Home » Hobbies, Games & Toys » Other Hobbies

FanFiction.Net vs. Archive of Our Own

Ranked #860 in Hobbies, Games & Toys, #9,332 overall

FanFiction.Net vs. Archive of Our Own: A Comparison of Two Fan Fiction Archives

Fan fiction is a widely popular hobby on the internet today. While fan fiction has been around for decades, earlier shared in fanzines or passed-around, type-written stories, since the 1990s there has been an explosion of fan fiction websites and archives on-line. People share their fan fiction stories through internet mailing lists, journaling and social media networks like LiveJournal and Tumblr, and also through archive websites. These archives can be small and focused on specific fandoms, such as Twilight, Star Trek or Harry Potter, or they can be large and all-encompassing, open to almost any and all kinds of fan fiction.

Two of the largest and most well-known multi-fandom archives today are FanFiction.Net and Archive of Our Own. In this article, I will give a brief introduction to both as well as a comparison of their features, usability and critcisms. You'll also have a chance, if you use either/both archives, to sound off on your opinions as to which one better suits your needs. There are certainly pros and cons to both archives, yet for a fan fiction author who wants to preserve his or her work and present it to a wider audience, using one - or both - of these archives may be worthwhile.

Photo: mantasmagorical at morguefile

Are You Familiar With These Fan Fiction Archives?

Loading poll. Please Wait...

FanFiction.Net

The internet's largest fan fiction archive.

FanFiction.Net's front pageFanFiction.Net (FFN) was launched October 15, 1998 by Los Angeles computer programmer Xing Li. Xing Li was not himself heavily involved in fandom, but hosted the site on a server connected to his place of employment where it was considered a test of the server's functionality. FanFiction.Net quickly rose in popularity, being one of the few archives at the time open to just about any kind of fandom, not just a single specific universe, anime or TV series. Originally the archive was open to anyone over the age of 18 who wished to register for an account, and allowed any storing rating, from general audiences ("G") to explicit adult ("NC-17"). Stories about celebrities including musicians, actors and sports players (ie, Real Person Fiction) were allowed along with those stories written about television series, fictional books, comics, anime and movies.

Eventually the website needed to employ advertising in order to keep the server running due to increasing demand and use. However, registered members could pay for a premium account if they did not want to see ads and have access to other special functions. This function was not heavily embraced by users and eventually abandoned in favor of advertising support only.

As the archive grew in popularity and size, certain types of content were officially banned and other changes implemented. In 2002, NC-17 rated stories were no longer allowed (although enforcement of this policy is up to users reporting stories; there are still many explicit-content fictions to be found on the site.) Real person/celebrity fiction was disallowed in 2003. Other topics such as songfic, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, and non-fiction lists have also been banned through the years, although again enforcement is spotty at best. The site has also disallowed fan-fiction based on certain works after receiving requests from their creators, including authors such as Anne Rice, P. N. Elrod, Laurell K. Hamilton, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Raymond Feist and Terry Goodkind.

The age limit for site registration is now 13. As of 2010, the site had over 2.2 million users and stories posted in over 30 languages. Its largest fandom as of the end of 2011 was Harry Potter, with over 570,000 stories posted in that category alone. Naruto was the second most popular fandom, with over 290,000 stories. FanFiction.Net also features active forums for users to discuss their fandoms, Communities of moderated, hand-selected fiction, and a list of beta readers available to help authors improve their work. The site now has a mobile version and RSS feeds one can subscribe to, in order to see the latest works in particular fandoms.

* FanFiction.Net - FanHistory (features lengthy timeline through 2010 of events in FanFiction.Net's history)
* FanFiction.Net - Wikipedia
* FanFiction.Net - Fanlore

Criticisms of FanFiction.Net

FanFiction.Net may be the largest fan fiction archive on the internet, but it's not everyone's favorite site by a long shot. These are some of the common criticisms of the site.
  • 1Difficulty finding quality fiction amidst all of the dreck. As Sturgeon's Law proposes, 90% of everything is crap - and that means there is an AWFUL lot of crap on FanFiction.Net. Indeed, the site has long been known as "The Pit of Voles", derided as the home of some of the worst of the worst that fan fiction has to offer. Lack of proper spelling and punctuation, poor characterization, childish plotting and blatant Mary Sues - to many, this is what FanFiction.Net represents.
  • 2Limitations on allowed content. As the site grew to astronomical proportions and needed to start accepting advertising to stay afloat, it is not surprising that it had to start restricting content in order to be acceptable to non-adult (and other questionable) type advertising. Yet that means that the site is basically useless to fan-fiction authors who write about subjects or include content that is no longer allowed, such as bandfic or adult fan-fiction.
  • 3Sorting multiple-character/relationship fiction is difficult. FanFiction.Net only allows one to sort/filter fiction within a fandom by two characters (Kirk and Spock in "Star Trek"). What if you are looking for stories featuring more characters or complicated relationships (yes, people do write Kirk/Spock/Uhura poly relationships, or perhaps love triangles such as Kirk/Uhura and Uhura/Spock). With AO3's freeform tag system, it is much easier to label and look for such stories.
  • 4Annoying advertising. Some users find the full page ads one must skip over or wait to load on FanFiction.Net extremely annoying - particularly those on slower internet connections.
  • 5Disinterest in punishing/banning plagiarist authors and plagiarism. Plagiarism can be a major problem in fan-fiction, as some think that because "all fan fiction is stealing" that it is perfectly fine to steal another's words and claim them as their own. That can be a fan fiction author stealing content word-for-word from a published author's work, or from another fan fiction author (often times only changing characters' names and minor details, to publish a story in a different fandom.) When such incidents have occurred on FanFiction.Net, they have generally been ignored by the site administrators.

Archive of Our Own

Noncommercial and Nonprofit.

Screenshot of the AO3 homepageArchive of Our Own (AO3) first launched in beta-testing on November 14, 2009. The archive is a project of the Organization for Transformative Works, a non-profit organization which promotes the legitimate and transformative nature of fan works including fan fiction, fan vids and fan art. It was originally proposed in 2007, in part as a reaction against the recently-launched archive FanLib. FanLib faced deep criticism by the media fandom community at the time for its corporate sponsorship and funding and apparent lack of understanding of how fan communities truly operated. At the time, many older, smaller fan fiction archives were disappearing as free hosting sites popular in the 1990s and early 2000s were disappearing or going out of business.

AO3 has grown slowly, as one requires an invite code to join (if you request one, it will typically be received in a month or two's time.) The archive is now the home of the large, annual small-fandom fest Yuletide, which is how many members of AO3 have gotten accounts there by signing up to take part in the exchange. Some of the features and highlights of AO3 include:

* Open to all kinds of fandoms, including Real Person Fiction

* Open to all ratings of fan-fiction, from general audiences to adult. Content which is not allowed includes text of or links to "child pornography (images of real children); warez, cracks, hacks or other executable files and their associated utilities; trade secrets, restricted technologies, or classified information; or if it consists entirely of actual instruction manuals, technical data, recipes, or other non-fanwork content, including non-fanwork creative work". (Site Terms of Service.) Other policies are in place to disallow harassment or threats against real people, whether other users or people named in fictional stories.

* Ability to lock story visibility to other AO3 members only, to minimize search engine inclusion (some authors don't want their stories showing up in general Google searches.)

* Allowance of certain fandoms (include Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles") and story types (including songfic) which have been banned from FanFiction.Net.

* Ability to link various pseodonyms and names under one account, and to also "orphan" stories to remove your name from them

* A complex tagging system so that stories can be searched by theme (romance, hurt/comfort), trope (Steampunk AU, Aliens made them do it) or whatever an author may choose

* Backdating system, useful if one is trying to organize all of her fanfiction chronologically

* Ability to import stories from other URLs

* Collections and challenges

* A "Kudos" button to show that you read a story and enjoyed it, without having to leave written feedback

* Ability to add new fandoms if not already listed, without having to wait for a site administrator to add them

* A warning system for common fannish triggers and controversial subjects - which an author can choose or choose not to use

As of January 2012, Archive of Our Own featured approximately 8,300 fandoms, 290,000 archived works and 33,500 users. The most popular fandoms at that time include Stargate (18,300 stories), Harry Potter (17,900 stories) and Supernatural (14,300).

The minimum age for registering for an account is 13.

* Archive of Our Own - Fanlore
* Archive of Our Own - FanHistory
* Organization for Transformative Works - Wikipedia

Criticisms of Archive of Our Own

The following are some of the criticisms which have been made by some of Archive of Our Own as a fan-fiction archive. While the site has been embraced by many, there are those who are not as thrilled with the archive or have had issues with it in the past.
  • 1Too heavily focused on media fandom. The archive administrative team has been accused on numerous occasions of having little understanding of how other fanfiction communities operate, such as music and anime fandoms. Everything from the site's design to category structure reflects a Western media fandom bias, particularly that of LiveJournal media fandom.
  • 2No ability to sort out crossovers from non-crossover stories. Crossover stories, involving characters from multiple fannish sources in one story, are quite popular among many fanfiction readers and writers. However, some readers do not care for crossovers in general or at all, and AO3 doesn't have an easy way to filter crossover stories out of the listings returned for a particular fandom. In comparison, FanFiction.Net has a completely separate section of their website for crossover fiction only, so it's easier to find (or not find) such stories as you wish.
  • 3Frequent downtime/slow server response. As the site's userbase has grown, some have reported increasing errors and downtime when trying to access the site. This has lead some to wonder if the archive can really keep running on its current hardware and on donations to OTW alone.
  • 4The tagging system is a mess. Writers are allowed to use however many different tags as they want to on their stories and there is very little structure to the tagging system. Even within a single fandom, one character may have their name "tagged" in multiple different ways - making it difficult to easily filter only for stories featuring them. The archive does employ a team of Tag Wranglers whose sole task is to link together related tags to be more searchable. (For instance, if I search for the tag "vampire AU", 9 different tags are currently returned for me to sort through including "vampire AU, "'verse: Vampire AU" "vampire!AU" and "sherlock bbc john watson holmes vampire au".) However, as the archive grows and grows, keeping up with all of the freeform, user-generated tags can become difficult - and some tag wranglers have expressed frustration with the system and how their committee has been handled. It doesn't help when you have some authors tagging everything and anything possible to an almost laughable extent. Do we really need to know that many details about a story before reading it? Are these things people will actually want to search based upon?
  • 5Lack of community/readers don't comment and review. Many authors seem to view AO3 as a convenient "storage bin" for all of their old works, dropping stories there but rarely reading others' works. Many fan communities even with large numbers of stories on AO3 are far more active elsewhere, such as on LiveJournal communities or smaller, fandom-focused websites. With the "Kudos" button feature, readers are less likely to leave actual feedback or interact with authors, since they can just hit "Kudos" to show that they read and at least moderately enjoyed a story.
  • 6Hard to keep up with what's new in a particular fandom. With backdating, sometimes it's hard to just find what are the newest stories posted in a particular fandom. However, rss feed subscriptions have recently been introduced, allowing interested readers to subscribe to not just favorite authors but favorite fandoms as well.

Make Your Choice: Which Archive Do You Think Is Better?

FanFiction.Net or Archive of Our Own?

You've read the basic information, examined some of the pros and cons of each, now it's time to leave your opinion. Which fan fiction archive do you prefer, and why?

Which archive is better: FanFiction.Net or Archive of Our Own?

Loading

FanFiction.Net

NU says:

Feedback is extremely important to a writer's growth. As Neil Gaiman has often said, the best way to get better at/more comfortable with writing is to WRITE, regardless of whether what you're writing will ever be published, and feedback from people who do a lot of reading is one of the best assists that an aspiring writer can have. Essentially, if you don't have eagle-eyed readers helping to point out your grammatical mistakes or irrational plot twists, it is very difficult for you to grow as a writer. Certainly, most feedback on ffn is "Loved it, write more" or something to that extent, whether or not the story deserves it, but writers that show some spark tend to draw more thoughtful, helpful reviewers. Because ffn has such an easy and widely-used review system and because AO3 all but dismisses the importance of critique, I have to come down on ffn's side despite its numerous flaws.

SH says:

Fanfiction.net is much more user friendly, and less confusing then the tagging system of Archive of Our Own.

CL says:

I write for ff.net (waiting for AO3) and for me, I almost like Archive more just for the quality of the story. At the same time, you don't get limited by 1000 stories and can search better on ff.net. So technically, I'm going to have to side with FF, but if Archive would just get a little better with searching and make commenting better, it would win hands down.

ShrimpyJess97 says:

Ff.net is so much easier to get into, and more friendly to writers. Everybody loves reviews, so if you like something, review!

Anise says:

These are the only two choices?!?!? (Um... sorry about all of the gratuitously unnecessary punctuation.) I guess if it's between those two, I'd have to say ff.net, but the Fire and Ice Archive is vastly superior to either.

Celene Azurebleu says:

AO3 has better quality control; however, the search function barely works. The fanfiction.net search function works much better, and it's not that difficult to find good fanfiction on fanfiction.net with a bit of effort. Also, there seems to be an overload of E (explict) rated fics in some fandoms of AO3.

Umbra says:

FFN. I've been to AO3 and it is a huge mess, eye-straining UI, really weird filters and now they ask account holders to donate to the site to become 'real members'. Seriously? I'm comfortable with FFN due to its simplicity, traffic and user-friendly UI. Besides, it doesn't do any aggressive SEO unlike some websites. Before the crunch of 2007, schools had learning programmes for fan fiction with FFN being the centrepiece. That is something to behold.

FanfictionFan says:

A major flaw to FF.Net and AO3 is poor search functionality. While AO3 has a greater number of filters compared to FF, it's search function as a whole just does not seem to work. On FF also suffers from in its searches. While AO3 relies on tags, FF depends on summaries and character relationships. However a major drawback to both systems is the inability to filter out that which you do not want to see. I.e. I like Harry Potter. I don't like Hermione Granger or Draco Malfoy. Why can I not search for any HP story and filter OUT these characters or names? Why can I not filter out slash? AO3 seems to let you filter things in, but not out. FF offers the ability to search and exclude words, but coming up with search variations is difficult. Like filter out abandoned or orphaned stories.

Archive of Our Own

Amy says:

AO3 is easier to navigate. It's much much easier to post stories, either with the handy import feature or directly onto the site. It does have a few issues with search capabilities but you can find your way around them with practice. On the whole I also trust the people who run AO3 more than I trust Xing.

celzmccelz says:

I had three fics thrown off ff.net in 2003 because of content restrictions. Pain in the ass. And A03's tagging system may be a mess, but the quality of the fics is MUCH higher, which means that it is much easier to find stuff you actually want to read. Searching ff.net for something decent is exhausting and makes me weep for the stupidity of the human race, so I don't even bother. Also, because of Yuletide, AO3 has a lot of obscure literature and Historical RPF fic collected in one place, which is pretty much my favorite thing ever.

asd says:

A03 is a lot better in terms of quality stories. It's easier to sort through, has a nice tagging system, and lovely kudos button.

Erendira says:

I've read too many bad stories on Ff.net and while more people "review" there I find what they say hardly a "review" at all. Even the worst stories have people actively praising it and begging for more! On the other hand I've found that AO3 tends to have better stories. Now if only more people would review those stories...

Tatyana says:

Archive of Our Own has mostly high-quality fiction, unlike Fanficton.Net. That's all that matters to me.

Yorik says:

I think all AO3 needs is more awareness. It's a bright, comfortable space and fairly easy to navigate, as well as having a huge amount of fandoms. If only more people knew of it, it could be even bigger and greater.

Kana says:

AO3 doesn't have any of the restrictions FF.net has, and I prefer their tagging system. Also, this isn't really a judging of the structure of the site, but I tend to find much better works on AO3.

 

Fan Fiction in the News

Google headlines about fan fiction.

'Fifty Shades' books now have fan fiction of their own
AP NEW YORK - Not all that long ago EL James was Snowqueens Icedragon, cranking out her sexed-up "Twilight" fan fiction online. Well, faster than you can shriek your safe word, her kinky "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy has fanfic of its very own in the ...
NBA Playoffs Fan Fiction: San Antonio Spurs vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
By Eric Freeman Winter came, and few survived. A long, drawn-out battle for the mystical land of Western Conferencius was near its end. The imp Christopher Paul and his copper-haired half-brother Blake Griffin of House Clipper had fallen with little ...
NBA Playoffs Fan Fiction: Miami Heat vs. Boston Celtics
By Eric Freeman Stardate 7582.47. We Heatalians have traveled across this galaxy many times in search of the much-needed mineral championshipium. Dispatches from our imperial starship base indicate that the inhabitants of our home of Heatalia have ...
'Fifty Shades' gives birth to own fan fiction
New York -- Not all that long ago EL James was Snowqueens Icedragon, cranking out her sexed-up "Twilight" fan fiction online. Well, faster than you can shriek your safe word, her kinky "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy has fan fiction of its very own in ...
Powered by Google

Other Multi-Fandom Archives on the Internet

If neither FFN or AO3 is for you...

These are not the only two large, multi-fandom archives on the internet today. Some other sites you might wish to explore include the following:
FicWad
A multi-fandom archive with currently over 30,000 stories.
RockFic
A band fiction RPF archive with over 2,000 stories.
AdultFanFiction.Net
Like FanFiction.Net, but for adult-oriented stories only.
FanWorks.Org
Multi-fandom archive with over 9,000 stories.
MyFandoms.Com
Fan fiction archive with over 13,000 stories.

Any Final Thoughts on Fan Fiction Archives?

Feel free to comment here.

I hope you found some useful information here in this comparison of fan fiction archives. If you've got any final comments to add, you can leave them here. Thanks for reading!

  • Squids May 23, 2012 @ 11:01 pm | delete
    I find both sites perfectly functional personally. I must say AO3 has recently become, at least for some fandoms, nothing more than a smut dump. I don't really see any quality increase in the fics either. If AO3 actually allowed for the ability to filter out a tag it'd be much more pleasant. Not everybody wants to read about an author's homosexual pedophilia incest fanfic filled to the brim with absolutely creepy kinks and personally don't even want to read the description of said fic. The fact that said fics are even allowed on the site is kinda iffy if you were to ask me.
  • stfw May 27, 2012 @ 9:17 pm | delete
    Unfortunately, I find this to be true. Some of the descriptions for the stories should be screened. They are very hard core, and I wish like FF.net they would make the Explicit and Mature rated works only visible if you elected to see them.
  • Greekgeek Apr 7, 2012 @ 12:47 pm | delete
    They've wound up serving different purposes. Many of us hoped AO3 would be the answer to the problems of ffnet (almost wrote ficwad there, gack), but it introduced a host of new problems. Searching and the lack of community are the biggest ones, although the migration of most of my fandom to DW and some to Tumblr has the spillover effect that people are commenting a little more on AO3 where we'll see it. On the other hand, AO3 makes challenge communities and exchanges so much easier, and I am really grateful to be able to integrate my own illustrations and reader-submitted fanart right into the story -- or, heck, share my fanart!

    AO3's download and reader functions make it easier for those who have migrated to tablets (they are really helpful if one has minor vision issues). I like AO3 better. But in practice, I get more reedback on ffnet. So I cross-post.
  • sockii Apr 7, 2012 @ 10:33 pm | delete
    Hey Greekgeek! Glad to see another fandom person here. (I write fanfic under a different name but have been active on ff.net/LJ/DW and elsewhere for ages.) I definitely agree that both of the archives serve different purposes and audiences; I used to post to ff.net but since a lot of my fiction is more adult-oriented, I had to take it down once the site's policies changed. And even though I have my own fic site and archive my stories on fandom-specific websites, I've found cross-posting to AO3 has certainly brought in a new audience for my work. My biggest issue with the site these days is the tagging system and how unwieldy it is, particularly in fandoms with a lot of characters and pairings that haven't been "tag-wrangled" yet.

    I definitely do more browsing for fic on AO3 these days than elsewhere, but I do have a lot of lingering concerns about the site architecture and how well it's designed for future growth and expansion. I just hope their means aren't exhausted by their lofty goals.
Show All

More Pages by Sockii on Media, Fandom and Entertainment

Actor John GloverJohn Glover is an incredibly talented and award-winning actor who has been seen in countless film, television and theatrical productions. He is perhaps best...

DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia: Your Survival GuideDragon*Con is a media fandom convention held annually over the Labor Day weekend in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. It is the largest such event on the East Coast,...

Dwight Schultz Fan PageI was only 10 years old when The A-Team first aired on television, but very quickly it became my favorite show - perhaps of all time! And the main reason I was...

FanFiction.Net vs. Archive of Our OwnFan fiction is a widely popular hobby on the internet today. While fan fiction has been around for decades, earlier shared in fanzines or passed-around, type-written...

Is Fan Fiction Wrong?Fan fiction, once an "underground" fannish activity enjoyed by a relatively small group of people in the science fiction, media and music fan communities, is...

Running a Fan-Fiction Secret Santa ExchangeWithin fandom, one of the most popular holiday activities is to participate in a Secret Santa-style gift exchange. More often than not, these exchages revolve...

Slash Conventions and Slash-Friendy Conventions in the United StatesFor many years - indeed, for several decades - fans of slash fiction have gathered at conventions around the world to talk about and share their passion for...

What is Band Fanfiction?What is "band fanfiction", or "bandfic"? How did band fiction get started? Where can I find good band fanfiction on-line or in print? Is band fanfiction legal? Why...

What is Fan Art?Fan art has been a part of fandom communities for decades. From "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" to "Twilight" and "Harry Potter", fans of television series, movies,...

About the Author

Loading

by

sockii

I have been involved in studying fan culture and fan activities for approximately 20 years. I attended my first fandom convention in 1996 and have pub... more »

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!

Explore related pages

Latest News from Archive of Our Own 

AO3 News

Loading

Organization for Transformative Works - Latest News Stories 

Loading

Related Tags