fanfiction.lol Release Notes

Over the last day the archive was hit by a wave of copy-paste comments claiming someone's work would make a great graphic novel or webtoon and inviting the author to discuss it on Discord. These are spam that appear on many AO3 forks, and they're not real offers. Basically a one-trick pony. Please do not believe these claims, do not click any links, and do not take the conversation off-site.

We've removed the existing spam and put stronger filtering in place (Akismet plus a local keyword filter) to catch future spam. Comments from guests and new accounts are now checked more aggressively.

If you spot a spam comment that slips through, please report it using the Report Abuse link or email mail@brennanbrown.ca. Including the comment URL or a screenshot is helpful.

Thanks for helping keep fanfiction.lol safe!

We've just fixed one of our most-requested features: importing works from Archive of Our Own now works properly.

Previously, when you tried to import a fic from AO3, you'd get an error message saying the URL was "for a work on the Archive" which was a leftover from the original AO3 codebase that fanfiction.lol is built on. The code thought it was still running AO3 and blocked you from importing from itself. Whoops.

That's been fixed. Here's how it works now:

To import a work from AO3:

1. Go to Post → Import Work
2. Paste the AO3 work URL (e.g. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12345)
3. Select a language and hit Import
4. Review the preview: your title, summary, tags, fandom, characters, and relationships will be auto-filled from the original work
5. Post it!

A few things to know:

• The work will be posted under your account, so please only import your own works, or works you have explicit permission to repost
• Works that are restricted/login-locked on AO3 can't be imported (AO3 won't serve us the page without a login)
• Multi-chapter works need to be imported one chapter at a time for now
• The original publication date from AO3 is preserved

If you run into any issues, let us know via the Support link in the footer.

We have a few new updates on the tagging system! These differences are more subjective, and depend more on the content of the works, so it's highly encouraged to tag your fics accordingly for accurate filtering. As is our standard policy, you are not required to use archive formatting, but it is still highly encouraged to make your tags clear enough that they can be sorted according to the guidelines.

First: We've divided AUs into two subcategories. One is "Setting Change" and the other is "Modified Canon." The main difference between the two is that the latter uses canon as a base, and makes changes to it, whereas the former takes some type of new setting and adapts the characters and possibly events to it.

The easiest way to know which tag to use: if you were introducing a new character, would the 'default' version be the canon version of them (or fairly similar), or an alternate version of them? Another method: if you were to describe your AU, would you describe the ways in which you change the canon universe, or describe how you'd change the characters to fit the new setting?

For more info, we have a more in-depth explanation in the FAQ. Please only use the dedicated Alternate Universe version of a tag if neither Modified Canon or Setting Change fits. …