staff:

for april fools we’re deleting this entire site sayonara you weeaboo shits

transformativeworks:

Five Things orphan_account Said

In Five Things, orphan_account discusses having one of AO3’s oldest accounts, preserving fanworks, and being mistaken for a real person. Read more on otw-news.org/yck7a29c

Finally got around to adding series blocking to this tutorial I posted on AO3 back before blocking and muting buttons existed.

How to Block a User or a Work or a Series on AO3

(blocking and muting this way can still be useful for works with anonymous authors or individual works by authors you don’t want to fully mute)

I also linked to that tag blocking skin in a note at the top of the page

laurelnose:

ao3commentoftheday:

I don’t know of a way to do it for series, unfortunately, but you can filter out a series and then save your filters?

To filter a series out of your search results, open the filter menu and scroll down to the Search Within Results box. In that box, type:

-series.title: keyword

or you could type

-series.title: “Entire Series Title in Quotation Marks”

This will remove any series that has that keyword in that title or any series with that exact title from your results.

You can use that same syntax in the Advanced Search form, in the box labelled Any Field.

To save your filters and reapply them any time, you can follow these instructions.

To save a particular search or a particular filtered tag, you can bookmark the results page with your browser. Every time you visit that bookmark, you’ll get updated results.

If anyone does know how to use a site skin to remove a series (like you can remove a work or a user), please let us know!

you just need to get the numbers on the end of the series URL and plug ‘em right in here in place of the orange pound signs. ezpz

.blurb:has(.series a[href*=“/series/#####” i]) {
display: none !important;
}

the :has selector can also be used to nuke tags. i haven’t seen a readerfic since last year when Firefox added support for it

hotairballoongal:

ao3commentoftheday:

ao3 skins faq

Just a few answers to questions I’ve seen in the notes on this poll

1. What is a site skin? A site skin is CSS code that changes the way AO3 looks. This could be anything from changing the page colour to the font to the way tags look to hiding parts of the site - and more.
2. Where do I find site skins? There are a few places. The easiest one is in the site footer (that red band at the bottom of the page). There are four skins linked there under the word Customize, and you can click on them to see what they do.
   
   Another place to find skins is https://archiveofourown.org/skins?skin_type=Site Those skins were created years ago and loaded into AO3 for easy applicaiton. Just hit the Use button and they’ll be applied to your account.
   
   Lastly, you can find skins created by other AO3 users. Some people post their code on AO3 itself, some use github or other code repositories. A lot of folks share their skins here on tumblr with images and then a link to the code itself.
3. How do I save them to my account? If you’re using the ones in the footer or the ones linked on the Public Skins page, you don’t need to save them. Those are built into AO3. If you want to create your own (or use one created by another user), that’s when you save them to your account.
   
   Tap on your name at the top of the Ao3 page. Then select Dashboard, then select Skins. Tap the button labelled Create Site Skin and give your skin a unique name. Write or paste the CSS code into the big box, then hit the Submit button to save it. If you want to use it right away, hit the Use button on the next page.
4. What’s the difference between a Work Skin and a Site Skin? A work skin changes the appearance of an individual AO3 work, and it changes it for everyone who looks at that work. This lets you turn your fic into something that looks like an email or a text chain or a newspaper, etc etc without having to use images. Work skins can also be turned off by other users, so if they just want to read the plain text of your work they still can.
   
   A site skin changes how the entire site looks - but only for you.
5. How do you have 100+ site skins?? I start a lot of skins that I abandon partway through. I also create skins for certain specific purposes - for example, changing the look of all of the buttons on the site - and then I can just grab that chunk of code and add it to any “full” site skins I create for the purposes of sharing. I have a lot of experiments that fail, but I keep the code around because maybe I’ll learn how to fix it someday.
6. Can I create my own site skin if I don’t know how to code? You can! AO3 has a site skin Wizard that will help you change the colours, fonts, and font sizes on the site.
   
   Go to your Dashboard > Skins > Create Site Skin and then tap on Use Wizard. Give your skin a unique title. Click on the ? bubbles to get examples of how to enter information into each box. If there’s anything you don’t want to change, you can just leave that box empty. When you add in colours, they must be hex colour codes, and they must include the # at the start. Any font you add need to exist on your device (so it might work on your computer but not on your phone because your phone doesn’t have that font installed).
   
   You can add parent skins to Wizard skins, too. See below!
7. I wish I could have [X functionality] in [Y aesthetic skin] You can! If you create one site skin in order to block certain works or tags, you can add that skin on top of an aesthetic skin. To do so, edit your aesthetic skin, scroll down and tap on the Advanced button (lower left of the CSS box), tap on Parent Skin, type in the name of your blocking skin and Add Parent Skin. Then save your aesthetic skin, and the two are combined!
   
   You can also do this with those skins that are native to AO3. So for example, you want a Reversi (dark mode) skin that Shortens Long Tags and also hides the “you have muted some users” banner. Create a site skin with the muted users code:

p.muted.notice {
display: none;
}

And add Reversi and Shortening Long Tag Fields to it as parents.

(you can also copy/paste all of the code into a single site skin, if you’d prefer)

For more FAQs, you can check out the Skins & Archive Interface section on AO3’s FAQ page. Or you can drop questions in the notes, too.

Block certain works *or tags*? I know how to block user or works (sadly not series) on site skins, but I didn’t know you could block tags with site skins. I generally have to use third party browser extensions to block tags I absolutely never want to see. I’d love to be able to do it in my blocking base skin. What is the code for that?

You can find full instructions on AO3 here thanks to user Eli0t

Editing to add instructions for blocking a user or work, available on AO3 here

And here’s a tumblr post explaining how to block a series

Just a few answers to questions I’ve seen in the notes on this poll

1. What is a site skin? A site skin is CSS code that changes the way AO3 looks. This could be anything from changing the page colour to the font to the way tags look to hiding parts of the site - and more.
2. Where do I find site skins? There are a few places. The easiest one is in the site footer (that red band at the bottom of the page). There are four skins linked there under the word Customize, and you can click on them to see what they do.
   
   Another place to find skins is https://archiveofourown.org/skins?skin_type=Site Those skins were created years ago and loaded into AO3 for easy applicaiton. Just hit the Use button and they’ll be applied to your account.
   
   Lastly, you can find skins created by other AO3 users. Some people post their code on AO3 itself, some use github or other code repositories. A lot of folks share their skins here on tumblr with images and then a link to the code itself.
3. How do I save them to my account? If you’re using the ones in the footer or the ones linked on the Public Skins page, you don’t need to save them. Those are built into AO3. If you want to create your own (or use one created by another user), that’s when you save them to your account.
   
   Tap on your name at the top of the Ao3 page. Then select Dashboard, then select Skins. Tap the button labelled Create Site Skin and give your skin a unique name. Write or paste the CSS code into the big box, then hit the Submit button to save it. If you want to use it right away, hit the Use button on the next page.
4. What’s the difference between a Work Skin and a Site Skin? A work skin changes the appearance of an individual AO3 work, and it changes it for everyone who looks at that work. This lets you turn your fic into something that looks like an email or a text chain or a newspaper, etc etc without having to use images. Work skins can also be turned off by other users, so if they just want to read the plain text of your work they still can.
   
   A site skin changes how the entire site looks - but only for you.
5. How do you have 100+ site skins?? I start a lot of skins that I abandon partway through. I also create skins for certain specific purposes - for example, changing the look of all of the buttons on the site - and then I can just grab that chunk of code and add it to any “full” site skins I create for the purposes of sharing. I have a lot of experiments that fail, but I keep the code around because maybe I’ll learn how to fix it someday.
6. Can I create my own site skin if I don’t know how to code? You can! AO3 has a site skin Wizard that will help you change the colours, fonts, and font sizes on the site.
   
   Go to your Dashboard > Skins > Create Site Skin and then tap on Use Wizard. Give your skin a unique title. Click on the ? bubbles to get examples of how to enter information into each box. If there’s anything you don’t want to change, you can just leave that box empty. When you add in colours, they must be hex colour codes, and they must include the # at the start. Any font you add need to exist on your device (so it might work on your computer but not on your phone because your phone doesn’t have that font installed).
   
   You can add parent skins to Wizard skins, too. See below!
7. I wish I could have [X functionality] in [Y aesthetic skin] You can! If you create one site skin in order to block certain works or tags, you can add that skin on top of an aesthetic skin. To do so, edit your aesthetic skin, scroll down and tap on the Advanced button (lower left of the CSS box), tap on Parent Skin, type in the name of your blocking skin and Add Parent Skin. Then save your aesthetic skin, and the two are combined!
   
   You can also do this with those skins that are native to AO3. So for example, you want a Reversi (dark mode) skin that Shortens Long Tags and also hides the “you have muted some users” banner. Create a site skin with the muted users code:

p.muted.notice {
display: none;
}

And add Reversi and Shortening Long Tag Fields to it as parents.

(you can also copy/paste all of the code into a single site skin, if you’d prefer)

For more FAQs, you can check out the Skins & Archive Interface section on AO3’s FAQ page. Or you can drop questions in the notes, too.

I’m just curious about how many you have loaded up. Doesn’t matter if you made them yourself or got them from someone else. Doesn’t matter if they’re half-complete or kind of broken. Doesn’t matter if you actually use them. I’m just wondering how many site skins people tend to keep around at any given time.

mistbornhero:

msilverstar:

ao3commentoftheday:

for the second time in less than 3 months, a podficcer has thanked me for having a permission statement on my ao3 profile

my statement says that I welcome podfics and other transformations of my work, and it also says what I don’t give permission for

these kinds of statements are helpful to your fellow fans who might be inspired by your work but uncertain how to talk to you about it. by giving (or denying) them permission up front, you save them that bit of anxiety and/or logistical stress

if you’ve never made a permission statement before, you can read this Fanlore page about them or check out @fanworkspermissionstatement for a handy template

Podcasts are so great! I’m glad to have warmed up to them, even though very late. I hope everyone does put a statement of permission on their profile, as I know podficcers who are too shy to ask if there isn’t one. Also gives a chance to say No to AI.

If you don’t want to give a blanket yes/no, podficcers also love when your statement says something like “please contact me [on this platform/on fic comments] for permission” because then we know where to go and what to expect. I’ve also seen some such statements give a caveat of “If I’ve been inactive for 5 years in all those platforms, you may take this as a blanket yes”

ALT

I’m separating this question out from the thread because that post is long, and I don’t want this to get lost.

Can anyone out there who creates tumblr ao3feed blogs help @kabrumithrun out?

chornayadrakoshig:

ao3commentoftheday:

ao3commentoftheday:

what is an RSS feed and why does AO3 have them?

ALT

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and the word syndication here is referring to broadcasting or transferring or otherwise sharing information. I first encountered it as a way to aggregate all of the news sites and blogs I wanted to read that were scattered all over the internet.

You might already be familiar with tumblr blogs that start with ao3feed - these are automated blogs that create a new post every time a work is posted in the feed(s) that they track. You can follow those tumblr blogs and learn about new works that way. They’ve subscribed to the RSS feed so that you don’t have to.

If you wish that you could get push notifications from AO3 on your phone instead? The RSS feed will allow you to do that. You just need to get an account with an RSS reader first. Here are a few that are free:

• Feedly 
• NewsBlur 
• Inoreader 

They each have slightly different features, so depending on the search and filter options you want or how you like your information displayed, you might like one better than the others. All three work on the web, on iOS, and on Android.

Once you have a feed reader, tap on the RSS Feed button at the top of the tag results page that you want to get notifications for and open up the XML file. If it downloads instead, try opening in a new tab or just copying the link address. You’ll want to grab a url that looks like this: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/9835/feed.atom (this is the url for Kirk/Spock, if you’re curious)

That feed.atom ending on the url is what you’re looking for. When you open your RSS reader and create a new feed, you can use that url to set it up.

Once it’s set up, you’ll be able to see everything currently available in that tab, listed out in your reader. Just like the ao3feed tumblr blogs, the reader will show you the title, author, summary and tags for each fic, and then it will provide you with a link to read the work on AO3.

It will also notify you every time a new work is posted to that tag. You can adjust your notifications to suit you.

Not every tag on AO3 has an RSS feed, but it’s worth checking out if you’ve never tried it before.

Editing to add: the AO3 FAQ also talks about these feeds

If you want push notifications any time a particular tag gets a new or updated work, check out RSS feeds!

I want to add that only canonical fandom, character and relationship tags have RSS feeds. Freeform tags and non-canonical tags from other categories don’t have the feed!

Another detail is that feed is unfilterable. However if you’re using the RSS feed in some automations you might prevent some notifications based on data of the work.

Also, not sure if it displays archive-locked works, I assume it doesn’t?

correct on all counts! and no, an rss feed won’t be able to see fics that require a login to access

reminder to everyone: don’t give your ao3 password to ANY 3rd party, whether that is an app, a different website, or another person.