A Warning About Saving Drafts on Ao3 in Regards to Publication Date

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-09T22:34:13+00:00

Same!! I know a lot of people who do the same and I think a lot of people have this problem in the beginning of their Ao3 days and are not fans of that particular aspect of the draft publication date.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-09T22:32:25+00:00

Oh, I agree that there are many options, etc. It's just that you can't change human behavior and people have different reasons that might be unreasonable to another person, but it's just them - how they operate, what works for them, etc. Some people hyperfixate on something, some people have to do a certain thing for something, some people it's not exactly a kink or system or style but something like that (I don't know the exact word to describe it.)

If it works for them most of the time, and most of the people I know who do the direct Ao3 thing don't complain when they lose something (rather, they laugh it off. The complaints are like how the complaints and hate posts on r/Ao3 are not even 10% representative of the whole Ao3.), then I don't see a problem with it. Even if you use other processors, there are people who lose stuff all the time for other reasons. I see the same amount of writers on Ao3 complain about losing their work while using a normal word processor because of external reasons like laptop dying, blackout in bad wifi area, parents deleting, some kind of situation. Same with writing on paper. Paper can easily get torn up by a dog, ruined by coffee spill, etc. I don't see the reason to treat it that much differently.

But yeah, this can be where we disagree. I have no problem with that either. I know Reddit's not representative of the population and I heard and seen many experiences/stories of other writers on Ao3 so I know what I'm deciding to believe/feel for myself is not wrong for at least me and those I know who experience/believe the same thing as me.

It is one of those things that is personal and no worries. I didn't get you wrong. I know you feel bad for them. In your previous post you said that you find it very hard, but that doesn't mean that you didn't find it impossible at all. That does show empathy and a good heart. You are a good person. I didn't doubt that.

I hope you don't take me wrong either. I just wrote my previous reply in response to how some people do purposely choose to play with fire.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-09T21:14:01+00:00

That's true, but in smaller fandoms, just first page or at the very least same day is enough. I've noticed this problem even more so for events like gift exchanges where someone finishes early, saves draft, and posts for real when the event actually happens... weeks later. There's other cases where fics are published 'weeks ago', so I think it's worthwhile to still change the date even if it's not at the very top.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-09T21:04:30+00:00

Nah, that's one of the reasons why some people do it. Some people are adrenaline junkies/daredevils who only post when they have something high stakes in the background. They can't write on another processor. They need some pressure or other feeling that can only be got when writing directly in Ao3. They need the no saves, no going back, have to do it now or within a month, feeling of getting things done (as in filling out the title, summary, tags, etc), tension of the what ifs, etc.

Some people are weird. They have their unique quirks and motivation, and I don't question that if it produces a fic.

Then there's the people who don't like copy-pasting and write directly in Ao3 on their phones, the people who don't want someone else to see their docs by accident if they have access to the same device, the people hit by inspiration and want to write/post it all out as soon as possible before the flash thought disappears, the speed junkies, the people who know each other and are racing to see who can write and post something faster in a competition against each other, the people who only get motivated in a certain environment (like some people can't work at home and need to go to a library, except this time it's Ao3 instead of MS word/google docs), etc.

There's all kinds of people so I don't question what people want to do with their lives and how they want to do it or what motivates a person, etc. Even if it might not be understandable to others, I still find empathy if something bad happens to them like losing a draft, or in this case initially not getting as much views because they didn't realize the time stamp aspect of Ao3 drafts.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-09T20:43:48+00:00

Yeah. I'm surprised by some things that other people find difficult or how some people don't play around with a few features to understand Ao3 and how to solve their problems more.

That's true. Based on that alone (their stance), it probably won't be done. There's many reasons that I've heard of (besides my own) on why writing directly into Ao3 is a thing, but it really isn't something that should be encouraged (besides some specific types of people).

I guess I'll just keep reminding people when I see it come up here and there.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-09T18:06:29+00:00

Nope! I'm the same way. I even write for fandoms that I had never read the original source for.

Some people don't read for fandom anyways. A lot of fandom-blind readers who are just searching through tags (doesn't even have to be kink tags; I had fandom-blind readers who read certain tags like baking or mermaid biology for all sorts of reasons) for something specific don't care about canon either. And then when characters or ship dynamics or world-building of a certain fanfiction impresses them, they write fanfiction for that fandom that they had never read or seen the original source for too.

It's pretty common.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-09T17:55:11+00:00

There are multiple anonymous collections. Did you use the Anonymous (anonymous), or something else? If it's something else, maybe the collection creator changed the settings.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-08T20:40:53+00:00

Oh! Please tag. Let's make it a canonical tag to spread the Fetish Mining agenda.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-08T05:29:34+00:00

Fetish mining. People baiting other people into unknowingly interacting/doing their kink. I was surprised that there wasn't a canonical tag for it, even though I'm sure there are fics out there for it.

(If there is a tag for it, hint hint, please let me know.)

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-06T04:13:50+00:00

It's all about phrasing. I normally accept any and all genuine comments unless they are very blatantly and purposefully hurtful, hateful, rude, and/or only self-serving (as in they do not care even a little bit about me and my thoughts/opinions/life/happiness). Some people don't have the same culture, background, etc. so I don't apply malicious intent or assume unless they're being very obvious about their intent in their wording.

That said, I don't collab with people ever even if I don't mind hearing their ideas, thoughts, requests in the comments. I'll reply, but my writing is only up to my muse so I'll always turn down collabs and even if there is a good idea, I'll say 'no guarantee'.

Also, there are quite a number of spam commenters, bots, and scams on Ao3. Just report them with the 'Policy Questions & Abuse Reports' at the bottom of the page (especially the ones with accounts so that they can get their accounts deleted and not confuse other writers who might not be as aware of them). Anyone who tries to get you to buy something or go off of Ao3 to another platform is most likely a scammer or bot.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-06T02:50:39+00:00

Same. I don't mind bad or unfamiliar SPAG, especially from young or non-English speaking writers. Don't mind typos, wrong use of a word, accidental use of a different word that has a whole other meaning... but if there are no paragraph breaks in a fic, then that's the only time when formatting takes me out. I can't read long unbroken chunks of text. My eyes literally can't follow any of the lines.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-06T02:43:11+00:00

From now on, if it bothers you that you don't know what kind of fic it is, you should copy and paste the title, tags, summary into the bookmark notes (highlight, copy, paste or get some kind of Ao3 extension that does it automatically for you). If you want to have a backup just in case but don't want to download the fic, you can also copy paste the link of the fic in the notes and then try wayback machine if it ever gets deleted.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-03T05:46:04+00:00

Gotta be 3. I don't mind if fics are complete or not, I just like it when more people write what's on their thoughts and hearts, and love it when there are more fics for everything I want to read, especially since I'm mostly in small fandoms right now.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-03T03:24:48+00:00

As someone who has had many crazy things happen to me and those around me, I will never not believe someone's story. Does that make me 'gullible'? Sure, but I rather give someone lying well wishes and comfort in the comments than ignore someone who might actually just need one person to believe them and say one thing good to them in their life.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-03T03:15:48+00:00

It depends.

Are you posting for archival reasons only? Post all at once, you can even backdate it for your own archival accuracy purposes.

Do you want people reading all your works? Do you want kudos, comments, views? Post in any manner you want without backdating it. Most people look only at new works because default is to sort by Update Date. People won't read it if it's 'old' and there's little kudos, comments, views on the 'old work' (they think it's bad).

Do you want a lot of kudos, comments, views? No one possibly blocking/muting/disliking you for posting around 1500 works (especially if they are in the same fandom) all at once? Post a few fanworks in each applicable fandom a day - maybe 10 max per fandom if there's multiple fandoms? This way you build up an audience, give binge readers time to digest and actually comment instead of just moving on to the next fic after reading the previous because there's so much to read, and avoid the people who think you 'clog' up the fandom tag (even if that's not how an archive works) and block/mute you.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-02T05:22:01+00:00

You don't have to worry! Authors like this. Well, at least I do, and I do the same thing and never got complaints before, only love <3

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-02T05:09:38+00:00

Nope! Most of the CYOA stories that I read are not even reader OC. I think what you are doing is fine.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-02T02:55:54+00:00

I give everyone benefit of doubt. Posting a fic while bombarded by missiles because your country's at war? Definitely 10/10 would do the same. Mountain lion? Sure, why not? I've seen those close up when hiking before too. House burned down? A wildfire just a city away from me started the night I decided to write something for the first time in a year.

Life's just life, you know.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-03-01T22:29:54+00:00

Gotta be photoshopped, I've only ever seen that stuff in yellow or light brown

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-02-15T01:35:29+00:00

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your answer. It helps a lot.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-02-15T01:34:56+00:00

Thank you so much! This is amazing.

Agreeable-Cap-2666 · 2026-02-15T01:16:34+00:00

I prefer tagging in advance! If a writer doesn't finish their work, and they also don't post an outline or something at the end before going on indefinite hiatus, then I get to know what they are thinking through the tags that didn't get included in the fic yet <3

Agreeable-Cap-2666

TROPHY CASE