[ SECRET POST #4657 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4657 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 37 secrets from Secret Submission Post #667.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. https://i.imgur.com/h2OJ9Ti.png

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think there's anything ethically wrong with asking for donations (altho it's fair for AO3 to not want people to do it on their platform, that's not the place for it) and I don't think it's right or reasonable to report it. Just scroll by if you don't like it. People are out here trying to survive.

[(Anonymous)]

AO3 is non-profit. Having people try and profit from it could lead to the site getting closed down. So even if OP's comes off as petty, they're not wrong.

[(Anonymous)]

People out here just trying to survive shouldn't be trying to put all their eggs in one basket. Yeah, you have a community of fans, but it's not a community for every need you need met, and shouldn't be.

[(Anonymous)]

It's against their rules. So it is right and reasonable to report it.

[(Anonymous)]

I personally would never ask for money for fic, but to me it's not THAT different than making fanworks (art, etc) and jacking up those prices in order to profit (especially prints where they've drawn the pic once and then made 100 copies, at least plushes, jewelry, etc, they need some money for the supplies every time).

[(Anonymous)]

What if we think both things are wrong?

[silverr]

I too respect Ao3's policy about Ko-fi and Patreon, but I also fail to see how a mention in a profile is "panhandling."

If there were such notices at the end of each chapter, sure, that's in your face, but I've got the impression that most readers never bother to look at an author's profile (if they even know it exists).

[(Anonymous)]

This. I can tell you that in all the years of using AO3, I have never seen anyone's profile but my own. If they were adding that link to the text of EVERY FIC they posted, THAT would be the equivalent of pan-handling to me.

[(Anonymous)]

Lol, same.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone on there with any information in their profile, let alone a link/button to something I have the ability to totally ignore.

[(Anonymous)]

I was just thinking "I don't think I've seen people link to a Patreon or Ko-fi on AO3" so either not enough people do it for me to notice, or they do it where I don't see.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think anyone should profit off the creations of others without their consent, period, and it worries me that doing so WILL get sites like AO3 shut down... but Patreon has been around for a while now and AO3 is still here so maybe I should just get over it. Anyway, I wouldn't feel the need to go visit someone's Patreon just because it's linked in their profile. Just read the fic and ignore it :)

[(Anonymous)]

I think Axanar demonstrated that the powers that be become much more skeptical about "fair use" once crowdfunding platforms are involved, even if you're not paying yourself a living wage.

[(Anonymous)]

I was wondering when the 'ko-fi' stuff would bet banned. I remember reading fic for a fandom some time back and there was a mention and link to it at the beginning and at the end (authors notes) and boy that got annoying really quickly

[(Anonymous)]

It's super annoying, but also will never not be weird that fanartists can make money and writers can't -- they're both using material from the source to create something new.

I write fic and have never asked for anything, and I pay a few patreon artists for their fandom porn, so, IDK.

I wouldn't be averse to doing commissions for fic, but I also have many thousands of kudos on AO3 and like 200 followers on tumblr, so...no money for me haha.

[(Anonymous)]

Some writers do make money off of fic, just not on ao3. Same as fan artists. Not sure where you're getting the idea that writers can't, or don't.

[(Anonymous)]

TBH, neither are okay. Same with people selling merch or fanzines of fictional characters that they don't own.

I'm not gonna report them or anything, but it's kinda wild how people can get away with this.

[type_wild]

I'm pretty sure this is a troll, because AFAIK, AO3 warn people before they delete work.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it's a troll, just a misunderstanding of the process. Pretty sure AO3 asks the author to take it down, they don't do it themselves unless someone refuses. And yeah, there'd be warning.

[(Anonymous)]

you are probably the sort of person who doesn't comment and leave feedback either.

[(Anonymous)]

I have no skin in this game either way, I just hate tattle-tells.

So no, not gonna join you on your righteous crusade there, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

I've been lucky where I've only come across two or so, writers who've asked for donations. I was surprised when I first saw it, but figured why not? (I later had a rather large internal debate with myself later on, but I'll get to that later) They were very nice, and actually made me laugh a few times in they way went about it. Kinda like when people used to get clever about their disclaimers back in the day. The other person was completely horrible about it, and made every author note a whole campaign, as if the reader had an obligation to pay them if they enjoyed their fanfiction. It was very off putting.

I am glad AO3's doing something about it though. There isn't really a standard for paying for fanfic that I am aware of, but with people like Ann Rice out there, I wouldn't want the site to get hit because it's users are profiting off other peoples creations. A major point of there being disclaimers is to declare that no profit is being made in connection to the work, at least from what I understand.

The whole donation thing is a mess, imo. People should be allowed to give money to whoever they want. It should go more in the way that the reader asks the writer if they have an account to give money too. By leaving your donation account around as lures in every chapter of your fics, it just doesn't come off right. Fanfiction shouldn't be paid for, especially since most of the creative content is already made. Or something like that.

[(Anonymous)]

I get why AO3 can't have those links for legal purposes and agree that they shouldn't be there, but at the same time, when there is a ko-fi link, it being there... is not so invasive to me as a viewer that I feel like I'm being 'panhandled'. If there's a big thing about it, maybe, but a link is pretty easy for me to scroll past??

[(Anonymous)]

AO3 has every right to ban stuff like this and probably should do it for legal reasons, but let's not be too eager and too dramatic about it. Look at the freaking wattpad which is on the record saying that if your fic gets popular enough, tehy will help you strip it off the serial numbers and sell as a YA novel, and no one's burning them down. There's also a lot more people asking for support there than there is on AO3, and still - nothing's happening. TBTB are not as eager to strike against fans as they used to be 20 years ago.

And last but not least - let's not be jerks. We're talking about an equivelent of a tip jar - I find it easy to ignore the tip jars in real life when I want to and I have even less problems with doing it on-line when needed, and I don't see why anyone should have any mroe issues with scrolling by "i have a ko-fi account" message than they ever had with passing by any other form of author's notes they were never interested in.

[(Anonymous)]

I bet you're fun at parties.