tiggymalvern | The Grand AO3 Mystery

This morning I received a kudos email from AO3.

That might not seem like such a big thing, but it's very bizarre for me. Because precisely a year ago, on 31st August 2020, I stopped receiving all emails from AO3. They came on August 31st, they didn't come from September 1st onwards. No kudos emails, no comment emails, nothing. It took me a couple of weeks to notice, and then I spent a few more weeks trying to figure it out. I was able to narrow it down precisely to that date change, because someone left me a comment at around 11pm on Aug 31st and I got an email, then they left a comment on the next story at 2am Sept 1st and no email.

I checked all my email settings, and all the boxes were still ticked to get the emails. I unchecked then rechecked the boxes in the hope that would reset something, but nope. I emailed the support team saying, 'How can I fix this?' and never got a reply. So I gave up, and started refreshing my AO3 inbox regularly so I didn't miss replying to comments.

And then on September 2nd this year, I get a kudos email. Literally a year and a day after they stopped, they suddenly start up again? Was it *exactly* one year to the day, and I just didn't get any kudos the day before? I will wait to see if this is some strange one day aberration or if the thing that broke has magically resumed functioning....