A03 will be down for weeks, we don't know what to do
In the overly commercialised world we live in, few things are done solely for the love of the game. Archive of Our Own (shortened to AO3) is a hub that hosts millions of fan-written stories. One does not need to be a skilled writer who hardly makes grammatical/spelling errors to publish on the platform; rather, all you need is the will to write and not expect to get paid for your work. Sometimes, these fanfics gain so much traction that they get published into an actual book (currently, Duplicity is on its way to becoming a traditionally published work, along with a potential screen adaptation, although this one was originally a Wattpad fic!). Over the years, a lot has changed, but the holy ground of fanfiction and the tradition of staying up for hours squinting at your phone screen and reading a 100k word fanfiction about your favourite ship in an alternate universe has remained unchanged.
Right now, the site is down. AO3 went offline for maintenance early on Oct 29th, but now they report it may take up to 4 weeks to resolve the issues and get the beloved site back online. X users (it pains me not to say 'Twitter' right now, as it's historically known as a fandom-oriented space) have already started expressing their disappointment. Fans also claim the site has never been down like this. How do fanfic readers fall asleep tonight when their regular routine has faced such a cruel disruption?
Engineers report that AO3 may be back online sooner in a limited version, although it will take some time to sort out all the issues. These engineers are still volunteers working for a non-profit, so they have no say in how long it takes to restore AO3 to full capacity. Originally founded by the Organisation for Transformative Works (OTW), the site regularly gets taken down for maintenance, but they rarely announce it will take weeks to come back up.
The looming possibility of there being no fanfic access for the next few weeks is obviously terrifying for any avid reader. Even though alternative sites do exist, what about fics you have just started reading, got really excited about, and you do not even fully remember their names? What about specific comfort fics you have failed to download ahead of time? This may not seem like a real concern if your primary outlet is elsewhere, but for people who thrive on creative writing, engage deeply in fandoms, and find solace in a trope which no one else understands, it is not the same!
The art of fanfiction, particularly popularised through sites like Wattpad and AO3, goes back at least two decades. Teenagers across the world started using it to share their love for fictional worlds, imagining different endings for their favourite characters, picking up elements from a story and transforming it in beautiful and profound ways – it is definitely a culture that comes with its own values, beliefs, traditions, and thoughts. It is all virtual, but again, very real. The art found a wave of fresh interest during the pandemic when people finally had time to pour over niche things from specific corners of the internet.
Again, it's hard to explain the culture to people who weren't socialised into it growing up. But aren't they borrowed characters from a borrowed world? Why won't you create your own? But that is the thing, all stories are versions of other stories. If someone enjoys a particular world and wants to play around within as well as beyond the confines of the author's original work, why should they not? Rainbow Rowell's book "Fangirl" captures this essence quite well, as the protagonist truly struggles to write a story of her own, as she is used to writing about the same two characters for years and cannot easily let go of them. Representations of fangirls across media is an article for another day, though.
For now, one can just hope the site is recovered soon – for what can a fanfic reader do if not creatively engage and study characters and settings so intimately that it feels like a part of your emotional stability is temporarily lost when a website is down?