First of all, I should explain what Placeholder fics are. These are fully tagged works that have no fanfic text, but messages. Either 'coming on the XXth Month 20YY', the writer requests promts* or just that they call dips on a story. Regardless of reason, placeholders are against the TOS. As these are not considered actual fanworks, these are against the TOS. Meaning AO3 users are well in the right to report those until they are taken down.
Just don't. It is not worth the hastle.
Now I have a few words about these reasons.
First of all, the 'coming on the Xth' reason: ou do realize you can use sites like Tumblr, Twitter-I mean X and Instagram for announcements? Heck, fucking Amino makes more sense than breaking the TOS!
Secondly, requesting prompts: AO3 is still an ARCHIVE, and not a social media site. Communicaton like requests happens outside, on external sites.
And now, last but least, the in my opinion, most stupid reason of the bunch. Calling dis on an idea or concept.
You write fanfiction, you aren't exactly walking originality. There will be people who have similar, maybe even the same idea, especially in the same fandom! You can't call dips on an idea or a concept.
And now the reason why this is so stupid: You write a summary and tag it, the actual text that probably doesn't exist may not be there, but your idea can and will be copied. If anything, these placeholders are very counterproductive.
YOU ARE READING
AO3 Guide - Switching and Crossposting
FanfictionAs someone who uses the big 3 Fanfiction sites, I've noted that many Wattpad users flock to AO3. Said users have no idea what they are doing and are even unknowingly breaking Terms of Service of AO3. So I, someone who already switched, albeit not a...
