AO3 Savior
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| See also: | AO3 blocking feature, AO3rdr, XKit, Filtering Tools |
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AO3 Savior is a browser plugin that hides works on Archive Of Our Own based on the user's specified preferences. It can be used for blacklisting by tag, author, work title, or keyword in the work summary.
AO3 Savior is an unofficial tool not supported by AO3 staff, but it is linked from their "Unofficial Browser Tools" FAQ. It was coded by tuff_ghost.
[quietgames in their 2013 tutorial "how to ao3 savior, a pictorial tutorial"]
When you browse in ao3, you’ll see that ao3 savior behaves in a manner very similar to tumblr savior. Authors, tags, and summary phrases you have blacklisted will appear only as small boxes announcing the presence of a hidden work. You can hit the “unhide” button to reveal a hidden fic. (You have the option of toggling back to hidden mode once you unhide something, so if your curiosity gets the better of you and you end up unhiding something that pings an eleven on the NOPE-meter, you’ll be able to banish it again immediately.)[1]
AO3 Savior requires the addition of a free extension to the browser being used — such as tampermonkey, greasemonkey, violentmonkey, or firemonkey — which the AO3 Savior user-script is then installed to.
There are pros and cons to each available extension which have been discussed many times on Reddit[2]. Setting up AO3 Savior (or other user-scripts for AO3) on mobile devices is possible, but some of the extensions do not work on any or all mobile devices. For example, on Android, Firefox Nightly set to developer mode can be used to install extensions which are not accessible through regular Firefox. Other methods have been described by other users:
there is a way to get the ao3 tag savior userscript on mobile. on ios you can use the userscripts app to able to use it with safari. on Android you can use a browser like kiwi browser that supports extensions natively to install the tampermonkey app and then the necessary userscripts or you can follow the directions here to use Firefox: Link to instructions
AO3 Savior is often one of the methods of blocking certain tags, pairings, fandoms, or otherwise customising AO3 to the user's taste. The other is using AO3's CSS skins option to hide works people don't want to see. Prior to AO3 adding the option to mute users, extensions or CSS styling on AO3 skins were primary methods of hiding authors as well. AO3 have mentioned plans to continue to review and potentially extend the user customisation options for what they see on AO3, so it is possible that some of the actions fulfilled currently by AO3 Savior will be possible through AO3 itself in the future.
In addition to AO3 Savior, there have been other user-script tools over the years which can be used to customise AO3 to an individual's preference to varying degrees, such as AO3 Enhancement Options, AO3rdr, AO3 crossover savior, as well as many others[3] [4]. The quality, reliability, and security of user-scripts and plugins in general can vary, but many of the AO3 user-scripts are both open source and widely used so feedback on them can be found on Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter with some searching.
External Links
- Unofficial Browser Tools FAQ on AO3
- AO3 Savior on greasyfork
- how to ao3 savior, an updated tutorial by quietgames (2014) (archive)
- AO3 blocking by ao3commentoftheday (2020) (archive)
References
- ^ how to ao3 savior, a pictorial tutorial by quietgames. Posted October 14 2013. Updated November 04 2013. (Archive.) Eventually replaced with how to ao3 savior, an updated tutorial on February01, 2014, which is also archived here on the WBM and here on archive.today with gifs intact.
- ^ [1], [2] [3], [4]
- ^ [https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/oudefb/customizing_ao3_to_your_preferences/ Post from the AO3 subreddit]
- ^ [https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts?q=AO3 AO3 Plugins at Greasyfork]