moonvoice | Network

I only went a tiny bit Karen when I called Dr. Funnyname again today to send all the stuff that the Sculptor asked for. They have indeed done so, and I've confirmed receipt.

But then the Sculptor's office asked for a "clearance" letter that says I'm "medically optimized" for surgery as planned. I, uh, thought that was part of what he sent, but I guess not. I called again, and Dr. Funnyname's office says they'll send it. I guess I'll find out in a matter of hours.

So I'm not completely out of the woods, but the trees are thinning out. If somebody's trying to make me feel better about what's likely to be a hellacious recovery, it's working.

Jeez.

Current Mood: meshugah
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: Dr. Funnyname's funky hold music

rachelmanija

As you may have guessed, I completely failed to live up to my goal of reviewing everything I read, even in brief. Rather than attempting to catch up to my backlog, I am re-starting from where I am.

Yesterday I did a quick book cull by pulling books off my shelves that have been sitting there for ages, reading the first couple chapters, and deciding if I was likely to continue. I focused on books I'd started before and not gotten very far into. Here are the books that landed in the "move to Paper & Clay's used section" bag.

Trouble and Her Friends, by Melissa Scott

See the new cover? If you've been wanting to read this, it's now available as an ebook!

This is a classic lesbian cyberpunk novel that I have tried to read at least three times, and never managed to get very far into. I kept putting it back on the shelf because it's a classic and probably objectively good, but I'm just not that into cyberpunk. If a lot of the action is taking place online, I tend to lose interest. Also, some books just don't grab me, due to a mismatch between me and the book, rather than being objectively or even subjectively bad. This is clearly one of them. Someone else can be thrilled to find it at Paper & Clay, take it home, and enjoy it.

The Splinter in the Sky, by Kemi Ashling-Garcia

A tea specialist becomes a spy in a far-future colonized world! Unfortunately, this starts with a prologue which reads much like the infamous "trade war" crawl at the top of The Phantom Menace. Yes, I know that turned out to be prescient, but the problem was that it was written in a stultifying manner. The next couple chapters were much more lively, but also had a tendency to clunky exposition - some of which was pretty cool, to be fair. This was the second time I attempted this book, and had essentially the same reaction I did to Trouble and Her Friends - not bad, but not for me.

Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher

This has been described to me as "Pokemon in alternate ancient Rome," which sounds amazing. For at least the third time, it failed to grab me. I got about four chapters in and there's still no Pokemon. Someone else will like it more than me.

The Hum and the Shiver, by Alex Bledsoe

A race of people called the Tufa have lived amongst normal humans in Appalachia since the beginning of time. They can see ghosts, have music-based magic, etc. This opens with a Tufa woman very very clearly based on Jessica Lynch, who was a real-life American soldier who was wounded and captured in the US/Iraq war, returning from Iraq. I found this in poor taste. The general style also got on my nerves.

While doing this, I got sufficiently grabbed by the openings to keep reading and finish Maureen McHugh's Nekropolis, which hopefully I will actually review. I also returned Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies and Tanya Huff's Sing the Four Quarters to the shelf.

julian

On Sunday, we had Ny's Online Thing. (Wake. Memorial.)

It was very good; full of singing and poetry and science facts and art and memories and sadnesses. and made me sort of/almost cry at various time periods, but because I was the Official Zoom Host I felt like I couldn't, like, take breaks, which is of course Never True. Once it finished, I ended up with a dyspeptic-and-congestion-related headache that took a bit to clear out, but it did eventually.

There were a thousand small details that I didn't quite think of, which makes sense because generally I'm not the one hosting large Zooms, or, for that matter, organizing memorials. And also, the sad.

The general inchoate "we" of the Discord have been hashing out ethical stuff about posting and/or linking to the video of the memorial. Because, it was a semi-public event, but also private, and the simultaneous chat in particular had a lot of linking up wallet names and online handles that is perfectly fine in a semi-private space, but less so in the wider world. And yet, one of the things I appreciated about Ny was that she created a life where she could, to the extent possible, be as much herself as she could, out loud, and I don't want her life's celebration muffled.

But, we didn't quite make it clear that it might be posted later, or ask people if they were OK with it being posted (see above re: small details), and in the general sense, we're fans of opt-in rather than opt-out. So we've come to a (current) compromise. I am quite positive there will be further movement later. (For all I know, someone'll make it a Project to ask everyone who was there if they're OK with it being public, or if they'd like their identities ambiguated. I'm sure not doing it, though, because I have overdue client notes to write.) But anyway, for now, we're not sending out the chat, but will send out the video. So!

If you're interested, either

a) email vicka about it, and she can send you the video. (vicka's the one with the Ny Page, which was where I originally found out about the dying-of-COVID part. Her email is findable on the wider andor pages.)

or b) PM me/comment here/email me/send me a carrier pigeon, and I can send you a link to the video, which is on Mega, which is how I got it to vicka because I decided I wasn't up to figuring out SCP. I'm not including the chat there because of the aforementioned linkages.

Or c)

gingicat is, soon, going to post the link to the announce-list, if you're on that.

letzan

High-level stats for week of 2026-03-31 - 2026-04-06

Total works categorized F/F on AO3: 11680 (+648 from last week)

Works I classified F/F: 6275 (+429 from last week) (2817 new, 3458 continued)

0.62% of all 1012712 AO3 works I've classified F/F were updated this week

A few callouts this week:

Life Is Strange, Devil Wears Prada, and Owl House return this week. They replace Coronation Street, Boku no Hero Academia, and Wicked, which falls off the chart after a 70-week run.
I've been surprised by the three recent chart appearances of The Devil Wears Prada, which has had 88 lifetime chart appearances, but hadn't been seen since 2020. It looks like there's a sequel coming out soon, so I'm guessing the recent fic bounce is anticipatory sequel energy, but if anyone knows more, please share!
League of Legends celebrates 230 consecutive weeks on the chart, and Harry Potter reaches 380.
The Paternoster Spring Exchange 2026 revealed with 14 F/F works, all Jenny/Vastra.

( Full top-20 table and description of methodology after the jump )

siliconshaman

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: accomplished

torachan

Today was our last real day in Japan, with tomorrow being just a travel day. Our flight is at 5:30pm, but we don’t really want to do anything before then, so we’re just going to use the morning to pack before checking out and then take the bus to the airport and do a little more shopping there.

Today we had no plans so we ended up going to the Ueno zoo, which was very nice. A little sunnier than I’d hoped, but once we were in the zoo it was pretty shady for most of the time. We also finally made it to a Pokémon Center thanks to

starlady’s suggestion of trying the Skytree one. Skytree’s mall was busy, but a normal level of busy, so we were actually able to get in the shop and buy some stuff.

Then we came back to Ikspiari for dinner before going back to the hotel and had super delicious tonkatsu and got dessert from Ichibiko again. We spent a lot of the day on trains, buses, and subways, but it was a fun day overall.

sistawendy

Remember how my Wi-Fi was out yesterday? Well, I took the bus to the big box store and came back with a brand spanking new Wi-Fi router. I didn't get one that talks on the 6 GHz band because my poor old iPhone 12 can't do that, but it does support a new enough Wi-Fi standard that it can access channels that the old one couldn't.

After discovering that I couldn't unplug the old router because it's also the fiber termination device, and then playing "if you give a mouse a cookie" with power cables and outlets, I got the new router set up. It works a treat, and my phone is connected to it now.

But not the very laptop that I'm typing on right now. That device is talking to the old router, which no device could do yesterday. What the actual?

And I've also learned that you really shouldn't put Wi-Fi routers within a foot of each other. The new one is now on a shelf about a meter above the floor, dangling black cables oh so attractively. But! My Wi-Fi issues are solved as far as my own devices are concerned. My son is still at work, and I've made sure that he won't have to ask me for the password for the new network when he gets home at 2300.

I'm wondering if I should shut down the Wi-Fi on the old router and just use the new one. That might let me take the new router off the shelf.

Meanwhile, the Sculptor's office emailed to tell me that they still haven't heard from Dr. Funnyname's office. I Am Not Pleased. I can feel the Karen rising within me.

Speaking of things that need to happen before surgery, the Sculptor has directed me to discontinue garlic. I had maybe a third of a head left in the fridge, so I fried it up and ate it for a snack earlier today. You should probably be grateful that you don't have to be in the same room with me right now.

Oh, and the low-carb, low-sodium diet starts tomorrow. I monkeyed with my beans & rice yesterday to comply, and it isn't terrible.

Edited to add: the Wendling's phone also connected to the old router. Bananas.

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House

lassarina

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

jesse_the_k

I attended minoanmiss’s online memorial yesterday afternoon. It was strengthening to share our sorrow. Witnessing the depth of our online connections bolstered my resilience. The children she co-raised loved her and knew her. I’ll link to the recording when it’s public.

One mourner has worked in public health for 40 years, and made it very clear that

minoanmiss had asymptomatic COVID which caused her death
that wasn’t documented in the hospital record and there’s almost zero chance to change that
many people are still dying due to COVID, which is systematically not being reported
continuing to mask is a fundamental contribution we can make to the health of our communities

There were lovely stories and slides and recipes — a poem and a song in the cut.

( Every Land and Acts of Creation )

rachelmanija

Natalie is a wildly successful trad wife influencer. She and her husband Caleb have a farm and six adorable children, and Natalie has parlayed carefully edited clips of her perfect life into a lucrative career. (She leaves out the two nannies, 30 farm hands, and the fact that Sassafras the cow is actually four sequential cows, replaced every time one dies, like goldfish.)

Then Natalie suffers a mysterious fall from grace. And then she finds herself in what appears to be an alternate version of her own life in the 1800s, with a husband very similar but not quite identical to her original husband, and children who claim to be her own. Has she time traveled? Is she delusional? Has she gotten kidnapped into a non-consensual reality show?

This is an extremely interesting novel that makes a good companion to Saratoga Schrader's Trad Wife. The beginning of the book is extremely similar, though Natalie is much more successful than Camille. Burke's version of a trad wife influencer deluding herself and lying to her followers about her supposedly perfect life is much better-written than Schrader's. But that's a double-edged sword, because it makes Natalie much more unlikable. She's an incredibly hatable character and the book is from her POV, and that makes a lot of the book not really enjoyable to read.

But the book turns out to be much more ambitious and clever than it seems at the beginning. When I finished it, I was glad I'd read it and appreciated it a lot. That being said, I enjoyed Trad Wife more on an emotional level.

I highly recommend not clicking on the cut unless you're 100% positive you'll never read the book. I really enjoyed the non-spoiled experience.

( Read more... )

Content notes: Domestic violence, rape (on-page, graphic), child abuse and neglect, farm animal neglect/poor caretaking (just mentioned), gaslighting, non-consensual drugging, current American right-wing stuff.

While attempting to buy Saratoga Schaefer's Trad Wife, I accidentally bought a different novel called Trad Wife by Michelle Brandon. And Sarah Langan is coming out with yet another book called Trad Wife in September. I am now on a mission to read all four trad wife books, to compare and contrast.

slashmarks posting in

pinchhits

goreswap is a multifandom exchange for fic and art, featuring gore. Assignments must be at least 500 words or a sketch on unlined paper, and contain significant gore content.

Rules | AO3 Collection

Current Pinch Hit Post

For details or to claim, see the pinch hit post above. These assignments are due April 22 at 11:59 PM EDT.

Pinch Hit #3: Art, Fic - 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), 镇魂 | Guardian - priest

Pinch Hit #5: Fic - Night Prince - Jeaniene Frost, グノーシア | Gnosia (Visual Novel), Dracula Rising (Cartoon)

~~Pinch Hit #9: Fic - Anne Rice's Talamasca: The Secret Order (TV 2025), Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022), Loki (TV 2021), The Night Manager (TV 2016), D.Gray-man (Anime & Manga), Merlin (TV)~~

Pinch Hit #13: Art, Fic - Stranger Things (TV 2016), 지금 우리 학교는 | All of Us Are Dead (TV), The Walking Dead (TV)

~~Pinch Hit #14: Fic - Bleach (Anime & Manga), Frankenstein - Mary Shelley, 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime & Manga), Original Work~~

~~Pinch Hit #15: Art, Fic - 光が死んだ夏 | Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu | The Summer Hikaru Died (Anime), Death Note (Anime & Manga), Iron Lung (2026), MiSide (Video Game), Outlast (Video Games)~~

Pinch Hit #16: Art, Fic - NoPixel (Web Series), Runescape (Video Games), Iron Lung (2026), Video Blogging RPF, MiSide (Video Game), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs

Pinch Hit #17: Fic - Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)

Pinch Hit #18: Fic - 炎の蜃気楼[ミラージュ] | Honoo no Mirage | Mirage of Blaze, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Dexter (TV), Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (TV)

ao3_news_feed

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/34681

Our February releases included new admin tools for our Support and Policy & Abuse teams, as well as a bunch of challenge and collection fixes and a host of small updates and improvements. We also upgraded to Rails 8 and Elasticsearch 9!

Many thanks to first-time contributor Shel!

Credits

Coders: Bilka, Brian Austin, Danaël/Rever, FlyingFalcon, Hunter Ada Smith, james_, Jennifer He (DisappearEagle 无鸢), marcus8448, Richard Hajek, Scott, slavalamp, varram
Code reviewers: Bilka, Brian Austin, james_, sarken
Testers: ana, Bilka, choux, hvalrann, Lute, mumble, ömer faruk, pk2317, therealmorticia, Yuca

Details

0.9.457

On February 2, we deployed a major Rails update.

[AO3-7231] - Updated the framework the Archive runs on to Rails 8.0.

0.9.458

On February 9, we introduced a way for our Support team to add information to the support form without disabling the form, and deployed a bunch of miscellaneous fixes and improvements.

[AO3-6983] - It was already possible for our Support team to temporarily close the support form and replace it with a message to users, e.g. about a known site-wide issue the development team was already working to solve. Additionally, they can now add a temporary message to the form without disabling the form entirely.
[AO3-3245] - Trying to open the posting form to add a work to a closed collection (only possible by manually typing in the appropriate URL) would lead to an error message that looked like the form had already been submitted. The URL now redirects to the collection with a more helpful error message.
[AO3-7246] - We added a "Parent" link to comments, so you can quickly jump to the specific comment that is being replied to.
[AO3-7260] - Passwords must now be between 8 and 72 characters long. (The previous minimum was 6 characters.)
[AO3-7274] - Comment previews for Policy & Abuse admins were previously truncated after the first 100 characters, and admins had to click on the preview to access the full comment. Now the preview includes the first 1,000 characters, which is much more useful.
[AO3-7279] - When a collection is set to "revealed" or "non-anonymous", the collection is placed in a queue that runs when resources are available to change the status of potentially thousands of works. This means the moderator often has enough time to quickly change the setting back if a checkbox was ticked in error. We now make sure the process really only runs if the revealed or non-anonymous option is still wanted when the servers are ready to work through the queue.
[AO3-7240] - In our ongoing internationalization efforts, we prepared the text in the help pop-ups for Rating, Warning, and Fandom tags for translation.
[AO3-7047], [AO3-7281], [AO3-7287], [AO3-7288] - Code clean-up, database performance improvements, and system updates.

0.9.459

Our February 17 deploy included various small fixes and updates.

[AO3-4031] - Draft works include a message at the top, warning the creator that unposted drafts will be automatically deleted after a certain time. If you had a draft with multiple chapters, this message would not be displayed! Now it appears everywhere it should.
[AO3-5367] - If someone bookmarked a mystery work, i.e. a work in an unrevealed collection, the bookmark would show up in bookmark searches that matched elements of the mystery work. Since we don't want information about a mystery work to be guessable in this manner, we now make sure searching bookmarks doesn't give away information about unrevealed works.
[AO3-5870] - A blockquote in a comment would awkwardly overlap with the commenter's user icon, so we've taken steps to make sure it stays within its own boundaries.
[AO3-5963] - You can't request an invite with an email address that is already used by an existing account. If an existing account updates their email address to one that's waiting in the request queue, we now make sure that request is deleted.
[AO3-7206] - Downloads of a work in progress with only one chapter posted were missing that chapter's title, summary, and notes, displaying only the information entered for the work as a whole. Now all data is present and accounted for!
[AO3-7254] - We've added a limit to how many times a specific comment can be reported to the Policy & Abuse team for review.
[AO3-7263] - Under certain circumstances, an admin would get a 500 error trying to access a user's preferences page. Now they can access it even under those circumstances.
[AO3-7289] - When a user tried to create a skin with faulty CSS, the parser would just throw an error 500 instead of telling the user which part was stressing it out. It now helpfully points to the problem in the CSS code.
[AO3-7210] - The help pop-up that provides information about creating skins is now prepared for translation.
[AO3-6853], [AO3-7048] - Code clean-up and database performance improvements.

0.9.460

A bunch of gem updates went out on February 21.

[AO3-7036] - When reviewing comments held in moderation, to either approve or reject, there was no "Thread" link to get the URL for a specific comment, e.g. to report it to the Policy & Abuse team. Now there is!
[AO3-7278] - AO3 admins from the Open Doors team can now track invitations in the admin area.
[AO3-7236] - Prepared the text in a couple of skins-related help pop-ups for translation.
[AO3-7265], [AO3-7297], [AO3-7298], [AO3-7299], [AO3-7300] - Code clean-up and database performance improvements.

0.9.461

On February 28, we upgraded to Elasticsearch 9.

[AO3-7282] - Upgraded the search engine that powers, among other things, work searches and filtering from version 8 to 9.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/34681

ao3_news_feed

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/34676

Banner of a paper airplane emerging from an envelope with the words 'OTW Newsletter: Organization for Transformative Works'

I. AO3 IS EXITING OPEN BETA

In early April, we announced that AO3 is exiting open beta!

AO3 has grown and changed a lot since open beta launched in 2009! We've gone from 347 users to over 10 million and from 6,598 works to over 17 million. We've also introduced many features in that time, including the tag system and tag wrangling, additional privacy settings that allow creators to restrict their works or comments to logged-in users, downloads for offline access to fanworks, and more.

Since AO3's software has been stable for a long time, this change is mostly cosmetic and doesn't indicate everything is finalized or perfectly working. Our volunteer coders and community contributors will still be adding to and improving post-beta AO3 every day.

For more information on AO3 exiting open beta, check out the announcement for details.

II. ELSEWHERE AT AO3

In March, we celebrated AO3 reaching 17 million works! \o/

Beyond exiting beta, Accessibility, Design & Technology also performed two important upgrades in March: updating Elasticsearch to version 9 and Ruby on Rails to version 8.1. With these two upgrades, AO3 is on the latest version for two of its most important pieces of software. They also published January’s release notes.

Systems published a postmortem on early March's AO3 downtime.

Open Doors announced the import of SlasHeaven, a Spanish-language slash fanfiction and fanart archive, as part of their Online Archive Rescue Project.

In February, Policy & Abuse (PAC) received 5,674 tickets, which is over 2,000 fewer tickets than the previous month and marks the first decrease in PAC's backlog since 2024. PAC also coordinated with Communications on a news post describing various spambots seen on AO3 and how we're combating them. Also in February, Support received 3,031 tickets, and User Response Translation completed 42 requests from PAC and Support.

Tag Wrangling announced 31 new "No Fandom" canonical tags in their March round-up. On the @ao3org Tumblr, they announced changes to Critical Role fandom tags, creating an overarching fandom metatag for the Exandrian Universe and having specific campaigns or other media split into subtags. They hope these changes will help users better tag and filter for the works they want to see.

In February, Tag Wrangling wrangled over 543,000 tags or approximately 1,200 tags per wrangling volunteer.

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Communications has updated the OTW News by Email service! You can now subscribe specifically to recruitment posts. If you're already subscribed to OTW News by Email and would like to change what emails you receive, please contact Communications via their contact form.

In March, Fanlore ran a monthly editing challenge inviting users to archive external links on a page.

Legal answered a number of questions about pending and newly enacted laws around the world, as well as dealing with internal requests from OTW committees.

TWC released No. 47 of Transformative Works and Cultures, a special issue on Gaming Fandom edited by coeditors Hayley McCullough and Ashley P. Jones.

IV. GOVERNANCE

Board and Board Assistants Team continued work on ongoing and newer projects, including making progress on the OTW website project with Communications, supporting Accessibility, Design & Technology with their documentation, and supporting Finance with streamlining messaging policies. They also began preparing for the next public Board meeting scheduled for April 18.

In March, Development & Membership caught up on their recurring donation gifts and put in more regular procedures for them going forward. In conjunction with Communications and Translation, they're now preparing for April's Membership Drive by getting graphics and new gifts ready.

V. OUR VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for three committees this month: Communications (News Post Moderation), Translation, and User Response Translation.

From February 21 to March 22, Volunteers & Recruiting received 160 new requests and completed 159, leaving them with 66 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below). As of March 22, 2026, the OTW has 992 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Chairs/Leads: Becca Bun and Jules Moon (Fanlore), Rebecca Tushnet and Stacey Lantagne (Legal)
New Communications Volunteers: LinnK, Jahnavi, and 3 other Social Media Moderators
New Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Policy & Admin and 1 Social Media & Outreach
New Open Doors Volunteers: Andrea T and 4 other Import Assistants; Kathy and 1 other Technical Volunteer; adyn, Seren, Claire M, and 2 other Administrative Volunteers; and 1 Liaison
New Organizational Culture Roadmap Workgroup Volunteers: 1 Volunteer
New TWC Volunteers: 1 Symposium Editor
New Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: miffmiff, PippaLane, and 2 other volunteers

Departing Committee Chairs/Leads: 1 Open Doors Chair, 2 Fanlore Chairs, and 1 Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution Lead
Departing AD&T Volunteers: 1 Senior Volunteer and 1 Liaison
Departing Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Social Media & Outreach
Departing Finance Volunteers: 1 Bookkeeper
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: 1 Technical Volunteer
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Volunteer
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: 4 Tag Wranglers and Soppon (Tag Wrangling Supervisor)
Departing Translation Volunteers: Ito, Polyxeni Foutsitsi, and 3 other Translators; 1 Chair Trainee; and 1 Volunteer Manager
Departing User Response Translation Volunteers: 1 Translator
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: 2 Volunteers

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages on our website.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/34676

ao3_news_feed

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/34631

Spotlight on Policy and Abuse

NOTE: This is a living document and will be updated in response to changes and new types of spam as observed by OTW volunteers.

LAST UPDATED: March 30, 2026

As AO3 continues to grow, there has been an increase in the amount and variety of spambots that attempt to harass or scam users. Spambots may try to imitate other users and even AO3/OTW volunteers to appear more realistic. This post shares a brief update on how we're working to combat this issue, what types of spam we've seen, and what you can do if you encounter spam comments on AO3.

What We're Doing

Protecting our users from scammers and bots targeting AO3 is important to us, and we are actively working to combat spam on the site in a variety of ways—both visible and not. We will not share a detailed list of every change we've made (so as to not provide spammers with information about how to circumvent these measures), but some examples include introducing comment rate limits for logged-in users, changing the default comment setting on new works to "Registered users only", spam checking comments and comment edits from new users, and making a variety of improvements to the admin tools used by our Policy & Abuse volunteers to handle reports and remove spam comments.

We continue to consider and undertake additional technical changes to help prevent and improve our response to spambots. However, it is important to us that any anti-spam measures we implement do not substantially harm users who are browsing or attempting to comment normally. Many more aggressive anti-spam measures would make AO3 less accessible, particularly for users using assistive devices such as screen readers.

In addition to taking technical steps to help address the issues, we continue to post updates about spambots and other important changes to AO3 on our Tumblr, Bluesky, and Twitter/X. We encourage you to follow us on these platforms to stay informed about what's going on.

Types of Spam Comments

Below is a list of different types of spam comments that have been posted on AO3 over the last year. We intend to maintain this list and add new types of spam to it as they are identified; however, this list may not include every type of spam comment that could possibly be received. We encourage you to remain vigilant and follow internet safety best practices.

If you're not sure if something is a spam comment, you're welcome to contact Policy & Abuse for assistance. Before doing so, we encourage you to click through the links below to learn more about each type of comment and use your best judgement to determine if a comment appears to be genuine or could be a scam.

Art Commission Spam: These comments come from both guests and registered accounts who pretend to be artists who want to make comics or illustrations for your fanfic. They may ask questions or praise your work to try and get you to reply to them, before convincing you to contact them off AO3 (often via Discord). They will try to scam you into paying for their art, which is either AI-generated or does not exist at all. (First reported August 2024, news post published December 2024)
Deprecated Fandoms Spam: These guest comments claim that AO3 will be "deleting works to conserve server space". There is no such thing as a deprecated fandom and there is no limit on the number of fanworks that can be posted to a specific tag. (First reported May 2025, Tumblr announcement May 2025)
AI Use Accusation Spam: These guest comments will accuse you of using AI in your work. They may mention a particular AI generator or AI detection service, or claim that they "saw you remove the AI prompts from your work". (First reported April 2023, Tumblr announcement November 2025)
Harassing Spam: These guest comments will accuse you or another user of promoting discriminatory beliefs, deceiving fans, or similar behaviors. They often suggest that you "consider adding more diverse characters" to "repair the trust you've lost with your audience". (First reported October 2025, Tumblr announcement November 2025)
Praise and Unsolicited Suggestions Spam: These guest comments will compliment your writing but then offer ridiculous suggestions for how to make your work better. Similar to the harassing spam, they may ask you to add a minority character to your work or threaten to publicly expose you if you don't do what they want. (First reported October 2025)
Special Character/Keysmash Spam: These comments are usually long and consist entirely of emojis or nonsense, keysmash-style sequences of characters from a variety of non-Latin scripts or languages (e.g., Chinese, Cyrillic, Thai, etc). (First reported November 2025)
Reporting To Authorities Spam: These guest comments threaten to report you or your work to the authorities or your employers. They also may allege security concerns like your email being compromised or spyware on your computer. (First reported December 2025, Tumblr announcement December 2025)
Disparaging Spam: These guest comments insult you or your writing, claiming that you "wasted your talents" or "have no life". They may also threaten suicide or tell you to delete your work. (First reported December 2025)
PowerShell Spam: These comments present you with a piece of code to enter into your computer's terminal/command line. While they claim that the purpose of the code is for your protection or security, the code in these comments would actually delete all documents from your hard drive. (First reported January 2026)
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Closing

In general, please follow internet safety best practices and be cautious of unsolicited advertisements or harassing comments on your work. For some advice on other ways you can protect your AO3 account, take a look at this internet security guidance from our Policy & Abuse volunteers.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/34631

pedanther

. It's been a social whirlwind by my usual standards. On the long weekend, all the family members who live in the vicinity had lunch together and watched The Princess Bride. Later in the week, another family member came to visit and we all got together again for a breakfast in the park, where we admired the varieties of waterfowl, which included several kinds of duck (including a striking one with a black head and a brown front that I think from subsequent research was probably a chestnut-breasted shelduck) and some large white ones with red faces that might have been some kind of goose. I also went to a concert (the kind that exists largely as an excuse for a social event, and on that basis I'm inclined to be charitable about the quality of the music), and toward the end of the week one of my friends from the board game club had a dinner party.

. As usual there was also the weekly board game club meet, where we played Betrayal at House on the Hill, Guillotine, Forbidden Desert, and Uno: All Wild. In Betrayal, we successfully fought a giant snake. In Forbidden Desert, we wound up being buried by sand a couple of turns before we would have made good our escape. It was the first time I've played Uno: All Wild, which despite the name is significantly duller than the usual version of the game.

. Later in the week, I went for an early morning walk and saw a lot of birds that I wouldn't normally see about the place later in the day.

. Rehearsals of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown are continuing. At our most recent rehearsal, we got as far as fitting together the various harmony parts on one of the songs, and it sounded really nice.

. The way I've chosen to shelve my library, with all the unread books together on one bookcase, means I have a visual indicator of how large the to-read collection is. Over the past couple of years I've been focusing on reading books I've already got rather than acquiring new books (and also trying to get better at looking at a book I've been holding onto for years and deciding I'm never going to actually read it), and as of this week I've cleared an entire shelf's worth. The shelf is now being used for part of my DVD collection. We will, for the moment, overlook the fact that many of the books that were on the shelf are still in the room, in a big pile on the floor composed of books I've decided to get rid of but not yet decided how.

. Due to time zones, I had to choose between going to Parkrun or staying put to watch the Artemis II splashdown. I decided to assume that everything would go uneventfully, and went to Parkrun.

. On the weekend, there was a busy bee at our old and increasingly ramshackle community theatre to deal with a number of maintenance issues. I got to wield a hedge trimmer and took a hand at helping to re-paint a ceiling. I did not entirely get the hang of removing excess paint off the brush before lifting it above my head, and wound up with a large white deposit dripping down my temple that made it look rather as if we had giant pigeons to deal with on top of everything else.

greenstorm

This is a bad one.

I didn't expect to still be trying to do the disability paperwork from before Christmas but here we are. I have my third appointment with my doctor -- she didn't call like she said she would after the skipped the second appointment, and I just miraculously got this third appointment y calling at a miraculous time -- but I don't know what time it is, so I need to go up at opening because phones won't be reliably answered until after the first couple of appointments. Then I guess I'll stand there and ask when the appointment is, and based on that I'll ask for it to be converted to a phone appointment or I'll stay and wait.

I haven't grieved Avallu yet and I'm still working with Solly, in the house, a five minute walk 4x/day and pills 2x/day. You'd think that wouldn't be a lot but of course for me it's too much. The snow is gone outside and the cats are hunting. They leave that one organ they don't like on the floor in the house, and sometimes the head. I have not had the wherewithal to clean them up. I have just barely managed to keep things going through the dishwasher.

I've been unable to sleep for a couple days due to physical pain, which is very unusual for me. There's something wrong with the way my hips, arms, and fingers are jointed and muscled, and sometimes my skin burns from being in contact with anything. Last night I made dinner, I think sandwiches, set the plate on the stove, and them made roasted cauliflower and potatoes for dinner while being annoyed the stovetop was occupied but somehow now realizing it was occupied with dinner so I didn't need to make myself dinner.

If, after driving to PG three times in a week, first for Avallu and then Solly ($400 in case you're wondering, a little over 12 hours total on the highway, which could have got me one way to Vancouver from here) I had gone to bed and stayed there, I probably would have lost a bit but been ok in the end. Now? I don't know.

And my non-adoptable animal is no longer alive. I was always going to outlive Avallu, to make him as safe and comfortable as I could. Solly and Thea, though, would be an asset to any farm, and unlike the southern US there's a real need for guardian dogs here. The cats also, though Little Bear would be rough. The end of my life would probably be the end of the pigs' lives, no one wants an old boar and sow, but still.

I hadn't realized how much of a difference Avallu made to that calculus. He really really did.

Writing this hurts a lot, my arm muscles are screaming, and I have to be at the doctor's office in two hours. It takes me a long time to get dressed and feed the cats so I should get started. I have a lot more to say about this but it can sit under a warning tag in a future post.

torachan

1. The weather today was pretty nice. Mostly overcast (though sometimes more glarey than I would prefer) and temps in the mid-high 60s. It was very muggy, though. Definitely better weather for a Disney day than Saturday was, though.

2. Today was our second and last DisneySea day. Last year I felt like two days was not enough, but that was because everything was new to us. This year two days felt just right, and one day is good for Disneyland, so while I had left tomorrow open for possibly more Disney if we wanted it, instead we will go to the Ueno zoo. Last year we went to a museum there and it was lovely, but we haven’t been to the zoo before and in fact haven’t been to a zoo since Carla first moved out to LA, so like 28 year ago?

3. Tomorrow is our last full day and then we’re flying back Wednesday (leaving here in the evening but arriving late morning in LA due to the magic of time zones). Alex has been sharing lots of cat photos with us but while we’ve had a wonderful time here, two weeks is a long time to be away from the kitties and I’m so looking forward to cuddling them again soon.

pedanther

#13: A book with a page count within 100 pages of the previous book

Second attempt: Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. An account of the future history of mankind over the coming millennia, written in the 1930s and famous for its ambition and imaginative scope -- although not, of course, for the predictive accuracy of the opening chapters, which fail to foresee the Third Reich, the Chinese Communist Revolution, and the splitting of the atom, among other things.

( Read more... )

Third attempt: Wolf's Lair by James McGee. An ex-soldier turned smuggler is hired to join an expedition seeking the final resting place of a German U-boat that disappeared at the end of the War carrying a cargo of gold bullion and a dangerous macguffin.

( Read more... )

#14: A book with a higher average rating than the previous book

I didn't have anything particular in mind, so I decided to hit the local library and see what I came away with. What I came away with was Dead Wake, Erik Larson's account of the final voyage of the RMS Lusitania. I had only the vaguest memory of what the Lusitania died of; it turns out that this is, in part, another German U-boat story.

thawrecka

I watched the Another Story OVAs and I cannot believe they somehow made Shitenhoji grow on me just by having an episode where one of their team tells them all they're not funny and don't need to make so many jokes 🤣

Other thoughts:

The Inui-Fuji friendship is deeply underrated. I've said it before and I'll say it again! I'd love to see more of their off hours adventures in Osaka.

Aw, the young Hyotei episode! Atobe and Oshitari looked like they were having fun! I'm also amused by Oshitari getting on the wrong train. TBH, Hyotei are my favourite of the rival teams and I think part of it is because they seem like they have fun and make time for friendships. I also liked the Jirou episode about his sleep disorder and his admiration for Marui from Rikkai. It was kind of cute.

Even when trying to make a fun charming backstoy episode for Kirihara, Rikkai still seems grim and joyless, with only about two characters who ever seem to have any fun...

Kintaro has grown on me, and he and Ryoma playing across the river is entertaining. Though I think my favourite moment was actually Eiji catching the ball.

I really liked the conversation between Eiji and Oishi about going to different high schools, not just that Oishi is a little pained about it and has struggled to tell Eiji, but also that Eiji is instantly so supportive. Obviously they're soul bonded on the tennis court, but it's nice to see them having those increasingly mature conversations outside of it.

I don't think I ever noticed until now that Taka and Tezuka talk more than I previously realised?!?

I did also like Momo and Kaidoh taking on the pressure of a team that's now going to be defending champions, as opposed to before when they were just part of an underdog team... It's a very different vibe, to be sure. And Higa popping up because they don't have the money to go home 🤣

arethinn posting in

otherkin

The words Shining Hearth in a calligraphic font. Between the two words there is a hearthfire with rainbow-colored flames and a seven-pointed star.

This year's Shining Hearth wrapped up two weeks ago, so it's time for our post-event summary.

Attendance and presentations
This year 105 people attended, which is an increase of more than 20% since last year, and more than triple our first year (2021)!
We did not get any presenter sign-ups for the time slots that were primarily aimed at Oceania, but besides the full schedule for the Americas, this year we were able to to fill all six of the workshop, game, and movie sessions aimed at Europe, and they attracted attendance from the low teens up to about 30 people.
Our schedule is entirely dependent on who volunteers to present or stream, plus getting staff who are available at the right times to assist them, so hopefully we will get some more takers to round out the whole thing next year!
Presentation materials that were posted to the #resources channel will be archived on the website, so if you did not attend this year, you will still be able to access them on the resources page.

Demographics
We had 64 responses to our anonymous survey. The largest kintype category was fae, which over 50% of attendees marked themselves down as being (whether or not in addition to any other type). We continue to be a little older on average than many online otherkin spaces, with slightly more than half of attendees aged 30 or more. Most are still from North America, followed by Europe, plus a handful from Oceania and then Central and South America; but North America's supermajority is slowly decreasing.

Next year
Our event dates next year will be Friday, March 26th through Sunday, March 28th, 2027. Announcements about next year's event will begin in October and general registration will open January 1, 2027.