With A03 down, fanfic readers are in survival mode

When the internet’s biggest fanfiction repository vanishes from reach, there’s one thing you can still count on: a network of fellow fans.

Just ask the massive community of Archive of Our Own readers, who in the past fews days have gone from panic to ingenuity after their beloved fanfic haven went dark.

A03 is home to more than 18 million works, including many sexually explicit stories (affectionally referred to as “smut”), and writing inspired by popular IP, such as “Harry Potter,” “Twilight” and “Heated Rivalry.”

But last week, the Organization for Transformative Works, the nonprofit behind A03, announced the site would be down for two to four weeks, citing a “security incident.”

The prospect of weeks without A03 sent shockwaves through a community devoted to the platform’s uncensored storytelling and meticulous tagging system. Some went as far as likening the outage to life in prehistoric times or descending into madness.

But their desperation also gave way to solidarity, with readers sharing tips with each other on how they can still get their fan fiction fix.

In the r/AO3 community on Reddit, moderators have set up megathreads for the purpose of helping members find and share copies of their favorite stories. Some AO3 writers are uploading new chapters of their fanfiction stories to their Tumblr blogs. Others are creating shared Google folders.

“There are always debates, different opinions, and occasional fights within and between fandoms. But during the outage, I have seen people from completely different fandoms and backgrounds helping one another and working toward shared solutions,” said Ashmita, a 23-year-old A03 reader and fanction writer from India who built a web tool to make it easier for users to connect Google Drive folders and navigate the hundreds or thousands of files inside.

“It has been a beautiful reminder of how much these communities care about each other,” Ashmita, who requested to be identified by first name only to preserve her online privacy, added.

Another public Google Drive link to a “Fanfic Emergency Fund,” created by author Berklie Novak-Stolz, has already accrued a deluge of works across a wide range of fandoms and genres.

“The horrors may persist, but so do we,” Novak-Stolz wrote in a letter to readers. “We’re all going to be okay thanks to the wonders of humanness and community and storytelling.”

As of Sunday, the Organization for Transformative Works said there are no further updates regarding the outage.

The organization encouraged users to review certain recommended safety practices as the outage persists, such as clicking links from trusted sources, being wary of scammers and creating unique passwords for every website.

In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for Organization for Transformative Works said it will share further updates on the “security incident” as soon as verified information becomes available.

“AO3 and the OTW were founded by fans, for fans. That ethos remains at the heart of our mission today, and we love seeing how fans mobilize and support one another, both through and beyond AO3,” the spokesperson said. “As fan[s] ourselves, we deeply empathize with the frustration and despair of losing access to AO3—and we’re heartened by the creativity, humor, and sense of community reflected in the flood of memes.”

A03’s absence has prompted other fanfiction websites and adjacent platforms to seize on an opportunity to attract more users.

“We’re here to support you during this difficult time,” the X account for Wattpad wrote in a post.

The audio erotica platform Quinn also enticed readers by offering a discount code citing A03’s blackout.

But some diehard readers said there’s nothing like A03, a space they laud for being entirely community-funded and free of advertisements.

“To me, AO3 feels heartfelt,” Ashmina said. “It is a huge platform, but it still has the feeling of a niche community built by people who care deeply about what they are creating and sharing.”