# Could WriteFreely welcome displaced AO3 users? (and possibly even bring them into the Fediverse) **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature requests\ **Tags:** writing-exchange, fediverse, new-features, writefreely\ **Created:** [October 30, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/could-writefreely-welcome-displaced-ao3-users-and-possibly-even-bring-them-into-the-fediverse/21302 "2026-10-30T16:55:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![teknevra](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/teknevra/32/6249_2.png) [@teknevra](https://discuss.write.as/u/teknevra)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/could-writefreely-welcome-displaced-ao3-users-and-possibly-even-bring-them-into-the-fediverse/21302/1 "2026-10-30T16:55:57Z")
AO3 has been down since yesterday, and OTW says restoration could take two weeks to a month 404 Media: > **[Massive Fanfic Site Archive of Our Own Says It’s Going Down for 'Up to 4 Weeks'](https://www.404media.co/archive-of-our-own-ao3-down-maintenance/)** > > Oh my god? Gizmodo: > **[Popular Fan Fiction Site AO3 Could Be Offline for a Month Following 'Security...](https://gizmodo.com/popular-fan-fiction-site-ao3-could-be-offline-for-a-month-following-security-incident-2000833091)** > > "Black October" comes for the fan fic. A lot of fic writers and readers are looking for somewhere to post or read right now. SqWA, which runs on the OTW archive code, reports 12,000+ new users in about 20 hours. I know that WF is for ALL writers, but I was curious, has the project ever considered potentially positioning itself as a federated home for fanfic, even temporarily? This could bring in a HUGE wave of people into WriteFreely (and the wider Fediverse), since WF is already federated, ad-free, and not owned by anyone who can change the rules on them. Some ideas, from lowest to highest effort: 1. \*\*A short “Writing fanfic on WriteFreely” guide/landing page.\*\* It could cover how to use collections as a series, tags for fandom/ship/characters, and how readers can follow an author from Mastodon. 2. \*\*Lightweight content tagging guidance.\*\* Fic communities rely on ratings and warnings, so a recommended convention would help, even if it’s only a tag format. 3. \*\*A “reading list” or tag-browse view across a single instance\*\* to make discovery less painful. 4. \*\*An import tool or documented workflow\*\* for AO3 exports (HTML/EPUB) to WF posts, so authors can mirror their works. 5. \*\*Pointing to instances\*\* that are open to fanfic and have clear content policies. I realize WF is intentionally minimal and some of this may be out of scope, which is fine. Even just 1 and 5 would help people landing here right now. Is this something the team or community would want to put together?