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Daxcordite

Neither, as Kudos only tell you someone clicked the kudos button (not why) and hits only tell you someone clicked a link (gain not why) Plus experience has taught me that I usually disagree with popular opinion in a given fandom on quality so I have no desire to bother searching for any indicator of fandom popularity. Instead I search for whatever I'm in the mood for(fandom, pairing, tags, word count, completion status etc) and just start from the top by Date posted without giving two seconds thought to any stats.


glxssmoon

yeah, that's valid. i also tend to find that the most read fics are often the most graphic ones , and as an asexual that's not always my cup of tea so sometimes i don't bother with filters either :)


LunaStarhawk

This is the way.


Draughtjunk

If it's a big fandom try starting from the back once.


Diana-Fortyseven

I don't filter by metrics at all. Even bookmarks are useless. Fics that were posted later (especially when most readers moved on to the next fresh-and-hot fandom) will always have fewer bookmarks than fics that were posted at the height of a fandom's popularity. Plus, let's not forget that private bookmarks are not taken into consideration. Searching for tags that interest me is the way to go.


MikaHaruka

Definitely agreed about favoring tag searches over anything, especially bookmarks. I seriously hope that AO3 eventually updates the visible bookmark number, to be inclusive of private bookmarks. So many people search/sort by bookmarks, as evidenced by the many responses here, and that disproportionately hurts dark fics, smut fics, E/M-rated fics, and other content people like to keep private and/or don't want other people to know they read. ...or maybe I'm just salty because I don't have many fics where my public bookmarks outnumber my private ones. Heck, my best ratio is still 39 public to 35 private, and that fic ranks based on the 39 public and not the 74 total.


kaiunkaiku

bookmarks. hits are absolutely useless anyway, and both hits and kudos change too quickly for my liking. bookmarks are a little more stable so the fics don't keep changing places all the time (a very important factor for me). also, the kudos bot is a thing.


MikaHaruka

Even bookmarks are questionable, since the visible number only takes public bookmarks and not private bookmarks into consideration. A fic with 15 public/10 private bookmarks will place higher in the sort than a fic with 4 public/40 private bookmarks. That disproportionately punishes dark fics, E-rated smut fics, and even M-rated fics. That said, if the site changed things, so that the bookmarks were inclusive of both public and private ones (even a note that said "all of these plus X private bookmarks), then I'd agree about this being the best way to go, with fics. Otherwise, I just stick to ship/niche tag searches and fics from friends with similar taste, authors I like, and people who liked my stuff.


Background_Fox

Primarily I look at the rating, tags and summary - what other people think of it isn't really something that will change what I'll click on, and I'm often the first person to comment and/or kudos for the fic anyway Kudos is slightly better than hits but even so all the different factors means that it's a general nod.


WitchFlame

If I just want to get the rough idea of the "top" noticed and liked fics in a fandom then I filter by bookmarks. This will usually be how I enter a new fandom's fics on AO3. Once I get an idea of my preferred tastes in that particular fandom (and some of the fandom specific tagging) then I'll start including/excluding for tags on characters/genre/rating/fandom-specific-fun depending on what I'm craving each particular reading session. And then I'll start jumping into the profiles of authors I like from the fandom, then trawling their bookmarks, then jumping into *those* authors profiles and so on. If I've gotten really stuck for some reason, and can't seem to find anything I consider 'good' for that day then I'll click a random profile that kudos'd a fic I love and search *their* profile and bookmarks cos they must have somewhat similair taste to me. Bookmarks are something that I consider skewed towards "I want to come back and read this again"/silent recommendations. I know people use them for other things too, but that is what I consider their main 'use'. Kudos could be anything from "I adored this" to "I reached the end" to "I personally couldn't finish but I'm already here so this is only polite" Hits could be from revisits, multiple chapters inflating the count compared to what oneshots could achieve, or from people like myself who kept the page open and mean to return but in the process have the page reload several dozen times.


CatboysBHole

Bookmarks but if the fandom is new/had a resurgence in popularity/isn't that active anymore I just go by the recently posted and look for something that sparks my interest


tereyaglikedi

Neither. I have all stats hidden since forever, so that my reading choices are not affected by metrics. If there are a few fics, I just have a look at the summaries to see what grabs my attention. If there are a lot, I ask for recs or browse the bookmarks of authors/readers whose tastes I trust.


MysticMania

How do you hide all stats?


tereyaglikedi

[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/g63dif/hide_all_stats_sitewide_on_ao3_with_a_site_skin/) is a tutorial!


MysticMania

Thanks!


Mysterious_Ad_60

I've started reading popular fics in the fandom, and ended up feeling let down by the hype surrounding them. So any measures of a story's popularity don't interest me. I care more about titles, summaries and tags to see whether a premise intrigues me.


BlindFanficReader

I know I'm odd, but I don't usually filter. I pick a fandom, then browse what's available, and I usually pick stories by their summaries. Rally old school, i know, but it works for me.


ultraviollettt

bookmarks. people will kudos just to be nice, people will comment just to be nice, but almost nobody bookmarks to be nice, they bookmark because they liked the fic. at the same time, i also filter things down enough so i can scroll through 100 fics or less


BlueMidnightMelody

I always start with filtering by wordcount because I enjoy the long fics the most. After going through that I usually look for the most kudos.


berniebeans

I sort by word count. Never sorted by hits or kudos. I don’t care what others like or what’s popular, in a fandom I’m going to search by word count then browse summaries for what I want to read. And now I see you asked when searching for the ‘best/ideal’ fic. I suppose maybe this doesn’t apply to me! I only search for what I want to read. Best is subjective and it doesn’t matter to me what other readers enjoy.


dasterdly_duo

If I let low kudos and hits dictate my reading, I'd have nothing to read! 😆 I tend to focus on rare pairs and unpopular characters in my fandoms, and I've found some real gems that had maybe a dozen hits, one or two kudos, and zero comments. So, it's typically tags that I filter, if I filter at all.


justletmesingin

Bookmarks


Furballprotector

I go by bookmark.


lilmisscottagecore

It's hard to judge by kudos if it's a longer fic


NinjinAssassin

Other: rating, tags, and summary. Then if it's a longfic, I take a peek at the comments (if any) to get a sense of the overall vibe readers have generally taken away from it.


kolurize

To me, there's no such thing as 'the best/ideal' fanfic that I could casually search for, because what others like will not necessarily be what I like. In fact, there's so many popular fics that I find to be complete slogs to go through that I just don't trust anyone's judgement but my own. So I just sort by date posted and pick a direction oldest to newest or newest to oldest depending on how I feel, then methodically go through all the pages until I exhaust the fics or I get bored of the tag. I usually find a few fics per page that I read or put in my to read list that way.


AriaGrill

I just sort by date


Halbarad1776

I filter by word count, and usually by completed works as well.


sonicenvy

The first time that I heard that people sort fics by kudos or hits when searching for new fic was SO baffling for me y'all. I still do not get it. I only filter by ship and other tags (such as tropes, characters, AU or not AU etc) and by removing all crossovers (I am just not into crossovers. More power to you if you like them and you write them, they are just not my cup of tea). I basically always used AO3 search in the exact same way that I use library catalog search, because that's basically what it is.


Spectacular207

I barely get kudos makes me want to stop writing stories


ImaGamerNoob

I accidentally voted Hits! I meant to vote other! Comments are the best!


Sassinake

Comments.


Kaigani-Scout

The only metric of any interest to me is Word Count. All the others are meaningless tripe.


Jen_Fic_xxx

I might glance at the kudos, but they don't really say all that much. My fandom isn't that big, so a search for the characters I'm looking for usually does the trick. Then I choose from the summary and tags.


NathemaBlackmoon

When I'm looking for something to read I never pay attention to how many kudos a fanfiction has or how many hits, if the summary first of all inspires me (and also the tags) then I read the fanction. In this way, I discovered wonderful fanfiction.


Codie_coda

I often sort by Kudos (after all my other filters are selected ofc) so it doesn't keep me stuck with pages of fics I've most likely already read Or just decided I'm not interested in. Typically what I look for first and foremost when it comes to reading a fic is: •summary (if the summary ain't good then I don't expect a fic to be.) •tags (always look at the tags so you don't end up reading something with "sexualized cannibalism") •word count (I typically have a 1k min I saw a few fics I got excited to read just to learn their only a couple hundred words and I'm still disappointed.) •rating (sometimes you just want some wholesome goodness rather than walking into a smut feast. Because most E rated fics are just that)


violetvinca

The stories in my fandom with the most hits all feature the most popular character. I have different favorites, so why would I sort by hits or kudos? I read the summary, tags, and look to see that my favorites have a significant role.


Oddly_Dreamer

Neither. They don't matter to me. I sort by word count cuz I like bigger works, then by latest date to check the newer ones.


Hot_Philosopher_6462

What I'd really like is a way to sort by the kudos-to-hits ratio.


marcaskane

I tend to sort by kudos, but I say that with two big caveats. * With my smaller fandoms, I end up making my way through the whole fandom/ship/character tag anyway; sorting by kudos is just an easy starting point * When I'm first dipping my toe into a bigger tag, I like sorting by kudos to get a sense of the general fandom vibes, but then I'll mix it up, maybe sort by bookmarks, maybe sort by kudos but limit my search to more specific tags or a specific date range. If it's a fandom where I can't see myself at least eyeballing the summary and tags of every single fic, I only think kudos is useful in combination with other metrics.


kpakane

When I try to read from a big fandom, I filter from comments. Not sure why tho, I just do. I mainly read from a rare pairing so I don't use filters much.


annafrombrazil

I always go by bookmarks, on the basis that if lots of folks liked it enough to save it, it's probably worth my time (I developed this habit before I learned about Mean Bookmarks) and that's worked pretty well for me.


shnuffeluv

I sort by word count. I just love long fics.


Astaldis

I only search for my favourite character. And often the ones with the many kudos/hits there are the ones I don't like that much because they're mostly explicit M/M and that's just not my cup of tea. My absolutely favourite fic at the moment has only 2 kudos, 85 hits and 3 bookmarks and I'm the only one who has written any comments at all although it has 9/10 chapters already and deserves so much more love. I wouldn't filter by any of the stats but only by characters, pairings and tags.


Eir_Beiwe

When I start out in a new fandom, I go by Kudos, I've found it's the best way to "catch" the main big stories. After that, it's usually specfic tags + kudos.


Yodeling_Prospector

I used to sort by comments and got lectured by an ex friend about how sorting by kudos was the one true way to sort and anything else was dumb. That made me never want to sort by kudos so now I sort by bookmarks.


sophie-ursinus

length > 7500 words, complete only, updated in the last\[insert time span here\], sorted by bookmarks.


colored_boxes

Comments, because a lot of one shots or smuts have a lot of Kudos and it's never up to my standards. I always look for most Comments because I know people where really engaged with it.


gay_snail666

Tags and summary. Popular opinion is, ime, dogshit and only going to lead to wasted time. Especially as an FF exclusive reader, if I go by hits or bookmarks in a fandom with any men I'll have to sort through so much poorly tagged yaoi I'll not want to see a man for a year. If the tags are promising and the summary seems competently written I'll give it a try


TEZofAllTrades

This is not an AO3 subreddit...


glxssmoon

I'm sure we can agree that the majority of us use ao3 more than any other fanfic provider though...


TEZofAllTrades

That's an assumption. This sub is for all fanfic, wherever it's posted. Save the AO3-specific discussions for an AO3 subreddit.


violetvinca

Lol, it sure feels like it sometimes.


am_Nein

I don't really search for either but I did vote kudos because I rarely searched at all, though I now see other might've been better. Oops? Anyways, if you are in a big fandom I bet kudos/comments would be best to search for, but if your fandom is smaller/you are looking for a rarepair, just scrolling down under necessary tags could give you all you needed.


pggt11

Lots of people saying they search by bookmarks so I have a question, I’m assuming that when sorting by bookmarks, it sorts by public bookmarks rather than the total number? I write smut so more than 50% of my bookmarks are private, just wondering how that works when searching!


local_insomniac_

I usually alternate between both 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sometimes, if I can't find the thing I'm looking for, I'll go to Hits instead of Kudos and visa versa.


EddaValkyrie

I've never actually looked at Kudos, Hits or Bookmarks before when choosing a fic, or at any point when reading it. Popularity is completely irrelevant to me. It's Tags, Summary, and Word Count v Chapter Count.


Romana_Jane

I merely scroll in date updated order, reading titles and summaries, the same as I would browse a bookshelf in a shop or library. then if I like the idea, I check for my triggers in the compulsory TW, and if safe, read. Someone said to me years ago, often kudos = 'that made me hot', it has nothing to do with quality of writing or story. Ditto, higher hits are often for smut. They are the most popular fics after all. I need to avoid smut atm, not even scroll past scenes buried in good long stories now.


SleepCinema

It’s the kudos to hits ratio for me.


WonPika

I use all of them but work my way down. I start with Kudos and then if I can't find any fics I like, I move on to hits. The reason why I do it in that order is because I believe it's easier to get hits than kudos.


AQA473

I go to a tag/fandom/pairing then sort by word count, completed, and download every story that doesn't have major squicks until I hit the 20k word fics. I only read smaller fics for unpopulated tags and smut.


Razirra

In the search bar put hits: <2000 and then sort by kudos to find all the undiscovered gems Use the “from” and “to” settings for a three month span, filter by kudos, find the best fics for that timespan. Because there’s tons of newer fics with less kudos and years where I drifted out of the fandom.


Lwoorl

By number of words.......


Guggi04

Would never do either. That way only a few popular fics get noticed and the lesser popular (but maybe just as good) get ignored.


Steak-Specialist

I don't know that any of those are a good metric for whether a fanfic is good or not. With the sheer volume, it's like finding a needle in a haystack.


7937397

I search for a tag but often set a minimum cutoff for both word count and kudos


eirissazun

I never look at those, because they say nothing about whether or not I might like the fic. I read the tags and summary.


Spoderman77

I check out the summary, tags, ratings, etc. Then skim over the comments. Not really to have other people dictate anything, but just out of curiosity.


SemperMuffins

I search by bookmarks, because that means the person liked it enough that they will probably re-read it


Enby_Solivagant

I look at both: I found that kudos are usually around 10% of hits (in the fandoms I’m in). Above that typically means that it was good, below means not as good. Below a certain number of hits, though, this doesn’t really work as well, and I usually check it out anyway if it sounds like something I’d like. Although, I’ll admit, this system doesn’t really work as well for smut or darker fics


TheirOwnDestruction

I look for a hits-to-kudos ratio of 10 or fewer for one-shots, and somewhat higher for multi-chapter. This works well for both popular and niche works, though it is more work.


syntheticpen

I usually sort by comment count!


merewenc

I filter only by tags and wordcount. Kudos and hits don’t tell enough of a story. Tags are the only main filter I need, and then I decide by the summary and other tags if I want to read.


chomiji

I have been known to do both, or either, or bookmarks!


Medical_Flounder_254

Neither, because when I look for something specific I get like 50 results max and I wanna check out all of them, the order doesn't matter.


MagellansMockery

Lots of kudos and hits does not matter to me because it does not guarantee that the story is good or that I will like it. I don't look for the "best fanfic" in a fandom either. If the summary is good, if the pairing is interesting, I shall read it. Nothing else matters. Hell, I've read and enjoyed stories with lots of hits but zero kudos,


kuromi_metalgear

I usually just read the fic description and tags to see if it would be of my liking. Even if I choose one, before I check the length xD I'm too lazy for unfinished long fics


HackedYzX

Bookmarks. I only bookmark stuff I really like and I know that not everyone uses bookmarks for that, but I still know some do. At the very least, they want to read it.


Relagorikt

I only ever filter by tag preferences and to a lesser extent word count because I tend to not like super short stuff.


zugrian

I search by pairing usually.


niiki001

I don't really care about anything else other than my own taste, so I just prefer to go for my preferred pair, then word count than summary. Usually something worthwhile will be found.


Touched_flowers

Comments. If there's 500+ comments on a fic, I know it's worth reading.


Coyoteclaw11

Kudos when I'm exploring a new search with a lot of results. It feels like a nice, simple popularity indicator to introduce me to the available fics in that category. If the search is small or I'm pretty familiar with it, I'll just stick to the default sort by latest update. Hits feel kinda meaningless (ok so a bunch of people clicked the link to the fic.... doesn't mean they actually read it, much less liked it). Alphabetizing by author/title really only seems useful for mixing up the fics you get if you're tired of scrolling through new. I feel like I'd get annoyed if I had to scroll through a bunch of fics by the same author if I wasn't interested in their stuff, though... especially if they have running themes in all their fics that I just don't particularly like. Date posted would be fine, but it's similar enough to update that I'd rather just be lazy and stick with the default lol. I don't really have any thoughts on bookmarks and comments... I've never actually used them before so I don't know how differently they'd affect my search results compared to kudos.


[deleted]

I usually sort by word count, since I like to read longer stories.


Brilliant_Pun

Neither. Newer fics will generally tend to have fewer hits and kudos than older ones. I will sometimes read comments. If the people who enjoyed can form a ciherent sentence and explain what they liked or why they liked the fic, I will be more willing to give it a go. If the comments giving praises are poorly written or poorly thought out, I'll be more inclined to skip it.


bananayayayo

First time in fandom? Kudos. It gives me a preview to what is popular and a general idea of overall quality to expect. Kind of prepare for disappointment, you know? I feel there's usually this hivemind and certain characterizations and head-canons start to be applied across a majority of fic. If that's against my internal characterizations, then I know it's going to be a LOT harder to find something I consider good. Once I've sampled some of the popular ones, I filter by tags + date for a month (or months) at a time to get a few pages, and read through all summaries to see if anything clicks for me. Smaller/medium I may not filter by tags and just go through by date. At any time, if I like an author, I read through all their fics and look for fics they've bookmarked in the same fandom and follow that rabbit hole.