{
  "id": 17254997,
  "title": "People Are Creating ‘Survival Guides’ to Cope With the ‘AO3 Apocalypse’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/people-are-creating-survival-guides-to-cope-with-the-ao3-apocalypse",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-30T15:57:35.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Wired",
    "slug": "wired",
    "url": "https://www.wired.com/story/people-are-creating-survival-guides-to-cope-with-the-ao3-apocalypse/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The fan fiction platform Archive of Our Own (AO3) has experienced a security incident that has resulted in temporary shutdown, causing distress among its users. Admins of AO3 announced the closure on October 29, stating that it could take up to four weeks for the website to be fully restored. Although not confirmed, AO3 suspected a security incident and urged users to change their passwords. Despite not believing the user database was stolen, AO3 still took precautions to protect users. AO3, which was founded in 2007 and is managed by the nonprofit Organization for Transformative Works, hosts over 11 million users and more than 18 million original works. The closure of AO3 has negatively impacted the fan fiction community, with users relying on the site for their daily dose of various fandom-based content. Fans have organized \"survival guides\" containing links to downloaded stories to cope with the outage, which is expected to last for four weeks. Some fans jokingly noted the timing of the outage coinciding with the \"No Nut November\" challenge, where participants abstain from masturbation for the entire month. The shutdown underscores the significant role AO3 plays in the lives of its users and its influence on mainstream publishing and the vertical video industry.",
  "summary": "The fanfic site could be down for weeks due to a “security incident.” Users are not taking it well.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}