People Are Creating ‘Survival Guides’ to Cope With the ‘AO3 Apocalypse’

In a major blow to both the terminally online and the criminally horny, the fan fiction website Archive of Our Own (AO3) has temporarily shut down due to a “security incident,” according to an update posted on the site.

对于那些终日沉迷网络和满脑子黄色废料的人来说，同人小说网站“我们的档案”（AO3）因“安全事件”暂时关闭，这无疑是一个沉重的打击。根据该网站发布的最新消息，目前网站已无法访问。

On October 29, an admin for AO3 posted that the website was “down for maintenance.” The statement said that it could take up to four weeks for service to be fully restored, though it was possible the site would be back up in a “degraded state” sooner, with some of its features disabled.

10月29日，AO3的一名管理员发布公告称网站正在“停机维护”。声明表示，服务完全恢复可能需要长达四周的时间，尽管网站也有可能在更早的时间以“降级状态”恢复上线，届时部分功能可能会被禁用。

Though the original statement did not specify the reasons for the closure, subsequent updates said that a “security incident” had taken place, though “we are still in the early stages of response [and] determining its scope.” While the statement said that AO3 did not believe that its user database had been stolen, it urged users to exercise caution and change their passwords for the site.

虽然最初的声明并未说明关闭的具体原因，但后续更新称发生了一起“安全事件”，不过“我们仍处于响应的早期阶段，正在确定其影响范围”。声明还表示，AO3认为其用户数据库并未被窃取，但仍敦促用户保持谨慎并更改网站密码。

Run by the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving fandom communities on the internet, AO3 was founded in 2007 in part due to concerns about censorship and corporate interests overtaking fandom spaces. The website has 11 million users, according to a 2026 press release, and hosts more than 18 million original works. The explosive popularity of the gay hockey romance Heated Rivalry TV series generated a surge of new interest last year, resulting in the publication of tens of thousands of stories featuring the show’s main characters, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, on the platform.

AO3由致力于保护互联网同人社区的非营利组织“转型作品组织”（Organization for Transformative Works）运营，成立于2007年，部分原因是出于对审查制度和企业利益侵占同人空间的担忧。根据2026年的一份新闻稿，该网站拥有1100万用户，托管了超过1800万部原创作品。去年，同性冰球题材浪漫剧集《激烈竞争》（Heated Rivalry）的爆火引发了新一轮的关注热潮，导致平台上出现了数以万计以剧中主角谢恩·霍兰德（Shane Hollander）和伊利亚·罗扎诺夫（Ilya Rozanov）为核心的故事。

Those reliant on AO3 for their daily dose of Destiel- or Dramione-inspired smut are not taking the news well. “No ao3 for possibly 4 weeks SOMEONE DO SOMETHING,” one Heated Rivalry fan account posted on X, tagging not just AO3 itself but also the official X accounts for the FBI, the CIA, and, for some reason, Uber Support. Other fans are compiling Google Docs of links to downloaded stories, touting them as “survival guides” for the “AO3 apocalypse” and organizing them by fictional character pairings, or ships. (Be warned, however: One such doc is difficult to load due to “heavy traffic” on the file.)

那些依赖AO3获取每日“Destiel”或“Dramione”同人色情文学的精神食粮的人们对这一消息感到难以接受。“AO3可能要停摆4周，谁来做点什么吧，”一个《激烈竞争》的粉丝账号在X上发帖，不仅艾特了AO3官方，还艾特了FBI、CIA，甚至不知为何还艾特了Uber客服。其他粉丝则在整理包含已下载故事链接的谷歌文档，将其吹捧为“AO3末日”的“生存指南”，并按虚构角色配对（即CP）进行分类。（不过需要提醒的是：其中一份文档因为“流量过大”而难以加载。）

Others commented on the timing of the outage, pointing out that it coincides with “No Nut November,” the internet-based challenge that encourages people to abstain from masturbation throughout the month. “AO3 taking no nut november a little too seriously,” one person wrote.

还有人评论了此次停机的时间点，指出这恰逢“禁欲十一月”（No Nut November），这是一项鼓励人们在整个月内禁止自慰的网络挑战。“AO3把‘禁欲十一月’执行得有点太彻底了，”有人写道。

A representative for the Organization for Transformative Works did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the chaos inspired by the site’s shutdown underscores the prominence of fan fiction in everyday lives, driving mainstream publishing trends and generating hundreds of millions of views. It also serves as the engine for the burgeoning vertical video industry, with streaming platforms constantly scouring fan fiction websites for works to adapt.

“转型作品组织”的代表没有立即回应置评请求。但网站关闭引发的混乱凸显了同人小说在日常生活中的重要地位，它不仅推动了主流出版趋势，还创造了数以亿计的浏览量。它同时也是新兴短视频产业的引擎，流媒体平台不断在同人小说网站上搜寻可供改编的作品。

“All life forms dependent on AO3 are literally withering right now,” one fan wrote. “This is our 9/11.”

“所有依赖AO3生存的生命体现在真的都在枯萎，”一位粉丝写道。“这就是我们的‘9·11’事件。”