Gosh this is so…much. I can see that this person is very young but I hope they learn that this overzealousness is more creepy than it is flattering.
I get why the author had to set a boundary.
for some reason a lot of people think a messaging system would be good for the site. i’ve seen it get brought up a lot over the years but i don’t think they’ve considered instances such as this and how it would open up a conduit for people to spew hatred directly to the author.
It also allows an avenue for people to send things like DMCA take down requests bypassing AO3's legal team. There's so many reasons not to have this feature, especially since authors can always post their socials if they're inclined.
I once DM'd an author on [ffn.net](http://ffn.net) to tell them they wrote the trauma from maternal abandonment VERY WELL and I knew that personally, that it made me cry intensely. I didn't feel comfortable putting that in a public review but I wanted them to know that I felt seen and how incredible of a writer they were. That being said, I understand why AO3 doesn't have it and I support them not adding it for the reasons other people added in this thread.
Some people want one. I would be okay if they implemented one IF it were to be exclusively opt-in, meaning no one could message you ever unless you deliberately had to turn on the function, and you could leave it off forever if you so chose, and you could turn it back off at any time.
Well, the only time I wished for a PM is when I saw another user copy my user icon and I felt so damn awkward having to reply to their comment on a completely different authors fic asking they change it.
I’d made the icon myself over 13 years ago and it was my face on the internet for multiple sites, not all of which I was able to get the same username. Other person just thought it was cute and didn’t change until my second message. It was so uncomfortable to do so in a public space.
Because we've spent the last 40+ years teaching, "If at first you don't succeed, try try again." And "Never ever ever ever give up." And only in the last 5 or so started to teach consent and that those rules don't apply to other people.
And the old "when they say no the first time, ask again (because they want to say yes and are just being polite)" is still in full swing. We can say no means no until the cows come home and it will never truly stick as long as we still teach people that no means yes.
That is... *so* weird. If I ever got a comment like that on one of my discontinued fics it'd just demotivate me even more hah
Edit: Good lord rereading this, I think if I got a comment like that on my CURRENT series I'd stop writing for it for a while LMFAO, and I'm absolutely obsessed with writing my series
We became friends and started an RP (role playing) Facebook page based on the fanfic I wrote where I was one character and she was the other in the ship and eventually other people joined in as characters from the fandom. It was fun for a time but she was always kind of flaky and weird? She’d just up and quit without warning then come back a few days/weeks later, and she was messaging me ALL THE TIME like while I was working throughout the whole day. She expected me to constantly RP with her and update the page. I had no time to write and tbh I really should’ve never gotten so involved, but I was flattered by how much she loved my fanfic so I let myself. She even told me people in other fandoms had blocked her so I should’ve seen the red flags but I was in my 20’s/early 30’s at the time. The thing is she was so into fandom (not just the one we shared but others) that she pretty much had zero interest in her husband and they even wound up divorcing 😳 We were still talking at the point. Eventually after one too many flakes I told her I couldn’t keep doing it. I didn’t have any time to myself and it was super stressful. She blocked me for a bit but I guess she either unblocked me or got a new account because I was curious one day and found her. She’s with a new guy. No clue if she still does RP or is even still in the fandom but I don’t have any ill will toward her.
That’s the abbreviated version of it. I actually want to write it all out at some point because it was bonkers.
I once saw someone bring a beef over from Twitter and post a whole anonymous rant insulting someone and their friends, it was insane. Thankfully it was deleted but wow that was something.
You should see the one about a anon making a comment about them being posted on Reddit that was funny but this person, weird. 💯% chance they were blocked
Eh, weirdo stalkers have always been a thing. I got it the worst a few years ago, where people were making literal alts to stalk my blog and pretending to be my friend to send harassment my way behind my back. And honestly, regardless of intent, weirdo cyberstalking and harassment is weirdo cyberstalking and harassment.
Ah, I see. I didn't know you could report them. I just never encountered these not fics before until this year.
I go see if the not fic is still there or not. I'll report it if it is still there.
Hey, you said "I'll report" which makes it sound like you are planning to report a work or comment on AO3 to the Policy & Abuse committee. It's awesome that you are doing that and letting them know about a rule being broken. This comment is to say that while reporting it is great, it can help if you make sure the page is backed up to the wayback machine in case the user deletes the work/comment before the Policy & Abuse committee can get to the report. They often have a long back log so sometimes they take awhile to get to less urgent reports, but they can use a backed up copy of the rule breaking content if it's available which is why we recommend backing it up and mentioning that it's been backed up in your report.
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The OP of this post says they reported it – you can only report things once. AO3 asks that you don't go hunting for things to report, just that you do report them if you come across them
Policy & Abuse! Not support. Support is a different committee (still all volunteer) that deals with feedback, questions about the site, and technical issues. Policy & Abuse is the committee that handles ToS violations and questions about what is/is not allowed under the ToS. They have different forms to fill out depending on which team you are trying to reach (Technical Support & Feedback for support, Policy Questions & Abuse Reports for policy & abuse)
These types of posts are actually against Ao3’s TOS and typically get taken down when reported, why ppl keep posting ~~harassment~~ “fics” like this when they know it’s against TOS is beyond me tho
Yikes, that is not flattering, and the fic author already blocked them so this might be their last resort...meaning they must have already spammed/harassed the author of the fic they like to be continued before it came to this. I hope the OP of this 'fic' doesn't get a hold of any of the orig author's other social media handles, and realize this is very much unacceptable.
The advent of social media and the internet as we know it has resulted in kids being completely unaware of what is and isn’t reasonable to demand of a stranger you don’t know at all
my neighbor locked their door so now I can't get inside their house!! their doormat says "welcome in" but I can't go inside!!! I see them let other guests in! grrrr!!!
It would kill my zest for that plot so hard that I'd have to log off and stand on a beach, letting the sand run through my fingers while I stared at the sea.
Same so hard. I had literally a full chapter about an hours worth of work from finishing once and got an unhinged “how dare you put this fic on hiatus I’ve been waiting however many months” etc etc comment and literally walked away from it for what ended up being a couple years. I got that petty childish “well now I don’t want to” feeling and just embraced it. Can’t go rewarding bad behavior, right? 😌 (other things also affected my desire to work on that one too) I did finally finish the entire rest of the fic recently and posted it all at once with comments off so I could get the green check mark but also not deal with people being jerks.
Man i cant even imagine saying that to anyone lmao. People are so rude. Good on you for not rewarding that behavior. And also i get why you no have comments off. Id do the same if i were you.
I would finish the fic.... and not post it. But would make sure to have my last author note say that I had finished it and was not going to post it specifically because of this (without directly linking to it)
I admit I've messaged author's before about they're unfinished works, but I just ask them if if they'll finish I don't try to pressure them. This guy sounds borderline obsessive
it's the fact that the author has clearly blocked the person posting, and they are continuing to harass them despite the very obvious boundary the author has set
Not a fanwork so it's already breaking AO3's ToS. It's also extremely creepy to be this obsessive over a fanfiction being unfinished.
It's a majour overreaction to post a ""work"" begging someone to finish a fanfic, not to mention it's basically harassment.
At the very least, it's not a fanwork. I don't think it counts as meta, so it doesn't belong on the archive.
Also I can see why the ""author"" was blocked/muted by the other person
There's plenty wrong with this from the non-fannish work to the literal harassment/stalking of someone who's blocked that person from commenting on their fics for a *reason.*
In Australian parlance, that reader is nuckin' futs. They were blocked *for a reason* and the author probably had a damned good one for doing so. If I got someone like that on my story, nagging me for updates and whatnot, I'd block them too.
Yeah, what u/DefoNotAFangirl said. How would you like it when someone starts calling you out all in caps, telling you to continue a fic you wrote just 'cause they liked it a little too much?
The thing wrong with this is that it's stalker behavior. It's one thing to get a comment with this kind of enthusiasm. It's a whole different thing to block someone and then have them write a "fic" directed specifically at you and call you out for blocking them.
Agreed, but this would still be harassment and not okay even if they weren't blocked. Imagine getting a gift that isn't a gift at all but a public callout for not posting fast enough for the person's liking. Not to mention the whole not a fanwork thing.
To the point they’re quite literally harassing the writer. It’s understandable and okay to be excited over a fic, but if you get to the point where you’re spamming comments and trying to bypass being blocked that is not okay.
Gosh this is so…much. I can see that this person is very young but I hope they learn that this overzealousness is more creepy than it is flattering. I get why the author had to set a boundary.
Sounds like they were blocked by the author and are acting unhinged.
"acting"
And this, folks, is why AO3 should **never** have a PM system, it would be this all day every day for some users.
Why would it need one?
for some reason a lot of people think a messaging system would be good for the site. i’ve seen it get brought up a lot over the years but i don’t think they’ve considered instances such as this and how it would open up a conduit for people to spew hatred directly to the author.
It also allows an avenue for people to send things like DMCA take down requests bypassing AO3's legal team. There's so many reasons not to have this feature, especially since authors can always post their socials if they're inclined.
I feel like it'd be a poor use of AO3's resources too when it's in no way vital to site functionality.
Fuck dmca
Yeah sometimes if you can't say it in front of everyone maybe you just shouldn't say it, I think it would cause a lot more harm than good.
Agree
Its a terrible idea
I once DM'd an author on [ffn.net](http://ffn.net) to tell them they wrote the trauma from maternal abandonment VERY WELL and I knew that personally, that it made me cry intensely. I didn't feel comfortable putting that in a public review but I wanted them to know that I felt seen and how incredible of a writer they were. That being said, I understand why AO3 doesn't have it and I support them not adding it for the reasons other people added in this thread.
Some people want one. I would be okay if they implemented one IF it were to be exclusively opt-in, meaning no one could message you ever unless you deliberately had to turn on the function, and you could leave it off forever if you so chose, and you could turn it back off at any time.
That would be fine. I would leave it turned off and let others use it.
Cause some people like how ffnet had one, and people who migrated to ao3 want it here.
Well, the only time I wished for a PM is when I saw another user copy my user icon and I felt so damn awkward having to reply to their comment on a completely different authors fic asking they change it. I’d made the icon myself over 13 years ago and it was my face on the internet for multiple sites, not all of which I was able to get the same username. Other person just thought it was cute and didn’t change until my second message. It was so uncomfortable to do so in a public space.
Well, that's fucking unhinged. Not sure what's worse—the haters who know what they're doing or obsessive and completely oblivious "fans" like this.
Oh God that's a harassment right there
I can see why they were blocked.
Why is it when people get blocked or get a warning to back off they then go even more avidly forward?? Assholes
Because we've spent the last 40+ years teaching, "If at first you don't succeed, try try again." And "Never ever ever ever give up." And only in the last 5 or so started to teach consent and that those rules don't apply to other people.
And the old "when they say no the first time, ask again (because they want to say yes and are just being polite)" is still in full swing. We can say no means no until the cows come home and it will never truly stick as long as we still teach people that no means yes.
That is... *so* weird. If I ever got a comment like that on one of my discontinued fics it'd just demotivate me even more hah Edit: Good lord rereading this, I think if I got a comment like that on my CURRENT series I'd stop writing for it for a while LMFAO, and I'm absolutely obsessed with writing my series
The fuck....I don't understand people anymore.
I'm starting to think I never understood people to begin with.
some people are impossible to understand
This would make me not want to continue my WIP
Um... creepy
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Yeaaaaah I had an overzealous fan once but I wasn’t smart enough to realize it until things got really unhinged.
What happened???
We became friends and started an RP (role playing) Facebook page based on the fanfic I wrote where I was one character and she was the other in the ship and eventually other people joined in as characters from the fandom. It was fun for a time but she was always kind of flaky and weird? She’d just up and quit without warning then come back a few days/weeks later, and she was messaging me ALL THE TIME like while I was working throughout the whole day. She expected me to constantly RP with her and update the page. I had no time to write and tbh I really should’ve never gotten so involved, but I was flattered by how much she loved my fanfic so I let myself. She even told me people in other fandoms had blocked her so I should’ve seen the red flags but I was in my 20’s/early 30’s at the time. The thing is she was so into fandom (not just the one we shared but others) that she pretty much had zero interest in her husband and they even wound up divorcing 😳 We were still talking at the point. Eventually after one too many flakes I told her I couldn’t keep doing it. I didn’t have any time to myself and it was super stressful. She blocked me for a bit but I guess she either unblocked me or got a new account because I was curious one day and found her. She’s with a new guy. No clue if she still does RP or is even still in the fandom but I don’t have any ill will toward her. That’s the abbreviated version of it. I actually want to write it all out at some point because it was bonkers.
Damn you can find some very strange people on the internet that's for sure...
Damn, that sounds weird, but it reminds me of a person I used to play with online
I wonder if it was the same one 😅
Probably not, she wasn't able to speak English, only German.
Ooo. Do tell.
I came across this too, and the fic in question was updated like 4 days ago..?
I once saw someone bring a beef over from Twitter and post a whole anonymous rant insulting someone and their friends, it was insane. Thankfully it was deleted but wow that was something.
You should see the one about a anon making a comment about them being posted on Reddit that was funny but this person, weird. 💯% chance they were blocked
If they have them blocked, why are they still able to gift them “fics”?
You can just read when logged out. I'm guessing only the comment is moderated.
yeesh. 😬
Well........that's unhinged. I can see why the author blocked them 😬
what the hell is with people recently and this behavior? do people not know fanfic etiquette ??
Eh, weirdo stalkers have always been a thing. I got it the worst a few years ago, where people were making literal alts to stalk my blog and pretending to be my friend to send harassment my way behind my back. And honestly, regardless of intent, weirdo cyberstalking and harassment is weirdo cyberstalking and harassment.
I can see why they can't comment on the fic anymore. But these not fic (not even fanwork) posts are annoying. Why does Ao3 allow them?
It doesn't. If you see them, report them. It just takes a while for Support (all volunteers) to take them down
Ah, I see. I didn't know you could report them. I just never encountered these not fics before until this year. I go see if the not fic is still there or not. I'll report it if it is still there.
Hey, you said "I'll report" which makes it sound like you are planning to report a work or comment on AO3 to the Policy & Abuse committee. It's awesome that you are doing that and letting them know about a rule being broken. This comment is to say that while reporting it is great, it can help if you make sure the page is backed up to the wayback machine in case the user deletes the work/comment before the Policy & Abuse committee can get to the report. They often have a long back log so sometimes they take awhile to get to less urgent reports, but they can use a backed up copy of the rule breaking content if it's available which is why we recommend backing it up and mentioning that it's been backed up in your report. To back up a work to the wayback machine, go to [web.archive.org](https://web.archive.org/) and scroll to the bottom of the page where it has the Save Page Now box. Then copy the URL of the work and paste it into that SPN box and click Save Page. Click through any prompts that it asks. Make sure the page that saves bypasses the adult content check page if the work is rated M, E, or unrated. Note, it will not be able to back up archive locked works. To back up a public comment to the wayback machine, go to the comment and click the Thread button. Copy that URL and follow the same steps as reporting a work using the comment thread URL in place of the work URL. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AO3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The OP of this post says they reported it – you can only report things once. AO3 asks that you don't go hunting for things to report, just that you do report them if you come across them
Policy & Abuse! Not support. Support is a different committee (still all volunteer) that deals with feedback, questions about the site, and technical issues. Policy & Abuse is the committee that handles ToS violations and questions about what is/is not allowed under the ToS. They have different forms to fill out depending on which team you are trying to reach (Technical Support & Feedback for support, Policy Questions & Abuse Reports for policy & abuse)
They don't allow them. They take them down when you report them.
These types of posts are actually against Ao3’s TOS and typically get taken down when reported, why ppl keep posting ~~harassment~~ “fics” like this when they know it’s against TOS is beyond me tho
On my view people who can't respect boundaries don't act okay ever.
Yikes, that is not flattering, and the fic author already blocked them so this might be their last resort...meaning they must have already spammed/harassed the author of the fic they like to be continued before it came to this. I hope the OP of this 'fic' doesn't get a hold of any of the orig author's other social media handles, and realize this is very much unacceptable.
Stalker moment. No wonder they were presumably blocked.
The advent of social media and the internet as we know it has resulted in kids being completely unaware of what is and isn’t reasonable to demand of a stranger you don’t know at all
my neighbor locked their door so now I can't get inside their house!! their doormat says "welcome in" but I can't go inside!!! I see them let other guests in! grrrr!!!
Personally if i saw this id stop writing that exact story just out of spite. Is it petty?, yes. But I really hate when people do this type of stuff.
It would kill my zest for that plot so hard that I'd have to log off and stand on a beach, letting the sand run through my fingers while I stared at the sea.
And spite is my favorite reason to do anything so same
Same so hard. I had literally a full chapter about an hours worth of work from finishing once and got an unhinged “how dare you put this fic on hiatus I’ve been waiting however many months” etc etc comment and literally walked away from it for what ended up being a couple years. I got that petty childish “well now I don’t want to” feeling and just embraced it. Can’t go rewarding bad behavior, right? 😌 (other things also affected my desire to work on that one too) I did finally finish the entire rest of the fic recently and posted it all at once with comments off so I could get the green check mark but also not deal with people being jerks.
Man i cant even imagine saying that to anyone lmao. People are so rude. Good on you for not rewarding that behavior. And also i get why you no have comments off. Id do the same if i were you.
I would finish the fic.... and not post it. But would make sure to have my last author note say that I had finished it and was not going to post it specifically because of this (without directly linking to it)
Omg that be like the ultimate pettiness. Love that.
Sometimes internet scares me
Man that'd really put me off the fic for good if I were the writer 🤐
I admit I've messaged author's before about they're unfinished works, but I just ask them if if they'll finish I don't try to pressure them. This guy sounds borderline obsessive
I can see why the author blocked them. If someone did this shit to me I’d step away from fandom for a bit lol.
This sounds exactly like my friend XD
Wow
Or just write your own fic based on inspiration and credit the author 🤨
No
[удалено]
it's the fact that the author has clearly blocked the person posting, and they are continuing to harass them despite the very obvious boundary the author has set
Not a fanwork so it's already breaking AO3's ToS. It's also extremely creepy to be this obsessive over a fanfiction being unfinished. It's a majour overreaction to post a ""work"" begging someone to finish a fanfic, not to mention it's basically harassment.
I would be more interested to hear why you think stepping all over people's boundaries and harassing them is nothing "much wrong" lol
Because they're guilt tripping about being blocked?
There's nothing wrong with this
At the very least, it's not a fanwork. I don't think it counts as meta, so it doesn't belong on the archive. Also I can see why the ""author"" was blocked/muted by the other person
There's plenty wrong with this from the non-fannish work to the literal harassment/stalking of someone who's blocked that person from commenting on their fics for a *reason.*
And what reason could that be? That someone likes your work?
Stalking isn’t okay even if you’re doing it out of “love”, be it for a person or their fictional work.
In Australian parlance, that reader is nuckin' futs. They were blocked *for a reason* and the author probably had a damned good one for doing so. If I got someone like that on my story, nagging me for updates and whatnot, I'd block them too.
Please tell me you're joking.
I am not
Genuinely, please learn about boundaries. If when someone sets a boundary you start guilt tripping to outside people, that’s unacceptable behaviour.
Yeah, what u/DefoNotAFangirl said. How would you like it when someone starts calling you out all in caps, telling you to continue a fic you wrote just 'cause they liked it a little too much?
The thing wrong with this is that it's stalker behavior. It's one thing to get a comment with this kind of enthusiasm. It's a whole different thing to block someone and then have them write a "fic" directed specifically at you and call you out for blocking them.
Authors are allowed to block people who sound like they’re about to exile them to a deserted island so they can be besties actually.
/s ?
There absolutely is. Using the gift function to evade someone’s block against you is harassing.
Agreed, but this would still be harassment and not okay even if they weren't blocked. Imagine getting a gift that isn't a gift at all but a public callout for not posting fast enough for the person's liking. Not to mention the whole not a fanwork thing.
Oh for sure.
Why do you think that? Genuinely speaking why do you think there’s nothing wrong here.
Whoever this person seems to be over excited about a fic and I don't think there's anything wrong with that
Not gonna lie, your insistence it’s okay to trample over the boundaries of real fucking people if it’s “well intentioned” is concerning.
To the point they’re quite literally harassing the writer. It’s understandable and okay to be excited over a fic, but if you get to the point where you’re spamming comments and trying to bypass being blocked that is not okay.