Fic Site Comparisonss

Posted + edited on this site on November 15th 2024. Originally brain-farted to my fedi account on November 11th, 2024.

I wanted to occupy my brain, so I compared some tagging and rule differences of fic repository sites based on AO3's code.:

There are four currently live as far as we know, as bulleted in this official post:

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-august-2024/

These sites are not affiliated with AO3, they just use the same open source code to run the site. If you know how to use a computer good, you could make a fic repository too if you don't like the rules any these current sites have! A lot of these sites are connected just because the owners talk to each other about how to run the software and make their sites. So you'll see them thanking each other and handshaking in their about pages.

I also took a quick look at an AO3 alternative software/site called Ourchive, which is still in closed beta.

SquidgeWorld Archive

"SquidgeWorld Archive is a new archive replacing Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve because The WWOMB utilizes old, insecure software. The SquidgeWorld Archive offers a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanworks using open-source archiving software."

https://squidgeworld.org/tos
https://www.squidgeworld.org/help/warning-help.html

The organization known as Squidge has existed for 30+ years since 1994 . That's older than half the people online using these sites haha. As far as I know, Squidge's sites are mostly run by one person, Walter, as the head decision maker, as a non-profit. There's no AO3 committees or slack group conferences or elections. Just one dude trying to give out free resources for his community.

New features:

Stricter rules:

Ad Astra

Ad Astra is both a fanfiction archive and a community. Started in early 2009, and running on eFiction, the site grew steadily until the issues of working with eFiction (long abandoned) started making the archive inaccessible to some people around 2021.

This is a Star Trek and original Sci-Fi repository. Anything that isn't in those genres is not allowed. The fic archive is connected to a community of a forum and discord server.
https://www.adastrafanfic.com/faq/about?language_id=en#adastracommunity

It's run by one person who can make the rules of their own castle. They have a patreon to keep the servers up.

https://www.patreon.com/adastrafanfic

New features:

Stricter rules:

superlove

"i'm a random loser who decided to self host otw-archive on a macbook (it runs linux btw) because i thought it'd be funny. i do this for fun despite a complete and total lack of knowledge on database management. be nice to me. do whatever.

this is invite only and i approve and deny invite requests based on if i know you or if the vibes are good or bad. good luck".

https://superlove.sayitditto.net/tos

New features:

Stricter rules:

CFAA

"The Comic Fanfiction Authors Archive is a fan archive and community founded in 2024. Based loosely around the old CFAN (Comic Fanfiction Authors Network)... this community seeks to be a hub for comicbook fandom and its adjacent animated properties. This community currently consists of the archive here, which is a locked archive with limited and invitation-only signup, and a Discord server. As time goes on, we may or may not add more services.

The CFAA is a largely one-handed operation, completely non-profit and currently financed by its founder."

Note that this archive is based around comicBOOKS. Marvel movie fics are not allowed unless they're crossovers with a comicBOOK or comic ANIMATION.

https://www.cfaarchive.org/faq/tagging?language_id=en

New Features:

Stricter rules:

Ourchive

Ourchive is multimedia fan archive software meant to address the gap between old-school eFiction archives and modern centralized websites like Wattpad and Archive of Our Own.

The last 10+ years of the internet have been a story of centralization and accompanying moderation struggles and ideological clashes. Our stance is simple: we think fans should be able to install modern software, which lets them post and curate fanworks, without needing a background in computer science. To achieve this goal, we built Ourchive.

https://getourchive.io/
https://ourchive.gay/

Still a beta. No solid rules yet. Will run on different software than AO3, and thus other people can make their own archives with the code. I follow a couple of people who are using the beta, and they seem excited to see the concept flourish. I know that some of the people in charge of Ourchive have their own critiques of AO3's culture and software, so it'll be interesting to see what changes they can make.

Random thoughts

These are irrelevant to the sites, they're just me musing on how I would use features. I don't want any of the sites to change their rules. I'm just thinking how I would fit myself in their rules.

Queerplatonic and adversarial relationships

A lot of the archives have adopted each others' relationship tags with ~ and vs.

Not sure if you can tag multiple types of relationships with the same characters? FOR MYSELF I find that my relationships are like.. everything and nothing you know? So they ain't exactly romantic but they ain't exactly platonic but they're probably rivals but ain't exactly queerplatonic 😏

I would def tag something as / and vs for villain ships for example.

It brings up a lot more questions about tagging for stuff like one-sided crushes, or those vague wiggly non-relationships... again, it ain't exactly queerplatonic but not exactly romance or sex 😏 Stuff like my Scout sneaking peeks at his mom's boifriend and then growing up and fucking a dead octopus because of his fucked up unmedicated memories.

This is an example where concise tagging CAN help certain people, or be too restrictive for other people (me). It's that issue that people like me have when the dropdown menu says "are you Male, Female, or Non-Binary?". Sometimes you want the "Refused to comply with question so you better just guess and get it wrong no matter what you say" option cuz everything else is uncomfortable 😉

The vagueness of just "/" slash tag was enough to sink in any other site's tagging conventions? But the specificity of the other relationships make me feel like I wouldn't fit in "/" if people expect it to go in "~" but I don't think it goes in either at this point LOL.

Just tism thangzzz, i'm sure if i asked the ppl would clear it up (but i'd also probably just post my work on my own site where i don't have to ask about tagging LOL)

Required archive warnings

The strong encouragement to lock also confuses my tism cuz ... so lock it or naw? Like you really want me to lock it, but what if I didn't? Would I get vilified in Goodsprings? Would the head honchos remember that and squint at me for not complying with heavily recommended social rules?

Not sure what the 'Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings' tag is for if many many things need to have the tag 🤔 maybe it's just leftover in the code that they can't get rid of LOL.

I kinda get where a lot of these sites are going with forcing underage sex works to be locked. Cuz the internet is getting a lot more restrictive, some countries don't allow certain things, laws are in effect in certain places that force you to doxx your ID, etc. It ain't the wild wasteland anymore where you're going to be goatse'd with boku no pico on public youtube.

It also (willem voice) HARKens back to da days where more fic/art sites WERE locked. Like guns n' roses RPF sites where you had to ask for the password or solve a 5-part puzzle lol. I can see a lot of people complaining cuz they're used to just posting boku no pico penis in public on twitter, but ya know IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS 👴

The end.. for now?!

I'm glad to see more alternatives and forks! With the constant collapse of social media for the last decade, I do believe that "decentralization" is a good thing. There's not gonna be one killer app, we should have multiple websites for different specific things that can all communicate with each other. I'm not rooting for one site over the other, I want everyone to succeed especially those making changes and new things to fit their own needs😃

For those looking for different systems and countries of origin, here's a much longer list of fiction archives, put together by which ones support the fic-downloader eBook program "FanFicFare". I haven't looked into many other sites besides the old, unupdated classics like fanfiction.net or adultfanfiction, so I don't have many thoughts on them.