Fan fiction site AO3 goes down for weeks-long maintenance

Summarised from 2 outlets · 3 reports · Updated 30 Oct, 22:27 · Archive

Archive of Our Own, the major fan fiction website, has shut down for maintenance expected to last two to four weeks.

Archive of Our Own (AO3), one of the largest fan fiction websites, went offline on 29 October for maintenance expected to take two to four weeks. The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), the nonprofit that operates the site, initially planned only 12 hours of downtime but extended the timeline significantly.

Wired reports that a 'security incident' prompted the shutdown, though the OTW said it was still in early stages of determining the incident's scope. Both outlets report that user data is believed to be intact. Wired states that the OTW urged users to change their passwords as a precaution. The OTW has not specified what caused the outage, though Engadget notes that the site experienced problems with email notifications, search, history and listings between 23 and 24 October. The OTW expressed hope of restoring the site in a degraded state sooner than the full four-week estimate, though it may require temporary shutdowns during recovery.

AO3 has 11 million users and hosts over 18 million works of fan fiction based on existing books, films, television shows and other media, according to Wired.

How it is being reported

• Fan fiction website AO3 is down, and it could take weeks to recoverThe site's data is reportedly intact, but the cause of the outage is still unknown.Engadget · 30 Oct, 18:06
• People Are Creating ‘Survival Guides’ to Cope With the ‘AO3 Apocalypse’The fanfic site could be down for weeks due to a “security incident.” Users are not taking it well.Wired · 30 Oct, 15:57
• Fan fiction website AO3 is down, and it could take weeks to recoverThe site's data is reportedly intact, but the cause of the outage is still unknown.Engadget · 29 Oct, 21:18

In this story: Archive of Our Own · Organization for Transformative Works · Fanlore

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem · Corrections log