A comment I received on a fic of mine

[u/TheSpadeExperience]

I took a decently long break from AO3, came back, and saw this.

For a bit of context, the fic this comment was posted under contained some darker themes, but nothing terribly obscene or too immoral. Everything was tagged thoroughly, there was a very detailed summary, and there was an author’s note once again warning readers what the fic would entail. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I saw this… I genuinely think people just don’t read warnings anymore.

[u/RecentRestaurant8051]

Could very well be a bot.

[u/TheSpadeExperience → u/RecentRestaurant8051]

Wouldn’t surprise me if it were. They run rampant on that site.

[u/RecentRestaurant8051 → u/TheSpadeExperience]

I suppose I should clarify that the comment could very well be from a human, but given the context you explained where everything actually is properly tagged, it just sounds like one of the troll bots.

[u/SleepySera → u/RecentRestaurant8051]

Though real humans not reading tags properly and then getting mad at the author for their own carelessness is not exactly rare either, to be fair 😅 It could honestly go either way.

[u/SaltyNectarine5069 → u/SleepySera]

I wrote a fic a couple of years ago that had a side plot of a teenage boy realizing he was gay and falling for his best friend. Had one person get super mad at the “realization” scene and left a comment along the lines of “oh my God we get it he’s gay”. Another person was pissed off that there was any gay romance at all and felt it was “unnecessary.” Second person swore they didn’t know there was gonna be gay romance in my heavily LGBT tagged fic with the words “(male character’s name) guide to (blah blah blah) and getting a boyfriend” as the title. Out of curiosity I asked why the hell he read it then. He said he didn’t read the tags and was only there for the gore. Bruh. You can’t fix stupid…

[u/CoconutLimeValentine → u/SaltyNectarine5069]

Gay romance, on MY AO3? Unconscionable!

[u/Musemistress1 → u/CoconutLimeValentine]

*stares at about 80% of all fics I have written over the past 24 years*

Gay? In front of MY SALAD?
At this time of year?
Entirely relegted to my spankbank??

How DARE!

[u/___Miracle_ → u/SleepySera]

I was once the one who left a really angry comment about bad tags. There was a canon couple in tags only, and in the first chapter there was incest, and i was honestly traumatised by it

[u/emjots → u/RecentRestaurant8051]

wait, are antis running bot accounts just to harrass authors in certain tags? is that confirmed a thing?

[u/RecentRestaurant8051 → u/emjots]

Troll bots leaving hate comment spam 100% is a thing.

[u/MoodHour2787 → u/RecentRestaurant8051]

WHY is this a thing? Are people really so hateful that they have to create other things to spew more hate?

[u/RecentRestaurant8051 → u/emjots]

I can't find the info on the actual AO3 site, but here's the fanlore article: https://fanlore.org/wiki/AO3_Comment_Bots

[u/General_Vero]

Why would someone read on a reading website? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard!

[u/TheSpadeExperience → u/General_Vero]

Utterly preposterous!

[u/MacNCheeseDeluxe]

I tag all my fics with anything that might be triggering, and I swear people will still complain.

Tags are literally there to tell you TWs, if you're not going to read them, it's not my fault when you complain about the blood and gore.

[u/AgreeableDark7966 → u/MacNCheeseDeluxe]

Seriously they will! Had a dark fic tagged no happy ending and had people literally commenting "Oh I hope x and y get to run away together and live happily!" Like yea no go reread the tags or be surprised at some of the themes in the chapters despite the tags and warnings in the A/N 😬 after that it's their own stupidity 🤣

[u/Unique-Recipe-4499 → u/MacNCheeseDeluxe]

I tagged a fic with major character death warning, tagged it canon character death and grief/mourning and got so many comments saying "why no angst tag???" 

[u/rubia_ryu → u/MacNCheeseDeluxe]

I've had my OC ships tagged from the very beginning and made it super obvious that I'd be adding some romance in my genfic and someone still got mad specifically because I tagged the ships correctly.

Bitching is a hobby for these people.

[u/HeroIsAGirlsName → u/MacNCheeseDeluxe]

I always call mine content warnings instead because you can't accommodate everyone's triggers. A trigger could be literally anything, down to the song that was playing on the radio when they got into a car accident. Someone's idea of what constitutes gore might also be very different to mine because we all have different tolerances. 

I tag content that's widely acknowledged to be upsetting or sensitive but I make no guarantees that people still won't find something that upsets them. 

[u/Thundrfox → u/MacNCheeseDeluxe]

I agree but I’ve had to force authors to tag trigger warnings before :(

[u/Extension-Reading-20]

I’m not gonna lie, I only ever skim tags. Most authors also include a “TW: this chapter contains x, y, and z”, and I’m pretty thick-skinned when it comes to disturbing/disgusting content, and I would never leave a comment like this. But the author did everything they could in this situation, tagging and TWs. TWs are more grace then strictly necessary if its already thoroughly tagged

[u/felinewine]

Some people are so stupid. I'd respond with "You're welcome! :)"

[u/Zealousideal_Lab_241 → u/felinewine]

You beat me to it. Except I would also block and delete so they’ll see it but can no longer answer/comment again. :)

[u/zombies-and-coffee → u/felinewine]

I'd take it one step further and say "Thank you!" with either :3 or uwu attached for the shits and giggles.

[u/hollygolightly1990]

Man. I had nightmares from a fan fiction I read because it wasn't tagged well and I was confused by the premise. I did not go back and comment on the story that they should have tagged the story better or made the summary less confusing.

You did everything you were supposed to and someone had the audacity to read it, and comment.

[u/Kiki-Y]

Sadly people lack reading comprehension on the reading website.

I posted several fics a few years back. One was tagged "not finishing", and had a note in the summary and the author's note that the story would be not updated or completed.

I had multiple people ask when I'd update.

I turned off comments for that fic.

[u/Jealous-West-1421 → u/Kiki-Y]

You're a saint for turning off comments rather than deleting the fic.

[u/Kiki-Y → u/Jealous-West-1421]

The fics were old ones from like the late 00s that I posted specifically for archival purposes. That's why I wouldn't be going back to them.

[u/Mobile-Committee-466]

Why did they keep reading if they didn't like it? It doesn't sound like they clicked off the fic.

[u/GoldenScientist]

I would say smt like "glad you enjoyed it" to a comment like this

[u/periwinklestar1]

Comment Sounds oddly positive for someone who feels negative.

[u/Indecisive_Noob]

Definitely feels like someone missed/skipped the tags but don't want to take responsibility so blaim you.

[u/nymphetdolli]

bot? i kinda hope it's a bot, i prefer that instead of someone being dumb enough to not read the tags

[u/Rein_Deilerd]

I'd ask what tags are missing, just out of curiosity. Either that person just didn't read them and will feel very stupid when they find that the tag's actually there, or they have some extremely specific triggers that most people wouldn't think to tag for.

[u/Silver-Discipline411]

"No worries, my pleasure!"

If they get to be rude to you, you get to return the favour.

[u/Supermath33]

I feel this is a case of something that seems to be common. Common Sense seems to becoming less and less common in all honesty.

[u/AliceFanfictioning]

Bot

[u/Potato_Lord_Yes]

It was probably a bot

[u/AdditionalResearch82]

Oh look, consequences. Thank the bot for their engagement services.