The AO3 Rice Purity Test
50 questions about your life in the Archive — reading, bookmarking, commenting, writing, and the occasional 3 a.m. “one more chapter.” Start at 50, lose a point per honest checkbox. Lower score, deeper resident.
What the scores mean
45–50 · “Casual Browser” — You've wandered past the Archive and kept most of your evenings. For now.
35–44 · “Registered Reader” — You have opinions about tags and at least one ship you'd defend at dinner.
20–34 · “Resident of the Archive” — Kudos'd, bookmarked, emotionally compromised. The Archive knows you by name.
6–19 · “Tag Wrangler's Case Study” — Your bookmarks are a confession. Your search history is a fandom bibliography.
0–5 · “You ARE the Archive” — Somewhere, a WIP updates and you feel it before the email arrives. Legendary.
FAQ
What is the AO3 Rice Purity Test?
A fandom spin on the classic Rice Purity Test. Instead of romance and party experiences, the checklist covers fanfiction habits — reading, bookmarking, commenting, writing. Same scoring idea: you start with a perfect score and lose one point per item you can honestly check.
How is it scored?
There are 50 items, so scores run 0–50. Check everything that applies; your score is 50 minus your checks. Lower means you live deeper in the Archive.
Is this affiliated with AO3?
No. AO3 (Archive of Our Own) is a project of the Organization for Transformative Works. This is an independent fan-made checklist in the spirit of the classic purity test — nothing here is stored, sent, or connected to your AO3 account.
How does it compare to the classic test?
The classic Rice Purity Test is 100 questions about life experience. This one is 50 questions about fandom life. Plenty of people score high on one and catastrophically low on the other.
Done confessing? The classic 100-question Rice Purity Test measures the rest of your life — and the glossary decodes its slang, including a few terms fandom knows better than anyone.