cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50855395
I (and a lot of other people, I'd guess) read and write fanfiction.
But as far as I know, there's never really been a federated fanfic platform, nothing that plugs into the fediverse the way Mastodon does for microblogging or PeerTube/Loops does for video.
Then I stumbled upon SquidgeWorld Archive (SQWA), an AO3 alternative that actually runs on the same codebase as AO3 otwarchive.
It's got way fewer users than AO3, which honestly gives it a cozier, more small-town vibe.
The devs/maintainers behind it, squidge.org, even run both Mastodon and Bluesky accounts.
The catch: people have posted that fics pulling thousands of views on AO3 get little to none on SQWA. Makes sense, it's just a much smaller pond.
So, two half-formed ideas that I wanted to possibly toss out:
Suggestion #1: "colonize" SQWA.
What if fediverse-native fanfic folks just started actually posting there? Cross-link your fediverse socials, bring your existing following over, treat it like planting a flag. It already exists, the maintainers are clearly fediverse-friendly, it just needs bodies.
Suggestion #2: fork it (and ao3) and actually federate it.
AO3's otwarchive code is open source, which is exactly what SQWA is running on. What if someone forked it and built out real federation, ActivityPub support, the whole deal, instead of just being a second standalone AO3 clone? That feels like the "real" long-term fix, but it's a genuine software undertaking, not a weekend project.
I'd love to take a crack at #2 myself but I don't have the time or the technical bandwidth for something that size right now, so I'm just putting it out there in case it resonates with anyone here.
Curious what this community thinks: is #1 realistic, or does fanfiction just need a ground-up federated archive to actually work?
Edit: Sorry for any mistakes, I'm currently at work.
Edit Edit:*** There are also these Ao3 mirror sites and alternatives:
Mirror sites:
Redirects:
Other Alternatives:
1 Comments
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -1 pts · 9d
I don't know that it should. I would just want to post on something like Ao3 and let people read it. The people behind Ao3 seem to have the right idea.
I feel like a lot of the Fediverse is people blocking each other and banning each other from a bunch of communities they've never interacted with. Fine, you should have the right to curate your experience. But I wouldn't want to put anything I'd worked really hard on under the whims of people who I'll never meet. It just doesn't seem right.
Oh, and also, Ao3 allows NSFW and even NSFL stuff. The Fediverse tends to shy away from that. You can write some pretty obscene stuff referencing some pretty illegal acts, and Ao3 will defend your freedom to write/post it. You really can't do that on the Fediverse. (I'm not saying you should. I'm saying Ao3 isn't saying you can't and the Fediverse will not take that stance/die on that hill.)