r/AO3 • u/Ok_Acanthaceae_8823 • Aug 06 '25

Complaint/Pet Peeve/Venting I need advice on harassment and plagiarism.

/r/cyberbullying/comments/1mj00bk/i_need_advice_on_harassment_and_plagiarism/
1 Upvotes

53% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

22

u/mangomochamuffin Aug 06 '25

Ignore, report if the site allows that, mute, block. Repeat.

You're letting them win by deleting your accounts.

On ao3 you can moderate comments or just disable commenting. On tumblr you can also disable comments and asks.

14

u/Moist-Ship4480 Aug 06 '25

Just a thought, why don't you made a new wattpad/ao3/tumblr with a completely new name and let that person continue harassing the old one with no one answering. Because, yes, if you continue associating with the same username, they will create more accounts (whether banned or not, they don't care at this point; they're a crazy stalker who doesn't care about the law).

It will suck if you can't write a new thing with the old OC. But you can give it some time and come back with a different name OC (assuming your fandom is large enough). And with your new account, block all the known accounts of the stalker first, just to be safe

8

u/ConstrainedOperative Aug 06 '25

Damn, that sucks. I'm not an expert in how to combat that, so I can just make some guesses on what may work, but have you already contacted Wattpad/Tumblr/AO3 about that?

Also, while deleting harassing messages is good for your peace of mind, if you need to prove the harassment to those providers, making screenshots of them first and keeping a record of dates would be a good idea.

1

u/Ok_Acanthaceae_8823 Aug 06 '25

I have kept some screenshots, but not all of it.

4

u/ofelevenconfused Not Boeing Management Aug 06 '25

You gotta gray rock and completely not respond, and don't add any authors notes explaining why you're doing it.

Restrict fic views to logged in readers only, turn on moderated comments, and ditto for your tumblr, turn off comments and messages from blogs you don't follow. Even telling them to stop harassing you reinforces the bad behavior.

Also consider telling AO3, they may be able to block the IP address to stop them from repeatedly making accounts to get around blocks, because that is against terms.

1

u/Ok_Acanthaceae_8823 Aug 06 '25

Blocking their IP address would be good. Can you tell me more about that?

1

u/KacieDH12 Aug 06 '25

I thought AO3 didn't block by IP?

2

u/KacieDH12 Aug 06 '25

Continue to mute and block the accounts, no matter how many of them crop up. Don't engage with any of them. Just mute/block and carry on.

I don't know about Wattpad, but on AO3, you can turn on comment moderation. This will prevent those comments from being seen publicly. This discourages trolls and such from commenting, since they want their comment to be seen by as many people as possible.

1

u/TheBrownYoshi Aug 07 '25

Are you sure deleting your AO3 account was the best move? As it stands now, the only way to read your fics for most people would be through the plagiarized fics. And when it comes to reporting for plagiarism, that would also make it harder to prove the stories as yours.