Archive of Our Own is down due to a DDoS attack

[just444]

Archive of Our Own is down due to a DDoS attack https://t.co/IihtOxgbms pic.twitter.com/8rh2ja0g65
- Polygon (@Polygon) July 10, 2023

source

for the not fanficton readers, Archive of Our Own (Ao3) is the site for fanfics

Comments

[noodlecookie]

I know everyone is making jokes about the Library of Alexandria but seriously, how many works are on there? How many readers? Sure, it’s not Cheltenham Literary Festival up in there all the time, but it’s free and it’s fun. Free spaces like these need to be protected better.

[misandrylmao]

Mte. People can get so fucking snobby about what others read lol like I’m sure it’s a genuinely important site for people, creatively and just as readers too and that’s perfectly legit.

[slaughtermatic]

They have things archived from dead websites. I will throw a fucking fit.

[merel_93]

Agreed. Not everyone who writes for fun wants to publish, create their own original work or is talented enough to do so, but doesn´t mean there can´t be a place to share ayway.

[smilla_sini]

Some authors there have more talent than like half of my local book store and they're legit just doing it as a hobby in their free time. And during my university days I got to know a lot of stuff that helped me during classes thanks to the research they'd done for their stories and then summarized in their notes. So many links to useful sources about specific historical events! This platform needs to be protected at all cost.
edit: Plus, as a non-native speaker, I appreciate it for being a treasure trove of expressions I would never have learned anywhere else.

[slaughtermatic]

There is amazing quality if you know where to find it. People will write novelength stories about Greek mythology that make me weep. I have things printed out. As always there are geniuses in the mix.

[blood_pressures]

yes i literally learned english thanks to fanfiction

[kjesta]

for one thing, it's just a free for all place to have fun and share with others. i don't go to a hobbyist landscape painters' meet-up and complain that people's paintings don't look like van gogh or whatever, for the most part these are just folks having fun doing a thing they enjoy.

and secondly, i have read works of staggering quality, with prose so gorgeous it makes me stare into space because i can never measure up, and characterisation that is so poignant it makes me cry. there's some incredible fic out there, you just have to know where to look.

[iheartmess]

Wasn't it once one of the most trafficked sites too, iirc? Humanity needs smut! Don't be mean hackers.

[kansascshuffle]

Seriously this just makes me want to donate more the next time to do my part in keeping it running. And I'm an Ao3 author, too.

[itsme_eloise]

popular places on the internet where people do things without commerce interfering are becoming scarce and need to be protected

[amelancholyme]

When I find a fic I love, I use archive.org to make sure it's backed up.