FanFiction.Net
FanFiction.Net is an automated fan fiction archive site. It was first launched in 1998 by software designer Xing Li, and currently has over 12 million registered users.
The site is split into main categories: Anime/Manga, Books, Cartoons, Games, Comics, Movies, Plays/Musicals, TV shows, Crossover, and Miscellaneous. Users who complete the free registration process can submit their fan fiction, maintain a user profile, review other stories, apply for a beta reader position, contact each other via private messages, and maintain a list of favorite stories and authors. There are centralized communities and forums. In lieu of signing up with a new account, the website allows users to use their Google, Facebook, or Twitter accounts. The site also owns a Twitter account called FictionPress where users of the website are updated on changes and improvements made.
While Fanfiction.net is still prolific as a viable source of fanfiction creation, the site has shown a decline in popularity due to a number of factors such as a lack of updates, an outdated system, rampant advertisements, and restrictions on types of fanworks.
History
Xing Li, a software developer from Alhambra, California, created FanFiction.Net in 1998. Initially made by Xing Li as a school project, the site was created as a non-profit repository for fan-created stories that revolved around characters from popular literature, films, television, anime, and video games. Registration was open to all people who claimed to be over 18, and by 2002 over 118,000 people were registered. At that time, one-third of the registrants self-identified as 18 or younger, and 80% were female.Features
Fanfiction.net provides a number of options that login users can use to create stories and interact with both fans and fellow authors.Private messaging
This feature is separated into two categories: Inbox and Outbox. While its function may be self explanatory, it is important to note that authors may receive a private message from anyone who has an affiliated account. In addition to this, there is no report button affiliated with this feature. Fortunately, blocking a user stops them from leaving PMs and reviews. There is also a way to disable private messaging. By clicking on account settings, under Account Options, the author may choose to either accept or decline PMs. Additionally, the site has a feature that filters basic profanity for both incoming reviews and PM messages.Forums
The author can create up to 10 forums for personal use and can optionally link a forum to a specific category. The site asks that forums must adhere to the rules that both complies to terms and service and creates a nontoxic environment for other users. The rules are:- Forums are not to be used to post stories.
- All discussions, language and content, must be suitable for teens.
- The owner/moderator of this forum is solely responsible for content posted within this area.
Polls
Authors may create up to 25 polls for personal use. This feature is primarily used to discuss topics within a forum of one's fandom of primary interest. All votes are confidential and protected. Neither the poll creator nor the voters are able to view the individual votes or voters. Only the total number of voters are revealed. The author has the option to enable "blind" polls. In a blind poll, live poll results are not accessible to the voters. Poll result is only available to the public when the poll has been closed.Reader feedback
Readers can interact with the FanFiction.Net content in various ways. If the reader likes a story and its author, they can favorite both the story and its author. Favorites are similar to likes, hearts or Archive of Our Own's kudos. Favorite stories and authors are displayed on a user's public profile page at the very bottom. A reader can also follow a story or its author. When a reader follows a story, they receive email notifications whenever that story is updated. When a reader follows an author, they receive email updates whenever the author updates any of their stories or publishes a new one. Readers can also leave reviews after reading stories, most of which were positive as of 2001. While reviews can be left by those without accounts, it is an option for all writers on the site to moderate "anonymous reviews", made by those who are not signed into an account. Reviews left by signed-in users cannot be moderated or disabled. FanFiction.Net does not operate a screening or editorial board.Most popular sections
As of October 8, 2022, the top 20 fandoms on FanFiction.Net are :| Rank | Fandom | Category | No. of stories |
| 1 | Harry Potter | Books | 850K |
| 2 | Naruto | Anime/Manga | 442K |
| 3 | Twilight | Books | 223K |
| 4 | Supernatural | TV shows | 127K |
| 5 | Inuyasha | Anime/Manga | 122K |
| 6 | Hetalia: Axis Powers | Anime/Manga | 117K |
| 7 | Glee | TV shows | 107K |
| 8 | Pokémon | Games | 106K |
| 9 | Bleach | Anime/Manga | 85.6K |
| 10 | Percy Jackson and the Olympians | Books | 80.9K |
| 11 | Doctor Who | TV shows | 76.8K |
| 12 | Kingdom Hearts | Games | 74.3K |
| 13 | Fairy Tail | Anime/Manga | 69.2K |
| 14 | Yu-Gi-Oh! | Anime/Manga | 68.3K |
| 15 | Sherlock | TV shows | 59.8K |
| 16 | Star Wars | Movies | 58.5K |
| 17 | Lord of the Rings | Books | 58.1K |
| 18 | Dragon Ball Z | Anime/Manga | 54,7K |
| 19 | Once Upon a Time | TV shows | 53.2K |
| 20 | Avengers | Movies | 51.8K |
Community
Authors can create or edit a community, which are essentially custom archives organized by active members containing hand-picked stories from community volunteers. If an author creates a new community, they will be able to hire and manage a group of community staff members who will moderate entries to the community archive. The author can hire and delete any staff or story in the community while also checking its statistics, which details how popular their community is.Traffic stats
This feature allows the author to monitor how often their stories, profile, and community are being visited by readers. The author can filter the month they would like to view and even see a breakdown of the number of views and visitors they receive from a different country of origin.Site content
The stories published to the site can be about new and old existing works. By 2001, almost 100,000 stories were posted on the website. Steven Savage, a programmer who wrote a column for FanFiction.Net, described it as "the adult version of when kids play at being TV characters" and that the content posted on the website serves as examples for "when people really care about something". FanFiction.Net has since become the largest online repository for fan-created works.FanFiction.Net also hosts one of the longest works of fiction ever written. The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest, a Super Smash Bros. fan fiction written by FanFiction.Net user AuraChannelerChris, gained media attention for its length of over four million words at the time of notice, more than three times as long as In Search of Lost Time written by Marcel Proust. The Loud House: Revamped, a fan fiction published by Jamesdean5842 and mainly centered around the animated television series The Loud House, was written from 2017 to 2024. It was 16 million words long by 2022 and over 30 million upon completion, claimed by The Spectator Australia to be "the longest fiction work in the history of the world".
Story publishing
FanFiction.Net has nine categories for various fandoms: Anime/Manga, Books, Cartoons, Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, Plays/Musicals, and TV shows. Stories on the site can be published as either "Fanfiction" with only one assigned sub-category, or as a "Crossover" with only two sub-categories. Excluding crossovers and as of July 2023, the top fandoms on the site are Harry Potter, Naruto, and [Twilight (novel series)|Twilight].Writers may upload their stories to the site and must assign them a sub-category, language, and content rating. FanFiction.Net uses the content rating system from FictionRatings.com. This system contains the ratings of K, K+, T, M and MA. The MA rating and explicit violent or sexual themes are forbidden. The ratings are no longer done on the MPAA system, due to cease-and-desist demands from the Motion Picture Association of America in 2005. A list of explanations for the rating system currently employed is available from the drop-down rating menu in each of the individual archives on the site. The MA rating is not permitted on this site. A short K-rated summary is also required for a story to be published. While not required, the website recommends authors upload a cover image to their story.
Fanfiction ratings
Ratings on Fanfiction.Net work like this:- K: it is the equivalent of a G rating, with a general lack of violence or adult themes. Fanfics with this rating are suited for all ages, and are generally recommended from ages 5 and up.
- K+: it is the equivalent of a PG rating, with some violence or strong language justified by the context, with content that may not be suitable to young children. Fanfics with this rating are recommended from ages 9 and up.
- T: it is the equivalent of a PG-13 rating, with more detailed violence and a higher presence of mature themes, though nothing too explicit. Fanfics with this rating generally have content not recommended for children under 13.
- M: it is the equivalent of a R rating, with more explicit adult content and themes, frequent coarse language, drug use and references to sexual violence. Fanfics with this ratings have content that is not suitable for children under 16.
- MA: it is the equivalent of an NC-17 rating, not suitable for minors. Fanfics with this ratings have explicit adult content, including sexual content. As of 2005, fanfics with these ratings are forbidden.
Banned content
Through the years after its conception, FanFiction.Net instituted several policy changes as it grew in size and popularity. As a result, it placed restrictions on the types of fan works that could be posted on the site.Copyright and trademark infringement
Since the site's founding, several professional authors and producers have asked that stories based on their copyrighted or trademarked works be removed, including Anne Rice, P. N. Elrod, Archie Comics, Dennis L. McKiernan, Irene Radford, J.R. Ward, Laurell K. Hamilton, Nora Roberts, Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb, Robin McKinley, and Terry Goodkind.In addition, stories based on real-life celebrities were disallowed around 2003. Fan fiction based on professional wrestling, however, is still allowed, being the number one fandom in the "Miscellaneous" category.
Explicit fiction
On September 12, 2002, FanFiction.Net banned material that was rated NC-17, and removed it on October 12, 2002. This was done because of a high volume of complaints related to certain adult stories. Prior to the new policy, the site would use a pop-up to prompt readers to say whether they were over 17 or not, but since then, the site has relied on its users to report stories that are inappropriately rated. Story titles and summaries must be rated K.FanFiction.Net experienced a temporary shutdown for two days in July 2024 due to a policy update regarding explicit content and depictions of child abuse.
CYOA (choose your own adventure) and reader-insertion fiction
Choose-your-own-adventure and reader-insertion fanfiction have both been banned since 2005, and the site removed all material that had the potential of inserting the reader into a fanfiction. Under the heading of "Entries not allowed", item #5 says: "Any form of interactive entry: choose your adventure, second person/you based, Q&As, etc."Songfics
In 2005, FanFiction.Net banned "songfics", a type of fanfiction which frequently contains copyrighted song lyrics. Public domain lyrics or lyrics written by the author of the fan fiction are allowed.Lists
The official Fanfiction.net Content Guideline states that lists fall under the line of non-stories, along with bloopers, polls, previews, challenges, author notes, etc, thus they are not allowed on the site.Reception
At first, FanFiction.Net's server was accessible mainly only in the West, and worked poorly, if at all, in other parts of the world. In late 2006, announcements were made of special web links designed for Europe and Asia. These were supposed to give other areas of the world a significant boost in server speed on the website. In 2007, all three web links were combined under one worldwide link. In an announcement on the home page, it was stated that the site would go global that year. As of October 2023, 44% of FanFiction.net users are from the United States of America with the second highest traffic area being the United Kingdom with approximately 6% of the users.According to Hitwise, as of August 2007 FanFiction.Net comprised 34.7% of all traffic directed to sites in the Entertainment, Books and Writing category. For the week ending August 25, 2007, the site was ranked 159 out of over in terms of hits.
While the site is primarily used for recreational use, researches have been considering bringing fan fiction use into classrooms. Fanfiction.net provides many avenues of communication for its users, making it a primary subject of consideration. Due to the site's demographics leaning primarily towards women, researchers have also considered fan fiction as an online organization that could potentially be utilized for feminist thought and discussion. However, ultimately, in this current age, online relations have become more prevalent, and the manners of how interaction influences creative thought has been a significant role of Fanfiction.net's user activity from when it was conceived to now.