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learnfromthewintertrees asked:
Random thought - do you have any stats regarding locked fics on AO3? I'm not sure if there's a way to isolate them at all given that they're locked and also won't be tagged, but I have a theory that there's a higher proportion of locked fics in RPF slash than in their fandom counterparts, and it would be really interesting if it could be confirmed somehow but I don't know? Thanks.
Oh, interesting hypothesis! I just did a search for M/M Real Person Fiction while logged in (which includes locked fics) and then while logged out (which doesn’t). Here’s what I found:
- RPF M/M (all): 53432
- RPF M/M (public only): 50135
- RPF M/M (locked): 3297
- RPF M/M percent locked: 6.2%
If we compare this to M/M overall:
- M/M (all): 616072
- M/M (public only): 605002
- M/M (locked): 11070
- M/M percent locked: 1.8%
So it appears your hypothesis is right for AO3 slash overall. I haven’t compared in any specific fandoms or for any categories besides M/M, but if you do so, I’d love to see what you find!
Thanks for the great question.
