This Extract From Darkness By Lord Byron Describes Perfectly How I Feel Since I Can't Read My Fanfics

This extract from Darkness by Lord Byron describes perfectly how I feel since I can't read my fanfics because ao3 is not available. All is misery and agony.

download ur fics!

Looks like the 200 good omens fanfics that I had downloaded "for later" on my laptop will be very useful during the next weeks.

(Remember, it doesn't help if you try to log in ao3 every five minutes. Just wait until they announce that the problem is solved please ❤️)

Yes, Ao3 is down because of a cybersecurity attack.

Yes, the group is claiming to be Sudanese Muslims (Sudan Anonymous). No, this is not true.

This group has been identified as a Russian hacker group intent on sowing dissent between the world under the guise of “strengthening Middle East relations”. They targeted Ao3 because of its pro-LGBTQIA+ stories. Again, they are Russians sowing anger.

Do NOT be Islamophobic. Do NOT use this as an opportunity to whine about how you didn’t have time to finish reading a fic.

Ao3 is run by volunteers who are currently under siege by Russian hackers. Take this time to step back from the site, appreciate their work, write your own fics, or read a physical book.

If I see ANY Islamophobic rhetoric by any of my followers, I will pop your dumbass into my shit list and block you into the high heavens.

time to actually write that cool (in my head) and long MHA fanfic that's been cooking for so long but ive never gotten to writing it cus the only 5000+ plus words i have on it disappeared with my now burnt 10+ yr old laptop

(def not gonna have several mha wiki tabs open for Research Purposes and not get started n e way)

this exactly: remainder that people will find a way!

can't help but think like, bro. if you wanted to attack the archive, good job i guess?

but if you actually wanted to erase the queer + nsfw + queer nsfw content that ao3 houses...good fucking luck, dude (sarcastic).

people are always going to create. people are always going to be exploring the meaning of humanity or morality or any complex emotion through their art.

governments and groups alike have tried to censor literature in history. that sort of sentiment has indeed led to book burnings and regimes and horrible ways of attempting to control the human mind. but do you know what it didn't do? it didn't fucking stop those writers. it didn't stop their responses. it didn't stop efforts to restore and preserve after the worst had passed.

like, if that is your unironic objective for this whole situation. i don't know what to tell you. lol. humans, we are always going to create. queer people, we're always going to have pride in our identity and expression. authors and artists and creators, we are always writing and drawing and creating for ourselves, for our inquiry, and for our communities.

if ao3 really goes down for a prolonged period of time, people will find other ways. if you take away one website, people will move to others. if you take every one of those down (and i hope it drives you bankrupt doing so), then, eventually, people will create their own archives. online. in real life. of course it won't be the same. and it'll be difficult. but, i guess my point is that we won't stop.

like imagine telling a human to stop making art. lol. companies will stop doing something if it doesn't make a profit, but we aren't creating for money. what we're creating for, our causes and motives and passions, are things a cyber attack/acts of hate will always fail to stifle and take away.

Oh my god. Guys. Stop panicking.

Genuinely, yes, Ao3’s current situation is bad. But please recognize that I could not care less about the fact that you, specifically, cannot read your little gay ship. So many of the posts I’m seeing as focusing on the fact that they can’t get their entertainment. Meanwhile, I’m seeing:

My friend get harassment due to AO3 being down because of being a Muslim.

Similar amounts of racism and Islamophobia being completely brushed under the rug because somehow people feel justified by a name of a hacker to suddenly be a bigot because of it.

People saying they’ll kill themselves/kill others to get ao3 back (please seek counseling or therapy or something yall)

The dread I’m facing of the possibility of AO3 collapsing, not for the loss of entertainment, but for the loss of information; too many people haven’t backed up their fanfictions, which is a very very bad idea. Please back up your fics and keep copies elsewhere. That’s history!

Your blorbos will be fine. The real life people impacted by this will not be. Please have compassion for your fellow person, rather than focusing on how you won’t get to finish reading your smut fic for awhile.