I began my writing journey on fanfiction.net after a fan page on wetpaint.com went down (wetpaint was my OG springboard for all things fanfics, then ff.net, livejournal and tumblr). I still visit it from time to time, reading fanfics that are not present on AO3.
What about you? Do you still visit ff?
It’s been more than a decade since I’ve published my last fanfic.
But while AO3 was a thing back then already, I stuck to only fanfiction.net. For one, I didn’t want to crosspost too much. And besides, AO3 didn’t seem to have the target audience for my fics. Sure, AO3 didn’t have FF.net’s restraints, but FF.net’s restraints have never restrained me, and those who felt restrained by FF.net, I guess none of them would even be remotely interested in my fics anyway.
Then again, most of my target audience were members of one or two fandom-specific forums where I published my fics as well. And the one forum that saw all my fanfic premieres is PG-rated. I think that says something about my fics and what kinds of appeal they lack.
Ahh that’s true. I think AO3 caters more to ships and romances. So many gen fics on ff.net but man, the people there rarely reviews anymore. At least in my fandom, people are quicker to comment on AO3. I still get notifications from fics I wrote 2 years ago. And that says a lot about the level of engagement (or maybe the amount of users) in AO3. I like that it’s community driven and run by donations too, unlike Ff which is run by ads and we all know how twitter and reddit turns out.
I only fear that so many of the fics I love will disappear if the owner of ff.net somehow decided it’s no longer profitable.