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Comfy-fy Your Reading Experience

You are responsible for your own consumption of media. The Archive of Our Own is more modular than many other websites: Not only can you read the tags of a work in order to decide whether that work is right for you, but you can even use site "skins" to hide works with a given tag so that you don't see these in the first place. If the work's creator has properly tagged their work, they are not responsible for any bad feelings that may arise as you read or view it.

But what is "proper tagging," exactly? I'll delve deeper into this more deeply in the Tagging Guide, but it's worth noting that there are two kinds of tags that authors are required to observe:

1. Rating tags, which range from "General Audiences" to "Explicit," as well as "Not Rated." You can read more about Rating tags, including their definitions, here, in the AO3 FAQ.
2. Archive Warning tags, which principally include "Graphic Depictions of Violence," "Major Character Death," "Rape/Non-Con," and "Underage Sex." You can read more about them here.

There are a couple of special Archive Warning tags that it's important to not confuse: "No Archive Warnings Apply" means that the specific Archive Warning tags mentioned above do not apply, and nothing else. If someone crafts the most horrifying piece of fiction imaginable, fit to give you nightmares for weeks, but there is no violence, no death, and no sexual content, then they have every right to tag it, "No Archive Warnings Apply." Pay attention to the work's other tags, including the Rating tag (I would probably not rate The Most Terrifying Fanfic Ever Written as being for "General Audiences").

The other Archive Warning tag to keep straight is "Author Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings." Occasionally, someone will confuse this with the first tag, but it is the Archive Warning equivalent to "Not Rated." The author might have written saccharine fluff or something that hits every single Archive Warning, but they have still tagged their work appropriately. Pay attention to the work's Rating tag, other tags, and summary in order to gauge whether the work will probably be appropriate for you.

If you read a fic tagged with Not Rated or Author Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings and get upset because there is adult material or graphic violence or whatever, this is like chugging a bottle of acetaminophen and then blaming the drugstore when your liver pops.

Site Skins

“How to Block Tags With Site Skins (And Get Real Specific About It),” by najio, doesn't let you just block tags, but also highlight them, block stories by particular authors or by the number of tags, and more. There is also a tutorial for using the “Blurbling Hide” skin to block tag categories that you don't want to see on AO3.

Tampermonkey Scripts

Refer to this section for general guidance on using Tampermonkey.

AO3: highlight tags V2, by Fangirlishness, lets you define tags and assign colors which highlight those tags on AO3. The top of the script includes instructions and examples.

AO3: Kudos/hits ratio, by Min, replaces a work's hit count with a percentage based on the Kudos-to-hits ratio: how many people, after clicking into the story, proceeded to give Kudos?

AO3 tweak formatting, by scriptfairy, allows you to adjust the formatting of a work, e.g. removing the extra line break that shows up between paragraphs in some works. You just have to click the "Tweak Format" button, which shows up in the lower-right corner of the work's Summary section. You'll need to make the tweak on every chapter, every time you read it, but on the bright side if you fuck something up then you can fix it by refreshing the page.

Please Read and Review!

If you write fanfiction, then comment on other people's fanfiction! This doesn't have to be a big, complicated affair. Two or three sentences — hell, even one sentence, if that's all you're able to do — can be great. If you don't comment on other people's stories then you can't expect them to comment on yours. I don't believe in God but I do believe in Writer's Karma. 

If you have something negative to say about a story, then use the Sandwich Format: 1 positive thing, 1 negative thing, and 1 positive thing. Typos are fair game to point out but for the love of God, make sure that you have something positive to say as well (and if you're commenting on an ongoing story then it is polite to ask, in your initial comment, whether typo-picking will be welcome). 

If you don't know what to write, then the following resources may be helpful:

• “So you want to comment (when you are nervous about commenting),” by another_binks, gives a few ideas about what to write in your comment. 
• “commenter's block: the lesser known cousin of writer's block,” by Anonymous, talks about potential roadblocks to commenting (e.g. not knowing what to say) and how to overcome them. There are also some useful links, some of which I've included below (mostly tools) and others that I haven't (mostly advice). 
• The LLF Comment Builder is a spreadsheet (available in both online and offline forms) that provides a customizable scaffold to help assemble comments as simple or as long as you'd like. The tutorial is pretty straightforward. 

There are also a few scripts that you might find helpful. These rely on the Tampermonkey extension, which you can install on Chrome, FireFox, and other browsers. In my experience, the script won't always load on a page, but if you refresh the page a couple of times then it'll kick in. If you're having trouble, this Tumblr post might help. 

• AO3 Comment Assist, by Van Irie, which prompts you to leave a comment when you hit the kudos button. By default, the extension also deposits (in the comment box) a commenting guide for people who haven't commented before, but you can replace this with a short comment prompt or just turn it off. To do so, you'll need to navigate to your Tampermonkey dashboard and select “ao3 Comment Assist.” Below //SETUP// will be a line reading “var assist_type = 1,” and below that is key to explain settings 1, 2, and 3. If you prefer one of the other settings, then change the 1 to a 2 or a 3 and then install (or reinstall) the script. The random comment prompt is determined when the page loads, so if you want a different prompt then you'll need to refresh the page and hit the Kudos button again. 
• AO3 Floating Comment Box, by ScriptMouse, creates a little blue button in the upper-left corner of your screen when you're on a fic's page. If you click that button, it creates a box at the bottom of your screen which you can write in and move around, and which will automatically scroll when you do. I prefer to write comments as I read, so this is a big help, and as an added bonus, you can immediately tell whether Tampermonkey loaded everything by checking whether the blue button is there. When you create the floating box, the blue button will be replaced by a red button, which you can click in order to remove the floating box. 
• AO3 ReKudos Converter, by Van Irie, which adds to the comment box, “This is an extra kudos, since I've already left one. :)” I caution against overusing this without adding anything else in your comment, because a couple of bonus kudos can be heartwarming but getting 30 notifications that say the same thing can be annoying. If an author gets 30 normal kudos then they'll receive a single email that tallies their kudos, but if they get 30 kudo-comments then they'll receive 30 emails (and their AO3 inbox will have 30 comments). 

I can't say it enough: Do you enjoy it when somebody leaves a comment on your story? Other authors are just as hungry for comments. 

How-to: Beta Read

Useful resources:

• “Guide to Beta Reading (for Authors and Beta Readers),” by theirprofoundbond.