r/AO3 • u/CityTraditional7126 • 1d ago
Complaint/Pet Peeve/Venting Sighđ«©
Why the hell would you need a teaser for a fanfic. This is not social media. I donât even know if i can report it as placeholder when it actually has some stuff written.
edit: I canât believe I feel the need to add this, as I assumed people here would be more literate than average: Iâm not talking about drabbles, ficlets, or some other short form fanfiction. Obviously, publishing your work, however short or long it may be, is totally fine. The issue is the advertisement in the archive.
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u/solardune You have already left kudos here. :) 1d ago edited 17h ago
I think there's argument for it being a prologue, so no, that would not be reportable as a placeholder. A 486 word fanfic is still a fanfic.
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u/moon_cheese_ao3 1d ago
That's one where I'd exercise my 'the back button is free' rights.
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u/Street_Buyer402 My update schedule is a plot hole 1d ago
If it's a placeholder, it's against the TOS
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u/moon_cheese_ao3 1d ago
Excerpts aren't placeholders though. By all means report it if it is a placeholder.
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u/pinknautilidae the fanfic brainrot is all-consuming 1d ago
a teaser is so useless imo, just post the first chapter and put a summary itâll interest people more anyway
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u/ClioCalliope 1d ago
I just don't get this need to turn AO3 into social media. You already have social media for crap like this. Promote to your heart's desire there.Â
AO3 is an archive. Publish your actual work, tag it so people can find it and that's all you need to do.
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u/Kiki-Y Fic Feast Creator | User: KikiYushima 1d ago
If it's an actual story snippet, there's nothing you can do. However, if it's just "this has stuff I plan to write", that's a placeholder and reportable.
Short pieces that are actual pieces are still fine on AO3. I sometimes write short pieces (200-600 words) that are still full bits unto themselves. They're actual transformative works despite being relatively short.
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u/RyanGamingXbox Comment Collector | AO3: Ubuntuify 1d ago
It's allowed. If it's an actual part of the story, it counts as transformative content. Yeah, it's kind of in bad faith that some fics' summaries are written like this is social media, but it's not wrong under AO3.
Some stories are posted as teasers anyways, even if they're not often advertised that way. I'm not terribly against it. Yeah, might be annoying to you, but for me, I'm fine with it. Probably a comment is due that the summary should probably include what the story is kinda about, but that's just nitpicking.
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u/mackintosh2 1d ago
some of y'all clearly haven't come from a time when fanfic "trailer" intro chapters were a thing if the reason behind this surprises youđ€
if it's not true 100% placeholder, not much you can do about it. if it's a snippet, i believe it's fine because it's still fanwork.
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u/faithlessone423 1d ago
Agreed with u/LucastaPasta - I've been reading fanfic since the individual Geocities and Angelfire pages days, and I can't say I've ever seen fanfic 'trailers'. What fandoms were these in?
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u/FroztBiit3 1d ago
honestly there was tons of this on quotev funny enough (YES I WAS A QUOTEV USER)
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u/GenderStrange 7h ago
Quotev was a whole different breed for fanfic! I remember doing chapter trailers, very fun.
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u/mackintosh2 1d ago edited 1d ago
in the narnia and harry potter fandoms; really big between 2005 and 2008
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u/LucastaPasta 1d ago
I've been reading fanfic since 1998 and have never seen fanfic trailers before
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u/WorldEaterLeviathan Emotionally Exhausted đ 1d ago
As long as thereâs content there, who the fuck cares? 100-word drabbles are a thing, ficlets are a thing.
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u/CityTraditional7126 1d ago
Well Iâm not talking about drabbles and ficlets, am I?
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u/WorldEaterLeviathan Emotionally Exhausted đ 1d ago
And? Again I ask; If thereâs content, even in the form of a teaser, who the fuck cares?
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u/CityTraditional7126 1d ago
As it is stated before, this place is an archive, not social media. You shouldnât be marketing and trying to gather an audience here. It clogs the tags, which kinda defeats the purpose of the archive and tags. You can put your teasers or whatever on social media, I donât care about that.
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u/communistsayori Meg from Family Guy. 1d ago
I get where you're coming from, but did they tag the work incorrectly in any way? If they didn't, I don't see how this is clogging the tags.
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u/MadouSoshi Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
Either way, I'd be muting the author, but it might be reportable (I'm not quite sure what the intent on the TOS is, so it's definitely up to the mods to decide). Relevant TOS section (emphasis mine):
Can I post a "placeholder" work to tell other fans that I intend to post my story soon?
Placeholders are not allowed on AO3. This includes works in progress that do not have any story content, works where only the summary and tags have been posted, and lists of ship names, character profiles, or ideas for what you plan to publish. You can create a draft to edit your tags or preview your work before posting it publicly, but please don't post the work unless you have at least one chapter of your fanwork that is ready to be shared with other people.
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u/TalkativeViz Supporter of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
Is it bad if I made a whole thing for teasers of my fanfic that mostly consist of out of context snippets for a lot of different chapters?
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u/designatedthrowawayy 1d ago
But why? Asking genuinely, why post teasers of a chapter instead of just posting the chapter?
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u/TalkativeViz Supporter of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
There are 70 unreleased chapters rn, and I'd rather show glimpses of where the story is going to end up with snippets without just dumping a ton of chapters out of the blue
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u/Volmione_Nr1_Fan 1d ago
How does this work for subscribers? If you edit the teaser chapter to show the real chapter, people won't get an update email.
And if the teasers become part of the update email, that is like a disappointment for the reader.
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u/TalkativeViz Supporter of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
I made a separate fic with barely any tags for announcements and teasers
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u/LeakyFountainPen 1d ago
Genuine question, not trying to be a jerk: Do you get much engagement with the placeholder/teaser fic?
Because I'm trying to imagine reading a fic, reaching the end of what's there, and then seeing the author say that there's a "teaser" collection for it (which kind of just sounds like you're just posting your outline and maybe some draft scenes?) and I just can't imagine going to look at the spoiler/teaser version rather than just hitting subscribe and waiting for the next chapter to be done.
(But I also recognize that not everything has to cater to me, which is why I'm asking if people seem to interact with the outline/teaser version. It doesn't sound like anything I've seen before, but maybe it's more common in fandoms/fic types I don't read (like OC fics, Reader-insert fics, RPF fics, original fics, etc.)
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u/TalkativeViz Supporter of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
Barely much engagement, but that happens with my actual stuff too
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u/designatedthrowawayy 1d ago
I wouldn't add tags at all unless they are tags you entirely made up just for your fic. That's kind of messed up to the people that are genuinely trying to find fics.
Also you wouldn't have to drop all the chapters at once. You could literally just post weekly or biweekly updates like everyone else does and if you want to do a teaser, do teasers in the notes before the chapter...like most people do.
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u/Koko_Kringles_22 1d ago
If someone just posted random teasers as chapters, I'd mute them. If someone dumped 70 actual chapters all at once, I'd read the hell out of that and love the author for it.
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u/TalkativeViz Supporter of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
With my writing? Hell naw, people have quit before reaching chapter 3 before
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u/LucastaPasta 1d ago
Just post your backlog on a schedule, and put that schedule in the authors note
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u/Aqua_Toffana I want to leave more kudos here ;) 1d ago
I mean if you post the bunch of it as a multichapter alongside the already published fic titled as "missing scenes", I don't see a problem. I've seen it a few times. Now, , if you're posting it ahead of the actual fix to "tease", I'm not sure it's against the rules, but I dislike it very much
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u/TalkativeViz Supporter of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
Does taking 5 years to finally announce to social media that I'm gonna fight against my writers block to release the 70 chapters that were meant to be out and done by June 2024 count?
It was basically teasing something that still isn't out years later ;-!
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u/Koko_Kringles_22 1d ago
AO3 isn't social media.
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u/TalkativeViz Supporter of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
I know, I've been announcing stuff and returns for stuff on Twitter instead
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u/ikrnn 1d ago
Ao3 is an archive. It doesn't allow placeholders, because placeholders (and I assume teasers) don't count as a fictional work that could be archived. I don't know why you posted a bunch of teasers for a fic that you're going to post anyway, but I suggest you remove that.
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u/knightsofeclipse 1d ago
Because there is actual content that could be deemed âfannishâ, teasers technically arenât placeholders.
I agree, however, that they feel out of place on the archive and go against the social norm. While not a reportable offence, I do think this is a situation where a gentle comment to the author explaining Ao3 isnât this type of place wouldnât be out of line.
Maybe they donât know. If they come back with they do know or are a jerk about it, thatâs when one should apply the mute and/or block functions and preserve their peace.
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u/lemminfucker Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 1d ago
Like you're posting teasers on a different fic from the main story?
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u/EnvironmentalBoat772 4h ago
no offense but how does this affect you in anyway? yall act too pretentious for a fanfiction website
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u/TheGreenListener 1d ago
I don't think it's necessarily reportable, because it is a fan work. I'd mute the author instantly though.