BOOKMARKS
An AO3 bookmark is a record of a work you want to remember, find more easily, or record a note about. Bookmarks created on the Archive can also serve as recommendations to other users.
Basically, Bookmarks are similar to Wattpad's Library or Reading List. You can have private bookmarks for yourself or list them as recommendations, and provide your own personal tags and commentary. There is also an External Bookmark feature, so if you wanted you could bookmark your favorite fics from Wattpad, Rockfic, FF.net, or another fic archive to AO3. The Archive also has a "Mark for Later" feature, which is for your eyes only via History and cannot be viewed by anyone else viewing your dashboard.
They are different from both Collections and Subscriptions (though you can bookmark a work to a specific collection if the collection already exists). Subscriptions let you know when a specific author has posted a new work or an ongoing work has been updated.
COLLECTIONS
Collections on AO3 are used primarily for fandom group activities such as Big Bang, Secret Santa, or [ship] Week. Prompt Memes and Gift Exchanges are hosted under collections They are not generally meant to be used for you to collect your favorite fics: that is what Bookmarks are for. You can however, make a collection for groups of bookmarks, or fics that fit under one specific theme or character or fandom.
Since these are primarily for fandom group exchanges such as Secret Santas or Round Robins, if the owner of a collection decides to make the author for a fic Anonymous, that change will show up on your profile/dashboard and you will no longer have any control over the fic. This is a feature, not a bug. To get around this if you do not want to risk losing authorship of your fic in a collection, make the particular fic a bookmark and add it to the collection it was previously in (you can also remove the fic from the collection if you wish, since it has to have been added by permission in the first place).
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A Wattpad User's Guide to AO3
RandomTutorial/Guide for Wattpad users who are migrating to AO3, have never used it before, and/or are unfamiliar with the culture/etiquette on AO3. Written by a Fandom Old who has been using the Archive of Our Own since 2011.
