New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on February 7, 2023) follows:

Archive of Our Own (AO3) is a non-profit, open-source, fan-created archive for fanfiction and other fan works. It is renowned for its user-friendly design, inclusive policies, and an enormous library of works.

Users can post, share, and discover fan works in a number of fandoms using this platform that was developed by the Organization for Transformative Works.

Archive of Our Own (AO3) shutting down

Recently, several individuals have begun asking questions on social media platforms concerning Archive of Our Own (AO3) shutting down (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8).

AO3 Shutting Down
Source

This rumor has grown stronger as a result of the ongoing issues the website has been having that have caused outages for the past few days.

While this is still going on, several others (1,2) have been making constant attempts to put an end to these rumors and have advised others not to trust anything until it has been officially communicated.

word on the street is that ao3 is shutting down???……. WHAT ABOUT MY VILLANEVE FICS ????
Source

ao3 shutting down is not funny guys i cant go back to fanfic dot net i cant go back to wattpat I DONT KNOW LIFE BEFORE AO3 PLEASE GUYS PLEASE
Source

Last week, AO3 confirmed going through slowdowns that have since been fixed. And just yesterday, the company also released a new muting tool that hides content by users you specify.

AO3 support
Source

If anything, it is possible that these background changes could partly be the reason behind the recent interruptions or outages that AO3 has been going through.

We anticipate AO3 informing its users as soon as possible, just as they did in 2015 when similar rumors first appeared.

That said, we’ll keep track of the situation and post an update if and when there are any further developments regarding the matter.

Update 1 (March 21, 2023)

11:41 am (IST): Users are again talking (1, 2, 3) about AO3 shutting down, however, it only seems to be a rumor. The website won’t shut down, at least not anytime soon, and here’s possibly why.

AO3-shutting-down
(Source)

Update 2 (July 10, 2023)

05:29 pm (IST): Currently, AO3 platform is unavailable, but it is due to outage, and there is still no official news about a possible shutdown yet.

Update 3 (July 11, 2023)

08:54 pm (IST): AO3 servers are still down, however, its not due to shutdown. The support team has confirmed that the servers are down due to DDoS attack. Also, they still haven’t provided any ETA for the fix.

03:45 pm (IST): Users are looking for AO3 alternatives after the website went down due to DDoS attack. You can check out the alternatives here.

Update 4 (July 12, 2023)

08:37 am (IST): The AO3 team has disabled some sections or options on the website while they continue to work on fully resolving the DDoS attack.

We’ve temporarily disabled the ability to request a new account invitation as a preventative measure due to a spam attack. Apologies for the inconvenience! We’ll let you know when it’s back.
Source

We have also temporarily disabled the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports page due to this spam attack — again, our apologies for the inconvenience, and for the alarming error message it currently displays!
Source

Update 5 (July 13, 2023)

01:07 pm (IST): According to the latest status provided by AO3 support team, the DDoS attacks hasn’t completely stopped yet. However, they are doing their best to keep the website up with minimal disturbance.

Update 6 (July 14, 2023)

03:38 pm (IST): AO3 website is now available in a more stable way, although some features are still disabled.

Update 7 (July 28, 2023)

02:53 pm (IST): The presenting of KOSA bill has made some speculate that Archive of Our Own (AO3) might shutdown.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Karanjot Sidhu
963 Posts

A computer science engineer who loves tech and won't stop talking about it. Here at Piunikaweb, I mostly cover Google Pixel deals and how-tos, though you may find me covering Pixel news as well sometimes. Apart from being a nerd, i love gaming and watching movies in my free time.

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