Discussion Fanfiction vs AO3

What do you think of the search, filter and design of fanfiction.net and AO3?

Spoiler

I like ff.net more than AO3, since it is a lot easier to browse and find new good stories. The whole design at AO3 restricts you so much, that it is hard to find stories with simple requirements. Instead of achieving a great success with their search feature at AO3, they messed up and made browsing the stories there an annoyance with few equals, being only only good for extremely specific searches.
In contrast, ff.net did it pretty good, people being able to search in simple terms for everything, but lacking a bit for advanced searches.

Thus, imo, both websites would need a redesign to be more attractive to potential readers. A new website that has the good aspects of both would also be great, but as they are now, I am a bit dissatisfied with them.

PS: answer the poll where you mainly read fanfiction.

 

I can't go into fanfiction's website anymore. It keeps saying the site can't be reached

 

I go to fanfiction.net and spacebattle for fanfics. FF because it's easier to read than A03 and SB because there's a lot of good hidden gems.

 

Have you tried clearing your cache, reboot, or using a vpn/another device?

you might have a virus or the wifi you connect to might block it. could also be countrywide.
or it might be a browser issue.

 

I used to be able to get in but after a few days it just kept saying it can't reached, I tried opening it from my phone by it's just no use

 

It's not the matter of the device that your are using as much as your internet.
So whichever device you use you will get same error so try using VPN.
I always go to FF.net for fanfics. I tried archives of our own but filters were pain to sort through and all the stories I found were mindless smut.

 

Spacebattles is by far the worst site in terms of ease of use and searching for fics, but it also has some of the best fanfics
Fanfiction.net has the best site, with ease of use, and it is where I find and read most of the fanfics I like.

 

I go to all these websites, actually. I like AO3 because of the tagging and also because you can specify what pairing you want to see. Add to this is also the download option which fanfiction.net does not have.

 

I like AO3 for the download feature, I can just take anything there and read it on my kindle. I've also found browsing easy as long as I sort by length. Set one option and all the quickly dropped stories get pushed to the back.

 

I've tried AO3 twice and no matter how I filtered I got yaoi in top results(even with excluding it from tags) so I'm sticking to ff.net where I never even see it.

 

You can filter the stories rated explicit. Only takes a few seconds to do.

 

I like the tagging option for ao3 and the filters are easier to use, however it's harder to find stuff than in fanfiction.net
though I like the rating systems better on ao3
more wider options too

 

Fanfiction. net

 

I go to fanfiction.net in years

my faves
- can change font, background, spacing/layout
- more fics
- you can determine the crossover for crossover fics
- the collections part i.e. listing of fave fics
- don't need to login to see fic
- overall site layout

cons
- cant save like in a03
- doesn't more rare pairings
- fics can still be read/seen even if the author killed their profile (orphan account)
- not a place to look for really niche fandoms

 

Well, at least both sites have directories for the fan fics vs. searching for a story on Wattpad.

 

Well i use ffn though the app not the we bsite. Here some very long long long opinion since i'm bored.

Fanfiction though i'll talk from its android app perspective since people already talked about the website.
First the search. Beside the same filter and sort like the website, the way you could add or remove tags in the app, it could easily make jumping from one crossover section to another very easy. Making me surfing the ffn longer.
Another thing is library. For one it had reading history which is allow me to stack fic to read. So while browsing section for section i just opened just the 1st chap then browsing again till gathering 4-5 fic.
Oh, it also has download feature and folder in it. Never used the folder though...

AO3 website is actually more detailed in filtering than FFN. It's also have more NFSW fic than FFN especially since FFN purging.
The only annoying thing about AO3 is tagging. There fic has tag with more than ten character, another with ten pairing tag. I'm sure as hell that story not focusing every character/pairing, so adding them to tag just because they exist in only two or three chapters is kinda annoying.

Spacebattles is first and foremost is a debate forum. It's just happened lot of users is also fanfic writer. So, it was not expected that it had good search or filtering. In fact, most good fanfic i know in SB was also uploaded in FFN. I think most people use SB as fanfic writer because it was forum where there's more interaction between reader and author.
That being said, i really like threadmark feature in SB. It easily link from chapter to chapter without reading not-chapter post in a thread. I kinda wish to have NUF have threadmark not just for fic thread but for any long ass thread like RP or certain drama thread.

as for Wattpad... i uninstalled after 15 minutes. Nuf said.