I wish that ao3 had an option to filter warnings (and tbh certain authors) out like I will never ever want to read it and just seeing it puts me off so much that often I end up closing my browser because that content upsets me so much lmao
There is a way to do this but I can’t recall how to do it. it’s something you type into the box for “other filters” or something, I don’t remember. who knows??
It’s not a great option, and I don’t know if you can sort out authors that way, but it’s better than nothing if someone can reblog this with how to do it!
Alrighty friends! It takes some specificity, but you can do this. Let me show you how!
So I started with going to the Sherlock (TV) section of Ao3. On the right we find this lovely section! ((I know I’m going over things you already probably know, but I figure this post may go to new Ao3 users, so bear with me.))
Underneath this, I chose sort by Kudos, because that’s a quick way to find most popular fics, for the sake of this demonstration.
With those filters on, we end up with this being our first two results:
As you can see, we have Nature and Nurture by earlgreytea68, and The Internet Is Not Just For Porn by cyerus. So what if I am utterly sick of seeing earlgreytea68 on my list? Let’s pretend I’ve read all their fics, or that I just don’t like her, or whatever. I want this author out. I go to this section on the right:
In “Search within results” I type earlgreytea68 into the bar, with a minus sign in front. This gives me the following page, upon hitting the sort and filter button:
There goes earlgreytea68! But now I’ve decided that Crack is just not my thing, I’m sick of that, too, for heaven’s sake, I want something reasonable in my gay slash fanfiction about detectives that solve crimes about glowing dogs and irish megalomaniacs. Heaven forbid this get ridiculous.
Well, then I add this to my search:
Which gets rid of everything with that tag. My results are now:
Performance in a Leading Role is now my first result!
You can do this as many times as you want; the biggest problem I have is trying to filter out multi-worded tags. For example, “Secret Relationship” is hard to filter. Better to go with authors you dislike or with words like “DubCon”.
I hope this helps! Also remember that googling site:archiveofourown.org and then adding search terms will mean google searches Ao3 for you, and sometimes that works far better.
Good luck!
An excellent in-depth guide! Thank you!!
omg changed my whole ao3 rarepair game
An excellent guide to filtering on AO3!
You can filter out phrases by enclosing them in quotes. For example, if ABO and Hydra Trash Party are not your things, try:
Of course just one of these flags (like 1 or 4) does not make anyone immediately an abuser but every flag can be used as a manipulation tactic.
I personally would add
They move too fast. They get very close to you in a short time. If you express discomfort with the pace of your relationship’s progression or try to withdraw, they redouble their efforts to be close to you. They may suddenly have a crisis and insist that only you can help them. Or they may make grand, romantic gestures that are too expensive, ostentatious, or intimate for your current relationship stage.
They isolate you. They dislike your friends and family and encourage you to reduce contact with loved ones. They may also extend the isolation and try to keep you from socializing with coworkers or neighbors. They might even try to keep you from making small talk with strangers on the street or random passersby. Everyone you like, they hate. They may also try to push you together with their own friends, especially any of their friends who you don’t get along with.
GEEZ GEEZ GEEZ this is so accurate.
look out for these signs! i know it’s easy to ignore these things when you’re in love, but please be careful!
this can happen in romantic relationships but also friendships and family relationships. trust your gut.
^A lot of these signs applied to a friendship I had when I was in the third grade. I only realized how manipulative and controlling it was years later.
Also in addition to making you compromise your values:
They don’t value your opinion as equal to their’s.
They think of your facts as bullshit even though they might not present any facts to support their opinion.
They try to lure you into things that are against your values without justifying it well.
They think of your experiences as inferior to their’s.
This one guy is clearly interested of me and my not single friend but constantly says that our facts are not true and shows signs of all of those flags all the time. All we can do is to try to realize that that person is not good for us and that they are trying to manipulate us. I’m very caring person but I’ve justified me leaving him out / not caring of him by him being dangerous to my mental health and my friends mental health.
Aw Yiss 