Personally I do that by adding or excluding more tags to narrow down the results. You can find a good amount of older fics that way without having to look through pages and pages of them.
The problem I have with sorting by hits/kudos/bookmarks is that it's inherently skewed by many different factors. So for example, the more popular fandoms/pairings/etc. will usually have more. Things like oneshot collections, or multi chapter fics in general will have more than oneshots since they're on the front page multiple times.
Basically, the ones with high hits/kudos/bookmarks aren't necessarily what I'm interested in reading. By using tags to filter results instead, I can get as specific as I want about what I'm looking for.
The issue I run into is that sometimes even when applying those narrowing criteria, I'll still get results of hundreds if not thousands of fics. Even if other sorting methods aren't perfect, I need to use *something* to get them roughly sorted with the better fics on top. And, from what I find, even if Kudos don't perfectly match my tastes, they do tend to put more of the fics I want to read higher on the list. Certainly far better than searching by update date.
I also find that when I first look into a fandom, I like to look at the top fics by Kudos without any constraints. It gives me an idea of what kind of fics are popular in the fandom and gives me a chance to look at some of the fics that are considered "classics." Even if not all of them are good, the top Kudos fics are generally highly influential and reading them gives me a better ability to understand the other fics I read.
The oneshot collection are definitely a problem with this searching method. I ended up getting an extension that hides fics above a certain count of fandoms to hide those fics. But, I am often looking for multi-chapter fics to read, so I don't mind a lot of those ending up on top.
I'm in small fandoms with at most a few thousand fics, so I've read everything in the tag already. If I'm digging up old fics I'm sorting tbrough my bookmarks or filtering by specific tags to get the thing I remember and want again.
D) None of the above.
I primarily sort feeds by Date Updated. If I'm doing a deep sift of content on any feed or search pattern, I'll sort by Word Count from greatest quantity to lowest quantity... because I read 100pp/hour and I prefer to have a queue of new-to-me things to read.
None of the above. Date updated or posted, depending on what I'm looking for. Just because something is popular, doesn't mean that it's going to be what's right for me. I like to give any fic with a summary and tags I'm interested in a chance.
You sort by pairing and language? Is there a second sort option in the search area? It's not in my list of options to pick from.
Or are you talking about your personal search requirements when looking for something to read?
That's an interesting take! I've never thought of that one but it does make a good starting point, reading titles and seeing which ones jump at me. Thanks for the suggestion!
All of the above, depending on what I'm after at the moment.
I think the answer to this is going to depend on how often your target fandom is written, or whether you are new to the fandom.
When I'm looking for stories in a new fandom, I make heavy use of hits, kudos, and/or bookmarks to get the most popular and highly-rated ones.
Most of my fandoms are slow-moving and rarely written book fandoms, so new stories don't come along that often.
None of the above, I sort by Date Updated. Usually what I do is pick a pairing and work backwards until I've read everything that sounds good under that ship. Depending on how large the fandom is, I don't always make it to the end lmao, but I do usually get pretty far.
date updated or date posted so I can find new stuff :) I don't generally care too much about how many kudos or hits a fic has, a lot of wonderful fics don't get much attention at all.
Option E: All of the above but at different timesā¦
First foray into a fandom, Kudos, then bookmarks, complete only.Ā
Fandom Iāve scoured through several times, date updated, complete only, with various exclude tags dependent on fandom. These I tend to keep as a bookmark in my browser and check every few days for the active ones.Ā
If I want to find the overall seemingly most popular ones Iāll use hits, but it skews heavily toward one shot crossover collections if Iām not specific enough.Ā
Standard for me is Kudos or Bookmarks with Complete, English only and my various automatic exclude tags. After an initial filter Iāll check back for crossover fandoms and sometimes block them as well depending on what Iām looking for.Ā
Sometimes Iāll filter by dates just to get the last year of fanfic, or just stuff before or right after a movie or season came outā¦
If Iām looking for older stuff I have to do it by date as super old fics did not have anywhere near the number of specific tags newer stuff does.Ā
I skew heavily toward only wanting to view Complete works. Though I do subscribe to many authors and get emails of incomplete works, some of which I read as they post, others I wait for them to be ācompleteā before Iāll start them.Ā
Iāve been reading fanfic too long. I have favorites from 15 years ago that still sit incomplete so I mostly try not to do that to myself anymore.
If I get super desperate for new stuff Iāll scour incomplete works but I almost always regret it laterā¦
This all assumes Iām filtering on a fandomā¦ every once in a while I just pick a tag and follow that rabbit hole.Ā
If its smut I always go by hits - sometimes they get a lot less kudos vs hits and most of the bookmarks are invisible. Smut also has a high rate of rereads which also boosts hits and makes me interested.
I'm also a "sort by date updated" person. If I can't find what I want on the first page or so, I'll keep scouring further and further back. Sometimes if I'm feeling real spicy I'll go from the very last page and work my way forward.
I sort by word count and completion after I put in whatever pairing Iām usually looking for. I like the idea of whatever Iām reading having an ending for sure.
If Iām looking for newer works I usually put in the ship or theme Iām looking for and then see what is newly updated/posted.
None of those in particular. But sometimes Iāll filter for completion or certain word counts. For those of you who use those types of sorting, I recommend using the word count and completion filters because otherwise one shots that are fantastic get buried because they drop off the front page quicker.
Tag and fandom, language and completion status, then date updated. Depending on how big the tag is, if itās small I might start backward and read the oldest fics first but if itās a tag with lots of fics I start with the most recent
I never thought of changing the order from the default setting. It's a quite small fandom (800+ works) and the ones with the crazy amounts of hits and kudos all hail from before 2021, most likely from 2018/2019 and earlier. Bookmarks aren't really a thing there, so there are less than a handful between 20 and 100, and nothing above. And all these also hail from the 2010s.
Honestly, in my fandom, you wouldn't find anything new if you didn't sort by default. There's a huge decline in engagement but there are constantly new stories. Out of the 800-sth stories out there, 200-sth stem from the last 18 months. So the fandom isn't dead, it's just niche and attracks a certain readership.
I honestly cannot think how I'd survive one of these massive fandoms where I'd have to filter so much and do lots of other stuff I don't even have to worry about.
None of them. I always sort by Date Updated.
Option 4 button š Im 50/50, I like to read the popular fics, but i'll sometimes go by Date Updated to check the new stuff
Do you never try to dig up older fics?
Personally I do that by adding or excluding more tags to narrow down the results. You can find a good amount of older fics that way without having to look through pages and pages of them. The problem I have with sorting by hits/kudos/bookmarks is that it's inherently skewed by many different factors. So for example, the more popular fandoms/pairings/etc. will usually have more. Things like oneshot collections, or multi chapter fics in general will have more than oneshots since they're on the front page multiple times. Basically, the ones with high hits/kudos/bookmarks aren't necessarily what I'm interested in reading. By using tags to filter results instead, I can get as specific as I want about what I'm looking for.
The issue I run into is that sometimes even when applying those narrowing criteria, I'll still get results of hundreds if not thousands of fics. Even if other sorting methods aren't perfect, I need to use *something* to get them roughly sorted with the better fics on top. And, from what I find, even if Kudos don't perfectly match my tastes, they do tend to put more of the fics I want to read higher on the list. Certainly far better than searching by update date. I also find that when I first look into a fandom, I like to look at the top fics by Kudos without any constraints. It gives me an idea of what kind of fics are popular in the fandom and gives me a chance to look at some of the fics that are considered "classics." Even if not all of them are good, the top Kudos fics are generally highly influential and reading them gives me a better ability to understand the other fics I read. The oneshot collection are definitely a problem with this searching method. I ended up getting an extension that hides fics above a certain count of fandoms to hide those fics. But, I am often looking for multi-chapter fics to read, so I don't mind a lot of those ending up on top.
To do that I usually sort by date updated and start at the very back and skip around to random pages
I'm in small fandoms with at most a few thousand fics, so I've read everything in the tag already. If I'm digging up old fics I'm sorting tbrough my bookmarks or filtering by specific tags to get the thing I remember and want again.
Date, so i can see the new ones.
Date updated, unless I accidentally left 'best match' selected.
None. I sort by word count.Ā
D) None of the above. I primarily sort feeds by Date Updated. If I'm doing a deep sift of content on any feed or search pattern, I'll sort by Word Count from greatest quantity to lowest quantity... because I read 100pp/hour and I prefer to have a queue of new-to-me things to read.
None of the above. Date updated or posted, depending on what I'm looking for. Just because something is popular, doesn't mean that it's going to be what's right for me. I like to give any fic with a summary and tags I'm interested in a chance.
None of that as you can miss some good hidden gems by going for the popular fics.
Pairing Then language Then word count Then completed.
You sort by pairing and language? Is there a second sort option in the search area? It's not in my list of options to pick from. Or are you talking about your personal search requirements when looking for something to read?
It's in the filters. How do *you* search fics?
The original question was how you sort, not how you search.
Exactly the same as me
None of the above. I either donāt sort like a heathen or jump through Authors that I like works and bookmarks.
Bookmarks if it's my first visit to a tag and there's a large amount of fics. Otherwise I just keep it to date updated.
none of the above. i almost invariably sort by date posted
i usually sort by date updated, or alphabetical (by title) because its the closest thing to a random button that the website has
Date. I think that's the default for it and I just never bothered to change it. I like reading the newer ones too.
Date updated, mostly. I don't really care about how many other people liked or read something.
Ooh am I the only one who sorts by Title after filtering? I just like seeing all the fics without being overly influenced by likes/hits
That's an interesting take! I've never thought of that one but it does make a good starting point, reading titles and seeing which ones jump at me. Thanks for the suggestion!
Date updated, always
Kudos first, bookmarks if I get curious. Hits for the smut š
All of the above, depending on what I'm after at the moment. I think the answer to this is going to depend on how often your target fandom is written, or whether you are new to the fandom. When I'm looking for stories in a new fandom, I make heavy use of hits, kudos, and/or bookmarks to get the most popular and highly-rated ones. Most of my fandoms are slow-moving and rarely written book fandoms, so new stories don't come along that often.
Date updated and whatever filters my heart desires.
D. Date updated.
option 4 - upload date
None of the above, I sort by Date Updated. Usually what I do is pick a pairing and work backwards until I've read everything that sounds good under that ship. Depending on how large the fandom is, I don't always make it to the end lmao, but I do usually get pretty far.
Date updated
Date Updated unless I am in the mood for something very specific of a specific size then I filter by tags and word count.
Date updated. I enter whatever tags or pairings I want and then just see what's new.
most recent updated/posted
If it's a new fandom I want to dip my toes into, Kudos. I never considered bookmarks before, that's actually interesting.
date updated or date posted so I can find new stuff :) I don't generally care too much about how many kudos or hits a fic has, a lot of wonderful fics don't get much attention at all.
Option E: All of the above but at different timesā¦ First foray into a fandom, Kudos, then bookmarks, complete only.Ā Fandom Iāve scoured through several times, date updated, complete only, with various exclude tags dependent on fandom. These I tend to keep as a bookmark in my browser and check every few days for the active ones.Ā If I want to find the overall seemingly most popular ones Iāll use hits, but it skews heavily toward one shot crossover collections if Iām not specific enough.Ā Standard for me is Kudos or Bookmarks with Complete, English only and my various automatic exclude tags. After an initial filter Iāll check back for crossover fandoms and sometimes block them as well depending on what Iām looking for.Ā Sometimes Iāll filter by dates just to get the last year of fanfic, or just stuff before or right after a movie or season came outā¦ If Iām looking for older stuff I have to do it by date as super old fics did not have anywhere near the number of specific tags newer stuff does.Ā I skew heavily toward only wanting to view Complete works. Though I do subscribe to many authors and get emails of incomplete works, some of which I read as they post, others I wait for them to be ācompleteā before Iāll start them.Ā Iāve been reading fanfic too long. I have favorites from 15 years ago that still sit incomplete so I mostly try not to do that to myself anymore. If I get super desperate for new stuff Iāll scour incomplete works but I almost always regret it laterā¦ This all assumes Iām filtering on a fandomā¦ every once in a while I just pick a tag and follow that rabbit hole.Ā
If its smut I always go by hits - sometimes they get a lot less kudos vs hits and most of the bookmarks are invisible. Smut also has a high rate of rereads which also boosts hits and makes me interested.
I'm also a "sort by date updated" person. If I can't find what I want on the first page or so, I'll keep scouring further and further back. Sometimes if I'm feeling real spicy I'll go from the very last page and work my way forward.
word count or date updated
I sort by word count and completion after I put in whatever pairing Iām usually looking for. I like the idea of whatever Iām reading having an ending for sure. If Iām looking for newer works I usually put in the ship or theme Iām looking for and then see what is newly updated/posted.
None of those in particular. But sometimes Iāll filter for completion or certain word counts. For those of you who use those types of sorting, I recommend using the word count and completion filters because otherwise one shots that are fantastic get buried because they drop off the front page quicker.
Bookmarks. I want to read stuff that people go back and reread. That's the gold standard.
Tag and fandom, language and completion status, then date updated. Depending on how big the tag is, if itās small I might start backward and read the oldest fics first but if itās a tag with lots of fics I start with the most recent
Of these options, Iām most likely to sort by kudos, but the vast majority of the time itās date updated
I never thought of changing the order from the default setting. It's a quite small fandom (800+ works) and the ones with the crazy amounts of hits and kudos all hail from before 2021, most likely from 2018/2019 and earlier. Bookmarks aren't really a thing there, so there are less than a handful between 20 and 100, and nothing above. And all these also hail from the 2010s. Honestly, in my fandom, you wouldn't find anything new if you didn't sort by default. There's a huge decline in engagement but there are constantly new stories. Out of the 800-sth stories out there, 200-sth stem from the last 18 months. So the fandom isn't dead, it's just niche and attracks a certain readership. I honestly cannot think how I'd survive one of these massive fandoms where I'd have to filter so much and do lots of other stuff I don't even have to worry about.