The outage lasted two weeks but full functionality is expected to resume soon.
After two weeks in the dark, popular fan fiction website Archive of Our Own (AO3) is back online. However, Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), the nonprofit organization that runs AO3, said that some features have been temporarily disabled as a compromise to bring the site back earlier than the four-week mark, according to an update post on the website. OTW said that features like icons and external work importing are currently disabled, while works can only be downloaded in HTML format. The organization clarified that these features will be restored and that no icons have been deleted.
AO3 was taken offline at the end of October due to “evidence of a security incident” that OTW said would result in two to four weeks of downtime. Now that the open-source fan fiction repository is back online, its users may still run into some issues, according to OTW. The organization said it implemented an “intentional measure to help manage traffic,” so users may experience delays with the website loading but can refresh to continue trying.
As for the site’s data, OTW said that none of it was deleted, adding that user “works, bookmarks, kudos, etc. are still safe.” OTW also managed to pause AO3’s draft deletion feature so that no drafts were deleted during the downtime. Users should log back in and check on their drafts, though, since the feature will turn back on starting November 29 so that drafts longer than 30 days old will be deleted.
It’s still unclear what the cause was, but OTW confirmed it was a “security incident” and that it would “not be sharing specifics about what mitigating changes are being made at this time.” OTW added that it partnered with a security firm to review the incident and analyze the site to prevent future incidents. The update post said that OTW has “no reason to believe that the user database was compromised, though we cannot rule out that possibility,” recommending that users change passwords, update linked emails and change passwords of any other sites that share a password with AO3 accounts.
