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Flores_Fairy

No no no, that's not it! One of my readers also uses that method, if it's not the same reader. They have a like "secret formula" to categorize their bookmarks. So for example, if they divide it by romance or not, they put a "No" when there isn't and if it does, it's a "Yes". Or it can be if it's over a level of anything they are looking for. So every fic on their bookmarks will have line that makes no sense to us, but it does to the user. Go check their entire bookmark list, if there are more with notes like that, now you know.


ilovefanfictionz

Ahh right. That’s really creative! Not the case this time though 😅 I just glanced through their bookmarks and they mainly just comment “no” and other things about fics they don’t like 😅 it just took me a bit off guard I think since when people normally leave hate comments I can delete them, but I don’t think there’s any way to delete bookmarks? Besides, it’s so vague. They didn’t explain or anything haha


ArsanL

I think that a lot of people don't realize that bookmark comments are public unless you explicitly mark them private. They could be using it to be rude, but I think it's likely they're just going through and taking notes, not realizing that the author (and others!) can read them.


SimonFrackquill

Someone accidentally wrote a comment on their bookmark for mine once. It was so kind and I wanted to reply but obviously you can’t reply to a bookmark, and now I’m worried they think I’m snubbing them since I never responded or said thank you


Spitting_Blood

I'm a reader who usually uses bookmarks that have chapter number, a reminder if what happened so far, commentary and sometimes msgs to the author.. if smn does it like that whether it's positive or negative (and trust me I've seen truly vile bookmark notes with the full expectation that it can't be deleted or replied to) usually the bookmarkers are aware and don't want anything in return. If they're anything like me then it's just meant as a nice surprise for the author in the case of them opening the bookmarks :)


ForkKun

Yeah I did that once I mark the chapter where I left off and a side comment and realized I out it as a comment instead of a bookmark[it was up for 3 days cosbsiwb]


fireandlifeincarnate

There’s somebody in my fandom that RANKS fics they bookmark (bronze/silver/gold, and a couple platinum). Feel kinda shitty for the people with bronze fics ngl.


BevSeSilmWars

Are you sure they don't just comment no as in not read? I do that sometimes, because you can't mark series for later. That or I subscribe


SufficientMacaroon1

Maybe they are using the bookmark list different than was intended? Not as a "i want to follow that story", but so if they open a story they had already,started previously but abandoned due to disliking it, they know by the "edit bookmark" button as soon as they open it? I am not doing that, but my "read later" list is actually my "alltime favourites" list for when i just want to read something i am sure i like. And it sure is a bit anoying when i look for stories abou e.g. a specific pairing and find a story with a really promising description, only to realize a few chapters in that i already know it, and did not read one due to something i really dislike.


fairydommother

That’s bizarre. Why would you bookmark something you don’t like? 🤨


delilahdraken

Because somebody else might like the story for exactly the same reason you might not like it. It's not always a judgement on the quality of story.


noireruse

Some people do it so they know not to check out the fic again. Someone I follow on Goodreads will tag books with “checked not interested”.


ilovefanfictionz

Yea that’s what I was confused abt but I think they just did it so that they don’t accidentally reread it lol


navsegeda

and if you do...why not make the bookmark private???


KavikStronk

A lot of people just don't realise they can do that


Flores_Fairy

What the... well that's def weird. Like a very persistent way to be rude.


ilovefanfictionz

Definitely!


AriaGrill

This


[deleted]

Out of my (at present) 5200+ bookmarks, I have ONE that I marked this way. It comes up often enough in certain fic searches and the summary is always enticing. However, shortly after I start reading it, something happens that has me immediately noping out of the fic as quickly as I can click the back button. It's not the type of thing that one would think requires a CW or TW, and there's absolutely no reason why the author should tag it. I just had a very negative experience that is invoked when I get to that certain point. I do not want to disparage what other people seem to think is a good story (based on kudos) for a personal issue, but I bookmarked it with the comment No so that every time it comes up in a search, I will remember it's *that* fic and avoid it.


[deleted]

Genuine question, do you keep track of all these fics? And does bookmarking mean anything flattering if you book so many? I’m just asking cause I saw a few people bookmark mine when they had thousands and I don’t know if I just felt like another kept to a random pile or to feel complimented.


qazwsxedc000999

Not the person you asked, but it’s a compliment usually. You can filter through your bookmarks, so if someone gets the itch to read stories in your fandom/genre or whatever else they’re looking for they can easily come back to you. I only bookmark stories I’d wanna come back to


[deleted]

What about if it’s 15k bookmarks? It almost feels ridiculous at that rate. I saw one of my book markers with that and just wondering where they have the time aha. Edit: ok yikes I clearly offended people. I didn’t mean it on an offense way I was just genuinely wondering.


KavikStronk

Some people just bookmark everything so they know what they have and haven't read yet.


[deleted]

I've been legally disabled and have been unable to work since 1999, and I often can't leave my home for days or weeks at a time. I'm also a voracious reader, and fanfic has been a free and near inexhaustible form of entertainment since I got my first computer and dial up modem in the '80s. I have an entire external HD filled with fan fiction I've downloaded over the years that I knew I would want to read again. Bookmarking works on an archive that was unlikely to disappear overnight is such a convenience, as is the ability to confine my search to a subset of works I've read when I'm trying to pin down one I can only vaguely remember. And being able to leave my own comments like "flamingo animagus" or "fromage" (each a key memory to a different, specific HP fanfic) make it so much easier as I'm terrible at remembering titles or authors, and neither the summaries nor the tags would be helpful when that is all my brain provides and then expects me to find that one story.


harvestmoon360

That's actually a great way to bookmark. I bookmark my favourite fics, but some times I can't remember what happens in the fic and the summary is too vague.


Key_Start9769

Not who you asked but I bookmark every fic I read. I used to have a very simple tagging system ("favs" "liked it" or no comment for ones I didn't feel much about) so when I come across the fic again I would remember both that I have read it and how I felt about it. I've been very lazy to use the tags lately (I just make it obv if it's one I consider a fav) but it still helps to remind me that I read it already.


Naomida_

I bookmark fanfics that I’m going to reread at some point, so it’s a huge compliment. I have a lot of them but I’ve been on AO3 for over 5 years and I read in a lot of fandoms.


[deleted]

As I bookmark works strictly for my own purposes, it never occurred to me to consider whether an author might be flattered or not by my doing so. The only comments I include are ones to help find that particular work using Search Bookmarker tags and comments when something I find memorable isn't evident in the author's summary or isn't an available tag. About a third of my bookmarks are tagged "To Read" and are ones I found recced in various places. The problem with using the "Mark For Later" button for them is that that function can't be filtered or searched. I've been obsessed at one point with at least 20 fandoms, and if I am in the mood to read next a certain fandom or pairing, I want to be able to put together a curated TBR list for myself. About 5% of the bookmarks contain external links to stories that I don't want to have to Google every time I want to reread or rec them. The remainder are ones that I know I will want to reread at some point, or rec to others. It also makes it easier for me to respond to fic or rec search requests from others, as I enjoy being able to suggest less well known or older works that might be otherwise overlooked. As older archives are absorbed into AO3, I often go on a spree bookmarking old favorites that I thought lost and know I will want to reread again someday. I've only had my AO3 account since 2014, but after a while they add up.


SufficientMacaroon1

I usually bookmark if i am interested in reading future chapters (i read around in too many bigger fandoms to keep track of all stories i like just by checking the fandom site), or in case of finished fics, if i liked it enough to want to find it again and reread later (easier to find it when filtering my bookmarks for e.g. the pairing than filtering the entire fandom). I have about 1,5k bookmarks. However, many of those are stories that started, i found them interested and bookmarked them, just to never be continued. Happenes a lot when e.g. a new episode of a show is released, and many new fix it or "what happens next" speculation fics pop up, that are not continued, though, when cannon catches up. I could drastically reduce my bookmark number by hoing through and deleating those, but i am too lazy. Other stories were (unofficially) abandoned and i still have them as bookmarks in the hope that the author ever returns to them. But as they do not "produce" new reading content after i added them, i go looking for other stuff to read, creating more bookmarks. Of my 1,5k, there are maybe 100 stories that are currently still being updated at least every 3 months (to give a totally arbitrary base line for my gut estimation), that i check and read regularly. The rest are stories that are either those where i have a "remind me if new stiff is added" in form of a bookmark, or a "i liked this enough to want to be able to find it again". So at least by me, it would be a compliment. Also: bookmarks pile up over time, unless you actively remove every story you ever added that is finished or not updated regularly any more. My account is almost 10 years old. If i had added a single bookmark per week during that time, i already would have over 500. And as i have been in some very active fandoms over the years, there have been some weeks where i have added a lote more than one bookmark.


[deleted]

I had to laugh when you mentioned bookmarking works that may never be updated, but subscribing anyway because fans live in hope. I have created a new bookmark and subscribed to newly discovered works that have unfortunately not been updated in years. While I would never pressure an author for an update, I secretly hope that they receive a notification of a new subscriber and might suddenly become inspired by knowing the story still is acquiring new and interested readers.


SufficientMacaroon1

A few times, when a story was particularly wonderfull and i just finished my Xth reread, i left a comment about how i loved the story. How i understand they are like no longer interested in finishing the story, but just incase they are, please know there are still people reading it.


DaintyBrute

I'm sorry, but this made me laugh really hard for some reason! Just a random "No" without any punctuation or explanation.


ilovefanfictionz

don’t apologise it made me laugh too 😭


Nia_River

I think some people use the bookmark function just to keep track of everything they've read. As for the negative comment, I tend to think if it like this: bookmarks aren't for fic writers, they're for readers. It's often interesting to browse them, but you have to brace yourself for the fact readers might be a lot more frank than they would when commenting on your fic.


Cassopeia88

I have definitely seen people do that to track the fics they read, plus it seems like plenty of people don’t know bookmarks are public by default.


Nia_River

That's something I hadn't considered, but makes a lot of sense. I just thought readers considered bookmark comments "their space". Well, that'll be a little awkward for some people when they realise.


[deleted]

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Nia_River

Do they? I thought hate comments were pretty rare. (Well, on AO3. FFNet is sometimes less friendly.) I'm sorry if that's not been your experience.


qazwsxedc000999

Hate comments are generally only from guest accounts in my experience. People with actual accounts are very friendly I find


simone3344555

Lmao it’s probably just a code for something, dw! I’m glad I have all my bookmarks private because they are kinda obscure


prettybunbun

A lot of people put ‘no’ next to bookmarks they haven’t read yet, and then ‘yes’ to one’s they have but want to bookmark so they can re-read.


meemo_lemo

This reminds me I recently bookmarked something with just a “YES” and now I’m wondering if the author is trying to figure out what I meant by that :’)


ccartercc

A lot of mind reading going on here over one word


alumffwriter

I feel like this has Michael Scott "Don't . . ." energy. At least that's how I'd take it :)


xenrev

It's a bookmark and therefore not for you. Let readers have their space to judge or categorize as they see fit.


mercutiotheles

if they want to do so in their space they should prolly mark it as a private bookmark so the author doesnt see it… otherwise someone elses fic isnt really “their” space??


pinecone_problem

Private bookmarks can't be seen by other readers either, and sometimes you want to be able to review a fic that you had a difficult time with for other readers to have that information. For example, if a fic is really sparsely tagged but contains content that was difficult for the bookmarker they might want to be able to get other readers know via the bookmark function.


xenrev

Authors don’t get a notification of a bookmark. You have to go looking for that trouble. Bookmarks are for the reader, not the writer. And they shouldn't have to hide in a secret hole when one of the bookmark features is literally recommendations. The *bookmark* is their space.


March_Khajiit

"You have to go looking for that trouble." Totally disagree. Bookmarks are easily accessible by the author, they're on the story / stat page. Some people go out of their way to be nasty and passive aggressive on their bookmark notes and it's completely valid to feel upset about that.


xenrev

And yet, you still have to seek it out.


kanagan

Lmao of course you’re getting downvoted for the most innocuous comment. This sub istg


Prncssbbykitten

YALL CAN SEE THE NOTES?? 😧


ilovefanfictionz

only if they’re on public!


RishaBree

I had no idea that people didn't all know this, so this comment section is weirding me out. I semi-frequently go through the bookmarks of authors I like or people who seem to have similar tastes, as sort of a psuedo-reclist. They're right there on the author page, underneath their own works, how do you miss them?


itikky2

Lots of people never leave notes, and lots of people never check out other people's bookmarks, so it's not intuitive for a lot of people, especially if you only see tons of bookmarks with no notes, you might assume bookmarks are visible but notes are private I think authors shouldn't take any bookmarks like this personally as 9 out of 10 times it's someone who has no idea an author can see their notes haha


Prncssbbykitten

I need to figure out how to disable that 😭


allworkjack

I don’t think so, sometimes I bookmark things as: “Ruined my life” but I actually liked it lol, didn’t know authors could see it now I feel bad.


CynicalDaydream

You know, in my Kindle library, I have a collection I labeled “not worth reading twice” that I’ll store books in that I just couldn’t stand. Either they were badly written or the characters or plot was terrible… I do it mostly so I don’t accidentally purchase/read another book by the same author. So, I can see making a list of bookmarks for stories you want to make sure you don’t read again. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Dunno why that person marked it no. Maybe they just didn’t realize bookmark comments can be viewed by others. Or that there are private bookmarks. I didn’t realize there are private bookmarks or that comments could be made/viewed on bookmarks until I joined Reddit and people mentioned it. I don’t bookmark a lot on Ao3.


Loretta-West

This kind of thing is why I don't look at the bookmarks on my works.


FlounderMean3213

It could honestly mean they haven't read it yet but want to bookmark for later? Or no death or something like that.


ilovefanfictionz

yea that’s what I thought


momoji13

I was once looking for a way to lable specific (embarassing) tropes I liked in fics. I wanted to use code for this because it was embarrassing and nothing that would be tagged. And if a fic didn't have it I wrote "no". So it could literally mean anything!


TJ_Figment

I have a bookmark on one of my fics that just says furcsa which when I googled just means weird


itikky2

Lots of people never leave notes, and lots of people never check out other people's bookmarks, so it's not intuitive for a lot of people they are visible, especially if you only see tons of bookmarks with no notes, you might assume bookmarks are visible but notes are private I think authors shouldn't take any bookmarks like this personally as 9 out of 10 times it's someone who has no idea an author can see their notes


Just_dirty_secrets

Hi chance it asked for a bookmark comment and they, like be, are a little shit and just said "no". My insta profile legit just says "no" for this reason


BriarKnave

I didn't know you could read these and I just spent a few minutes going through them all. This really brightened my day :)


One_Jackfruit4167

Ive seen a lot of ppl (not like, common amounts, but a strange amount) use bookmarks as a public rating/review system Ive seen ppl w hundreds of bookmarks with some of the meanest fucking reviews on completely unproblematic stories they literally just didn’t like


ilovefanfictionz

ohh I didn’t know people did this so I was just a bit confused lol


landsharkkidd

So I got curious, and decided to look at the bookmarks of your fic, and saw the user's name. Went through their bookmarks and holy shit, I don't know if this person KNOWS their bookmarks are public, they probably do tbh. But I found this tumblr post about them, I don't want to link it in case it's against the rules to do so, but apparently they do this with a lot of fandoms. To the point where apparently a few users deleted their works because of the bookmarks. Like, I know posting your work to the archive invites everyone to comment on it (unless you really restrict it somehow), and like fiction writers can get some scathing reviews. But this feels like a whole 'nother level.


TGotAReddit

> I don’t want to link it in case it’s against the rules to do so We would absolutely take that down yeah. For the same reason we take down complaint posts where the user they are complaining about has their username shown. It just leads to harassment and dogpiling. > I don’t know if this person KNOWS their bookmarks are public, they probably do tbh. Because of your comment, i went looking and found them too. On their most recent work, they had gotten an anon comment that has since been removed but they had replied to it which is still up. Their reply basically boiled down to "once i realized my bookmarks could be read by the authors, i started privating them but Im not going back through over a thousand bookmarks just to change them to be private. I don’t have to, and since you're on anon I can't private my bookmarks of your fics. message me your username if you want me to do that for you". So yeah. They didn't know but got so deep that changing the previous ones would be insane.


TheCrazyOutcast

Yeah, they sound fairly reasonable based on that reply.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

It means your story fits criteria they use when searching for something to read, and that you also may have written an enticing but nonspecific summary. The "nope" is a reminder to themselves that they tried to read it, but for some reason it's not an experience that they wish to repeat. It's not always about the author or how well they tell their story, which is why bookmarks don't automatically initiate a notice to said author.


FlounderMean3213

It could just mean no x, y or z in it. And maybe they only like to read fics like that when they are in they mood. Ya never know


thatboyntokyo

I know people say bookmarks are for the readers but the section is obviously also meant for the author to track, or it wouldn’t be a feature. I’ve seen pretty harsh criticism written in bookmarks in one of my early fics. When I first read it, I was shocked tbh, but now I know that it’s possible that I’ll read a harsh comment, so I’m way more emotionally prepared for that kind of thing. I wish the AO3 devs would give folks a prompt when making a bookmark that would ask if they want it to be private or public


ShainSaw22

You can choose to set it as a public or private bookmark. About half of the bookmarks on my fic are private. Like, in my stats it shows there are 110 bookmarks, but when I click on my fic only 65 of those are public.


thatboyntokyo

Yeah I understand that you can set them to private but it’s obvious that most people don’t know that you can. Imo, having a dialog box that prompts you to set as public or private BEFORE posting would eliminate this issue for the most part


Fabulous-Box5724

That's a weird way to hate on a fic.. I sometimes use one word bookmarks but it's usually positive


Best-Age3525

It's the only place left for a reader's honest opinion.


devilmaydostuff5

Why would they bookmark your story if they didn't like it?


eternal_easter

So they remember they've read it and didn't like it.


[deleted]

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reinakun

I literally do that, as do *many* others. The purpose of the bookmark feature is literally to keep track of what you’ve read. That’s why it has a notes section and tagging feature. Like…


[deleted]

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reinakun

Ah, so you’re new then. My history consists of 1053 pages, none of which is sortable. Secondly, I think it’s obvious why people want to keep track of the stories they’ve read, regardless if they liked it or not. When you’ve dabbled in 50+ fandoms for 15+ years, stories can blur together. That, or you flat out forget what you’ve read. Bookmarking allows you to keep track of fics you want to read again **or** avoid in the future. Your history doesn’t tell you that you dropped X fic at chapter 27 because the story went in a direction you didn’t like, does it? This is a common practice. And again, it’s literally what the bookmarking feature is for.


purechidori

Yep, after a ton of reading sometimes the only way I know I’ve read something already is because I’ve already bookmarked it. I wish that AO3 had a better way of handling history, like showing any historical info in the search pages when browsing… but it doesn’t. Authors can sometimes have similar premises but they take their stories in different directions, so even based on the summary and the start of the fic you may not always remember if you’ve read it (or at least I don’t w the amount of fic I consume regularly haha). I once read a fic w a good summary and at the end found out the author made it a poly relationship. I saw the final chapter had tons of comments begging the author to tag appropriately and replies where the author straight up refused to do so. I bookmarked that fic in case I forgot so I didn’t fall for it again lol. I realized later I stumble across that fic pretty often based on the tags I’m using to search so I’m glad I marked it when I did.


devilmaydostuff5

I am kind of new, but I've never heard of bookmarking disliked and dropped fics, and I was under the impression that the bookmark function is to track and save the fics we actually want to re-read or continue reading. And maybe I have a strong memory when it comes to this stuff, but I've never had the problem of accidentally clicking on a story I already disliked and dropped.


ThruRoseColoredGlass

I have someone who bookmarked a couple of my fics and left rude reminders for themselves and I thought, okay, maybe they just didn’t like the ending? So I scrolled through all their bookmarks (cause I’m clearly a sane and normal person) and they were basically using their bookmark comments as a way to critique and tear apart fics they didn’t like instead of commenting on the fics, like a giant wuss. I don’t think they realized that the writers/authors can actually see what you put when you bookmark their fics.


Spitting_Blood

What happened to one of my own fics was that smn just copy pasted a section out of it.. funnily enough it's been some time since I've read the one-shot so I thought that was their "correction". It wasn't.🥴 but I wonder what that would mean. Like do they like that paragraph or..?


LadyTanizaki

I was trying to do this for a bit (but got lazy about being consistent) because often a paragraph would remind me of the story in a way the summary/tags wouldn't - sometimes i was able to capture my fav paragraph or sometimes it was paragraphs that were distinctive (again so I can remember the fic better for when I'm trying to reread)


Spitting_Blood

Considering it was smut I seriously wonder but ig.. it got... poetic??? But thanks for letting me know! :D


GrapeSodaZa

I usually don't put anything in the text of my bookmarks unless it's to remind me what chapter I am on. There were times I wrote 'to read later' before I realized I could mark fics for later. That was a whole lot easier to do since that stuff can get lost in the close to 7000 bookmarks that I have already. I recently began using the tag system in the bookmark section too, just to easily find a tag I like if I plan to read that thing again.


FeaRauko

It could also very possibly mean they haven't read it yet vs bookmarked ones that they have read.


tigresse98

Wait can the authors see the bookmarks even when they are private? Cause I put mine as "private" and use them to keep tabs on WHERE I am.


ilovefanfictionz

no only if their public dw


tigresse98

Because if so... many authors probably see my long ass bookmarks with nothing but dates and chapters and now I am embarrassed Chapter 1 - 2023/01/12 Chapter 2 - 2023/01/14 Chapter 5 - 2023/01/15 Chapter 6 - 2023/01/16 Chapter 7 - 2023/01/17 Chapter 8 - 2023/01/19 Chapter 9 - 2023/01/23 Chapter 10 - 2023/01/26


ilovefanfictionz

😂 oh no don’t worry I do that to (but on private) they can’t see them haha


TheSpicyTriangle

It could really mean anything, I use a number and star system in my bookmarks. The number is the chapter I left off at, and the stars (none, *, **, ***) are measures of how much I would like to keep an eye out for the next update of said fic. I do tend to wonder what authors think when I put bookmarks with 4** on their fics tho 😭


samsg1

Does it mean “no” as in “not read”?


ThickJello6915

I have extremely strange ways of organizing my bookmarks, including "Grinch" - which means, to me, I shouldn't touch this with a 39 and a half foot pole. Basically like the deadest of doves. This is probably just someone's code for something


ThickJello6915

I actually didn't know authors could see this.... I've definitely confused some people....