Popular open-source fanfiction website Archive of Our Own (AO3) announced on October 29 that it would be under maintenance for over 12 hours. A day later, the site added that the outage could extend for two to four weeks due to a security issue.
“Earlier today, we detected evidence of a security incident on AO3. We are still in the early stages of response to this security incident and determining its scope. AO3 will remain down while we continue investigating and addressing what has been found so far,” Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), the non-profit organization handling AO3, said. OTW assured users that no AO3 data (bookmarks, stories, kudos) has been deleted, though they are unable to rule out a stolen user database. While AO3 does not use real names for accounts, its database does contain account information that may include usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, and hashed versions of user passwords.
The New York Times reports that the repository houses over 18.8 million stories from thousands of fandoms and is sustained entirely by user donations. For its October Membership Drive, OTW said it has garnered a total of $314,539.76 or around P19 million. By midMidMid is slang describing something as unremarkable, mediocre, or neither particularly good nor bad, often used dismissively toward music, movies, or cultural products. The term's blunt, casual dismissiveness reflects internetGo to Mid Glossary-2026, approximately 11 million people are registered on AO3, not accounting for other users who read without an account.
If there’s one thing that the readers are afraid of, though, it’s the fact that their beloved online library would be down for this long. The community of readers was quick to provide each other with fics they had accrued, with some starting a do-it-yourself (DIY) AO3 library for their fan fiction fix.
How Are Readers Coping?
Desperate times call for desperate measures. On X and Reddit (subtag r/AO3), readers provided multiple Google Drives that compiled different fiction stories from as many fandoms (like Heated Rivalry, Harry Potter, K-pop, anime) and ships as they could download.
One of the drives sustaining readers’ fanfiction fix was made by Berklie Novak-Stolz titled “Fanfic Emergency Fund,” where folders are alphabetically arranged by fandomFandomA community of passionate fans organized around an artist, show, film, or franchise, sharing theories, fan art, merchandise, and tickets. Filipino fandoms are known for their energy, from street projectsGo to Fandom Glossary, though the number of fics included varies with each group. “The horrors may persist, but so do we. We’re all going to be okay thanks to the wonders of humanness and community and storytelling,” Noval-Stolz said in a letter. The massive public drive also contains a form where authors can request the deletion of the unauthorized copy of their work.
Users have also shared options for those who cannot find their ships or stories within the drives circulating. There’s fichub.net, which allows users to download stories from AO3 as long as they have the main link, and then there’s web.archive.org (or the Wayback Machine) that grants readers a slow, mirror site of AO3, where they can download stories as if they were from the original site.
Reading and writing platform Wattpad chimed in on the outage; the app has been operating since 2006 and was home to a lot of readers before it put up ads on free stories, pushing consumers away. “We get it, we might not be your first choice. Nobody can replace AO3. But if you need a place to call home during the outage, we’re here for you,” they said on a TikTok post, adding that they will be turning off ads all week long for readers.
Some AO3 Authors Aren’t Pleased
While readers indulge in downloaded fics shared by fellow fans through drives, some AO3 authors feel conflicted about their stories being shared offline without their knowledge. For them, there’s a sense of control that gets lost when a story is distributed on a different platform without any notice.
The concept of copyright was also brought up in the whole debacle, as users online differentiate between downloading for personal use and uploading to a public drive without the authors’ permission. Others, meanwhile, only oppose the idea of having their work uploaded on Google Drive, where artificial intelligence (AI) companies can easily feed it through their systems to train large language models (LLMs).
Writers and readers alike have been on the receiving end of harsh words. At the end of the day, though, both sides really just need to offer each other respect and empathy during what people call the “AO3 apocalypse.”
Frequently asked questions
Archive of Our Own went offline after the Organization for Transformative Works announced maintenance on October 29, then reported a security incident a day later. The outage may last two to four weeks, and no stories, bookmarks, or kudos have been deleted.
The OTW says it cannot rule out a stolen user database. AO3 accounts may hold usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, and hashed passwords, though the site does not use real names. The organization says the investigation is still in its early stages.
Readers are using public Google Drive collections such as the Fanfic Emergency Fund, organized by fandom. Fichub.net downloads stories from an AO3 link, and the Wayback Machine offers a slow mirror. Wattpad has also turned off ads for the week.
Some authors say sharing their work offline without notice takes away their control over where it appears. Others distinguish personal downloads from public uploads, raise copyright concerns, or fear Google Drive copies could be used to train AI large language models.
Yes. The public drive created by Berklie Novak-Stolz includes a form where authors can request deletion of the unauthorized copy of their work. Folders are arranged alphabetically by fandom, though the number of fics in each group varies, and readers use it as an AO3 stopgap.
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