Arduinna

I'm still reveling in my sudden ability to be fannish again, and poking at all the things. There are a bunch of new(-to-me) tools out there for spiffying up the AO3 experience on desktop browsers, so I figured I'd share what I've found, plus a couple of old favorites I last mentioned in 2013.

These are a combination of bookmarklets and userscripts. The bookmarklets just need to be dragged to your bookmarks bar. The userscripts require the Tampermonkey extension to be added to whatever browser(s) you use. Once you've added the extension, going to a userscript's page will show you an Install button; click that to install the script in Tampermonkey. The script will run automatically on any page it applies to.

All of these tools are browser-specific. If you use more than one browser, you'll need to install everything you want on all of them, and customize them if needed.

Finding fanworks

The AO3's built-in search and filters have gotten even better (yaaaaay excludes!), but that's no reason not to customize things even more. With the add-ons I'm using, going to a fandom's works page (or any search-results page) gives me a list of results where:

• Find favorite things
  
  • Particular tags that I really like are highlighted in different colors, so I can zoom in on them without having to read every tag (Fangirlishness's "AO3: highlight tags" userscript)
    
    • Jump to instructions on customizing this
  
  
• Skip over unwanted things
  
  • Incomplete works are faded out, for easy skipping-over (Flamebyrd's "Incomplete Works" userscript)
    
    • This script also makes the stats line on the fanwork larger and pink, so if I'm linked to an incomplete work, I still have an instant visual clue that it's not complete.
    
    
  • Works that contain particular tags that I really don't like are collapsed with an explanation of why they're collapsed (they could also just vanish entirely, but I like the option of being able to click in if I'm in the mood) (Schegge's "AO3: Fic's Style, Blacklist, Bookmarks" userscript)
    
    • Jump to instructions on customizing your blacklist here.
    
    
  • If you want just a blacklist without the added styling and bookmark functions, try tuff's ao3 savior

Streamline search

• Works that I've already marked as seen (using a button that appears at the bottom of each work) and/or already kudosed are visibly marked on the results page, so I know what I can skip at a glance. (Min's "AO3: Kudosed and seen history" userscript


• Works with a zillion tags appear with some of those tags hidden and a 'show tags' button for if I want to see them; if not, I'm not having to scroll past giant blocks of text. (You can set your own limit on how many is too many.) (Vannius's "AO3: Tag Hider" userscript)
  
  • Jump to instructions on customizing this

Recs (sort of)

• This is on individual work pages, not searches/listings.
  
• At the bottom of every fanwork page, I have a "You might also like this" button. (GetRec'd, links to Chrome and Firefox extensions)
  
  • If there's enough data for a match, it pops up a list of works that might appeal, each with a plus sign next to it. I can click straight onto a link to dive right in, or click the plus sign, which adds the work to a reading list stored on the browser's extensions bar.
  
  
• If you go looking for userscripts, you may find the userscript version of GetRec'd. Don't use it; the creator has deprecated it and is focusing on the two browser extensions instead. The userscript version won't work.

That's before I even touch the filters - literally just on loading a page. Once the page is up, I can fine-tune the search/filters to a pretty amazing degree.

• Add more filters
  
  • I can filter on additional fields beyond the one AO3 defaults to: creator, hits, kudos, comments, and bookmarks. (Flamebyrd's "AO3 Additional Filters" userscript)
    
    • These are also all possible to do on AO3's more complete Works Search page, but having them available in the filters makes things a little faster. I'm not likely to go all the way to the Works search to add "only works with more than 1000 kudos", but with the filter box there I can just add >1000 to the kudos filter and boom.
  
  
• Save filter terms
  
  • I can set up persistent include or exclude tags, globally or by fandom, so I don't have to keep checking the same box in the filter list every time. (tuff''s "ao3 saved filters" userscript)
    
    • Need kittens in everything you read? Add 'kittens' to the global box, and you'll get kittens every time you use the filters anywhere.
      
    • Hate kittens? Add -kittens to the global box, and poof, never any kittens ever again (unless someone didn't tag their kittens, always a risk).
      
    • Love vampire AUs everywhere except one particular fandom? Go to that fandom's works page and add (-"Alternate Universe - Vampires") to the fandom box, and it'll be filtered out any time you're looking for things in that fandom.
      
    • Want all the angst, all the time, in your main fandom, but not necessarily anywhere else? Go to that fandom's works page and add angst to the fandom box.

Save entire searches

• When I have a search set up that I like, I can click a "Track This" button on the works page, and it will be saved to a "Tracked" box. (Min's "AO3 Tracking" userscript)
  
  • I can click on that box anytime, from anywhere on the archive, and see a list of the tracked searches (up to 25) that I've saved. I can either click on the name to go to the latest search results, or click "Check for new" to see if anything's been posted since the last time I checked.
    
  • You can track any works page/listing, whether you've run a search or not.
    
    • Right now I'm testing this on a collection someone out there is keeping of their favorite fics for [trope], as a way of finding some specific recs for that trope. This button has many possibilities, is what I'm saying.

Organizing/storing/saving fanworks

From the search results/works page:

• Every listed work on a search/filter page has a button on it for downloading directly, without clicking in to the work. (tuff's "ao3 download buttons" userscript)
  
  • This basically clones the archive's own download button, so it brings up all the usual format choices.
  
  
• Every listed work on a search page has a button on it for a fast, customized bookmark on Pinboard, without having to go into the work (Flamebyrd's "AO3 → Pinboard Bookmarklet Generator" - the page includes an option for the button, if you want to install the userscript version)
  
• Every listed work on a search page has a button on it for fast "mark for later", without having to go into the work (Flamebyrd's "Read Later Buttons" userscript)

From the page for any given work:

• A bookmarklet in my browser's bookmarks bar lets me create a fast, customized Pinboard bookmark. (Flamebyrd's "AO3 → Pinboard Bookmarklet Generator")

Reading/commenting on/kudosing fanworks

There are tons of ways to customize your reading experience. I wanted a few specific things: page-margin control, font control, a way to mark where I stopped reading if I need to come back to something, ability to see at the end of a fanwork if I'd already kudosed it, and an easy way to quote things in a comment without losing my place. I use three userscripts for all of that:

• Schegge's "AO3: Fic's Style, Blacklist, Bookmarks" userscript
  
  • Fic's Style: Every fanwork has a small menu button at the bottom right of the screen.
    
    • Clicking that gives me options to
      
      • change fonts
        
      • change font size
        
      • change margin width
        
      • change the background color of the fanwork (not the entire browser page)
        
      • or reset back to defaults

Whatever you set will be remembered the next time you go into a fanwork, but with the controls right there on the page it's easy to adjust on the fly.

The userscript includes a handful of default fonts and colors for switching through; if you're comfortable in code, you should be able to change these or add more. But the basic set provides a good array. This script is NOT designed to be tweaked by casual users.

• Mark your place: I also get a button at the top of the page that says "Full screen".
  
  • Clicking that pulls up a semi-full-screen page (the browser controls are still there, but things like the header tags are gone), with an Exit button at the top and two small controls added at the bottom left: a caret (^) and a plus (+) sign.
    
    • The caret is a "go to top" link; the plus sign adds a 'bookmark' for whatever spot you're at when you click it.
      
    • You can only have one bookmark per fanwork, which also means you can mark your place as you go if you're worried about crashes or interruptions. The bookmark will update itself to the new position every time you click the plus sign.
      
    • Once you have a bookmark or two, you can click on the Bookmarks link in the nav menu across the top (next to Fandoms | Browse | Search | About), and it will show you a list of the works you've created bookmarks for.
      
      • Click on one, and it will open the work in the full-screen view;
        
      • Click on the "Go to Bookmark" button and it will take you right back to where you were

Meludame's "AO3 Kudos tools" userscript, which I thought was lost forever, and which I'm so happy to have found a copy of.

• This script needs to be edited a bit, but is pretty straightforward. You add your own username where it tells you to, and if you've kudosed a work, it turns the Kudos button green and adds a green background to your name in the kudos list.
  
• You can also edit it to highlight other people's names in the kudos list, if there are people whose tastes you trust and you want a quick glance in advance to see if they liked a thing.
  
  • Jump to instructions on customizing this.

rav's "AO3 Review + Last Chapter Shortcut + Kudos-sortable Bookmarks" userscript.

• AKA "the floaty review box" userscript. You may have seen this one mentioned around recently, which is how I found it.
  
• With this installed, any time you open a fanwork you'll get an addition to the row of buttons across the top, saying "Floaty Review Box".
  
  • Click the button and a semi-transparent box appears, floating at the top-right of the page.
    
    • This is movable! I tend to slide it further to the right (under/behind the right border of the browser) so only a bit of it is showing, so it doesn't overlap with the text on the page at all.
    
    
  • It stays put while you scroll through the story, so you can easily add commentary as you go.
    
    • It even has an Insert box: select the text you want to quote and click the Insert box, and it pastes in surrounded by italics markers. You can then hit return a couple of times to add your reaction. You can do this as many times as you want.
    
    
  • Everything you add to the floaty review box is instantly mirrored in the comment box at the end of the fanwork, so when you're done you can either tweak it or post it.
    
    • One caveat: If you start typing in the regular comment box, and then switch to the floaty review box, your review-box text will not be mirrored in the comment field. You'll have to copy-paste at the end.
    
    
    

I was going to put instructions for customizing the things that could be customized in the post, but it got seriously unwieldy, so instead I'm going to put the instructions in comments, and then fix the links in the post.

Where to find these things and more:

flamebyrd's AO3 Bookmarklets and Scripts page, with many useful things, including things I didn't mention above.

Greasy Fork's AO3 user scripts, lots more than I mentioned here, including ao3-savior, a more fine-grained blacklist (and whitelist) userscript than the Blacklist I mentioned above.

get-recd's Get Rec'd tumblr, with updates and info.

Meludame's "AO3 Kudos tools" userscript, saved on the static mirror of the late, lamented userscripts.org.

---

Spiffy html cut-tags courtesy aka_vamp, who posted how to do it a few weeks back. Blockquotes not included. :)

 

These are Greasemonkey scripts, which will work in Firefox and I think Chrome (and Chrome clones) and Opera. If you don't have Greasemonkey, it's definitely worth installing. You can get it in add-ons/extensions. Once you have the add-on, you can install all kinds of scripts to customize your browser to do what you want.

DW scripts:

Dynamic and persistent DW reading/network page expand/collapse/hide This is amazing, and I wish I could install it on my mobile devices. It lets you collapse (and later expand) or completely hide entries on reading and network pages on DW -- not just your own, but anyone's. Collapsing a post will leave the subject line; hiding it will make it go poof.

LJ New Comment "This script remembers which comments you've seen on LiveJournal or Dreamwidth, and marks new comments with a link which says "NEW". Clicking the link selects that new comment."

Dreamwidth ljwho This lets you add notes to anyone's username on DW. It's browser-specific, so it's less useful than a native action tied to your account, but I still find it plenty useful.

You can find more DW scripts here.

AO3 scripts:

I found these through ao3some, a comm for AO3-related stuff.

ao3 download buttons This adds a Download button to everything listed on a works page, so you don't have to click into something specifically to download it. Just click the download button right there in the header info, choose your format, and you're done.

AO3 Kudos Tools Once it's set up, this will let you know if you've already kudosed something by changing the color of the kudos button to green, and putting a green background on your name in the kudos list. You can also set it up to put a dark grey background behind anyone else's name, if there are people whose tastes you really trust.

Fair warning on this one: it takes a bit of work to get set up -- not very much! But you need to edit the script once it's installed to add your username to the script so it knows what to look for, and to add anyone else's usernames if you want it to check for them, too. See below for instructions if you're not used to doing this.

AO3 Saved Filters This adds a section to the sidebar with two boxes, one for global tags and one for fandom tags, which will save whatever you put there. This took me a bit of figuring, but once I got it, I was floored.

Both of these will take either includes or excludes. To include something, just type it (enclose it in double quotes if it has more than one word: "hurt/comfort"). To exclude something, type it with a minus sign in front, again using double quotes if there's more than one word: -"hurt/comfort".

The "Global" box is persistent -- anything you put there will be filtered on no matter what works page you're looking at, and it remembers it across browser sessions. If you never want to see fluff, add -fluff to that box and hit save, and fluff will forevermore be filtered out of any results for you automatically. (You can always edit the boxes later to add or remove things.)

The "Fandom" box is for stuff specific to whatever fandom you're looking at, so you have to be on a specific fandom works page for it to show up (meta-tags don't count - "Sherlock Holmes - All Media Types" won't have a "fandoms" saved-filter box, but "Sherlock (BBC)" will. Collection works pages don't count, either. Both those pages will only have a global box.) This box is persistent for a given fandom: if you put -Lestrade into the box on the Sherlock BBC works page and hit save, you'll never see any works with Lestrade named in the header info when you're browsing through the fandom.

So if you never want to see fluff anywhere, put -fluff in the Global box and hit save. If you're good with fluff everywhere except The Wire, put -fluff in the Fandom box on The Wire's works page, and now that will be the only fandom where it doesn't show up.

I am just boggled at how customizable this is. Wow.

AO3 savior Works like Tumblr savior, in that anything it protects you from is hidden, rather than gone completely. You can choose to unhide them, then hide them again if you realize that nope, you really didn't want to see that after all. You can specify authors, tags, or summary terms/phrases; matches need to be exact.

Fair warning on this one as well: you also need to edit this script to tell it what you want it to protect you from. Again, it's not hard, but if you've never done it it can look confusing; instructions below.

( Editing those user scripts )

Couple of important notes:

1. Greasemonkey is installed on your browsers, and have nothing to do with your DW/LJ or AO3 accounts. You need to install it on every browser you use, and set up the scripts you want on each one.

2. This is much harder on mobile devices. iOS won't allow extensions to be installed unless you jailbreak your device, which I haven't done so I can't tell how well it works.. Looks like Android has a TamperMonkey app that's a browser that allows Greasemonkey scripts, but I don't have any Android devices so again have no idea how well it works. I can't find anything at all about installing Greasemeonkey on Windows phones/tablets on a fast search.

But if you're still regularly using a computer or two, these scripts are really useful.

(If you want to link to this and keep the cut tags intact so it isn't overwhelming, link to the archive page: http://arduinna.dreamwidth.org/2012/05/24/ )

So I have a tumblr (as aka-arduinna), and have been trying to figure it all out. Which is a whole lot less easy than it should be.

Tumblr in general takes the attitude that it's so incredibly intuitive that nothing needs to be explained, even in the Help pages that you'd think would be, you know, helpful. But if it's intuitive, it's for people who aren't me; I find it ridiculously opaque and cumbersome and illogical, and it's taken me months to figure out and/or remember what to click to do what. I wind up doing desperate web searches hoping someone somewhere has explained things, since the Tumblr help files are largely useless for the basics.

I've been frustrated with the fannish tutorials I've stumbled across, since most of them seem to be "First, get a tumblr. Second, here's a list of tumblrs I follow to get you started!" without actually explaining how to use the site. My impression is that once you're comfortable on it, you just forget how freaking opaque it is to start with. (Or they're people for whom Tumblr really is intuitive and simple, and don't realize that for some of us, it's really not.)

I have found some posts about specific things that have been very useful, for things like "how to get a permalink for a post" and "how to add a tag cloud", which is great, but the lack of a basics post was really getting to me.

So I figured, well, I should do something about that.

First, a GIANT CAVEAT: I still pretty much suck at tumblr. I've been poking tentatively at it for months, badly hampered by the speed, the lack of convo, my cultural conditioning not to pass other people's content along but rather to either respond directly or link back to it, and the rampant flashy animations that make my eyes hurt. But otoh I figure that means I still have a pretty good grasp on what stuff may be confusing, so.

(You can't avoid the flashy animations, as far as I can tell. Figured I should say that upfront.)

Second, a smaller caveat: my tumblr is in the default free theme, at least for the moment. All my images and instructions relate to that; I have no idea how they may change with other themes. But hopefully this will be enough to at least point you in the right direction.

So! Let's talk tumblr.

( Using tumblr without an account )

It's still going to be easier to learn and play with tumblr if you have an account and are logged into it, though, since you'll be able to participate and do things like save your searches. So the rest of this tutorial is still based on "get a tumblr and go from there".

So first, sign up with tumblr. Once you've got an account, you can start customizing.

( Customizing your tumblr )

( Adding the things tumblr left out: tag lists and comments )

Okay, so now you have a tumblr, and it looks the way you want it to. Time to start doing things with it!

( Navigating tumblr )

( Finding content )

( Producing content )

( Avoiding content )

( Communicating with people )

Annnnnd I think that's it. Hopefully people will stop by and correct any errors!

Also, I would love to see pointers to people's favorite tumblrs, to help folks get started once they're set up!

A million thanks to therienne and mollyamory, who betaed the first draft of this when I sprang it on them out of nowhere, and pointed out broken images and incoherence like champs. ♥ I've added more since then, and any remaining incoherence or bustedness is all on me.

marycrawford asked for the code I use to create my cross-posting footer, so just in case anyone else wants it:

<a href = "%%url%%">Original post on Dreamwidth</a> | <a href = "%%reply_url%%">Leave a comment on DW</a> | <a href = "%%comment_url%%">read %%comment_image%% comments on DW</a>

(DW should automatically put in "small" span tags on this; if not, add <small> at the beginning, and </small> at the end)

That will get you this:

Original post on Dreamwidth | Leave a comment on DW | Read [number ] comments on DW.