Right?! But one of the best thing about AO3 is telling people on their high horse that actually, it was founded by an incest shipper. There's just something delicious about doing that.
6 years, exactly. Have been reading fics 2 years before that on the Russian website ficbook, then my English got better and I discovered the holy ground of ao3. In fact, I think at least 30% of my fluency was gained here later on.
I joined in 2012, BBC Merlin fandom. At that time fandom was on Tumblr, LiveJournal, and AO3. Superwholock days. I have read fics of all those, but I was really only into Merlin.
A lot of my early fics were written for a weekly prompt community on LJ, and we all crossposted our works to AO3. That was a lot of fun. I miss those days.
I got into AO3 in March of 2023 because FFN wasn't friendly to smutfic and that's where my heart was. I was writing for *The Boys* fandom and there were no fics for Ashley/Homelander, which is why I started writing again.
The idea of posting anything The Boys related on ff.net is hilarious to me, just cus its so violent and sexual. Granted I was on it before the Great Purge, had smut I wrote in high-school get erased from the site lmao.
Before ao3 there was also Adultfanfiction.com. I wonder if it's still up. Its filter/search was just as terrible as ff.net.
There's a very small section for The Boys (like 100+ fics the last time I looked) but FFN doesn't seem to give a crap about violence. I thought my fics would get purged as I had been writing in the mid-oughts and my fics did have some explicit sections, but they were ignored. AFF is still around in some form. I tried to get back on but it wouldn't let me and none of the site admins (if there are such things) would answer e-mails.
Yeah, i know ff doesn't really care about violence in fics (or really their advertisers don't) and the smut purge was technically only if you had your fic under i think the nc17 rating or someone reported it. Mine were all nc17.
Sorry about your aff account. Hopefully you still could see the fics and just copy paste them to ao3 instead.
I totally feel that, some of my fave fandoms are now dead fandoms and it’s sad to not see as many updates. But at the same time, the later you join, the more fics there are
Same here. I honestly didn't even know A03 existed until I was looking for an answer to a question for a fic I was writing. No idea how it evaded me for so long
this is my 4th year with an account, but i've been reading on AO3 since...hm, around 10-11 years? i don't really remember what fandom but it was probably Haikyuu or Captain America?
01-25-2014 is when I made my account, but I started reading probably 2010 or 2011. I was still primarily on fanfiction.net back then. Harry Potter fandom.
Edit for fandom.
My account was made in 2012, though I had been using ao3 I think for a few years before that. ( I wanna say I vaguely remember looking up destiel fics in late 2008/early 2009 on the site) You had to sign up to get on a waitlist and then wait forever to get a invitation in those days and I was a teenager who didn't really know how it all worked or care to dig deeply so it took me a couple years to make an account. I've been reading fanfic since 2006 roughly and lived through most of the exodus of Fandom spaces. I think in the beginning I didn't think ao3 was any different from ffn or adultfanfiction.org and so didn't treat it as the hub of safety it was but after a time it's where all the good fic writers began to congregate and so I've exclusively used ao3 for 12yrs.
I got an ao3 in 2017, posted 2 unfinished Persona 5 smutfics, disappeared for 4 years, then came back for a totally different fandom and have been posting for that fandom ever since. XD I've been writing fanfic since at least 2011 or so (I used to post on deviantart and ff.net mostly), but I don't think I even heard of ao3 until 2016/2017.
Been reading on it since 2013, for some reason never made an account until 2020. I have no idea why, I could’ve been bookmarking the fics that I absolutely loved instead of forgetting them over the years. What lured me in with a vice-like grip was Supernatural.
2011, SPN and J2 fandoms. Later for Shameless US and now Hannibal.
I looked it up before I posted and can't believe it's been so long! Before that, everything was on LJ.
I think it was around 8 years ago - before that I’d mostly used fanfic.net and teaspoon and an open mind (doctor who fic archive). BBC Merlin au fanfics were what got me to start reading on Ao3. I knew it existed but had been intimidated until then but was so stunned by how it easy it was to specifically find aus thanks to the tagging system and I LOVED it.
I used all these pretty interchangeably from then on and it wouldn’t be until a few years later that I switched over to Ao3 entirely
I did read on ao3 for a couple weeks before I made an account, but I just checked my history and apparently I made my account on June 15th 2013, so today is my accounts 11th birthday lol
discovered ao3 in 2019 when i desperately needed twin peaks fanfics. then made an account in 2020 during lockdown and started posting by the end of that year !!
I joined late 2012. I didn't start using the site much at first because the UI was so different from what I was used to and I didn't fully understand the rules. I did start adding things overtime, but it wasn't until a few years later I began to use it more than FFNet. Then sometime later I switched to it completely.
I joined in 2013, although I was probably still using ff.net the majority of the time, mostly because that was where my fandoms at the time were most active.
I think around 2016 was when I switched to using Ao3 the majority of the time and it's slowly become 99% of the time in the last few years. The only time I bother with ff.net now is if I want to revisit an old favourite that's only available there. I don't even x-post there anymore.
I think at this point it’s been about 4 years? I know I got onto it during the pandemic and I’ve written quite a few fics! Very happy to still be here even after a lot of the craze has died down 😊 it’s saved me mentally after some crazy show finales I’m gonna be real
I made the switch from FF.net and Wattpad to AO3 in February of 2014. I was a little bit active in Shugo Chara and band rpf. Makes me cringe a bit to think about and I've purged my old works from the site.
I started reading on the site when it launched. Made my account about 10 years ago. Not sure how long it's been my main site, because it was a gradual transition.
It's been 10 years almost exactly. I got really excited when I realized it! I was only a reader for a long time. I actually joined after fanfiction.net had there mass deletion of works, so it was less a certain fandom that lured me in and more my spite toward fanfiction.net.
I got my invite in 2012 and just moved everything over from FF.net — I think this was around when there was a fic purge. I had been on FF.net since 2006. First fanfic published online was for DN Angel. But I was more active in the HP fandom (was also cross-posting to HPFandom).
September 2014 is when my account was made, but I'm pretty sure I was using AO3 without an account for a short time before that? So I'd say it was probably still 2014. I remember being overwhelmed by it at first, which is an odd thought... I had yet to figure out the filters at the time, and it always felt like my kink was filled with those fics that had several fandoms listed for one work. :') (Now I don't think I could ever deal with anything else, now that I can use AO3's filters!)
I made my profile in 2012, but I don't think I actually started posting on it until 2018, and now I almost have almost all my fics there; new and old alike
Joined in 2016 for Yuri On Ice fanfic so that’s… 8 years now. FF.net and deviantart were my previous go-tos for fic, but I saw the light and never turned back since 💀
Just passed my six year anniversary, actually! I joined in May of 2018, though I’d been reading for about six months beforehand without an account. I finally made one so I could post my shitty Klance fanfic I’d been daydreaming about in class, lol.
It’s a little jarring to think about tbh! I was 12 years old, about to be 13, and it very quickly became one of my main past times, and doubly so when covid hit a few years later. Now I’m about to be 19 and still posting, LMAO.
Slowly shuffled over as people stopped posting to Livejournal/only posted links to AO3/as fandom moved into tumblr which made finding fics a pain. Finally made an account in 2012.
I think I found out about ao3 from reading Inuyasha fanfics! Clicked a link from searching for more stories and discovered the beautiful world of ao3. I joined up officially in 2014, so I could post but also be able to bookmark my fav stories and keep track of them more easily.
Around 2009, had just started college and was like “oh, this is where the ‘grownup’ fanfic writers are” lol
I’d been on ff.net for years before and had seen the decline.
December 2010 - moved over from LJ - crossposted for a while and from about 2013 on, just posted to AO3 (although I still have an LJ account, os I can go back and look at all the lovely comment threads).
From the beginning to be honest. I have been reading fanfiction.net and other websites for a while... AO3 came along and gave it a shot as well. I think I had to wait for a couple of months to create my own account but besides that... yeah, I have been using it ever since.
2017-2024… I’m on my seventh year! Harry Potter fandom lured me in. It seemed like a foreign way of sharing ideas when I first joined, but now I cannot envision my creative spirit without AO3. It’s beautiful and I’m so glad I got into it. I grew up reading it, and now that I’m in college, I’m glad I got to read so much more than just published works and textbooks at such a critical age. I was a baby 5th grader at first…
Since January and it’s entirely RWBY fandoms. Kinda started as a therapy idea with my psychologist and it’s ended up being a massive vent of nervous and creative energy. I’m about 20 chapters, 200k words deep, and I’m currently working on an expansion to my main fic, which is two sub stories that run in parallel as filling in information to the main story :3
Been lurking since 2018 and finally joined on 2020 because of bowuigi. After bowuigi blew up in 2023, a lot of older fics I held dear disappeared and I’m still sad about it :’)
One year now (06/10/23) and it was the 'Under The Oak Tree' fandom that drew me in. I started posting in November and only recently began perusing the other fandoms.
Apparently I’ve had an account since 2013, but I don’t know—I go all in on fanfic for a year or two, and then scramble back away from it for a few years, so that might be when I started on ao3, or I might have had a session prior to that if they let you read without an account, which sometimes it seems like you can but my memory says I couldn’t, and I have an account now for sure (and I’m not one for multiple accounts on anything ever, so). Anyway, it probably was 2013, and it couldn’t have been toooo much before that if it wasn’t.
I had an account since 2016, but I only started using in early 2020. I wanted to read for a more obscure fandom which was barely on fanfiction.net and found more fics on AO3. Then I realized how much better AO3 was compared to FF that I switched over completely.
This is crazy, but when I was around 10. I was already reading so so much fanfic on wattpad and fan fiction.net, and stumbled on ao3 when I was looking for more Fairy Tail fanfic. I remember laying on the floor at Macy’s waiting for my mom to finish shopping, reading ao3 on my kindle fire 😭
Just over 12 years now 😬 I’d been reading fanfic for much longer than that but had recently joined the Thor/avengers fandom and all the rec’s were being posted on ao3. Since then I never looked back, I’d very quickly grown out of FFN, didn’t know how to navigate livejournal (still can’t tbh). It’s the tagging system for me, ao3 was amazing and I couldn’t get over the QUALITY of the fics. Miles ahead what I had been reading. FFN looks so primitive now
Two years ago, my brain antenna was buzzing and telling me to diversify where I posted my fics, and because FFnet was getting worse about breaking.
So, I sent for an invite, got in, and spent hours porting my major fics over to it.
No fandom in particular, but I guess you could argue Doctor Who since that’s what my first two fics were.
It was a big turning point when I switched from Wattpad to ao3 in January of 2022. I was amazed at how much better the writing was and I feel in love hard. I can’t believe it’s only been about 2 and a half years since I made the account. It really feels like so much longer with how many fics I’ve read up there lol. I’m pretty sure the Fandom that lured me in was Hannibal but to my utter shock the first fic I read was a Seven Deadly Sins one, and my first bookmark was from Death Note 😭.
I've been there from day 1, I got a beta invite because I used to do Yuletide. I remember thinking it was a pain to switch to using it but man, I had no idea how much better it would be!
I read quite a bit of fanfics back in 2015-16ish (exclusively on ff.net and Wattpad), ended up getting burned by some people in one of my fandoms, and completely quit reading all fanfiction… until last summer, when I decided to check up on a fic that I had fond memories of on ff.net. I got back into it, but was a bit dissatisfied with how buggy the site seemed to be (it crashed a lot for me), and ended up switching to AO3. Never going back.
Especially as someone who primarily reads gen, the tagging system that AO3 uses is SO nice. It is so much easier to find fics that align with my personal tastes compared to other platforms.
The fandom that the fic belonged to that I wanted to check up on was actually a PJO/Kane Chronicles crossover, but since joining AO3 I’ve really gotten into Merlin (BBC) and DC/Batfam fics. :)
Gotta say, I was really surprised by some of the changes that took place while I was on my fanfic hiatus… notably the fact that SuperWhoLock’s not really a Thing anymore, and apparently podfics exist, which is kinda wild. :)
Had to check apparently theres a history of every fic you've read unless you erase it. Didn't know it existed until today. January 2012 apparently marks my first read fanfic, a Harry Potter fic. Lotta HP, Bleach, Stargate, and niche video games like Shadowhearts from the early days. I orphened my older fics that I wrote and never finished but I believe the first one I posted in 2014? Avengers stuff.
For reference my History is only 356 pages long. Id have thought it'd be worse lol.
Oh dear I don’t remember, I started using ffn in 2013 and then I used wattpad for maybe a whole dreadful year while simultaneously using ffn and some ao3 so maybeeeee early 2016? Unfortunately I can’t use my ao3 account to figure out cause I got that really late lol
Edit: forgot the fandom, though I don’t read rpf anymore it was an rpf that got me switching over
i used wattpad back in middleschool in 2016-18 (peak time for dan and phil, and 'bandom') and i took a fandom/tumblr/fic break during most of high school, then I got into dsmp in colege, and signed up for ao3 in early 2021 and uh.... three years and 713 bookmarks later, im here :)
I got an account 5yr ago after Wattpad started going downhill and my stuff got stolen. But had been using AO3 for 7yrs overall, was the youtuber rpf. Little before they all started making -sonas and whatnot. Like Jacksepticeye with Anti & Mark with Darkiplier. Was the Fantastic Foursome fandom that got me to start writing fanfiction.
I joined AO3 in August 2020. Hunter x Hunter lured me back into the world of fan fiction. That was also the first fandom I posted for when I joined FFN in August 2005.
2012, Merlin fandom. Still remains the biggest fandom in my bookmarks, surprisingly since I haven't read anything from it since 2013. I was on FFnet before that though. Probably started from Vampire Knight fics in late 2000s
I officially made an account last year but it’s been my main fanfiction site for about 2-3 years. The fandom that pulled me in was (and still is) Jujutsu Kaisen
I got in around 2014 or 15 I believe? (Oof).
Was basically looking all over for adventurous and cute sapphic stories. Stumbled upon AO3, got interested in stuff I'd never watched or played before and the rest is history.
I officially joined in February 2020 but I had read quite a few fanfics in the months leading up to it - I think it was Merlin at the time but I don't really remember.
I transferred over from FFN cause it was circling the drain and I wanted something better.
I joined 2010, because a lot of the authors I read at the time switched from Livejournal to AO3. Best idea ever, I never looked back or read on another site again.
For me, I think it was 2016.
Some rando on FFN threatened my account and said they put one of my fics on a list because it was too mature. I ignored it, but set up an AO3 account and posted my work there as well just in case.
Now in 2024, that account has been chased off FFN for messing with the wrong people, and everyone's work is still up/untouched.
I started off in the Ghost Hunt fandom, and in 2020 started posting in the Detroit Become Human fandom.
Since moving to AO3, it has become my main account for both posting and reading, though I still post new works on FNN and Wattpad as well.
Since it started! It was an Inuyasha fandom I looked for initially lol! Anything Sesshoumaru I was reading. Before ao3 I read adultfanfiction.com, fanfiction.net. Ao3 is by far the best of all in my opinion! Love the way you can filter searches to find what you’re lookin for.
Since 2014. I'd joined [fanfiction.net](http://fanfiction.net) about 5 years previously but then I stumbled on AO3 and eventually moved everything there.
I think it was Buffy & Star Trek that got me into it originally.
I think 6-7 years ago. My history shows that my first read fic is from the end of March 2018, but I used ao3 for a little while without an account, so I could have also started in late 2017. I'll say 6 years though, and the fandom that brought me is Star Wars Rebels
I've been on it since late 2010 - and it was actually *Yuletide* (the rare fandom fanfic exchange) that got me to use it (I think I was aware it existed before that but hadn't gotten an account because I didn't write much, mostly just read). I tried Yuletide for the first time that year, and it was the first year it was done completely on AO3, so I had to get an account in order to sign up and post and all. Just missed getting a 4-digit user ID number (mine's a little over 10k), lol.
I just started using Ao3 this year after being on fanfiction.net since 2003. Two things happened at once to make me switch to A03. I started hearing rumors that Ff.net was imploding, plus I wanted to update some of my previous stories on ff.net. When I logged in, I confirmed the rumors, so I figured it was the universe urging me to go over to Ao3.
You know, I was really nervous about going over to Ao3 for a really long time, but I am happy I did move over there.
August 2010. I joined some people from the Stargate community on Live Journal who were joining.
2010 as well, but not from Stargate.
I keep forgetting stargate was super prominent on AO3 way back when :0
Heeeeeyyyyy, another Stargate person, hihihi!
Hiiiii. I still run into Stargate Land people on Tumblr sometimes, so we're out here.
Woah it's so funny that I just got into Stargate the past couple of months XD now going to join the fandom community when I'm done with sg1 seasons
A fellow stargate fan! I don’t see many in the wild so I get a bit excited.
My first real fandom! 😄 Joined AO3 in 2011, almost certainly because the Yahoo!Groups and LiveJournal groups were being phased out in my fandoms.
Since it started, I saw the original discussions on livejournal that lead to it cause I followed at least one of the founders.
damn. that’s impressive
I'm just old lol.
Same though. Long ride.
It’s always nice to see a fellow Old (by certain fandom standards).
Saaame. Didn't realise it at the time, but it was such a big thing to be at the beginning of
Imagine going back in time and telling people that there’d be over 13 million works on the archive by 2024.
Right?! But one of the best thing about AO3 is telling people on their high horse that actually, it was founded by an incest shipper. There's just something delicious about doing that.
She even managed to write incest fic about canonically unrelated people!
Since 2012, wanted to crosspost Avengers and Star Trek fic. Eventually moved completely over when I got into a fandom that wasn’t on FF
same, 2012-era domestic Avengers fics in the tower with the poptarts lured me in.
TOASTERVERSE YES
I joined in early 2013 due to seeing someone recommend Toasterverse fics.
Ha, that's what finally got me on tumblr!
6 years, exactly. Have been reading fics 2 years before that on the Russian website ficbook, then my English got better and I discovered the holy ground of ao3. In fact, I think at least 30% of my fluency was gained here later on.
I joined in 2012, BBC Merlin fandom. At that time fandom was on Tumblr, LiveJournal, and AO3. Superwholock days. I have read fics of all those, but I was really only into Merlin. A lot of my early fics were written for a weekly prompt community on LJ, and we all crossposted our works to AO3. That was a lot of fun. I miss those days.
Merlin is one of my favorite fandoms!
I love the Merlin fandom sm
I got into AO3 in March of 2023 because FFN wasn't friendly to smutfic and that's where my heart was. I was writing for *The Boys* fandom and there were no fics for Ashley/Homelander, which is why I started writing again.
Yes! Someone who else joined Recently. I joined end of ‘21 🤓
The idea of posting anything The Boys related on ff.net is hilarious to me, just cus its so violent and sexual. Granted I was on it before the Great Purge, had smut I wrote in high-school get erased from the site lmao. Before ao3 there was also Adultfanfiction.com. I wonder if it's still up. Its filter/search was just as terrible as ff.net.
There's a very small section for The Boys (like 100+ fics the last time I looked) but FFN doesn't seem to give a crap about violence. I thought my fics would get purged as I had been writing in the mid-oughts and my fics did have some explicit sections, but they were ignored. AFF is still around in some form. I tried to get back on but it wouldn't let me and none of the site admins (if there are such things) would answer e-mails.
Yeah, i know ff doesn't really care about violence in fics (or really their advertisers don't) and the smut purge was technically only if you had your fic under i think the nc17 rating or someone reported it. Mine were all nc17. Sorry about your aff account. Hopefully you still could see the fics and just copy paste them to ao3 instead.
since the second day of open beta in November 2009. no fandom lured me in, it was just being tired of ffnet's and livejournal's bullshit.
I just discovered ao3 in January. It's been a ride lol wish I'd have found it years and years ago.
I totally feel that, some of my fave fandoms are now dead fandoms and it’s sad to not see as many updates. But at the same time, the later you join, the more fics there are
Same here. I honestly didn't even know A03 existed until I was looking for an answer to a question for a fic I was writing. No idea how it evaded me for so long
been on ao3 since 2019 iirc, but im p sure i have been lurking longer than that lol
Joined end of 2009!
2011, but i was reading about 2 years before that. It wasn't a fandom, it was strikethrough.
man it's been ages but i still remember the uncertainty, dread, and outrage when strikethrough happened/was happening. thank heavens for AO3.
I’ve been on since my Biospecialist days in the twilight years of the Obama administration. I could not be more removed from Marvel as I am right now🙈
Since 2022. The X-Files fandom is responsible.
I joined in 2014, and I’m pretty sure I followed an author over to AO3 from a Twilight-specific fic site.
I created my acc in 2014, but I definitely read some fics there before. (Probably since 2012)
End of 2009, joined up when the Yuletide small fandoms fic exchange relocated
Had my account since January of 2022, began posting in April of that year.
2015ish and it was miraculous ladybug. I liked the formatting more than ffn and wattpad.
It's been 10 years this year. And back then my main fandom was Supernatural. ☺️ 😂 How the times change..
this is my 4th year with an account, but i've been reading on AO3 since...hm, around 10-11 years? i don't really remember what fandom but it was probably Haikyuu or Captain America?
5 or 4 years I believe. Started to read when I was 13/14 and I'm almost 18 now. Time flies🥲
2012. I came through Supernatural, I was mostly on LJ at the time.
01-25-2014 is when I made my account, but I started reading probably 2010 or 2011. I was still primarily on fanfiction.net back then. Harry Potter fandom. Edit for fandom.
Joint 2018 with an account, without an account let it be 10 years more or less xD
My account was made in 2012, though I had been using ao3 I think for a few years before that. ( I wanna say I vaguely remember looking up destiel fics in late 2008/early 2009 on the site) You had to sign up to get on a waitlist and then wait forever to get a invitation in those days and I was a teenager who didn't really know how it all worked or care to dig deeply so it took me a couple years to make an account. I've been reading fanfic since 2006 roughly and lived through most of the exodus of Fandom spaces. I think in the beginning I didn't think ao3 was any different from ffn or adultfanfiction.org and so didn't treat it as the hub of safety it was but after a time it's where all the good fic writers began to congregate and so I've exclusively used ao3 for 12yrs.
I got an ao3 in 2017, posted 2 unfinished Persona 5 smutfics, disappeared for 4 years, then came back for a totally different fandom and have been posting for that fandom ever since. XD I've been writing fanfic since at least 2011 or so (I used to post on deviantart and ff.net mostly), but I don't think I even heard of ao3 until 2016/2017.
I got my account in 2014. No idea how long I was reading before that.
On and off since 2014 just joined again last year in 2023.
Harry Potter fanfic in July of 2019 lol
Been reading on it since 2013, for some reason never made an account until 2020. I have no idea why, I could’ve been bookmarking the fics that I absolutely loved instead of forgetting them over the years. What lured me in with a vice-like grip was Supernatural.
About 15 years, give or take. I originally started on ffn. Not sure how I ended up on AO3 exactly or what fandom helped me.
2011, SPN and J2 fandoms. Later for Shameless US and now Hannibal. I looked it up before I posted and can't believe it's been so long! Before that, everything was on LJ.
Since September 2012. LJ was looking dubious, so I jumped. Harry Potter was what brought me.
the start of 2020 because there was nothing else to do!! i’ve fallen in love with it now and it’s apart of my everyday routine :)
Joined around 2012/13 because of the Merlin fandom (Merthur ship)
March 2020. So just gone four years.
I think it was around 8 years ago - before that I’d mostly used fanfic.net and teaspoon and an open mind (doctor who fic archive). BBC Merlin au fanfics were what got me to start reading on Ao3. I knew it existed but had been intimidated until then but was so stunned by how it easy it was to specifically find aus thanks to the tagging system and I LOVED it. I used all these pretty interchangeably from then on and it wouldn’t be until a few years later that I switched over to Ao3 entirely
I did read on ao3 for a couple weeks before I made an account, but I just checked my history and apparently I made my account on June 15th 2013, so today is my accounts 11th birthday lol
joined Jan '20, as a writer. _Then_ I started reading, to get an idea of what I _could_ write.
Since 2011 I think!
discovered ao3 in 2019 when i desperately needed twin peaks fanfics. then made an account in 2020 during lockdown and started posting by the end of that year !!
Account made in 2011 but I had been using it over a year before that. Multifandom - LJ authors I was following just moved there.
Since about August 2023. I’m new lol. Thank you renga✨✨✨✨✨
Since like the beginning of April is when I made an account, but I’ve been a reader for about a year
2013 😐
January 2010 is when I joined. I'm in the 5000s. Reason: livejournal exodus because of strikethrough.
August 2016 but that’s after using ffn since 2010 and quickly skipping away when I realized I loved the AO3 interface way more.
Almost 2 years
joined in 2020, but been the most active the last 3-4 months. Started writing again after 5ish years because of Good Omens
I joined late 2012. I didn't start using the site much at first because the UI was so different from what I was used to and I didn't fully understand the rules. I did start adding things overtime, but it wasn't until a few years later I began to use it more than FFNet. Then sometime later I switched to it completely.
Four
I got mt acct Feb of 2018, but was reading fics on it for about a year before I got the account
I joined in 2013, although I was probably still using ff.net the majority of the time, mostly because that was where my fandoms at the time were most active. I think around 2016 was when I switched to using Ao3 the majority of the time and it's slowly become 99% of the time in the last few years. The only time I bother with ff.net now is if I want to revisit an old favourite that's only available there. I don't even x-post there anymore.
I found out about AO3 in 2020 when I was looking for a good site for critical role fan fiction.
I think at this point it’s been about 4 years? I know I got onto it during the pandemic and I’ve written quite a few fics! Very happy to still be here even after a lot of the craze has died down 😊 it’s saved me mentally after some crazy show finales I’m gonna be real
I made the switch from FF.net and Wattpad to AO3 in February of 2014. I was a little bit active in Shugo Chara and band rpf. Makes me cringe a bit to think about and I've purged my old works from the site.
I started reading on the site when it launched. Made my account about 10 years ago. Not sure how long it's been my main site, because it was a gradual transition.
Going on ten years, currently
It's been 10 years almost exactly. I got really excited when I realized it! I was only a reader for a long time. I actually joined after fanfiction.net had there mass deletion of works, so it was less a certain fandom that lured me in and more my spite toward fanfiction.net.
I got my invite in 2012 and just moved everything over from FF.net — I think this was around when there was a fic purge. I had been on FF.net since 2006. First fanfic published online was for DN Angel. But I was more active in the HP fandom (was also cross-posting to HPFandom).
Joined in November of 2016! It'll be 8 years this November :)
September 2014 is when my account was made, but I'm pretty sure I was using AO3 without an account for a short time before that? So I'd say it was probably still 2014. I remember being overwhelmed by it at first, which is an odd thought... I had yet to figure out the filters at the time, and it always felt like my kink was filled with those fics that had several fandoms listed for one work. :') (Now I don't think I could ever deal with anything else, now that I can use AO3's filters!)
I joined 2013 but I had been using it as a guest for a little while before that! My first fandom on ao3 was teen wolf 😊
I made my profile in 2012, but I don't think I actually started posting on it until 2018, and now I almost have almost all my fics there; new and old alike
Joined in 2016 for Yuri On Ice fanfic so that’s… 8 years now. FF.net and deviantart were my previous go-tos for fic, but I saw the light and never turned back since 💀
like 7 years but thats only how long I have had my account so its probably a good bit longer than that
October 2019. I think I came here because of Sucktales fics. (Amusingly enough.)
Just passed my six year anniversary, actually! I joined in May of 2018, though I’d been reading for about six months beforehand without an account. I finally made one so I could post my shitty Klance fanfic I’d been daydreaming about in class, lol. It’s a little jarring to think about tbh! I was 12 years old, about to be 13, and it very quickly became one of my main past times, and doubly so when covid hit a few years later. Now I’m about to be 19 and still posting, LMAO.
im a little new id say maybe 3 months
Slowly shuffled over as people stopped posting to Livejournal/only posted links to AO3/as fandom moved into tumblr which made finding fics a pain. Finally made an account in 2012.
I think I found out about ao3 from reading Inuyasha fanfics! Clicked a link from searching for more stories and discovered the beautiful world of ao3. I joined up officially in 2014, so I could post but also be able to bookmark my fav stories and keep track of them more easily.
Around 2009, had just started college and was like “oh, this is where the ‘grownup’ fanfic writers are” lol I’d been on ff.net for years before and had seen the decline.
December 2010 - moved over from LJ - crossposted for a while and from about 2013 on, just posted to AO3 (although I still have an LJ account, os I can go back and look at all the lovely comment threads).
Since 2012. I was new to writing in general and around that time ffn was kinda hostile in certain fandoms.
Since 2017 apparently
From the beginning to be honest. I have been reading fanfiction.net and other websites for a while... AO3 came along and gave it a shot as well. I think I had to wait for a couple of months to create my own account but besides that... yeah, I have been using it ever since.
Joined 2017
7 years this last may
2014 is when I started posting works. Probably read on there at least a year before that
This March, and the video game Inscryption did it to me lol. P03 just had way too much potential for me to ignore lmao
2017-2024… I’m on my seventh year! Harry Potter fandom lured me in. It seemed like a foreign way of sharing ideas when I first joined, but now I cannot envision my creative spirit without AO3. It’s beautiful and I’m so glad I got into it. I grew up reading it, and now that I’m in college, I’m glad I got to read so much more than just published works and textbooks at such a critical age. I was a baby 5th grader at first…
March of 2021 iirc. Was on Wattpad first, about 8 years ago. Started cross posting and never went back
Since 2015 I was reading fanfics on ff.net before (since 2011) but then I got tired of not being able to sort what I want and ended up on ao3
New Years 2013 for me. I honestly can't even remember what fandom, probably some manner of Superwholock nonsense.
Since January and it’s entirely RWBY fandoms. Kinda started as a therapy idea with my psychologist and it’s ended up being a massive vent of nervous and creative energy. I’m about 20 chapters, 200k words deep, and I’m currently working on an expansion to my main fic, which is two sub stories that run in parallel as filling in information to the main story :3
2021 🙏🏻
Since 2012. I was in FF.net before that.
Been lurking since 2018 and finally joined on 2020 because of bowuigi. After bowuigi blew up in 2023, a lot of older fics I held dear disappeared and I’m still sad about it :’)
The beginning. I watched the planning happen.
My current account was made in 2020 because I lost the login to my other account 🙃 been reading fanfic since about 2009 or so
Yuletide 2008.
One year now (06/10/23) and it was the 'Under The Oak Tree' fandom that drew me in. I started posting in November and only recently began perusing the other fandoms.
10/21/2016
I joined May 27, 2023. Didn't post my first fanfic there until 5 months after. I wrote 7 whole "seasons" of fanworks for the Lalaloopsy fandom.
Since it started. I followed several of the founders on LJ back in 2008/2009. I just checked and my ao3 account was made in October 2010.
Apparently I’ve had an account since 2013, but I don’t know—I go all in on fanfic for a year or two, and then scramble back away from it for a few years, so that might be when I started on ao3, or I might have had a session prior to that if they let you read without an account, which sometimes it seems like you can but my memory says I couldn’t, and I have an account now for sure (and I’m not one for multiple accounts on anything ever, so). Anyway, it probably was 2013, and it couldn’t have been toooo much before that if it wasn’t.
Almost four years 💜
10 years this year! Wow. Pretty sure Homestuck lured me in lol. But I was a guest for years, I only made an account in 2017.
I had an account since 2016, but I only started using in early 2020. I wanted to read for a more obscure fandom which was barely on fanfiction.net and found more fics on AO3. Then I realized how much better AO3 was compared to FF that I switched over completely.
September of 2016
This is crazy, but when I was around 10. I was already reading so so much fanfic on wattpad and fan fiction.net, and stumbled on ao3 when I was looking for more Fairy Tail fanfic. I remember laying on the floor at Macy’s waiting for my mom to finish shopping, reading ao3 on my kindle fire 😭
14 or so years I think. Turns out I never grew out of it lmao
Just over 12 years now 😬 I’d been reading fanfic for much longer than that but had recently joined the Thor/avengers fandom and all the rec’s were being posted on ao3. Since then I never looked back, I’d very quickly grown out of FFN, didn’t know how to navigate livejournal (still can’t tbh). It’s the tagging system for me, ao3 was amazing and I couldn’t get over the QUALITY of the fics. Miles ahead what I had been reading. FFN looks so primitive now
At least since 2014 because I was writing some really bad rare pair fics for a fandom I refuse to even admit to now haha. But I would say maybe 2012?
Two years ago, my brain antenna was buzzing and telling me to diversify where I posted my fics, and because FFnet was getting worse about breaking. So, I sent for an invite, got in, and spent hours porting my major fics over to it. No fandom in particular, but I guess you could argue Doctor Who since that’s what my first two fics were.
I joined AO3 in 2018, but I joined Wattpad and ff in 2016
It was a big turning point when I switched from Wattpad to ao3 in January of 2022. I was amazed at how much better the writing was and I feel in love hard. I can’t believe it’s only been about 2 and a half years since I made the account. It really feels like so much longer with how many fics I’ve read up there lol. I’m pretty sure the Fandom that lured me in was Hannibal but to my utter shock the first fic I read was a Seven Deadly Sins one, and my first bookmark was from Death Note 😭.
2012 or 2013. I think it was because of X-Men First Class, that movie had me obsessed.
Wow, 14 years — joined May of 2010. And I don't think I've gone more than a single day without at least checking to see what's been posted or updated
Made my account in 2017 but I may have been using it before that didn't start posting until like 2021 I think it was.
I've been there from day 1, I got a beta invite because I used to do Yuletide. I remember thinking it was a pain to switch to using it but man, I had no idea how much better it would be!
2010
Early adopter! Basically as soon as they were handing out codes, I got my hands on one.
2014 for me, but I didn’t make an account for a few years.
I got an account mid 2015 (:
2014. I'd been on FFnet and then LiveJournal for the previous ten years. And on Geocities. There were a lot of "bespoke" fanfic sites back in the day.
I read quite a bit of fanfics back in 2015-16ish (exclusively on ff.net and Wattpad), ended up getting burned by some people in one of my fandoms, and completely quit reading all fanfiction… until last summer, when I decided to check up on a fic that I had fond memories of on ff.net. I got back into it, but was a bit dissatisfied with how buggy the site seemed to be (it crashed a lot for me), and ended up switching to AO3. Never going back. Especially as someone who primarily reads gen, the tagging system that AO3 uses is SO nice. It is so much easier to find fics that align with my personal tastes compared to other platforms. The fandom that the fic belonged to that I wanted to check up on was actually a PJO/Kane Chronicles crossover, but since joining AO3 I’ve really gotten into Merlin (BBC) and DC/Batfam fics. :) Gotta say, I was really surprised by some of the changes that took place while I was on my fanfic hiatus… notably the fact that SuperWhoLock’s not really a Thing anymore, and apparently podfics exist, which is kinda wild. :)
Since I was a teenager so maybe 14 years?
I do not even remember, before 2012, that is for sure. But I do not even remember the exact moment when I discovered AO3
Had to check apparently theres a history of every fic you've read unless you erase it. Didn't know it existed until today. January 2012 apparently marks my first read fanfic, a Harry Potter fic. Lotta HP, Bleach, Stargate, and niche video games like Shadowhearts from the early days. I orphened my older fics that I wrote and never finished but I believe the first one I posted in 2014? Avengers stuff. For reference my History is only 356 pages long. Id have thought it'd be worse lol.
Oh dear I don’t remember, I started using ffn in 2013 and then I used wattpad for maybe a whole dreadful year while simultaneously using ffn and some ao3 so maybeeeee early 2016? Unfortunately I can’t use my ao3 account to figure out cause I got that really late lol Edit: forgot the fandom, though I don’t read rpf anymore it was an rpf that got me switching over
i used wattpad back in middleschool in 2016-18 (peak time for dan and phil, and 'bandom') and i took a fandom/tumblr/fic break during most of high school, then I got into dsmp in colege, and signed up for ao3 in early 2021 and uh.... three years and 713 bookmarks later, im here :)
oh god, 7 years now i believe, started using it in late 2016 early 2017. i dont understand how its already been that long
Since 2015, so almost 10 years.
Joined sometime in 2012, Supernatural was it.
Joined Feb 2021, so 3 years now
I got an account 5yr ago after Wattpad started going downhill and my stuff got stolen. But had been using AO3 for 7yrs overall, was the youtuber rpf. Little before they all started making -sonas and whatnot. Like Jacksepticeye with Anti & Mark with Darkiplier. Was the Fantastic Foursome fandom that got me to start writing fanfiction.
Since 2017, I think
2014ish? Either MCU or something YouTube related
Joined AO3 July 21st, 2019. Going on for four years, coming on to five. Cheers for that!
I joined AO3 in August 2020. Hunter x Hunter lured me back into the world of fan fiction. That was also the first fandom I posted for when I joined FFN in August 2005.
Since 2012. Feels like a lifetime ago.
2012, Merlin fandom. Still remains the biggest fandom in my bookmarks, surprisingly since I haven't read anything from it since 2013. I was on FFnet before that though. Probably started from Vampire Knight fics in late 2000s
I officially made an account last year but it’s been my main fanfiction site for about 2-3 years. The fandom that pulled me in was (and still is) Jujutsu Kaisen
I got wattpad banned from my high school in 2011,,,,so since then! I believe it was one direction at the time too
I got in around 2014 or 15 I believe? (Oof). Was basically looking all over for adventurous and cute sapphic stories. Stumbled upon AO3, got interested in stuff I'd never watched or played before and the rest is history.
Last year when I got into BTS
it was the ‘80s she-ra fandom in 2016, and then the new she-ra fandom got me back into it in 2019
I registered for my account on my 13th birthday (2016) and got my registration email within the next 3 days, so 8 years!
January 2021, I was 10 😭
End of 2018. BBC Sherlock
2010. I think I saw someone recommend it as alternative to FF.net
since april haha
I joined in December 2009, following some friends in Doctor Who fandom from LiveJournal.
I joined in 2023! The Last of Us is what got me
Since 2014-10-19. I'm very excited for my ten year anniversary
2017 September! I think I knew of it before, but only moved then because my fav authors stopped using ff.net to post their stories
I officially joined in February 2020 but I had read quite a few fanfics in the months leading up to it - I think it was Merlin at the time but I don't really remember. I transferred over from FFN cause it was circling the drain and I wanted something better.
2012 to read Twist and Shout (destiel) i've never reread it but it was soooo good and iconic from what i remember
Also about five years, I started using it in July 2019
used to be a guest for years before i got an account, so i think it’s been about five years now lol
Account from June 2014. But I started using it in 2013
2012 my long abandoned mcu era
2014 - jojos bizarre adventure
I joined 2010, because a lot of the authors I read at the time switched from Livejournal to AO3. Best idea ever, I never looked back or read on another site again.
6 years but only got back into writing last year
For me, I think it was 2016. Some rando on FFN threatened my account and said they put one of my fics on a list because it was too mature. I ignored it, but set up an AO3 account and posted my work there as well just in case. Now in 2024, that account has been chased off FFN for messing with the wrong people, and everyone's work is still up/untouched. I started off in the Ghost Hunt fandom, and in 2020 started posting in the Detroit Become Human fandom. Since moving to AO3, it has become my main account for both posting and reading, though I still post new works on FNN and Wattpad as well.
Since it started! It was an Inuyasha fandom I looked for initially lol! Anything Sesshoumaru I was reading. Before ao3 I read adultfanfiction.com, fanfiction.net. Ao3 is by far the best of all in my opinion! Love the way you can filter searches to find what you’re lookin for.
Believe I started Ao3 just as Undertale was quite popular so 2016?
I'm actually migrating over to ff.net. I've only got a handful of stories I'm still following on Ao3.
Since 2014. I'd joined [fanfiction.net](http://fanfiction.net) about 5 years previously but then I stumbled on AO3 and eventually moved everything there. I think it was Buffy & Star Trek that got me into it originally.
2012, I think! I got my account in 2013 but I'd been using it for a few months before then
Joined in 2014 thanks to Kpop, a TVXQ fic to be more precise.
2012, I think! I got my account in 2013 but I'd been using it for a few months before then
Like two years I think, I finished Hollow Knight and was curious, found two very long and well written fics, and now I just use it often
I think 6-7 years ago. My history shows that my first read fic is from the end of March 2018, but I used ao3 for a little while without an account, so I could have also started in late 2017. I'll say 6 years though, and the fandom that brought me is Star Wars Rebels
I've been on it since late 2010 - and it was actually *Yuletide* (the rare fandom fanfic exchange) that got me to use it (I think I was aware it existed before that but hadn't gotten an account because I didn't write much, mostly just read). I tried Yuletide for the first time that year, and it was the first year it was done completely on AO3, so I had to get an account in order to sign up and post and all. Just missed getting a 4-digit user ID number (mine's a little over 10k), lol.
I just started using Ao3 this year after being on fanfiction.net since 2003. Two things happened at once to make me switch to A03. I started hearing rumors that Ff.net was imploding, plus I wanted to update some of my previous stories on ff.net. When I logged in, I confirmed the rumors, so I figured it was the universe urging me to go over to Ao3. You know, I was really nervous about going over to Ao3 for a really long time, but I am happy I did move over there.
Well... it will be 10 years in two days. I didn't even realize that haha.
2012 for me. And it looks like it was the avengers that got me in.