Update: Invitation requests remain disabled for the time being

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2017-10-30 22:44:17 UTC

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Last weekend, we had to disable new invitation requests to address an influx of accounts flooding the Archive with spam works. While our Abuse team has been banning these accounts and deleting thousands of spam works, the problem persists and would most likely get worse if we sent out invitations again.

We have decided to keep the invitation queue closed for the time being while we take steps to prevent spam from being posted in the first place. This means you will not be able to create an account unless you have previously received an invitation from either a friend or our automated queue. (If you requested an invitation before October 22 and have not received it, please check your spam folder and, if you use Gmail, your "Social" tab. If you are still unable to find your invitation, you can contact Support with your specific request.)

We very much regret denying invitations to legitimate users, but as the amount of spam being posted is affecting everyone's user experience, we currently see no other way to address the problem.

We will reopen invitation requests as soon as we can, although we do not have an estimated date at this time. When requests have been reenabled, the "Get Invited!" link will return to the homepage, and the Invitation Requests page will include a form to add yourself to waiting list. (The option to request invite codes for friends has been disabled since the last spam wave, and we have no plans to bring it back in the foreseeable future.)

Any updates will be provided on this post and our @AO3_Status Twitter account. For more information on the Archive's invitation system, refer to our Invitations FAQ.

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H2O Wed 01 Nov 2017 10:24PM UTC

I hope you all figure it out. I'd propose closing the community - let people network on other sites and if someone says "hey read my story on ao3" the other person reads and says "I'd like to be a member", then the first person, already a member, can vouch for them. It's not ideal but it involves known real people.
Additionally you could have a continually updated vocabulary blacklist(automatic) to flag works for moderator checks(manual), and ignore known-good humans' transgressions on the blacklist to a point.
Limiting work post frequency might also work - few people post more than 2x/day, and I'm sure you could analyze user patterns to see what kind of post frequency activity (not replies on one's own work, but words/chapters/works and maybe replies on others' works) is actually unusual.
There are a lot of ways to reduce the manual workload - which you should keep secret because spammers will cheat them as fast as they can - with partial automation. Good luck!

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1. sarken (AO3_ADT) (Official) Thu 02 Nov 2017 03:37AM UTC
  
  Hi, H2O!
  We previously allowed existing users to invite friends, but we unfortunately had to disable that system as well due to both spam and abuse. However, I will pass your other suggestions along -- thank you!
  Sarken
  Archive development team
  
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2. 1. H2O Thu 02 Nov 2017 05:26AM UTC
    
    It's been a while since I've had to work with an ops team - I hope they can brainstorm some mostly automated stuff. <3
    
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  2. Zaniida Thu 09 Nov 2017 07:20AM UTC
    
    I'm curious how user-to-user invitations could be used as spam.
    I would think that it wouldn't be difficult to put a couple checks-and-balances on them to make them usable again. Offhand, here's a possible model:
    An existing member can petition to have an Invitation to hand out, if they have passed a certain content threshold. Say it's at least 20,000 words published across at least 5 fics and garnering at least 40 kudos, without being reported for spam/abuse. Possibly there's a higher threshold too, perhaps 150,000 words published across at least 12 fics and garnering at least 200 kudos.
    Once you've passed the lowest threshold, you can petition, and a staff member will look at your content to make sure it's legit (not just Lorem Ipsum stuff -- maybe also a plagiarism check, if that's an issue). (Note: YouTube has a similar method right now, to qualify for ad revenue: You have to earn 10,000 lifetime views before they'll have a staff member look at your account and see if it qualifies for ads. The initial hurdle cuts down on the number of accounts that an actual human has to vet.) If you have legitimate content, then you get an Invitation you can hand out. If you're only at the lowest threshold, it's a Probationary Invitation; if you've passed the higher threshold, it's not limited that way.
    So say that Bob is a member, and passes that low threshold. He petitions for an Invitation, gets vetted and receives one, and gives it to his friend Alice. She's now able to join the site on a Probationary Account, which has some limited features until she can prove herself. For example, she can't leave kudos, and she can only leave comments on her own fics, not those of other people. If there's a PM system by this point, she can't PM people either.
    Once Alice has published at least three fics totaling at least 1200 words and gaining at least 12 kudos, she bumps up to a full membership, and Bob gets a new Invitation to hand out (or can petition for one, for somewhat better control).
    If, prior to achieving full membership, Alice causes any serious problems, then Bob's ability to have/use Invitations is suspended for, say, six weeks. This ensures that if you invite spammy people in, you can't keep doing that, or not very quickly. Possibly have a three-strikes-you're-out method, where if you've invited three bad members, your ability to invite is suspended for 1-2 years.
    However, if Bob ends up passing the higher threshold, and at least one of his invitees has gotten past the invitation threshold herself, then Bob is granted access to unlimited (no probation) invitations, and if his first one proves good, he gets three to pass out, instead of just one at a time. Thus, the community members who have published a lot of content, and who have proven to be capable of selecting the kind of invitees who will be assets to the community, are given broader ability to do so.
    You might also consider having the invitations work only during the first week of each month; that's how Kingdom of Loathing runs their custom avatars program, thus reducing the amount of rush the artist has to go through to get it all done, and ensuring that the requests are considered carefully (since if you make a bad request, you need to wait a full month to make a new one).
    
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  3. 1. Lumeleo Fri 10 Nov 2017 07:10AM UTC
      
      Not speaking for the AO3 team, but I can see problems with this system. While proving your legitimacy with works might be viable in theory, it would mean anyone who doesn't write and post fic - whether due to preference, language, disability, ability, privacy, or any number of other reasons - would effectively become a second-rate member. Furthermore, writing-focused goals would devalue the other kinds of perfectly legitimate fanworks that people post, such as fanart and podfic. Kudos requirements would favour big fandoms and pairings over small. Not being able to comment or kudos would make it harder for people to gain those initial views, too - after all, no other members would even know they exist!
      In short: your idea might work if the purpose was to create a site of nothing but prolific writers, preferably focusing solely on what's popular. However, I don't believe that's what the Archive team wants.
      
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    2. 1. Zaniida Fri 10 Nov 2017 07:51AM UTC
        
        Good points. Let's see...
        Alternative fanworks could easily qualify via some metric other than word count. Podfics or fanvids could be simply by length. Fan art would be trickier, but perhaps something like "five pieces of fan art that each have at least five kudos" could cover that much.
        There could be a way to advertise new/pending members to existing members... though it was my impression that the existing members hit on new fics simply by looking up "new works in the fandoms I enjoy," which is the only way I can think of that I attracted my first fans. Of course, you're right that this would cause problems for smaller fandoms; my Molière poemfic still hasn't passed 25 views. And it's not fair to force writers to contribute to big fandoms they're not interested in just to get privileges here... nor would it be fair to require English if the site is meant to be open to other languages (and I love the fact that I can find Italian fanfics on here, and would love to see other languages, like Finnish, in fandoms I'm interested in).
        I wonder if you could have a time requirement, or an "introduce yourself" requirement (I've seen more than one forum that uses the latter). The time requirement could be shortened if you contribute material, but otherwise you would get through to non-probationary status eventually (e.g. in two weeks).
        Heck, maybe an alternative to writing fics could be a metric of reading fics. Like, if you've accessed a certain number of pages and stuck around long enough to have reasonably read them.
        I dunno, in the absence of creative productivity as a metric, I'm having trouble working out something that wouldn't be easily slipped past by spammers. And having two separate barriers to entry (one for creators and one for everyone else) would create an odd class/caste system that we probably don't want.
        As to the probationary comments restriction... possibly comments made by a probationary member would have to be approved by the author of the fic the comment is on, even if the fic doesn't normally require approval for comments. Possibly this requirement could be waived for fics whose authors haven't been active on the forum in over a year. This would ensure that spam comments aren't seen by anyone other than the author, which would reduce their utility as a fast means of spreading info and hoping someone bites the hook before they're reported.
        
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    3. AnonEhouse Sat 11 Nov 2017 02:47PM UTC
      
      I really doubt they will reinstate the ability for current users to request friend invites. It's not just because of spam and abuse, it also created unpredictable fluctuations in server load because they had no way of knowing when a guest invite would be used.
      If they DID, I think it would have to be simple, and inclusive system, maybe something like 'everyone can request one guest invite per year, but if one of their invites is used to become a spam account, they can't ask for invites for at least two years'.
      That might make people investigate at least a little before they give out invites. When I HAD invites, I always checked to see that the person requesting had some fandom background, whether posting fic, making fanvids, talking about fandom on a blog, commenting on AO3, SOMETHING to show they were interested in using AO3 for legitimate purposes.
      
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carol (Guest) Wed 01 Nov 2017 11:12PM UTC

gimme an acc pls i wanna read gay shit

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1. soots Thu 02 Nov 2017 01:44AM UTC
  
  You don't need an account to read most of the fics on this site.
  
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2. CactusAss Thu 02 Nov 2017 09:50PM UTC
  
  IF THIS AINT ME!! omg
  (but yeah soots is right, you don't need an account to read like 99.9% of the fics here...)
  
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Irelyn (Guest) Wed 01 Nov 2017 11:38PM UTC

how long will it be until you turn it back on?

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1. sarken (AO3_ADT) (Official) Thu 02 Nov 2017 03:38AM UTC
  
  Hi, Irelyn!
  At this time, we don't have an estimate for when we'll be ready to turn the queue back on.
  Sarken
  Archive development team
  
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onion (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 03:10AM UTC

Hi, is an invitation usually the only way to sign up, or is there usually a form to fill out? Thanks!

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1. sarken (AO3_ADT) (Official) Thu 02 Nov 2017 03:40AM UTC
  
  Hi, onion!
  Yes, an invitation is the only way to register for an account. When the queue is reenabled, you'll be able to request an invitation on the Invitation Requests page.
  Sarken
  Archive development team
  
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Fluffyboots (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 04:50AM UTC

Such a shame this is happening! This site has always been a go-to for me.
Just a few days ago I started writing my first story, but seems I'll have to wait to share it :(
Good luck hunting down those spammers. My first thought about prevention would be checking posts for extensive amounts of repetition, or using multiple brand names/key words... but idk what you have already or how to do something like that.
Hope I can make an account soon!

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MiseryMalachite Thu 02 Nov 2017 05:28AM UTC

Out of curiosity, what is the spamming like? What is the typical thing to do?
And this is kind of horrible... I had to leave a different site because of spam that the people running it weren't doing anything about, so i'm glad that you are taking measures against it. :)

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ko.korn (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 06:24AM UTC

I want to read and favourite some fiction in your app please accept me and reply my mail

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1. Fluffyboots (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 07:18AM UTC
  
  You don't have to have an account to read the stories.
  You can't bookmark them (I think), but you can probably just copy the web link or remember the name of the fic for the time being.
  
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Thaliel Thu 02 Nov 2017 11:40AM UTC

Spambots are awful, spammers are awful as well, though not as common as bots. It's rather surprising that they got here first instead of going for the big name (FFN) first. For the time it is merely bots you are dealing with, some sort of verification could help. Though there is already bots who can bypass the simplest kind of captchas. Maybe a two-way authentification? Like when you sign up (and whenever you submit a new work), you will have to put in a code you get sent to your phone?

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1. Account Deleted Tue 07 Nov 2017 12:10PM UTC
  
  I would be absolutely against the idea of two-way authentication - I am not at all comfortable linking my personal phone number to my adult fiction.
  
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alesia Thu 02 Nov 2017 12:26PM UTC

Black hat SEO strikes again. Thank you for all your hard work keeping the Archive clean.

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reverie (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 01:18PM UTC

Oh no! I was a guest before and wanted to make an account right now :(
typical me, always bad luck :D hopefully this will soon be possible again!
i now have to bookmark every good story i find, it‘s getting messy already after two days, no idea how i thought i could live without an account before...
shame ob those who are responsible for the spamming!

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MOONSOUL Thu 02 Nov 2017 02:30PM UTC

I requested an invite well over a year ago. Love the website a lot! I have read over 500 stories here. I hope all goes well with the spammers

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Aarra Thu 02 Nov 2017 02:51PM UTC

Hello.
In Russia began very serious problems with two popular sites for fanfics, so many people go to AO3. I hope you don't call these people spam. These people really want to write and read fanfics and originals.

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1. Tata (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 03:18PM UTC
  
  Hi! The same thoughts about our Diary problem and migration to AO3.
  Guys, this is not spam, this are new users trying to save their works.
  
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2. 1. Aarra Thu 02 Nov 2017 03:42PM UTC
    
    It's not just site "Dairi"! Site "Ficbook" suddenly and sharply changed the policy, it became very bad, so many authors and readers went to AO3. Admins, help them! They are good people, they want to write and read, and not do spam!
    
    Last Edited Thu 02 Nov 2017 03:45PM UTC
    
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  2. 1. Tata (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 03:45PM UTC
      
      Oh, didnt know about Ficbook. Hope this situatuon with these sites will improve soon.
      
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    2. 1. Aarra Thu 02 Nov 2017 03:57PM UTC
        
        There is very little hope for improving these sites. Everyone now has hope for AO3.
        
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  3. Silex Thu 02 Nov 2017 09:35PM UTC
    
    Do not worry, what is being called spam is purely advertising type stuff. What's being posted is little more than repetitive lists of products, name brands and, typically broken, links to influence search results. Actual stories written by actual people are not being flagged as spam no matter what language they're being posted in.
    
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  4. 1. Tata (Guest) Fri 03 Nov 2017 01:06AM UTC
      
      Now I get it. Thank you for the explanation!
      
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    2. Aarra Fri 03 Nov 2017 07:30AM UTC
      
      It's very good. I wish you an early opening of the registration, it is waiting for a lot of authors. Thanks for your work.
      
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Account Deleted Thu 02 Nov 2017 04:13PM UTC

Sad to see that is happening, but hopefully it'll be fixed and up and running soon!

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ElizaKline (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 04:42PM UTC

I really hope the problem is resolved as I desperately want to create my account. In the meantime, what is the point of spamming? Think about it!

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1. Diamond_Raven Fri 03 Nov 2017 02:12AM UTC
  
  The spammers aren't real people, they're all spam-bots. They don't do any thinking, they just do what they're programmed to do. They create 'stories' which are just lists of brand names, links, product names etc. The point is to get people to click on the links (which doesn't work on AO3 because links don't become hyperlinks automatically) or the repetition of specific words boost that product's website on Google's search results.
  
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Builders_Tea Thu 02 Nov 2017 05:44PM UTC

I'm just glad I made it in here just "right in time" before you closed the list.
Thank you for all your work, staff! AO3 is a great place to be part of, thanks to you.
Hope you will succeed soon with this issue, so that others can also enjoy.

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Manderz (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 05:51PM UTC

Aw man. :( Totally bummed. I JUST found this site and wanted to start posting a story I'm working on. Seems like the LEGIT community is pretty cool. :( Stupid effing spammers. Ugh.

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kre3ce Thu 02 Nov 2017 06:06PM UTC

OMG I really feel like I should kill them!!! Why the hell would they want to spam this place???

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1. AnonEhouse Thu 02 Nov 2017 06:40PM UTC
  
  It's not personal- they are trying to get their ads/links/keywords in as many webpages as possible, to increase their ranking in search engines.
  They know they are misusing sites, breaking the terms of service, and ruining them for legitimate users, but that's just incidental.
  
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2. 1. kre3ce Fri 03 Nov 2017 03:00AM UTC
    
    I know, but like this is really weird, like they can't use Google Ads?? They bankrupt?? (Just questions) Anyway, if they knew this is bad, they should also know this would probably get the company they are working for to advertise would get a bad response/reputation and they would probably get less sales/called a cheapskate or things like that. What the hell?!?!?!?!? Well, that's what logic and common sense says to us(not everybody as in normal people, but just my other pepulz(if you really want to understand, go to my profile cos honestly you won't get it)).
    
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3. Diamond_Raven Fri 03 Nov 2017 02:13AM UTC
  
  They're spam-bots, not people. They were created by somebody who was paid to create them, and they were unleashed on the web. Their creators probably have no idea (and don't care) what websites the spam-bots attack. The attack has nothing to do with AO3 specifically. Many sites are having problems dealing with spam-bots.
  
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4. 1. kre3ce Fri 03 Nov 2017 04:11AM UTC
    
    OK, then. Well, then I don't know what to say.... JUST WHY?!?!?!?! THIS STILL REALLY TRIGGERS ME!!!!!
    
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  2. 1. AnonEhouse Fri 03 Nov 2017 01:07PM UTC
      
      By flooding the internet with their links/products/keywords, they hope to increase their ranking on search sites, such as Google.
      So if you search for whatever product/service the spammer's clients have, you'll see their website higher up on the search results than it honestly deserves to be. (People searching probably will have not seen the spam, just the search results.)
      I HOPE Google has methods of weeding out spam links. I'd LIKE to think that the spammer's clients aren't actually profiting by our misery, but even if Google can figure out how to not reward them for being crooks, there are other search engines that don't have the technical clout Google does.
      
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    2. 1. kre3ce Fri 03 Nov 2017 10:21PM UTC
        
        Yea, this is just really getting on my nerve tho...
        
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      2. AnonEhouse Sat 04 Nov 2017 12:28AM UTC
        
        I know. I've been obsessively checking this page, hoping for good news. *sigh*
        
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        kre3ce Sun 05 Nov 2017 05:45AM UTC
        
        LOL, hope it gets better! Or I swear to God....
        
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AnonEhouse Thu 02 Nov 2017 06:56PM UTC

I had hoped that all the spam accounts had been caught, but I just found two more. So I guess AO3 is still in the tracking down and removing phase. I hope someone has come up with a serviceable plan for preventing them making new accounts.
So if you see these accounts posting, I've already reported them.
nilashaasa sukno5

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QueenDunce (Guest) Thu 02 Nov 2017 06:58PM UTC

Man, this sounds aggravating. Having had an account on here previously (sadly, cannot remember the user or email--though it might be the one I attached for the comments) I took it much for granted. Now that I actually want to publish and connect with authors on here, it's been a mess. Just my luck, I suppose! Nevertheless, I do not blame the mods and thank them all for their time and dedication to resolving this issue.

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