Was thinking about this because I have a Tumblr dedicated to my fic and I need to do some serious reorganization/housekeeping… I post to AO3 but I also crosspost to Tumblr because I like having my own little space. I was thinking of using Neocities for a similar purpose but I have to do a lot of setup to get to the point where I can do that.
(This isn’t necessarily a “plug your fic” thread, more of a “what platforms do you like best” thread, but if you’d like to plug your fics, by all means, go ahead.)
I know a couple people who use neocities for this. It’s great if you know enough HTML/CSS to effectively design a site for it, or if you want to learn. The downside is it’s not a platform specifically focused around fanfiction sharing, so if you want interested parties to find your work you usually have to link it from elsewhere.
Another platform I’ve briefly looked into is Dreamwidth which is a LiveJournal successor. I had trouble getting into it, but I haven’t done a lot of writing since I started one, so maybe that’s a me issue.
I also posted on fannfiction.net and Ao3. They seem to be the main hubs in my experience. Tumblr was well after my time, and I’ve never really used it. Doesn’t seem like my thing.
A03 is probably where I would post general fanfiction, or offprint.cafe, but I’m not sure that ever got out of alpha.
However, I’ve generally ended up on fimfiction.net, which is generally a pretty great fanfiction site I’ve spent a lot of time on, except for the fact that it’s specifically for posting My Little Pony fanfic, and mostly oriented around G4.
At one time, there were plans to made a general fanfiction site based on the same code, as a lot of people wanted fimfiction, but for fanfiction based on other series, but it never ended up happening, though some changes to the site were clearly to make it easier to support things not involving ponies…
A lot of my experience moderating is from either running or being one of the admins in groups over there.
While I mostly read fic, when I do get around to writing something, I post it on AO3. It’s where I read too. I’ve tried some other sites too and apart from archives specifically for certain fandoms, AO3 is unparalleled in my experience, the tagging and search functions are amazing. I like to use Tumblr to find fics though, sometimes, even if I don’t particularly like the layout for reading longer texts
Neocities is definitely an option if you want a personal archive. I’ve found plenty of old Geocities sites from the 90’s and 2000’s, both archived and moved, and you don’t have to be great at coding to keep things organised. If you want, I can send some examples.
I exclusively use AO3 because it really is the best one. I used to post on Wattpad before it became overrun with ads and basically unusable. I know some people still use fanfiction.net and LiveJournal, but after multiple purges they’re not very popular anymore. AO3 has the best tagging and filtering system, which is great for organisation. It’s also the least likely to randomly delete your works, but you should still keep a backup somewhere, just in case.
I’ve found that people who use Tumblr for fic generally have a blog dedicated to it, whether or not they post everything there frm the get-go, but you have to be on top of your tagging system.
Dreamwidth is great, but it’s not somewhere you post for engagement. A lot of fandoms events are still hosted primarily on there, though they generally allow you to post your works elsewhere.
There are also some fandom specific sites still up and running! Most of them are in various levels of decay and upkeep, but many are still useable. I’m sure you can find at least a few Doctor Who ones focused on different characters, eras, and ships. They tend to have minimal filtering (but still some) and are unlikely to delete individual works but are at risk of the whole site disappearing overnight. Some of them are also security risks, so use a unique password.
I use AO3. I have a neocities, but the work it took to import all of my stories (and keep the list updated) was incredible, so I stopped a quarter of the way through. If you only have a handful of stories, that option is fine, but if you have a great number of them, it becomes a lot of work.
For Doctor Who-specific fic, there’s teaspoon, but I don’t use it because (1) everything has to be approved by the mods before it can be posted and (2) they have strict guidelines. I’m not interested in that kind of platform.
I have a Dreamwidth account, but I never really got into the swing of posting there. Every so often I think maybe I’ll try again and I don’t.
I haven’t read a ton on fimfiction (I am only tangentially into MLP) but it does seem like a pretty great site. Cool that it exists. I do also think fandom-specific archives are neat in general.
I have a blog dedicated to it, and I crossposted most of my Doctor Who fics when I made it, but the reason I made this post was that I realized my directory post was really out-of-date, and maybe I want to redo it/reorganize some things, but that takes a lot of work! One thing I want to do is have masterposts for all my series and chaptered works. I have them for a few (especially the more recent ones) but not all.
I would be interested in your examples!
Yeah, I have quite a few fics, so I would have to decide which ones to move and how to organize them, and I would have to dedicate a good bit of time to it. I’ve considered using it as an opportunity to revise/rewrite some of my old favorites, though.
I never considered posting on Teaspoon, so I didn’t realize everything had to be approved by the mods… that’s an impractical way to run a site. Part of why I enjoy having my own space for it is that I don’t have to worry about all that.
I’ve seen people go about importing three ways: they either post on AO3 and link it to their site, they download the html file from AO3 and then host that on their site, or they just copy/paste their work from their editing software onto their site. You can choose which one better fits you, but either way, if you have a lot of stories importing by hand will take forever haha. If AO3 had a bulk download feature, it would speed up the process, but they don’t.
I personally wouldn’t suggest using Dreamwidth. Not only does that site have tumbleweeds everywhere, you’re limited to the basic profile formatting which doesn’t work well with hosting fanfic unless you’re doing the first option posted above or unless your stories are incredibly short (so then you could add them directly into a post—basically the third option listed above).
Fanfiction.net is where I usually post my fics but I recently started using AO3. I prefer ff.net’s filtration system which makes it easier to find stories with specific characters. There are aspects of AO3 that aren’t on ff.net that I like. I want to cross post between the two in the future.
i dont post much fic since im shy so im not sure how good what i post to is for you (+ it may not fit your needs like i feel it fits mine) but im trying to post what i make to dreamwidth
i use it since im not the most comfortable w the idea of random people being able to stumble upon my stuff every day, so i feel it gives me some protection from that. + i cant see view count so i cant get overwhealmed by a bunch of people seeing it or upset about no one looking at it
Oh, I’m not really asking for advice, I’m just curious what works for other people, so your response is very welcome! Posting to Dreamwidth makes a lot of sense if you feel better knowing your readers and not being able to see all the metrics AO3 gives you.
