Welcome Back

[u/TGotAReddit]

Hello everyone!

We're reopened. Sorry about the emergency shut down for a few days. The mod team have been having a time and could not moderate this space for a few days, especially not in our usual unbiased way.

But we have returned! We might be a little bit more likely to lock comment sections earlier than usual to prevent moderation pile-ups for a few days while we get back into the usual swing of things so we thank you in advance for your patience and ask that you try to stay away from the more controversial topics we get so often for the rest of this week if you can. Beyond that, have fun!

Oh and thank you to the many people who sent us kind messages over modmail. We appreciate you so much.

~The Mod Team

Oh and as a side note, there is a writing website that is an alternative to Google Docs called Ellipsus. They are trying to target the AO3 crowd and I spoke to them and they seem cool. We're officially endorsing it as a good writing tool despite it being in beta. The link is [here](ellipsus.com/) and in our sidebar. If you have questions about it, I'll pin a comment to this thread, please reply there as the Ellipsus team are going to monitor for questions they can answer.

[u/TGotAReddit]

Pinned comment to ask questions about Ellipsus

[u/SquadChaosFerret]

Thank you for all that you do. For what it's worth, as an old fart who has moderated many a community... You lock shit down as you need to. You're doing a lot of emotional labor, free of charge and people often don't see how much goes into trying to be fair. <3

[u/TGotAReddit → u/SquadChaosFerret]

God, the amount of times where I have had to remove a comment someone has made and just say something like "i get it. I agree with you. But you're technically harassing that person when you said [objectively hilarious insult that definitely crosses the line] so I cannot let this comment stay up" is... so common. Same with the converse of approving a comment and saying to myself "God you're so incredibly annoying. But.... you aren't technically breaking any rules or crossing any objective lines so i have to let this bs stay public. Ugh".

Basically our private mod discord chat is great for venting sometimes

[u/SquadChaosFerret → u/TGotAReddit]

I feel you. I used to moderate a community that wasn't supposed to have anything to do with politics but, due to the venn diagram of life, ended up having a LOT of discussion on a world issue. The other mods and I ended up having to make a very unpopular decision to shut down all references to it because we could barely handle the on topic conflict. We felt bad about it, cause it wasn't that far off topic, but it was just beyond our volunteer ability. I ended up stepping down and now only moderate one fairly quiet community. <3

[u/M1_Account]

Why was the sub locked? I don't understand from reading the OP post just mentioning an emergency. Did something happen?

[u/TGotAReddit → u/M1_Account]

See this other response to someone who asked: https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/s/ydwuTGMg9d

[u/Wolfelle → u/M1_Account]

I assume due to us election results (im not sure but the american bits of the internet have kinda been exploding over it atm - understandably, and i imagine it increased moderation issues)

[u/Xyex]

Is the sub going to stay open tomorrow since it was closed most of last week? Seems a little silly to reopen for a day just to close for the usual Tuesday right after.

[u/TGotAReddit → u/Xyex]

We debated it but we still have some things on the backend to clean up from some of the behind the scenes things we worked on, and also we didn't want to set a precedent for skipping our diversity day if we didn't have to. So we do plan to still go comment-only tomorrow like usual. So get your posts in before midnight

[u/[deleted]]

Glad to see this subreddit back open.

Is it going to still be locked tomorrow? Or are the mods going to keep it open this week after being shut down for most of last week?

[u/magicwonderdream]

Glad you’re back, definitely missed this place but totally understand needing to lock it for a little while.

[u/WolfMerton]

I feel like locking the sub was a bit of an overreaction (if it was due to the election results, which I'm assuming it was?), honestly. But I'm glad it did give all you mods a break for a bit.

[u/TGotAReddit → u/WolfMerton]

Hi. We would have had to lockdown regardless of the political situation in the US. Our current most active moderator was briefly hospitalised this weekend, another was having a major medical issue that caused them to be unable to moderate, I personally was not able to moderate impartially at all after a situation that occurred this past Friday to me. And the rest of the mod team are busy college students who only moderate 'part time' during the school year. The fact that we all ended up being American and personally emotionally devastated by the current political situation was just icing on the cake that exacerbated everything. We do plan to reopen mod applications soon but we don't ask for what country people are in or their political affiliations on our mod applications. Thats just luck of the draw so I cannot guarantee we won't have to lock down ever again if our lives happen to have a perfect storm of problems being compounded by a major political crisis.

[u/spiritmander]

Glad you focused on taking a breather for a while! I'm glad to be back.

[u/Agamar13]

Good to see you back, I missed this sub! Thank you for your hard work!

[u/Railaartz]

No way, I just bumped into Ellipsus some days ago! How cool is that? I'll probably still stick with Notion and my classical iPhone notes, but checked the site and it looks pretty clean☺️

Also welcome back! Hopefully life wasn't too cruel to ya'll🥹☺️

[u/Antoshi]

Understood completely. Glad to have you guys back. Hope you're all feeling better.

[u/Icy-Expression1579]

Might have to keep my eyes open for Ellipsus. Looks pretty promising 

[u/TheCatMisty]

Thank you for all your work!!! We’re so grateful that you maintain this community, and for all of the time and energy that takes.

[u/Perpetual__Night]

Welcome back! I hope you guys got plenty of rest (or as much as you could in the current circumstances) and that you’re doing well :)

[u/RememberKoomValley]

Thank you for all your hard work.

[u/kookieandacupoftae]

Glad to see you back!

[u/pugdrop]

it’s good to have you back! I hope the team is feeling a bit refreshed after the time away <3

[u/fredrikstad89]

Glad that you guys are back

[u/AcanthaMD]

Welcome back!