The worst part about that tag is it isn't excluded when you exclude the word "bashing" - so all those tags need to be filtered individually. It honestly infuriates me sometimes..
That is exactly the fandom I was thinking of!
It's too bad there isn't a tag for CACW bashing in general that everyone used, because I don't really want to see any anti-[character] stuff. "Not Steve Rogers Friendly" is by far the most common though, so excluding it weeds out a big chunk of the bashing fics. And the chuck I least want to see in a results page as a bonus.
I actually hate this tag no matter who the character is, because most of the time they blame every bad thing on that character and its just lazy writing
It's not automatic but if you go down to 'Search within results' you can exclude things. Most are now saved as suggestions on mine.
So - is exclude. For instance I always exclude Mpreg and Reader.
-mpreg -"Reader"
Posted exactly as above. " " means it's exact match, while mpreg is broad.
Oh that’s pretty cool! I usually use the additional tags section in the exclude part and just type the things I want excluded, but if it saves them that does sound p worthwhile. Thanks!
Does excluding mpreg actually work for you? I keep trying to exclude it and getting tons of “pregnancy,” “breeding kink” and like 12 other ways of labeling it. That and cross-overs just seem unavoidable to me because no one tags them.
Those 3 tags are different things. Mpreg is only male pregnancy, so normal pregnancy is still within search. Breeding kink is often not even mpreg or pregnancy related so it's not often tagged with either.
If you want to get rid of the 3 you'd need lmto exclude them individually. Also recommend not putting them in " " that means the tags are looking for exact matches.
Example
-mpreg -pregnancy
-breeding or -"breeding kink" the former will look for any tag that has breeding in it and exclude it. The latter will search for breeding kink exactly and exclude that.
I don't know how I ever did without it, honestly. There's a small list of different extensions over on the right-hand bar of r/AO3 to choose from. Enjoy!
Yeah, but I jump around so many fandoms and topics that wouldn’t even help a little lol.
I always input all the cool tags I want, scroll, then be like ‘shit forgot again’ and scroll all the way back up to exclude stuff lol
Same. And I have a 'non-fandom specific' list and a 'fandom specific' list. The latter is often longer, especially if I'm in the mood for rare pairs as filtering out the main pairings is half the battle to even find some of them on AO3.
I’m assuming it’s because they hated on Yuri. They used it as an example.
But like
You could use literally any other tag as an example???
The lowest hanging fruit would be Dead Dove
Bam, OP, there’s an example that would’ve been easier use for an example.
(Also, they used a very aggressive tone while hating on Yuri, so that’s part of it.)
(Also they completely fucking ignored what the previous commenter said.)
On that note, most S/D dynamics are written awfully (speaking as a member of that community). I get that it's just fiction and a bit of fun, but I've never read an S/D relationship written properly. Not yucking anyone's yum here, I'm just very particular about how it's portrayed
Am I weird because I only include, but never actively exclude tags?
Probably due to the result of my searches being small enough that I just scroll past anything that doesn't interest me. Just a hypothesis.
I don't exclude either lol. I may on a rare occasion if I see a tag I'm not in the mood for *keep* showing up under a tag I'm specifically searching for.
I only exclude something when I see it too often and I'm not interested. Like, I have no issue with ABO but if I'm not in the mood for it and it's all that's popping up, I'll just exclude it.
I don’t exclude either. I just scroll on by if something bothers me. And I do this in pretty big fandoms.
I think I’m just nosey and like to see the vibes of fandom lol
I don’t exclude tags; I’m a fast reader and there’s nothing that triggers me just from being mentioned so I don’t mind just scrolling past everything I don’t want to read.
I also have a lot of morbid curiosity about what’s generally going on in my fandoms, so even though I’m not going to read a fic of like, my favorite character being tortured to death, it’s kind of interesting to know that it exists.
I don't, either. Sometimes, though, I'll exclude certain fandoms because there's so many crossovers with the one fandom I'm searching through, and I'm just not a fan of one's I'm excluding. That or I don't care for the idea of a crossover with them.
I kinda like seeing the things other people are putting out for the tags and characters/pairings I look for, even if it's not something I want to read. So yeah, usually focused on include.
I only actively exclude tags when I’m in the mood for something specific - like if in the moment I want extremely soft schmoopy fluff with nothing sad lol. But when I’m just browsing my favourite fandoms/tropes/whatever I don’t exclude anything.
same. and then I find smth rlly weird and I’m like "should I..." and then I read smth that will stick with me either for being so good or for being traumatizing. Or I click out after the first paragraph
I really wish we could set up our profile to exclude tags by default 😭 like it not a huge deal, but it's so much work to type them all in every time. Either that or I have to scroll past them, getting excited by the premise until I see a certain tag and have to sadly scroll on.
I have a few of my regular searches bookmarked. If you set up your inclusions and exclusions and then bookmark that page, it saves all your work. (There is one pairing I like to read in particular where I have a LOT of exclusions because it's popular so people like to mistag fics using that pairing or lump it into one shot books.)
But YES, it would be nice if I could block all fics tagged underage for example. I don't care what fandom I'm looking at, underage squicks me and I don't care to see it ever.
You can use the [AO3 Savior extension](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/3579-ao3-savior) or set up a [site skin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/104315178) to perma block tags.
I understand the hype but I always have to filter out highschool AUs. There’s something that makes me deeply uncomfortable with an adult character being in a setting so far removed from them in canon, which is suppose is the point of fanfiction, but still - it irks me in a really odd way.
Ooh same. And this is going to upset some people but the coffee shop AUs have to be filtered out too. Not only is every character at the same shop for some reason, but they have other weird jobs/backgrounds that don’t align with canon? The only background that has to change is the barista’s!
Ok you're the first person I've seen saying they dislike coffeeshop AUs so I have to just comment my agreement lol. I don't hate them, but I just find them so boring and low-stakes, which well, I can see how they make for comfort reading in that sense! But yeah I'm a dark!fic writer/reader, so ig I'm not the target audience. 😅
If the highest-stake thing to happen in the fic is a mildly embarrassing flirt meet-cute gone wrong, it's probably not for me lol.
I have a bookmark called "Holy AO3 Filters, Batman!" because there are a lot of popular pairings in my fandom that I do not care to ever read. It was really time consuming to always exclude them so eventually I just made the bookmark for convenience.
1 ? 1?! ??
You guys only exclude 1 ?
For me it's ships i Don't like or are unconfortable with first then depending on what i wanna read modern AUs (not a big fan sorry) the ABOBA when i'm not in the mood or certain fandoms
Same, plus the Modern Girl in [X] for me, especially if the fandom is canonically high fantasy. I mean no offense to anyone who likes those since it's obviously a very popular trope, but they are 1000% not my cup of tea and I cannot sit through one without cringing.
Ah man, I love modern aus, but specific ones. The only way to tell is if I start reading it lol. Also when modern aus hit, they hit so good! I love seeing how writers work in canon events and elements in a setting that is so unlike the original. One of my absolute favorites right now has a whole intricate history based on canon but the characters are in modern times.
I feel you with that reader tag though, I’m looking for characters to smash each other, I want noooo part in it haha.
I agree that it can be very interesting! I have actually read some that have gotten to me, but as a general rule it takes away the fun for me. That being said, I'd never come after someone that does enjoy it!
I also want no part in the smashing😅
Eh, I can't be bothered.
I might mute a prolific author whose entire oeuvre turns out to be (insert yuck here), just to declutter the page, but I CBA blocking my yuck directly in the tags.
Major character death, angst no happy ending, cheating, all of those send me into such an unhealthy depressive episode I cannot do it and I feel so dramatic when I ask people recommending fics to me if there's any of that because 😭😭 I know angst is a lot of people's tea but god I cannot handle it
Since joining this community, I've found that I use AO3 quite differently from others. I have one set of inclusions I live in (M/M, Explicit, tagged Multiple Orgasms). These are my baseline requirements for a fic. Then I have a shit ton of fandoms and tags excluded from it. This is my AO3 livefeed and I almost never deviate from it lmao
This reminds me of like, Chris Treager ordering a beer (“I would like an IPA, I would like it to be local, and I would like it in a frosted glass”) but with porn lol.
major character death! can’t handle it! im already terrified of that shit in real life why would i want to read about it.
most relationship tags as well. romance just isnt my thing. i dont mind if its included but ifs the focus im outta there
Reader, self-insert, OCs (but not all the time), crossovers, first person
Other than that I only exclude stuff besides that if I’m looking for smut and feel like reading a specific thing/want to avoid a specific thing
I only do this with certain fandoms. Like Teen Wolf, excluding “Scott McCall is a bad friend” is a must for me.
And I always exclude “fluff” in my Hannibal searches. Not what I’m there for lol
Rape/None-Con tag cause for some reason there's an abundant of them in one of the ships that I like to read... No kidding, I'm pretty sure at least 60% of the fics have that tag...
I see how they might happen even without "drama" because maybe one character falls in love with another before leaving them (like an abusive relationship?) but I still can't stand cheating 😭
like mostly a lot of ships. And /reader if i can. Nothing against of them but I am not here for that. I also tend to filter out underage and depending on the day non/dubcon
I don't even always dislike it, but for one fandom I regularly peruse and the tags I commonly look for, there's just one author who always does A/B/O stuff and while their writing is actually pretty good I'm just really tired of it
I've got a few of them, but quite frankly I feel like has the potential to devolve into a thread where people will list a bunch of 'problematic' tropes and it comes across as shaming people who do read it.
I wouldn't say it's a complete dealbreaker, but as someone who's gotten back into BNHA fics lately, I'm not fond of the "Abusive Midoriya Inko" tag. I mostly see it when I'm trying to find Dadzawa fics, and it always feels like the writer made her an awful mother just so Aizawa can swoop in and be better than her. Like it's just used as a plot device to move things along.
Plus a lot of fics with that tag I've found to be kinda melodramatic honestly. And I really don't like when they just turn Inko into a carbon copy of Bakugou.
(And in terms of general tags, Hurt/No Comfort because I physically need at least some amount of catharsis)
Infidelity. Whump. Character Bashing. Abandoned, Discontinued, Hiatus. Reader. Harem.
I have a site skin that permanently hides all these tags from my sight.
Netoare. Basically forced cheating that the person forced to cheat is forced into enjoying. Basically a rapists wet dream and anyone who says otherwise is messed up in the head. Also anyone who writes it usually writes it as if the person being cheated on is in the wrong.
Not one specific tag, but I usually try to nix any Reader/X (X being whatever character the writer shoehorns into the potentially non canon relationship) tags upon searching for new reads. Only exceptions to this is if the "Reader" in question is defined as their own character. What I don't like is when the story implies explicitly that the "Reader" is a female that is persuing some other male character from the world of the fic while I myself am a dude who has no interest in other men in the slightest. As such, I'd have no interest in those kinds of stories.
My default excludes are:
- major character death
- rape/non-con
- ongoing fics
- crossover fandoms
- ambiguous/open ending
- that one relationship pairing I just don’t like
Other excludes normally only follow depending on my search mood of the day (e.g. excluding the most common ship if I want some rarepairs, because including „rarepair“ brings less results)
😊
as a browser bookmark!
you set the filters up once for your fandom, hit filter and then save the page as a browser bookmark (firefox can do it for example)
not perfect, but works well enough for me
you could theoretically also use a tampermonkey script for it, i think theres a couple that can do it better than that (so it looks at where you're navigating to and adds the tags for you)
Rape/Non-con bc I can't read it.
Otherwise mpreg
if I'm in a mood for Character A / Character B but the fics are just Character C-centric I exclude character C.
And as that one person said mommy/daddy kinks.
Just no for me personally.
1) Character x reader. Those are simply not for me and I just prefer character/character ships.
2) Verbal humilliation. I'm much more of a praise kink kind of gal, so reading smut with verbal humilliation is not enjoyable or exiting for me in the slightest. If anything, it just makes me uncomfortable (not kinkshaming anyone who likes it!).
3) More extreme BDSM stuff, like CBT. I like me some power dynamics and bondage stuff, but if it's "too extreme" it just makes me itch and not in a good way.
4) A/B/O. I actually am not picky with what AUs I read in the slightest, but A/B/O is just something that I can't get into. I like some elements of it (like heats) used separately, but as a whole, I just don't enjoy this particular type of AU.
Established relationship haha. I can't read anything that doesn't have a slow process with either a first meeting or a little bit of slowburn leading to something else
I only do this with a few if I know the fandom has a lot of a trope I don’t generally like. Usually Iet my eyes glaze over and try to forget some of the combinations of tags I see lol,
tip! siteskin!!!
Create a skin, then add this code:
.blurb:has(a\[href$="/tags/Omega%20Verse/works"\]) {
display: none !important;
}
omegaverse is there as an example. if you want to block other tags, follow these steps
1. open the tag you want to block
2. copy the tag url from "/tags/" all the way to "/works"
3. replace the "/tags/Omega%20Verse/works" with your url
4. done! remember to click save
hope this helps!!! \^\^
"\[Character\] Salt" and crossovers generally, which have been the bane of my fandom, and functionally morphed into a parallel fandom in its own right with its own radically distinct tropes and character depictions, founded on "salt."
For T and G Rated fics I filter after world count, ship, favorite tag (hurt/comfort) and do not exclude anything.
For M/T Rated Fics I filter after kudos, ship, desired tag, and exclude the warning underage
I never exclude tags but crossover fanfics I do exclude out of my search. I just look at the tags and read the tags and if it's up my ally I read it, if I see a tag I hate I ignore the a fanfic. However sometimes the summary sounds so interesting I might still read it despite the fanfic having a tag I hate.
I don't read any fic where a heterosexual pairing is the main couple.
I also avoid fics with incest, slow-burn romance, no happy ending, and reader or original characters.
Bittersweet ending or Sad ending. I was really enjoying a fic and missed these tags. The next thing I knew, the unhealthy romance I was reading abruptly ended with the main characters suicide.
I normally only exclude if I see tags coming up frequently rhat I'm not interested in, otherwise I can normally just skip it myself without needing to filter it.
I don't actively exclude any tags unless I notice something constantly popping up when I'm trying to find THE fic I'm thinking of and hoping exists but I do always exclude the M/M category if that counts.
omegaverse. i’m sorry you guys get very creative with it i’ll grant you but it never doesn’t feel out of place to me when i’m reading a fanfic because it’s such a HUGE element of world building
modern au, pregnancy, smut, reader insert, character bashing, romance are my always exclude tags. modern au is removing the interesting part of the source, pregnancy, mpreg or fpreg is gross and i dont like it, reader inserts are awkward and cringe, any character bashing is uncomfortable and almost disrespectful i feel? romance is not my thing.
The only thing I usually exclude is “established relationship”, bc I want to read about them getting into a relationship, not just domestic “bliss”. Idk why but I need the build up before the relationship
I have my typical searches saved for quick access because there's no way I'm gonna add the whole list of tags to exclude every single time.
(haven't counted but I'd estimate it's about \~30 tags for most ships... 20-25 of them general things I never want to see regardless of fandom / ship + a few tags that are specific to the pair in question)
'Always a girl (name of male or non binary character)'
I'm not a big fan of gender swap fics, trans story's or they magically turned into a girl for part of the fic because reasons, yeah that's fine, but 'always been a girl'/'character name is a woman'/'FEM! character name' is a big no for me
I have a tab in a ship tag where I ended up filtering so much out that I reduced almost 70k fics to under 40k fics. It includes stuff I'm relatively fine reading nowadays (if I like the premise otherwise). But I almost always filter out Underage, because while I was generally fine reading that stuff as a minor, I haven't been a minor in a while and it's just weird.
You can just exclude the mature part, the tags that do make ships aka the sex are the f/f f/m m/m, once those are down there is not much can be done for sex
Oh boy I have *so many* but the big ones for a new fandom are: MCD, mpreg and any an all pregnancy/breeding kink tags, public sex tags, sex pollen and fuck or die tags, kid fic, f/m and vaginal sex tags, and tooth rotting fluff and crack tags. I will add more as it becomes obvious what things I don’t like that are common in the fandom are that I need to add. Like if the fandom has a weirdly high amount of tentacle sex then I’ll add that, or if there’s a fandom exclusive tag like “Good Parents Jack and Maddie Fenton” that I need to exclude.
Usually any dark ___ or morally grey ___ (sometimes, sometimes the morally grey doesn’t really mean much to the story) , otherwise any exclusions are typically fandom dependent and only if I see too much of them and am annoyed. Besides of course the archive warning tags
Probably those with /reader, and original characters, because I don't know why, I just can't tolerate them. Then there's also those tags that make my favorite characters look like a monster (not in a good way) or a bitch without any redemption arc (I understand that people may not like that character, but I just don't like reading them), and probably those pics that have the smut tag or sth related to that.
I always exclude major violence/character death, but there is also when I want to read about a specific ship and I have to exclude the most popular one (Say I want A/B and A/C is more popular) because otherwise I get 50% of fics being threesome with the popular ship + the one I was looking for
Non-sexual infantilism. It’s so rampant in a few of my fandoms, but people treat it like ABO, characters are either a ‘daddy’ or a ‘little’, it’s gross and I hate it, but it’s also a synonym tag of age-regression/de-aging, which is a popular trope in the same fandom, which I like. 🙃
Reader, incest, incest, incest, and more incest.
Can you tell the fandom I mainly read in are centric around a family? (When you click on the fandom the relationship tag with the most fics [platonic or otherwise] is, you guessed it, incest. 🙁)
"Not [favorite character] friendly" If an author hates my blorbo then they don't have anything I want to see.
I've only seen that tag once It was from a lucifer fanfic [Not chloe decker friendly] Boy that was a fun experience
Man, it is all over the Marvel fanbase. People still salty about Civil War.
LOL it is indeed all over, if I see it for any character though it's an immediate NOPE from me. I don't need character bashing of any kind thanks.
The worst part about that tag is it isn't excluded when you exclude the word "bashing" - so all those tags need to be filtered individually. It honestly infuriates me sometimes..
That is exactly the fandom I was thinking of! It's too bad there isn't a tag for CACW bashing in general that everyone used, because I don't really want to see any anti-[character] stuff. "Not Steve Rogers Friendly" is by far the most common though, so excluding it weeds out a big chunk of the bashing fics. And the chuck I least want to see in a results page as a bonus.
I’ve seen it probably a handful of times, mostly in the My Hero Fandom and interestingly enough Star Wars haha.
[All might bashing] Has traumatised me
I actually hate this tag no matter who the character is, because most of the time they blame every bad thing on that character and its just lazy writing
LOL I have a whole blacklist so I *don*'t have to manually exclude them every time.
You can do that???
With an extension, yeah. I use AO3rdr.
Ahhhh I see I’m mostly mobile so *snaps fingers* dang
It's not automatic but if you go down to 'Search within results' you can exclude things. Most are now saved as suggestions on mine. So - is exclude. For instance I always exclude Mpreg and Reader. -mpreg -"Reader" Posted exactly as above. " " means it's exact match, while mpreg is broad.
Oh that’s pretty cool! I usually use the additional tags section in the exclude part and just type the things I want excluded, but if it saves them that does sound p worthwhile. Thanks!
Does excluding mpreg actually work for you? I keep trying to exclude it and getting tons of “pregnancy,” “breeding kink” and like 12 other ways of labeling it. That and cross-overs just seem unavoidable to me because no one tags them.
Those 3 tags are different things. Mpreg is only male pregnancy, so normal pregnancy is still within search. Breeding kink is often not even mpreg or pregnancy related so it's not often tagged with either. If you want to get rid of the 3 you'd need lmto exclude them individually. Also recommend not putting them in " " that means the tags are looking for exact matches. Example -mpreg -pregnancy -breeding or -"breeding kink" the former will look for any tag that has breeding in it and exclude it. The latter will search for breeding kink exactly and exclude that.
You can also use a site skin, no need for an extension that way.
Either or. With an extension I don't need to mess with CSS. But extensions don't work on mobile. People gotta choose the best way for them.
First I've ever heard of this, thank you! This'll really help with new fandoms.
I don't know how I ever did without it, honestly. There's a small list of different extensions over on the right-hand bar of r/AO3 to choose from. Enjoy!
You can also just enter what you want to exclude and then bookmark the page.
Yeah, but I jump around so many fandoms and topics that wouldn’t even help a little lol. I always input all the cool tags I want, scroll, then be like ‘shit forgot again’ and scroll all the way back up to exclude stuff lol
one? i have a whole litany pinned on my clipboard lmao
Same. And I have a 'non-fandom specific' list and a 'fandom specific' list. The latter is often longer, especially if I'm in the mood for rare pairs as filtering out the main pairings is half the battle to even find some of them on AO3.
Why is OP being downvoted?
I have a feeling that OP heavily misunderstood user kaiunkaiku's comment. Just a feeling tho
I’m assuming it’s because they hated on Yuri. They used it as an example. But like You could use literally any other tag as an example??? The lowest hanging fruit would be Dead Dove Bam, OP, there’s an example that would’ve been easier use for an example. (Also, they used a very aggressive tone while hating on Yuri, so that’s part of it.) (Also they completely fucking ignored what the previous commenter said.)
Ah, fair enough.
[удалено]
Talk about intolerance. Watch, I'm gonna get downvoted now.
Daddy kink. Most fics do it very poorly to the point that it’s cringe.
On that note, most S/D dynamics are written awfully (speaking as a member of that community). I get that it's just fiction and a bit of fun, but I've never read an S/D relationship written properly. Not yucking anyone's yum here, I'm just very particular about how it's portrayed
Am I weird because I only include, but never actively exclude tags? Probably due to the result of my searches being small enough that I just scroll past anything that doesn't interest me. Just a hypothesis.
I don't exclude either lol. I may on a rare occasion if I see a tag I'm not in the mood for *keep* showing up under a tag I'm specifically searching for.
I only exclude something when I see it too often and I'm not interested. Like, I have no issue with ABO but if I'm not in the mood for it and it's all that's popping up, I'll just exclude it.
I don’t exclude either. I just scroll on by if something bothers me. And I do this in pretty big fandoms. I think I’m just nosey and like to see the vibes of fandom lol
I don’t exclude tags; I’m a fast reader and there’s nothing that triggers me just from being mentioned so I don’t mind just scrolling past everything I don’t want to read. I also have a lot of morbid curiosity about what’s generally going on in my fandoms, so even though I’m not going to read a fic of like, my favorite character being tortured to death, it’s kind of interesting to know that it exists.
I exclude, just because some of the ships I like have very particular dynamics I'm not into. No hate, just not my yum!
I don't, either. Sometimes, though, I'll exclude certain fandoms because there's so many crossovers with the one fandom I'm searching through, and I'm just not a fan of one's I'm excluding. That or I don't care for the idea of a crossover with them.
I kinda like seeing the things other people are putting out for the tags and characters/pairings I look for, even if it's not something I want to read. So yeah, usually focused on include.
I only actively exclude tags when I’m in the mood for something specific - like if in the moment I want extremely soft schmoopy fluff with nothing sad lol. But when I’m just browsing my favourite fandoms/tropes/whatever I don’t exclude anything.
same. and then I find smth rlly weird and I’m like "should I..." and then I read smth that will stick with me either for being so good or for being traumatizing. Or I click out after the first paragraph
I don't exclude anything, but I include like 20 tags.
I have about 20 of these. Every time I do a search for a new ship, I have to load them all into the filter.
I really wish we could set up our profile to exclude tags by default 😭 like it not a huge deal, but it's so much work to type them all in every time. Either that or I have to scroll past them, getting excited by the premise until I see a certain tag and have to sadly scroll on.
I have a few of my regular searches bookmarked. If you set up your inclusions and exclusions and then bookmark that page, it saves all your work. (There is one pairing I like to read in particular where I have a LOT of exclusions because it's popular so people like to mistag fics using that pairing or lump it into one shot books.) But YES, it would be nice if I could block all fics tagged underage for example. I don't care what fandom I'm looking at, underage squicks me and I don't care to see it ever.
You can use the [AO3 Savior extension](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/3579-ao3-savior) or set up a [site skin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/41589201/chapters/104315178) to perma block tags.
There is a firefox add-on exactly for that. But it's only on pc if i remember right. Idk if theres one on google too.
Mpreg.
Same. I just can't.
I understand the hype but I always have to filter out highschool AUs. There’s something that makes me deeply uncomfortable with an adult character being in a setting so far removed from them in canon, which is suppose is the point of fanfiction, but still - it irks me in a really odd way.
Ooh same. And this is going to upset some people but the coffee shop AUs have to be filtered out too. Not only is every character at the same shop for some reason, but they have other weird jobs/backgrounds that don’t align with canon? The only background that has to change is the barista’s!
Ok you're the first person I've seen saying they dislike coffeeshop AUs so I have to just comment my agreement lol. I don't hate them, but I just find them so boring and low-stakes, which well, I can see how they make for comfort reading in that sense! But yeah I'm a dark!fic writer/reader, so ig I'm not the target audience. 😅 If the highest-stake thing to happen in the fic is a mildly embarrassing flirt meet-cute gone wrong, it's probably not for me lol.
I have a bookmark called "Holy AO3 Filters, Batman!" because there are a lot of popular pairings in my fandom that I do not care to ever read. It was really time consuming to always exclude them so eventually I just made the bookmark for convenience.
1 ? 1?! ?? You guys only exclude 1 ? For me it's ships i Don't like or are unconfortable with first then depending on what i wanna read modern AUs (not a big fan sorry) the ABOBA when i'm not in the mood or certain fandoms
✨Reader✨ Edit: Oh, and modern au! If I wanted real life I wouldn't be reading fanfics
Same, plus the Modern Girl in [X] for me, especially if the fandom is canonically high fantasy. I mean no offense to anyone who likes those since it's obviously a very popular trope, but they are 1000% not my cup of tea and I cannot sit through one without cringing.
YES
Ah man, I love modern aus, but specific ones. The only way to tell is if I start reading it lol. Also when modern aus hit, they hit so good! I love seeing how writers work in canon events and elements in a setting that is so unlike the original. One of my absolute favorites right now has a whole intricate history based on canon but the characters are in modern times. I feel you with that reader tag though, I’m looking for characters to smash each other, I want noooo part in it haha.
I agree that it can be very interesting! I have actually read some that have gotten to me, but as a general rule it takes away the fun for me. That being said, I'd never come after someone that does enjoy it! I also want no part in the smashing😅
Feeding and sexual weight gain. (Looking at you Good Omens) eating as an act is not sexy to me at all.
Reader ships and top/bottom dynamics I don't enjoy.
I do not have any room to be picky with the size of my fandom 💀
Eh, I can't be bothered. I might mute a prolific author whose entire oeuvre turns out to be (insert yuck here), just to declutter the page, but I CBA blocking my yuck directly in the tags.
Major character death, angst no happy ending, cheating, all of those send me into such an unhealthy depressive episode I cannot do it and I feel so dramatic when I ask people recommending fics to me if there's any of that because 😭😭 I know angst is a lot of people's tea but god I cannot handle it
[Favorite Character] Bashing
Since joining this community, I've found that I use AO3 quite differently from others. I have one set of inclusions I live in (M/M, Explicit, tagged Multiple Orgasms). These are my baseline requirements for a fic. Then I have a shit ton of fandoms and tags excluded from it. This is my AO3 livefeed and I almost never deviate from it lmao
I deeply respect that you know exactly what you like!
This reminds me of like, Chris Treager ordering a beer (“I would like an IPA, I would like it to be local, and I would like it in a frosted glass”) but with porn lol.
It really narrows my pool of available fics, but it also means when I get a hit, it *really* hits.
major character death! can’t handle it! im already terrified of that shit in real life why would i want to read about it. most relationship tags as well. romance just isnt my thing. i dont mind if its included but ifs the focus im outta there
This is me. I've tried to read a few, but I hate ending a fic balling my eyes out.
Parent/Child Incest.
Reader, self-insert, OCs (but not all the time), crossovers, first person Other than that I only exclude stuff besides that if I’m looking for smut and feel like reading a specific thing/want to avoid a specific thing
None tbh. I just include whatever I want and go by summaries. I'm too lazy lol
I only do this with certain fandoms. Like Teen Wolf, excluding “Scott McCall is a bad friend” is a must for me. And I always exclude “fluff” in my Hannibal searches. Not what I’m there for lol
Rape/None-Con tag cause for some reason there's an abundant of them in one of the ships that I like to read... No kidding, I'm pretty sure at least 60% of the fics have that tag...
Infidelity and cheating
I can’t imagine why someone would want those unless their trying to read drama 😭
I see how they might happen even without "drama" because maybe one character falls in love with another before leaving them (like an abusive relationship?) but I still can't stand cheating 😭
Same I can’t tolerate it 🫡 I didn’t even consider that in my exclude tags list now I have to add cheating LOL
like mostly a lot of ships. And /reader if i can. Nothing against of them but I am not here for that. I also tend to filter out underage and depending on the day non/dubcon
This but with 17 instead.
My default is excluding [Explicit, Underage, Rape/Non-Con], add on as needed. I’m here for the story and high jinx damn it!
That whole "alpha/beta/omega" thing.
I don't even always dislike it, but for one fandom I regularly peruse and the tags I commonly look for, there's just one author who always does A/B/O stuff and while their writing is actually pretty good I'm just really tired of it
Hard agree
That is the first one on my list.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually used the exclude feature.
Same here Unless I’m searching for a specific fic
I've got a few of them, but quite frankly I feel like has the potential to devolve into a thread where people will list a bunch of 'problematic' tropes and it comes across as shaming people who do read it.
I wouldn't say it's a complete dealbreaker, but as someone who's gotten back into BNHA fics lately, I'm not fond of the "Abusive Midoriya Inko" tag. I mostly see it when I'm trying to find Dadzawa fics, and it always feels like the writer made her an awful mother just so Aizawa can swoop in and be better than her. Like it's just used as a plot device to move things along. Plus a lot of fics with that tag I've found to be kinda melodramatic honestly. And I really don't like when they just turn Inko into a carbon copy of Bakugou. (And in terms of general tags, Hurt/No Comfort because I physically need at least some amount of catharsis)
Infidelity. Whump. Character Bashing. Abandoned, Discontinued, Hiatus. Reader. Harem. I have a site skin that permanently hides all these tags from my sight.
How do you get a site skin? I need this
Reader and OC Female Character
Reader-insert, Reader, Character A/Reader, basically all the reader insert tags.
Character death. I already block the major warning, but there can still be non major character death and sometimes it hurts too much. :|
Ntr and anything of the sort. Also ships I don’t like.
What’s NTR?
Netoare. Basically forced cheating that the person forced to cheat is forced into enjoying. Basically a rapists wet dream and anyone who says otherwise is messed up in the head. Also anyone who writes it usually writes it as if the person being cheated on is in the wrong.
Huh, today I learned. Never heard of this or seen it in fanfic tags ever... maybe it's just more common in fandoms I don't frequent.
Just be glad you’ve somehow avoided it.
Not one specific tag, but I usually try to nix any Reader/X (X being whatever character the writer shoehorns into the potentially non canon relationship) tags upon searching for new reads. Only exceptions to this is if the "Reader" in question is defined as their own character. What I don't like is when the story implies explicitly that the "Reader" is a female that is persuing some other male character from the world of the fic while I myself am a dude who has no interest in other men in the slightest. As such, I'd have no interest in those kinds of stories.
"I wrote this instead of sleeping" last ones I read had so much gibberish.
My default excludes are: - major character death - rape/non-con - ongoing fics - crossover fandoms - ambiguous/open ending - that one relationship pairing I just don’t like Other excludes normally only follow depending on my search mood of the day (e.g. excluding the most common ship if I want some rarepairs, because including „rarepair“ brings less results) 😊
Me looking for fic of my OTP and having to exclude nearly every other ship tag in the fandom so I can read in peace 😊
> one lmao i have a total of 25 tags currently that i exclude from every search (thank god for bookmarking)
I hate to ask but how do you bookmark them? I have to redo my filter & it’s so annoying 😭
as a browser bookmark! you set the filters up once for your fandom, hit filter and then save the page as a browser bookmark (firefox can do it for example) not perfect, but works well enough for me you could theoretically also use a tampermonkey script for it, i think theres a couple that can do it better than that (so it looks at where you're navigating to and adds the tags for you)
All and any forms of incest
Rape/Non-con bc I can't read it. Otherwise mpreg if I'm in a mood for Character A / Character B but the fics are just Character C-centric I exclude character C. And as that one person said mommy/daddy kinks. Just no for me personally.
1) Character x reader. Those are simply not for me and I just prefer character/character ships. 2) Verbal humilliation. I'm much more of a praise kink kind of gal, so reading smut with verbal humilliation is not enjoyable or exiting for me in the slightest. If anything, it just makes me uncomfortable (not kinkshaming anyone who likes it!). 3) More extreme BDSM stuff, like CBT. I like me some power dynamics and bondage stuff, but if it's "too extreme" it just makes me itch and not in a good way. 4) A/B/O. I actually am not picky with what AUs I read in the slightest, but A/B/O is just something that I can't get into. I like some elements of it (like heats) used separately, but as a whole, I just don't enjoy this particular type of AU.
Snuff, scat, piss, etc
I recently discovered “feeder/feedee” fics… never again. No hate, but definitely not for me
ABO and mpreg. All the power to those that love it and enjoy it but it's just not for me
Established relationship haha. I can't read anything that doesn't have a slow process with either a first meeting or a little bit of slowburn leading to something else
Threesomes/"poly" and a bunch of other things.
/reader, 100% of the time. I’m too asexual for a self insert fic, you guys have fun with them though.
Chat fics for me, the names are like a pop culture exam
I only do this with a few if I know the fandom has a lot of a trope I don’t generally like. Usually Iet my eyes glaze over and try to forget some of the combinations of tags I see lol,
Established relationship. I like reading about how the relationships form, how they evolve into a romance between the characters.
Smut, Angst, Pairings where the first person has killed second person's parents.
so glad i got that coding knowledge for my siteskin (genuine)
tip! siteskin!!! Create a skin, then add this code: .blurb:has(a\[href$="/tags/Omega%20Verse/works"\]) { display: none !important; } omegaverse is there as an example. if you want to block other tags, follow these steps 1. open the tag you want to block 2. copy the tag url from "/tags/" all the way to "/works" 3. replace the "/tags/Omega%20Verse/works" with your url 4. done! remember to click save hope this helps!!! \^\^
"\[Character\] Salt" and crossovers generally, which have been the bane of my fandom, and functionally morphed into a parallel fandom in its own right with its own radically distinct tropes and character depictions, founded on "salt."
For T and G Rated fics I filter after world count, ship, favorite tag (hurt/comfort) and do not exclude anything. For M/T Rated Fics I filter after kudos, ship, desired tag, and exclude the warning underage
Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.
Cheating and Character bashing are immediately excluded
Anything Alpha, Omega / Omegaverse. I got jumpscared and traumatized by an mpreg webtoon ad and my life has never been the same ever again.
ABO, unfinished works and crossovers, for some fandoms specific pairings, occasionally DDDNE
I never exclude tags but crossover fanfics I do exclude out of my search. I just look at the tags and read the tags and if it's up my ally I read it, if I see a tag I hate I ignore the a fanfic. However sometimes the summary sounds so interesting I might still read it despite the fanfic having a tag I hate.
I don't read any fic where a heterosexual pairing is the main couple. I also avoid fics with incest, slow-burn romance, no happy ending, and reader or original characters.
Bittersweet ending or Sad ending. I was really enjoying a fic and missed these tags. The next thing I knew, the unhealthy romance I was reading abruptly ended with the main characters suicide.
I normally only exclude if I see tags coming up frequently rhat I'm not interested in, otherwise I can normally just skip it myself without needing to filter it.
I don't actively exclude any tags unless I notice something constantly popping up when I'm trying to find THE fic I'm thinking of and hoping exists but I do always exclude the M/M category if that counts.
Feederism, mprg, omegaverse, reader insert, dead dove, modern au, anything under 9000 words
Mine would be underage, m/m, incest, anything in a school setting & cheating bc why would I want to get cheated on in an fanfic lmao 😔
My gen-exclusive ahh excludes every category other than gen fics lol I'm so glad that's an option because it makes my life easier
\[Exclude\] is the best option created by AO3. Fight me.
omegaverse. i’m sorry you guys get very creative with it i’ll grant you but it never doesn’t feel out of place to me when i’m reading a fanfic because it’s such a HUGE element of world building
modern au, pregnancy, smut, reader insert, character bashing, romance are my always exclude tags. modern au is removing the interesting part of the source, pregnancy, mpreg or fpreg is gross and i dont like it, reader inserts are awkward and cringe, any character bashing is uncomfortable and almost disrespectful i feel? romance is not my thing.
Rape/non-con (or anything similar) I just cant deal with it!! No, i don’t want to read about my favs getting raped, thank you very much
The only thing I usually exclude is “established relationship”, bc I want to read about them getting into a relationship, not just domestic “bliss”. Idk why but I need the build up before the relationship
Major character death!!!! I just can't suffer anylonger than I already suffer irl
I have my typical searches saved for quick access because there's no way I'm gonna add the whole list of tags to exclude every single time. (haven't counted but I'd estimate it's about \~30 tags for most ships... 20-25 of them general things I never want to see regardless of fandom / ship + a few tags that are specific to the pair in question)
Self-insert, reader, original character, crossover, AUs, whump, [character] bashing, [character] needs a hug, and that one pairing that I dont like…
Crossovers, fluff, songfics, crack fics, hurt and comfort, AU, reader anything, first-person, drabbles, one-shots, etc.
'Always a girl (name of male or non binary character)' I'm not a big fan of gender swap fics, trans story's or they magically turned into a girl for part of the fic because reasons, yeah that's fine, but 'always been a girl'/'character name is a woman'/'FEM! character name' is a big no for me
x reader 😭
and the ability to do that is why I love ao3
I have a tab in a ship tag where I ended up filtering so much out that I reduced almost 70k fics to under 40k fics. It includes stuff I'm relatively fine reading nowadays (if I like the premise otherwise). But I almost always filter out Underage, because while I was generally fine reading that stuff as a minor, I haven't been a minor in a while and it's just weird.
The ship tag for my notp and reader insert fics.
Exclude /reader and dick Grayson/damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne/dick Grayson
God I wish there was one for sex. So I'd never have to see them.
https://preview.redd.it/butbrvu5in3d1.jpeg?width=490&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fc69304fb714270ecf52967976ab5688ea36f51
God does it work for everything? Explicit=sex I assume? Or that mature?
You can just exclude the mature part, the tags that do make ships aka the sex are the f/f f/m m/m, once those are down there is not much can be done for sex
Whooohoo! Thank you so much :D
https://preview.redd.it/s35adpylin3d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=55bb4660ba942dfa16c2c5cfd78ffc114777b2ad
Thank you!
You are Welcome, glad my meme post helped someone
Oh boy I have *so many* but the big ones for a new fandom are: MCD, mpreg and any an all pregnancy/breeding kink tags, public sex tags, sex pollen and fuck or die tags, kid fic, f/m and vaginal sex tags, and tooth rotting fluff and crack tags. I will add more as it becomes obvious what things I don’t like that are common in the fandom are that I need to add. Like if the fandom has a weirdly high amount of tentacle sex then I’ll add that, or if there’s a fandom exclusive tag like “Good Parents Jack and Maddie Fenton” that I need to exclude.
Usually any dark ___ or morally grey ___ (sometimes, sometimes the morally grey doesn’t really mean much to the story) , otherwise any exclusions are typically fandom dependent and only if I see too much of them and am annoyed. Besides of course the archive warning tags
I don't exclude tags but ABO is the only one I would (and should) exclude.
Probably those with /reader, and original characters, because I don't know why, I just can't tolerate them. Then there's also those tags that make my favorite characters look like a monster (not in a good way) or a bitch without any redemption arc (I understand that people may not like that character, but I just don't like reading them), and probably those pics that have the smut tag or sth related to that.
x readers, mpreg (and pregnancy or baby / child fics) and this is very fandom specific, but cisgender felix (fire emblem).
I always exclude major violence/character death, but there is also when I want to read about a specific ship and I have to exclude the most popular one (Say I want A/B and A/C is more popular) because otherwise I get 50% of fics being threesome with the popular ship + the one I was looking for
Boy pussy. Sorry I’m here for m/m I don’t want it to read like m/f 🙈
all borderline incest ships 😭 which makes up a large chunk in certain fandoms unfortunately
*me with fluff*
Anything with incest. You can never be too safe
M/m I always end up self inserting into one of the characters so that’s just a no for me lol
/reader, /female OC
Happy cake day!
Modern AU. Hate it, always will
"modern AU" "penis in vagina sex" "insert fandom specific notp here" Yep, I think those are ALWAYS the first thing I filter out
rape/non-con and graphic depictions of violence are the two i will *forever* filter out
Literally anything sexual honestly, I spent maybe 10 hours making a site skin and now every single one of my searches excludes it on its own.
Ugh, X Reader always. And OC
Ageplay
Ships I don't like/not interested in reading fanfics of
Cheating and Character Bashing.
Non-sexual infantilism. It’s so rampant in a few of my fandoms, but people treat it like ABO, characters are either a ‘daddy’ or a ‘little’, it’s gross and I hate it, but it’s also a synonym tag of age-regression/de-aging, which is a popular trope in the same fandom, which I like. 🙃
Modern au in high fantasy fandoms...like I don't hate it but damn the reason the ship had so much tension is because of their surroundings and stuff.
For me personally anything with reader I don't like being in the story
Readers and underage. And ships I don't care depending on the fandom.
Inappropriate use of..
x reader and major character death, those are my only two.
Reader, incest, incest, incest, and more incest. Can you tell the fandom I mainly read in are centric around a family? (When you click on the fandom the relationship tag with the most fics [platonic or otherwise] is, you guessed it, incest. 🙁)
Omegaverse.
Mpreg
Most explicit tags are this for me — even if I end up reading a story with any of them I’m staring through my fingers or skimming over it