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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AnonEhouse Sun 12 Nov 2017 01:16AM UTC

Still more Spam. My most recent reports:
gameset badarder Fostan puraton Mondr_Pop peterson33 ricosmith akin hhasan Dark_Warrior_0010
hemelsarker69
And Dark_Warrior_0010 is co-author with Official Bad Bang Pinch Hitter - age 5 (AdaptationDecay) and that account has made a bunch of Collections! And got legitimate users to add to their bogus collections! Such evil shall not go unpunished.

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Cameronhope (Guest) Sun 12 Nov 2017 01:23AM UTC

How much longer must we wait

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1. AnonEhouse Sun 12 Nov 2017 03:58AM UTC
  
  AO3 hasn't given any of us any idea how much longer it will be.
  There are still new spam accounts being made, so the current attack isn't even over.
  
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A_Voice_Lost_In_The_Wind Sun 12 Nov 2017 02:21AM UTC

I'm so excited!!! I've been waiting on this forever it seems!!! I'm so glad it's updated!!! Amazing work as well!!

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AnonEhouse Sun 12 Nov 2017 03:53AM UTC

Still more spam. A spam hunter's work is never done. Here's 2 more I reported tonight.
At least one shows a sense of humor.
donaldtrumpt adelaidaer

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1. Fluffyboots (Guest) Sun 12 Nov 2017 07:28AM UTC
  
  Damn it Trump! Not again!
  
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Ayla Thompson (Guest) Sun 12 Nov 2017 06:02AM UTC

I really like klance
I think voltron is awesome I ship Keith lance
I like yuri on ice too and Attack on Titan

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Ayla+Thompson (Guest) Sun 12 Nov 2017 06:04AM UTC

I like voltron
My main ship is klance and shallura
Yuri on Ice and Attack onTitan are also super cool

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Ayla+Thompson (Guest) Sun 12 Nov 2017 06:06AM UTC

Yuri on ice Attack on Titan and voltron ledgendary
Defenders is alp all my favorites
I ship klance the most

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Lance (Guest) Sun 12 Nov 2017 11:37AM UTC

Hi, big cam site fan, would love an invite. Site looks nice would love to see more of it :)

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sad non-user (Guest) Sun 12 Nov 2017 12:09PM UTC

I really wanted to make an account and i'm SO SAD that I can't! I was suddenly inspired to write fics, I have a few already finished and waiting to be published. If you hear someone crying in the distance, that's me.
If someone, by any chance, still has invites waiting to be sent please reply to this.
Also I wanted to thank the staff for their hard work on finding and dealing with the spammers, it must be very hard.

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AnonEhouse Sun 12 Nov 2017 09:24PM UTC

Every time I read the banner with Our sincere apologies to legitimate users I find myself nodding, yes, the Spammers are illegitimate B******s.

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1. YoshiMunchkin Sun 12 Nov 2017 10:36PM UTC
  
  Is it me or even this comment thread seems to have some spammers as well?
  
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2. 1. Nightcandle Sun 12 Nov 2017 10:55PM UTC
    
    I thought just the same....
    
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  2. AnonEhouse Mon 13 Nov 2017 01:11AM UTC
    
    There was a definite spam comment on here- I reported it, and it was removed. Last week they had put a spam comment on an earlier Admin post, which I also reported and it was removed.
    When you see entire post urging you to live stream a sporting event, it's indubitably spam.
    
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  3. 1. Nightcandle Mon 13 Nov 2017 07:02PM UTC
      
      I didn't mean spam-comments, but spammers fishing for invite-codes...
      -----------
      While I feel sorry for everyone who wants to join and can not right now due to the spam issues, and I totally unterstand that not everyone is fluent in English, some of the posts here just look a 'bit' *cough* suspicious to me.
      I really hope that I'm wrong or, that if I'm not, no-one falls for them.
      
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    2. 1. AnonEhouse Mon 13 Nov 2017 07:18PM UTC
        
        Oh, yes, that's possible. I thought some of them might be frauds but I doubt Spammers would go to the trouble of manually begging for codes. They're set up to maximize profit with the least amount of effort. While spam hunting I've seen a lot of works about the same 'style' level as the code requests. If I had codes, I would make the requester show some evidence they were actually a fan- blog posts going back a while, fic posted elsewhere, readers comments left on AO3 in the past, SOMETHING, at least a chat about the fandoms they like, showing familiarity with it beyond a wikipedia article. If you aren't at least that active, then you can settle for being a guest and just read until the queue reopens.
        I did a quick google, to get a rough idea how many times this has happened---I could have missed some, but it looks like there's a major spam attack at least once a year. (Dunno if 2013 was lucky, or it just didn't wind up in the search- or maybe the Dec 2012 attack went into Jan 2013.) So, you know, they keep trying it on, and we keep fighting.
        July 2011
        June 2012 Dec 2012
        Sept 2014
        Jan 2015
        April 2016
        Aug 2017
        
        Last Edited Tue 14 Nov 2017 02:36AM UTC
        
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skac (Guest) Sun 12 Nov 2017 11:18PM UTC

Welp, been waiting two weeks now to make an account. Suppose I'll take my business elsewhere. FFN isn't so bad.

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1. Nightcandle Mon 13 Nov 2017 07:14PM UTC
  
  It's always good to spread ones fic. :)
  And you can come back later to join here, too.
  There were times people had to wait months to be able to join (if I'm not mistaken there was one time it took about half a year (because a huge number of people wanted to join all at once)). So a few weeks may be an inconvenience, but it still isn't too bad..
  Edit: And I just learned: invitation queue is open again! :D
  Thanks a lot to the AO3 team (and the spam hunters) for all their hard work!
  and let's hope the spammers can be kept at bay.
  
  Last Edited Mon 13 Nov 2017 07:27PM UTC
  
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Ann (Guest) Mon 13 Nov 2017 06:30AM UTC

Thanks to the Admin Staff for deleting spam posts so quickly over the weekend. Also, wanted to say just how much I value AO3. I'm very grateful for the fact that it's free to use for authors and readers - I certainly spend hours reading here every week.
And, hurrah, just happened to be passing by, checking for spam and found that account registration was open for business!!! I've been inspired to write something which I wanted to post here first - a story bursting with Mycroft'y angst & goodness which I originally hoped to post for Halloween, but I didn't have an account and couldn't register for one due to the spam attacks. However, the delay they caused has actually helped me write, hopefully, a better and longer story - it's grown by more than 2,000 words.
Will be standing by with the other spam hunters to help repel any other attacks.

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AnonEhouse Mon 13 Nov 2017 10:39PM UTC

I found 3 more spam accounts after the invitation queue opened, so if you're a Spam Hunter, you might like to continue checking every once in a while.

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AnonEhouse Wed 15 Nov 2017 01:49AM UTC

Just reported another 7 Spam Accounts. Probably they've all been reported multiple times, but I can't be *sure*
https://archiveofourown.org/users/yabatablet/pseuds/yabatablet
https://archiveofourown.org/users/fighttime/pseuds/fighttime
https://archiveofourown.org/users/riyaislam1/pseuds/riyaislam1
https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eurigagarin/pseuds/Eurigagarin
https://archiveofourown.org/users/power/pseuds/power
https://archiveofourown.org/users/mokbulchairman/pseuds/mokbulchairman
https://archiveofourown.org/users/videotv/pseuds/videotv

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1. Ann (Guest) Wed 15 Nov 2017 02:56AM UTC
  
  I've reported those as well. They're still coming in, so I'll be here for a while yet. Whilst I'm totally p*****d off at the spammer(s) - I do enjoy hunting them down!
  
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2. 1. AnonEhouse Wed 15 Nov 2017 02:59AM UTC
    
    Yep. I'm never *sure* they've been reported. I collate a Hunting Session and send just one report with the profiles, trying to cut down on the number of reports Abuse has to handle.
    I REEEALLLY hope that the new codes being given out aren't winding up in Spammer's hands.
    
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flyingcat546 Wed 15 Nov 2017 03:53AM UTC

tis, tis is wat the interwebs have become... idiots, I feel bad for anyone who is wanting to get in BAD.

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AnonEhouse Fri 17 Nov 2017 04:51PM UTC

Yikes, the invite requests queue is currently (Friday Nov 17) 10503 people on the waiting list. They're sending out 250 invitations per day (so 4 days per 1,000), but every time I check the list is growing longer. I don't see catching up anytime soon.
https://archiveofourown.org/invite_requests

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1. Diamond_Raven Sun 19 Nov 2017 04:45AM UTC
  
  As of Nov 18 8:45 pm PST, it's at 13,032 people. At 250 invitations per day, that's a 52 day waiting period for the people who just signed up. Yikes. When they first re-opened it 5 days ago, it was at 3500 people. If the list keeps growing by 2000 people per day, their 250 invites won't catch up for a long time. Aren't you glad we signed up years ago?
  
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2. 1. AnonEhouse Sun 19 Nov 2017 05:30AM UTC
    
    I am indeed very grateful I signed up years ago.
    I spotted another Spammer earlier today- and Maybe I was the first to report them (there were at least 10 'works' in a row and none of them had hits), which makes me want to give myself a tiny medal. :^)
    It's now 13,085 waiting. I just hope fans aren't being pushed back by spammers requesting invites.
    13961 about 12 hours later. I am visualizing a line of people curving around the world...
    
    Last Edited Sun 19 Nov 2017 05:55PM UTC
    
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AnonEhouse Tue 21 Nov 2017 07:43PM UTC

Spammers still occasionally showing up. Hunters can never entirely rest on their laurels.
*currently 17636 people on the invite waiting list*

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AnonEhouse Thu 23 Nov 2017 12:56AM UTC

Today for the first time since the invitation queue reopened I noticed the number of people waiting had gone *down* so there's hope that it will begin catching up.

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1. Diamond_Raven Fri 24 Nov 2017 05:30AM UTC
  
  Hey, I don't know if you're interested, but I've noticed you enjoy chatting with people on these threads. We have a pretty good group over on Reddit on the Fanfiction sub. I know Reddit has an awful reputation and I stay away from other subs, but the Fanfiction sub is a great group. We chat about all kinds of different fanfic related topics, including AO3. If you wanna check it out, it's here.
  
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2. 1. AnonEhouse Fri 24 Nov 2017 05:39AM UTC
    
    Thanks, but I have such low resistance, I don't dare investigate something new. :^)
    
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xzerox (Guest) Mon 11 Dec 2017 03:14AM UTC

I find it RIDICULOUS that you expect people to wait A MONTH to use your site as a writer. Taking my works elsewhere.

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1. Account Deleted Mon 03 Dec 2018 10:45PM UTC
  
  Wow, because it's definitely AO3's fault. They're run by unpaid volunteers, you know?
  
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