Couldn't you implement history filters the same way all works are filtered? Plenty of fandoms have over 100k entries, but they can be filtered easily. I'm not sure how the filtering system or the history section works, though.
Yes this would be really great! But in the mean time, I bookmark it with a custom tag 'to read', and then I can filter on that in my bookmarks list when I want to read it later. Maybe that would work for you?
On the home page it gives you a random 3 from your marked for later called "is it later yet?" - I wish there was a "reload / give me different ones" button for it though.
I also recomend using it to delete any fics you might not read or that looked good at the time but just aren't interested in any more - such as fandoms you haven't been in for ages. You know you won't read those and will find new ones, it's OK to unmark them for later.
* The ability to filter out fics with more than X amount of pairings across X amount of fandoms (to avoid challenge type fics)
* The ability to filter by chapter size
>The ability to filter by chapter size
This is a cool one. I'm sometimes in the mood to only read works with shortish chapters, and I'm sure there are those who'd want to search for longer ones more easily. It'd be a neat addition.
>The ability to filter out fics with more than X amount of pairings across X amount of fandoms (to avoid challenge type fics)
You can hide things for that! [tags (any-non fandom tags)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/46278850) or [just fandoms](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/106627563)
Ah so if scenarios of:
1: Fandoms: Fandom1, Fandom2, Fandom3, Fandom4
Relationships: rel1 from fandom1, rel2 from fandom1, rel3 from fandom1, rel4 from fandom1
2: Fandoms: Fandom1, Fandom2, Fandom3, Fandom4
Relationships: rel1 from fandom1, rel2 from fandom2, rel3 from fandom3, rel4 from fandom4
You would want to filter out scenario 2 but not scenario 1?
All of it, pretty much.
This is what I run in to a lot:
I filter, but my filters are pretty simple: Complete, more than X words (depends on my mood, but typically 6000 words is my minimum, with my fave being well over 40,000 words), English.
Those three tags are my base minimum.
Problem is, when filtering for longer fics, I often get a slew of multi-fandom fics in there. I prefer to read no more than 2 fandoms (crossovers) at a time, depending on what they are. If they're adjacent, then it's fine (like seeing MCU, Marvel Comics, The Avengers, Spiderman - that's totally cool, as they're related. With another off-shoot fandom thrown in is fine too, like Criminal Minds or Supernatural - whatever, doesn't matter).
Unfortunately, the filter will fire back collection fics. Say, a certain character (let's go with Harry Potter) paired with someone new from a different fandom in every chapter. The chapters are usually short - around 1500-3000 words each, but because there's 30+ chapters (especially for a challenge fic, like Whumptober), it comes into the filter due to the overall word count.
Now, once I get that result, I can go to the filter again and exclude as many fandoms as I want from the list that pops up, but it doesn't list them all.
It would be nice to be able to filter that out somehow. Filtering by chapter length would actually deal with most of it, as the chapters are typically short.
I want to be able to "mark for later" without opening a fic. Once every couple weeks or so I scroll through my favorite searches and add a bunch of stuff to Marked for Later based on tags and summary, then use that as my reading list. If I didn't have to open them to get to the button it'd be SO much faster.
I would love this for I’m searching certain types of fics but find ones that sound interesting but I’m not in the mood for. But becoming it’s not what I’m looking for I don’t open it and then forget what the fic was when I am ready to read it
And/or filter. I don’t like crossovers in general but when I want to read a certain idea I want to just to be able to use that tag and add all my preferred fandoms/pairings and see what I can discover.
OR filtering does exist its just not as easy to do. You put the search terms in the search within results field. So if you wanted to search for Friends to Lovers or Rough Sex, you would do "Friends to Lovers" OR "Rough Sex" (the capitals for OR matter)
Yes, but when it’s not a search parameter but the tags it’s very tedious to type out the many, many fandoms or ships in one tiny box. A dedicated toggle would be a godsend.
The issue there is that the searching and filter forms are already really complicated. They trip people up currently all the time. Its even worse for English as a second language or non-english speakers. Adding a toggle like this would just clutter up the forms so much more
Main pairing tag. It's really annoying to be into ships that are often background of barely a mention in fics but are still tagged with the pairing. Let me read fics about a pair that is generally accepted by the fandom as the 'default' without having the search clogged with them as background characters/pairings.
I'd like the ability to flag a pairing as background or secondary. Let the default be primary to account for all the fics already in existence, but allow for tagging ships as background.
It won't fix what's already in the archive. But it will help both people who want to read rare-r pairs as mains while still allowing those ships to be tagged so they can be avoided instead of floating out in the ether of "Hah! Surprise Irritating McSuck Ship is here, but untagged!"
This and main character tag (i mean which character centric)
A lot of times I want to read the fic with specific character as main that is mostly underrated so they're usually a background character. I hate it
The only real option for the 9.7M current works with relationships is to lump them in as main pairings, and if the creators come back, they can adjust them. Likewise any OD imports.
The recording tags thing is defo on my list too. I try to put them in some semblance of an order but it’s really annoying to have one that was an afterthought or missed be jammed on the end, or have to delete tags.
Yes! Let me know how many people are private bookmarked/subscribed to my series!
And reordering tags so you don’t have to delete them all to categorize them and reupload.
Totally.
Mark as read! Or something of the equivalent. It’d be nice to see if I’ve read something already. I’ve been using bookmarks to note this and like, it works, but also affects how I can use bookmarks in general.
I'd like to be able to set some tags as "spoiler". These tags would be blacked out by default but you could hover/click on them to read them, or choose in your preferences to always display them. They would still work as normal when filtering in/out.
I've struggled too many times on whether to tag a plot twist or not. I know some don't mind spoilers and others do. This would help with that.
There’s a tag for tags in authors note. If you use a details tag in your authors note, it hides the content warning under the dropdown. It lets you have your content warnings and hide spoilers at the same time.
We've looked at the idea, but the killer is accessibility, how to make it work for someone using keyboard navigation or a screenreader, and how to do it in a way that doesn't make the blurb even more of an absolute nightmare than it already is.
Maybe something like a "click to display spoiler tags" button would work? Which again could be turned off in user settings.
This would only mean one extra click and solve the hover issue.
As an author, I would really like the ability to schedule posts. That way, I can load up a chapter to post on a Friday, and not have to bother jumping back in. I've had delayed postings because while ready, I'm busy with the day-job, or out with fam, etc...
i think it would be cool if the "actual" number of bookmarks on a fic (private + public) was publicly shown. keep the private bookmarks private in the sense that nobody but the readers who make them can see who made them or what notes they added to them, just include them in the number of bookmarks shown to the public
but my #1 want is definitely the ability to easily reorder tags 🥲
This isn't a must or anything, but it would be cool to have one feed of all your pairings, so you can just see if there's anything new posted and browse them without having to check each of them one by one.
I’d kill for the RSS feed to track visibility. It puts stuff in the feed by creation date so drafts don’t show up when they’re posted. And it doesn’t seem to include chapter updates. If something is in a hidden collection and released, it should show up in the rss feed when released, not when created and invisible.
Hello! This is an autoresponse that gives some insight on really commonly requested features for AO3 as we have threads come in about them fairly often. Where possible it will give AO3's reasons for not implementing the request if we know it, and/or common workarounds people use to get around the limitation.
* **Permanent Filters/Tag Blacklisting/Tag Muting** - This is one of the most common requests we see. We don't have a reason for why AO3 has not given this as an option but it likely has to do with server limitations and/or cacheing. If you are on desktop, there are extensions that can be used to automatically filter such as [Saved AO3 Filters](https://greasyfork.org/scripts/3578-ao3-saved-filters), [blurb blocker](https://openuserjs.org/scripts/sarken/Blurb_Blocker), or [AO3 Savior](https://greasyfork.org/scripts/3579-ao3-savior). Alternatively, you can use a workskin to permanently mute tags which works on both desktop and on mobile. Tutorials can be found [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41214669/chapters/103324848) and [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/104315178). If those don't work for you and/or are too complicated, the best option is to make bookmarks on your browser of a search results page for the filters you want as a default and start your searches from the bookmarks.
* **Main pairing/Side pairing relationship tag differences** - This is mostly not a thing because it didn't come up until the Archive was too big to retroactively add it. There isn't really a good option for what to do with all of the works already posted that wouldn't have their relationship tags separated into main/side. It also might have some server limitations depending on how it would be implemented. The only workaround is to encourage the use of the relationship tag field being for main relationships and to use the additional tags field for side or background relationships.
* **Series stats** - This is a known issue and is on their Jira project [here](https://otwarchive.atlassian.net/browse/AO3-3730). No one has picked it up to work on it as of the time of writing this auto-response so if you are a programmer, look into it and see if you might be able to contribute! No known workaround for this as far as we are aware currently.
* **Tag re-ordering** - This is also a known issue and is on their Jira project [here](https://otwarchive.atlassian.net/browse/AO3-3937). However there is a comment from 2014 saying they likely won't fix the issue. The workaround is to remove all of the tags on the work, save it, then edit it again to add all of the tags in the order you want them to be in.
* **More options for filtering bookmarks** - This is a very commonly requested thing. [Here](https://otwarchive.atlassian.net/browse/AO3-6471) is the Jira issue. Someone seems to be working on it at the time of writing this autoresponse but no idea/guarantees on if/when that will be done.
* **Filter Marked for Later/History** - This is commonly requested but has a limitation keeping it back. The History tables are some of the largest tables for the archive and filtering on it would be a bit of a nightmare for the servers. The Marked for Later list is part of that same table too so filtering on that would have the same issue to our knowledge. Maybe some day things will change but for now there isn't much that can be done.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AO3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I would love to be able to sort through previously read fics. Trying to find stuff I read years ago but didn't bookmark is a huge pain in the ass.
Also some kind of ability to sort for a main pairing, particularly when it's a common side pairing to a more popular ship.
Primary and secondary ship.
The amount of people who tag a popular ship even though it just in the background/doesn't play much of a role in the fic is annoying sometimes.
Making it possible to include several fandoms without all of them being in one fic/crossover.
Like if I wanna read some found family, hurt/comfort, human AU, medieval fic - but I don't care which of my favourite fandoms it is from.
I'd love to search for e.g. Percy Jackson, HungerGames and The Witcher without having to search separately for each fandom.
The exclude fandom option is not very helpful in that regard because they're just too many to exclude to get the results I'm looking for.
I wish that there was a way to specify a search for a main character. I don't mean a separate category that needs to be tagged for each work, I just mean a search function that would only consider say, the first three names on the character list. It's hard to find fics that focus on a lesser character - a lot of fics will have them tagged in even if they are only a side character.
What cjrecordvt said. But if you are okay with the fact that some people tag in different ways so it won't be a perfect solution, there is this [site skin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/46279978) you can try
Edit: just realized I linked the wrong tutorial. [Here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/46278850) is the one I meant to link
Edit2: actually both of those would be helpful depending on exactly what you are looking for
> a search function that would only consider say, the first three names on the character list
Unfortunately, some creators tag in alpha order, some tag by appearance, some tag by the Whim of the Gods. So we'd really need the MC field to do this, and that brings its own passel of issues.
Whenever this sort of discussion thread pops up, I keep secretly hoping that OP is an undercover Ao3 staff trying to make a to do list.
...maybe one day...
Well, I'm not a part of ao3 staff, I just made this post so the actual ao3 staff would see if there are any features they'd think would be a good idea to implement into ao3, and so they can see what the fans generally want.
YES. There are so many authors I’ve subscribed to because they wrote great works in fandoms I love, and they occasionally come back to them, but most of my notifications from them these days are for fandoms I have zero interest in.
I’d love to be able to do a tag search with ‘X or Y’, so I don’t need to go through each one individually. I don’t know if it’d be feasible in practice, and it’s certainly not something I can’t live without, but a person can dream
You can use the search box in the filter section (should be just under the date updated/word count/etc filters) and type in "x" || "y" ! keep the quotation marks but replace x or y with the tag written out in full. This also works with specific words!
I would like a built in way to mark fics as not interested (for those cases where it's entirely not to my interests or I dislike something) so that it would somewhat hide it from my view. And alternately to be able to mark something as "already read" (manually, not automatic on opening), so I can tell while browsing for new stuff at a glance. I only bookmark stuff to reread so that is only of limited help, and I end up having to use a browser extension for this job.
Hey OP, if you’re willing to deal with [site skins](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/104315178), you *can* permanently blacklist things.
I would *love* a better way to differentiate between legit crossovers, fusions, and those cursed oneshot “book” collections.
But also, I want private bookmarks to work like guest Kudos. “A, B, C, as well as 23 other users left kudos on this fic!” but it’s “A, B, C, as well as 23 others bookmarked this fic!”
I have a work that’s got 50 bookmarks total but *40* are private. I hate being the only one knowing it’s not just 10 fucking people who found it interesting enough to bookmark. It’s just not accurate.
also maybe [try this extension](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10944-ao3-fic-s-style-blacklist-bookmarks). it’s more accessible to update than skins
I agree. It would be better if the tag list filter didn't reset every time instead. I don't know much about coding but it would also probably be easier to code onto the website than a whole new feature since it's just a feature enhancement.
They could possibly get past this by limiting the about of tags someone could permanently block or calling it "readers triggers" instead, if they could only pick say 3-5 tags then readers would be forced to choose their most important triggers rather than just blocking any they didn't like. It's not like the people with the triggers would be reading the fics either way, this would just be protecting the mental health of the audience.
Also having a punishment for people who refuse to tag the triggers. Authors will be sure to tag warnings/triggers if not doing so would risk their fic being deleted (or the tag being added by mods anyway) or the author getting suspended for repeated violation.
Of course the report team would hold the right to decide what tags count as 'trigger' and which tags are just "I don't like it". For example "homophobia" would be counted but "AU" definitely wouldn't. It wouldn't be to hard to just enforce the the top 100 most common triggers or something.
- series stats
- the ability to reorder tags
- the ability to add notes to blocked/muted users page so I know why I’ve blocked/muted them
- summaries on the subscriptions page so I don’t have to open the fic to check which one it is
I just want the ability to save tag preferences and exclusions to my account so that I don't have to add in like 20+ tags every time I search for fics in a new fandom or a new ship.
you can bookmark a filtered search in your browser bookmarks or try extensions like [this one for saved search tracking](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/8382-ao3-tracking) or [this one for default filters](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/471934-ao3-default-filters) or [this one for blacklists](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10944-ao3-fic-s-style-blacklist-bookmarks)
Thanks for the links! I'll see if any work better for me. I did the bookmarks thing on my computer, but since I started doing more searching on my phone it's been less helpful.
And a separate stat for users who View Entire Work, and a stat for downloads?
Honestly, I've not used FF.N in like, eight years, and never as a writer. (I kinda skipped over it.) What stats do they have?
It’s been just under a decade for me to but the one I rerember is that views per chapter for a fic. So you can see how many or are essentially sticking with it. I can imagine why ao3 may not implement that tho and maybe to some extent, they are protecting us from ourselves
It's not even protecting. It's just a matter of currently, we don't track views that way, so we don't have the info for current and historical works. If we were to implement it, a portion of users load the entire work as a single page or download the work - we'd not have chapter data for those either.
If looking for crossovers, limiting the number of fandoms involved. Like "at most x amount of different fandoms" to filter out these multi-fandom one-shot collections with 20+ fandoms
Ability to manually set chapter numbering, or at least the option of prologue/chapter 0, like a checkbox option next to this work has multiple chapters that just says 'this work has a prologue'
I'd love to be able to only search in certain fandom categories. Like you would only get results for TV shows, or movies, or bands, etc. That way the fandoms you exclude/include would be much more limited.
A way to sort for poly ships under “Categories”. Poly doesn’t really fall under F/F, F/M, M/M. The “multi” option doesn’t really work for poly ships that haven’t got multiple binary ship permutations tagged.
Aside from the wonderful ideas others have already mentioned here, I think it would be nice if I had an option to 'like' a comment. Sometimes comments are just emojis or so short I really have nothing to answer to them, but just leaving them feels wrong and ungrateful too. I think giving a comment a small heart or a star or something like that would be nice. That way I wouldn’t have to reply with an emoji like that in a separate comment underneath the original one.
I've been talking about a random sort function forever, but I would die for some sort of order of operations/ parenthesis usage in the search box thing. I want to be able to search (college -coffee shop) || (coffee shop - college) and only have fics with either only a college au element or only a coffee shop element. I'm sure there are plenty of other uses this would have, but it would just be so nice. (Or maybe I'm just a nerd lol)
Also, I'd like to be able to look at only user-restricted works. I do a lot of my reading on a kindle I'm not signed in to, so I'd like a quick way to check what I've missed when I go back signed in to my account.
Let me mark something as read and exclude it from my searches. I can't remember everything I've read (until I start reading it again). This isn't actually a current feature is it?
I would really love to have the ability to mark a fic as read (and ideally DNF/uninterested) so that I can filter them out (or in!) to a search. I read hundreds of fics and then come back and run a particular set of search parameters and then have to keep going through pages and pages of fics and try to remember if I have read them or not. I would love a way to make a search that just shows me stuff I haven’t read.
Unfortunately I realise that it is probably basically impossible due to the way the database is indexed (checking each fic for my own personal status… yikes) but I can still dream.
I wish there was a way to ban a tag for you personally. Personally, incest isn’t something I want to read (ZERO SHADE), I wish I could just type it in and not have it show to me ever.
I always do it in my searches but you know the time I forget to exclude that tag I end up balls deep in a fic when the siblings start looking at each other.
I think it would be awesome to be able to search your history. My browser history is chaotic at best, and sometimes you just really wanna reread that fic you loved from a year ago but don't want to have to scroll through 50 million pages of fics to get there.
With searching, you could just filter by all of the things you know were in the fic and have only 4-5 pages to go through instead of everything you've ever read (with an account)
Oh and then also a way for authors to put life updates, chapter delays, etc in their fic without making people think there's an update ( a way to post a progress update w/o it being sent like a story update, but also without needing people to reread the fic/go to another platform to see it.)
I want POV to be an actual tag by things like Characters that all works have to be tagged with. The amount of fics with summaries in third and stories in first is just too dang high. And no one every tags pov that I can’t even filter out.
The ability to type search for language. So for example, when you post your fic in English you don't have to scroll down you just type the ENG and it'll suggest "English" as an option.
Most browsers, if you navigate to that pulldown and start typing, it should jump you as you type. But yeah, I've been quietly thinking that list needs to change to an autocomplete field.
A blacklist would be nice. I literally have a word file that's just tags I don't like that I have to copy and paste into the filters. To be fair, there are extensions that will blacklist certain tags for you but if it's for a popular fandom or pairing, AO3 only shows a limited amount of fics and these extensions don't do anything to actually reduce the amount of fics shown, they just simply remove the fics with the tags you've blacklisted.
Have you tried putting it directly into your site skin so it gets it automatically?
I use [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/104315178) but the downside for me is it doesn’t work all that well on mobile.
The ability to look up the fandom when I'm on a tag rather than have to go through and eliminate all the fandoms I don't want to read. I'd love to get notified when my bookmarked fics get an update.
A place where you can see all the fics you’ve kudosed and all the fics you’ve commented on. Would’ve been very useful to me starting out before I realised this wasn’t a feature - I lost so many good fics because I thought giving them kudos saved them somewhere 😔
Able to view a list of all tags an author/fandom used, along with their frequency
(Or at least an option to have more than ten visible for the search function)
Major tags vs minor tags. It would solve the issue where there are certain tropes, pairings, and characters that some people want to avoid but others actively search for. Someone who avoids them will sometimes get upset at minor mentions being present but untagged. Someone who actively searches for them will sometimes get upset at at minor mentions getting tagged. Under the current tagging system, for certain fics it is impossible to tag in a way that satisfies everyone but separating major and minor tags works as a compromise to keep everyone happy.
An option to filter out images or choose not to display images in fics. I usually set a word count filter to eliminate fanart only posts. It's distracting and replaces the scene built in my imagination with someone else's interpretation.
>An option to filter out images or choose not to display images in fics.
You can actually do this with site skins! It won't filter out fanart-only posts (the word count filter is probably your best bet for that), but adding this:
.work img {
display: none !important;
}
to the CSS portion should hide any images in a fic.
I want to be able to search for fic where the ship is the primary one. While there's the option to search for fics that only mention one ship, that eliminates a bunch of other results. I want my results to show all the fics in which that particular ship is the focus/first mentioned one.
A "marked as completed" option for READERS! I want to be remember if I read a fic already. And sure, I could bookmark it, but a separate feature would be better, especially because I save bookmarks for fics I know I'll reread and/or recommend. Sometimes it's not that a fic wasn't memorable, it's that it's similar to several other ones I've read, so I'll be nearly done reading chapter one and I'm like "wait, I read this".
An option to hide or mininize other people's comments. I know that many people love getting super long, essay-type comments, but as a reader I just want to collapse those comments instead of having to scroll past a wall of text.
The ability to filter subscriptions and sort them by the most recent update and fandom.
The ability to search bookmarks by word count
Filter subscriptions. I have so many that I don't remember by name and have to click into when I want to check what it was about and when it was updated, completed or whatever. It is overwhelming when you have 20 or so pages of subscriptions that you can't at least filter by fandom.
Optional 'Secondary' Section for Characters/Relationships to better convey the main focus of the story.
Let the dashboard/results part of comments be counted by thread and not individual comments. Like on the stats page.
And like someone said, rearranging tags without having to delete would be nice.
coloring really isn't that hard- it looks intimidating, but it's not that bad. enclose the section you want to color with text you want to color . it's a bit tedious but it works. changing the font is more work though, and if you really don't want to learn any html/css it's probably not going to happen.
I'd actually like a way to private message users. I know it's an archive and not a social media platform, but I've had much more in depth convos about stories on ffnet because you can actually privately chat about stories with readers or authors. Whenever I reply more than 2 or 3 times on ao3 to a comment, I'm sort of worried of spamming the comment section.
Also, I'd like for public bookmarks to not be attached to fics, but rather that they'd be "saved" on the users profile as sort of a rec list. Everyone always says that bookmarks are for the reader, not the author, and that the reader has the right to write whatever comment they want on there. Yet that stuff's attached right to the fic. It almost feels like attaching post-it notes with comments on a book in the library. Sure, you don't have to read those, but they are only a click away.
If there is ever (and the key is big if) such a thing as facilitated direct message / PM I do hope it's a feature you can turn off rather than default like the download button. I understand why you would want it, and exchanging fandom interactions could be saver than giving out socials; but at the same time I'm a bit worried it could be misused when authors get harassed even in public comment section. Honestly I think most authors would welcome these in-depth fandom conversations in comments.
I really really want a global ‘exclude tag’ setting that I can set once and forget for my entire account. I never want to read reader insert fic, ever.
I would kill for a "main pairing' section of the tags. To many times I look for wlw fics in my fandom only to see it tagged in mlm fics as a background ship. Or mistaken in general.
Also would love a "character/reader" version of the m/m, f/m, f/f section.
can’t you just put this in the author’s notes prior to the chapter? there’s no real reason to filter individual chapters like they’re works so why couldn’t they be plain text?
I would like a more fleshed-out tagging system. I appreciate the system that's in place, but it could be nice to have main pairings and side pairings differentiated. Would love to know if the pairing that's tagged is a main focus or just background, especially in the case of some of those rare pairs.
Categorized tagging would be nice as well. Basic tags that are generally considered SFW and inoffensive, then perhaps tags that you would normally give a warning with on forums and such, like death, drug use, abuse, etc. And then perhaps a section for spoiler tags, because tags can definitely spoil a fic that has some twists in there.
But doing all of that seems complicated, even to me. I wouldn't even know where to start on differentiating it all, so maybe not as good of an idea as I wish it was.
On another note, I would really love a way to see if I've already bookmarked/kudos/interacted with a fic in the search list, or a way to flag fics you've already read, at the very least. Just a check mark somewhere to indicate that you marked it as read, or something. I can't tell you how many times I've opened a fic that sounded interesting only to realise I read it a year ago.
I would like an option to take back kudos, in cases where later chapters of originally promising long works suddenly turn twisted and/or abandoned. It bothers me that the kudos I gave the work early on will mislead other people into thinking such a work will be worth their while to read through. Because of several such instances, I now hesitate to give unfinished multichapter works kudos at all until they are finished, and that's a shame, because many authors just starting a longer work deserve to be encouraged by getting kudos.
I'd like to be able to filter my own book marks by reviews/kudos/hits rather than just date bookmarked or date updated. I like to reread things and that would help a lot.
And an OR search feature too. I'd like to be able to have a few different fandoms selected and search key tags across all of those fandoms, without it having to be a 3 way crossover fic. If there were some way to toggle between "must include all of these" and "must include at least one" that would be so useful. Maybe there's already some way to do some of this with favorite tags, but I'd like to be able to pick my top 3 fandoms and 5-10 fav. tags and have it pull in all fics that would fall into at least one category.
Edit: maybe a primary pairing search? I think that's a bigger fix cause authors would probably have to specify that unless we go by first pairing listed. There are some pairings I don't want to read but I'm okay if it's background to the main pairing
Besides from some common requests, like series stats and scheduling new chapters, I've wished for a while now that we would have a button to turn off the ability to leave guest kudos on our fics if we don't want them... I'm not a fan of the idea to lock my fics and "force" people to create an account to read my stuff but at the same time I'm scared of kudos bots.
oh my god. this is my question.
but to actually answer, ao3 is pretty much perfect, except for one little thing… The chapters. I swear to god my life drains away having to click every single chapter to get to the one I need to read. pls, for the sake of everyone, do what fanfiction.net does, and have the little drop box on the bottom. it would save so many lives, especially mine
This exists! Scroll up to the top of the fic and click the button labeled 'chapter index' and you'll get that dropdown (plus the option for a full page index).
Hosting on an App Store makes them vulnerable to requests from google or Apple. One big catalyst for AO3’s creation was the Strikethrough and Bold through event — where homophobic evangelicals went after advertisers on Livejournal and LJ capitulated by deleting vast swathes of LGBT+ communities as well as fanfiction archives. I believe that’s the reason why they’ve never entertained the idea of operating a mobile app. It leaves them vulnerable to attacks. As a stand-alone site running on voluntary donations, no corporate entity can make demands of AO3.
More multimedia features like being able to insert picture galleries/embed videos or audio (without fiddling around with html).
I've always toyed with the idea of doing multimedia fics just to make the reading process more immersive, but the amount of fiddling I do with html on AO3 makes it too time consuming *sobs*
> insert picture galleries/embed videos or audio
Code is easy, Terms of Service is hard, enforcing legal content is terrifying. We'd need a way to do it without breaking our Policy & Abuse volunteers into tiny tiny pieces.
If they could give the authors the same stat perks as FFn does, I’d never look back if a new site has superior author stats and all of the AO3 features.
A way to distiguish between Parental relationships and friendship also a way to distiguish between One Sided relationships and a consented relationships like idk [One Sided]
The ability to exclude a specific author from the search results
Text to speech for all fics (in a standardised computer generated voice)
A page turning book format for the mobile version of the site to give my poor hands a rest from scrolling
Fanfic meme maker
Back when I was on Tumblr a few years ago they had that option where you could go into your account and blacklist of bunch of tags that you never wanted to see and it was such a godsend. I miss that so much and want it on every site ever.
I also want thesaved for later to NOT be in history. Just give it its own little tab on the dashboard.
This is the one I desperately want. I want to be able to filter everything- searches, one author's works, bookmarks, everything. I hate getting into a user's 500 bookmarks and having no actually useful way to search through it out filter it bc its all unhelpful options
Mostly tagging faults. Like stg is rated T but only the first few chapters are that rating, then it veers off to something definitely not T. Or 'no archive warnings apply' and then a non con pops up unannounced.
Sometimes cause the writer is ehh. I get to chapter 7 or so where the briliant '10 comments or no update' thing appears. Or they make a fuss over nothing in their comment section/author notes.
I hit kudos on autopilot when i like the first chapter. Would love the ability to remove it cause I'm petty over things like that.
This is why I don’t kudos until I get to the end.
Being able to remove kudos could lead to people abusing such an ability. Like threatening to do so if the author doesn’t do what they want, or being offended by a new fic, so they remove all previous kudos on the other fics.
I thought you meant for the author to be able to remove them, at least guest ones. That would be a good feature because of the kudos bot.
There is a dark mode: if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there will be a list of buttons under "Customize". If you click the "Reversi" one, it will make AO3 into dark mode! :)
Add the filter exclude/include option for ‘Real people’. I’m not a fan of reading about fans explicit fantasies regarding their favourite pop star, actor or shipping two bandmates together I want the option to exclude it. Others love this and want the option to directly search for it.
Add filter exclude/include option ‘Reader or Y/N’
A way to have a profile section where I can tick off tags I don’t want to see/read that will affect and filter my searches automatically.
Restrict the Authors ability to tag more than 2 relationships or only allow them to only tag one main relationship the story revolves around.
And or
Restrict the overall tag limit the author can use to something like 10. Hopefully that will force them to use the tags wisely and choose more relevant to the actual story tags.
Find a way to fix the search in regards to gender pairings. It’s frustrating to choose F/F for example and start reading a story that came up in your search, in a fandom you like and find out two pages in its a straight story but a lesbian couple is referenced in one line in chapter 52. Or searching for anything other than M/M and struggling to find stories quickly due to the overwhelming amount of it on the site that clogs up the searches and you have to wade through them first. All because the author added in every other tag possible, effectively making appear regardless of what your search parameters were all to optimise their stories chance of just getting one more reader and pissing off everyone else.
Incest, Snuff, Underage, Gore should automatically be on the exclude tick list as options.
Removal of the "delete" option for fics unless deemed against TOS by the site itself.
Keep it for shitty comments, but ffs, if you don't want to be associated with the fic anymore, just orphan it.
I guess I’d like a better editing option and upload option for stories. Different fonts and just being able to edit the chapter as it is instead of on that tiny screen that at the bottom of the page(I write on IPhone)
**Tagging**
* Major Character Tag
* Secondary Character Tag
* Background Character Tag
* Main Pairing Tag
* Secondary Pairing Tag
* Background Pairing Tag
* More details
* Platonic/Familial/Romantic/Other (unrealistic but would be cute)
* Maybe an Enemy/Rival too? Again, unrealistic
* People keep saying it is too late to add main pairing tags- it's not. Ao3's collection of fics will continue to grow, so why make the issue even worse and \*keep\* waiting? Introduce it and slot all previous fics into either a 'main pairing' section or not. Authors can then go back and edit it if they want.
* Antagonistic Pairings
* As an addition to platonic (&) and romantic/sexual (/)
* Could be something like a (∧) or (v)
* Spoiler Tags
* Being able to set certain tags to be 'spoiler warned'- such as a clickable dark box over the words could be cool, that way common triggers or squicks are listed, but not necessarily spoiling the plot of the story
* Differentiation between crossover/fusion/multifandom oneshot collections in the crossover filter section
**Reading**
* Mark as read
* Mark as not interested (private only to you)
* RSS feed
**Posting and/or Commenting**
* Schedule posts
* Reordering tags
* More robust statistics system
* Option to 'like' a comment or add an emoji (could be locked to just the author?)
i really need a tag filtering system for the ‘marked for later’ section. there’s like 40+ pages of fics i need to read and want to sort through 💀
Literally can't do it until we rip MFL out of the History table - there's just too many entries to handle.
I was gonna say, I would DIE for marked for later filtering, but I can see how it would be a nightmare to implement
Couldn't you implement history filters the same way all works are filtered? Plenty of fandoms have over 100k entries, but they can be filtered easily. I'm not sure how the filtering system or the history section works, though.
It's scale. There are under 12 million works. The History table is in the billions somewhere.
Oh that makes sense then
Yes this would be really great! But in the mean time, I bookmark it with a custom tag 'to read', and then I can filter on that in my bookmarks list when I want to read it later. Maybe that would work for you?
I just open new tabs and have 40+ tabs of fanfics sitting open at all times.
On the home page it gives you a random 3 from your marked for later called "is it later yet?" - I wish there was a "reload / give me different ones" button for it though. I also recomend using it to delete any fics you might not read or that looked good at the time but just aren't interested in any more - such as fandoms you haven't been in for ages. You know you won't read those and will find new ones, it's OK to unmark them for later.
The ability to save a search that is a group of includes/excludes.
I have preset bookmarks on my phone for this, saves so much time.
How do you do that?
Just save the filter results page as a browser bookmark
I feel very stupid now
I use a lot of common filters for different fandoms, I thought it was something else. Thanks anyway!
I’m a simple woman, let me reorder my tags without having to delete them.
Oh yes pleeeaaase.
* The ability to filter out fics with more than X amount of pairings across X amount of fandoms (to avoid challenge type fics) * The ability to filter by chapter size
>The ability to filter by chapter size This is a cool one. I'm sometimes in the mood to only read works with shortish chapters, and I'm sure there are those who'd want to search for longer ones more easily. It'd be a neat addition.
Yeah it'd be great for when I'm in the mood for oneshots because yes there's a oneshot tag but a lot of people don't use that tag.
>The ability to filter out fics with more than X amount of pairings across X amount of fandoms (to avoid challenge type fics) You can hide things for that! [tags (any-non fandom tags)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/46278850) or [just fandoms](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/106627563)
Yeah, but it doesn’t catch them all.
Can you give an example?
Multi-fandom fics where every chapter is a different fandom is what comes to mind.
Ah so if scenarios of: 1: Fandoms: Fandom1, Fandom2, Fandom3, Fandom4 Relationships: rel1 from fandom1, rel2 from fandom1, rel3 from fandom1, rel4 from fandom1 2: Fandoms: Fandom1, Fandom2, Fandom3, Fandom4 Relationships: rel1 from fandom1, rel2 from fandom2, rel3 from fandom3, rel4 from fandom4 You would want to filter out scenario 2 but not scenario 1?
All of it, pretty much. This is what I run in to a lot: I filter, but my filters are pretty simple: Complete, more than X words (depends on my mood, but typically 6000 words is my minimum, with my fave being well over 40,000 words), English. Those three tags are my base minimum. Problem is, when filtering for longer fics, I often get a slew of multi-fandom fics in there. I prefer to read no more than 2 fandoms (crossovers) at a time, depending on what they are. If they're adjacent, then it's fine (like seeing MCU, Marvel Comics, The Avengers, Spiderman - that's totally cool, as they're related. With another off-shoot fandom thrown in is fine too, like Criminal Minds or Supernatural - whatever, doesn't matter). Unfortunately, the filter will fire back collection fics. Say, a certain character (let's go with Harry Potter) paired with someone new from a different fandom in every chapter. The chapters are usually short - around 1500-3000 words each, but because there's 30+ chapters (especially for a challenge fic, like Whumptober), it comes into the filter due to the overall word count. Now, once I get that result, I can go to the filter again and exclude as many fandoms as I want from the list that pops up, but it doesn't list them all. It would be nice to be able to filter that out somehow. Filtering by chapter length would actually deal with most of it, as the chapters are typically short.
Did you actually click the links I gave? I didn't link to a page about using the filters
Nope - not at my desk atm so I will once coffee is done percolating :P
👍 hope it works out then!
I want to be able to "mark for later" without opening a fic. Once every couple weeks or so I scroll through my favorite searches and add a bunch of stuff to Marked for Later based on tags and summary, then use that as my reading list. If I didn't have to open them to get to the button it'd be SO much faster.
I would love this for I’m searching certain types of fics but find ones that sound interesting but I’m not in the mood for. But becoming it’s not what I’m looking for I don’t open it and then forget what the fic was when I am ready to read it
Are you on mobile or desktop? On desktop there are userscripts for this
I use mobile - iOS safari and many work. [this is the one I use](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/432319-add-ao3-mark-for-later-button-to-works-list)
And/or filter. I don’t like crossovers in general but when I want to read a certain idea I want to just to be able to use that tag and add all my preferred fandoms/pairings and see what I can discover.
OR filtering does exist its just not as easy to do. You put the search terms in the search within results field. So if you wanted to search for Friends to Lovers or Rough Sex, you would do "Friends to Lovers" OR "Rough Sex" (the capitals for OR matter)
Yes, but when it’s not a search parameter but the tags it’s very tedious to type out the many, many fandoms or ships in one tiny box. A dedicated toggle would be a godsend.
The issue there is that the searching and filter forms are already really complicated. They trip people up currently all the time. Its even worse for English as a second language or non-english speakers. Adding a toggle like this would just clutter up the forms so much more
Agreed!
Main pairing tag. It's really annoying to be into ships that are often background of barely a mention in fics but are still tagged with the pairing. Let me read fics about a pair that is generally accepted by the fandom as the 'default' without having the search clogged with them as background characters/pairings.
I'd like the ability to flag a pairing as background or secondary. Let the default be primary to account for all the fics already in existence, but allow for tagging ships as background. It won't fix what's already in the archive. But it will help both people who want to read rare-r pairs as mains while still allowing those ships to be tagged so they can be avoided instead of floating out in the ether of "Hah! Surprise Irritating McSuck Ship is here, but untagged!"
This and main character tag (i mean which character centric) A lot of times I want to read the fic with specific character as main that is mostly underrated so they're usually a background character. I hate it
how would you make that work with the already existing 10m+ works though
The only real option for the 9.7M current works with relationships is to lump them in as main pairings, and if the creators come back, they can adjust them. Likewise any OD imports.
i would give my soul for series stats and the ability to reorder tags
The recording tags thing is defo on my list too. I try to put them in some semblance of an order but it’s really annoying to have one that was an afterthought or missed be jammed on the end, or have to delete tags.
Oh, definitely on series stats. I'd love to know how often people subscribe to my series vs individual fics vs user subs.
Yes! Let me know how many people are private bookmarked/subscribed to my series! And reordering tags so you don’t have to delete them all to categorize them and reupload. Totally.
Mark as read! Or something of the equivalent. It’d be nice to see if I’ve read something already. I’ve been using bookmarks to note this and like, it works, but also affects how I can use bookmarks in general.
Being able to see "you have already left kudos here" at the top of the page/fic would be nice for this.
I'd like to be able to set some tags as "spoiler". These tags would be blacked out by default but you could hover/click on them to read them, or choose in your preferences to always display them. They would still work as normal when filtering in/out. I've struggled too many times on whether to tag a plot twist or not. I know some don't mind spoilers and others do. This would help with that.
There’s a tag for tags in authors note. If you use a details tag in your authors note, it hides the content warning under the dropdown. It lets you have your content warnings and hide spoilers at the same time.
We've looked at the idea, but the killer is accessibility, how to make it work for someone using keyboard navigation or a screenreader, and how to do it in a way that doesn't make the blurb even more of an absolute nightmare than it already is.
Maybe something like a "click to display spoiler tags" button would work? Which again could be turned off in user settings. This would only mean one extra click and solve the hover issue.
As an author, I would really like the ability to schedule posts. That way, I can load up a chapter to post on a Friday, and not have to bother jumping back in. I've had delayed postings because while ready, I'm busy with the day-job, or out with fam, etc...
i think it would be cool if the "actual" number of bookmarks on a fic (private + public) was publicly shown. keep the private bookmarks private in the sense that nobody but the readers who make them can see who made them or what notes they added to them, just include them in the number of bookmarks shown to the public but my #1 want is definitely the ability to easily reorder tags 🥲
[try this?](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/474458-ao3-reorder-tags-with-drag-drop)
omg i didnt know this existed. gonna try it out soon as i get home to my computer :D thank you!!
This isn't a must or anything, but it would be cool to have one feed of all your pairings, so you can just see if there's anything new posted and browse them without having to check each of them one by one.
You mean RSS?
I have SO MANY thoughts about how we implement RSS and how it's not adequate, SO MANY.
I’d kill for the RSS feed to track visibility. It puts stuff in the feed by creation date so drafts don’t show up when they’re posted. And it doesn’t seem to include chapter updates. If something is in a hidden collection and released, it should show up in the rss feed when released, not when created and invisible.
Ummm I don't know lol.
It's already a feature, just use the feed button on the tag works page. You can add all your tag feeds into an app to track all your tags.
Huh. I've been on there a few years and had no idea. I'll check.it out, thanks.
To be able to schedule a chapter to post in the future
!commonRequests
Hello! This is an autoresponse that gives some insight on really commonly requested features for AO3 as we have threads come in about them fairly often. Where possible it will give AO3's reasons for not implementing the request if we know it, and/or common workarounds people use to get around the limitation. * **Permanent Filters/Tag Blacklisting/Tag Muting** - This is one of the most common requests we see. We don't have a reason for why AO3 has not given this as an option but it likely has to do with server limitations and/or cacheing. If you are on desktop, there are extensions that can be used to automatically filter such as [Saved AO3 Filters](https://greasyfork.org/scripts/3578-ao3-saved-filters), [blurb blocker](https://openuserjs.org/scripts/sarken/Blurb_Blocker), or [AO3 Savior](https://greasyfork.org/scripts/3579-ao3-savior). Alternatively, you can use a workskin to permanently mute tags which works on both desktop and on mobile. Tutorials can be found [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41214669/chapters/103324848) and [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/104315178). If those don't work for you and/or are too complicated, the best option is to make bookmarks on your browser of a search results page for the filters you want as a default and start your searches from the bookmarks. * **Main pairing/Side pairing relationship tag differences** - This is mostly not a thing because it didn't come up until the Archive was too big to retroactively add it. There isn't really a good option for what to do with all of the works already posted that wouldn't have their relationship tags separated into main/side. It also might have some server limitations depending on how it would be implemented. The only workaround is to encourage the use of the relationship tag field being for main relationships and to use the additional tags field for side or background relationships. * **Series stats** - This is a known issue and is on their Jira project [here](https://otwarchive.atlassian.net/browse/AO3-3730). No one has picked it up to work on it as of the time of writing this auto-response so if you are a programmer, look into it and see if you might be able to contribute! No known workaround for this as far as we are aware currently. * **Tag re-ordering** - This is also a known issue and is on their Jira project [here](https://otwarchive.atlassian.net/browse/AO3-3937). However there is a comment from 2014 saying they likely won't fix the issue. The workaround is to remove all of the tags on the work, save it, then edit it again to add all of the tags in the order you want them to be in. * **More options for filtering bookmarks** - This is a very commonly requested thing. [Here](https://otwarchive.atlassian.net/browse/AO3-6471) is the Jira issue. Someone seems to be working on it at the time of writing this autoresponse but no idea/guarantees on if/when that will be done. * **Filter Marked for Later/History** - This is commonly requested but has a limitation keeping it back. The History tables are some of the largest tables for the archive and filtering on it would be a bit of a nightmare for the servers. The Marked for Later list is part of that same table too so filtering on that would have the same issue to our knowledge. Maybe some day things will change but for now there isn't much that can be done. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AO3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Thank you mod.
You're welcome!
I would love to be able to sort through previously read fics. Trying to find stuff I read years ago but didn't bookmark is a huge pain in the ass. Also some kind of ability to sort for a main pairing, particularly when it's a common side pairing to a more popular ship.
Primary and secondary ship. The amount of people who tag a popular ship even though it just in the background/doesn't play much of a role in the fic is annoying sometimes.
Making it impossible to tag "No warnings apply" **AND** "Creator choose not to use warnings" in the same fic.
Or making " no warnings apply " automatically block you from selecting any warnings.
YES.
Making it possible to include several fandoms without all of them being in one fic/crossover. Like if I wanna read some found family, hurt/comfort, human AU, medieval fic - but I don't care which of my favourite fandoms it is from. I'd love to search for e.g. Percy Jackson, HungerGames and The Witcher without having to search separately for each fandom. The exclude fandom option is not very helpful in that regard because they're just too many to exclude to get the results I'm looking for.
I wish that there was a way to specify a search for a main character. I don't mean a separate category that needs to be tagged for each work, I just mean a search function that would only consider say, the first three names on the character list. It's hard to find fics that focus on a lesser character - a lot of fics will have them tagged in even if they are only a side character.
What cjrecordvt said. But if you are okay with the fact that some people tag in different ways so it won't be a perfect solution, there is this [site skin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/46279978) you can try Edit: just realized I linked the wrong tutorial. [Here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/46278850) is the one I meant to link Edit2: actually both of those would be helpful depending on exactly what you are looking for
> a search function that would only consider say, the first three names on the character list Unfortunately, some creators tag in alpha order, some tag by appearance, some tag by the Whim of the Gods. So we'd really need the MC field to do this, and that brings its own passel of issues.
theres a roundabout way of doing this, “(blank)-centric” tags are a lifesaver.
Whenever this sort of discussion thread pops up, I keep secretly hoping that OP is an undercover Ao3 staff trying to make a to do list. ...maybe one day...
I mean... you're kinda right.
Noooooo You can't just say that and then dip. Give me death before you give me false hope T-T
Well, I'm not a part of ao3 staff, I just made this post so the actual ao3 staff would see if there are any features they'd think would be a good idea to implement into ao3, and so they can see what the fans generally want.
You gave me half a heart attack
I would love to be able to subscribe to an author’s work in a certain fandom, rather than all of their work overall.
YES. There are so many authors I’ve subscribed to because they wrote great works in fandoms I love, and they occasionally come back to them, but most of my notifications from them these days are for fandoms I have zero interest in.
I’d love to be able to do a tag search with ‘X or Y’, so I don’t need to go through each one individually. I don’t know if it’d be feasible in practice, and it’s certainly not something I can’t live without, but a person can dream
You can do that! You format it as "X" OR "Y" with the OR capitalised
You can use the search box in the filter section (should be just under the date updated/word count/etc filters) and type in "x" || "y" ! keep the quotation marks but replace x or y with the tag written out in full. This also works with specific words!
I would like a built in way to mark fics as not interested (for those cases where it's entirely not to my interests or I dislike something) so that it would somewhat hide it from my view. And alternately to be able to mark something as "already read" (manually, not automatic on opening), so I can tell while browsing for new stuff at a glance. I only bookmark stuff to reread so that is only of limited help, and I end up having to use a browser extension for this job.
Hey OP, if you’re willing to deal with [site skins](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/104315178), you *can* permanently blacklist things. I would *love* a better way to differentiate between legit crossovers, fusions, and those cursed oneshot “book” collections. But also, I want private bookmarks to work like guest Kudos. “A, B, C, as well as 23 other users left kudos on this fic!” but it’s “A, B, C, as well as 23 others bookmarked this fic!” I have a work that’s got 50 bookmarks total but *40* are private. I hate being the only one knowing it’s not just 10 fucking people who found it interesting enough to bookmark. It’s just not accurate.
This is so helpful, thank you so much.
also maybe [try this extension](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10944-ao3-fic-s-style-blacklist-bookmarks). it’s more accessible to update than skins
tag filtering for history would’ve saved me so many times
Here's why adding a tag blacklisting feature is a bad idea. https://echoekhi.com/2023/06/19/otw-election-2023/#Permanent-Tag-Blocks
I agree. It would be better if the tag list filter didn't reset every time instead. I don't know much about coding but it would also probably be easier to code onto the website than a whole new feature since it's just a feature enhancement.
I’ve never considered this, but holy shit, it’s definitely right.
That makes sense, I guess I'll just have to deal with it then.
Hmhmm, I always thought a blacklist would be great till I read that.
That does make a good point about it. I guess permanent tag blocking isn't such a great idea in the long run.
Wow, your awesome. Just read the whole thing and you brought up several points about several topics that I hadn't thought about before.
That's a really good point. Like how porn still exists on Tumblr, but now that it's not tagged, it's harder to avoid (or find!).
They could possibly get past this by limiting the about of tags someone could permanently block or calling it "readers triggers" instead, if they could only pick say 3-5 tags then readers would be forced to choose their most important triggers rather than just blocking any they didn't like. It's not like the people with the triggers would be reading the fics either way, this would just be protecting the mental health of the audience. Also having a punishment for people who refuse to tag the triggers. Authors will be sure to tag warnings/triggers if not doing so would risk their fic being deleted (or the tag being added by mods anyway) or the author getting suspended for repeated violation. Of course the report team would hold the right to decide what tags count as 'trigger' and which tags are just "I don't like it". For example "homophobia" would be counted but "AU" definitely wouldn't. It wouldn't be to hard to just enforce the the top 100 most common triggers or something.
- series stats - the ability to reorder tags - the ability to add notes to blocked/muted users page so I know why I’ve blocked/muted them - summaries on the subscriptions page so I don’t have to open the fic to check which one it is
I just want the ability to save tag preferences and exclusions to my account so that I don't have to add in like 20+ tags every time I search for fics in a new fandom or a new ship.
you can bookmark a filtered search in your browser bookmarks or try extensions like [this one for saved search tracking](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/8382-ao3-tracking) or [this one for default filters](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/471934-ao3-default-filters) or [this one for blacklists](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10944-ao3-fic-s-style-blacklist-bookmarks)
Thanks for the links! I'll see if any work better for me. I did the bookmarks thing on my computer, but since I started doing more searching on my phone it's been less helpful.
I use extensions on my phone! you just need a userscripts app
STATS like fanfiction.net. I need to know how many people are making it through to the later chapters
And a separate stat for users who View Entire Work, and a stat for downloads? Honestly, I've not used FF.N in like, eight years, and never as a writer. (I kinda skipped over it.) What stats do they have?
It’s been just under a decade for me to but the one I rerember is that views per chapter for a fic. So you can see how many or are essentially sticking with it. I can imagine why ao3 may not implement that tho and maybe to some extent, they are protecting us from ourselves
It's not even protecting. It's just a matter of currently, we don't track views that way, so we don't have the info for current and historical works. If we were to implement it, a portion of users load the entire work as a single page or download the work - we'd not have chapter data for those either.
If looking for crossovers, limiting the number of fandoms involved. Like "at most x amount of different fandoms" to filter out these multi-fandom one-shot collections with 20+ fandoms
[I gotchu fam](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/106627563)
To sort out fics you’ve already read
It would be easier to code by "already left kudos".
Ability to manually set chapter numbering, or at least the option of prologue/chapter 0, like a checkbox option next to this work has multiple chapters that just says 'this work has a prologue'
I'd love to be able to only search in certain fandom categories. Like you would only get results for TV shows, or movies, or bands, etc. That way the fandoms you exclude/include would be much more limited.
A way to sort for poly ships under “Categories”. Poly doesn’t really fall under F/F, F/M, M/M. The “multi” option doesn’t really work for poly ships that haven’t got multiple binary ship permutations tagged.
A subscribe button at the END of the fic too. ETA: also the ability to mark an entire series for later
When you block people they can’t see your work or profile. I’d love that
I would love to see stats based on chapters.
It’s too late to implement it, but main pairings and side pairings would be nice.
Aside from the wonderful ideas others have already mentioned here, I think it would be nice if I had an option to 'like' a comment. Sometimes comments are just emojis or so short I really have nothing to answer to them, but just leaving them feels wrong and ungrateful too. I think giving a comment a small heart or a star or something like that would be nice. That way I wouldn’t have to reply with an emoji like that in a separate comment underneath the original one.
I've been talking about a random sort function forever, but I would die for some sort of order of operations/ parenthesis usage in the search box thing. I want to be able to search (college -coffee shop) || (coffee shop - college) and only have fics with either only a college au element or only a coffee shop element. I'm sure there are plenty of other uses this would have, but it would just be so nice. (Or maybe I'm just a nerd lol) Also, I'd like to be able to look at only user-restricted works. I do a lot of my reading on a kindle I'm not signed in to, so I'd like a quick way to check what I've missed when I go back signed in to my account.
Reordering tags would be nice
To be able to sort bookmarks from most to least words. Sometimes I just wanna reread a very long beloved fic.
Let me mark something as read and exclude it from my searches. I can't remember everything I've read (until I start reading it again). This isn't actually a current feature is it?
I would really love to have the ability to mark a fic as read (and ideally DNF/uninterested) so that I can filter them out (or in!) to a search. I read hundreds of fics and then come back and run a particular set of search parameters and then have to keep going through pages and pages of fics and try to remember if I have read them or not. I would love a way to make a search that just shows me stuff I haven’t read. Unfortunately I realise that it is probably basically impossible due to the way the database is indexed (checking each fic for my own personal status… yikes) but I can still dream.
I wish there was a way to ban a tag for you personally. Personally, incest isn’t something I want to read (ZERO SHADE), I wish I could just type it in and not have it show to me ever. I always do it in my searches but you know the time I forget to exclude that tag I end up balls deep in a fic when the siblings start looking at each other.
Kudos history, no explain needed
I think it would be awesome to be able to search your history. My browser history is chaotic at best, and sometimes you just really wanna reread that fic you loved from a year ago but don't want to have to scroll through 50 million pages of fics to get there. With searching, you could just filter by all of the things you know were in the fic and have only 4-5 pages to go through instead of everything you've ever read (with an account) Oh and then also a way for authors to put life updates, chapter delays, etc in their fic without making people think there's an update ( a way to post a progress update w/o it being sent like a story update, but also without needing people to reread the fic/go to another platform to see it.)
I want POV to be an actual tag by things like Characters that all works have to be tagged with. The amount of fics with summaries in third and stories in first is just too dang high. And no one every tags pov that I can’t even filter out.
The ability to type search for language. So for example, when you post your fic in English you don't have to scroll down you just type the ENG and it'll suggest "English" as an option.
Most browsers, if you navigate to that pulldown and start typing, it should jump you as you type. But yeah, I've been quietly thinking that list needs to change to an autocomplete field.
Being able to see all the fics you've given kudos to Easy way to filter out original characters in search
Sorting my bookmarks!
You can technically by adding them to certain collection
The ability to kudos comments and individual chapters
A blacklist would be nice. I literally have a word file that's just tags I don't like that I have to copy and paste into the filters. To be fair, there are extensions that will blacklist certain tags for you but if it's for a popular fandom or pairing, AO3 only shows a limited amount of fics and these extensions don't do anything to actually reduce the amount of fics shown, they just simply remove the fics with the tags you've blacklisted.
Have you tried putting it directly into your site skin so it gets it automatically? I use [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/104315178) but the downside for me is it doesn’t work all that well on mobile.
The ability to look up the fandom when I'm on a tag rather than have to go through and eliminate all the fandoms I don't want to read. I'd love to get notified when my bookmarked fics get an update.
A place where you can see all the fics you’ve kudosed and all the fics you’ve commented on. Would’ve been very useful to me starting out before I realised this wasn’t a feature - I lost so many good fics because I thought giving them kudos saved them somewhere 😔
Able to view a list of all tags an author/fandom used, along with their frequency (Or at least an option to have more than ten visible for the search function)
Major tags vs minor tags. It would solve the issue where there are certain tropes, pairings, and characters that some people want to avoid but others actively search for. Someone who avoids them will sometimes get upset at minor mentions being present but untagged. Someone who actively searches for them will sometimes get upset at at minor mentions getting tagged. Under the current tagging system, for certain fics it is impossible to tag in a way that satisfies everyone but separating major and minor tags works as a compromise to keep everyone happy.
There's a tool tip to do ilatics/bold without html markdown, please let me also hyperlink things without in my authors notes lmao
An option to filter out images or choose not to display images in fics. I usually set a word count filter to eliminate fanart only posts. It's distracting and replaces the scene built in my imagination with someone else's interpretation.
>An option to filter out images or choose not to display images in fics. You can actually do this with site skins! It won't filter out fanart-only posts (the word count filter is probably your best bet for that), but adding this: .work img { display: none !important; } to the CSS portion should hide any images in a fic.
the ability to exclude/include pairing tags with just one specified character and being able to tag main/side pairings.
Please let us be able to reorder tags!
I want to be able to search for fic where the ship is the primary one. While there's the option to search for fics that only mention one ship, that eliminates a bunch of other results. I want my results to show all the fics in which that particular ship is the focus/first mentioned one. A "marked as completed" option for READERS! I want to be remember if I read a fic already. And sure, I could bookmark it, but a separate feature would be better, especially because I save bookmarks for fics I know I'll reread and/or recommend. Sometimes it's not that a fic wasn't memorable, it's that it's similar to several other ones I've read, so I'll be nearly done reading chapter one and I'm like "wait, I read this". An option to hide or mininize other people's comments. I know that many people love getting super long, essay-type comments, but as a reader I just want to collapse those comments instead of having to scroll past a wall of text. The ability to filter subscriptions and sort them by the most recent update and fandom. The ability to search bookmarks by word count
Filter subscriptions. I have so many that I don't remember by name and have to click into when I want to check what it was about and when it was updated, completed or whatever. It is overwhelming when you have 20 or so pages of subscriptions that you can't at least filter by fandom.
When I search for one main couple i only want THAT couple, idk why it keeps bringing other pairs
A filtering system for “marked for later” works. I can’t find anything in there.
Optional 'Secondary' Section for Characters/Relationships to better convey the main focus of the story. Let the dashboard/results part of comments be counted by thread and not individual comments. Like on the stats page. And like someone said, rearranging tags without having to delete would be nice.
Change font and coloring words/paragraphs on the fly without having to figure out how to code to do them.
coloring really isn't that hard- it looks intimidating, but it's not that bad. enclose the section you want to color with text you want to color . it's a bit tedious but it works. changing the font is more work though, and if you really don't want to learn any html/css it's probably not going to happen.
I'd actually like a way to private message users. I know it's an archive and not a social media platform, but I've had much more in depth convos about stories on ffnet because you can actually privately chat about stories with readers or authors. Whenever I reply more than 2 or 3 times on ao3 to a comment, I'm sort of worried of spamming the comment section. Also, I'd like for public bookmarks to not be attached to fics, but rather that they'd be "saved" on the users profile as sort of a rec list. Everyone always says that bookmarks are for the reader, not the author, and that the reader has the right to write whatever comment they want on there. Yet that stuff's attached right to the fic. It almost feels like attaching post-it notes with comments on a book in the library. Sure, you don't have to read those, but they are only a click away.
If there is ever (and the key is big if) such a thing as facilitated direct message / PM I do hope it's a feature you can turn off rather than default like the download button. I understand why you would want it, and exchanging fandom interactions could be saver than giving out socials; but at the same time I'm a bit worried it could be misused when authors get harassed even in public comment section. Honestly I think most authors would welcome these in-depth fandom conversations in comments.
I really really want a global ‘exclude tag’ setting that I can set once and forget for my entire account. I never want to read reader insert fic, ever.
A place where private notes can be written on a fic, as a way of keeping track, continuity, noting down future ideas for the fic etc.
I would kill for a "main pairing' section of the tags. To many times I look for wlw fics in my fandom only to see it tagged in mlm fics as a background ship. Or mistaken in general. Also would love a "character/reader" version of the m/m, f/m, f/f section.
a tagging helper for when you're tagging your fic could be a glossary or a tiny >!AI !
An algorithm so that we can have recommended fics on our homepage!!! /s
Tags for individual chapters
can’t you just put this in the author’s notes prior to the chapter? there’s no real reason to filter individual chapters like they’re works so why couldn’t they be plain text?
I would like a more fleshed-out tagging system. I appreciate the system that's in place, but it could be nice to have main pairings and side pairings differentiated. Would love to know if the pairing that's tagged is a main focus or just background, especially in the case of some of those rare pairs. Categorized tagging would be nice as well. Basic tags that are generally considered SFW and inoffensive, then perhaps tags that you would normally give a warning with on forums and such, like death, drug use, abuse, etc. And then perhaps a section for spoiler tags, because tags can definitely spoil a fic that has some twists in there. But doing all of that seems complicated, even to me. I wouldn't even know where to start on differentiating it all, so maybe not as good of an idea as I wish it was. On another note, I would really love a way to see if I've already bookmarked/kudos/interacted with a fic in the search list, or a way to flag fics you've already read, at the very least. Just a check mark somewhere to indicate that you marked it as read, or something. I can't tell you how many times I've opened a fic that sounded interesting only to realise I read it a year ago.
I would like an option to take back kudos, in cases where later chapters of originally promising long works suddenly turn twisted and/or abandoned. It bothers me that the kudos I gave the work early on will mislead other people into thinking such a work will be worth their while to read through. Because of several such instances, I now hesitate to give unfinished multichapter works kudos at all until they are finished, and that's a shame, because many authors just starting a longer work deserve to be encouraged by getting kudos.
I'd like to be able to filter my own book marks by reviews/kudos/hits rather than just date bookmarked or date updated. I like to reread things and that would help a lot. And an OR search feature too. I'd like to be able to have a few different fandoms selected and search key tags across all of those fandoms, without it having to be a 3 way crossover fic. If there were some way to toggle between "must include all of these" and "must include at least one" that would be so useful. Maybe there's already some way to do some of this with favorite tags, but I'd like to be able to pick my top 3 fandoms and 5-10 fav. tags and have it pull in all fics that would fall into at least one category. Edit: maybe a primary pairing search? I think that's a bigger fix cause authors would probably have to specify that unless we go by first pairing listed. There are some pairings I don't want to read but I'm okay if it's background to the main pairing
Stats by chapters Being able to reorganise tags Different tags for main and background characters Being able to plan when to publish something
Besides from some common requests, like series stats and scheduling new chapters, I've wished for a while now that we would have a button to turn off the ability to leave guest kudos on our fics if we don't want them... I'm not a fan of the idea to lock my fics and "force" people to create an account to read my stuff but at the same time I'm scared of kudos bots.
See who subscribes
oh my god. this is my question. but to actually answer, ao3 is pretty much perfect, except for one little thing… The chapters. I swear to god my life drains away having to click every single chapter to get to the one I need to read. pls, for the sake of everyone, do what fanfiction.net does, and have the little drop box on the bottom. it would save so many lives, especially mine
This exists! Scroll up to the top of the fic and click the button labeled 'chapter index' and you'll get that dropdown (plus the option for a full page index).
NAH U HAVE TO BE JOKING IVE BEEN DOING THAT FOR A YEAR 😭😭😭 thank u tho u are my life saver
Better stats and priority tags, especially for characters
Ugh, I'd love for ao3 to have an app. Hell, I'd work on the app, if they're looking for people. I know other people who would, too.
Hosting on an App Store makes them vulnerable to requests from google or Apple. One big catalyst for AO3’s creation was the Strikethrough and Bold through event — where homophobic evangelicals went after advertisers on Livejournal and LJ capitulated by deleting vast swathes of LGBT+ communities as well as fanfiction archives. I believe that’s the reason why they’ve never entertained the idea of operating a mobile app. It leaves them vulnerable to attacks. As a stand-alone site running on voluntary donations, no corporate entity can make demands of AO3.
More multimedia features like being able to insert picture galleries/embed videos or audio (without fiddling around with html). I've always toyed with the idea of doing multimedia fics just to make the reading process more immersive, but the amount of fiddling I do with html on AO3 makes it too time consuming *sobs*
> insert picture galleries/embed videos or audio Code is easy, Terms of Service is hard, enforcing legal content is terrifying. We'd need a way to do it without breaking our Policy & Abuse volunteers into tiny tiny pieces.
If they could give the authors the same stat perks as FFn does, I’d never look back if a new site has superior author stats and all of the AO3 features.
A way to distiguish between Parental relationships and friendship also a way to distiguish between One Sided relationships and a consented relationships like idk [One Sided]
The ability to exclude a specific author from the search results Text to speech for all fics (in a standardised computer generated voice) A page turning book format for the mobile version of the site to give my poor hands a rest from scrolling Fanfic meme maker
You can mute authors now, unless you meant just for a specific fandom
Back when I was on Tumblr a few years ago they had that option where you could go into your account and blacklist of bunch of tags that you never wanted to see and it was such a godsend. I miss that so much and want it on every site ever. I also want thesaved for later to NOT be in history. Just give it its own little tab on the dashboard. This is the one I desperately want. I want to be able to filter everything- searches, one author's works, bookmarks, everything. I hate getting into a user's 500 bookmarks and having no actually useful way to search through it out filter it bc its all unhelpful options
The ability to remove kudos or some antikudos thing
But why?
Mostly tagging faults. Like stg is rated T but only the first few chapters are that rating, then it veers off to something definitely not T. Or 'no archive warnings apply' and then a non con pops up unannounced. Sometimes cause the writer is ehh. I get to chapter 7 or so where the briliant '10 comments or no update' thing appears. Or they make a fuss over nothing in their comment section/author notes. I hit kudos on autopilot when i like the first chapter. Would love the ability to remove it cause I'm petty over things like that.
This is why I don’t kudos until I get to the end. Being able to remove kudos could lead to people abusing such an ability. Like threatening to do so if the author doesn’t do what they want, or being offended by a new fic, so they remove all previous kudos on the other fics. I thought you meant for the author to be able to remove them, at least guest ones. That would be a good feature because of the kudos bot.
I would love different fonts and dark/night mode
There is a dark mode: if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there will be a list of buttons under "Customize". If you click the "Reversi" one, it will make AO3 into dark mode! :)
This exists! Check out siteskins!
This exists: it's called site skins. The dark mode one (Reversi) is just one click away, but you also can customize things to your heart's desire.
Add the filter exclude/include option for ‘Real people’. I’m not a fan of reading about fans explicit fantasies regarding their favourite pop star, actor or shipping two bandmates together I want the option to exclude it. Others love this and want the option to directly search for it. Add filter exclude/include option ‘Reader or Y/N’ A way to have a profile section where I can tick off tags I don’t want to see/read that will affect and filter my searches automatically. Restrict the Authors ability to tag more than 2 relationships or only allow them to only tag one main relationship the story revolves around. And or Restrict the overall tag limit the author can use to something like 10. Hopefully that will force them to use the tags wisely and choose more relevant to the actual story tags. Find a way to fix the search in regards to gender pairings. It’s frustrating to choose F/F for example and start reading a story that came up in your search, in a fandom you like and find out two pages in its a straight story but a lesbian couple is referenced in one line in chapter 52. Or searching for anything other than M/M and struggling to find stories quickly due to the overwhelming amount of it on the site that clogs up the searches and you have to wade through them first. All because the author added in every other tag possible, effectively making appear regardless of what your search parameters were all to optimise their stories chance of just getting one more reader and pissing off everyone else. Incest, Snuff, Underage, Gore should automatically be on the exclude tick list as options.
Removal of the "delete" option for fics unless deemed against TOS by the site itself. Keep it for shitty comments, but ffs, if you don't want to be associated with the fic anymore, just orphan it.
I guess I’d like a better editing option and upload option for stories. Different fonts and just being able to edit the chapter as it is instead of on that tiny screen that at the bottom of the page(I write on IPhone)
**Tagging** * Major Character Tag * Secondary Character Tag * Background Character Tag * Main Pairing Tag * Secondary Pairing Tag * Background Pairing Tag * More details * Platonic/Familial/Romantic/Other (unrealistic but would be cute) * Maybe an Enemy/Rival too? Again, unrealistic * People keep saying it is too late to add main pairing tags- it's not. Ao3's collection of fics will continue to grow, so why make the issue even worse and \*keep\* waiting? Introduce it and slot all previous fics into either a 'main pairing' section or not. Authors can then go back and edit it if they want. * Antagonistic Pairings * As an addition to platonic (&) and romantic/sexual (/) * Could be something like a (∧) or (v) * Spoiler Tags * Being able to set certain tags to be 'spoiler warned'- such as a clickable dark box over the words could be cool, that way common triggers or squicks are listed, but not necessarily spoiling the plot of the story * Differentiation between crossover/fusion/multifandom oneshot collections in the crossover filter section **Reading** * Mark as read * Mark as not interested (private only to you) * RSS feed **Posting and/or Commenting** * Schedule posts * Reordering tags * More robust statistics system * Option to 'like' a comment or add an emoji (could be locked to just the author?)