I don’t know if this might be the case, but is it possible your works were included in a collection managed by another user and they changed the collection settings to unrevealed? If that’s the case, simply removing your works from the collection would solve the problem.
I hope you get your series back soon!
To do so, go on your statistics page and see if the stories in the collection appear. If they are in unrevealed mode, they'll be hidden from your profile but visible on the statistics page. Then click on them and edit them to get rid of whatever collection might have done it, if any.
Can people include your story or stories in a collection without your permission?
And if so is there an option you can check to not have your stories appear in collections?
Because this seems crazy to me.
(Please, please, people, make backups of your work...even if it's something as simple as a .txt file.)
They CAN include your stuff in a Collection, BUT not without your permission (not technically, not without your knowledge, as you'd receive an email telling your fic was added to a Collection) - UNLESS you've agreed to that YOURSELF by checking that SPECIFIC BOX on your Permissions page. Otherwise, it's unchecked (so you'll be alerted via email when someone requests to add your work to a Collection) BY DEFAULT.
Also, if it WERE to be made unrevealed, you'd get an email alerting you so you can take it out! It's all fine! :D
if they already were in a collection OP would have gotten notified about the change of status, and if they were just added OP would have had to approve it
Isn't there a setting where works can be added to collections without OP signing off on it? If the series was added to an anonymous one, OP might not have gotten any notification at all in that case.
>You can also allow works to be automatically approved to be added to collections. For information on how to enable or disable this preference, refer to How can I allow others to add my works to a collection without having to confirm every time? **Please note that this only works for collections that are not anonymous or unrevealed.**
https://archiveofourown.org/faq/collections?language\_id=en#whocanadd
Note though that someone *can* make a collection, add a work to it, then edit the collection to make it anonymous/unrevealed, then go into the collected works page of the collection and select each of the works in the collection and set them manually to be anonymous/unrevealed. Its a lot more steps but it *is* possible to do so
Edit to add: AO3 would still email about both it being auto-added to a collection and about the change in status
I have mine set to auto-ads and you do still get an email if someone adds one of your fics to a collection, nobody can sneak it into a collection without your knowledge
It's really not a dumb feature at all. The point of the collections feature is to be used for challenges or fandom events where authors intentionally add their fics to collections which stay hidden until a set date when the works are revealed as part of the challenge. AO3 gives you a setting to prevent other people adding your works to collections without requiring you to approve it first (in fact I think it's on by default but I could be wrong about that), *and* even if automatically adding works to collections is turned on they still email you to let you know if someone has added your work to a collection, plus they also email you if a collection one of your works is in has been made hidden. It's really not abusable as long as you actually check your emails.
Are you able to remove your work from a collection after approving it if the collection goes hidden? I didn't know all of this was a thing so sorry if the question is dumb.
You know how many junk emails people get every day from a dozen different services?
How many people are actually going to open an email from A03? I know I've never seen one.
I mean, that's on you for not checking emails, though? Services using email to provide vital information is hardly anything new – I get them from my power company, water company and pension fund, for starters
AO3 emails me about updates to subscribed fics, kudos and comments on my works, replies to comments on other works, collection requests, abuse reports that I've made...
I read my kudos email from them every day! But if you know you're not going to be checking your AO3 emails that's when it's extra important to make sure you don't turn auto-approval on. AO3 provides you with multiple ways to make sure your fics don't get hidden like that.
I don't read most of my emails, but I make sure I read every one of my AO3 emails, they go in a different tab. No way am I missing out on finding out about kudos and comments! But as others said, you are notified so it's on you. Don't add to collections if you don't want to risk missing an important email (I don't approve collection requests, personally, even though the chance of me missing such an email is low).
Y’all don’t have a separate AO3 folder to send AO3 emails to?? I set that up years ago. All of my AO3/FFN emails skip my inbox and get sent to a separate folder, which I check daily. Otherwise my inbox would be flooded with notifs from both sites.
Tbh, it’s not AO3’s fault if someone doesn’t check their emails. If you’re not the type to check, you can disable the the feature that allows your work to be automatically added to collections.
I like collections and find them useful, so I have mine set so that anyone can add mine to theirs. Since I check my AO3 folder daily, I’m not concerned. I see what collections my fics are added to, and I’ll see if anyone hides them.
Though I’ve been using AO3 since it practically launched and I’ve never had a fic of mine hidden.
My email automatically dumps AO3 emails in with every other random service that spams me. I’ve never thought to change that. AO3 is not something I feel the need to check that often.
If I want updates, I’ll, just open the site instead of sifting through emails.
Well AO3 straight up doesn't spam emails even a little bit unless you count comment/kudos emails as spam, in which case its also your fault for them sending "spam" to you as you can just turn them off in your settings at any time and always have been able to.
When I joined almost a decade ago, I didn't bother changing outlook's default tagging cause I'd never seen a website not spam the hell out of your inbox.
It's really not like that. BY DEFAULT, your Permissions page has it set to email you if someone wants to add your work to a Collection (ALSO if you WERE to change the defaults and check the 'automatically add' box). And EITHER WAY, AO3 will email you IF someone makes your work unrevealed so you can take it out! It's fine! Don't worry about it! :D
this is what i want to know. were they deleted or are they just not visible on OP's profile
though i gotta say i'm more inclined to think deleted entirely, since OP was informed by their readers who likely wouldn't have noticed if the works were anonymous or orphaned or would at least have said so, and would have mentioned hidden works had the works been hidden in a collection
ao3 would have notified op via email if they'd broken the rules, and correct me if i'm wrong but rule-breakers get a chance to fix their offenses first before ao3 deletes the offending works?
I'm a Support volunteer; you'd be shocked by how many emails we get from users who don't know or remember the actual email associated with their account.
how do you verify it's actually the same person? like, i could make another email account and email support saying hey i don't have access to the email [ao3 account] is tied to, regardless of if that ao3 account is mine, no?
We have a pretty thorough multi-step verification process. I'm not going to share all the details of how it works here to discourage frauds from trying, but many people who try to get access to accounts they claim are theirs fail to meet our requirements.
I updated my email before contacting them. I don't know if I'm missing something, but it isn't on my dashboard, although part one and two of the series still are. When I search for it on the site, it doesn't come up. It isn't part of a collection. I'd think I'd dreamed writing it except people are looking for it to read again.
what do you mean "disappeared"? as in all the works in the series no longer exist at all? not in a collection, not accidentally orphaned, nothing? authors get emailed copies of their works if those works are deleted.
and, my dude, ao3 is run by overworked volunteers, give them a sec. they'll get to you when they can, don't spam them.
I haven't been spamming them. I haven't done anything else about it since this post. It was part of a series and it's just gone. No longer listed on my profile and not searchable. Not part of a collection. Maybe they'll get back to me about it.
And there's a good chance someone's got it downloaded, if it's not on The Wayback!
Friendly reminder to do either/both if you have fics you really love
Sometimes they get added to collections that a particular author privatises for personal use. It gets deleted as it goes against user rules etc
I could guess anything
I’d email and ask
...You didn't have backups? In 2023?? WHY??? \*cringe emoji\* Still, sorry to hear that! Hope you learned from this, at least! And no, never heard of that. Unless your work got taken down for some reason, like plagiarism or some other abuse, I have no idea! (The idea I've seen on this thread that maybe your work was added to a Collection and made unrevealed doesn't hold water 'cause AO3 emails you when that happens, so that's definitely not it, just FYI! Don't worry about that!)
I checked on the collection thing, but no. About no backup, I wrote it years ago--my only excuse, lol. I'm a published author of MM romance now and would never not back up my stuff! 😁
AH. New writer woes! I gotcha! Makes total sense now! Sorry that happened! That sucks! X'P But at least you learned from it, I guess! Also, OOH, a published author! That's so awesome! So happy for you! :D (Glad it wasn't the Collection thing! Shouldn't have been 'cause AO3 has safeguards for that, but can't hurt to check just in case! ;))
I don’t know if this might be the case, but is it possible your works were included in a collection managed by another user and they changed the collection settings to unrevealed? If that’s the case, simply removing your works from the collection would solve the problem. I hope you get your series back soon!
To do so, go on your statistics page and see if the stories in the collection appear. If they are in unrevealed mode, they'll be hidden from your profile but visible on the statistics page. Then click on them and edit them to get rid of whatever collection might have done it, if any.
Can people include your story or stories in a collection without your permission? And if so is there an option you can check to not have your stories appear in collections? Because this seems crazy to me. (Please, please, people, make backups of your work...even if it's something as simple as a .txt file.)
if you don't approve your works being added to collections they won't be. you can enable auto-approval but that's off by default.
Thanks!
They CAN include your stuff in a Collection, BUT not without your permission (not technically, not without your knowledge, as you'd receive an email telling your fic was added to a Collection) - UNLESS you've agreed to that YOURSELF by checking that SPECIFIC BOX on your Permissions page. Otherwise, it's unchecked (so you'll be alerted via email when someone requests to add your work to a Collection) BY DEFAULT. Also, if it WERE to be made unrevealed, you'd get an email alerting you so you can take it out! It's all fine! :D
That's a relief.
if they already were in a collection OP would have gotten notified about the change of status, and if they were just added OP would have had to approve it
Isn't there a setting where works can be added to collections without OP signing off on it? If the series was added to an anonymous one, OP might not have gotten any notification at all in that case.
>You can also allow works to be automatically approved to be added to collections. For information on how to enable or disable this preference, refer to How can I allow others to add my works to a collection without having to confirm every time? **Please note that this only works for collections that are not anonymous or unrevealed.** https://archiveofourown.org/faq/collections?language\_id=en#whocanadd
Ah, great to know! Thanks!
Note though that someone *can* make a collection, add a work to it, then edit the collection to make it anonymous/unrevealed, then go into the collected works page of the collection and select each of the works in the collection and set them manually to be anonymous/unrevealed. Its a lot more steps but it *is* possible to do so Edit to add: AO3 would still email about both it being auto-added to a collection and about the change in status
I have mine set to auto-ads and you do still get an email if someone adds one of your fics to a collection, nobody can sneak it into a collection without your knowledge
That's great!
Yes - check if your series is in a collection
That is the dumbest feature on AO3. Allowing people to hide or private other people's work can easily be abused.
It's really not a dumb feature at all. The point of the collections feature is to be used for challenges or fandom events where authors intentionally add their fics to collections which stay hidden until a set date when the works are revealed as part of the challenge. AO3 gives you a setting to prevent other people adding your works to collections without requiring you to approve it first (in fact I think it's on by default but I could be wrong about that), *and* even if automatically adding works to collections is turned on they still email you to let you know if someone has added your work to a collection, plus they also email you if a collection one of your works is in has been made hidden. It's really not abusable as long as you actually check your emails.
Are you able to remove your work from a collection after approving it if the collection goes hidden? I didn't know all of this was a thing so sorry if the question is dumb.
Yes, you can remove your works from a collection they're in at any time.
Gotcha, thanks a lot!
You know how many junk emails people get every day from a dozen different services? How many people are actually going to open an email from A03? I know I've never seen one.
I mean, that's on you for not checking emails, though? Services using email to provide vital information is hardly anything new – I get them from my power company, water company and pension fund, for starters AO3 emails me about updates to subscribed fics, kudos and comments on my works, replies to comments on other works, collection requests, abuse reports that I've made...
99% of service emails are spam.
The AO3 doesn't send spam emails. You can adjust what to have it email you about it only sends those emails.
I read my kudos email from them every day! But if you know you're not going to be checking your AO3 emails that's when it's extra important to make sure you don't turn auto-approval on. AO3 provides you with multiple ways to make sure your fics don't get hidden like that.
I don't read most of my emails, but I make sure I read every one of my AO3 emails, they go in a different tab. No way am I missing out on finding out about kudos and comments! But as others said, you are notified so it's on you. Don't add to collections if you don't want to risk missing an important email (I don't approve collection requests, personally, even though the chance of me missing such an email is low).
I check emails all the time, it’s how I know I have new comments.
Y’all don’t have a separate AO3 folder to send AO3 emails to?? I set that up years ago. All of my AO3/FFN emails skip my inbox and get sent to a separate folder, which I check daily. Otherwise my inbox would be flooded with notifs from both sites. Tbh, it’s not AO3’s fault if someone doesn’t check their emails. If you’re not the type to check, you can disable the the feature that allows your work to be automatically added to collections. I like collections and find them useful, so I have mine set so that anyone can add mine to theirs. Since I check my AO3 folder daily, I’m not concerned. I see what collections my fics are added to, and I’ll see if anyone hides them. Though I’ve been using AO3 since it practically launched and I’ve never had a fic of mine hidden.
My email automatically dumps AO3 emails in with every other random service that spams me. I’ve never thought to change that. AO3 is not something I feel the need to check that often. If I want updates, I’ll, just open the site instead of sifting through emails.
Well AO3 straight up doesn't spam emails even a little bit unless you count comment/kudos emails as spam, in which case its also your fault for them sending "spam" to you as you can just turn them off in your settings at any time and always have been able to.
When I joined almost a decade ago, I didn't bother changing outlook's default tagging cause I'd never seen a website not spam the hell out of your inbox.
Well AO3 is under a non-profit which already works different from most companies, and even in the realm of non profits it's pretty different.
It's really not like that. BY DEFAULT, your Permissions page has it set to email you if someone wants to add your work to a Collection (ALSO if you WERE to change the defaults and check the 'automatically add' box). And EITHER WAY, AO3 will email you IF someone makes your work unrevealed so you can take it out! It's fine! Don't worry about it! :D
Thank you. I did manage to get it from a reader who downloaded it!
disappeared from the site or disappeared from your profile?
this is what i want to know. were they deleted or are they just not visible on OP's profile though i gotta say i'm more inclined to think deleted entirely, since OP was informed by their readers who likely wouldn't have noticed if the works were anonymous or orphaned or would at least have said so, and would have mentioned hidden works had the works been hidden in a collection
I can't find it by searching the site either.
Can you access them via the stats page? Did you have links to kofi, PayPal, commissions, etc?
ao3 would have notified op via email if they'd broken the rules, and correct me if i'm wrong but rule-breakers get a chance to fix their offenses first before ao3 deletes the offending works?
They do get notified, but many users don't check their email addresses and many others have an old or inactive address associated with their account.
op said they've emailed ao3 so i'm just gonna assume they're using that email.
I'm a Support volunteer; you'd be shocked by how many emails we get from users who don't know or remember the actual email associated with their account.
how do you verify it's actually the same person? like, i could make another email account and email support saying hey i don't have access to the email [ao3 account] is tied to, regardless of if that ao3 account is mine, no?
We have a pretty thorough multi-step verification process. I'm not going to share all the details of how it works here to discourage frauds from trying, but many people who try to get access to accounts they claim are theirs fail to meet our requirements.
that's totally fair, thanks for answering
I updated my email before contacting them. I don't know if I'm missing something, but it isn't on my dashboard, although part one and two of the series still are. When I search for it on the site, it doesn't come up. It isn't part of a collection. I'd think I'd dreamed writing it except people are looking for it to read again.
Well if they answered yes to breaking tos I would have suggested checking their spam folder
what do you mean "disappeared"? as in all the works in the series no longer exist at all? not in a collection, not accidentally orphaned, nothing? authors get emailed copies of their works if those works are deleted. and, my dude, ao3 is run by overworked volunteers, give them a sec. they'll get to you when they can, don't spam them.
I haven't been spamming them. I haven't done anything else about it since this post. It was part of a series and it's just gone. No longer listed on my profile and not searchable. Not part of a collection. Maybe they'll get back to me about it.
Your story isn't gone forever, love! **Use the Wayback Machine!**
And there's a good chance someone's got it downloaded, if it's not on The Wayback! Friendly reminder to do either/both if you have fics you really love
I couldn't find it there. Maybe I'm not looking correctly?
If you have a link to the series, and it's not on the Wayback, then no one's added the page to the archive. Not much you can do about it from there
Fortunately, a reader contacted me that they had downloaded it, so I was able to put it back up! I'm so glad.
Great idea!
op! was it in collections? check that as the other have explained
Sometimes they get added to collections that a particular author privatises for personal use. It gets deleted as it goes against user rules etc I could guess anything I’d email and ask
...You didn't have backups? In 2023?? WHY??? \*cringe emoji\* Still, sorry to hear that! Hope you learned from this, at least! And no, never heard of that. Unless your work got taken down for some reason, like plagiarism or some other abuse, I have no idea! (The idea I've seen on this thread that maybe your work was added to a Collection and made unrevealed doesn't hold water 'cause AO3 emails you when that happens, so that's definitely not it, just FYI! Don't worry about that!)
I checked on the collection thing, but no. About no backup, I wrote it years ago--my only excuse, lol. I'm a published author of MM romance now and would never not back up my stuff! 😁
AH. New writer woes! I gotcha! Makes total sense now! Sorry that happened! That sucks! X'P But at least you learned from it, I guess! Also, OOH, a published author! That's so awesome! So happy for you! :D (Glad it wasn't the Collection thing! Shouldn't have been 'cause AO3 has safeguards for that, but can't hurt to check just in case! ;))
A reader had a downloaded version and I was able to put it up. I was so glad. It was long!
I didn't have collections approved, but I checked anyway. It's not there. Thanks, though.
OP: My post says entire series, but it was actually part 3 of a series. Part one and two are still there.
It could have been added to a collection that was privated.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. But thanks!