idk if they’re tips and tricks so much as they are just.. steps… of how i Surf. but i’m a really picky reader so i filter the shit out of the tag and that helps me out so much.

i have like a Tier List of filters. there are 7 things i ALWAYS exclude because i will not,, under Any circumstances,, read them. which is a great place to start instead of just scrolling through everything new that gets posted because that can be a lot (and not in a good way!) so if you have a list of, like, “hard no”s, excluding all of those things is a great place to start. you can also filter things like language to only include those you can read, and if you only read completed fics you can filter for completion status too. usually i do well enough with just my 7 filters, but if not then i have Many More to put in place and see if that helps.

i use the “exclude” filters more than the include ones too bc i find that it’s cleaner that way, but if you’re looking for something specific and you search that tag combined with the things you’ve excluded, 99% of the time you Will find something. maybe not new but you’ll see it and go “omg riiiight i forgot about that fic!” and then you’ll reread it and you’ll love your life…

i also have a list of authors that i can never get bored of and when there’s an ao3 drought i go reread all their works. i’m serious . i reread every single one and i enjoy it every single time. AND also while we’re on the subject of authors you trust, usually if you like what someone writes you’ll like what they read as well, so i sometimes creep on people’s bookmarks and see what’s going on there. you can filter them too if you need to and it’s a really easy way of finding hidden gems or stuff you might’ve missed before.

but if ur not a picky enough reader to bother with the filtering… then yea probably just rawdog it. you’re gonna have a really tough time though cuz… well if you’ve tried scrolling through it without any filters i’m sure you’ve seen that the experience is not Pleasant but! occasionally you find gold!!! maybe just do the bare minimum of filtering, which to me is the languages and the relationship(s). also completion status if you care about that.

i think that’s all the tips i can give.. sometimes there’s just nothing to read and it is what it is and we must suffer until we are Saved. good luck my friend…