Picture this: It’s a Friday mid-morning, I have work at five pm, so I’m having a lazy day before then. I was reading before I went to sleep last night so I have a 10k oneshot already open, half-read. I have my coffee, I’m warm under three different blankets, and I’ve just finished the cutesy Rabbot fic from yesterday. I swipe away, back to the Pitt tag, scroll for a few minutes, and select my next read, ready for fun and comfort before I work all night. I click the link, unsuspecting and naïve, and it… doesn’t load? So I go back off – maybe it’s an error with my wifi – and try again. ERROR 503. Try again then. ERROR 503. ERROR 503. ERROR 503…
Archive of Our Own is down, and will be for two to four weeks. A modern day burning of the Library of Alexandria. I’m having urges to read ships I haven’t even thought about in five years. I just miss my characters.
As you can see, these are dark times for all fandom members everywhere. Yes, we have tumblr, we have ff.net, we even if Wattpad if things get that desperate… but it’s just not the same. So. i’m writing this article not just to wallow in my own sadness, but also because it’s been five days and the internet is up in flames already. We all know that fandom discourse can be crazy, and maybe I should have anticipated this, but AO3 users have split into two teams, and they’re in a very active war as I type.
As a general, overarching community of internet users and fandom interlopers, I would say that in dark times such as these, we come together and unite. To be involved in fanfiction or fan work creation is ultimately to undertake a subversive act, especially as so much of this work is queer. Therefore, there is a general understanding that what we have should be protected and preserved, that is the ultimate function of an archive after all. Thus, when we first found out the shutdown wasn’t just a few hours like normal, everywhere you looked on the internet or social media was people sharing their downloads, their own works, even whole google drives with hundreds of works from all different fandoms. Authors, artists, animators, and editors came out of the cracks to ensure that anything they had could still be accessed by the public. A real show of community.
However, as the hours passed and people got more worked up and stressed, I started to see glimpses of a whole new discourse that wasn’t quite reaching my side of twitter just yet. As a bit of background, when you post anything on AO3, you accept the terms and conditions, one of which being that now your work is out there, people may download it and store on and in their personal devices and storage systems. I mean, at the top of every page there is a big fat DOWNLOAD button. Nobody who uses AO3 does not know about this facet of the website. And, I can almost guarantee ninety percent of users have used that feature before, it’s a lifesaver for things like long road trips or flights.
However, now that the site is gone and we’re relying on the waybackmachine and people’s own downloads, some opinions are coming to the surface that raise questions about the point of fanfiction and contributing to fandom in the first place.
Some users are against the downloading and sharing of fics in this way because it means they don’t reap the personal benefits of your own fic being read on ao3 itself. So kudos, hits, comments, etc. obviously cannot be left on downloads, so numbers will not be going up even if new people are being exposed to your fanfiction. Yes, slightly annoying, I can understand that. You put a lot of time and effort into writing, and it can be really nice and rewarding to see the data in how that commitment has paid off, and of course there is joy in knowing you have written something that others enjoy. However, I believe there is a line. We create because we love it. We love the stories, the characters, the original art. And we want to share that love with others. Nobody posting on AO3 or ff.net or tumblr will become famous. No one is going to become an influencer from posting a popular fic. Don’t let your ego get in the way of why you write in the first place.
AO3 is protected by licensing and copyright laws that state as long as no personal profit is being made off the usage of characters or likenesses, it is okay to post publicly anything using someone else’s creative property. So, these creators who are going onto any fic documents or people’s private archives that are being kindly shared and reporting them for copyright infringement are actually threatening the sanctity of Archive of our Own itself, and creating risk for when the website is back up. Most people within fandom do not want the subject of our work to be aware. Be that the actors, writers, or directors, space between the fandom and the original source is valued and actually very necessary. We don’t want them aware of our work for them to then start suing for copyright!
I think a lot of people don’t realise what they have til it’s gone. AO3 is a non-profit, open source website run by volunteers and funded solely through donations. There is no making money from it, there is no real fame, it’s just people who love something coming together to share that love. AO3 is the only thing of its kind, and it won’t be around forever. Having back-ups is a good thing, and most importantly, through this discourse we are losing the actual reason why we use the website in the first place. Come together, guys! Your favourite found family wouldn’t be arguing like this.
To put it simply, Twitter user @/ wolhasumok said it well with: ‘AO3 will come back in a couple of days completely unchanged but it took western fandom all of 15 seconds to go into lord of the flies mode over a minor inconvenience.’ – This is annoying, but there are much bigger, more important things going on in the world, and let’s all just take a breath, take a step back, and calm down.