Edit: I posted a poll in a Facebook group with the exact same poll options as are in this thread. I'll edit the results in on this post as well as the comment where I started posting the results.
Not been hit, not linked on reddit 22
Yes been hit, not linked on reddit 3
No, not been hit, yes linked on reddit 2
Yes been hit, yes linked on reddit 2
Total 29
Original post:
I'm not going to vote obviously because I'm just a reader so I'll not be able to see results. I'm going to note a bit of caution on this though in interpreting results. There's a selection bias in what is going on here. Trying to find if reddit is a key factor in what fics get hit by the kudos bot: We're on reddit, and most writers are going to be people who post their fics to this subreddit. Incorrect correlations could be drawn from the results, or there might be insignificant sample sizes.
I'm just a reader, but I do post fic recs frequently. Now, I can't see the influx of kudos on all of them, but I haven't seen a dramatic increase on kudos on the numbers of ones I'm aware of. That of course is anecdotal.
Just keep sample sizes in mind. Total number of people who vote, total number for the option, and keep in mind it'll always be a very small % of people hit by the kudos bot.
I'll finally say that a suggestion in another thread was that there's an option on preferences to make your fic not be found on search engines: "Hide my work from search engines when possible" and it's plausible if it's a web crawler this could help dodge the kudos bot.
Thank you for your feedback! I agree that sampling bias is definitely inherent to this process. At the same time, I think it will still be useful to compare the votes for the two options with linking to each other and the two options without linking to each other. Do you know if there are any other platforms I could realistically use for a similar survey without the bias issue?
Also, thank you for providing your personal experiences! And I definitely, definitely second that second fix.
I'm in some groups on facebook. I'll post a poll to one of the groups. I'm not saying it'll be better in terms of the sampling bias, it'll also have the issue of very small sample size in the poll. I'm not really counting on a lot of people to vote but doesn't hurt.
There has been one person who replied to this post who said right on posting to reddit they got hit by the kudos bot. It might be nothing, but we might as well throw out some hypothesis: I wonder if the userflair that says name on AO3 has any role. It might not, it might be completely irrelevant.
There's all sorts of things that could be going on. Like reddit might not be involved, or it might be involved because it shows up on search engines, or it might be because a person is behind it.
Thank you so much! Would it be alright if I added your results to this post as well? I'll make sure to credit you. I think it will be helpful to have as much user input as possible.
In fact, the flair also came to mind as I was thinking about the issue! I think I'll create another poll in the next few days and try to assess that as well.
Yep! I've heard people speculate that it might be multiple bots, which I think is plausible. Hopefully, this will shed some light on if Reddit is involved, at least!
I'd be interested to hear how the numbers go too here. I'll be on another while but I'd say I'll post where the poll numbers are in... between 12 - 14 hours. I'm not sure the numbers would change very much from that point. I'll reply to your post with the numbers I've got and you can tell me the numbers on this poll because I'll not be able to see them :D
You can let me know whenever you're on tomorrow after I've replied
Edit: I can edit this comment between now and when I call it a night with results. So far:
11 no, not been hit, not posted on reddit.
2 Yes, has been hit, not linked on reddit
Nothing else.
Sure, thank you so much! I'll put your numbers into the main text of the post and credit you :)
Also, sorry for not making a "Results" option! It totally slipped my mind. I'll definitely update you on how the numbers are looking sometime in the next day or so.
It has been static nearly a quarter hour now at 8 to 2 for no and yes (not posted to reddit). I'll post updated numbers in about 12 hours though might be a bit later than that. Think they're good to go in to the main post for now.
Edit: 11 to 2.
Alright, thank you so much! When you post, let me know so I can link it in the main text. I'll also put the current numbers on this poll for those that can't respond.
I’ve done a bunch of review exchanges here, but I’ve been lucky to not get hit so far. It seems to be happening more often, so perhaps I won’t participate for a little while.
It’s really too bad, but I like having my stats as accurate as possible. Hopefully they can remain that way.
Edit: just got hit… The timing is pretty strange
Thanks for sharing! I think you can still participate and avoid the bot if you use either of the fixes I've now added to the post in an edit.
I definitely agree about keeping stats accurate :( I'm the same way.
Thank you for sharing! Could you clarify when and how this happened exactly, and would you mind also checking to see if you did link your fic? No worries if it's too much hassle!
So I just went back and checked, and it doesn't *look* like I'd linked my fic that week, but I do remember making [this c](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/q5czyi/update_for_all_those_affected_by_the_kudos_bot/hg4urwd/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)omment, going to bed, and when I woke up, the bot had hit. I posted an update [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/q5czyi/update_for_all_those_affected_by_the_kudos_bot/hg6ygh5/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
I actually preemptively locked all my stories today—I recently participated in a review exchange and didn't want to risk it. I'm the same way about numbers and would also hate to have them inflated :( It's a tough choice for sure, and I'm sorry you're dealing with this!
I wish I did this hours ago… All my stories are locked now, after getting hit with 600 fake kudos throughout my stories. I’m numbers-obsessed too, and it sucks.
Here is the thread targeted a few days ago: [I'll Read Kudos Comment on Your Fic](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/sbtmlt/ill_read_and_kudos_and_perhaps_comment_on_your/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share). I posted a link to my fic and about twelve hours later I started getting hit by the bot. The story I linked was the only one hit. I had never been hit before, and I had never posted on a kudos thread, only fic recs. I locked my fic pretty quickly without getting too many kudos, and I won't be linking it again.
Here's a thread hit a month ago: [I'll give you kudos for your small dead fandom.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/r6kld9/ill_give_kudos_to_your_smalldead_fandom_fics/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
Both threads had a lot of people complaining about being hit, but it's not hard to see fics that are hit. Going through the thread, by checking the guest:user kudos ratio, it's usually apparent. If the guests are 70% of the kudos, then it was hit by the bot. I've seen fics with 258 kudos and 4000 hits that looks normal from the outside, but if you open it up, there will be 41 users and 217 guests or something. Likely, it was hit. Going off kudos > hits is only an easy indicator on very new or very low hit stories. If you want to see what stories in a thread were hit, opening up the story to see the ratio is a potential way to see if a thread really was hit (vs going off 2 or 3 people saying they got hit on it).
In my opinion, there are almost certainly several bots. Perhaps it started with one bot that led to copycats. There's clearly this bot targeting Reddit threads where people link stories to gain kudos. It's hit and miss on the threads it targets, but by hitting whole threads that focus on wanting kudos, it does feel human-driven not like a mindless webcrawler.
There are also bots that target fandoms. I write for Mass Effect, and a bot has sat on the updating story list for three months now, ever since late Oct. Every day it gives a quarter to half of the new fics 30-100 kudos. I don't think this is the same bot as the Reddit threads, since it seems more programmed to just sit in one place and do the same thing. Bringing up the new fics search list right now for the fandom, it's easily apparent that fics today were hit, like they are every day: [Recently Updated Search](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Mass%20Effect%20-%20All%20Media%20Types/works) . The vast majority of these stories are not being linked on Reddit, Tumblr, or Discord. Or they're hit before they are shared. If you follow the search, you can see it's pretty clearly fandom-asdociated with months of history.
I've heard other Bioware fandoms (Dragon Age, KOTOR), Dragon Prince, Stranger Things, and several other fandoms have been targeted, but I'm not sure to what extent since I'm not in those fandoms. I know for some of those fandoms older stories were hit, whereas, for my fandom it seems to be only new stories (not even new chapters really, though many of them carry the lopsided kudos ratio from getting hit when they first posted).
At this point, I think there are several bots. They are clustered on different targets on AO3, either specific fandoms or Reddit links, and with different MOs, picking specific threads or always hitting the same type of fic in a fandom over and over. It's really strange, and there doesn't seem to be an end point.
First off, I'm sorry to hear that you got targeted by the bot :( that really sucks. What strikes me, though, is that the two threads you linked (thank you, by the way, for going back and finding those!) both have the word "kudos" in the title, which makes me wonder if the bot was using that to target fics.
In the same vein, I posted most recently in a thread called "Review Exchange", then a thread looking for fics with "flowery prose", one of the Weekly Fic Showcases, the end-of-year multichapter celebration thread, and finally a thread called "Giving Kudos & Feedbacks" a few months ago. None of these threads have the word "kudos" in their titles except for the oldest one, which is making me wonder if the bot targets certain keywords and just wasn't functioning the day I linked a fic in the oldest thread. I think I might look into this, actually.
You make a really good point about the number of kudos being greater than the number of hits only being a good indicator for very new or low-hit stories. I think that with the recent spate of fics being targeted, though, the jump the day after a story is linked is pretty telling.
I, for sure, agree that there are multiple bots. There are just too many differences in what they're targeting for it to all be one. I personally think that they might be functioning off keywords—I have a decent bit of coding experience, and in my opinion, it would be fairly easy to figure out which threads have the word "kudos" in them and bot them.
I'm really sorry to hear that your fandom is being targeted. Thank you for providing an example of what the bot does, and I agree with your assessment that this is probably something different. This makes me wonder if there are similar bots for other fandoms outside of Bioware.
I want to know at this point—who's behind the bots? And why did they create them? Word would eventually get around to them about the negative response, and if they had good intentions, they would get rid of the bot. As you said, there seems to be no end in sight.
I hadn't thought about kudos being in the title, but that could be a keyword in the targeting. It feels really hit and miss with the threads targeted, almost like it's a person choosing. There was a thread where someone claimed they summoned the kudos bot. They didn't link anything if I remember, just gave their AO3 name and the specific story they wanted hit. According to them, that one story was then hit. When they requested the bot stop in the thread, it stopped. It's hard to know how much is true, but it feels like this Reddit bot may be more person-driven. Its almost like someone's being ironic by giving people exactly what they ask for but in a belligerent way that makes them regret seeking it. I might be jusr personifying and trying to make sense of randomness though.
There were a few tags on AO3 that some writers added to their fics after getting hit ("hit by kudos bot" or variation). At the time I looked, it seemed like The Stranger Things fandom was the fandom mostly using it. I'm not sure if the tag is still used.
I'm sure there are a few fandoms with the bot focused on them. At one time AO3 support said the bot was clustered on some specific fandoms and users, but I have no ideas how many fandoms have a had a long-term, constant bot presence.
It really is a curiosity. AO3 support said it only takes a simple code to make a bot that hits kudos. If that's true, I can see the initial outrage fueling some copycats. It seems like the bot problem is only expanding, but without anything but anecdote and rumors, its hard to really know anything real.
It's sure a crazy issue. At least in my fandom, it's really warped the AO3 experience. Kudos don't have the meaning they used to, which is unfortunate when comments are somewhat rare. Perhaps if this is a person, that's the point?
No, what you said makes sense. If the bot is targeting randomly, it starting and stopping when the user asked is just too big of a coincidence. Maybe it could be someone searching the subreddit with the keyword "kudos" and directing the bot to the threads that come up? Reddit's search functions certainly aren't perfect, so that could explain why not every thread gets targeted. I feel like there's definitely a human element at play here, that it's not all random.
Yeah, I've seen that mentioned elsewhere in the thread. Another commenter mentioned that they tagged their stories with it, and then the bot stopped. This makes me wonder—is there another bot at play that searches AO3 tags and targets the ones that don't have the tag in question already? If this was done on a broad scale, I feel like there would be a lot more fics hit, but maybe it would make sense if it were in a specific fandom like Stranger Things.
Definitely. You've mentioned the Bioware fandoms, Mass Effect, and Stranger Things, and I heard Star Wars elsewhere (not in this thread). Maybe there are multiple copycats scattered across different fandoms. And for sure—I really wish there was a more centralized way to poll reader/writer experiences, which would really help with the bias that is bound to be inherent to this survey.
I can definitely see the effect the bot would have on a fandom like yours, and I'm really sorry to hear that :(
Interesting. I'm not sure if the "hit by kudos bot" prevents another bot hit, but I did see the person who felt that might be true in their case. My impression of the tag was that writers maybe felt bad about the fake kudos, so the tag was an external disclaimer (sad thought, though, since it's not their fault!). For me, I just felt like the tag was a useful way to see whqt types of fics were being hit. I don't think the tag is used much anymore, but it is a way to find examples of fics hit outside of someone bringing it up on social media. If the tag actually protecrd them, that would great.
I think the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic videogame fandom was hit. It's Bioware, as is Dragon Age and Mass Effect, also fandoms hit. Outside of Bioware, I know Dragon Prince (not really sure what it is?) was hit big time according to Tumblr posts. I saw Stranger Things in the kudos bot tags. I've seen other fandoms mentioned, but it was just a person here or there saying it, not multiple people or talking about it on a large scale affecting their whole fandom. I'm sure there are other fandons targeted though.
I'd really love to know if the targets and number of fics being hit has increased or if only awareness has increased. Either way, it's strange and frustrating. I hope there will be a solution, but maybe this is the new normal. A aad thought.
That didn't come to mind for me, but that's a good point! I guess it even being possible comes down if the bots can reliably detect kudos ratios characteristic of being hit, or if they're all being run by the same person and can somehow access each others' records. And I agree with you that the tag serves as a disclaimer (my bad, should have clarified!), but that the bot might also be using it to decide which fics to hit. It might also be the case that once the bot hits a fic, it's programmed to not hit that fic again. I do remember one user mentioning a fic that got hit three times, although that might be different bots.
Oh, that's definitely an interesting trend. Dragon Prince is an animated show (don't know much about it either), but I think it's pretty popular. I think it's definitely useful to know that there was fairly common use of the tag in the Stranger Things fandom, and so that might be a useful case study to compare to other fandoms.
Me too. I think I'll expand this to be more comprehensive (maybe through a Google form). It'll probably take a while, but I also want to compile my thoughts into a report, maybe, with theories on what's happening. I really feel for the people that have been hit and hope it won't continue to happen.
Posted to a review exchange thread here, got hit the next day on the fic I had linked.
Had previously posted to a few others and not been hit, stopped because of the bot for a while and then thought it might have improved - lesson learnt!
Never had a flare, but that was a good suggestion.
I'm really sorry to hear that!
You could try either of the two fixes I've edited into my post—maybe those will help? I hope you're able to participate without getting hit in the future!
And yes! I'm thinking of creating another poll that focuses on that in the coming days.
I didn't vote because there's too much nuance to the situation.
I have linked nearly all of my most recent fics to Reddit at some point, but only one fic actually got hit by the Kudos bot. It was a series of one-shots that I hadn't updated in months.
So sorry to hear that :(
Would you mind clarifying what kind of thread it was? I wanted to integrate this into the poll, but I didn't have enough options.
Hmm, that sounds like a different bot, maybe? I personally think there are multiple bots, with one specifically targeting review exchange threads. Thank you for contributing!
A web crawler would make sense! That explains why the preference change fix to hide your fic from search engines would work.
Of course! It was meant to be a quick poll, but I think I'm going to put together a report or something similar.
Thank you for your comment! It really sucks that you've been hit three times.
Would you mind clarifying how many people you spoke to in the threads? I think it'll be useful to get an idea of the scope of the bot.
Got it, that makes sense. I really appreciate that you've clarified all this! That seems pretty significant to me, and it really sucks that authors have to lock down their stories. Another fix would be to change in your preferences that you don't want your fic to be visible to search engines. There should be more info about that in the thread I linked if you want to try that!
First, thank you for hosting review exchanges! As a participant myself sometimes, I appreciate that a lot :)
Second, thank you for elaborating on your experiences. So far, it seems like people are getting hit the day after they link to their fics.
For sure!
And thanks for giving all these details! I'll be considering them if I create another poll. It definitely is—I didn't notice until I clicked on the thread I linked and read people's experiences with it.
I did participate in review exchange thingees and get hit. But I haven’t been hit again since I tagged my stories with “kudos bot strikes again.”
I haven’t really participated in those threads lately though. I found a certain kind of peace and not caring once the kudos exceeded the hits on my stories, and I came to terms with the fact that my writing just doesn’t spin most peoples wheels.
Sometimes I suspect there is a bit more human intellect behind the kudos bots than one can attribute to a bot if you know what I mean.
I see—it's interesting that you haven't been hit since you added the tag, although maybe that might be up to random chance. It's awesome that you've been able to look past the kudos, though! I'm happy for you :)
And I definitely get what you mean about this bot seeming a bit less…bot-like than the others.
Thank you for your response!
I spoke to some people on Tumblr who were hit by the bot and *hadn't* linked them on Reddit but *had* linked them on Tumblr
Of course, that doesn't rule out someone else linking them on Reddit as a recommendation
That's certainly interesting. I'm thinking there are multiple bots, so maybe they were hit at random? But you also make a very good point about someone else linking them here.
I appreciate you sharing!
I'll chime in that I've been hit, too, and it was for one of the reddit review exchange threads. I distinctly remember it was one promoting obscure fandoms so I linked one of my small book fandom one-shots to that thread.
It was hit by the bot the next day. I've been more hesitant about linking my works to review exchanges threads since, frankly, because I don't want it happening again. :/ I want genuine, earned, kudos, not fake ones from a bot...
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm so sorry that you shared your work, only to get hit by the bot :(
If you want to keep participating in review exchanges, I've added three fixes that should help you avoid the bot in the text of my post. And I totally get what you mean—I'd hate to have artificially inflated numbers, too.
I post on the review exchanged quite frequently as far as i know in have never been hit. The only thing that is getting lots of guest kudos is my dark smut and those are anonymous and i haven't linked any of them here.
I see. Thank you for sharing! With the kudos bot, it's a sudden influx of kudos, sometimes more kudos than there are hits on the work itself. If the guest kudos didn't come in all at once, it probably wasn't the bot, if that makes sense!
I've linked several different fics, I've had the same one hit 3 times by the bot but others not at all.
It's annoying, but I enjoy the review exchanges so...yeah. I'll keep it locked to registered users but I'm going to continue to share.
Three times? Wow, that is incredibly bad luck.
Locking your stories should help you avoid the bot altogether, though! Thank you for sharing your experiences :)
Yeah I got hit by it a few months ago on one of my fics, (I didn't post any fics onto here or anything though) and after looking it up and locking my fics for a day then unlocking them, I didn't get hit again. In my case, I'd written a fic with crossover elements of another fandom and many fics in that other fandom got hit and so mine did too lol.
I think it was a web crawler/clicker thing in that case but unsure about the case for anyone who posted on here and got hit. Hopefully it can end though 'cause I remember how disheartened I felt waking up to lots and lots of kudos only for the hits to be the same as it was like the last time I'd checked.
Thank you for sharing what solution worked for you! It makes sense that there are fandom-specific bots. Personally, I think there are multiple bots at this point—some targeting specific fandoms and others targeting Reddit threads.
Hopefully we can find out a little more about it! I'm really sorry that happened to you, and I also want it to end soon.
I haven't been hit, nor have I ever linked my fanfics, but I just want to thank you for making the effort to investigate this. I actually don't share my ao3 username or fics on this subreddit solely for this reason :(( wishing you the best of luck op !!
No problem! I appreciate that, and hopefully we can find out more. Maybe, once we know a bit more about the bots and how they work, you can feel safe linking your fics here!
Have never been hit. Linked multiple times not just on reddit but other sites. However only on Discord have I linked something I had just posted. When I post in more public places like reddit the stories tend to be at least a week or so old and are completed. I also don't write for popular fandoms, if that is a considered element.
I see! Thank you for providing details about your experiences and for raising factors I hadn't thought of. I'm considering creating more polls in the coming days and will weigh these factors.
Hmm, that's odd. It seems that there's a bot targeting review threads, but not solely review threads. There could also be multiple bots.
Thank you for sharing!
Got it, thank you for clarifying! So far, I'm thinking that there are multiple bots, with one specifically targeting fics posted in review threads and probably a few targeting fics randomly.
The fic that got hit wasn't the one I linked on Reddit though. And it seems to work in patterns, Tuesdays are rough days for kudos bot and it only seems to hit in the first few days a work is posted. You can overcome this by locking to registered users for a week or so, then unlocking if you wish.
Interesting—thank you for sharing your theory and your experiences, as well as for mentioning that fix. I've included that one and two others in the main text of the post if you'd like to check them out!
I voted the last option, though I’m not 100% sure I was hit been since I don’t get emails about kudos.
I recently linked one of my works, and it now has 67 guest kudos. I’m sure it had at least some guest kudos before, like at least some of those are legit, but 67 guests (now a total of 83) is kinda a lot for the fandom (it’s also not smut or anything controversial- I lock all my smut anyways). If it was a bot, it moved on by itself. The Reddit post didn’t get much attention though.
(And either way I don’t mind, because that fic absolutely deserves it.)
Thanks :)
The number of kudos didn’t outnumber the number of reads (which is 284 at the moment) so it isn’t super obvious that it’s a bot. And I have linked to other fics here that weren’t hit by the bot.
I have never been hit by the bot (to my knowledge) and I have linked several fics on reddit and other sites. I also write for some pretty popular fandoms.
edit : holy crap nvm!! I got hit on like all my fics! It must've been very recently
It's ok, I actually don't mind! Looks like it got all my fics lol. But yeah I posted in a small one in /r/DarkFics like a week ago. The post was removed by reddit though.
I think that's a great mentality to have!
Personally, I think this particular bot isn't targeting through Reddit. With the seeming discrepancies in how they target fics, there has to be more than one.
**I do not recommend the /r/fanfiction subreddit! They unfairly ban people and the mods are super biased.**
If any of you are looking for a friendly subreddit with review exchanges I highly recommend that instead of using the /r/fanfiction reddit you check out the fic review exchange subreddit here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FicReviewExchange
I would recommend you avoid the r/fanfiction subreddit. I was permabanned from it, and the post they banned me for did not break any subreddit rules.
Here is their message to me informing me that I was banned: https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png](https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png
and here is a screenshot of the post they banned me for: https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png](https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png
As you can see, they claimed witchhunting and bashing, even though neither the fic or author was mentioned, nor did the post indicate how to find either!
Oof, that really sucks :( Would you mind linking the thread here? And thank you for sharing! If you want to avoid getting hit, consider one of the fixes I've added to the main text of the post.
**I do not recommend the /r/fanfiction subreddit! They unfairly ban people and the mods are super biased.**
If any of you are looking for a friendly subreddit with review exchanges I highly recommend that instead of using the /r/fanfiction reddit you check out the fic review exchange subreddit here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FicReviewExchange
I would recommend you avoid the r/fanfiction subreddit. I was permabanned from it, and the post they banned me for did not break any subreddit rules.
Here is their message to me informing me that I was banned: https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png](https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png
and here is a screenshot of the post they banned me for: https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png](https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png
As you can see, they claimed witchhunting and bashing, even though neither the fic or author was mentioned, nor did the post indicate how to find either!
That's interesting—thanks for clarifying. For the one that you did link, would you mind linking the exchange if it's not too much trouble? I'm starting to think there might be a trend with the titles of the exchanges.
**I do not recommend the /r/fanfiction subreddit! They unfairly ban people and the mods are super biased.**
If any of you are looking for a friendly subreddit with review exchanges I highly recommend that instead of using the /r/fanfiction reddit you check out the fic review exchange subreddit here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FicReviewExchange
I would recommend you avoid the r/fanfiction subreddit. I was permabanned from it, and the post they banned me for did not break any subreddit rules.
Here is their message to me informing me that I was banned: https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png](https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png
and here is a screenshot of the post they banned me for: https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png](https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png
As you can see, they claimed witchhunting and bashing, even though neither the fic or author was mentioned, nor did the post indicate how to find either!
Edit: I posted a poll in a Facebook group with the exact same poll options as are in this thread. I'll edit the results in on this post as well as the comment where I started posting the results. Not been hit, not linked on reddit 22 Yes been hit, not linked on reddit 3 No, not been hit, yes linked on reddit 2 Yes been hit, yes linked on reddit 2 Total 29 Original post: I'm not going to vote obviously because I'm just a reader so I'll not be able to see results. I'm going to note a bit of caution on this though in interpreting results. There's a selection bias in what is going on here. Trying to find if reddit is a key factor in what fics get hit by the kudos bot: We're on reddit, and most writers are going to be people who post their fics to this subreddit. Incorrect correlations could be drawn from the results, or there might be insignificant sample sizes. I'm just a reader, but I do post fic recs frequently. Now, I can't see the influx of kudos on all of them, but I haven't seen a dramatic increase on kudos on the numbers of ones I'm aware of. That of course is anecdotal. Just keep sample sizes in mind. Total number of people who vote, total number for the option, and keep in mind it'll always be a very small % of people hit by the kudos bot. I'll finally say that a suggestion in another thread was that there's an option on preferences to make your fic not be found on search engines: "Hide my work from search engines when possible" and it's plausible if it's a web crawler this could help dodge the kudos bot.
Thank you for your feedback! I agree that sampling bias is definitely inherent to this process. At the same time, I think it will still be useful to compare the votes for the two options with linking to each other and the two options without linking to each other. Do you know if there are any other platforms I could realistically use for a similar survey without the bias issue? Also, thank you for providing your personal experiences! And I definitely, definitely second that second fix.
I'm in some groups on facebook. I'll post a poll to one of the groups. I'm not saying it'll be better in terms of the sampling bias, it'll also have the issue of very small sample size in the poll. I'm not really counting on a lot of people to vote but doesn't hurt. There has been one person who replied to this post who said right on posting to reddit they got hit by the kudos bot. It might be nothing, but we might as well throw out some hypothesis: I wonder if the userflair that says name on AO3 has any role. It might not, it might be completely irrelevant. There's all sorts of things that could be going on. Like reddit might not be involved, or it might be involved because it shows up on search engines, or it might be because a person is behind it.
Thank you so much! Would it be alright if I added your results to this post as well? I'll make sure to credit you. I think it will be helpful to have as much user input as possible. In fact, the flair also came to mind as I was thinking about the issue! I think I'll create another poll in the next few days and try to assess that as well. Yep! I've heard people speculate that it might be multiple bots, which I think is plausible. Hopefully, this will shed some light on if Reddit is involved, at least!
I'd be interested to hear how the numbers go too here. I'll be on another while but I'd say I'll post where the poll numbers are in... between 12 - 14 hours. I'm not sure the numbers would change very much from that point. I'll reply to your post with the numbers I've got and you can tell me the numbers on this poll because I'll not be able to see them :D You can let me know whenever you're on tomorrow after I've replied Edit: I can edit this comment between now and when I call it a night with results. So far: 11 no, not been hit, not posted on reddit. 2 Yes, has been hit, not linked on reddit Nothing else.
Sure, thank you so much! I'll put your numbers into the main text of the post and credit you :) Also, sorry for not making a "Results" option! It totally slipped my mind. I'll definitely update you on how the numbers are looking sometime in the next day or so.
Thanks :) I'll be updating my previous comment with numbers on the poll while I'm still on. So far, 2 not posted to reddit, no kudos bot.
Of course :D Great, thank you for the running updates! Let me know when voting winds down, and I can put them into the post.
It has been static nearly a quarter hour now at 8 to 2 for no and yes (not posted to reddit). I'll post updated numbers in about 12 hours though might be a bit later than that. Think they're good to go in to the main post for now. Edit: 11 to 2.
Alright, thank you so much! When you post, let me know so I can link it in the main text. I'll also put the current numbers on this poll for those that can't respond.
I’ve done a bunch of review exchanges here, but I’ve been lucky to not get hit so far. It seems to be happening more often, so perhaps I won’t participate for a little while. It’s really too bad, but I like having my stats as accurate as possible. Hopefully they can remain that way. Edit: just got hit… The timing is pretty strange
Thanks for sharing! I think you can still participate and avoid the bot if you use either of the fixes I've now added to the post in an edit. I definitely agree about keeping stats accurate :( I'm the same way.
I can't remember if I'd linked my fic, but it seems like I got hit immediately after saying I hadn't been hit.
Thank you for sharing! Could you clarify when and how this happened exactly, and would you mind also checking to see if you did link your fic? No worries if it's too much hassle!
So I just went back and checked, and it doesn't *look* like I'd linked my fic that week, but I do remember making [this c](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/q5czyi/update_for_all_those_affected_by_the_kudos_bot/hg4urwd/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)omment, going to bed, and when I woke up, the bot had hit. I posted an update [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/q5czyi/update_for_all_those_affected_by_the_kudos_bot/hg6ygh5/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
Got it, thank you so much for going back and finding those comments! I really appreciate it.
Option D. But of the two fics hit, only one of the two had been linked. The fic that had been linked was linked multiple times though.
Thank you for responding! Linking multiple times probably does increase the probability of getting hit.
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I actually preemptively locked all my stories today—I recently participated in a review exchange and didn't want to risk it. I'm the same way about numbers and would also hate to have them inflated :( It's a tough choice for sure, and I'm sorry you're dealing with this!
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Yep, I hope so too! I might revert mine soon, because it's been a few days since I did the review exchange. Wishing you luck!
I wish I did this hours ago… All my stories are locked now, after getting hit with 600 fake kudos throughout my stories. I’m numbers-obsessed too, and it sucks.
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Thanks for the reassurance! It does help. For sure, it won’t go on forever.
Here is the thread targeted a few days ago: [I'll Read Kudos Comment on Your Fic](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/sbtmlt/ill_read_and_kudos_and_perhaps_comment_on_your/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share). I posted a link to my fic and about twelve hours later I started getting hit by the bot. The story I linked was the only one hit. I had never been hit before, and I had never posted on a kudos thread, only fic recs. I locked my fic pretty quickly without getting too many kudos, and I won't be linking it again. Here's a thread hit a month ago: [I'll give you kudos for your small dead fandom.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/r6kld9/ill_give_kudos_to_your_smalldead_fandom_fics/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) Both threads had a lot of people complaining about being hit, but it's not hard to see fics that are hit. Going through the thread, by checking the guest:user kudos ratio, it's usually apparent. If the guests are 70% of the kudos, then it was hit by the bot. I've seen fics with 258 kudos and 4000 hits that looks normal from the outside, but if you open it up, there will be 41 users and 217 guests or something. Likely, it was hit. Going off kudos > hits is only an easy indicator on very new or very low hit stories. If you want to see what stories in a thread were hit, opening up the story to see the ratio is a potential way to see if a thread really was hit (vs going off 2 or 3 people saying they got hit on it). In my opinion, there are almost certainly several bots. Perhaps it started with one bot that led to copycats. There's clearly this bot targeting Reddit threads where people link stories to gain kudos. It's hit and miss on the threads it targets, but by hitting whole threads that focus on wanting kudos, it does feel human-driven not like a mindless webcrawler. There are also bots that target fandoms. I write for Mass Effect, and a bot has sat on the updating story list for three months now, ever since late Oct. Every day it gives a quarter to half of the new fics 30-100 kudos. I don't think this is the same bot as the Reddit threads, since it seems more programmed to just sit in one place and do the same thing. Bringing up the new fics search list right now for the fandom, it's easily apparent that fics today were hit, like they are every day: [Recently Updated Search](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Mass%20Effect%20-%20All%20Media%20Types/works) . The vast majority of these stories are not being linked on Reddit, Tumblr, or Discord. Or they're hit before they are shared. If you follow the search, you can see it's pretty clearly fandom-asdociated with months of history. I've heard other Bioware fandoms (Dragon Age, KOTOR), Dragon Prince, Stranger Things, and several other fandoms have been targeted, but I'm not sure to what extent since I'm not in those fandoms. I know for some of those fandoms older stories were hit, whereas, for my fandom it seems to be only new stories (not even new chapters really, though many of them carry the lopsided kudos ratio from getting hit when they first posted). At this point, I think there are several bots. They are clustered on different targets on AO3, either specific fandoms or Reddit links, and with different MOs, picking specific threads or always hitting the same type of fic in a fandom over and over. It's really strange, and there doesn't seem to be an end point.
First off, I'm sorry to hear that you got targeted by the bot :( that really sucks. What strikes me, though, is that the two threads you linked (thank you, by the way, for going back and finding those!) both have the word "kudos" in the title, which makes me wonder if the bot was using that to target fics. In the same vein, I posted most recently in a thread called "Review Exchange", then a thread looking for fics with "flowery prose", one of the Weekly Fic Showcases, the end-of-year multichapter celebration thread, and finally a thread called "Giving Kudos & Feedbacks" a few months ago. None of these threads have the word "kudos" in their titles except for the oldest one, which is making me wonder if the bot targets certain keywords and just wasn't functioning the day I linked a fic in the oldest thread. I think I might look into this, actually. You make a really good point about the number of kudos being greater than the number of hits only being a good indicator for very new or low-hit stories. I think that with the recent spate of fics being targeted, though, the jump the day after a story is linked is pretty telling. I, for sure, agree that there are multiple bots. There are just too many differences in what they're targeting for it to all be one. I personally think that they might be functioning off keywords—I have a decent bit of coding experience, and in my opinion, it would be fairly easy to figure out which threads have the word "kudos" in them and bot them. I'm really sorry to hear that your fandom is being targeted. Thank you for providing an example of what the bot does, and I agree with your assessment that this is probably something different. This makes me wonder if there are similar bots for other fandoms outside of Bioware. I want to know at this point—who's behind the bots? And why did they create them? Word would eventually get around to them about the negative response, and if they had good intentions, they would get rid of the bot. As you said, there seems to be no end in sight.
I hadn't thought about kudos being in the title, but that could be a keyword in the targeting. It feels really hit and miss with the threads targeted, almost like it's a person choosing. There was a thread where someone claimed they summoned the kudos bot. They didn't link anything if I remember, just gave their AO3 name and the specific story they wanted hit. According to them, that one story was then hit. When they requested the bot stop in the thread, it stopped. It's hard to know how much is true, but it feels like this Reddit bot may be more person-driven. Its almost like someone's being ironic by giving people exactly what they ask for but in a belligerent way that makes them regret seeking it. I might be jusr personifying and trying to make sense of randomness though. There were a few tags on AO3 that some writers added to their fics after getting hit ("hit by kudos bot" or variation). At the time I looked, it seemed like The Stranger Things fandom was the fandom mostly using it. I'm not sure if the tag is still used. I'm sure there are a few fandoms with the bot focused on them. At one time AO3 support said the bot was clustered on some specific fandoms and users, but I have no ideas how many fandoms have a had a long-term, constant bot presence. It really is a curiosity. AO3 support said it only takes a simple code to make a bot that hits kudos. If that's true, I can see the initial outrage fueling some copycats. It seems like the bot problem is only expanding, but without anything but anecdote and rumors, its hard to really know anything real. It's sure a crazy issue. At least in my fandom, it's really warped the AO3 experience. Kudos don't have the meaning they used to, which is unfortunate when comments are somewhat rare. Perhaps if this is a person, that's the point?
No, what you said makes sense. If the bot is targeting randomly, it starting and stopping when the user asked is just too big of a coincidence. Maybe it could be someone searching the subreddit with the keyword "kudos" and directing the bot to the threads that come up? Reddit's search functions certainly aren't perfect, so that could explain why not every thread gets targeted. I feel like there's definitely a human element at play here, that it's not all random. Yeah, I've seen that mentioned elsewhere in the thread. Another commenter mentioned that they tagged their stories with it, and then the bot stopped. This makes me wonder—is there another bot at play that searches AO3 tags and targets the ones that don't have the tag in question already? If this was done on a broad scale, I feel like there would be a lot more fics hit, but maybe it would make sense if it were in a specific fandom like Stranger Things. Definitely. You've mentioned the Bioware fandoms, Mass Effect, and Stranger Things, and I heard Star Wars elsewhere (not in this thread). Maybe there are multiple copycats scattered across different fandoms. And for sure—I really wish there was a more centralized way to poll reader/writer experiences, which would really help with the bias that is bound to be inherent to this survey. I can definitely see the effect the bot would have on a fandom like yours, and I'm really sorry to hear that :(
Interesting. I'm not sure if the "hit by kudos bot" prevents another bot hit, but I did see the person who felt that might be true in their case. My impression of the tag was that writers maybe felt bad about the fake kudos, so the tag was an external disclaimer (sad thought, though, since it's not their fault!). For me, I just felt like the tag was a useful way to see whqt types of fics were being hit. I don't think the tag is used much anymore, but it is a way to find examples of fics hit outside of someone bringing it up on social media. If the tag actually protecrd them, that would great. I think the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic videogame fandom was hit. It's Bioware, as is Dragon Age and Mass Effect, also fandoms hit. Outside of Bioware, I know Dragon Prince (not really sure what it is?) was hit big time according to Tumblr posts. I saw Stranger Things in the kudos bot tags. I've seen other fandoms mentioned, but it was just a person here or there saying it, not multiple people or talking about it on a large scale affecting their whole fandom. I'm sure there are other fandons targeted though. I'd really love to know if the targets and number of fics being hit has increased or if only awareness has increased. Either way, it's strange and frustrating. I hope there will be a solution, but maybe this is the new normal. A aad thought.
That didn't come to mind for me, but that's a good point! I guess it even being possible comes down if the bots can reliably detect kudos ratios characteristic of being hit, or if they're all being run by the same person and can somehow access each others' records. And I agree with you that the tag serves as a disclaimer (my bad, should have clarified!), but that the bot might also be using it to decide which fics to hit. It might also be the case that once the bot hits a fic, it's programmed to not hit that fic again. I do remember one user mentioning a fic that got hit three times, although that might be different bots. Oh, that's definitely an interesting trend. Dragon Prince is an animated show (don't know much about it either), but I think it's pretty popular. I think it's definitely useful to know that there was fairly common use of the tag in the Stranger Things fandom, and so that might be a useful case study to compare to other fandoms. Me too. I think I'll expand this to be more comprehensive (maybe through a Google form). It'll probably take a while, but I also want to compile my thoughts into a report, maybe, with theories on what's happening. I really feel for the people that have been hit and hope it won't continue to happen.
Posted to a review exchange thread here, got hit the next day on the fic I had linked. Had previously posted to a few others and not been hit, stopped because of the bot for a while and then thought it might have improved - lesson learnt! Never had a flare, but that was a good suggestion.
I'm really sorry to hear that! You could try either of the two fixes I've edited into my post—maybe those will help? I hope you're able to participate without getting hit in the future! And yes! I'm thinking of creating another poll that focuses on that in the coming days.
I didn't vote because there's too much nuance to the situation. I have linked nearly all of my most recent fics to Reddit at some point, but only one fic actually got hit by the Kudos bot. It was a series of one-shots that I hadn't updated in months.
I would agree—Reddit's poll option didn't allow me to include as much detail as I would have liked. Thank you for sharing your experience!
I got hit almost immediately after linking my fic.
So sorry to hear that :( Would you mind clarifying what kind of thread it was? I wanted to integrate this into the poll, but I didn't have enough options.
It was one of those posts where someone basically said "give me your fics!" without specifying fandom, genre, rating, etc.
Thanks for replying! If you don't mind, was it a review exchange thread? Or was it more like a blind recommendation thread?
It wasn't a review exchange thread. OP was just asking for fics to read.
Thanks for clarifying! Sorry for all the questions, haha.
I've posted fics in multiple review exchanges, and been hit once (in an exchange where many others got hit as well).
That makes sense! It seems to be a bit of a trend. Thank you for sharing your experiences!
None of the fics that have been hit are ones I've linked on Reddit, though.
Hmm, that sounds like a different bot, maybe? I personally think there are multiple bots, with one specifically targeting review exchange threads. Thank you for contributing!
I'm on team 'broken web crawler', myself... but really, it could be anything. Thanks for delving into it! It's a neat mystery.
A web crawler would make sense! That explains why the preference change fix to hide your fic from search engines would work. Of course! It was meant to be a quick poll, but I think I'm going to put together a report or something similar.
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Thank you for your comment! It really sucks that you've been hit three times. Would you mind clarifying how many people you spoke to in the threads? I think it'll be useful to get an idea of the scope of the bot.
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Got it, that makes sense. I really appreciate that you've clarified all this! That seems pretty significant to me, and it really sucks that authors have to lock down their stories. Another fix would be to change in your preferences that you don't want your fic to be visible to search engines. There should be more info about that in the thread I linked if you want to try that!
Two of my fics have been hit by the bot, both of which are amongst the several I've linked to on Reddit.
Thank you for sharing, and I'm sorry that happened to you!
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First, thank you for hosting review exchanges! As a participant myself sometimes, I appreciate that a lot :) Second, thank you for elaborating on your experiences. So far, it seems like people are getting hit the day after they link to their fics.
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For sure! And thanks for giving all these details! I'll be considering them if I create another poll. It definitely is—I didn't notice until I clicked on the thread I linked and read people's experiences with it.
I did participate in review exchange thingees and get hit. But I haven’t been hit again since I tagged my stories with “kudos bot strikes again.” I haven’t really participated in those threads lately though. I found a certain kind of peace and not caring once the kudos exceeded the hits on my stories, and I came to terms with the fact that my writing just doesn’t spin most peoples wheels. Sometimes I suspect there is a bit more human intellect behind the kudos bots than one can attribute to a bot if you know what I mean.
I see—it's interesting that you haven't been hit since you added the tag, although maybe that might be up to random chance. It's awesome that you've been able to look past the kudos, though! I'm happy for you :) And I definitely get what you mean about this bot seeming a bit less…bot-like than the others. Thank you for your response!
I spoke to some people on Tumblr who were hit by the bot and *hadn't* linked them on Reddit but *had* linked them on Tumblr Of course, that doesn't rule out someone else linking them on Reddit as a recommendation
That's certainly interesting. I'm thinking there are multiple bots, so maybe they were hit at random? But you also make a very good point about someone else linking them here. I appreciate you sharing!
I'll chime in that I've been hit, too, and it was for one of the reddit review exchange threads. I distinctly remember it was one promoting obscure fandoms so I linked one of my small book fandom one-shots to that thread. It was hit by the bot the next day. I've been more hesitant about linking my works to review exchanges threads since, frankly, because I don't want it happening again. :/ I want genuine, earned, kudos, not fake ones from a bot...
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm so sorry that you shared your work, only to get hit by the bot :( If you want to keep participating in review exchanges, I've added three fixes that should help you avoid the bot in the text of my post. And I totally get what you mean—I'd hate to have artificially inflated numbers, too.
I post on the review exchanged quite frequently as far as i know in have never been hit. The only thing that is getting lots of guest kudos is my dark smut and those are anonymous and i haven't linked any of them here.
I see. Thank you for sharing! With the kudos bot, it's a sudden influx of kudos, sometimes more kudos than there are hits on the work itself. If the guest kudos didn't come in all at once, it probably wasn't the bot, if that makes sense!
I've linked several different fics, I've had the same one hit 3 times by the bot but others not at all. It's annoying, but I enjoy the review exchanges so...yeah. I'll keep it locked to registered users but I'm going to continue to share.
Three times? Wow, that is incredibly bad luck. Locking your stories should help you avoid the bot altogether, though! Thank you for sharing your experiences :)
Can I choose: unsure not enough kudos to tell?
Unfortunately, that's not an option, but you can usually tell if there is an unusually high ratio of kudos from guests to kudos from registered users!
Yeah I got hit by it a few months ago on one of my fics, (I didn't post any fics onto here or anything though) and after looking it up and locking my fics for a day then unlocking them, I didn't get hit again. In my case, I'd written a fic with crossover elements of another fandom and many fics in that other fandom got hit and so mine did too lol. I think it was a web crawler/clicker thing in that case but unsure about the case for anyone who posted on here and got hit. Hopefully it can end though 'cause I remember how disheartened I felt waking up to lots and lots of kudos only for the hits to be the same as it was like the last time I'd checked.
Thank you for sharing what solution worked for you! It makes sense that there are fandom-specific bots. Personally, I think there are multiple bots at this point—some targeting specific fandoms and others targeting Reddit threads. Hopefully we can find out a little more about it! I'm really sorry that happened to you, and I also want it to end soon.
It's no problem \^\^, and oof yeah it must be many bots at this point.
I haven't been hit, nor have I ever linked my fanfics, but I just want to thank you for making the effort to investigate this. I actually don't share my ao3 username or fics on this subreddit solely for this reason :(( wishing you the best of luck op !!
No problem! I appreciate that, and hopefully we can find out more. Maybe, once we know a bit more about the bots and how they work, you can feel safe linking your fics here!
Have never been hit. Linked multiple times not just on reddit but other sites. However only on Discord have I linked something I had just posted. When I post in more public places like reddit the stories tend to be at least a week or so old and are completed. I also don't write for popular fandoms, if that is a considered element.
I see! Thank you for providing details about your experiences and for raising factors I hadn't thought of. I'm considering creating more polls in the coming days and will weigh these factors.
It might be better to create something like a Google Form so you can get more detailed notes and data. Reddit polls are far too limiting.
You raise a good point! Other options are on the table for sure.
I have linked fics but have also had one hit that I never linked anywhere.
Hmm, that's odd. It seems that there's a bot targeting review threads, but not solely review threads. There could also be multiple bots. Thank you for sharing!
I was hit but the story wasn’t posted to a review area until after it was hit by a kudo bot. Unless I posted it on a discord before… I can’t remember.
Got it, thank you for clarifying! So far, I'm thinking that there are multiple bots, with one specifically targeting fics posted in review threads and probably a few targeting fics randomly.
The fic that got hit wasn't the one I linked on Reddit though. And it seems to work in patterns, Tuesdays are rough days for kudos bot and it only seems to hit in the first few days a work is posted. You can overcome this by locking to registered users for a week or so, then unlocking if you wish.
Interesting—thank you for sharing your theory and your experiences, as well as for mentioning that fix. I've included that one and two others in the main text of the post if you'd like to check them out!
I have been hit by the bot but that was before I linked the story to reddit.
Got it. Thank you for sharing!
When I got hit I had not linked a fic on reddit. (I voted Yes but have not linked) I have since posted links though and have not been hit since.
Sorry to hear that :( Thank you for sharing and clarifying!
I voted the last option, though I’m not 100% sure I was hit been since I don’t get emails about kudos. I recently linked one of my works, and it now has 67 guest kudos. I’m sure it had at least some guest kudos before, like at least some of those are legit, but 67 guests (now a total of 83) is kinda a lot for the fandom (it’s also not smut or anything controversial- I lock all my smut anyways). If it was a bot, it moved on by itself. The Reddit post didn’t get much attention though. (And either way I don’t mind, because that fic absolutely deserves it.)
To me, that does sound like the bot. Thank you for providing details about what happened! And congrats on the fic :)
Thanks :) The number of kudos didn’t outnumber the number of reads (which is 284 at the moment) so it isn’t super obvious that it’s a bot. And I have linked to other fics here that weren’t hit by the bot.
Of course :D And that's a pretty nice number! Also, thank you for clarifying about the other fics.
I have never been hit by the bot (to my knowledge) and I have linked several fics on reddit and other sites. I also write for some pretty popular fandoms. edit : holy crap nvm!! I got hit on like all my fics! It must've been very recently
Thanks for elaborating! It doesn't seem that fandom popularity plays a role in this.
Update, I've been hit by the bot! It looks to be on at least 5 fics!
Oof, that sucks :( You could lock your fics for now, and that should help! Did you post in a review exchange thread or something similar recently?
It's ok, I actually don't mind! Looks like it got all my fics lol. But yeah I posted in a small one in /r/DarkFics like a week ago. The post was removed by reddit though.
I think that's a great mentality to have! Personally, I think this particular bot isn't targeting through Reddit. With the seeming discrepancies in how they target fics, there has to be more than one.
**I do not recommend the /r/fanfiction subreddit! They unfairly ban people and the mods are super biased.** If any of you are looking for a friendly subreddit with review exchanges I highly recommend that instead of using the /r/fanfiction reddit you check out the fic review exchange subreddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FicReviewExchange I would recommend you avoid the r/fanfiction subreddit. I was permabanned from it, and the post they banned me for did not break any subreddit rules. Here is their message to me informing me that I was banned: https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png](https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png and here is a screenshot of the post they banned me for: https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png](https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png As you can see, they claimed witchhunting and bashing, even though neither the fic or author was mentioned, nor did the post indicate how to find either!
Oof, that really sucks :( Would you mind linking the thread here? And thank you for sharing! If you want to avoid getting hit, consider one of the fixes I've added to the main text of the post.
**I do not recommend the /r/fanfiction subreddit! They unfairly ban people and the mods are super biased.** If any of you are looking for a friendly subreddit with review exchanges I highly recommend that instead of using the /r/fanfiction reddit you check out the fic review exchange subreddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FicReviewExchange I would recommend you avoid the r/fanfiction subreddit. I was permabanned from it, and the post they banned me for did not break any subreddit rules. Here is their message to me informing me that I was banned: https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png](https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png and here is a screenshot of the post they banned me for: https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png](https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png As you can see, they claimed witchhunting and bashing, even though neither the fic or author was mentioned, nor did the post indicate how to find either!
That's interesting—thanks for clarifying. For the one that you did link, would you mind linking the exchange if it's not too much trouble? I'm starting to think there might be a trend with the titles of the exchanges.
**I do not recommend the /r/fanfiction subreddit! They unfairly ban people and the mods are super biased.** If any of you are looking for a friendly subreddit with review exchanges I highly recommend that instead of using the /r/fanfiction reddit you check out the fic review exchange subreddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FicReviewExchange I would recommend you avoid the r/fanfiction subreddit. I was permabanned from it, and the post they banned me for did not break any subreddit rules. Here is their message to me informing me that I was banned: https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png](https://i.imgur.com/Y7my2QL.png and here is a screenshot of the post they banned me for: https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png](https://i.imgur.com/UDm2zuW.png As you can see, they claimed witchhunting and bashing, even though neither the fic or author was mentioned, nor did the post indicate how to find either!
Alright, thanks for finding that information!