Does no one remember how pre-Ao3 you could be hit with a lawsuit for publishing a book review that wasn’t approved by the publishing company. Like. That’s a literal thing that happened multiple times pre-ao3. Like. You realize that Ao3 is the biggest thing standing between us and money hungry companies choking our right to talk about their stuff.
I’m salty that I saw a post talking about how being thankful for Ao3 was a cold take, but I also remember the story of someone who was buried in thousands of dollars in fine for a book review on a blog (I believe it was livejournal).
Like. Ao3 is far from perfect but I will forever be thankful that I can talk about Anne Rice’s books if I wanted to without worrying if I was gonna get my family sued for thousands of dollars (not that I would considering I hate her writing). I can only do that because of Ao3.
Ao3 came to be at the absolute perfect time in internet history, because it was right as companies and publisher began pushing back against content being spread regarding about their products, from reviews to fanfic. If it wasn’t a “qualified” critique on a newspaper or pre-approved website, you were in danger. And you know, the Anne rice case is the one I know about but how many other folk got hit by fines for fandom content or even just book or movie reviews? I was young still when the lawsuits were common, but I remember they were picking up in frequency when Ao3 hit Beta, before, coincidentally, dropping.
Y’all ever here a thing called “precedence”? Do you know what the internet would be like now, if the cases against book reviewers, movie analysis, CD remixes, and, yes, fandom content, had continued to pick up speed the way they were? I don’t, thanks to Ao3, and I’m forever thankful for Ao3 for establishing the precedence that, to this day, protects pretty much all of us in some way.
Is Ao3 perfect? No, but the internet would be a very different place without it. It was a game changer. And it helped protect more than just fandom, if indirectly. But hey, you’re salty that the user base can be racist, sexist, and homophobic? That content moderators don’t do as good a job as you think they should? Become a member of Ao3 and work to improve it. Become a moderator and work to improve it. Be the change you wanna see.
Don’t tell me not to be thankful for Ao3 and being especially grateful during purges like we’re experiencing.