This Ain't BC

AO3 data scraping

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 01:12:10 GMT

I heard about this on tumblr, and went digging a little to see what I could verify. Here's what I've got.

Earlier this year, someone scraped AO3 for a dataset, seemingly intended for AI training. Data scrapes aren't new, but this one was large and the person who did it has been sort of flippant about takedown requests. AO3 wasn't alone; several other sites were also scraped.

This lays out the progression of events pretty comprehensively, but the tl;dr version is that the dataset was uploaded to HuggingFace, then a few other websites. At some point, the scraper created their own website to host as well. After receiving DMCAs, most sites have taken down or deleted the data. However, the scraper filed a counter-notice.

I reached out to the OTW (my full message is below the cut at the end of the post) asking if they can let me know if they've pursued legal action against data scraping before & whether they intend to this time. I'll post an update when I get a response.

The takeaways:

The dataset is currently down in most locations where we can realistically expect it to be taken down. PaperDemon advises against visiting the scraper's personal website and I'm inclined to agree; this person has already proven themselves to not adhere to the same ethical values we hold. It also was apparently still up on a site called datafish as of 6-7 hours ago; I'm not sure if that's the personal website in question or something else, although frankly I haven't spent much time trying to look into that piece. You probably don't need to worry about filing DMCAs at this point.
That said, the dataset might go back up. At 10:29 GMT on April 11, the scraper commented that they had filed a counter-notice. From the date of receipt of the counter-notice, the copyright holder usually has 10-14 business days to file a lawsuit. If no legal action is taken, the data can go back up. Today is the 11th business day since the counter-notice.
HuggingFace's post says the DMCA was from AO3 (actually, "from the representatives of Transformative Works"), so presumably the counter-notice was also sent to AO3. It's possible that they're referring to AO3 when they actually mean an individual, but if we take their statements at face value that means the ball's in the OTW's court.
Things are a little heated on HuggingFace. AO3 users are using strong language, and in response some of the people on HuggingFace have started talking about things like torrents, private websites, etc.
So far, the OTW has been silent. That isn't hugely unusual; this is far from the first data-scraping incident, and a lot of this stuff gets handled behind the scenes. But this incident has attracted significant attention on at least tumblr, so I was hoping they would have some kind of statement.
Not all AO3 data scraping is unethical. There are plenty of people who scrape AO3 for legitimate fannish purposes, from gathering fandom stats to Auto AO3 (that website people use to look up gift exchange requests). If in some future world we decide to Do Something about data scraping, I think it's important to bear in mind the distinction between ethical vs unethical data scraping. The scraper in this incident has said that they aren't doing this for profit, but to me this absolutely feels like the same thing as a web novel website copying things from AO3 to try to sell.

This incident also highlights for me something I've been saying in private for a while: We need someone doing some kind of AO3 news reporting. The Daily Dot was sort of doing this for a while, but their fandom reporting seems to have fallen off - and they really only focused on major issues and interesting features. What we need is something more comparable to local journalism, that helps us understand the AO3 equivalents of water rates and pot hole repairs.

Right now, it feels like many of us rely on word of mouth and the occasional OTW press release for information. I'm not criticizing OTW's press releases, but like any organization they tend to be slow and careful in putting things out, only wanting to write after things are resolved and they can provide solid answers. But sometimes we need to know there are questions to be asked.

Maybe somebody's already doing this and I'm just unaware of it (lbr, if it exists it's probably here on dreamwidth), so if you know of something like this please drop it in the comments.

Here's what I sent OTW:

( Message to OTW )

I'll let you know what kind of response I get.

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It's Flower Crown Day!

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 05:07:11 GMT

Happy Flower Crown Day!! Our AO3 collection already has a number of works; here's the dreamwidth post where you can drop a link to your work if it isn't hosted on AO3. Works can continue to be added for the next week or so (I'm happy to keep the collection open an extra day if someone needs).

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Candy Hearts Exchange Letter 2025

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 01:45:58 GMT

( Read more... )

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dSSS letter for potential treaters

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 16:21:25 GMT

I definitely don't need a treat, but if you're excited to make a treat I would be excited to receive one! Here's a quick letter, which is long and currently disorganized.

Prompts: I don't have much in the way of specific prompts, but an idea I have lurking around in my head is that of Turnbull as some sort of cryptid/supernatural creature. Another idea I have sort of circulating is that of Fraser's grandmother engaged in some kind of adventure or solving some kind of mystery in her younger years - maybe reminiscing about it to a young Fraser? Feel free to run with one of those if it inspires you or ignore them if they don't! Anything that respects my DNWs would be wonderful, and I'm down for whatever you're excited to make: fic, art, etc.

If you want more inspiration, feel free to draw on my previous dSSS Dear Santa letters and/or my AO3 bookmarks. I would also be excited to receive a complementary work/sequel/remix/etc for anything I've made.

Characters/ships: I'm down for almost any ships or character combos; I'm not a huge F/V or F/K/V shipper, but otherwise I'm pretty open to whatever. Some dS ships I've enjoyed before include F/K, K/V, Turnbull/Frannie, Frannie/Elaine, Vecchio/Stella, and Turnbull/Vecchio. Familial relationships, friendships, and coworker-you-despise are all relationship dynamics I'm also interested in, so definitely don't feel locked into romance. It probably goes without saying, but please no bashing (unless you're dunking on the Bolts or something).

Some of my favorite dS characters include Turnbull, Frannie, RayK, Fraser, and Stanley Smith, and I'm a big fan of older women getting their moment in the spotlight. That said, I’m very fond of one-off characters and explorations of dynamics between characters we don't get to see interacting on screen very much (if at all; crossover ships my darling) - so if there's a rarepair or side character you're excited to delve into, I'm probably totally onboard.

Likes: road trips, anything cooking-related, comedy/wacky hijinks, romance, gen, tragedy (incl. major character death), found family feels, locked/escape room type scenarios (see: Vault), cozy curtain fic, character studies, mysteries, supernatural shenanigans, historical AUs, anything to do with fealty/loyalty/devotion/etc. Primarily in a gen sense, I’m a sucker for “we genuinely hate each other, but our SOs are BFFs/we’re related/we work together/there’s some reason we have to coexist”.

Aesthetically, I like soft or earthy color palettes, the great North American outdoors, and the trappings of Christmas (bells! trains! gifts! pine trees! warm fires! etc) in particular as well as everything wintry in general.

Do not want: Victoria redemption arcs, medical gore (regular gore is fine, it’s the medical part that squicks me), break-ups-and-make-ups, vampires, non-canonical robots (if you go for a crossover, canonical robots are fine), infidelity.

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exchange letters & requests

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 03:43:15 GMT

I'm by no means an expert - some of my exchange letters get a little too long, and I don't actually reliably participate in that many exchanges - but here are some of the things I've found help make for a good exchange letter and set of requests.

Requests:

Provide 1-3 more specific requests, to help inspire your gifter and give them a sense of direction. Even if they don't end up using these, they can be helpful.
- I've found it seems to work well to come up with a sort of sliding scale of requests, ranging from a more specific prompt all the way down to something pretty generic.
At least one request that is as general as you can bear. It is absolutely vital for this that you're clear about what your hard lines are. Make sure you have a specific DNW list and address the question of how far you're okay with them straying from the characters/pairings listed in the request.
- Suggested wording is something along the lines of "Please use at least one of the requested characters or pairings and still respect my DNWs, but aside from that, anything goes!"
There's definitely a balancing act between trying to offer up lots of possibilities but not overwhelming your gifter with requests. More requests, especially if they're for different characters/pairings/fandoms, means your chances of matching go up; on the other hand, staring down a wall of requests can be tough. I often aim for 3-4 requests - unless it's an exchange with TONS of possible fandoms, in which case I abandon all caution and just try to maximize matching potential.

Letter:

The purpose of a good exchange letter is to help your gifter understand what you'd like, what you definitely wouldn't like, and what you want out of the exchange. That can be translated into a few elements: a list of things you enjoy, a more expanded version of your DNW list (this is a great chance to clarify where there might be potential exceptions or edge cases), some further info on your ship preferences if you've requested any rarepairs or "Character/Other" type pairings, a section expanding on your requests a little, and a link to your bookmarks and/or fic recs tag. I also find it useful to emphasize the things I'm okay with that can be fandom no-gos; I don't mind major character death and love a good tragedy, and that isn't something people are likely to assume I'd enjoy if I don't explicitly say so.

Your exchange letter should be clearly organized, but it doesn't have to be an award-winning piece of writing or anything. I usually start with a thank you, move into what I like, then a paragraph or bulleted list of what I don't want, then expand on relationships if I'm doing so, then a bulleted list with each item starting with "Request #X". The conclusion, such that it is, is a reassurance that I'm open to them interpreting my requests broadly and a link to my bookmarks.

Often in exchanges, we focus on what we don't want - we require people to respect DNW lists, but don't talk much about how to communicate what would be exciting for us to receive. To me, that's the fundamental purpose of an exchange letter. It gives you a chance to elaborate on what you like, what you're asking for and why, and how broad or narrow each request is. As a general rule of thumb, specificity helps inspire (or provide hard guard rails) while generality frees your gifter to take that inspiration and run with it. A list of possible directions to take a concept in can be useful, because it balances these two elements; you're offering specific examples of things you'd like, but as a buffet, not a directive. And making sure you have one very broad, open request means that people who prefer playing in metaphorical sandboxes can still find a request of yours that works for them.

The exchange letter also gives you a chance to delve into DNWs a little more, but even that I think of more positively than anything; you're outlining where there are exceptions or why you don't like things, so your gifter is better able to navigate how to make sure they toe the right side of any potential lines. For example, I almost universally list infidelity as a hard DNW - but in my exchange letter DNW list, clarify that I'm fine with portraying characters in open relationships as long as everyone's onboard.

What about you all? Any tips or tricks for writing good exchange letters and requests?

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kerfuffle

Sun, 30 Jul 2023 20:04:06 GMT

Most of you are probably already aware of the recent kerfuffle about AO3's treatment of certain volunteers, the resignation of three board members, and the ongoing election. If you aren't, this journal does a decent job of summarizing things. In reading up on these events and trying to understand what's going on, I've found myself consistently surprised by pieces of information that just sort of come up in discussion.

A few things I have learned about AO3 over the past few days:

Board members can serve as Committee Chairs simultaneous to their term. I understand why it was done this way when the org was first started, but this seems to so obviously fly in the face of any reasonable system of checks and balances.
Many OTW volunteers aren't members, and therefore can't vote in elections. I guess I should have known this, because membership is entirely donation-based and there's no mention of it anywhere on the volunteering page, but I didn't! The fact that someone can volunteer hundreds of hours and not get to vote, but I get to vote because I mailed AO3 a check for less than a meal at a cheap diner would cost me, is jaw-dropping.
It is incredibly difficult to find information about the OTW's internal structure.
- The board currently has seven seats. This number is nowhere on the Board's fanlore page and I also didn't find it on the OTW's Board of Directors "About" page; I figured this out by going back through the past few election cycles and counting the number of people on the board post-election. Presumably (hopefully) this is somewhere in the elections information and I just didn't see it, but having to hunt for something that seems like pretty basic info is frustrating.
- The OTW currently has 18 committees. The About page has more information about this than the board, but things like how committee chairs are selected are still incredibly opaque. I've been using AO3 for over a decade and before today I probably would've been able to name less than half of the committees.

Some (maybe a lot!) of you are probably already familiar with these things, but I feel like I don't see people talking about the first two except incidentally in regards to other topics? And I guess I was just wondering if anyone else was flabbergasted by this, or had other things you've learned about the structure of the OTW you wanted to share, or...anything.

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Rarepair Hell Weekend is here! \o/

Sun, 19 Feb 2023 05:25:24 GMT

Happy Rarepair Hell Weekend!! Please comment below with all of your lovely rarepair things - sorry for getting it up a day late, I've been feeling a bit under the weather.

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Rarepair Hell Weekend Announcement (Feb 18 & 19)

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 22:35:22 GMT

We're doing it again! Rarepair Hell Weekend will run the weekend of February 18/19.

Got a rarepair or a small fandom you love? This is the event for you! This is a celebration of rarepairs (which in this case is being stretched to the limits of its definition to include uncommonly explored gen relationships, characters who don't get many works, and small fandoms) and their fanworks!

This event is loosely modeled off of sdwolfpup's More Joy Day—which means that instead of contributing to an AO3 collection or using a certain tag on social media, you do what you like in a space of your choosing, and then come and comment and tell us about what you did! (Dreamwidth allows people who don't have accounts to leave anonymous comments, so you do not need to have a DW account to participate.)

For this event, you can do anything you want in celebration of your rarepair(s) of choice, including but not limited to:

leaving a comment on an existing work
compiling a rec list
creating a new fanwork (fic, art, vid, filk, etc) of your own
writing a ship manifesto
etc

Do whatever you like to drag us down into rarepair hell with you, and then come back and comment with what you did!

"Small" or "rare" can mean whatever you think it means here; while I'm happy to provide you with guidelines if you're having trouble deciding if something counts, this event operates on the assumption that you probably have a better idea of what's rare in a given fannish circle than I do. If I see juggernaut pairings from huge fandoms, I may say something to you, but for the most part I'm just going to take your word for things.

I'll make a post on the evening of February 17 (because as well all know weekends start on Friday night!) for everyone to leave their comments on.

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Rarepair Hell Redux

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 00:59:56 GMT

I’m thinking of doing a rarepair hell event again! (If you didn’t remember or missed it last time, Rarepair Hell is a More Joy Day inspired event celebrating rare ships, characters, and/or fandoms. You can do anything you like to celebrate, from creating fanworks to making rec lists to leaving comments to reading/viewing/etc other people’s works.)

The details are all still a bit up in the air, but I’m thinking sometime soon-ish before we swing into spring/summer exchanges and events. Let me know if you have thoughts!

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Candy Hearts Exchange Letter

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 07:07:26 GMT

Hi! Thank you for making me something for the exchange!
( Read more... )

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Art: Half Agony, Half Hope (Dimension 20)

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 16:26:16 GMT

I made some A Court of Fey & Flowers art! You can see it here on twitter or here on tumblr, or I've used it as the icon for this post!

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Fic: Whole Lot of Living

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 01:10:48 GMT

BL Exchange creators have been revealed, so now I can post about my work!

Title: Whole Lot of Living
Fandom: 2gether
Genre: growing into adulthood
Rating: T
Word Count: 4510
Summary: Five perspectives on Tine's working life, and Tine's perspective on Sarawat's.
Link to work: on AO3

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BL Exchange Letter

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 20:41:10 GMT

Hi! Thank you for making me something for the exchange!

Yes please:

I'm a huge fan of both fluff and angst; things that are really soft or really funny or really sad all tend to work well for me!
I love family/found family dynamics (which can include kid!fic), baking/cooking, domesticity, outsider POV, secret reveals (it can be any kind of secret! including relationship reveal!), mysteries, historical AUs, magical realism, fairytales and folklore, and crossovers. Road trips can be super fun, and I’m also fond of character studies.
I like happy endings but I also can enjoy sad endings! Feel free to delve into the delicious angsty possibilities of canonical deaths or killing characters off if you want to and it makes sense for the circumstances.
I also love curtain!fic/art/vids/etc, so if you just want to keep things sweet and simple that would also be awesome!
Last but absolutely not least, I am an absolute sucker for courtly romance, chivalry, the whole nine yards, whether or not that's actually dressed up in pennants and shining armor or is just people in jeans and t shirts behaving in those ways.

On the fence: All of these are things that I do occasionally read from time to time, but that are pretty hit-or-miss for me.

As a general rule of thumb, I don't tend to love celebrity AUs, sex worker AUs (in particular, I dislike stories about a romantic relationship developing between a sex worker and their client; no Pretty Woman AUs here please!), or reincarnation stories.
I don't like things like soulmate AUs or Hanahaki disease very much in concept, but I do like the way they lend themselves to tropes like mutual pining (and for Hanahaki in particular, I really like plants and flowers cropping up in fic or fanart, so that can go a long ways toward making me more open to that trope).
I'm not a huge fan of break ups--and I especially don't like breaking up and making up. (An exception to this would be something along the lines of something like a Persuasion AU, where the break up happened offscreen long before the action of the story starts.)
Sometimes I like threesomes/moresomes, but I can be a bit picky about them.

No thanks: I would rather not receive something that contains:

non-con
incest
infidelity (things like open relationships or a couple who are separated but still legally married seeing other people are fine, just please no cheating-and-lying-about-it)
detailed or lengthy medical horror/gore scenes (specifically medical; other kinds of horror are fine)
cis-to-cis genderbending (exploring the possibilities of someone being trans or nonbinary is fine, please just no rewriting a cis man as a cis woman or vice versa)
RPS
robots (unless it's something that already exists in real life, such as Siri or a roomba, or if you're writing a crossover with something that has canonical robots, like Doctor Who) or robot sex

Requests

Pae and Thurs! I love these two - I love Thurs as a character, the way he's such a devoted friend and such a con artist and such an interesting blend of genuine and crafty, and I love the energy he has with Actual Golden Retriever Pae/Pao. I don't really have a specific prompt in mind, here, I'd just like to see more of their relationship!
Nuan is my absolute favorite character from Something In My Room, and she is, in my opinion, very clearly flirting with Chris at points. I'd love to see that blossom into a real relationship, whether it's happening offscreen during the course of the show or in an AU.
I've given you lots of options here for characters/ships! For the three tropes I mentioned in my request - case!fic, fairytale or magical realism AU, and historical AU - I can see lots of different directions you could potentially take them in. Case!fic could be anything from a Leverage AU to the mystery of the missing candy bar to a full hardboiled noir AU. Fairytale/magical realism could be a Ladyhawke AU, a merfolk AU, a canon-compliant fic that plays with supernatural elements like ghosts or luck, etc. Historical AU could be at any point in history (although I'd prefer something set before ~1995), and really you can pair it with any other tropes you like: is a case!fic? Is it an Austen AU? Is it epistolary fic centered around the Titanic or a world war or something out of a Jules Verne novel? Up to you! For all of these, feel free to take them in any direction you like; and, if none of them really inspire you, feel free to go with one of the other things I've mentioned in this letter! I would also be delighted to receive podfic if that's what you're interested in making! Obviously I can't give you permission to podfic anyone else's work, but if there's a fic of mine that you'd be interested in podficcing, I would be very excited about that as well.

Links: If you want to thumb through some of the things I've loved in the past, here are my AO3 bookmarks and my fic recs tag on tumblr.

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the weekend is almost over, but rarepair hell is eternal

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 05:14:59 GMT

Rarepair Hell Weekend will technically be over soon, as Monday looms around the corner—but in the lowkey spirit of the event, there are no hard deadlines here! Feel free to continue to comment on the announcement post as long as you want :D

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Rarepair Hell Weekend is here! \o/

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 04:30:29 GMT

Rarepair Hell Weekend is here! (Well, not quite in my time zone, but I'm going to bed so I'm posting about it now!)

Just as a quick reminder of how this works: you can do anything you want to participate - create something, leave a comment on something, etc - in any space you like, & then you come comment on the announcement post about what you did!

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Mon, 06 Jun 2022 17:29:03 GMT

Also, friends, feel free to share info about the rarepair hell event anywhere you want if that’s a thing you want to do! This isn’t a request to promo it, just blanket permission that you can if you want to.

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Rarepair Hell Weekend

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 01:19:57 GMT

Announcing a new event! \o/ June 25 and 26 will be Rarepair Hell Weekend!

Got a rarepair or a small fandom you love? This is the event for you! This is a celebration of rarepairs (which in this case is being stretched to the limits of its definition to include uncommonly explored gen relationships, characters who don't get many works, and small fandoms) and their fanworks!

This event is loosely modeled off of sdwolfpup's More Joy Day—which means that instead of contributing to an AO3 collection or using a certain tag on social media, you do what you like in a space of your choosing, and then come and comment on this post and tell us about what you did! (Dreamwidth allows people who don't have accounts to leave anonymous comments, so you do not need to have a DW account to participate.) For this event, you can do anything you want in celebration of your rarepair(s) of choice, including but not limited to:

leaving a comment on an existing work
compiling a rec list
creating a new fanwork (fic, art, vid, filk, etc) of your own
writing a ship manifesto
etc

Do whatever you like to drag us down into rarepair hell with you, and then come back and comment with what you did!

Not sure if what you're thinking of counts as a rarepair? You can find some more info on that below the cut!

( Read more... )

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Fic: Roses On Stalks Of Clover

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 04:20:43 GMT

Title: Roses On Stalks Of Clover
Fandom: Not Me the series
Genre: crack, flower crown day
Rating: T
Word Count: 1569
Summary: Sean/White. I never promised you a rose garden, but maybe I’ll give you one anyway.
Link to work: on AO3

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Redbubble?

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 23:16:43 GMT

A friend on twitter asked me if they could buy this image I made for Flower Crown Weekend as a sticker, so, uh, I guess I'm on redbubble now? If there's anything I've made that you'd like to have available to purchase in sticker (or t shirt, tote bag, etc) form, I guess just ask?

I realize this sounds really blasé and advertise-y, but I'm honestly just kind of overwhelmed that someone was excited enough about this to want to buy it? GOOD overwhelmed, I'm absolutely over the moon excited, but I just. Don't have the words right now!

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It's Flower Crown O'Clock!

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 06:09:01 GMT

The Flower Crown Celebration AO3 collection is now revealed! \o/

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Fic: Impractical Magics

Sun, 16 Jan 2022 02:11:43 GMT

Title: Impractical Magics
Fandom: due South
Genre: Magic AU
Rating: T
Word Count: 7406
Summary: “Don’t be ridiculous, Ray,” Fraser says, and it’s all downhill from there. A Practical Magic AU.
Link to work: on AO3

_

This work was way outside of my typical comfort zone, and I was working with my friend/beta pretty close to the deadline to cut out the parts that weren't working and bolster the parts that were. I'm proud of myself for taking a swing at something casefic-ish, and for stepping outside of my typical kind of wheelhouse to try and make something that my Seekrit Santa recipient would like--and for not backing out when it wasn't going quite the way I wanted, partway through. Conundrum seemed to enjoy it, and so I'm counting this one as a success!

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Art: Cover Art for The Way Back Home

Sun, 16 Jan 2022 01:58:56 GMT

Title: Cover Art for The Way Back Home
Fandom: due South
Rating: G
Medium: art (acrylic on canvas, digital art)
Summary: A complementary work for wicked3659's excellent big bang work!
Link to work: on AO3

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Flower Crown Day 2022

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 22:56:25 GMT

It's that time of year again! Flower Crown Day/Weekend will run from February 11-14 this year. Please bring your favorite characters, actors, etc, all dressed up in flowers! Any flora-themed fanworks are welcome (including both floral-themed works and works featuring leaf crowns and other plantlife).

Rules can be found in the AO3 collection, but the tl;dr of it is please play nicely with each other, and make sure your entries are shareable (don't f lock your entries or put up a vid and not provide the password, basically).

If you want to spread the news about this fest, please! Be my guest! The more the merrier! Feel free (but absolutely not obligated) to use the banner/flier/image up above in your own posts about this event.

Flower Crown Celebration 2022 AO3 Collection

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AO3/OTW paid positions

Sun, 17 Oct 2021 18:37:51 GMT

In the wake of the OTW’s finance chat, a lot of people on twitter seem to be discussing the possibility of ao3 introducing either full time, part time, or contract-based paid positions, and I’m curious what people in my corner of fandom think those positions should be! I made a poll on twitter (I don’t think you need a twitter account to vote)—I don’t have a paid dw account, so I don’t think I can make a poll here, but if you have an opinion feel free to tell me about it on twitter, comment here, both, neither, wherever!

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2021 dSSS Letter

Sun, 19 Sep 2021 23:19:09 GMT

Hey Santa! Thanks for making me a thing ^_^

My requests this year are pretty open-ended, but I'm still open to however you want to interpret them! I love baking/domesticity, mysteries/casefic, magical realism, historical AUs, crossovers, outsider POV, secret reveals (it can be any kind of secret! including relationship reveal!), and family/found family dynamics (which can include kid!fic). Road trips can be super fun, too. I like happy endings but I also don't mind sad endings! Killing off characters or exploring canonical character death(s) works just fine for me (as long as it doesn't devolve into bashing, of course). Feel free to make me weep, be it tears of joy, laughter, or anguish ^_^

I would rather not receive something that contains non-con, incest, infidelity, detailed or lengthy medical horror/gore scenes, cis-to-cis genderbending (exploring the possibilities of someone being trans or nonbinary is fine, please just no rewriting a cis man as a cis woman or vice versa), or RPS. Please no robots (unless it's something that already exists in real life, such as Siri or a roomba, or if you're writing a crossover with something that has canonical robots, like Doctor Who) and especially no robot sex.

With regards to shipping, I'm pretty open! I love gen and if that's the route you want to go I'll be thrilled! I also like romances (in fact, I'm a sucker for sappy Hallmark movies and curtain!fic alike). In particular: I like F/K, K/V, RayV/Stella, rarepairs and non traditional ships and crossover pairings and romances with OCs - but F/V just isn't my jam. I don't really like F/K/V, but if you want to explore a different OT3 that's probably fine - although if you do want to go the polyamory route, you might want to check with someone who knows me first, as I can be a bit picky there. Please keep any break-ups-and-make-ups very much in the background or just don't include them at all, with the exception of a "history of a canon relationship" type thing. Near break ups that make up or break ups that stay broken up are both fine, I just don't like the emotional yo-yoing of breaking up and getting back together all in the same fic/art/vid/etc.

I haven't included an "E" rating in my first two requests, but I should clarify that while it isn't my preference (hence not requesting it), it's fine if something does end up going in an E rated direction - just please, please please please, no PWP. Porn that shows up as part of a plot is okay, and in particular an E rating for violence is 100% good by me.

Request 1 - When I say any minor or background character, I do mean ANY. If their name isn't Fraser or Ray, they're fair game here! I don't love Victoria-focused fic/art/vids as a general rule, to be perfectly honest, but that's mostly because I'm uninterested in any kind of redemption arc for her - so I'm not ruling out Victoria-focused fic/art/vids for this option, just, I don't know, cautioning you?

Request 2 - A case! A mystery! Take that in whatever direction you want - serious case fic, spyglass themed art, a vid to the Pink Panther theme, whatever. I like mysteries and I like watching characters go through the process of solving them! If it's something that has a narrative, like a fic or a comic or a narrative vid, please just let the characters solve something. If there are still things they don't know, if the culprit gets away, if the McGuffin stays unfound and Chekhov's gun stays holstered, that's all fine, as long as they've made some kind of progress. (If it's something that doesn't have a narrative, like a noir-esque poster, that's fine too.)

Request 3 - I've left this one very open ended and given you two different routes to go down! If you're interested in the first "anything goes" option and want to thumb through some things that I like, I've made a few fic rec lists on tumblr, which can be found on my blog under the tag "fic recs". If you're interested in making something based on one of my works, they can be found here on AO3. If you make something based on one of my works, please just don't make something based on either of my complementary Big Bang works without checking in with the author of the primary piece first.

Again, I'm definitely open to you interpreting these as you will - if you have an idea and after consideration you think I'll like it, you can probably just go for it! For the most part you should feel free to get creative with your interpretation of these requests.

Happy Santa-ing! \o/

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