Archive of Our Own ^beta

Over the past several months, the Archive of Our Own has been experiencing an increase in spam comments left by registered users. To help prevent these comments, which typically ask for contact information and offer art commissions or collaboration, we'll be introducing limits on commenting and other activities for logged-in users. We expect to have these limits in place within the next few days.

As a result of these limits, you may get error messages telling you to "Retry later," especially when leaving or editing multiple comments over a short period of time. Our aim is to slow down the spammers with minimal impact on legitimate commenters, so we'll be monitoring the situation and adjusting the rate limits as needed once the code is in place. (This also means we can't tell you exactly what the limits are. However, we recommend waiting at least 15 minutes before trying again.)

Once these limits are in place, we'll also be looking into other methods that we hope will reduce spam with even less disruption to legitimate users. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as we work to find a balance that meets everyone's needs.

Update 21:45 UTC 24 March 2025: Rate limiting for logged-in comments is now in place.

With approximately 7 million registered users on AO3 and thousands of OTW members, news posts get more engagement than ever. We love when users express their thoughts or concerns regarding the news we publish! However, the comment sections on some of our previous news posts have not been a welcoming or safe space for engagement.

In recent months, we have developed a News Post Moderation policy and recruited a team of volunteers who you may see commenting on posts in the future. We would like to announce the key points of the policies our News Post Moderators will be following when monitoring the comment sections of our News Posts.

Comments on news posts may be frozen or hidden by a News Post Moderator if they contain:

• Spam or unsolicited advertising
• Content about topics outside of fans, fandom, and Internet policy, and which would not fall under the purview of the OTW
• Misinformation (particularly about the OTW) with the potential to harm or mislead others
• Explicit/graphic sexual or violent language
• Attempts to draw negative attention to a specific individual or fanwork
• Insults and personal attacks towards other users
• Inflammatory or speculative language that may result in harassment
• Violations of the site's Terms of Service

Please note that the above is not an exhaustive list of all comments that may be actioned.

In addition, any comments on AO3 News Posts that violate the Terms of Service may be reported to the Policy & Abuse committee.

OTW volunteers will respond to comments using an Official OTW committee account to clarify points of confusion or engage with user feedback. Comments from Official accounts will be clearly marked on AO3 with a bolded (Official) after the username, and on the OTW website with a signature identifying the relevant OTW committee or team. For example, comments from News Post Moderators will use the "OTW_News_Post_Moderation (Official)" account on AO3. On the OTW website, they'll be signed with their name followed by "OTW News Post Moderator".

If an OTW volunteer comments on a news post using a personal account, that volunteer is not acting in an official capacity. Such comments do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW, nor do they constitute OTW policy.

We hope that our users will welcome this policy announcement and find that it improves their experience on the AO3 and OTW websites.

UPDATE: Due to a high number of off topic comments, comment moderation has been turned on. All comments now must be approved by a moderator before becoming visible. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact the News Post Moderation team directly using our contact form on the OTW website.

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

Due to an influx of abusive spam comments on April 21, 2024, we temporarily disabled all guest comments across the site. We have now re-enabled the ability to leave guest comments, but if you comment while not logged into an account, you may encounter a verification page that checks that you are not a bot. We are also working on other ways to help reduce spam, including a small change to the default comment settings on the work posting form that will be rolled out soon.

What to do about spam you've received

If you've received a small number of spam comments, you can mark the comments as spam, using the "Spam" button at the bottom right of the comment. This helps to train our spam blocker to recognize the comments as spam.

If you've received hundreds of spam comments at a time -- so many you can't remove them all by yourself -- you can contact our Policy & Abuse team so that they can help with removing them in bulk. Please include your username and/or links to any affected works.

For more information on spam comments, please refer to "What is a spam comment? What can I do about spam?" in our FAQ.

How to prevent spam on your works

The vast majority of spam comments are left by guests, so you can help prevent spam by disabling guest comments on your already-posted works.

• To do this for an individual work, go to the Edit Work page. In the Privacy section, select the option "Only registered users can comment". Then select the "Post Without Preview" button, or select the "Preview" button and then the "Update" button to save your changes.

• You can also quickly edit the comment settings on multiple works at once rather than having to edit each one individually.

  On your Works page, select the button labeled "Edit Works" found towards the top right of the page on desktop (or below the # of Works heading on mobile). This will take you to the Edit Multiple Works page. All of your works are listed here, grouped according to fandom. Check the box next to each work that you wish to edit. If you intend to edit all your posted works, you can select the "All" button, which is located below the "Edit Works" button. If you'd like to clear your selections, select the "None" button in the same location. Once you have made your selections, select the "Edit" button towards the top or bottom of the page.

  In the Privacy section, select the option "Only registered users can comment". Then select "Update All Works" to apply the change to all of your selected works at once.

  For more information on editing multiple works, please refer to "How do I edit or delete multiple works at the same time?" in our FAQ.

Upcoming changes to fight spam

In the coming days, we will be rolling out a change to the work posting form, which will affect who can comment on new works by default. You can easily change this setting before or after posting.

We currently offer various privacy settings for your works, including options to enable comment moderation or restrict your work to logged-in users. You can also choose who can comment on your work:

• Registered users and guests can comment
• Only registered users can comment
• No one can comment

Right now, "Registered users and guests can comment" is selected by default.

Once we have deployed this code change, "Only registered users can comment" will be the default selection. If you don't change anything in the privacy settings, guests (including spammers and bots) won't be able to leave a comment on your work. You can select a different option before or after posting if you wish to allow comments from both guests and registered users, or if you don't want to allow any comments at all.

The comment settings on existing works and drafts will not be affected by this change.

We're hoping this change will be one way of helping to combat spam comments and anonymous harassment, and we will continue to work on features that let you tailor the Archive to your needs.

In our ongoing efforts to give you more tools for curating your Archive experience, we're rolling out a new interface to let you hide content by specific users.

Blocking and Muting: A Refresher

We'll be implementing two sets of features to help users curate their own experiences and add a layer of protection against harassment, without making it harder for people to create and interact with content on the Archive:

• Blocking, which will prevent certain users from interacting with you.
• Muting, which will exclude content by certain users from your personal Archive experience.

Because applying these concepts to all of the Archive's numerous and often interconnected features at once would be a massive undertaking, we're taking a gradual approach that will allow you to block and mute users in some areas while we continue to work on others.
You already have the ability to block specific users from commenting on your works or replying to your comments; now you will also be able to hide users' works, bookmarks, and comments from view.

What does muting do?

While we plan to extend the functionality in future updates, for now you'll be hiding the following items if you mute a user:

• works they've created (or co-created) in search results and tag listings (you can still access the works themselves, if you have a direct link)
• bookmarks they've created
• other users' bookmarks of their works or series
• comments they've left

We're accomplishing this by automatically generating a bit of CSS that removes the relevant content from view and hides it from assistive tech, such as screen readers. While you were already able to do this with a custom site skin, this new feature only asks for a username and does the rest.
Since this is still done with skins, please note that numbers at the top of search results or in the tag filters (which are provided by our search engine) might be different from the number of works or bookmarks that are presented to you. We also don't replace content by muted users with empty space, placeholder text, or any other indication that something was hidden.

How do I mute users?

A "Mute" button will be added to user and pseud dashboards as well as user profiles. It will turn into an "Unmute" button when activated, so you can easily reverse your choice.

We're also providing an interface to manage your muted users. It allows you to add new users to your list, and unmute users. A muted user will remain muted even if they change their name.

From this page, you can also easily access your list of blocked users, to manage those separately.

Other options

In addition to our blocking and muting features, there are a variety of existing ways to control your Archive experience, including built-in preferences and third-party tools. You can also use a site skin to mute specific works, bookmarks, or series.

We're pleased to announce that, in the coming days, we'll be rolling out the first part of our blocking and muting features: the ability to block specific logged-in users from commenting on your works and replying to your comments.

Blocking and Muting: A Refresher

We'll be implementing two sets of features to help users curate their own experiences and add a layer of protection against harassment, without making it harder for people to create and interact with content on the Archive:

• Blocking, which will prevent certain users from interacting with you.
• Muting, which will exclude content by certain users from your personal Archive experience.

Because applying these concepts to all of the Archive's numerous and often interconnected features at once would be a massive undertaking, we're taking a gradual approach that will allow you to block and mute users in some areas while we continue to work on others.

Blocking Part 1: Comments

With this first release, we're focusing on blocking comments from logged-in users. When you block a user, they will no longer be able to comment on your works or reply to comments you've left on news posts or other creators' works. They will also be unable to edit existing comments or replies they've left you.

The block will persist even if the blocked user changes their name.

You can block a user by pressing the "Block" button on their profile, dashboard, or comments. Users you've previously blocked can be unblocked from these locations as well.

You can also block a user by entering their name on the new Blocked Users page, accessible by following the "Blocked Users" link on your preferences page.

The Blocked Users page lists all of the users you've blocked. Other users will not be able to see who you've blocked -- the only people with access to your list of blocked users will be you and site admins with certain access levels.

If you suspect someone you've blocked is still commenting on your works or replying to your comments elsewhere on the Archive, contact the Policy & Abuse team.

Please note that if you block a user with whom you've co-created works, your blocked co-creator will still be able to comment on works you've co-created. However, they will not be able to reply directly to your comments on those works.

Muting: An Update

We're working on a similar interface for muting logged-in users, but in the meantime, you can mute users, works, series, or external works by creating a site skin and using the following CSS:

• .user-000 { display: none !important; } to hide all of a user's works, series, and bookmarks from work and bookmark listings and search results, as well as any logged-in comments the user has left on works or news posts. Replace 000 with the ID of the user whose works you want to hide. A user's ID is a series of numbers that can be found on the user's profile in the "My user ID is" section. A user's ID does not change if the user changes their name.
• .work-000 { display: none !important; } to hide a specific work from work and bookmark listings and search results. Replace 000 with the ID of the work you want to hide. The work ID is a series of numbers that can be found in the work URL. The ID comes immediately after /works/, e.g. https://archiveofourown.org/works/000/chapters/123.
• .series-000 { display: none !important; } to hide a specific series from bookmark listings and search results, as well as users' series pages. Replace 000 with the ID of the series you want to hide. The series ID is a series of numbers that can be found in the series URL. The ID comes immediately after /series/, e.g. https://archiveofourown.org/series/000.
• .external-work-000 { display: none !important; } to hide a specific external work from bookmark listings and search results. Replace 000 with the ID of the external work you want to hide. (Note that there may be multiple copies of a given external work, each with a different ID.) The external work ID is a series of numbers that can be found in the external work URL. The ID comes immediately after /external_work/, e.g. https://archiveofourown.org/external_work/000.

To hide multiple items, you can separate the selectors with a comma: .work-000, .work-149319, .user-000000 { display: none !important; }

Other Options

In addition to the upcoming blocking and muting features, there are a variety of existing ways to control your Archive experience.

Our Unofficial Browser Tools FAQ lists some third-party scripts that let you filter out unwanted content, and here are some built-in options for managing various features:

• Gifts: You can update your Preferences to choose whether or not to receive gift notification emails, or to control whether other users are allowed to give you gifts. You can also refuse gifts you've been given.
• Comments: When you post a work, you can choose who can comment on the work: everyone, only logged-in users, or no one at all. You can also moderate comments and freeze comment threads on your works. Additionally, your Preferences page allows you to control the types of comment notifications you receive.
• Co-creators: Your Preferences allow you to decide whether other users can invite you to be a co-creator on works or series.

We're always working on more options like this, so be sure to check back regularly -- we announce most major changes here at AO3 News shortly before they're released. You can also follow @AO3_Status on Twitter or ao3org on Tumblr to stay up to date.

Update 20:59 UTC 10 June 2022: These changes have now been deployed.

In the next few days, we'll be rolling out a new preference to give users more control over who can give them gift works. This change is an important step in our ongoing work to give users more options to control their experience on the Archive and limit unwanted interactions.

The preference will be called "Allow others to give me gift works outside gift exchanges and prompt memes."

When this preference is enabled, any AO3 user will be able to give you a work. That's the current behavior on the Archive, and it will be the default behavior for all existing users.

When the preference is disabled, the only users who will be able to give you works are users who have either been assigned to create a fanwork for you in a gift exchange or claimed one of your non-anonymous prompts in a prompt meme. In other words, if you absolutely do not want to receive gifts from anyone, you can disable this preference and avoid signing up for challenges.

The preference will be disabled by default for accounts created after the roll out. (We'd usually disable any new preferences by default, but allowing gifts is necessary to avoid interfering with ongoing challenges.)

If a user has the preference disabled and you attempt to give them an unrequested gift, you will receive an error message telling you the user does not allow gifts.

The preference only applies to new gifts, so you will still be able to edit any existing gifts without removing the recipient.

Your Gifts page will remain accessible regardless of whether you've enabled or disabled the preference. You will still be able to refuse existing or new gifts.

Wait, what?

• If you're an existing AO3 user, nothing will change unless you update your preferences.
• If you never want to receive gift works, you can uncheck "Allow others to give me gift works outside gift exchanges and prompt memes" on your preferences page and avoid signing up for any challenges.

We'll update this post to let you know when the changes have been deployed.

Update 10:10 UTC 6 February 2022: These changes have now been deployed.

In the coming days, we'll be rolling out a code change that limits the total number of fandom, character, relationship, and additional tags that can be added to a work. This limit of 75 tags will apply to both new and existing works, but no tags will be automatically removed from existing works.

Why place a limit on tags?

Having a limit on tags will:

• help keep work blurbs to a reasonable length, improving the experience of navigating work listings, and
• encourage creators to tag for the most important elements of their works, improving the quality of search results.

Why 75 tags?

We looked at all the works on the Archive and determined that:

• the average number of tags per work is 17,
• the most common number of tags per work is 11, and
• less than 0.5% of works have more than 75 tags.

A limit of 75 total fandom, character, relationship, and additional tags per work will provide the vast majority of creators with enough space to describe the content of their works while also keeping work blurbs to a manageable size.

Why don't ratings, categories, and warnings count toward the limit?

Ratings, categories, and warnings already have limits of their own. A work can only have one rating, and the number of categories and warnings a work can have is limited by the number of options provided on the posting form.

What should I do if I notice someone's work has more than 75 total fandom, character, relationship, and additional tags?

Nothing! Works that exceed the tag limit do not violate the Terms of Service and should not be reported to the Policy & Abuse team or the Support team.

What happens to previously posted works with more than 75 total fandom, character, relationship, and additional tags?

Nothing! The work will keep all of its tags.

However, if the work creator wants to edit the work or add a chapter, they will have to remove some of their fandom, character, relationship, and/or additional tags before they can save their changes. (An error message will tell the creator exactly how many tags must be removed.)

In our next release, we'll be rolling out two changes to comments on the Archive. The first change will provide both work creators and site admins with the ability to freeze comment threads. The second change will provide site admins options to restrict comments on news posts, much like creators can restrict comments on their works.

Comment freezing

Creators will soon be able to freeze comment threads on their works using the "Freeze Thread" button. Freezing a thread prevents new replies from being added to a comment or to any of its replies. It also prevents comments in the thread from being edited.

Frozen comments will have a "Frozen" indicator and the "Reply" button will be hidden. An "Unfreeze Thread" option will allow creators to re-enable replies.

Although "Freeze Thread" initially prevents replies to all comments in a thread, creators can use "Unfreeze Thread" to selectively re-enable replies for some comments in a thread.

Site admins will also be able to freeze comments on news posts, and the Policy & Abuse team will be able to freeze comments anywhere on the site.

News post comment settings

In August, we gave creators more control over who can comment on their works, enabling them to choose between allowing comments from anyone, restricting comments to registered users, or turning comments off completely.

Site admins will soon have the same options when creating and editing news posts. This will allow our teams to turn off comments on outdated news posts and prevent newer ones from being overwhelmed by spam (e.g. advertisements or, more commonly, short series of random letters left by bots).

If comments on a news post are turned off, or if you're logged out and comments are restricted to registered users, the comment form will be replaced with a message indicating which setting is in use.

If you can't comment on a news post, you are always welcome to contact Support with any feedback.

We hope both of these changes will help the users and volunteers who read, write, and receive comments on the Archive!

Edit, February 12, 21:20 UTC: Comments on this post had to be disabled due to off-topic discussions, trolling, and harassment.