You can use AO3 without an account, then you're a guest user. You can't post, make Bookmarks and Collections, but you can read and comment.
As a writer, you can restrict your works from being read and commented on by guest writers. This has a few reasons. First of all, ensuring that maybe a real life acquaintance can't read it, one you know has no Ao3 account, to stop trolls from commenting, the same goes for spam bots and the aforementioned Kudos bot and it blocks your works from being scraped by AI's for Engine learning. AI's like ChatGTP are a hot topic for AO3's userbase, a dedicated chapter will follow.
You can also enable comment moderation. This allows you to delete comments before making them visibe for the public.
like you can see, you can moderate your experience a lot.
Now to the User Icons, if you're registered: User icons should be appropriate for general audiences, so no nudity, ya'll.
If you plan to regiser, be patient. When you register, you need an invite. This one needs to be issued, which takes time. Just days if you're lucky, weeks of many people apply to register. You could get invited by a user who used AO3 long enough, but that requires that you know someone who uses AO3. Albeit r\AO3 exists, you can ask for invites there... albeit I am unsure if they give Wattpd users the invites, as we are seen as a pest and many are annoyed by Wattpad users on AO3.
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...
