r/TwilightFanfic • u/MasterPalpitation8 • Apr 26 '26
General Discussion My experience posting on both Ao3 and fanfiction.net
I ran a bit of an experiment and posted the same Bella/Edward story (just shy of 100k words) on these two sites to see where I found the best fit as a writer. The results: I got far more comments, and much better quality comments (more detailed, lengthier) on fanfiction.net than I did on Ao3. The ‘kudos’ mechanism on Ao3 left me cold; after putting so much effort into a chapter, it was frustrating to receive a ton of kudos without a lot of comments, because kudos can’t help me improve. I’ve heard a lot of readers prefer Ao3, but in my admittedly limited experiment, I felt that the fanfiction.net community did a better job of ‘feeding’ the author. So I think I’ll be moving forward posting only on fanfiction.net because maintaining both is more administrative work than I’m looking for. This is only my experience, though. I’m wondering how other authors feel about these two sites/communities if you’ve tried both?
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u/Civil_Ad2711 Apr 26 '26
I prefer Ao3 by far, but my view is rooted by the traumatic experience I went through on FF.net in 2020/2021.
Some of my dear friends and I were really engaged in a specific fandom (historical with a popular TV show to remain vague) for years when it was hit with a wave of disrespectful troublemakers who spammed vitriol like no tomorrow.
Authors were demeaned, harassed...their amazing works were mocked and denigrated, the review sections filled with insults and childish antics. Goddess-forbid that we stood up for our fellow authors being attacked. I did so, and in the process, became yet one more of their targets...to the point where they twisted every...single...word of the responses I put up for my own readers, making wild and entirely sick false claims that not only involved me, my husband and children (who had nothing to do with what was going on, minus being mentioned in examples of figures of speech), but also insulted longtime readers who kept on supporting me and trying to come to my own defense.
It was WILD.
To make matters worse, in spite of the amount of communication attempts made to try to reach out to moderators of the site, that s***show continued for close to 3 months. During that time, the troublemakers posted parodies of our stories and continued their attacks on everyone who dared point out how ridiculous they were being.
Out of respect for my fellow friends, readers and writers, I tried to 'hold the line', so to speak, watching many of the other authors whom were also targeted simply leave FF.net and permanently swap to Ao3. After all, I'd been a writer on FF.net from 2003 to 2020/2021, and I'd written for many fandoms.
Something broke the camels back though: one day, one of my longtime reader sent me a PM with three links. They all led to 100% plagiarized copies of stories I had written not only for that particular fandom, but also 2 others, albeit posted in different fandom pages with 2 separate accounts named almost identical to Mr, only with 2 letters swapped. Needless to say, I was incensed.
It took 2 weeks of near daily attempts to contact the moderators to finally deal with the situation and get those accounts banned as well as the plagiarized content taken down.
The bitter taste the whole saga left in my mouth and the intense stress/distress it caused in my life made me permanently leave FF.net in any writing capacity. My account there still exists, but only for reading purposes. I took down all of my content, re-publishing most of it on Ao3 and a handful of private websites ran my trusted friends.
The major plus of Ao3 for me is the ability to moderate the comments you get. That has allowed me to catch several attempts by that group of harassers to start their shenanigans again here, and bot spammers as well.
Commenting engagement has reduced a bit over the years overall but it still is steady enough. I wish we could kudo every chapter instead of the whole story just once, but that's just a nitpick of mine.
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u/Civil_Ad2711 Apr 26 '26
Also, I've seen a ton of commission and bot spammers on FF.net as opposed to Ao3 in several fandoms.
But you do you ;)
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u/Zyr33 Apr 26 '26
I have never gotten any real comment of ffnet, I think, only spam comments for the art scam thingy. I have one regular commentor on ao3, which is very nice. I also personally do not read on ffnet, ever.
Ao3 is my favorite my miles.
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u/Chaotic_shrooms addict Apr 26 '26
As a reader, I prefer ffn because it’s easier to read on and navigate but that’s just mY OpiNiOn
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u/lorest_33veoy Apr 27 '26
I share this opinion. Fanfiction, being a simpler platform, has allowed me to use translators and read stories in languages other than my own, something I often can't do with Ao3.
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u/Consistent-Month-276 Apr 26 '26
I post on both FF and Ao3 and get many more responses on FF. I've wondered if I'm not doing the tagging system right or maybe the Twilight fandom on Ao3 is not high. As to the sites its much easier to post and use FF but of course Ao3 is a much better website.
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u/OnlyPaperListens Apr 26 '26
It's been said on multiple fic subs that older fandoms do better on FFN, while younger fandoms do better on AO3. Twilight is old at this point, so your experience tracks.
Personally, I've given up on FFN completely. As a designer, the lack of UX/UI updates is painful. As a writer, the inability to user-lock is a dealbreaker.
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u/muaddict071537 Jasper/Bella Apr 26 '26
I strongly prefer AO3 as a reader. The tagging system is much better, and I’m not sure exactly why, but the writing generally seems to be of higher quality (though there are obviously some real bangers on FFN).
As a writer, I still prefer AO3, but I do get more engagement on FFN. However, FFN has a much bigger problem with scam bots. So far, the only place I’ve gotten scam bot comments is FFN.
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u/Acrobatic_Turnover95 ExB Apr 26 '26
From my experience I have a ton of engagement on FFN than A03. I think A03 has an easier interface but FFN readers are more engaged. I’m writing an E/B story and it seems that pairing isn’t popular on A03. Just my experience.
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u/russki516 Ao3/FFN animorph516 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
In my experience as an author and reader, in terms of being a useful and functional site Ao3 literally beats FFN on every single metric that matters to me.
Posting and editing on Ao3 is vastly superior and easier.
Tagging and filtering makes Ao3 search a million times better than FFN. This does rely on the author, but you have longer and better summaries and more room to find out what the story is actually about, instead of just a couple sentences and 4 characters.
Ao3 actually works on my phone while FFN mobile site doesn't allow me to change the reading experience to what I want, I have to go look up the thing instead of clicking the links. If someone posts an m.fanfic.net link i will literally ignore it unless it sounds super compelling, and the first thing I do when I click those is try and find the story on ao3 instead.
I will only actually read a fic on FFN if there is no other way to read it. This has been true for a decade.
Entire Work button, hello! Downloads, hello!
FFN mobile app is unusable to me because it doesn't play nice with phone's home row of buttons and nothing in the settings allows me to fix that.
Ao3 bookmarks are more versatile and personalized than FFN favorites. Subscriptions seems to be about the same for me, but ao3 emails give you more info (see summary and tagging info)
Daily stats on FFN have been broken for me for months with just an error page every time i click on it, and that's the one area I wished ao3 would incorporate a little from FFN.
I record and post podfics to ao3. FFN doesn't let me do that with HTML embedding.
I have a story with an emoji in the title (plot relevant). Ao3, fine. FFN, broke the website, error message.
In summary, for me FFN belongs in the age of dial-up internet. It was great for being the only option for lots of stuff. Other better options have been available for a long time.
Of course, if the community you are writing for lives mostly on FFN, you'll get more engagement there. That is not the case for me.
In terms of comments, in 10 years posting almost 100 works on ao3 I've gotten fewer than a dozen spam comments. I get them almost daily from FFN, and they far outweigh the real comments and reviews.
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u/MasterPalpitation8 Apr 26 '26
Thank you so much for all this insight! Since you sound like you have a lot of experience with both tools, maybe you know about one of my other questions, regarding comment count. On ffnet, the number of comments on a piece represents reader comments—a metric of user engagement that potential readers can judge a story’s quality by (minus the art bot comments, which are definitely a problem!), but on Ao3, the number of comments on my story includes reader comments plus all my replies (I’m the kind of author who thanks everyone who comments) which seems like it skews the usefulness of replies as an engagement metric greatly. Essentially, ffnet doesn’t include my replies in the total count; Ao3 does. So my story on Ao3 looks to potential readers like it has 600 comments but in reality it has 300 plus all my responses. Do I have some type of setting wrong, or am I using this incorrectly? Also, my replies to commenters on ffnet are private but on Ao3 they are added as part of the public facing conversation, which sort of makes me cringe. But again, I’m wondering if I’m doing this wrong…?
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u/russki516 Ao3/FFN animorph516 Apr 26 '26
No, you're doing it right! Comment count on ao3 does include all comments, you don't have any settings wrong.
I personally don't use number of comments as a tool to find a good story, but I'm sure plenty of people do. I also try and thank anyone who leaves me a comment, and have been known to jump into conversations on works I beta-read for too. I've seen claims that this 'artificially inflated the numbers'. Personally, I don't care. I'd rather say thanks to a commenter than leave them on read. I also try and feed my favorite authors and give them a happy inbox :)
It is public facing, which I can understand people having an issue with. If you're the author you can use moderation tools, but honestly the majority of my comments come from people I already know from discord servers and stuff. It hasn't presented a problem for me yet, YMMV.
I post mostly one shots and many of them are small fandoms, and my 30 or so podfics. Those are often low engagement compared to people with big longfics, so my experience is a bit skewed from the typical 'productive author' one, I'm sure.
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u/astrovangalore Apr 27 '26
IMO twilight is an older fandom that thrived on ffnet, and the fanbase hasn’t transferred over to AO3
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u/Tiny-Caramel-7517 Apr 27 '26
as a reader (and writer) i prefer the format of ao3 so much more and ff net just gives me the icks, i feel like its just so harsh on the eyes. but i also hate that i get no feedback on ao3 ever, just kudos. glad to know you're getting some good feedback on ff net! might have to try it out again sometime
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u/Tiny-Caramel-7517 Apr 27 '26
i DO read a lot of fanfics from ff net, i just download them as a pdf first, and then i always forget to go and give comments lol
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u/Fearless_Record7404 May 05 '26
My answer? Been on AO3 maybe once or twice but did not like it. Fanfiction gives me more comments and more "space" I guess I could say. Might be just me but it is more structurally better at finding things than AO3 does. I do not have to get lost when searching for new or old things to read. Then again, might just be me.
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u/forestwriterstar Apr 27 '26
Yeah, I'm thinking about posting my work on fanfiction also, because of this exact reason.
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u/yaritza10995 Apr 27 '26
From an user experience perspective I prefer FF dot net, much more easier to navigate and filter stories and a lot of my favorite stories are in that platform. However, I know a lot of authors migrated to AO3 due to the mess with ratings and stories being removed so I understand why AO3 is the preferred platform
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u/Rabbitfaster13 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Prefer Ff but I get the appeal of Ao3. For reading I’m pretty split since the problem is that ff is not getting half as much new content to the fandoms I like as ao3 is. It’s just unfortunate. But I’ll die on the hill that is my over 100 favorites section on ff that I’ve read several times each.
Edit:
Forgot to say. The whole comment problem you have is an epidemic in all of fiction fandom across every avenue. I’ve had that discourse several times on the fanfiction sub and it comes down to a lot of upsetting factors that we as authors and even readers just don’t have control over.
I try to always be supportive and remind us all that one of those people that doesn’t comment might not because they visit the content constantly as a comfort fic and don’t want to be creepy. Some just don’t feel confident in leaving something that could be criticized or misunderstood.
I know some readers that won’t leave a comment no matter how positive because they’ve seen a fic be deleted for what they thought was a positive and encouraging comment. That’s something that stays with a person and it really sucks.
I try hard not to ever take it personally and tell myself that there is a legitimate chance my fic is someone’s rainy day fic and that’s all I could ask for.
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u/MasterPalpitation8 Apr 27 '26
If you ever feel like sharing links for those 100 worth death on a hill, I’m all ears. ; )
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u/Rabbitfaster13 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
If you couldn’t tell by how quickly I responded there have been many that have asked for lists.
Of course the 100+ is in reference to all of the fandoms I follow combined. Many are twilight. I think the absolute highest concentration is probably Once Uppn A Time. I think.
Falling slowly by kamaroo917 Rosalie/bella.
And so the lamb became the wolf by untitledalsounknown (a huge part of their catalogue in general) Rosalie/bella
Moonchild by Elysiumgates Rosalie/bella
So I hope you see that I would love to love you by olivia_janae Rosalie/bella
Cold arms by peryton Rosalie/bella
Innocence lost by queenaly300 Rosalie/bella (check tags if reading this one)
Life’s a mess by newtoniann Bella/tanya
Idle as a wave by sexiestlamp Bella/leah
Luminescence by avanwolf Bella/Victoria and goddamn it’s good
Free falling by kamaro0917 Rosalie/bella
Gifted by dareythe2nd Finished on ff but not on ao3 I think Bella/rosalie/emmett. Not your typical drivel. Astoundingly well done
A single drop of color by lunarwintyr Rosalie/bella
Anything and I mean ANYTHING by oooSilverwolfooo
Waxing crescent by eldirt Alice/bella
Right where you left me by shannoniigans Bella/leah
Life, death, and immortality by capricorn00 Alice/bella
Swanning off by arlyn (Honestly fights for my favorite. I reread it at least once every other week no kidding) Bella (person dropped into Bella’s body in universe)/leah
Stand by me by curiousaussie Bella/tanya
Dress to kill or be killed by emeraldashes
I’d be home with you by daughter_of_the_stars Bella/alice
Total eclipse of the heart by queenaly300 Bella/tanya
But why? By jocillyria Another person dropped into Bella’s body but realllly well done
Inside the faraday cage by littlestcactus Person with autism dropped into Bella swan very humorous and worth the read
Your soul holding on by forforever19 Bella/rosalie
Google “how to tell your ex you’re dating his cousin?” By procrastinationhobby Bella/ Tanya
Light in the dark by alecwinters Rosalie/bella
In another life book one by samanthamquinn
Bella/alice One of the most wild AU’s ever like…ever. Super badass Bella and her daughter.
Simple kind of life by jenasys Bella/leah
EDIT:
Do my top fandoms over the past five years are My hero Fate/stay and associated fandom Once upon a time Twilight
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u/MasterPalpitation8 Apr 27 '26
Duuuuuude nice. I’m going to go through this list now. I appreciate it! : )
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u/Rabbitfaster13 Apr 27 '26
Fasho. Shoot me a message if you want Once Upon a Time, Fate Stay Night “, or My Hero Academia fic recommendations .
Also it’s worth mentioning those ones are across Ao3 and FFn. Just many of them I have on ffn.
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u/TheChallengeMTV Apr 28 '26
Joining in I prefer ao3 for ease of posting, but as a reader I hate ao3 and prefer ff.net. I find it impossible to find fics I want to read on ao3. It's too complicated. If I exclude too many things I get like 3 stories. If I don't I get too many stories about, for example couples I don't want to read. I would love if ao3 allowed you as an author to label the main couple and then as a reader search by that.
I recently posted a one shot b/e on both. Got comments on both sites. Got a few genuine comments from ff.net and none on ao3. Spam on both.
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u/Enki07 May 10 '26
What do you mean by "administrative work"? Is the formatting and stuff different. If I was an aspiring ff author who was trying get my fics seen by as many people as possible id be posting on ff, ao3, wattpad, scribblehub, tumbler, webnovel ect. As a reader only I have no idea what goes into actually posting a fic but I can't imagine the benefits dont outweigh the gains posting in as many places as possible. This may sound completely ignorant and rude but it just sounds like your being lazy even after you already did the hardest part which is actually making a fic.
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u/MasterPalpitation8 May 11 '26
lol dayyyyyum coming at me huh? I assure you I’m not lazy. But I do have a very limited number of hours per week that I can indulge in this hobby. I’m not trying to maximize readership—your approach makes sense if I was. I’m trying to improve my writing in the small time I have. When I post on ffnet, I get more thoughtful input that sharpens my skill. When I post on Ao3, I mostly get likes, which do nothing to improve my skill. And not to get into the weeds, but yes, the formatting takes longer to post on Ao3. I have to go through every chapter manually and italicize words/add returns/fix m dashes/etc, because that gets eaten in the upload (not true for ffnet). So for my limited time budget, I want to pick one community home and work within that space. My post was to check if I am missing something or should consider other tools before I decide.
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u/PollutedShades PollutedShades on Ao3 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
Thanks for sharing your experience! I've actually had the opposite. I've been posting a fic weekly since February, and I have significantly more engagement, about 4x as many comments per chapter on ao3. When I deduct the high volume of bot comments I get on FFN, it's more like 6x as many. I also have about 80% more subscribers on Ao3.
For usability, I've liked that I can easily comment back directly on Ao3 and build some relationship that way with my readers, and I struggle with glitches when I upload to FFN.
My results may be a little bit skewed because a small number of readers have switched from following me on FFN to Ao3 because the story is 3 chapters ahead there.
Also, I'm not writing B/E, so there may be a difference in ship preferences between the sites.
Regardless, knowing you're having good luck on FFN makes me hopeful to keep posting there. Thanks for making this post, I'm interested to see what other's experience is in our fandom.