Fan fiction site AO3 offline, could take up to four weeks to recover

What's new

Archive of Our Own, known as AO3, a large fan fiction website, has gone offline after a security incident. TechCrunch reported that the site could stay down for up to four weeks. Engadget reported the outage as well, saying the site's data appears to be safe. Neither outlet has identified what caused the problem.

Why it matters

AO3 hosts a huge library of stories written by fans, and its community is very active. Readers who depend on the site for stories, bookmarks and their own writing may not be able to access it for weeks. Users who keep copies of their work elsewhere may want to check that their content is safe.

What others say

TechCrunch said the site's status page posts drew millions of views within two hours of the announcement, along with a great deal of worried commentary on social media. Engadget framed the outage mainly around the recovery timeline and the unknown cause.

What we don't know yet

The cause of the security incident has not been made public. It is also unclear whether the four-week estimate will hold. The reports say the data is intact, but that claim has not been confirmed by the site's operators in these sources.