AO3 outage could last up to four weeks

Archive of Our Own (AO3), a major fan-fiction website, was taken offline shortly after 3 a.m. ET on October 29. The Organization for Transformative Works, the nonprofit that runs the site, had initially planned a 12-hour maintenance window but later said restoration could take about two weeks and as long as four. It hopes to bring the site back sooner with some features unavailable or limited.

In a subsequent update, AO3 said it was responding to a security incident and still assessing its scope. The site said it did not believe its user database had been stolen and advised users to change their passwords as a precaution. The nonprofit has not publicly detailed the cause of the outage or the work underway to resolve it.

The shutdown prompted fans to share reactions and assemble online collections of links to stories they had saved, describing them as survival guides. AO3 hosts fan works inspired by books, films, television and other media, and is operated by volunteers and supported by donations. Its status updates said the site could be brought back temporarily in a degraded state, with further outages possible while the issue is addressed.