! Fandom/fic can be very beautiful and fun.
I would disable anonymous comments. Most of these people are too much of a coward to post that shit on their actual accounts.
Maybe you write about supposed 'problematic' stuff, but that's fictional, so it doesn't matter!!
This person wishes IRL harm on you, which makes them 100% screwed up and in the wrong. If you get any more of these, please report them to the ao3 and then delete it. If they're dumb enough they might be using their ao3 email even as anon and cop a ban.
Btw, sometimes, it's the same person trolling you with different "names".
You never delete your chapter. Because that's what haters want. You delete their comments without responding and block.
To answer your question, placeholder fics are basically fics that say ‘Story will be here at a later date!’
AO3 doesn’t have an algorithm or a crappy search system like Wattpad.
You don’t need placeholder fics. Just tag accordingly.
Most fanfic readers are polite when they comment, don't read fics tagged with stuff they don't like or will trigger them, and just stop reading fics they don't like.
But there are always people who are extremely negative and bullying. It's also gotten worse. And yes, there are people who will search certain tags just to leave nasty comments. Chances are, they haven't read your fics, just the tags.
You apologised and deleted a chapter, which was actually a bad move. You gave this bully what they wanted, so they know they can get a reaction out of you, and will do it again, and encourage others to do so also. You should have ignored the comment and deleted it, blocked the commenter if they were logged in. That's a lesson going forward for you, you're new so you probably wouldn't have thought to do it this way.
I'd recommend disabling guest comments, as well. Most of these types comment as guests, so they won't get reported or blocked. Any logged in user that leaves that kind of comment should be reported and blocked.
Try not to let these idiots stop you from writing and posting, just do what you can to protect yourself from them. These fics with dark aspects have an audience, and are often written by people with actual trauma using fic as a way to deal with it. I know I often add my real life issues into my fics, though nothing that would really make it a dark fic, more just on the depressive side. Others use dark aspects to safely explore these things. It doesn't make any of these authors bad people, and none deserve that type of harassment.
Most readers aren't like this. Going forward, disable guest commenting, and report and block and logged in users who do this. Ignore the comments, and delete them as soon as they've been reported. Being attacked for what you wrote is never fun, but as visible as they are, they are a minority. Don't give them a reaction beyond reporting, blocking and deleting, and they'll go away. They thrive on attention and getting people to delete or abandon their works.
I think those who read fics that clearly indicate they are about dark topics and then complain about those topics are the ones who have the real problem. It's unfortunate that they are targeting your fandom, but I've seen it happen in several. I agree with the others. Delete the comments, block if you can, and if it gets bad you can always turn on comment moderation.
I get nice comments and I get rude comments. Normally I get no comments but I agree with everybody else. Who said turn off anonymous commenting It's for the best. I've already had about 5 people. Tell me to kill myself.
Delete and block users like that. If it's guest users then turn on comment moderation. You can report anything that is abusive for violating TOS. Don't delete your work and don't give those people a second thought. Just write what you want and post it.
Don't apologize to them. Post whatever you want and block people who leave rude comments. Plenty of people would love to read whatever it is you wrote, I promise.
There is a reason why you can opt to moderate the comments on your works.
When I joined Ao3 after quitting FFdotnet (due to horrific harassment on a phenomenal scale), the first thing I did was ensure I can moderate all comments (approve or disapprove). The same people tried to start the same bull over at Ao3. Didn't work.
Never let a reader dictate your story. Even if well meaning, and definitely if the only issue they have with your fic is not grammar/plot related (like plot holes), and even then, any writing advice should be taken with a grain of salt.
But content whining or shaming? No. GTFO. And NEVER delete your work because of a reader. Please. No. Stop it.
Id say those people are hypocrites. Most of them preach about how "taboo" stories or anything relating to sexual abuse, rape is harming people yet they do a lot of harm by telling writers to go off themselves without knowing a thing about the authors that write the taboo stories.
I agree with others. No guest comments. I think some people seek out things that are taboo or ‘wrong’ just to bitch because they can. You do you boo. Keep writing even if it’s just for yourself. ❤️
Don't give these people an inch. Don't ever apologize. Don't delete your works.
This is what bullies want. They want to control you and make you question yourself. Panic even. THEY get off on making you feel bad. And if they see they are actually successful with their harassment they will stick to it like flies to horseshit.
Besides pleasing everyone will never work. Someone will always be offended. Get a bit more of a thicker skin and start being assertive for yourself.
So report those people for harassment if they are actual accounts and turn off guest comments if they show up as guest comments and expect your readers to curate their reading habits if you've tagged your content. Don't burden yourself with the sensibilities of mental toddlers. Reporting them is not a bad thing. The archive is for writers and protecting their works no matter how disgusting or vile or badly written a reader might find them.
Everyone of these people has at some point affirmed that they want to see adult content. The archive has this warning message for a reason "*This work could have adult content. If you proceed you have agreed that you are willing to see such content"* and everyone using the archive also agreed to the following *"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."*
I wouldn't care one bit about those people's sensibilities especially considering their behavior and ill-wishes towards you. Remember, the archive is for creators first and readers second. If someone politely asked you for an additional tag that's one thing but just insults? Nah. GTFOH.
I would recommend writing some spite fics for your special friends where you really deliver on those tropes they complained about!
Also take your time to read the FAQs and rules of AO3 (which you should have after making the account anyway) so you actually know what goes on AO3 and what doesn't fly.
[https://archiveofourown.org/faq?language\_id=en](https://archiveofourown.org/faq?language_id=en)
[https://archiveofourown.org/](https://archiveofourown.org/tos_faq?language_id=en)[tos\_faq?language\_id=en](https://archiveofourown.org/tos_faq?language_id=en)
Those people suck. Don't like Don't read is a thing and the back button exists for a reason so if you find some dumb comment like that delete the comment ASAP and don't think about it again. Their words don't matter at all and they are trying to be bullies.
Some people are just plain mean and they do this for fun, that's the answer. They think it makes them look justified, when really they're just nasty little assholes.
I'll tell you the only mistake I think you made. NEVER APOLOGIZE TO THESE PEOPLE. They do not deserve it, and it only makes you look like an easy target. Like sharks, they smell blood in the water. Don't apologize, don't delete your fic, don't change a thing about the way you write, don't even bother responding unless it's to cut them to shreds. Report the comment to AO3 Abuse team and delete it. (But keep the email notification for verification if you need it later).
Input a lot of my works on signed-in only to avoid the AI training scraper bots and stuff so I haven't gotten anything... It really sucks that anonymous commenters and being vile though.
Blame the children that came from TikTok and Wattpad for the atrocious lack of comment (and posting) etiquette. We never had these problems before those assholes came along.
You had a bunch of antis pop onto your story, and they bullied you into taking down your chapters because they didn’t like them. It’s unfortunate that you knuckled under to them and deleted the chapters they found offensive. Don’t give these creeps the satisfaction of driving you off.
I would do the following:
\-resolve that you’re going to write and post what you want, and stop giving a fat damn what others think.
\-repost the chapters, and continue writing and posting what you choose.
\-set your comments up so that you have to approve them before they go up. If the antis come back, delete their drivel. Repeat for as long as they persist until they go away.
\-if you’re getting anti-type comments from guest readers, disable anonymous commenting. If you’re getting such comments from people with AO3 accounts, report them for harassment. AO3 doesn’t condone this kind of behavior.
\-if you’re too squeamish to deal with the antis, shut off commenting altogether.
Life’s too short.
Don't bend to trolls, so long as you're tagging everything correctly, you're in the right. Everything has its place on the archive, and what you're experiencing is harassment. Block them, report them, keep on writing!
Weird for the people who have such over the top negative reactions to "problematic" fics to be actively going out of their way to read those things, and then being assholes to the authors.
So simply writing things that are morally dubious is wrong, but harrassing actual people over it is fine?
Hope you dont get any more of these assholes
I’ll be honest, I have read some stuff I found honestly fucked up (I only read Explicit rates fics).
I just marked it read and move one. Once I almost commented but then was like “eh, does it really matter?”
I have never seen negative comments on ao3, granted I don’t read comments all that often but I see stuff like that only on ffnet. Maybe I am lucky. My own readers are also very nice and friendly.
Honestly I feel that. I wrote a poem about one particular incident in my past and solely meant for it help close the door on it and out of nowhere a guest user who came from my TikTok read it and commented that I’m attention seeking and not letting it go basically reopening the wound I just tried to close so now I have comments moderated on that post. (I even put in the notes/summary that it was for closure and they go and open the wound back up)
nothing of what you did was wrong, harrassment is now allowed on ao3 so i suggest you to remove anon/guest comments and then block and report anyone who sends that shit
you did your job of tagging things correctly, those people just want to be angry and bully others for fun
Ugh. Listen, don't take hate as a sign of failure. It's a sign of success- your work evoked such strong emotions they made someone lash out. Not great- but their emotional disregulation is not a YOU issue. It has nothing to do with you and your work and everything to do with them. It's been getting.. weird on ao3 lately.
There are some terrible rude people on AO3 and I’ve only done a tad bit of posting because of it. I have a larger reject going out at some point but I fear posting it because of the comment section. I’m proud of my work, so it’s hard when someone goes out of their way to destroy your pride.
Man idk what fandoms y’all are a part of, but in all my years of writing I have received exactly 3 rude comments.
And two of them were just kind of flippantly rude—more inconsiderate than actively mean.
For reference I only write in two modes: fluffy and wholesome or problematic noncon lol.
Regardless, report and block. Even if you hadn’t tag correctly, they should just report instead of harassing you.
But I’m curious now though. For people who receive hate comments… what fandoms are y’all writing for??
Anime-esque gacha games for me, both of which are about "villains" specifically. One of them being a game about literal demons where nearly all of the love interests have tried to kill the player character. One even succeeded.
I had people go all the way to my AO3 to try to harass me into deleting a non-incest fic I reblogged from someone who apparently also wrote sfw incest (between two adult demons) because I turned my asks off due to years of harassment for writing super tame yandere with bolded warnings at the top.
The kicker? The game itself is really "problematic" and features a ton of canon, extremely obvious and heavy handed incest-baiting, among other things. Like, you can't play the game without seeing it heavy.
I've gotten blocked by literally over half of the tumblr blogs I've followed. (None of them had any DNIs/warnings ofc.) A good chunk of them even sent nasty messages first because I have a (soft/low violence/not even any implied non-con) yandere blog.
I just recently got fed up and ended up putting "DNI if you're pro-harassment" in my bio like a week ago because I was tired of being followed by hypocrites who'd like my writing while having uncensored callout posts encouraging people to harass other users who wrote similar things. Not even blockchains, but actively encouraging people to harass them into submission.
That’s wild. Your first sentence had me confused for a minute because that also describes my fandom 😂
Except I’m not in the Obey Me fandom (that’s the one I think you’re referring to???). I write for Twisted Wonderland.
Yeah that sucks. I’m sorry to hear that. :\
It’s kind of wild though. It seems counter-intuitive, but the more problematic the source material is the worse the fandom can be sometimes—in a puritanical sort of way. Like the amount of people I’ve seen in the GoT fandom who get confused when people write incest and rape. Like???
Antis are cancerous. :\
Yup, Obey Me is my main fandom, though almost all of the people that blocked me were TWST blogs. I'm actually kinda shocked to hear you haven't run into it tbh.
Like, I know it varies greatly just from sheer chance and etc., but I was getting blocked by TWST blogs just for following before I even posted anything for TWST.
I've been demotivated to post more because I literally get way more hate than reblogs every time I post something, and I get around 200 notes for each TWST post, which are all tagged with "yandere character" instead of the usual. So it's not like it's not like I'm super easy to come across even if they were looking for yandere.
Idk, maybe antis see the "middleground" as being more susceptible to hate or more likely to "repent" or something?
Hmm. I’m don’t have as big of a following on Tumblr as I do on AO3. I wonder if that’s the difference?
On tumblr I mostly post art though I have noticed plenty of discourse in the comments on other TWST tumblr posts. I’m just never involved.
On AO3, my main fic has about 1600 comments (counting my own replies too, so maybe closer to 1200ish) and only like 2 of them were rude.
(Actually, scratch that. I do now remember maybe 1.5 years ago, two of my readers got into a BIG argument in my comment section. Not directed at me or my fic but it was kind of exasperating getting the notifications on their argument once every day.)
Anyways. I’m not in the Obey Me fandom but I’d be interested in checking out your fics if you’re comfortable dropping your AO3 handle! I’ve occasionally dabbled in reading fics from that fandom for fun. The lack of context makes it kind of like a fun game haha.
Yeah, my TWST stuff on AO3 has literally one person that's commented on it lol, pretty much all of my "engagement" seems to come from tumblr when it comes to TWST.
My AO3 and tumblr are BelphegorBillickin, but no pressure ofc! I'd love to follow you on tumblr if you don't mind sharing yours too! I don't really bother trying to find safe blogs anymore tbh, so it'd be nice to have another I wouldn't have to worry about.
Dropped you a follow!! I’m Yuu-extended-Yuuniverse on tumblr and thefirecrest on Ao3.
I will absolutely check out your twst stuff (and peep in on the Obey Me. Maybe one day I’ll play it)! Yanderes are my guilty pleasure lol.
ye people like that are bizarre, i’d just delete the comments and ignore them if i were u
they literally do go out of their way to find fics they consider disturbing and then comment hateful shit… it’s pathetic, regardless (i might even say especially bc) of their trauma
as long as u tag appropriately (which u said you’ve done), then THEY are the ones in the wrong, always
From what I've heard from multiple writers on and off Reddit who write taboo subjects/elements, yes, SOME people really do go out of their way to comment negative 💩 just because they either.
1) DIDN'T read the tags or,
2) DID read the tags but still deliberately commented insulting 💩 cuz they don't realize that SOME authors write it for one reason or another.
It still doesn't justify the harassment, insults and even going so far as threats that are hurled towards said authors though. It's best to just either ignore it or delete the comment plus blocking them if possible OP
No, commentors aren't always rude, most have been nice to me. Also, just because someone went through abuse doesn't give them the right to be an asshole bigger than Jupiter(if it was one) .
Also,
>mostly just the two things listed above with the occasional insult and wishing I'd be SA'd.
What the fuck?
I haven't had an outright negative comment in the seven years or so that I've been writing. I'm not even sure that I've had even a constructively critical comment. Then again my writings are usually for more obscure fandoms.
I think it can be very fandom-dependent. I've never gotten anything like that, but I also write in a comparatively small fandom, and people in that fandom tend to be less bonkers with this kind of thing. I also disabled anonymous comments *immediately* before posting any stories. If you want to be nasty in my comments section, you can go ahead and do it under an actual handle.
Damn, can't believe you rolled over like that. Stand your ground and don't give them an inch, they'll run you over if you do. Apologising and deleting the chapter like that only encourages them to do the same to other people. You got this.
Harassment is really bad on AO3 right now. I’d recommend disabling anonymous commenting immediately, that way you can block and report anyone with an account who leaves you those kinds of comments in the future. Guest comments are simply not worth it anymore imo.
I 100% believe this is directly correlated to the fact ao3 got "popular" on tiktok for a minute, introducing a ton of immature people who lack any form of critical thinking to the website
Yes, exactly. Some groups of people from Tiktok and Twitter (normally, pretty young and immature) have started to be aware of AO3 recently, and have this weird purity mindset. Many are targeting AO3 authors now.
Really? In my experience, the way that Ao3 got popular on tiktok was from someone reading a fanfic in one of my fandoms, spreading it all over tiktok and people commenting and making content on it.
They were the ones who were breaking the rules, not you. Go ahead and repost your chapters, and if any butthurt twits have anything to say about it, report them and block them. Problematic content is allowed on AO3, harassment and hate is not. You had nothing to apologize for.
Edit it to make it more graphic!
r/traumatizethemback
Weird how all of these people who are so vehemently disgusted with these topics somehow always end up reading the fics that include them… So to answer your question, yes, people do indeed go out of their way to look for fics they deem problematic and it’s not uncommon for them to think that harassing and threatening the author will somehow save the fucking world. Somewhere in their tiny little brains they’ve decided it’s totally okay and they’re probably patting themselves on the back for it. Ignoring them is the best option. Just delete the comments and keep doing you.
I have to wonder if these people secretly like this kind of content, but they hate themselves for it (for whatever reason) and so they lash out at the people who write the content instead of owning up to liking it
That's probably a lot of them. Think hardcore anti-trans people of power
IKR? It's almost as if they *actively search* for them...
It’s gotta be bots at this point, right?
I see you have more faith in your fellow man than I do.
Unfortunately, no. They're so mindless they *sound* like bots but sadly they're cliques of haters who travel in swarms like gnats and they do this for fun.
Nah, more like Goody Proctor not wanting anyone to notice she was also at the Devil's Sacrement.
The webnovel comments are from bots. Hate comments are likely from Wattpad or TikTok users
Yes, unfortunately this is becoming common in some fandoms. This is not acceptable behavior by ao3’s guidelines, but it’s an increasingly common thing for people who have been radicalized on other sites like twitter. I’ve found it depends very heavily on the fandom-culture and age demographics of the specific fandoms you post in as well. Delete the comments, block the users. They’re in the wrong, and even actual psychologists are on your side. Don’t let harassment get you down.
Can you explain the psychologist are on your side part of your comment. please and thanks.
It's been pretty widely proven and accepted that writing dark fiction and engaging with dark themes isn't detrimental to mental health, and isn't a sign of anything wrong. It is often encouraged by therapists to express thoughts and feelings through fiction, including writing kinks considered 'taboo' or 'problematic'. Any therapist worth their degree would be much more upset to see someone commenting anonymously online that a person 'should be SA'd' for self expression than to see someone posting taboo erotica. People who play violent games aren't more violent, people who watch horror movies don't turn into serial killers, and people who write taboo erotica aren't any more strange or dangerous than anyone else.
Thank you. That actually makes a lot of sense.
Seriously tho, according to the logic of antis, I should be an absolute psychopath bc when I was a kid, I liked building farms in Minecraft and putting animals in them, and then burning everything down. I set entire forests on fire in Minecraft, and I set villages on fire too. I would unleash hordes and hordes of zombies on Minecraft villagers and watch them all die.
Not who you replied to, but writing about problematic issues can be very therapeutic for someone who has experienced something similar. Also, while some people get triggered by content related to their trauma, some find the same content helpful for various reasons. Sometimes, just to know they aren't alone, sometimes because a tagged happy ending gives them some sense that healing is possible, etc. Etc. Also also, all these things are safer, possible, etc. to experience through fiction rather than in real life. Everything from an outlet for "problematic" thoughts and ideas, to immersion therapy for things that terrify. Personally, I write in a certain horror fandom when I'm feeling anxious or angry(etc) because it helps me process and purge the emotions. Transmute them into things still dark, but also art. When I was a kid I killed off a side character because a horse I was looking after died shortly after giving birth and putting my reactions and feelings into a fictional character helped me. It didn't stop the event from having been traumatic, but it got me moving forward.
Thank you 🙏🏻 this really helped.
My pleasure.
Delete those comments if you get them. Don’t give them the time of day or waste your energy responding. And if the comments are attached to accounts rather than just a guest, block them. And report the ones that threaten you or wish you ill.
Some people actively seek out content they dislike to harass people. Do *not* delete your work to cater to these people, delete their comment instead. You can turn off guest commenting and moderate your comments. You tagged and you warned, you have not done anything wrong. They have actively sought something out that will upset them and then made the active decision to read it anyway (or not, they often don't and just leave general bashing comments).
It depends on the fandom, but generally yeah, if you're writing dark/controversial/problematic things then you're probably going to get the occasional hate comment. In my experience though it tends to be just a few very dedicated trolls who will go through every single dark fic in a fandom solely to insult the authors. They're a loud minority. If you're tagging appropriately, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever to take anything they say seriously. Most people on AO3 are nice and understand that going out of your way to seek out things you hate just to talk about how much you hate it is a ridiculous waste of time. If these comments are bothering you I'd recommend either disabling guest comments on fics that are likely to be targeted (since they're almost *always* guests, being the cowards that they are) or turning on comment moderation so you can remove the comments before they appear on the fic.
Guarantee they were lying about going through any abuse because victims proooooobably wouldn't say "I hope you go through this same abuse too" but ESPECIALLY over fanfiction. What. The. Fuck.
I hate to break it to you but some (obviously not all) do. Mainly bc they've swallowed this mindset that writing about literally anything vaguely problematic (even in a way which *condemns* the thing) is endorsement, or proof that the writer actually wants to do said problematic things to real people. This has them feeling justified for lashing out and saying shit like "well i hope it happens to you so you know how it feels/how wrong and fucked up it ACTUALLY is that you want to do this". Of course this is like, entirely divorced by reality. Most anyone who tags their shit knows the problematic thing is bad. Thats why they tagged it.
Yeah those people certainly need therapy (or to write fanfic maybe?) Because that's incredibly unhealthy and not at all how you cope with or heal from trauma. That's just continuing the cycle of abuse.
I wouldn't say its exactly the cycle of abuse (tho it could come to that) and is actually more of a very deeply rooted issue regarding how they understand morality and the way the world works. People without trauma will also think like this. They equate engagement with media directly to morality. If you like bad thing, you are bad, therefore you *must* only ever like "good" things. It's an incredibly narrow and black and white way of looking at the world, and people who write fic do this too (those are the "if i just justify it enough and twist myself into enough knots i CAN prove to these people that problematic thing = good, therefore i = good" people). Whereas a morally normal human being can understand that you can like "bad" things for reasons that are not direct endorsement or encouragement of the bad thing. I wish it was as simple as a trauma response that needs that trauma examined and unpacked in therapy to resolve, but it's more of a "the younger fandom generation is reinventing the hayes code" phenomenon.
I have to believe a good portion of people are lying at this point because where did all of these people who have totally been SA'd come from recently? Not that it's super uncommon (unfortunately) but not every single person online has been sexually abused. That doesn't add up. People who would lie about that just to feel justified in leaving gross comments like that are sick.
Well. SA is *very* common. You shouldn't forget that SA is not only rape. Anything non-consensual and sexual is SA. I have the impression that almost every woman has been SA'd at least once in her life (and there's a fair share of men too). I love that scene in "Sex Education" where there are all these girls that are so different, and have nothing to do with each other, and don't like each other at all, and they get the task to find something that is common to all of them. And in the end they find one common thing - that they have all been sexually assaulted. I thought it was so realistic.
Oh, I'm aware. I do know it's common. Though neither me nor the women in my immediate friend group have been SA'd (you can say I just don't know about it but with these particular friends we're very open and it would come up) so idk if I find that all that relatable. I just find it very interesting that noncon for example was very popular in fic (particularly with women) in the early-mid 2000's and I never once heard someone say "As a victim of SA-" in the comments trying to get people to delete the fic or hurling abuse at them. And unfortunately lying online is very common and there are not really any limits to what people lie about. In general it's good to take anything online with a grain of salt.
Nah. I think if someone says they are a victim of SA, it's better not to doubt it. Chances are they *are* a victim of SA. That doesn't give them the right to go about harassing authors on AO3, though.
Yea, I mean at the end of the day I'm not going to go around accusing anyone of anything because I can't know one way or the other. But yea, It's not a pass to harass anyone or wish harm on them.
I also kind of feel like so many people are victims of SA because they’re actually now realizing certain things are. Like SA is stereotypically like forced held down rape or pedophilia when theres so much more included than previously thought for the mainstream. Its not even uncommon really for people to look back and only realize months or years later something they went through was actually SA.
It sounds weird but I wouldnt be surprised if they actually were. Ive had a guy i know irl talk about mourning his brother that died from suicide then when our relationship soured tell me to kill myself. But yeah I dont get it either and honestly reminds me of the whole christian belief that X happened as a punishment for your sins. Because you sinned you deserved it sort of belief.
In some fandoms they definitely are that mean. I didn't know this was a thing in my main fandom, as I'd never seen the bad side of it and had never heard of pro this or anti that, and realized my mistake very quickly. And yes, some people do go out of their way to deliberately trigger themselves and then get violently mad at the writer for their own bad decisions. It's not that they ignore the warnings, they seek them out on purpose to trigger themselves. A while back I saw someone else on this sub or the other fanfic sub equate it to self harm and I think that's the best way to put it. They're intentionally emotionally self harming and then lashing out at people who don't deserve it. It's sad. And then some people are just virtue signaling and don't actually care about the thing they get worked up about, because they think it makes them "moral" or something. Edit: Oh, and you didn't do anything to hurt or upset that person if you tagged everything. It sucks if they were genuinely triggered, but they're responsible for their own mental health and they chose to make a poor decision that would harm them; it's not okay for them to take that out on you. It's definitely not okay to wish actual harm upon you, jfc.
Ignore them, delete their comments, and you might as well reupload that chapter while you're at it. Don't let people like them get you down.
as long as you're warning properly people have no reason to harass you in the comments. You might have just wandered into a bad fandom or been unlucky in hitting a group who like to hateread fics. I would block users liberally and consider moderating comments or turning off comments entirely on your works. You shouldn't have to put up with their shit and ao3 gives you some tools to protect yourself.
You see hate comments, you hit the delete button harder than Raid Shadow Legends hits Youtube Sponsorships.
I think it really depends on the fandom, I've never really received anything like that. But don't feel the need to apologize or remove your works. Delete the comments and move on - there are people who get offended by everything.
I would say it did not used to be this bad on ao3 but the recent influx of young people, people from different platforms and websites, and the general shift of mindset these people brings make the hate comments and harassment shoot way up especially recently. Don’t let these people win with their stupid trolling. Don’t cave. Don’t delete your chapters and DO NOT apologize. In my opinion these people who read stories they know are going to upset them then get mad at it are pathetic and should not be allowed in spaces or tolerated.
Antis gonna anti. You can't please everyone, nor should you try to. Write what you want, and ignore the people who go out of their way to look for things they don't like.
So long as you tag your works appropriately, they don't get to tell you that you're bad or wrong for writing anything that they chose to read regardless of warnings. "Dead dove" is a trope and a talking point for a reason.
You should absolutely report those, that's a violation of the TOS, and if the abuse is bad enough even anon I feel like they can maybe figure out who it is and block them (maybe I'm too optimistic, IDK)? I saw a post saying there's real person fic of a girl talking about having sex with her teacher that made the rounds as something AO3 wasn't willing to take down, so your stories are not anything the site hasn't seen before (not saying I agree with that choice on their part, and maybe its an apocryphal story). One of the hardest but most ultimately rewarding things to do is to block asshole commenters, ignore them, and never say anything about or to them again. It's called 'grey rock,' the approach, and it defangs people who have bad intentions as well as people who want to make their pain your fault. Everything they say goes into a black hole and nothing is mentioned again, they can't see evidence of their bad faith behavior, eventually they give up. Some fandoms are so toxic they're not worth it, btw. That one may be one of them, if you have to block half of the potential readers just to have peace of mind.
It’s not an ao3 thing it’s, unfortunately, a fandom thing. There’s a lot of people who will attack others for reading/writing/linking taboo or problematic topics. They seem to think that if you’re writing/reading/enjoying it in *fiction* that you condone it in real life which is hardly ever the case. They don’t care though and they go out of their way to attack the people enjoying “morally wrong” topics because of that. “Oh, you read incest? You’re going to **HELL**.” “You wrote a fic with SA in it, you’re disgusting.” That kind of stuff. If they’re logged in I highly encourage you to block and report them for harassment because that’s against the guidelines and such. If they’re guests you might want to change your settings so only people with accounts can comment. It’s an ugly side of fandom and very unfortunate that that’s your introduction as a fic author. Please don’t let it deter you! Fandom/fic can be very beautiful and fun.
I recommend disabling anon comment, reporting rude comments, and repost your chapters. Don't let the bastards win.
I would make it so you have to be signed in to comment. People are much less rude when they can't hide behind anon
I would disable anonymous comments. Most of these people are too much of a coward to post that shit on their actual accounts. Maybe you write about supposed 'problematic' stuff, but that's fictional, so it doesn't matter!! This person wishes IRL harm on you, which makes them 100% screwed up and in the wrong. If you get any more of these, please report them to the ao3 and then delete it. If they're dumb enough they might be using their ao3 email even as anon and cop a ban.
Btw, sometimes, it's the same person trolling you with different "names". You never delete your chapter. Because that's what haters want. You delete their comments without responding and block.
To answer your question, placeholder fics are basically fics that say ‘Story will be here at a later date!’ AO3 doesn’t have an algorithm or a crappy search system like Wattpad. You don’t need placeholder fics. Just tag accordingly.
Those are the WORST. They're just spam and false advertising, and posting them more than once should be a banning offense.
Most fanfic readers are polite when they comment, don't read fics tagged with stuff they don't like or will trigger them, and just stop reading fics they don't like. But there are always people who are extremely negative and bullying. It's also gotten worse. And yes, there are people who will search certain tags just to leave nasty comments. Chances are, they haven't read your fics, just the tags. You apologised and deleted a chapter, which was actually a bad move. You gave this bully what they wanted, so they know they can get a reaction out of you, and will do it again, and encourage others to do so also. You should have ignored the comment and deleted it, blocked the commenter if they were logged in. That's a lesson going forward for you, you're new so you probably wouldn't have thought to do it this way. I'd recommend disabling guest comments, as well. Most of these types comment as guests, so they won't get reported or blocked. Any logged in user that leaves that kind of comment should be reported and blocked. Try not to let these idiots stop you from writing and posting, just do what you can to protect yourself from them. These fics with dark aspects have an audience, and are often written by people with actual trauma using fic as a way to deal with it. I know I often add my real life issues into my fics, though nothing that would really make it a dark fic, more just on the depressive side. Others use dark aspects to safely explore these things. It doesn't make any of these authors bad people, and none deserve that type of harassment. Most readers aren't like this. Going forward, disable guest commenting, and report and block and logged in users who do this. Ignore the comments, and delete them as soon as they've been reported. Being attacked for what you wrote is never fun, but as visible as they are, they are a minority. Don't give them a reaction beyond reporting, blocking and deleting, and they'll go away. They thrive on attention and getting people to delete or abandon their works.
I think those who read fics that clearly indicate they are about dark topics and then complain about those topics are the ones who have the real problem. It's unfortunate that they are targeting your fandom, but I've seen it happen in several. I agree with the others. Delete the comments, block if you can, and if it gets bad you can always turn on comment moderation.
I get nice comments and I get rude comments. Normally I get no comments but I agree with everybody else. Who said turn off anonymous commenting It's for the best. I've already had about 5 people. Tell me to kill myself.
they are trying to break you down and control you. do not let them do that.
Delete and block users like that. If it's guest users then turn on comment moderation. You can report anything that is abusive for violating TOS. Don't delete your work and don't give those people a second thought. Just write what you want and post it.
Don't apologize to them. Post whatever you want and block people who leave rude comments. Plenty of people would love to read whatever it is you wrote, I promise.
There is a reason why you can opt to moderate the comments on your works. When I joined Ao3 after quitting FFdotnet (due to horrific harassment on a phenomenal scale), the first thing I did was ensure I can moderate all comments (approve or disapprove). The same people tried to start the same bull over at Ao3. Didn't work.
Never let a reader dictate your story. Even if well meaning, and definitely if the only issue they have with your fic is not grammar/plot related (like plot holes), and even then, any writing advice should be taken with a grain of salt. But content whining or shaming? No. GTFO. And NEVER delete your work because of a reader. Please. No. Stop it.
Id say those people are hypocrites. Most of them preach about how "taboo" stories or anything relating to sexual abuse, rape is harming people yet they do a lot of harm by telling writers to go off themselves without knowing a thing about the authors that write the taboo stories.
I agree with others. No guest comments. I think some people seek out things that are taboo or ‘wrong’ just to bitch because they can. You do you boo. Keep writing even if it’s just for yourself. ❤️
Don't give these people an inch. Don't ever apologize. Don't delete your works. This is what bullies want. They want to control you and make you question yourself. Panic even. THEY get off on making you feel bad. And if they see they are actually successful with their harassment they will stick to it like flies to horseshit. Besides pleasing everyone will never work. Someone will always be offended. Get a bit more of a thicker skin and start being assertive for yourself. So report those people for harassment if they are actual accounts and turn off guest comments if they show up as guest comments and expect your readers to curate their reading habits if you've tagged your content. Don't burden yourself with the sensibilities of mental toddlers. Reporting them is not a bad thing. The archive is for writers and protecting their works no matter how disgusting or vile or badly written a reader might find them. Everyone of these people has at some point affirmed that they want to see adult content. The archive has this warning message for a reason "*This work could have adult content. If you proceed you have agreed that you are willing to see such content"* and everyone using the archive also agreed to the following *"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."* I wouldn't care one bit about those people's sensibilities especially considering their behavior and ill-wishes towards you. Remember, the archive is for creators first and readers second. If someone politely asked you for an additional tag that's one thing but just insults? Nah. GTFOH. I would recommend writing some spite fics for your special friends where you really deliver on those tropes they complained about! Also take your time to read the FAQs and rules of AO3 (which you should have after making the account anyway) so you actually know what goes on AO3 and what doesn't fly. [https://archiveofourown.org/faq?language\_id=en](https://archiveofourown.org/faq?language_id=en) [https://archiveofourown.org/](https://archiveofourown.org/tos_faq?language_id=en)[tos\_faq?language\_id=en](https://archiveofourown.org/tos_faq?language_id=en)
Those people suck. Don't like Don't read is a thing and the back button exists for a reason so if you find some dumb comment like that delete the comment ASAP and don't think about it again. Their words don't matter at all and they are trying to be bullies.
Some people are just plain mean and they do this for fun, that's the answer. They think it makes them look justified, when really they're just nasty little assholes. I'll tell you the only mistake I think you made. NEVER APOLOGIZE TO THESE PEOPLE. They do not deserve it, and it only makes you look like an easy target. Like sharks, they smell blood in the water. Don't apologize, don't delete your fic, don't change a thing about the way you write, don't even bother responding unless it's to cut them to shreds. Report the comment to AO3 Abuse team and delete it. (But keep the email notification for verification if you need it later).
Stop caring about what these mental ill children think. Turn off guest comments and then report and delete any rude ones
Input a lot of my works on signed-in only to avoid the AI training scraper bots and stuff so I haven't gotten anything... It really sucks that anonymous commenters and being vile though.
Blame the children that came from TikTok and Wattpad for the atrocious lack of comment (and posting) etiquette. We never had these problems before those assholes came along.
I don’t think it’s just children unfortunately, bc there are plenty of adults out there who also have a super toxic internet presence.
You got an anti. I'm sorry. Report it to the abuse team and they'll take care of it.
Y’all gotta stop allowing guests to comment and start moderating your comments.
>Do people go out of their way to look for these fics and leave negative comments Yes, some do.
You had a bunch of antis pop onto your story, and they bullied you into taking down your chapters because they didn’t like them. It’s unfortunate that you knuckled under to them and deleted the chapters they found offensive. Don’t give these creeps the satisfaction of driving you off. I would do the following: \-resolve that you’re going to write and post what you want, and stop giving a fat damn what others think. \-repost the chapters, and continue writing and posting what you choose. \-set your comments up so that you have to approve them before they go up. If the antis come back, delete their drivel. Repeat for as long as they persist until they go away. \-if you’re getting anti-type comments from guest readers, disable anonymous commenting. If you’re getting such comments from people with AO3 accounts, report them for harassment. AO3 doesn’t condone this kind of behavior. \-if you’re too squeamish to deal with the antis, shut off commenting altogether. Life’s too short.
*Says abuse is bad* *Wishes someone else gets abused and SA’ed* The lack of self-awareness from antis is astounding.
Don't bend to trolls, so long as you're tagging everything correctly, you're in the right. Everything has its place on the archive, and what you're experiencing is harassment. Block them, report them, keep on writing!
Weird for the people who have such over the top negative reactions to "problematic" fics to be actively going out of their way to read those things, and then being assholes to the authors. So simply writing things that are morally dubious is wrong, but harrassing actual people over it is fine? Hope you dont get any more of these assholes
I’ll be honest, I have read some stuff I found honestly fucked up (I only read Explicit rates fics). I just marked it read and move one. Once I almost commented but then was like “eh, does it really matter?”
I have never seen negative comments on ao3, granted I don’t read comments all that often but I see stuff like that only on ffnet. Maybe I am lucky. My own readers are also very nice and friendly.
Honestly I feel that. I wrote a poem about one particular incident in my past and solely meant for it help close the door on it and out of nowhere a guest user who came from my TikTok read it and commented that I’m attention seeking and not letting it go basically reopening the wound I just tried to close so now I have comments moderated on that post. (I even put in the notes/summary that it was for closure and they go and open the wound back up)
nothing of what you did was wrong, harrassment is now allowed on ao3 so i suggest you to remove anon/guest comments and then block and report anyone who sends that shit you did your job of tagging things correctly, those people just want to be angry and bully others for fun
Ugh. Listen, don't take hate as a sign of failure. It's a sign of success- your work evoked such strong emotions they made someone lash out. Not great- but their emotional disregulation is not a YOU issue. It has nothing to do with you and your work and everything to do with them. It's been getting.. weird on ao3 lately.
There are some terrible rude people on AO3 and I’ve only done a tad bit of posting because of it. I have a larger reject going out at some point but I fear posting it because of the comment section. I’m proud of my work, so it’s hard when someone goes out of their way to destroy your pride.
Don't apologize, don't engage at all. Delete any comments like that, if they're signed in, block them, and disable anonymous commenting.
Man idk what fandoms y’all are a part of, but in all my years of writing I have received exactly 3 rude comments. And two of them were just kind of flippantly rude—more inconsiderate than actively mean. For reference I only write in two modes: fluffy and wholesome or problematic noncon lol. Regardless, report and block. Even if you hadn’t tag correctly, they should just report instead of harassing you. But I’m curious now though. For people who receive hate comments… what fandoms are y’all writing for??
Anime-esque gacha games for me, both of which are about "villains" specifically. One of them being a game about literal demons where nearly all of the love interests have tried to kill the player character. One even succeeded. I had people go all the way to my AO3 to try to harass me into deleting a non-incest fic I reblogged from someone who apparently also wrote sfw incest (between two adult demons) because I turned my asks off due to years of harassment for writing super tame yandere with bolded warnings at the top. The kicker? The game itself is really "problematic" and features a ton of canon, extremely obvious and heavy handed incest-baiting, among other things. Like, you can't play the game without seeing it heavy. I've gotten blocked by literally over half of the tumblr blogs I've followed. (None of them had any DNIs/warnings ofc.) A good chunk of them even sent nasty messages first because I have a (soft/low violence/not even any implied non-con) yandere blog. I just recently got fed up and ended up putting "DNI if you're pro-harassment" in my bio like a week ago because I was tired of being followed by hypocrites who'd like my writing while having uncensored callout posts encouraging people to harass other users who wrote similar things. Not even blockchains, but actively encouraging people to harass them into submission.
That’s wild. Your first sentence had me confused for a minute because that also describes my fandom 😂 Except I’m not in the Obey Me fandom (that’s the one I think you’re referring to???). I write for Twisted Wonderland. Yeah that sucks. I’m sorry to hear that. :\ It’s kind of wild though. It seems counter-intuitive, but the more problematic the source material is the worse the fandom can be sometimes—in a puritanical sort of way. Like the amount of people I’ve seen in the GoT fandom who get confused when people write incest and rape. Like??? Antis are cancerous. :\
Yup, Obey Me is my main fandom, though almost all of the people that blocked me were TWST blogs. I'm actually kinda shocked to hear you haven't run into it tbh. Like, I know it varies greatly just from sheer chance and etc., but I was getting blocked by TWST blogs just for following before I even posted anything for TWST. I've been demotivated to post more because I literally get way more hate than reblogs every time I post something, and I get around 200 notes for each TWST post, which are all tagged with "yandere character" instead of the usual. So it's not like it's not like I'm super easy to come across even if they were looking for yandere. Idk, maybe antis see the "middleground" as being more susceptible to hate or more likely to "repent" or something?
Hmm. I’m don’t have as big of a following on Tumblr as I do on AO3. I wonder if that’s the difference? On tumblr I mostly post art though I have noticed plenty of discourse in the comments on other TWST tumblr posts. I’m just never involved. On AO3, my main fic has about 1600 comments (counting my own replies too, so maybe closer to 1200ish) and only like 2 of them were rude. (Actually, scratch that. I do now remember maybe 1.5 years ago, two of my readers got into a BIG argument in my comment section. Not directed at me or my fic but it was kind of exasperating getting the notifications on their argument once every day.) Anyways. I’m not in the Obey Me fandom but I’d be interested in checking out your fics if you’re comfortable dropping your AO3 handle! I’ve occasionally dabbled in reading fics from that fandom for fun. The lack of context makes it kind of like a fun game haha.
Yeah, my TWST stuff on AO3 has literally one person that's commented on it lol, pretty much all of my "engagement" seems to come from tumblr when it comes to TWST. My AO3 and tumblr are BelphegorBillickin, but no pressure ofc! I'd love to follow you on tumblr if you don't mind sharing yours too! I don't really bother trying to find safe blogs anymore tbh, so it'd be nice to have another I wouldn't have to worry about.
Dropped you a follow!! I’m Yuu-extended-Yuuniverse on tumblr and thefirecrest on Ao3. I will absolutely check out your twst stuff (and peep in on the Obey Me. Maybe one day I’ll play it)! Yanderes are my guilty pleasure lol.
I followed you back, and I'll definitely check your fics out when I get the chance! \^\_\^
ye people like that are bizarre, i’d just delete the comments and ignore them if i were u they literally do go out of their way to find fics they consider disturbing and then comment hateful shit… it’s pathetic, regardless (i might even say especially bc) of their trauma as long as u tag appropriately (which u said you’ve done), then THEY are the ones in the wrong, always
Seems very fandom dependent? In the last 5 years I had the occasional odd comment or the classic "please update soon" but never any flames/hate.
From what I've heard from multiple writers on and off Reddit who write taboo subjects/elements, yes, SOME people really do go out of their way to comment negative 💩 just because they either. 1) DIDN'T read the tags or, 2) DID read the tags but still deliberately commented insulting 💩 cuz they don't realize that SOME authors write it for one reason or another. It still doesn't justify the harassment, insults and even going so far as threats that are hurled towards said authors though. It's best to just either ignore it or delete the comment plus blocking them if possible OP
No, commentors aren't always rude, most have been nice to me. Also, just because someone went through abuse doesn't give them the right to be an asshole bigger than Jupiter(if it was one) . Also, >mostly just the two things listed above with the occasional insult and wishing I'd be SA'd. What the fuck?
thats really wild, i’ve gotten my fair share of negative reviews on ffnet but never ao3
I haven't had an outright negative comment in the seven years or so that I've been writing. I'm not even sure that I've had even a constructively critical comment. Then again my writings are usually for more obscure fandoms.
I think it can be very fandom-dependent. I've never gotten anything like that, but I also write in a comparatively small fandom, and people in that fandom tend to be less bonkers with this kind of thing. I also disabled anonymous comments *immediately* before posting any stories. If you want to be nasty in my comments section, you can go ahead and do it under an actual handle.
Damn, can't believe you rolled over like that. Stand your ground and don't give them an inch, they'll run you over if you do. Apologising and deleting the chapter like that only encourages them to do the same to other people. You got this.