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razielimI'm trying to figure out the best way to post a bunch of old fanfics on Ao3 without alerting all the people who have subscribed to my account?
I'm finally thinking of reversing my decision to delete all Supernatural fics (and oh god I just remembered I also deleted all the Teen wolf ones. Fine. Supernatural and Teen Wolf, jfc).
Here's the thing - I didn't know you could subscribe to people, so way back when, prior to deleting them, my initial approach was to consolidate them into chapters of a single fic, one fic per ship - a fic with all Wincest ficlets, a fic with all Drowley ficlets, etc.
Cue one of my mutuals sending me an ask on tumblr like "Gabriel, you gave me a heart attack seeing so many update emails."
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
NO.
Not doing that again. I finally figured out how to look it up, and there are 500 people who would get notifications if I simply posted and backdated new fics. I would die. Of guilt or something.
So. I have two options I'm considering.
Anyone happen to know the best approach? Because otherwise I'm going to start drafting the weirdest fucking request to Ao3 Support.
I'm finally thinking of reversing my decision to delete all Supernatural fics (and oh god I just remembered I also deleted all the Teen wolf ones. Fine. Supernatural and Teen Wolf, jfc).
Here's the thing - I didn't know you could subscribe to people, so way back when, prior to deleting them, my initial approach was to consolidate them into chapters of a single fic, one fic per ship - a fic with all Wincest ficlets, a fic with all Drowley ficlets, etc.
Cue one of my mutuals sending me an ask on tumblr like "Gabriel, you gave me a heart attack seeing so many update emails."
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
NO.
Not doing that again. I finally figured out how to look it up, and there are 500 people who would get notifications if I simply posted and backdated new fics. I would die. Of guilt or something.
So. I have two options I'm considering.
- One. Create a new account. Post old fics to new account. Add my main account retroactively. Abandon the fics from the new account, leaving only my main. This seems like something a crazy person would do, but it should work. I think.
- Two. Create a false identity. Affix a fake mustach-oijgojgoijg I'm kidding.
- Two. Post them as part of a hidden collection and "reveal" later. Do people get notifications about reveals by people they subscribe to? I don't know. Sounds dangerous, if you're into that sort of thing.
Anyone happen to know the best approach? Because otherwise I'm going to start drafting the weirdest fucking request to Ao3 Support.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 03:36 (UTC)I have a bunch of unrevealed on one of my accounts.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 03:41 (UTC)I unfortunately only learned about collections in 2018 when participating in a fest (and only became familiar with how they work and how to make unrevealed fics last year), which was already too late! But I absolutely will be doing that in the future instead, if I ever have more deletion impulses.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 04:19 (UTC)The only way I've heard of to upload fics and not have Ao3 send out notifications for it is to upload them to a secondary account, then add your main account as an additional author, and then remove the secondary account as the author. This seems to be what you're suggesting in option 1. I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard that it does work. You may need to give some time in between transfers to ensure the notification doesn't go out.
About this: Do people get notifications about reveals by people they subscribe to?
Yes, they do receive notifications when someone they're subscribed to has fics revealed from a hidden collection. These notifications are consolidated - if a bunch of them are revealed at once, subscribers will only receive one email. So that's an option if you don't mind them receiving one email, but it isn't useful if you want to prevent upload notification completely.
Hope that helps! I really wish there was an easy option to upload something without letting the Entire World know that you're doing it, but there isn't, to my knowledge.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 04:35 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 05:37 (UTC)I wouldn't recommend contacting Support because they're already bogged down with various abuse tickets and it'll take weeks if not months for them to get back to you [they tend to only reply right away if you got a comment with hate speech or threats and even then, "right away" isn't right away] and they'll probably tell you the exact same thing, because they would have to change their code to not ping your subscribers umpteen times otherwise, and they can't really do that.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 05:42 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 05:45 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 06:35 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 08:49 (UTC)I was going to suggest doing Drafts and clicking Post at the same time because AO3 batches notifications - but I think the Collection would work a lot better!! That way you get all the time you want to prepare, and then they will all get revealed at the same time so people will only get one email.
If you do the separate account (the only way for people not to get an email), make sure to wait until the notification actually goes out before adding your main account!! Subscription emails only go out once per hour or so, it's not immediate (unless it's a gift, then it's immediate for the giftee).
Did you know you can subscribe to yourself as well? I like doing that because it gives me an idea when the emails come out and what they look like (woo, spotting a typo in the summary only after it's been sent to a bunch of people 😂). Congratulations on writing fics that so many people enjoy btw, that's an impressive number of subscribers :)
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Date: 2022-02-02 16:23 (UTC)(More seriously, I just delete subscription emails for fics I'm not interested in. I don't see it as a bother)
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Date: 2022-02-03 00:30 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-03 14:35 (UTC)I think I might basically saying that I want to hide my fic in the bowels of AO3, so that it's technically there if you go looking but no-one notices it *laughs*
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Date: 2022-02-03 14:47 (UTC)Accumulated Ao3 subscribers on the other hand, I assume, are hardy and reliable in the ways that count. I'm hesitant to stress-test them in the ways that don't count.
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Date: 2022-02-03 23:24 (UTC)I have zero impulse control, however, so I wrote this post, sent support a message an hour later, and then the next morning opened a second account. What a bunch of fuss I've kicked up... But the archiving is happening, at least!
You're SO RIGHT about it being a BIG extra step to use the second account. Having opened it and started with just a couple fics, I'm already thinking it's not worth it. Probably better to just reveal a collection and have the one batch email go out than give myself hours of extra labor.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-03 23:27 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-03 23:32 (UTC)I think I read about subscribing to yourself on reddit while googling my question, and it's honestly blowing my mind as a concept. Especially bc phew you're RIGHT about those summary typos. I usually only catch those five years later. Would be nice to catch them five minutes later if a subscription email could help me with that.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-04 12:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-04 21:43 (UTC)I am just perpetually bemused by mine. I mean, I figure some of them will leave if the randomness really starts to irk them?