FFN vs. A2O3?
Hey, guys. So, many of you know that when I first started writing/posting fanfiction, I started out on FanFiction.Net. To me, it's one of the most user-friendly sites for both reading and posting fanfic. I was later lured over to LJ because of nominations for "Chlollie Awards" (which still makes me smile when I think about that btw.). For a little while I tried DreamWidth as an alternative site because LiveJournal was having a lot of glitches and causing problems, but ultimately found it redundant and really don't use that site. So I've been pretty content to use just FFN and LJ.
Recently, though, I had a minor issue with a reviewer (nothing serious, no worries) and blocked him, thinking that would be the end of it. However, this person is determined and continues to leave unsigned/anonymous reviews. As much as I like to leave that option open b/c I know I have a lot of readers w/o accounts, I decided that at least for a little while I wanted to turn the function off.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that for some time now, FFN has not had the option to disable anonymous reviews. The only thing I can do is "manage" them, opting to allow them to be posted or removed. If I don't get around to that in time, however, it will automatically post the review and then there is nothing I can do to delete it. Aside from how genuinely annoying this is, I am extremely frustrated because the whole point of blocking someone is to no longer have to read their comments. Even if I "manage" this user's reviews, I am still obligated to read them. I find this incredibly offensive. Not because of the user, but because FFN is subjecting me to this. I e-mailed help/support and asked what they are doing to protect their authors from harassment but after almost a week have received no response.
So even though for all this time I have been a big fan of FFN, I am seriously considering leaving the site over this. I find this lack of basic protection for the writers to be insulting to say the least. What would someone do if they were having a genuine problem with trolls and cyber-harassment?
This leads me to the real reason for my post: An Archive of Our Own. I've heard of it. Every once in a while I accidentally stumble into it to read something. I think that their search system is very difficult to get used to and I'm not sure about how I feel about the overall user-interface, but I get the impression from the tidbits I've picked up here and there that A2O3 is a sort of refuge for a lot of fanfic writers. Do you guys have opinions on this? Is it true that you have to be invited to join the site? Would I lose readership if I abandoned FFN for A2O3? In your opinion, would it be worth it anyway? What is the story on An Archive of Our Own?