I didn't even remember one could turn that function off and am not sure why one would. After all, it doesn't stop anyone from linking to your work. And it certainly doesn't stop anyone from creating local recs via bookmarking on AO3. I've never used Share myself to create a rec but obviously people do.
My suspicion is that it is largely done by people who don't understand what the function is, and may believe that having the Share button enabled means other people can essentially reblog your work elsewhere the way one might on Tumblr. There have been people who have publicly called to have the downloading features on AO3 disabled because they don't want anyone to make a copy of their work, not understanding that the mere act of loading that work creates a local copy and it's otherwise fairly easy (especially if one is on a computer) to copy it.
With millions of people using the site (and very few people anywhere who ever read instructions) there are tons of things people misunderstand on the site or just don't know how to do.
no subject
My suspicion is that it is largely done by people who don't understand what the function is, and may believe that having the Share button enabled means other people can essentially reblog your work elsewhere the way one might on Tumblr. There have been people who have publicly called to have the downloading features on AO3 disabled because they don't want anyone to make a copy of their work, not understanding that the mere act of loading that work creates a local copy and it's otherwise fairly easy (especially if one is on a computer) to copy it.
With millions of people using the site (and very few people anywhere who ever read instructions) there are tons of things people misunderstand on the site or just don't know how to do.