Archive of Our Own usage and tips

[RanVor]

Oh, yeah, I was hit with that yesterday. Thanks for the advice!

[wavewright62]

Thanks for that, yuu.  I got quite a few of those among my old works - I was quite relieved to note that helpful spam button on the comments.
(While I was there, I read the fic.  Dayum, some of those were actually pretty good, if I do say so myself.)

[lwise]

Is anyone else seeing strange comments in AO3?  They're not exactly spam, but I don't believe they're legitimate either.

Over the past several weeks, I've gotten a number of comments with the following characteristics:

1) The commenter is a real AO3 author, but their name is not linked.  I've checked them with AO3's search function.
2) The commenter has no apparent connection to the SSSS fandom.
3) The comment is very nice, very polite, but completely generic.
4) There are no links in the comment and nothing trying to direct you elsewhere.

I got two today.  Here's one: "The way you handled the themes and messages in this fic was thought-provoking. It added an extra layer of depth to the story, making it both entertaining and meaningful. Kudos to you!"

This comment is on "Turning Fourteen", which is a short humorous story (339 words) about Mikkel and Michael making gunpowder for fireworks for their fourteenth birthday.  I don't think there were a lot of themes and messages in that.

The only explanation for this that I've come up with is that someone is training an AI by having it make comments and seeing who responds.  After the first two, I've stopped responding to these comments.

Edited to add: Here's another of these comments on "Turning Fourteen": "I can't get over how seamlessly you integrated the new elements into the existing canon. The way you expanded upon the lore and added your own twists was absolutely genius. You've created a fanfic that feels like a natural extension of the original story. Simply amazing!" 

I don't think any real person would write this about a story about Mikkel and Michael making gunpowder.

[Yuuago]

I haven't received any personally, but I've heard about this, so I went digging.

These are comments are from bots. The biggest hint for me is that the usernames are real Ao3 usernames - there is no way to "accidentally" post logged out like that.

Here's a post I found on tumblr about it; the description matches your issue precisely, so it's definitely not just you receiving these:

https://beemovieerotica.tumblr.com/post/721683287951769600/psa-bot-comments-are-taking-over-ao3

And some speculation on Dreamwidth about what the purpose of these comments are:
https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/601725.html?thread=3688237693#cmt3688237693

Basically it's to break up the pattern when scraping so that the bot is less likely to get blocked as a bot.

So, I suggest deleting them. Unfortunately, the only way to stop comments like these altogether is to archive-lock your work.

If you want to report these as spam: The easiest way to do this is go to the comment thread page for the comment (archiveofourown.org/comment/long string of numbers), then hit the spam button. Or you can scroll to the bottom of that page and click "Policy Questions and Abuse Reports" to fill out a full report describing the problem, if you want to report on the problem more broadly. (If you're reporting as spam, best to leave the comment up instead of deleting it.)

[lwise]

Ah, thank you.  The comments are generated by an AI, of course.  My explanation (that someone's training an AI) is so much more interesting than that bots are just doing this to break up their pattern of behavior.  Reality is so boring.

[lwise]

Here's yet another comment on a 339-word humorous fic about Mikkel and Michael making gunpowder:


This fanfic is an emotional rollercoaster in the best way possible. I laughed, I cried, and I couldn't put it down until I reached the end. You have a gift for capturing the essence of human emotions.

I find myself giggling over this comment.

[Jitter]

Interesting irony how the bot wants to praise you for how many feelings it gets from your text

[lwise]

I assume it cried over the destroyed chicken coop.  Or perhaps the possibility that the boys might not get to enjoy their birthday party.

This fic takes a page and a third to print if you print from AO3, but my original document fits nicely on a single page.  The bot is a slooow reader if it couldn't put the thing down until it finished.

I may as well respond to these comments with humor.

[wavewright62]

Butbut... are they wrong?

[lwise]

Your comment was great.  I tossed off a little humorous story in honor of Mikkel's birthday, and here you found all these themes in it!

[Glass]

Well that certainly explains some things. I think 'Down Deep' is a few things but 'a warm hug' is a particularly strange description.

[wavewright62]

Your comment was great.  I tossed off a little humorous story in honor of Mikkel's birthday, and here you found all these themes in it!

*takes bow*  And thank you for providing me with the impetus to write more than I have in months.  Granted, it was in the service of a s***post, but I'll take it. 

[lwise]

If anyone is interested in a Python script and some CSS files that turn an AO3 html download into a PDF file that looks like a regular book, I have put together a package to do so.

I used them on my "The Watcher on the Water" work, and here are some samples of the output.

Title page:

Spoiler: show

Table of Contents (I had to fill in the page numbers by hand, but the format is all generated by Python and CSS):

Spoiler: show

Main text with chapter heading, justified, single-spaced lines, and first line indented:

Spoiler: show

The Table of Contents has pages numbered with lower-case Roman numerals, and the main text has regular Arabic numerals.  There's code for a cover page, too, but that's just an image.  Everything is editable, obviously.

It can handle works with chapters, works without chapters, and a list of works like from a series.  I've just converted my own works, so it's possible there are quirks that I didn't encounter.  If so, just let me know and I'll try to handle them.

You can find the files in a zip file here, I hope.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o5QxA46WBMD4O4COgc1X3fBETI0Zq5a0/view?usp=drive_link

I uploaded the Toivosaari PDF separately in case anyone wants it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V1lpu454dwVLmx5ne_ijXY7K78bvjLrU/view?usp=drive_link

[Buteo]

Google message: "Access denied"...

[lwise]

Google message: "Access denied"...

Well, darn.  I've never used Google Drive before, so I don't know exactly how to use it.  I'll see it I can fix the permissions.

I think it's fixed now.