AO3some

ifttt -- it stands for "if this, then that" -- is a nifty service that can automate some web-based tasks. For instance, it can e-mail you a reminder to take an umbrella if the forecast calls for rain, or it can take all the pictures you post on Facebook and put them in your Dropbox.

It can also do some fantastic things with RSS feeds. Like, say, the new AO3 fandom feeds.

Want all the new Kirk/Spock fic automatically added to your Delicious account? No problem -- you can even specify the tags or make it private. (It also works with Pinboard, but I'm not sure how the tags work over there.) Want an e-mail notification when a new Sherlock fic tagged "asexuality" gets posted? You can do that, too. Heck, if your favorite author writes in too many fandoms and you just want to know when they post new X-Men fic, you can set that up, too.

How does that work when AO3 only supports fandom feeds? Well, AO3 includes characters, pairings, and so on in the feed posts, and ifttt lets you trigger actions (like sending an e-mail or creating a bookmark) based on what's in posts instead of just "a new post exists."

There are a lot of different things you could do with it, and the process of setting up a task (e.g. "if there is new Buffy/Spike, then send me an e-mail") is pretty straightforward, so I'm not going to write up instructions -- instead, I'll just leave you with the suggestion that, if you're sad there's no character or pairing feeds, you might want to sign up for ifttt and poke around a bit. You might come up with a solution that's perfect for you.