AO3 might be down for 4 weeks???

[OctoblocksAssemble]

Due to a possible data breach apparently.
I am straight up devastated (ok not literally). 2-4 weeks of no kudos emails, no comments, and of course nothing to easily read on my phone whilst the kids are being a pain the arse at bedtime, and no updates to look forward to on the fics I was reading.
Yes, I know, I am being petty, but I got used to a steady stream of appreciation for my writing, and let's be honest ffnet was ruined by art solicitors so it's not a great alternative.
I'm ranting, younger dd has been completely ridiculous tonight, and lack of AO3 made it so much harder to deal with.
Anyone else feeling bereft?

That's quite a service disruption. Good they're taking it seriously and not pretending everything is fine while they try and work out what's happening, but it does seem to expose their lack of deep technical capacity.

Maybe your kids just need you to get off your phone and engage with them a bit.

Mine don't.

Right right, what was i thinking. One hobby is too many, I should have none at all 🙄
This is posted in creative writing, not parenting. I'm sad because my preferred creative writing outlet will be gone for a while.
And it didn't help that younger dd had been stuck indoors for 2 days while I cared for sick older dd and so stayed up until 3.30am, so I really wasn't feeling like engaging with her at the time.

Well I’m guessing the op is a mother, how fucking dare she have something that makes her smile!

Bloody hell, these posts

Of course @OctoblocksAssemble that’s fair

I must admit, I hadn’t heard of it, so I’m glad you drew my attention to it.

I hope you find a good alternative to use. It’s a great hobby to have.

Oh no, I hope they get sorted.

like you I will miss it if it’s down for a month.

Use the time to write and then you’ll be ahead and can post once it’s back up again and await the glory.

I’m the opposite, hate kudos emails.

I know i should probably be more worried about my details potentially being stolen than the site being down 😅
It's just that writing for actual people is such a rush, compared to writing in isolation. I'll just have to try to stay motivated, then I can upload a bunch of chapters when it comes back.

I think they said 2-4 weeks, so hopefully it'll be on the shorter end. I know there are other platforms, but I find they aren't as good to read on a mobile

I'm with you. 12 hours was one thing but weeks? I'm glad they are taking it seriously though. I think it will be really interesting to see what the impact is on other sites like ffnet or wattpad and even traditional books. A friend suggested sarah j mass was behind it to get everyone off there and paying for her new book.

I'll try to stay motivated. I'm hoping there'll be a lot of updates for me to read too when it is back.
I absolutely adore hearing that people enjoyed something I wrote though. After years of writing only for myself it really makes me smile.

I actually started on ffnet, but it feels almost unbearable when I try to go back. The interface is less good, and by the end everytime I posted i'd get inundated with offers to sell me (probably AI) art.
Never got the hang of whattpad. I think i shall indeed have to read a real book (but not Sarah J Mass, just in case lol)

Just out of interest @OctoblocksAssemble(and everyone else who uses it), what fandoms do you write for? I'd love to get back into writing and AO3 seems like a great creative outlet but when I've looked at AO3 I've been put off by how much smutty stuff seems to be on it (no judgement on anyone who writes that, I'm just a very boring prude!).

@LittleMissLurker my most popular story by miles was a How to Train Your Dragon one, but both my current ongoing series are Yu-Gi-Oh. I am very grown up and sophisticated as you can tell, lol.
There is a lot of smut on there, to be sure. Mostly though people do use the rating system and tags to flag this, so if you set your filters you should be able to find plenty of non-explicit stuff.
What fandoms are you interested in?

I’m a reader and not a writer and I’m also bereft.

I had downloaded a few fics but now I’ve burnt through all the downloaded ones I hadn’t already read.

I’ve had a look on FFnet and Wattpad and have been starkly reminded of why I left those sites in the first place.
I find AO3 so much more user friendly - and for the pp put off by smut, once you get the hang of the filters on AO3, it’s easy to avoid the smutty stuff.

I suppose on the bright side, it’s an opportunity to tackle some of the pile of unread paper books I have. Not that that’s stopping me from checking for updates regularly in case they get sorted out sooner than 2 - 4 weeks!

@FrozenCharlottes AO3 really is in a league of its own, isn't it? I actually started on ffnet, and left due to art spam, but when I look at it now it seems so unbearably clunky. Whattpad I never got the hand of at all, and I still can't figure out how to find something I actually want to read on there.

@OctoblocksAssemble absolutely! I’ve got a whole new appreciation for the search and filtering systems on AO3 now.
It’s so painful trawling through FFnet and Wattpad in comparison.
Especially Wattpad, it feels like they’ve got some sort of random lucky dip system going on there with the fics. I have no idea how they’re even ranking their search results.