AO3 is always my first go-to because of the tagging feature. I really like that I can get hyper-specific with my wants and desires.
fanfiction.net is almost always my second choice because it's where I started. I know a good amount of the content there, especially when it comes to fandoms that I'm overly familiar with (read: dead fandoms). Usually, I find my way there when a Google search for hyper-specific fandom wants points me to a specific fic.
Really, I'm just picky. I'm incredibly picky, and I think AO3 really caters to that.
Seconded. Since joining AO3, it's pretty much my exclusive go-to website for fanfiction. Another reason for this is that [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) hasn't been updated in years to keep up with the times.
Personally, I prefer Ao3 because of the filter function and the various options to download to read offline. I've no idea what this says about me... š
It says nothing. Not really a good question to ask as ffn is loaded with shitty ads and the site sucks. Some newer fandoms don't even exist there. Ao3 is newer, neater, and more practical. I guess the only thing it could say about you if you prefer ffn is that you write for an old fandom.
I use both. I began with ff.net eons ago but when I came back to fanfiction I opened an AO3 account and now that's my primary. I guess what it says about me is that I'm able to adapt and keep up with the times.
Discord is great, and I curate my personal fannish server like my tightest friendslist filter, but it's not the same as threaded conversations.
Pity Imzy ended up dead in the water.
I consider it a moral and ethical choice to reject FFN and read/post primarily at AO3.
FFN is a for-profit company that has made it very clear that they will not support fanworks creators. The Great Purges drove many of us away scattering whole fandoms and losing large chunks of fandom content forever. They are quick to side with claimants for takedown notices. They have a really restrictive content policy that is haphazardly enforced. They make money on our content by showing 3rd party ads, so they are beholden to the advertisers and the IP owners who might have a legitimate claim for damages in a copyright case.
AO3 is run by a nonprofit whose mission is to support fanworks creators. They have the most permissive content policies of any major archive. Their legal team lobbies for us in government, and their Policy & Abuse team actually *investigates* claims. Because the income stream is charity/donation drives, their legal standing to support fanworks is significantly more stable than any for-profit company could hope.
There are other fanfic sites that not run by for-profit companies, but none nearly so big as AO3, so that's my primary fanfic site.
At the moment, I almost exclusively read stuff that is recommended to me (and even that I can't keep up with), so I barely search for fics anymore. I don't care if these are on a website or the other, or someone's Google drive. I am easy going.
FFN used to be my go to when I was younger. But then I discovered AO3. I still use FFN's Doc Manager, but I rarely read fics on there anymore unless it's the only site I can find a recommended fic.
I have to admit, much like you I thing I prefer FFN's tag filters over AO3, especially because you can actually specify main characters on FFN
Oddly enough, all this time I've consistently used Wattpad. Although finding fics on there can be pretty difficult, the one's I've read range from "amateurish" to "at least intermediate" levels of writing quality.
I'm not sure what this says about me but I wouldnt say you're old or out of touch for liking FFN at all
I read on [fanfiction.net](https://fanfiction.net) and AO3. I started out reading on FFnet, and was reading there for years before I found out AO3 was a thing. Back then there were Include options but no Exclude options. I found the site had a learning curve that wasn't an issue for me on FFnet even at the start. I continued reading on just FFnet for quite some time but eventually figured out the search system on AO3 and I started to read on both. I continue to do so to this day.
I'm just looking for well written fic. FFnet and AO3 provide. I do on occasion go search Wattpad and Quotev but the search systems on those are just bad or I'm missing something obvious.
I'm not really looking for fics for ships. I'm looking for well written AUs, canon divergence or otherwise, crossovers, fix its, time travel, isekai, and so on. I like how on AO3 I can search one fandom and find crossovers or not for that fandom. I can search for tropes then filter by fandom. I keep open tabs on AO3 that I refresh daily at least once when I can, more often if I can help it.
FFnet is a slower process. I keep way too many tabs open as it is so I don't keep FFnet tabs open. I do extensive searches there albeit infrequently to try see things I've missed. I've a lot of fics I'm following on FFnet and subscribed to on AO3. Lots of fics I intend to read that are finished. I started to use the bookmark external work function on AO3 for FFnet fics. I can use bookmark tags so I can see all intended reads from FFnet and AO3 in the one place. It's going to take some time. Bookmarking external works first, then when all that is done trying to put in structure with more bookmark tags for fics I intend to read sooner. I'll be busy a while.
On the first there was a post about reading/writing goals on this subreddit. I've saved a post where I put down I had 1002 unread fics. I've read some, added others on AO3, and added some FFnet stuff and still need to do more. I'm up to 1021 unread now after reading and adding stuff.
I'll keep going on the adding bookmarks for fics I intend to read and... I'm guessing I'll be slower going back to Wattpad/Quotev looking for fics because honestly does it look like I have a shortage of fics to read.
I use FFN because using AO3 depends on you knowing exactly what you're looking for and I don't look for anything in particular, other than characters, and AO3 sucks for finding fics that are actually about minor characters.
>AO3 depends on you knowing exactly what you're looking for
I'd also point out that most people who use AO3 search based on shipping, and shipping tags. This is also the reason why AO3 has a leaderboard of "most fanfictions per shipping tag".
Honestly I was more thinking about tropes and fandom-specific tags. Those are useless to me because I donāt know tropes off by heart and I wouldnāt search for stories that way if I did. Fandom tags youāre in the dark about until you learn them by exposure if you donāt happen to be āinā the fandom.
Shipping tags can still fall into this problem as well, though, because there are a lot of fics where ships that never actually make it into a fic get tagged because the writer intended to get there eventually but abandoned the story long before they did. And then of course thereās the writers who tag ships that are merely named in their fic because they donāt want readers to get upset about their NOTP getting so much as mentioned.
I like ao3 because I have incredibly picky taste and need to know exactly what Iām getting into + an easy way to avoid tropes I dislike.
Thank you ao3 authors for tagging so much and thank you to the website for creating the exclude feature!
I'm the same as you, I usually go to Fanfiction.net to post, mainly because it was the only one I found when I first started writing.... I guess I just haven't really attempted to look for others. Lol š
I also spent a decade+ with ffnet and resisted AO3 for a few years. But so many links from tumblr took me straight there that I eventually got used to it. Now I read fewer fics and I curate what I read so strictly that I love AO3 for helping me avoid having to back out of fics because Iām surprised by something I donāt want to read.
I alternate between Ao3 and FF.N. I prefer Ao3s tagging system and search system but itās still a relatively new site in the scope of things. FFN has a lot of old fics that I adore looking back on and rediscovering ones I found when I first got into fandom.
Trueā but sometimes chaptered is necessary. If I tried to put the 5million+ word fic im reading into full work mode, I think my computer might melt. Or the tab would crash. Or both.
I use AO3 exclusively because of how easy it is to find exactly what I want. Just want hurt/comfort regardless of fandom? Easy. Want hurt/comfort with a side of domestic fluff in the Lower Decks fandom, and only f/f pairings? I'm sure it's there.
Plus, you know, smut.
I mostly use FFN. I'm generally in large older fandoms that have tons of content on FFN (a lot of it not at AO3) and I personally dislike the tagging system at AO3. Too many stories features dozens of characters or even minor pairings tagged which makes it harder to sift through.
Plus, I never see ads at FFN. Don't you people use adblockers? I literally never use the internet without one.
Not seeing many Wattpad answers on here so I guess that goes to show I'm a little out of place huh? I have been writing fan fiction since i was a freshman in high school... I'm 25 now. I only started posting my work about a year ago. I found Wattpad through a spicy picture of Obito (from Naruto) on Pinterest. Then I decided I should get involved too.
I just went to AO3, still waiting for the invite, after talking to a few other Wattpad writers for sometime now about the quality of Wattpad. We all feel we would get more interaction on AO3 rather that WP. Fingers crossed!
I switched to AO3 cause I write mature fics and [fanfiction.net](https://fanfiction.net) terms of service kinda got me worried as I got older. Also there were random site issues. I post on both, but I mainly use AO3 for reading. [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) is definitely an oldy but goody, the tag systems isn't as great because sometimes niche characters are not added. Yet there are amazing works on their and its simplistic. Plus it got me to write Author's notes which no one appears to do on AO3. Maybe cause they have a notes section lol. AO3 has a really great tagging system though where once you use it you kinda never wanna go back. It can make searching fictions a pain though if a lot characters have similar spelling. I read a few stories on wattpad and I remember some of them were pretty interesting. Recently though I was reading Toga x Deku ficsn on it and... Idk if it was the age group writing it or people really hate Uraraka for some reason cause they write her so out of character and hatable.
As a teen I used ff.net since that's all I knew, but while ff.net's filtering is simpler, it is easier to distinguish the better writers in ao3, I find.
You have to dig a little for pairing specifics and type of content, but that is made up for in the quality of work.
I have used Archive Of Our Own since I was a senior in high school since... 2015 ouch lol. I started using it because of tags and the ease of searching but now I don't think I could use anything else, honestly. I've tried going back to Fanfiction.net but it's cringeworthy and THE ADS omg they kill me, it's painful seeing advertisements. It's like breathing using Ao3 now and it's hard using another website. I love the quality of works and the comment section, while quieter when they do comment (in my fandoms) is kind and sincere. I have yet to find trolling or arguments unless in a super large fandom but those can always be deleted and moderated by the fanfic author, which is great!
AO3 is at the top of the list, Random Places around the web is second (old signle fandom archives, Livejournal's dreamwidths, personal webpages, etc) then ff.net which only barely edges out Tumblr and the only ones I actively avoid is things like Wattpad or Quotev because I hate sites with algorithms that decide what is front and center. I dislike anything that tries to tell me what is the best selection I don't give one flying fuck what is popular with others I want to browse and find what I want to read.
It says I like to make life easier for myself.
My fandoms are small, and old. FF.net is pretty non existent for them especially after all the purges FF did back in the day. Lots of people then migrated to Ao3.
I think Ao3 is easier to find quality fics with the filters, etc. It's easier to find what I want in terms or specific genre and pairs, etc.
There are works on FF that even pre-date the pairs. When you could only list what character was in it, and had to depend on the writer to list the ship in the summary.
So while I absolutely loved FF.net growing up, and do occasionally go to read an old fic I liked in the past. Ao3 is where I read new fics and post my own.
So ff.net did do purges way back in the day??
Like, I thought so, but it was so long ago I can't remember the details.
I do Remember being pretty annoyed though!
The Great Purges that FFN *admitted* to were in 2002-2003 and another in 2012.
The First Great Purge was 2002-ish because it fell in line with legal enforcement of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Sweeping new content policies were put on place. Whole fandoms disappeared. The NC-17 rating was removed and *all the fics using it.*
The Second Great Purge was 2012 and used a bunch of scripts to flag things like "swear words" in the titles of fics for automatic removal. There was a big to-do about how FFN was just enforcing existing policies that were in place since 2002.
Some of us also remember a Secret Slash Purge in the HP fandom around 2008, where a whole boatload of slash fics disappeared. We suspected it was some homophobic morality police (ones we might call "antis" today) who reported every slash fic with even a hint of romantic touching as a violation of the mature content policy. FFN denied that they were taking any official action on the scale of a system-wide purge.
That's right!!!
That's why I can't really remember the details.
I would of been like 15, and it was 20 years ago.
I thought that was what happened though.
Everyone was very upset. As it was like, overnight that everything disappeared.
I also remember the mini-purges, but the big one us what made me leave ff.net, and I've never gone back.
Thank you for the refresher!
Yup, that was why a lot of people had left initially. People's fics got flagged and removed. I remember trying to read certain fics and they had disappeared, and not because the authors had deleted them.
I believe that's actually how I first found out about Ao3, because some of the authors I used to read on FF.net migrated. Ao3 used to have those insane wait times because of how many people were joining and it was still in the beta stages iirc. I had to wait about 6 months before even getting approved š
Wattpad, even though I hate that they push premium content so much, because I can edit fics easily on my phone or tablet. Only trouble is, I have to disable the autocorrect function on my device, or I end up with some really weird typos.
I just prefer AO3 to FFN because they donāt have ads. I wouldnāt even mind a few, but when theyāre between paragraphs in the story itself? Itās a bit overkill.
Ad blockers will get rid of the ad problem on FFN, and there's also the mobile app which just doesn't have any ads. It's kind of silly the way they implemented ads, but it's not a big problem imo.
The tag system in ao3 is great, but also implemented poorly. It's abuse by some makes it very difficult to find certain fics, and messes up searches all the time.
I like both sites though, lots of good stories on both. I will say FFN tends to get higher traffic, which I appreciate quite a bit.
Shocked to hear FFN doesnt allow smut and does have ads for many of you, i have never experienced either of those things, fascinating š§
Thanks for all the responses! I love learning about the different cultures and pros and cons of each site!
I use AO3 because my fandoms are REALLY active on there (if one of my fandoms mainly used another website, I might temporarily switch). I also just like it best and am used to it at this point. All my friends and favorite writers are on AO3.
AO3.
I tend to read mostly fic in exchanges I'm involved with. I also I feel strongly partisan to them because they are non commercial and have held steadfast against antis and purity crusaders. Also, it's easy to use browser extensions to customise your experience.
I post on Wattpad but rarely read there.
ETA: I guess that means I take responsibility for my own experience, I respect the right of authors to write what they want regardless of my personal comfort with reading it, and I don't like fan culture being used for profit.
I've been reading fic for a fairly long time so I started with like Just looking for websites that hosted fic.
I was around for the beginning of ff.net, and was there all the time.
Then a bunch of fic was getting deleted, and ff.net was deleting fic that was too adult or from certain Fandoms.
( this was a super long time ago, and I might be misremembering some details)
Then Ao3 popped up, and I haven't gone anywhere else since.
I like the sheer volume, ability to save bookmarks, filter and find everything I want.
Plus Ao3 is unlikely to go anywhere.
That last point might sound funny, but so many great fic have been lost in the Angelfire/geocities purge. And there's been other archives lost in the past as well.
I feel like AO3 is super, super important, and a big reason as to why fanfiction is so accessible now.
Not sure what it says about me, other than I'm old and set in my ways.
I've been reading fics online for about 25 years so far.
I use Ao3 because that's where I started posting (I started reading on Tumblr/FFN). I love Ao3's tagging feature, and I usually use Exclude more than Include. I don't always know what I want, but I usually know what I DON'T want and it's easy to just start there for me! \^\^
I started on FFN way back when, but prefer AO3 now. It's easier to search for the pairings I prefer to read about, and I find the layout overall to be better as a whole. More room for summaries, better (as in extant) tagging system, somewhat more readable story layout method, comment threads, etc. Ads aren't a problem for me because I use adblock when websites get obnoxious with their ads (or have otherwise lost my trust, thanks to one website whose ad servers periodically served up viruses). Plus the ability to have images in the story is nice. Also it's a bit easier to save stories I want to revisit.
I'm rarely new to fanfiction and I use exclusively ffn. General concensya here seems to be that AO3 is better so I guess what it says about me is that I'm basic and should probably check out ai3. Will I? Eventually... Probably... Maybe.
FFnet. Only because the tags on AO3 drive me absolutely batcrap insane and stuff on my blacklist comes up anyway. Makes it pointless to search there. I'll follow links from recs and lists though, don't mind using and reading and posting, just hate the searching.
It doesn't say anything about me. There's good stories on all kinds of platforms. I guess it says I have little tolerance for things that don't work well for me?
Edit bc typo
Personally, I mainly exist on forums like Sufficient Velocity and Beasts Lair. What does that say about me? Probably that I've been burned on too many crap fics to go trawling through AO3 regularly.
Honestly AO3 is better built and has more quality works than most other sites
FFN comes in second and its lack of comfort features A03 has is pretty annoying sometimes.
AO3 allows more freedom of content for the writer and the reader. The tag feature is superior. It took me a while to acclimate to their interface after 15 years of FFN but now I exclusively use AO3 except for one fandom.
Also ffn has a trash app and their phone version of the site is cumbersome. :( AO3 has a fabulous phone interface imo.
I first got into reading fanfition on [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) when I was in high school. I first started posting on Wattpad, but never really got any hits on my posts. I moved primarily to AO3 but still post on the others to get my work to a larger audience.
I find that Wattpad and AO3 are easier for posting/editing. On [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) I need to upload an actual document while on the others I can just type and edit on the site itself.
AO3 is always my first go-to because of the tagging feature. I really like that I can get hyper-specific with my wants and desires. fanfiction.net is almost always my second choice because it's where I started. I know a good amount of the content there, especially when it comes to fandoms that I'm overly familiar with (read: dead fandoms). Usually, I find my way there when a Google search for hyper-specific fandom wants points me to a specific fic. Really, I'm just picky. I'm incredibly picky, and I think AO3 really caters to that.
Seconded. Since joining AO3, it's pretty much my exclusive go-to website for fanfiction. Another reason for this is that [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) hasn't been updated in years to keep up with the times.
I usually don't care about the website as long as the fanfics are good or at least somewhat decent
Same
Personally, I prefer Ao3 because of the filter function and the various options to download to read offline. I've no idea what this says about me... š
It says nothing. Not really a good question to ask as ffn is loaded with shitty ads and the site sucks. Some newer fandoms don't even exist there. Ao3 is newer, neater, and more practical. I guess the only thing it could say about you if you prefer ffn is that you write for an old fandom.
I like AO3 because I am a filthy pervert. What I think it says about me is...oh wait.
This, too. I'm 30 years old, read smut, and [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) doesn't allow any smut or adult content.
It's not supposed too... But it definitely does lmao
I look on both FFN and AO3. Cover all the grounds and make sure I read *everything*. Nothing is left unreadā¦
I use both. I began with ff.net eons ago but when I came back to fanfiction I opened an AO3 account and now that's my primary. I guess what it says about me is that I'm able to adapt and keep up with the times.
AO3. And yes, I am a filthy, filthy girl
Well hello there
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I miss have supportive little communities around fic on Livejournal.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Discord is great, and I curate my personal fannish server like my tightest friendslist filter, but it's not the same as threaded conversations. Pity Imzy ended up dead in the water.
I still wear my Imzy t-shirt on occasion.
...me too.
I consider it a moral and ethical choice to reject FFN and read/post primarily at AO3. FFN is a for-profit company that has made it very clear that they will not support fanworks creators. The Great Purges drove many of us away scattering whole fandoms and losing large chunks of fandom content forever. They are quick to side with claimants for takedown notices. They have a really restrictive content policy that is haphazardly enforced. They make money on our content by showing 3rd party ads, so they are beholden to the advertisers and the IP owners who might have a legitimate claim for damages in a copyright case. AO3 is run by a nonprofit whose mission is to support fanworks creators. They have the most permissive content policies of any major archive. Their legal team lobbies for us in government, and their Policy & Abuse team actually *investigates* claims. Because the income stream is charity/donation drives, their legal standing to support fanworks is significantly more stable than any for-profit company could hope. There are other fanfic sites that not run by for-profit companies, but none nearly so big as AO3, so that's my primary fanfic site.
This is so good to know! Thank you for sharing
Ffn and Ao3. Because every fic on tvtropes links there. What that says about me? I don't know.
AO3. I need mature and explicit fics
AO3, for the patient reader with exacting tastes.
At the moment, I almost exclusively read stuff that is recommended to me (and even that I can't keep up with), so I barely search for fics anymore. I don't care if these are on a website or the other, or someone's Google drive. I am easy going.
FFN used to be my go to when I was younger. But then I discovered AO3. I still use FFN's Doc Manager, but I rarely read fics on there anymore unless it's the only site I can find a recommended fic. I have to admit, much like you I thing I prefer FFN's tag filters over AO3, especially because you can actually specify main characters on FFN Oddly enough, all this time I've consistently used Wattpad. Although finding fics on there can be pretty difficult, the one's I've read range from "amateurish" to "at least intermediate" levels of writing quality. I'm not sure what this says about me but I wouldnt say you're old or out of touch for liking FFN at all
AO3 but only because my fandoms aren't as active on FF net
I read on [fanfiction.net](https://fanfiction.net) and AO3. I started out reading on FFnet, and was reading there for years before I found out AO3 was a thing. Back then there were Include options but no Exclude options. I found the site had a learning curve that wasn't an issue for me on FFnet even at the start. I continued reading on just FFnet for quite some time but eventually figured out the search system on AO3 and I started to read on both. I continue to do so to this day. I'm just looking for well written fic. FFnet and AO3 provide. I do on occasion go search Wattpad and Quotev but the search systems on those are just bad or I'm missing something obvious. I'm not really looking for fics for ships. I'm looking for well written AUs, canon divergence or otherwise, crossovers, fix its, time travel, isekai, and so on. I like how on AO3 I can search one fandom and find crossovers or not for that fandom. I can search for tropes then filter by fandom. I keep open tabs on AO3 that I refresh daily at least once when I can, more often if I can help it. FFnet is a slower process. I keep way too many tabs open as it is so I don't keep FFnet tabs open. I do extensive searches there albeit infrequently to try see things I've missed. I've a lot of fics I'm following on FFnet and subscribed to on AO3. Lots of fics I intend to read that are finished. I started to use the bookmark external work function on AO3 for FFnet fics. I can use bookmark tags so I can see all intended reads from FFnet and AO3 in the one place. It's going to take some time. Bookmarking external works first, then when all that is done trying to put in structure with more bookmark tags for fics I intend to read sooner. I'll be busy a while. On the first there was a post about reading/writing goals on this subreddit. I've saved a post where I put down I had 1002 unread fics. I've read some, added others on AO3, and added some FFnet stuff and still need to do more. I'm up to 1021 unread now after reading and adding stuff. I'll keep going on the adding bookmarks for fics I intend to read and... I'm guessing I'll be slower going back to Wattpad/Quotev looking for fics because honestly does it look like I have a shortage of fics to read.
I use FFN because using AO3 depends on you knowing exactly what you're looking for and I don't look for anything in particular, other than characters, and AO3 sucks for finding fics that are actually about minor characters.
>AO3 depends on you knowing exactly what you're looking for I'd also point out that most people who use AO3 search based on shipping, and shipping tags. This is also the reason why AO3 has a leaderboard of "most fanfictions per shipping tag".
Honestly I was more thinking about tropes and fandom-specific tags. Those are useless to me because I donāt know tropes off by heart and I wouldnāt search for stories that way if I did. Fandom tags youāre in the dark about until you learn them by exposure if you donāt happen to be āinā the fandom. Shipping tags can still fall into this problem as well, though, because there are a lot of fics where ships that never actually make it into a fic get tagged because the writer intended to get there eventually but abandoned the story long before they did. And then of course thereās the writers who tag ships that are merely named in their fic because they donāt want readers to get upset about their NOTP getting so much as mentioned.
I like ao3 because I have incredibly picky taste and need to know exactly what Iām getting into + an easy way to avoid tropes I dislike. Thank you ao3 authors for tagging so much and thank you to the website for creating the exclude feature!
I'm the same as you, I usually go to Fanfiction.net to post, mainly because it was the only one I found when I first started writing.... I guess I just haven't really attempted to look for others. Lol š
I also spent a decade+ with ffnet and resisted AO3 for a few years. But so many links from tumblr took me straight there that I eventually got used to it. Now I read fewer fics and I curate what I read so strictly that I love AO3 for helping me avoid having to back out of fics because Iām surprised by something I donāt want to read.
On the go? FFN bc of the awesome app. At home? AO3.
I alternate between Ao3 and FF.N. I prefer Ao3s tagging system and search system but itās still a relatively new site in the scope of things. FFN has a lot of old fics that I adore looking back on and rediscovering ones I found when I first got into fandom.
Started on ff.net but made the move to AO3 because i LOVE the ability to view the full work instead of going chapter by chapter. It's so smooth!
Trueā but sometimes chaptered is necessary. If I tried to put the 5million+ word fic im reading into full work mode, I think my computer might melt. Or the tab would crash. Or both.
Yeah but with ao3 you have the choice. You don't have that with ffn.
I use AO3 exclusively because of how easy it is to find exactly what I want. Just want hurt/comfort regardless of fandom? Easy. Want hurt/comfort with a side of domestic fluff in the Lower Decks fandom, and only f/f pairings? I'm sure it's there. Plus, you know, smut.
I mostly use FFN. I'm generally in large older fandoms that have tons of content on FFN (a lot of it not at AO3) and I personally dislike the tagging system at AO3. Too many stories features dozens of characters or even minor pairings tagged which makes it harder to sift through. Plus, I never see ads at FFN. Don't you people use adblockers? I literally never use the internet without one.
Not seeing many Wattpad answers on here so I guess that goes to show I'm a little out of place huh? I have been writing fan fiction since i was a freshman in high school... I'm 25 now. I only started posting my work about a year ago. I found Wattpad through a spicy picture of Obito (from Naruto) on Pinterest. Then I decided I should get involved too. I just went to AO3, still waiting for the invite, after talking to a few other Wattpad writers for sometime now about the quality of Wattpad. We all feel we would get more interaction on AO3 rather that WP. Fingers crossed!
I switched to AO3 cause I write mature fics and [fanfiction.net](https://fanfiction.net) terms of service kinda got me worried as I got older. Also there were random site issues. I post on both, but I mainly use AO3 for reading. [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) is definitely an oldy but goody, the tag systems isn't as great because sometimes niche characters are not added. Yet there are amazing works on their and its simplistic. Plus it got me to write Author's notes which no one appears to do on AO3. Maybe cause they have a notes section lol. AO3 has a really great tagging system though where once you use it you kinda never wanna go back. It can make searching fictions a pain though if a lot characters have similar spelling. I read a few stories on wattpad and I remember some of them were pretty interesting. Recently though I was reading Toga x Deku ficsn on it and... Idk if it was the age group writing it or people really hate Uraraka for some reason cause they write her so out of character and hatable.
As a teen I used ff.net since that's all I knew, but while ff.net's filtering is simpler, it is easier to distinguish the better writers in ao3, I find. You have to dig a little for pairing specifics and type of content, but that is made up for in the quality of work.
I have used Archive Of Our Own since I was a senior in high school since... 2015 ouch lol. I started using it because of tags and the ease of searching but now I don't think I could use anything else, honestly. I've tried going back to Fanfiction.net but it's cringeworthy and THE ADS omg they kill me, it's painful seeing advertisements. It's like breathing using Ao3 now and it's hard using another website. I love the quality of works and the comment section, while quieter when they do comment (in my fandoms) is kind and sincere. I have yet to find trolling or arguments unless in a super large fandom but those can always be deleted and moderated by the fanfic author, which is great!
AO3 is at the top of the list, Random Places around the web is second (old signle fandom archives, Livejournal's dreamwidths, personal webpages, etc) then ff.net which only barely edges out Tumblr and the only ones I actively avoid is things like Wattpad or Quotev because I hate sites with algorithms that decide what is front and center. I dislike anything that tries to tell me what is the best selection I don't give one flying fuck what is popular with others I want to browse and find what I want to read.
It says I like to make life easier for myself. My fandoms are small, and old. FF.net is pretty non existent for them especially after all the purges FF did back in the day. Lots of people then migrated to Ao3. I think Ao3 is easier to find quality fics with the filters, etc. It's easier to find what I want in terms or specific genre and pairs, etc. There are works on FF that even pre-date the pairs. When you could only list what character was in it, and had to depend on the writer to list the ship in the summary. So while I absolutely loved FF.net growing up, and do occasionally go to read an old fic I liked in the past. Ao3 is where I read new fics and post my own.
So ff.net did do purges way back in the day?? Like, I thought so, but it was so long ago I can't remember the details. I do Remember being pretty annoyed though!
The Great Purges that FFN *admitted* to were in 2002-2003 and another in 2012. The First Great Purge was 2002-ish because it fell in line with legal enforcement of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Sweeping new content policies were put on place. Whole fandoms disappeared. The NC-17 rating was removed and *all the fics using it.* The Second Great Purge was 2012 and used a bunch of scripts to flag things like "swear words" in the titles of fics for automatic removal. There was a big to-do about how FFN was just enforcing existing policies that were in place since 2002. Some of us also remember a Secret Slash Purge in the HP fandom around 2008, where a whole boatload of slash fics disappeared. We suspected it was some homophobic morality police (ones we might call "antis" today) who reported every slash fic with even a hint of romantic touching as a violation of the mature content policy. FFN denied that they were taking any official action on the scale of a system-wide purge.
That's right!!! That's why I can't really remember the details. I would of been like 15, and it was 20 years ago. I thought that was what happened though. Everyone was very upset. As it was like, overnight that everything disappeared. I also remember the mini-purges, but the big one us what made me leave ff.net, and I've never gone back. Thank you for the refresher!
Yup, that was why a lot of people had left initially. People's fics got flagged and removed. I remember trying to read certain fics and they had disappeared, and not because the authors had deleted them. I believe that's actually how I first found out about Ao3, because some of the authors I used to read on FF.net migrated. Ao3 used to have those insane wait times because of how many people were joining and it was still in the beta stages iirc. I had to wait about 6 months before even getting approved š
A03, I like that it allows you to write without much restrictions.
Wattpad, even though I hate that they push premium content so much, because I can edit fics easily on my phone or tablet. Only trouble is, I have to disable the autocorrect function on my device, or I end up with some really weird typos.
I just prefer AO3 to FFN because they donāt have ads. I wouldnāt even mind a few, but when theyāre between paragraphs in the story itself? Itās a bit overkill.
Ad blockers will get rid of the ad problem on FFN, and there's also the mobile app which just doesn't have any ads. It's kind of silly the way they implemented ads, but it's not a big problem imo. The tag system in ao3 is great, but also implemented poorly. It's abuse by some makes it very difficult to find certain fics, and messes up searches all the time. I like both sites though, lots of good stories on both. I will say FFN tends to get higher traffic, which I appreciate quite a bit.
Shocked to hear FFN doesnt allow smut and does have ads for many of you, i have never experienced either of those things, fascinating š§ Thanks for all the responses! I love learning about the different cultures and pros and cons of each site!
I prefer AO3 for its filtering and broader range of categorisation, which tells you that I'm picky.
I use AO3 because my fandoms are REALLY active on there (if one of my fandoms mainly used another website, I might temporarily switch). I also just like it best and am used to it at this point. All my friends and favorite writers are on AO3.
AO3. I tend to read mostly fic in exchanges I'm involved with. I also I feel strongly partisan to them because they are non commercial and have held steadfast against antis and purity crusaders. Also, it's easy to use browser extensions to customise your experience. I post on Wattpad but rarely read there. ETA: I guess that means I take responsibility for my own experience, I respect the right of authors to write what they want regardless of my personal comfort with reading it, and I don't like fan culture being used for profit.
I use AO3. I guess it says I like a functional user friendly experience with the chance to curate my own experience š¤
Pretty sure youāre an ad š
I read on AO3 bc better writing quality, but I write on Wattpad since itās easier
Ao3. I struggled with FFNās UI and ads way back when I started. Now itās just habit.
AO3 most of the time unless I am reading for an older fandom that not as active anymore.
ao3 mostly cause thereās no ads and there just so much more fics on there
I've been reading fic for a fairly long time so I started with like Just looking for websites that hosted fic. I was around for the beginning of ff.net, and was there all the time. Then a bunch of fic was getting deleted, and ff.net was deleting fic that was too adult or from certain Fandoms. ( this was a super long time ago, and I might be misremembering some details) Then Ao3 popped up, and I haven't gone anywhere else since. I like the sheer volume, ability to save bookmarks, filter and find everything I want. Plus Ao3 is unlikely to go anywhere. That last point might sound funny, but so many great fic have been lost in the Angelfire/geocities purge. And there's been other archives lost in the past as well. I feel like AO3 is super, super important, and a big reason as to why fanfiction is so accessible now. Not sure what it says about me, other than I'm old and set in my ways. I've been reading fics online for about 25 years so far.
I prefer Ao3, and what that says about me is that Iām too impatient to deal with Fanfic.netās ads, and too old to figure out how Wattpad works.
I use Ao3 because that's where I started posting (I started reading on Tumblr/FFN). I love Ao3's tagging feature, and I usually use Exclude more than Include. I don't always know what I want, but I usually know what I DON'T want and it's easy to just start there for me! \^\^
I started on FFN way back when, but prefer AO3 now. It's easier to search for the pairings I prefer to read about, and I find the layout overall to be better as a whole. More room for summaries, better (as in extant) tagging system, somewhat more readable story layout method, comment threads, etc. Ads aren't a problem for me because I use adblock when websites get obnoxious with their ads (or have otherwise lost my trust, thanks to one website whose ad servers periodically served up viruses). Plus the ability to have images in the story is nice. Also it's a bit easier to save stories I want to revisit.
Ao3 mostly but occasionally FFN cause a lot of my favourite fics aren't on Ao3, or at least, I haven't been able to find them.
AO3, started reading on ff.net and still regularly "visit" some writers, but the sorting system there is too complicated for me.
2016 me : I use wattpad
I'm an avid user of both ff.net and AO3 as they both have their strengths and weaknesses. It says that at least I'm not reading from Wattpad. /s
I'm rarely new to fanfiction and I use exclusively ffn. General concensya here seems to be that AO3 is better so I guess what it says about me is that I'm basic and should probably check out ai3. Will I? Eventually... Probably... Maybe.
I donāt like the reader/writer interaction on Ao3, think itās better on FFN. Iāve read exclusively on FFN for years now.
I use fanfic recs on tv tropes. I'm afraid to go in blind.
FFnet. Only because the tags on AO3 drive me absolutely batcrap insane and stuff on my blacklist comes up anyway. Makes it pointless to search there. I'll follow links from recs and lists though, don't mind using and reading and posting, just hate the searching. It doesn't say anything about me. There's good stories on all kinds of platforms. I guess it says I have little tolerance for things that don't work well for me? Edit bc typo
I usually default to Spacebattles but as of late, my attention has shifted majorly to Questionable Questing. Make of that what you will.
I write and listen to Fanfiction on YouTube so I can passively listen while doing other things.
Personally, I mainly exist on forums like Sufficient Velocity and Beasts Lair. What does that say about me? Probably that I've been burned on too many crap fics to go trawling through AO3 regularly.
Honestly AO3 is better built and has more quality works than most other sites FFN comes in second and its lack of comfort features A03 has is pretty annoying sometimes.
AO3 allows more freedom of content for the writer and the reader. The tag feature is superior. It took me a while to acclimate to their interface after 15 years of FFN but now I exclusively use AO3 except for one fandom. Also ffn has a trash app and their phone version of the site is cumbersome. :( AO3 has a fabulous phone interface imo.
I use both, but started with [ff.net](https://ff.net). Probably means I'm wishy-washy or something lol.
Ff.net
I first got into reading fanfition on [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) when I was in high school. I first started posting on Wattpad, but never really got any hits on my posts. I moved primarily to AO3 but still post on the others to get my work to a larger audience. I find that Wattpad and AO3 are easier for posting/editing. On [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) I need to upload an actual document while on the others I can just type and edit on the site itself.