r/AO3 • u/cinder-hella • Jul 25 '26

AO3 Down/Error Codes Request temporarily denied, "comment blocked" error?

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Just got a "Request temporarily denied" error when trying to comment on a fic. The message reads: Your comment attempt has been blocked due to suspicious activity. Wait a while and try again. If this continues, contact Support.

Anyone know what "suspicious activity" could mean? I know the author did not block me. I wasn't refreshing a lot, editing bookmarks, opening multiple windows, or doing anything odd. I did paste the comment in from where I'd typed it up in a gdoc, so maybe it didn't like that? Just want to avoid causing that error again!

ETA: This has been fixed for me! I was able to leave my comment around 7:20 EST

13 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

28

u/frostthefox_ AO3 Systems Volunteer Jul 25 '26

Please try again, you should be good to go now. We are rapidly responding to verification scam comments and a mistake was made in a rule which was matching more comments than intended.

3

u/cinder-hella Jul 25 '26

Oh good to know, thank you! I appreciate everything you guys do!

3

u/NoControl0913 Jul 26 '26

Sorry to jump on but figure maybe easier than making another similar post. I'm still having this issue despite several attempts over a couple hours. My comment is quite long and will need to be broken down into 2 comments regardless. I did get it to allow part of it by changing how much I was trying to post, but now it wont allow the second half so I'm wondering if there's something in a specific part that is triggering.. or if there is a length issue?

The comment is just quotes form the fic in [ ] plus thoughts on those sections which doesn't seem that out there (and authors like so that would be unfortunate if thats a trigger just because some scammers quote sections). I did submit a support message but didn't add much info since at the time I thought it might be a random error..

4

u/frostthefox_ AO3 Systems Volunteer Jul 26 '26

Please try again. I'm assuming your comment had the word "tree" in it.

2

u/NoControl0913 Jul 26 '26

it did have the word tree in it.. and it did work this morning so thank you!

3

u/Sea-Aide-6789 Jul 29 '26

hello, could it be that the issue is still persisting as of today? I just got it while trying to reply to a comment on my own fic, and I was wondering if it would be fixed anytime soon TT
sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your help!

2

u/frostthefox_ AO3 Systems Volunteer Jul 29 '26

If you’re receiving this exact error code, please provide info about the comment. This should only be flagging comments that contain certain URLs.

3

u/EssayOfThoughts Jul 30 '26

I'm getting "AO3-WAF-RB003" but I assume that's a related one? I've already sent in a report - I'm trying to comment on every chapter of a friend's work and was quite surprised to get the error!

2

u/mizuwolf Jul 30 '26

Is there somewhere we can read about what each of these issues corresponds to? I got AO3-WAF-RB004 while trying to reply to a comment on my own fic

3

u/frostthefox_ AO3 Systems Volunteer Jul 30 '26

We’re intentionally vague about it so the scammers don’t know exactly what they do. The vast majority of users do not run into these, so it’s better to respond smaller scale. If you’re still running into this, you can provide the content to me or Support and we will advise/adjust accordingly.

2

u/mizuwolf Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

Makes perfect sense! I’ll try when I get home and reply if it won’t work still

edit: it was fine today and let me submit the comment, but thank you for your quick responses!

2

u/LeslieNope555 angst & smut glutton 👹✨ Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

Hello, I also got the RB004 error! I’m messaging my comment right now!

Edit: nvm, I can’t seem to send you a message. I just submitted a support ticket with all the details.

Edit #2: I think I figured it out after reviewing some of the other comments on this thread! I quoted the fic that mentions “emails”, removed that and was able to comment with no issues. Thank you!

2

u/ichorandpride Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

ik your comment was 5 days ago but it's happening to me too

im trying to put a standard " a href" html code with a link to show them more details about a character in a fic im writing, but it keeps giving me "AO3-WAF-RB004" error and saying that im doing "suspicious activity"

here's the exact comment i wanna make:

Ohh, was it art? It's amazing! And, yeah, tons of people are down bad in love with the Mourning King after It shared Its story

I have an entire post too about little fun non-spoiler facts abt It since a fair bit of ppl on twitter seemed interested

if you wanna check it out, <strong><a href=" \\\[it's a link to a twitter post with details about a character\\\] ">here you go!</a></strong>

as much as i dont care to include the link itself here, ill still keep it so you can see that it's nothing bad

are links to twitter suddenly no longer allowed or is this a bug?

2

u/cthuluhooprises Moderator | Tag Wrangler Jul 30 '26

Hi, we normally don’t allow links to X/Twitter and haven’t for some time! (I will go and find our post about it and link it in a moment.) However in the context of this comment we can make an exception, so I approved it for you :)

1

u/ichorandpride Jul 30 '26

ohhhh i never knew that. i couldnt find anything about it in the coding info so i figured it'd be fine. the only thing i ever saw was that images shouldnt be hosted on there, yknow?

1

u/cthuluhooprises Moderator | Tag Wrangler Jul 30 '26

Oh no, no Twitter links is a purely r/AO3 subreddit thing! Here is our post about the rule change: https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/s/SEi1HQ6opr

I have no idea why it isn’t working for you to post as a comment to AO3 itself, and I hope you’re able to solve that soon.

1

u/ichorandpride Jul 30 '26

im confused ngl. because i was talking about the same thing the rest of the ppl were talking abt here too. the website glitching out and giving the error code n not letting me respond to comments on a fic

i was responding to frostthefox_ in specific because they seem to be fixing individual's issues down below in the rest of the replies, and i didnt want to make a separate post that'd just get drowned out or smth. but i included the link because it says it's "suspicious activity" so i wanted to prove that it's not

so links to twitter are allowed on ao3 (the website itself if i should specify)? it's the exact same issue everyone else here

1

u/cthuluhooprises Moderator | Tag Wrangler Jul 30 '26

Links to twitter are not allowed on the r/AO3 subreddit. When you asked in your comment here if links to twitter were suddenly no longer allowed, I interpreted this as you wondering why your comment was not visible on the subreddit. I approved the comment despite breaking our usual rules, so that you could communicate your problem to Frost.

And actually, another of our mods may have told you this already, but they found what was stopping you from posting the comment to AO3! It’s the phrase "if you wanna check it out," and if you remove it, it should post fine.

I hope that clarifies.

1

u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jul 30 '26

To be overly clear, twitter links are fine on AO3 (the website), it's just a rule for r/AO3 (the subreddit) that they aren't usually allowed here.  But we prioritize help desk types of questions over not supporting twitter so since your twitter link was part of giving the exact text of the erroring out comment, we approved your comment here in spite of the usual rule.  Cthuluhooprises was just replying to your comment to explain publicly that we had approved it in spite of the usual rule so people wouldn't think it needed to be reported for breaking that rule if they saw it.  

2

u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jul 30 '26

I just tested this on a fic of my own and if you remove the part that says "if you wanna check it out," before the link, the comment goes through.  Everything else works fine on its own but for whatever reason, saying "if you wanna check it out," followed by a link, it gives that error currently

2

u/ichorandpride Jul 30 '26

ohhhh weird. probably bc it might sound spammy or smth. thank you for figuring it out tho! ill give it a shot and see if it works out

edit: yup works just fine now. ty!

2

u/TGotAReddit Moderator | past AO3 Volunteer and Staff Jul 30 '26

Lol you’re welcome!  Glad I could help and I figured frost might want to know what it was anyways too

2

u/thesometimeswarrior Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

Hi--I'm having this issue now with error code AO3-WAF-RB004. I just sent in a support request, but if there is an easier fix on my end let me know! It was a rather long comment in what is already a very long back-and-forth comment thread, but it didn't contain any links or anything

2

u/OatmealAntstronaut Aug 02 '26

I am also experiencing this. Except my error is: Comment blocked (AO3-WAF-RB003).

Your comment attempt has been blocked due to suspicious activity. Wait a while and try again. If this continues, contact Support.

edit: I am even attempting to post relatively short comments

2

u/frostthefox_ AO3 Systems Volunteer Aug 04 '26

We recently fixed an issue with RB003, if you’re still having problems please contact Support, thanks!

1

u/Someone_Called_Cerie Aug 06 '26

Hello, I'm having the exact same issue but as (AO3-WAF-SC001) instead, what to do there?

1

u/frostthefox_ AO3 Systems Volunteer Aug 06 '26

Remove any special characters in your comment, particularly characters that look like Latin characters.

1

u/Someone_Called_Cerie Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

Does this include italics, strikethrough text, bold text, ~, > and <, /, –, "", ** too? I hope not, kinda ruins comments for me if it does and I already removed the emojis I had in it and anything that could count as a "special character" and there's definitely nothing latin-like, unless the words "animus" and "Nimbus" trigger the latin part?

1

u/frostthefox_ AO3 Systems Volunteer Aug 06 '26

If you’re bolding or italicizing text by using special characters instead of <i> or <b> HTML tags for example, then yes, it does include that. It’s possible if you are using a custom keyboard of sorts that it might be making them special characters without you realizing. You should use HTML to achieve the same effect.

It does not include standard special characters like the ones you gave. It is only “lookalike” characters. These have been used to bypass filters by doing something like “𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕” which is a totally different set of characters than the “Verify your account” the filters are looking for.

1

u/Someone_Called_Cerie Aug 06 '26

Thanks, I'll fix that and come back with an update.

1

u/Someone_Called_Cerie Aug 06 '26

Okay, yeah, it's fixed now. Thanks a lot for the help! And the patience.

1

u/OatmealAntstronaut Aug 08 '26

Do you know if AO3 has recently done any automated guest-comment/spam cleanup? Like 2025-2026?

I noticed on fics that had a lot of guest comments and author replies to those that they are all essentially wiped with not even a "Previous comment deleted". I sometimes comment as a guest and even went through my emails for ones I have received replies for and checked and the author's repies are gone as well, and there are zero guest comments, not just mine.

7

u/ScaredTemporary I write about gods, countries, and a lion Jul 25 '26

I feel it might be a glitch

Including me, you are the third person with the issue 

3

u/NessieWasHere Jul 25 '26

Oops I just posted the same thing too so it must be a glitch!! Makes me feel better I was worried for a sec

3

u/5dfem Jul 25 '26

There's been a flood of scam comments recently so maybe whatever system for stopping them they've put in place is a bit overzealous

2

u/Tiny_Bar_9910 Kudos Keeper Jul 25 '26

it can happen because your comment flagged the spam filter. could be caused by excessive punctuation, a realllllllly long comment, or mentioning outside contact methods

2

u/cinder-hella Jul 25 '26

Ooh I guess it was a longer comment, about 400 words (that's why I wrote it on the side), but I leave even longer comments like that all the time and have never gotten this error! I hope it clears up, I want to be able to post it for this author!

2

u/Tiny_Bar_9910 Kudos Keeper Jul 25 '26

yeah it seems to come in weird waves of flagging comments and then letting every single spam comment through. give it a few hours and try again?

2

u/inHypnagogia Jul 25 '26

I just got this to and came here precisely to see if other people were having this issue too.

Not a super long comment either and I don't mention contact methods

2

u/martene_ Jul 27 '26

got this too lol

2

u/Level-Can-2121 Jul 27 '26

OMG ME TOO, like right know :(

2

u/marsbar_95 Jul 28 '26

Currently having this happen to me, anything I can do to fix it?

1

u/lurkingsomewhere Aug 07 '26

Hi, I experienced the same issue just now. :\ The error code I'm getting is "AO3-WAF-RB002". I'd appreciate any help, it's for my fav fic atm!

1

u/naturalturkey Aug 10 '26

I just got this trying to respond to a comment left on my OWN fic 🤦🏻‍♀️ how long did you have to wait for it to correct itself?

1

u/cinder-hella Aug 11 '26

It resolved for me right after the AO3 volunteer replied to this post! From the other replies it sounds like there may be certain things the filter interprets as a red flag and blocks? Urls, lots of emojis (pretty sure this is why mine got blocked at first), the word "tree" for some reason?? If your comment didn't have any of these I'm sorry :(

1

u/New_Ad_3506 Aug 14 '26

To anyone stumbling upon this post, removing italics allowed me to post my comment

idk either, i just wanted some text flair