There’s no ao3 algorithm! It’s simply fics sorted by date by default. You can customise its order by tags, kudos, hits etc but it’s an archive. It’s not like wattpad. Clicks don’t drive a fic higher. People who market their fics, particularly on Twitter, get more traffic
If you’re a well known writer, if you have subscribers, if you’re ‘popular’ you get more traffic to your fics. Doesn’t matter how good it is. Some get around by word of mouth from people willing to give it a shot. A lot of people just stick to the people they trust or what they see on their tl
All this to say. The quality of your fic is not determined by kudos at all 🩷 Plus tropes go in and out of fashion unfortunately. The hot thing rn may not be what ur writing. But I encourage yall to write whatever the fuck you want and have fun doing ur own thing 🩷
My biggest failure is not reading quickly enough. I have authors I think are incredible who I love reading and I have open tabs or haven’t gone through the back catalog. When I finally get to a story and love it, I want extra kudos to give. An allotment of one is downright stingy.
oh I know that feeling - even more so when the brain gets in one of its "must write now and forever" stages lolz it would be nice if the author saw every time ya slammed the kudos button only if it only registers one - but that's when comments come in lolz 💚
ao3 not having an algorithm is one of the best things about it obviously the whole point for any of this is enjoying what we're doing or why would we do it lolz and it really only ever bugs me when my brain thinks about the peeps that only look based off kudos or a kudos-hits ratio
(which the first time i heard peeps talking about the 1 to 10 ratio that some use boggled my mind lolz) usually i am pretty much the queen of writing whatever i wanna and not caring but every once in a while (as brains are prone to do) my brain is mean and sometimes my fingers type about it lolz
Argh I hate thinking about that whole supposed ratio thing. I think the best mark statistic on ao3 is the hits button but even then! The brain is sometimes mean and annoying. I’ve def been there. Chin up love 🩷
yeah hits is def better since so many peeps these days are allergic to the kudos button or comments (not even in just our lil fandom lolz) but even then - i've found some great fics in my many years of reading them that others seemed to miss lolz 😘