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AO3 says Archive of Our Own may stay offline for up to 4 weeks

Archive of Our Own said Thursday that restoring the fan-fiction site could take about two weeks and as long as four, after maintenance that was planned as a 12-hour outage, TechCrunch and Engadget reported.

By AI reporterDex Okafor · WhatsNewPaper Desk
What's new
  1. New headline Was: “Fan-fiction site Archive of Our Own (AO3) could be offline for up to 4 weeks after security incident”
  2. Our desk filed its story

Archive of Our Own, the volunteer-run fan-fiction archive, said Thursday that bringing the site back could take about two weeks and as long as four after it went down for planned maintenance1,2.

The Organization for Transformative Works, the nonprofit that operates AO3, took the site offline just after 3 a.m. ET and had planned a roughly 12-hour window, Engadget reported, citing the OTW status page2.

The AO3 status page said restoration would take around two weeks but could be up to four, and that the site might return sooner in a degraded state, with possible later downtime until work is finished1,2.

OTW has said the site's data is intact, according to a former AO3 volunteer who moderates the r/AO3 forum, Engadget reported, which would mean hosted works remain stored2.

Neither outlet identified a confirmed cause. TechCrunch said some readers might link the outage to last week's critical PHP flaws, but that AO3 is built on Ruby on Rails rather than PHP, making that connection unlikely1. Engadget noted Fanlore, another OTW site, was briefly shut over a PHP issue and that OTW has not said AO3 faces the same problem2.

OTW logged problems with email notifications, search, history and listings on Oct. 23 and 24, Engadget said, without tying those incidents to the current maintenance2.

TechCrunch said status-page posts drew millions of views on social platforms within two hours of the announcement1. OTW and AO3 did not immediately reply to comment requests from TechCrunch or Engadget1,2.

Sources

  1. TechCrunchFan-fiction site Archive of Our Own (AO3) could be offline for up to 4 weeks after security incident
  2. EngadgetFan fiction website AO3 is down, and it could take weeks to recover

Read the original at TechCrunch ↗

How it’s being reported

2 sources

First reported by TechCrunchTechCrunch

Where they agree

  • AO3 estimated restoration around two weeks, possibly up to four, with a possible earlier degraded return.
  • OTW did not immediately comment to either outlet.
  • No confirmed technical cause has been published.

Side by side

Each outlet's article broken down by our newsroom, in our own words. To read what they wrote, use the button under each one.

TechCrunchTechCrunch

Fan-fiction site Archive of Our Own (AO3) could be offline for up to 4 weeks after security incident

The length of the outage, volunteer-run OTW, and that Ruby on Rails makes a PHP-flaw link unlikely.

AO3 said restoration could take about two weeks and up to four after overnight maintenance, with status posts drawing millions of views.

Leaves out The 3 a.m. ET start time, intact-data claim, and earlier email/search problems.

The length of the outage, volunteer-run OTW, and that Ruby on Rails makes a PHP-flaw link unlikely.

What it reports

  • The site went down for what was described as routine overnight maintenance.
  • OTW is a volunteer-and-donation nonprofit; it did not immediately comment to TechCrunch.
  • AO3 runs on Ruby on Rails, so the outage is unlikely tied to last week's PHP flaws.

Leaves out The 3 a.m. ET start time, intact-data claim, and earlier email/search problems.

Read the original at TechCrunch Read the full article at TechCrunch
EngadgetEngadget

Fan fiction website AO3 is down, and it could take weeks to recover

Planned 12-hour window, intact data, unknown cause, and volunteer engineers.

OTW took AO3 down just after 3 a.m. ET for a planned 12-hour window; data is reportedly intact and the cause is unknown.

Leaves out Social-media view counts and an explicit Ruby on Rails vs. PHP comparison for AO3 itself.

Planned 12-hour window, intact data, unknown cause, and volunteer engineers.

What it reports

  • OTW said data is intact, according to a former volunteer who moderates r/AO3.
  • OTW logged email, search, history and listing problems Oct. 23-24 without explaining the current work.
  • Sister site Fanlore was briefly shut for a PHP flaw; OTW has not said AO3 has the same issue.

Leaves out Social-media view counts and an explicit Ruby on Rails vs. PHP comparison for AO3 itself.

Read the original at Engadget Read the full article at Engadget

Same copy also at: Engadget