Archive of Our Own usage and tips

[lwise]

Is it 'MikkelRulez'?

My passwords are always random strings of chars and numbers.

Anyway, it's looking like someone is targeting authors who posted recently?

No, but that's a good one.  I'll have to use it as part of the next password I need.  My passwords are very long (24 or more chars, if allowed) and include upper and lower case, numbers, and special characters if allowed.

[lwise]

And ... two more kudos since my last reply.  Maybe somebody really, really, really wants me to write another chapter?

I don't even know how you'd give extra kudos like that without at the same time increasing the hit count (which isn't increasing).  At this point, that work has more kudos than hits.

[dmeck7755]

 

Is it 'MikkelRulez'?

My passwords are always random strings of chars and numbers.

Anyway, it's looking like someone is targeting authors who posted recently?

No, I use an algorithm for my passwords, and every site is unique.  Did you get a message also recently? I also did not share the email address (hopefully that would help also ) That may be it, I will just need to change the passwords more frequently I gather.

Though two-factor would definitely help.

[dmeck7755]

And ... two more kudos since my last reply.  Maybe somebody really, really, really wants me to write another chapter?

I don't even know how you'd give extra kudos like that without at the same time increasing the hit count (which isn't increasing).  At this point, that work has more kudos than hits.

I just add +kudos in comments to add extras. Especially if a chapter had been added after I read the initial offering.

But new chapters are always welcome ( )

[Jitter]

I got two tries yesterday. What would anyone try to accomplish with this, I have no idea. All the fame and glory within out huge fandom?

[lwise]

I got two tries yesterday. What would anyone try to accomplish with this, I have no idea. All the fame and glory within out huge fandom?

I wonder if it hit any other fandom.  Maybe the whole site was targeted.

Speaking of wondering what someone is trying to accomplish, in the past 15 hours, someone has added 41 kudos to my "The Battle with the Kade", without increasing the hit count.  I took a look at the page source, and kudos are added through a form, so you could have a program to "submit", if you knew how to generate the "authenticity_token", which looks like it's been base64ed, but is not human-readable when you unbase64 it.

So I can see how it could be done, if you knew that one detail, but I can't imagine why it would be done, particularly to my work.

[Yuuago]

It sounds like you got hit by the kudos bot.

I’ll check to see if I can find clear explanation but in short:
- this is a bot and not a person
- it’s a known problem
- ao3 doesn’t have a way to fix it (yet?)
- the only way to stop it is to lock your work to ‘logged in users only’

The password thing - that is also a known problem, I don’t remember if it was discovered what’s happening there. Changing your password to be safe won’t hurt.

[Jitter]

Thanks Yuu! I was just wondering the same i.e. whether this is happening just to us or in other fandoms as well. I changed my password earlier, but got another try just now.

I suppose someone just finds it exhilarating to think how they are making everyone puzzled. Other than that, it seems kinda moot.

[lwise]

It sounds like you got hit by the kudos bot.

I’ll check to see if I can find clear explanation but in short:
- this is a bot and not a person
- it’s a known problem
- ao3 doesn’t have a way to fix it (yet?)
- the only way to stop it is to lock your work to ‘logged in users only’

The password thing - that is also a known problem, I don’t remember if it was discovered what’s happening there. Changing your password to be safe won’t hurt.

I locked it.  If I unlock it in a few days, will the bot desist?

[Yuuago]

Thanks Yuu! I was just wondering the same i.e. whether this is happening just to us or in other fandoms as well. I changed my password earlier, but got another try just now.

I suppose someone just finds it exhilarating to think how they are making everyone puzzled. Other than that, it seems kinda moot.

It's definitely happening in multiple fandoms. Don't worry, it's not just us. If you already changed your password, it's unlikely you need to do it again.

I looked through discussion on Dreamwidth related to this issue, and the current suspect is a malfunctioning spambot. Anyway, Ao3's PAC is definitely aware of the issue but will probably take a while to make an announcement about it.

I locked it.  If I unlock it in a few days, will the bot desist?

Short answer: I don't know.

Long answer: For works already posted, I'm unsure if that will work, but it won't hurt to try. For new works, if you post it locked, leave it for a day or so, and then unlock it, that might prevent the bot from hitting it. At least for a while. (But this is only anecdata - one of my mates was getting hit by it repeatedly whenever she posted something new, and this helped.)

It's possible there is more than one bot - the one that does this is a type of crawler that goes in and pushes every button on the page that it can find.

[Jitter]

It does seem like two separate things (which my or may not be related) as I get the passord thing but not the flood of kudos.

[lwise]

I think the way I'd fight the kudos bot is this: add a field to the work which is "kudos since last hit".  Reset to 0 every time there's a hit; update every time there's a kudos.  In general, you might have a few kudos added without a hit registered (because a registered user looks at it, then comes back, looks again, and adds kudos), but if you get more than a certain threshold, that means the bot is at work, so auto-lock the work to registered users only and send a notice to the account-holder.

[dmeck7755]

I think the way I'd fight the kudos bot is this: add a field to the work which is "kudos since last hit".  Reset to 0 every time there's a hit; update every time there's a kudos.  In general, you might have a few kudos added without a hit registered (because a registered user looks at it, then comes back, looks again, and adds kudos), but if you get more than a certain threshold, that means the bot is at work, so auto-lock the work to registered users only and send a notice to the account-holder.

lwise,
That is probably a good idea, this way you are keeping the list accurate.  Today I got two password requests and 49 kudos..

Yuuago,
Thank you for the info.

[lwise]

Or maybe you could have another status, not locked to registered users only, but accepting kudos from registered users only.  So anyone could read, but the kudos bot would be stymied.  I think AO3 should add that as an option.

[Yuuago]

Ao3 has been having issues with spam comments recently. I've seen several confused posts about it on Dreamwidth, and have received a lot of the spam comments myself, so I figured I'd post about it here in case anyone got hit with it and was confused about what was going on.

Ao3 is aware of the problem:

Spam in your comments? First: don't follow the link! But do use the "Spam" button on the comment to report it. (No need to send in a separate support or abuse report! And please don't mark it as spam in your email, or your provider might start thinking all AO3 emails are spam.)

What they don't mention here is that there isn't any way to report comments as spam to Ao3 from the email notifications or from the Ao3 inbox.

To flag a spam comment, you need to go to the comment itself. In the Ao3 inbox, the link to your fic next to an anonymous commenter's nickname will take you directly to their comment on your fic, and that is where the report option is. (Or you can go to your fic and scroll until you find the spam comment.)

Note that spam reports are only an option for anonymous comments - If you ever have a problem with a logged-in user, that requires filing a Policy and Abuse Report; the link to the form for that is at the bottom of every page.