I'm not really sure about that one either. I hadn't ever really even taken note of it until the recs project, when I encountered a couple fandoms where it seemed to be SOP. I'm not sure the authors who use it understand what it means, but then I'm not sure *I* understand what it means. But I figured, you're signalling you don't want it shared, so I won't share it.
I think some fandom communities may use AO3 just as a repository, and do their marketing elsewhere? So they want it accessible to people who don't have AO3 accounts, but they also don't necessarily want it advertised to people outside their community, and they may have their own shareable text they want used instead of AO3's. But IDK. There has always been a subset of people willing to throw a fit over the idea that strangers have looked at this public internet post they made.
I will pass around copies and I will maybe even say publicly "Hey you know that thing we were talking about? that thing? If you want it contact me privately." But I wouldn't just post a public link. (This kind of feels like rank hypocrisy because if someone else posts one I will absolutely snarf the download, but at that point I'm not increasing the harm, right....?_) There are a few authors who have taken stuff down at their agents' request and are like 'go ahead and share all you want, I just need plausible deniability' and I might treat that a bit differently. If I remember.
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I think some fandom communities may use AO3 just as a repository, and do their marketing elsewhere? So they want it accessible to people who don't have AO3 accounts, but they also don't necessarily want it advertised to people outside their community, and they may have their own shareable text they want used instead of AO3's. But IDK. There has always been a subset of people willing to throw a fit over the idea that strangers have looked at this public internet post they made.
I will pass around copies and I will maybe even say publicly "Hey you know that thing we were talking about? that thing? If you want it contact me privately." But I wouldn't just post a public link. (This kind of feels like rank hypocrisy because if someone else posts one I will absolutely snarf the download, but at that point I'm not increasing the harm, right....?_) There are a few authors who have taken stuff down at their agents' request and are like 'go ahead and share all you want, I just need plausible deniability' and I might treat that a bit differently. If I remember.