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I have a feeling what I'm about to say is really going to upset you.

(Because the answer is yes.)

But in any case; you do not get to tell the Archive what is and is not allowed to be on there. It tells you. Its not Wattpad. Its not a cutesy little social media platform or literature site like GoodReads.

Its an Archive. By using it, you're consenting to existing in the same space as "that stuff."

Its kind of like.... Lets say going to a museum. When you're looking at mummies and shrunken heads and bones, you're looking at dead people.

You don't get to go the museum and demand they remove the dead people because its uncomfortable and upsetting to you, right? Museums showcase history. When you go to a museum you're consenting to seeing dead things. Dead people.

AO3 is the same. Its an Archive. It was created because censorship is impossible to control. There's a saying that censorship is a beast of insatiable hunger that will consume everything, and its because its true.

Wattpad, for example. Wattpad's rules state no pedophillic content. Which is fine, right? You think its fine.

Until people push for any content involving "underage appearing" characters and people to be removed because its (not) pedophilia.

Until people push for queer content involving twinks to be removed because its (not) pedophilia.

Until minors writing fanfiction about other minors get banned for (not) being pedophiles.

Just recently Wattpad underwent yet another purge where thousands of works were removed for "violating terms" that the content wasn't even close to violating. It was just "too close" for their business partners and the people giving them money and the bigots banding together to apply pressure because that's a tactic that has worked for them in the past.

The Archive does not bend to such pressure. It will not, and it cannot. And it shouldn't.

You can't pick and choose with censorship. You can't control it. You can't stop other people taking a rule you made and twisting it and breaking it apart and using it against content you had no intention of affecting.

Especially in an era where the word 'pedophilia' has been watered down and butchered into an unrecognisable version of its true purpose. 16 & 18 is considered pedophilia by some. 21 & 40 is pedophilia to some.

How can you control what is encompassed as 'pedophilia' if people can't even agree on the definition?

But also;

AO3 gives you a multitude of ways to avoid that content. If you're not using them, that's a user fault. If someone hasn't properly used the Archive warnings, you can report it so its corrected. But AO3 can't help you if you're choosing not to apply filters and properly curate your searches.

I hope this doesn't come across as an attack, because it isn't. I know for a lot of people it can be hard to wrap your head around the entire legal and societal mess that encompasses why AO3 exists in the state that it does. But I can promise you that AO3 is one of the last standing pillars against what would effectively destroy fan-made literature and content as we know it.

I suggest research into the current legal mess that is forced censorship on sites like Tumblr, OnlyFans, Patreon, even in places like schools and community clubs.

Censorship is not (always) a good thing. Everyone is all too happy to push for things they dislike to be removed until someone else is pushing for something they do like to be removed.

"Why can't the freaks on AO3 just go and make a site for all the gross stuff and leave AO3 alone."

Because AO3 is that site. Because AO3 was that site long before you decided AO3 was better than the sites you bullied us off of before, and I can promise you if someone somehow comes up with a fanfic site you like better specifically for the 'gross stuff' you'll try to bully us off that too so you can benefit from it.

AO3's specific core purpose is to preserve fanfiction, yes, but it was also instigated as a host site for the fanfiction that kept getting yeeted off other platforms like Wattpad. Its designed to preserve all fanfiction, not just the fanfiction you, personally, think is 'allowed' to be written.

AO3 is the site for all the gross stuff the freaks make. We've been there just as long as you. We've been funding it just as long as you have. AO3 has specifically said you have a place here. The timeline was literally:

Wattpad/FF.net/LiveJournal purge fanfics > AO3 is born > The people who's fics got purged moved over to AO3 > AO3 gains popularity as the best functioning site > The people who pushed for the fics to be purged off Wattpad move to AO3 > The same people try to push for AO3 to purge fics.

AO3's source coding is open-access. You go make a polished, strict, rigid site where nothing 'icky' is allowed. You go make a site where you can control what is hosted. We already have our space.

Under Siege

There was no reason to attack, but it didn’t stop them. Some said they rode under a false flag, but it mattered not to those of us that suffered the onslaught. The reality was the same no matter who led them; the community was under siege, and there was nothing we could do to stop it. The hours passed like molasses, one bleeding into another as we waited anxious for news that the invaders had been repelled. As the day came to a close, we went to bed with heavy hearts, to sleep, to dream of a better tomorrow where AO3 was back online.