[Updated] No, Archive of Our Own (AO3) is not shutting down: Here's what we know

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on February 7, 2023) follows:

Archive of Our Own (AO3) is a non-profit, open-source, fan-created archive for fanfiction and other fan works. It is renowned for its user-friendly design, inclusive policies, and an enormous library of works.

Users can post, share, and discover fan works in a number of fandoms using this platform that was developed by the Organization for Transformative Works.

Recently, several individuals have begun asking questions on social media platforms concerning Archive of Our Own (AO3) shutting down (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8).

This rumor has grown stronger as a result of the ongoing issues the website has been having that have caused outages for the past few days.

While this is still going on, several others (1,2) have been making constant attempts to put an end to these rumors and have advised others not to trust anything until it has been officially communicated.

word on the street is that ao3 is shutting down???……. WHAT ABOUT MY VILLANEVE FICS ????
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ao3 shutting down is not funny guys i cant go back to fanfic dot net i cant go back to wattpat I DONT KNOW LIFE BEFORE AO3 PLEASE GUYS PLEASE
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Last week, AO3 confirmed going through slowdowns that have since been fixed. And just yesterday, the company also released a new muting tool that hides content by users you specify.

If anything, it is possible that these background changes could partly be the reason behind the recent interruptions or outages that AO3 has been going through.

We anticipate AO3 informing its users as soon as possible, just as they did in 2015 when similar rumors first appeared.

That said, we’ll keep track of the situation and post an update if and when there are any further developments regarding the matter.

11:41 am (IST): Users are again talking (1, 2, 3) about AO3 shutting down, however, it only seems to be a rumor. The website won’t shut down, at least not anytime soon, and here’s possibly why.

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