Upcoming changes to comments

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Published:

2021-02-04 02:37:54 UTC

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In our next release, we'll be rolling out two changes to comments on the Archive. The first change will provide both work creators and site admins with the ability to freeze comment threads. The second change will provide site admins options to restrict comments on news posts, much like creators can restrict comments on their works.

Comment freezing

Creators will soon be able to freeze comment threads on their works using the "Freeze Thread" button. Freezing a thread prevents new replies from being added to a comment or to any of its replies. It also prevents comments in the thread from being edited.

A comment with replies. Each comment has a Freeze Thread button.

Frozen comments will have a "Frozen" indicator and the "Reply" button will be hidden. An "Unfreeze Thread" option will allow creators to re-enable replies.

A comment with replies. The first reply and its replies are frozen and have a Frozen indicator, which looks like a pressed button. They also have Unfreeze Thread buttons.

Although "Freeze Thread" initially prevents replies to all comments in a thread, creators can use "Unfreeze Thread" to selectively re-enable replies for some comments in a thread.

Site admins will also be able to freeze comments on news posts, and the Policy & Abuse team will be able to freeze comments anywhere on the site.

News post comment settings

In August, we gave creators more control over who can comment on their works, enabling them to choose between allowing comments from anyone, restricting comments to registered users, or turning comments off completely.

Site admins will soon have the same options when creating and editing news posts. This will allow our teams to turn off comments on outdated news posts and prevent newer ones from being overwhelmed by spam (e.g. advertisements or, more commonly, short series of random letters left by bots).

If comments on a news post are turned off, or if you're logged out and comments are restricted to registered users, the comment form will be replaced with a message indicating which setting is in use.

If you can't comment on a news post, you are always welcome to contact Support with any feedback.

We hope both of these changes will help the users and volunteers who read, write, and receive comments on the Archive!

Edit, February 12, 21:20 UTC: Comments on this post had to be disabled due to off-topic discussions, trolling, and harassment.

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VSSAKJ Thu 04 Feb 2021 09:08AM UTC

Thank you for all your hard work implementing this feature! We appreciate all the work you do ✨

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Saediga Thu 04 Feb 2021 10:18AM UTC

Thank you for these features. Is there any chance of a block button in the works?

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1. QuailFence Thu 04 Feb 2021 01:49PM UTC
  
  This question has been asked a few times in the comments, here’s the reply that support has given:
  The ability to block a specific user from interacting with you is a planned feature that we have been actively working on developing for the past few months. However, since it is a complex feature that will affect multiple parts of the site, we can't give a specific timeline for when it will be implemented.
  We will be publishing a news post in the next few weeks which will give a general update on this topic and our progress.
  
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eelia_faustus Thu 04 Feb 2021 11:00AM UTC

This sounds good. I've personally never encountered any problems in comment sections so far (and I hope it stays that way, lol), but I've seen threads go too far or way out of the original purpose of the post and also read that having to deal with unwelcome comments and trolls on works is an ongoing struggle for many, so every single step, albeit small, towards a safer and more enjoyable experience for everybody is very welcome. Thank you!

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Subsequent Thu 04 Feb 2021 11:58AM UTC

Thanks team! ♥

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MissGS Thu 04 Feb 2021 12:19PM UTC

I think these are great changes and we're forever grateful for the continuous work you put in keeping ao3 a user friendly place.
Thank you for the news!

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kingsofneon Thu 04 Feb 2021 12:42PM UTC

super cool, thanks ao3 team! saw the restricted commenting thing a while back and it was so good. Is there any chance that in the future, author comments wont be counted to the total of a fic's comments? I know as a writer it's something that frustrates me. Seeing works have 50 reviews but then needing to remember it's not fifty, it's potentially 15 because half of them are yours, is really disheartening. I like being able to have an overview of my fics/which fics got more reviews without having to factor in that I may have left one or more replies, if that makes sense.

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1. AO3_Support (Official) Thu 04 Feb 2021 02:12PM UTC
  
  Hi, kingsofneon:
  At this time, we still plan on including the creator(s)'s comments in the number on the work and the blurb. We have a significant number of not-logged-in users who will use that number to track interaction on a work, and changing the number to threads would prevent them from seeing it. Creators can see the number of comment threads on a work when looking at your Statistics page, from your account dashboard. (We've talked about putting the comment threads in the search blurb as well, but we'd need a bigger blurb!)
  Best,
  CJ
  
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2. 1. kingsofneon Sun 07 Feb 2021 05:26AM UTC
    
    That's fair, thanks for your reply!
    
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3. strangelyliteral Fri 05 Feb 2021 07:57AM UTC
  
  If you go into your statistics, one of the stats listed is “comment threads.” That will give you the total number of new comments made directly on the fic, not replies (or replies to replies).
  
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4. 1. kingsofneon Sun 07 Feb 2021 05:24AM UTC
    
    thanks!
    but mostly my issue is like, also for looking at other fics, too. I grew up on ff.n and used to use comments as my sorting tactic? But I know so many people just use kudos as an "well I got to the end of this" that I don't think it's a fair indication of fic quality, if that makes sense. It's personal preference on how I like to view both my fics and other fics, really. I want to just see via a glance what the ACTUAL interaction of the fic is, rather than the fake-ish number that comment threads provide. But I appreciate the information on where to find comment thread starters!
    
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town_freak Thu 04 Feb 2021 12:50PM UTC

I appreciate this thanks.
I noticed some crazy chains happening on my works (that I've since deleted) that I'd love the option to freeze.
Great addition

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aethel Thu 04 Feb 2021 01:36PM UTC

Thank you!

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AngelF00d Thu 04 Feb 2021 03:06PM UTC

thats a nice feature

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Oparu (USSJellyfish) Thu 04 Feb 2021 03:57PM UTC

very cool, thank you!

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BlazingWorld Thu 04 Feb 2021 04:18PM UTC

Thank you very much for both of these!

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Finlaena Thu 04 Feb 2021 04:41PM UTC

Awesome! Can't wait for this to be implemented. :>

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xxxbookaholic Thu 04 Feb 2021 07:03PM UTC

this is great and will definitely be helpful in the long run! also, i have a suggestion, i guess you could say. when you look through your bookmarks, there's a way to filter it by "recs only", which is great for when im looking to reread something, but i was wondering if it's possibly to make a function that does the opposite, where you can filter out all of your recs so you're only looking at private bookmarks? im not sure about other people, but i personality put all of my to-reads in my private bookmarks, and it's a bit tedious to weed through all of the things ive already read to find stuff that i haven't yet.
thank you for everything you do!

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1. mags (Guest) Thu 04 Feb 2021 07:13PM UTC
  
  I would suggest adding a custom tag to the fics you want on your to-read list, so you'll be able to filter for that? I have a few custom tags I use, and they're useful for filtering. There's a section to filter for Bookmarker's Tags under Additional Tags in the sidebar.
  
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2. 1. xxxbookaholic Thu 04 Feb 2021 09:06PM UTC
    
    alright, i’ll try to remember that. thank you so much!
    
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3. AO3_Support (Official) Thu 04 Feb 2021 07:26PM UTC
  
  Hi xxxbookaholic:
  Per our "Hidden Search Operators Cheatsheet" - if you enter private: true in the "Search bookmarker's tags and notes" field (for filtering) or the "Any field on bookmark" field (for bookmark searches), you should get just your private bookmarks. We also second mags' suggestion to add a custom bookmarker's tag for easier filtering.
  Best,
  CJ
  
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4. 1. xxxbookaholic Thu 04 Feb 2021 09:05PM UTC
    
    OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH WMWIWJS I DIDNT KNOW THAT EXISTED-
    you just made my day, thank you!!
    
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  2. 1. AO3_Support (Official) Fri 05 Feb 2021 12:00AM UTC
      
      I...meant to include the link to the cheatsheet. The parser helped. Sorry! https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/10851
      CJ
      
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Nightcandle Thu 04 Feb 2021 08:00PM UTC

Thank you once again for all your hard work! ♥
Looking forward to see this feature implemented :)

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Solovei Thu 04 Feb 2021 08:00PM UTC

So happy about his! I like commenting on the news posts but there have been times when it resulted in me getting a bunch of spam replies, definitely not fun :(
Thanks for all the hard work y'all put in~

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FullmetalDude1 Thu 04 Feb 2021 08:41PM UTC

I thinks this came at practically the perfect time. I've recently had some cruel comments, so being able to freeze threads so people can't reply to them would be great!

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darkrose Thu 04 Feb 2021 09:56PM UTC

Many people have already raised the question about the ability to block users. I would like to suggest that a news post on this much-requested feature would be appropriate, in the interests of transparency. I think it's especially important because while it's great that I have multiple tools to manage comments, including moderation, limiting comments to registered users, and now the ability to freeze threads, as a reader--especially one who primarily accesses the Archive on mobile devices--my ability to manage my experience is limited, especially when the issue at hand regards blatantly racist content.
Recently I reported a fic that included racial slurs in the tags. I felt helpless and angry, and I spent several days not reading the tag for one of my two main fandoms because it was so distressing to see someone using the n-word in their tags. The fic was eventually removed not because of the racism, but because the author tagged fandoms that weren't actually referenced in the fic. Having the ability to simply block that user would have allowed me to manage my own experience and avoid content that I found triggering. I understand that this isn't an easy technical fix, but it would be nice to know that it's being prioritized.

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1. mags (Guest) Thu 04 Feb 2021 10:25PM UTC
  
  They've replied to other comments asking about the block feature with this, so a news update on that is already in the works:
  The ability to block a specific user from interacting with you is a planned feature that we have been actively working on developing for the past few months. However, since it is a complex feature that will affect multiple parts of the site, we can't give a specific timeline for when it will be implemented.
  We will be publishing a news post in the next few weeks which will give a general update on this topic and our progress.
  
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2. 1. darkrose Thu 04 Feb 2021 10:46PM UTC
    
    I missed the news post part; my bad. I hope it will address some of the concerns that folks have raised.
    
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3. GreenRaccoon97 Fri 05 Feb 2021 04:44AM UTC
  
  Totally not removed for the racism... Sure.
  
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4. 1. The_Wavesinger Fri 05 Feb 2021 07:24AM UTC
    
    Why are you spamming this post? What the fuck is your problem?
    
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  2. GreenRaccoon97 needs some boundaries (Guest) Fri 05 Feb 2021 07:28PM UTC
    
    Go back to whatever hyperaggressive unwashed weeb fandom hole you crawled out of.
    
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  3. 1. GreenRaccoon97 Mon 08 Feb 2021 11:52AM UTC
      
      At least I *have* a fandom to cater to.
      
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JKFic Thu 04 Feb 2021 10:42PM UTC

I understand the need for this. At the same time, I find it amusing because I've never received enough feedback on my works, positive OR negative, to necessitate such an option.

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Account Deleted Fri 05 Feb 2021 12:07AM UTC

This looks helpful. Will be looking forward to the mentioned update on blocking users/tags as well.

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setosdarkness Fri 05 Feb 2021 01:35AM UTC

thank you as always for your hard work!!!

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VSSAKJ Thu 04 Feb 2021 09:08AM UTC

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Saediga Thu 04 Feb 2021 10:18AM UTC

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QuailFence Thu 04 Feb 2021 01:49PM UTC

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eelia_faustus Thu 04 Feb 2021 11:00AM UTC

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Subsequent Thu 04 Feb 2021 11:58AM UTC

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MissGS Thu 04 Feb 2021 12:19PM UTC

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kingsofneon Thu 04 Feb 2021 12:42PM UTC

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AO3_Support (Official) Thu 04 Feb 2021 02:12PM UTC

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kingsofneon Sun 07 Feb 2021 05:26AM UTC

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strangelyliteral Fri 05 Feb 2021 07:57AM UTC

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kingsofneon Sun 07 Feb 2021 05:24AM UTC

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town_freak Thu 04 Feb 2021 12:50PM UTC

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Oparu (USSJellyfish) Thu 04 Feb 2021 03:57PM UTC

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BlazingWorld Thu 04 Feb 2021 04:18PM UTC

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Finlaena Thu 04 Feb 2021 04:41PM UTC

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xxxbookaholic Thu 04 Feb 2021 07:03PM UTC

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mags (Guest) Thu 04 Feb 2021 07:13PM UTC

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xxxbookaholic Thu 04 Feb 2021 09:06PM UTC

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AO3_Support (Official) Thu 04 Feb 2021 07:26PM UTC

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xxxbookaholic Thu 04 Feb 2021 09:05PM UTC

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AO3_Support (Official) Fri 05 Feb 2021 12:00AM UTC

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Nightcandle Thu 04 Feb 2021 08:00PM UTC

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Solovei Thu 04 Feb 2021 08:00PM UTC

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FullmetalDude1 Thu 04 Feb 2021 08:41PM UTC

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darkrose Thu 04 Feb 2021 09:56PM UTC

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mags (Guest) Thu 04 Feb 2021 10:25PM UTC

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darkrose Thu 04 Feb 2021 10:46PM UTC

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GreenRaccoon97 Fri 05 Feb 2021 04:44AM UTC

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The_Wavesinger Fri 05 Feb 2021 07:24AM UTC

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GreenRaccoon97 needs some boundaries (Guest) Fri 05 Feb 2021 07:28PM UTC

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GreenRaccoon97 Mon 08 Feb 2021 11:52AM UTC

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JKFic Thu 04 Feb 2021 10:42PM UTC

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Account Deleted Fri 05 Feb 2021 12:07AM UTC

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setosdarkness Fri 05 Feb 2021 01:35AM UTC

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