I’m really curious what their definition of “being harassed” is though, because if someone else wrote into the tags that other people should die they could report those people to the “moderators” as well.
Yeah, I wonder why Ao3 doesn’t like this kind of thing. I mean, they let people post such vile, vile content about fictional characters. Why, oh why don’t they want their users to threaten real people? It just doesn’t make sense!
Apparently saying you’ll strangle someone is harassment. Who’d ever have guessed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Someone was asking me about something like this a while back.
Basically, AO3 will take things as harassment if they’re openly threatening and somewhat directed like this, even if they’re tags on a fic and not being sent directly to an individual target.
#i will guess this is another result of the tumblr to AO3 pipeline where people are used to thinking of tags as ‘my space to say whatever’ #and not. say. a form of metadata developed and curated by the site for the specific purpose of being metadata #note AND CURATED. someone has to read every! single! tag! you post to AO3! #a real human has to look at it with their real eyeballs! potentially one of the people you are literally POSTING A DEATH THREAT TO. #‘Don’t post death threats’ is IN NO WAY an unusual rule for a site to have! especially for one that isn’t a social media site#and is far less white noise by volume! ESPECIALLY given that one of their ways of making it less white noise by volume is by prioritizing#data in the tags! so that if someone is trying to search eg ‘MK Wukong’ whatever that is they’re now more likely to receive a fic that lists #AGAIN. A REAL DEATH THREAT. #‘oh but it’s online it’s not real it’s a joke’ please understand that anything that gets specific about how it wants to kill you #or wants you to die is a death threat. that’s how it WORKS. THREATENING SOMEONE WITH DEATH IS IN FACT A DEATH THREAT #tags are meant to be read. don’t put death threats in them.
The tag wranglers look at your tags. They looks at all the tags in their assigned fandom. Death threats are not on.
To me the whole point of tags is to help people figure out what they want and don’t want to read, in a usable and searchable way. So it’s no surprise to me that the same people who are wailing about AO3 posting Bad and Immoral Content are the same people who misuse the tags and make it harder for people to curate their reading experience.
How did we get to the point where we have to explain to people we do not send death threats to a person you don’t agree with?
I mean, my objections to antis are a lot deeper, but I don’t know how to explain that sending death threats and death wishes MAKES YOU A TERRIBLE PERSON.
There’s also something DEEPLY ironic about antis wailing about their literal fucking death threats being taken down for threatening REAL PEOPLE and that’s so UNFAIR… and yet they push against FICTIONAL violence and sex because it’s “icky” and “wrong” but somehow ACTUAL FUCKING DEATH THREATS are okay…
Also I’ve said it once and I will say it again- “pedos should all die” is a a GREAT way to get a knee-jerk reaction out of people in agreement… And you can’t trust it. Because I promise you. The next step. Is saying that anyone you don’t like is a pedo.
That last part specifically is signed by a queer Jew. You know. Two groups that have historically been accused of child grooming and assault as a way to turn the public against us.
