AO3 is not goodreads. It is not the NYT bestseller list.
You paid no money to read these stories. They are, in fact, a labor of love, done on the off time in the off hours of people who are writing for the joy of writing and the joy of the story.
Your ratings are not appreciated. Not by other readers, who don't know you from adam. Not by fandom-savvy passerby.
And not, in fact, by the author. Who again: Wrote this for fun. In their spare time - around work, around family and friend commitments. Around the rest of their lives. Fandom clout almost never "pays off" in any monetary gains, in any form of physical or financial security.
So please stop "rating" us on something we do for joy.
Today, a fellow fanauthor shared this with me. It was not on any story of my own, but they understandably needed a moment to go "wtf" and process it all. With their permission, I now share this with you.
You won't find this comment on AO3 anymore, by the by.
I have... a lot of issues with this. First of all being something that would be a C-grade in any US school system is not a "Good Rating" for most folks, but many of my issues would be the same even in this commenter had rated this a 10/10.
It boils down to this:
Why are you grading us on something we all are here to do solely for fun and personal enjoyment? Why does it have to be good?
Why can't it just be a labor of love and of joy to be good enough for you, dear commenter?
Do I, as a fanauthor, want to write well? Sure! I do want to write good stories. But I didn't ask random readers to grade me on them. Not in bookmarks that I can easily check, and certainly not in my comments section. And I never will want them to. Every author I've talked to agrees. Is there someone out there who might want this? Sure. Most likely, even! The human experience and desires are broad and varied. But in my experience, if they do exist in Fandom, they're the vast minority. So please:
Don't.
Mods are just fanfic for video games. I said what I said.
I would make the best Apperture Science test subject because I have, like, a monkey brain that makes it so when I see a puzzle I physically cannot help but try and solve it. A little while ago, I was playing a game with a puzzle where you had to move a bunch of boxes around so you could reach a door on the other side of the room, and I didn't even notice the door for the longest time I just saw boxes I could move around in a confined space and went "oooo box puzzle weeeeeeeee" and started pushing things around without having any idea of what the end goal was supposed to be. Like, I wouldn't even need the incentive of "cake" I would be content with my reward being more puzzles for all eternity.
the curse of thinking of a Minecraft parody every time I hear certain songs will never go away
people have already talked about this but there is something so depressing about like....having a female character who's suffered unimaginable trauma and now her only character trait is Strong. she's so Strong and Powerful and that means she has Agency, right? right?
and like, well, no, not in and of itself??? like, you gave her trauma, DO something with it. don't just pay it lip service but then go "and now she's okay because she's so Strong and Can Fight or whatever". what even IS strength. are people who don't survive traumatic situations automatically weak by this logic? what are we doing here
This is the fucking reason for my disorder
how to explain to mutuals that while yes you can have my discord, and i wanna hang out! my response time is anywhere between 3-7 business days
I LOVE LITTLE BIG PLANET I LOVE LITTLE BIG PLANET NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I LOVE IT SO MUCH YOU DONT GET IT LIKE ITS LITERALLY. THEY. THE. LITTLE BIG PLAENET ITS LITERALLY. ITS LITTLE BIGS PLANET
Me remembering one of the most beautiful video games I've ever played and realizing I'll never be able to experience it for the first time ever again:
[They/Them, They/It, It/Its]Gamer, writer, musician, artist.Sometimes I draw, sometimes I don't.Multifandom blog and sometimes other stuff.I was the editor of Broken and Healed on Ao3I have no idea what I'm doing, ever.Basic DNI. No DMs if I don't know you IRL, but asks are fine.
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