‘Wake Up Call:’ Fanfiction Writers and Readers React to AO3 Outage
Writer and readers share what they're feeling and doing in the aftermath of the AO3 outage. It's anything but Wattpad.
The fanfiction repository Archive of Our Own (AO3) experienced a weeks-long security incident outage, leaving readers and writers reflecting on the site's importance and coping with the downtime. AO3, a non-profit organization run by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), announced the outage on Thursday, with restoration expected to take around two weeks, though it could take up to a month.
The outage was confirmed to be due to a security incident, although some speculated it might be related to a PHP update affecting multiple sites.
Kinktober, AO3's annual group writing exercise, was scheduled during the outage, causing concern among writers and readers about its timing. One writer expressed that the outage was a "wake-up call" due to the loss of the annual event and its impact on her writing plans. Some authors considered posting their work on alternative fanfiction sites during the outage, while others chose to wait for AO3 to be back online.
Fans expressed mixed reactions to the outage, with some praising AO3 as a valuable community and others dismissing the site. AO3 assured users that they do not expect any data loss, but the loss of comments and kudos on stories would be devastating for writers and readers alike.
Written by urgent.news from 404 Media's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
