Comment on TOS Spotlight: Harassment

  1. Rambert Mon 16 Jun 2025 03:52AM UTC

    Viren shudders and says ugh from putting the bug on his ear to speak to Aaravos

    So you're admitting that you're tone policing author notes... and yet you won't incorporate more warnings or any protections against racism into the ToS... this website is cooked 🍳

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    1. Brambleshadow_of_WindClan Wed 18 Jun 2025 11:07PM UTC

      Stating "Transphobes DNI" in the tags or author's notes and leaving it at simply that, in and of itself, is not harassment and such a DNI is allowed on AO3.

      Pairing that DNI statement with violent statements (even over-the-top cartoonish violence) or personal attacks, however, in either the tags or the author's notes will then be viewed or taken as harassment, as that is directed toward real people.

      AO3 in and of itself does not "tone police", as you've phrased it. They do not step in unless the tags/notes/users in question are reported to the PAC team for violating the TOS.

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    2. sockswithheels Thu 19 Jun 2025 05:07AM UTC

      I agree with you, this is exactly what I was going to ask in the comments–but I think the other people in the thread did bring up a valid point, sometimes you just gotta follow the site's rules, no matter how odd they seem to you (and I, for that matter). It's super frustrating when other people don't follow these rules in the comment section, so I disagree with what one other user said about not having to put it in the tags; it's not inherently a "threat" or even insulting–and it shouldn't be. If you're prejudiced against something, you probably have very strong feelings about it, so why would you care that a random user's tag tells you not to engage negatively. Like I would think that's normal but okay... anyway, it stinks, but I'd like to believe AO3 mods have everyone's best interest at heart.

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      1. Kereudio Thu 19 Jun 2025 08:01PM UTC

        I think you and the person you replied to are misunderstanding the post and PAC's response? DNIs are absolutely allowed as long as they aren't paired with an insult, attack, or death threat. I think DNIs for bigots are useless because if a bigot is setting out to harass me for being trans why the hell would they listen to or care about a DNI, but "transphobes DNI" or even "DNI transphobes i hate you" is a-okay on AO3. It's shit like "DNI transphobes i hope you die" or "DNI transphobes i think you're disgusting monsters" that ISN'T okay.

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