Fanfic.net or AO3

[Celes777]

Hey guys, I'm here with a question again.
So I'm just curious about comparing these two sites.
Which have more FF7 fictions? FFN or AO3?
Which site is more active now? My friend said FFN feels like ghost town. But I mean, FF7 is a pretty old game, so maybe it is a different case?
Which site is more friendly?
And...which one has better quality fics?
I've only been on FFN and thought it was a pretty open and friendly environment, and I did see lots of good fics. So I would like see what you all think!

 

[CrashOuch]

I personally don't know anyone who still posts to FFN, although there are definitely still some good FFVII fanfics on there. In general, I always find that (and this is a sweeping generalisation and entirely unfair on my part) the FFN users tend to be younger than the ones on AO3, which imo typically makes the AO3 fics uhhh I can't think how to say 'better' in a nicer way just now but you know what I mean, they're written by people who have had longer to hone their craft. Also it's crazy active next to FFN.

 

[Celes777]

I personally don't know anyone who still posts to FFN, although there are definitely still some good FFVII fanfics on there. In general, I always find that (and this is a sweeping generalisation and entirely unfair on my part) the FFN users tend to be younger than the ones on AO3, which imo typically makes the AO3 fics uhhh I can't think how to say 'better' in a nicer way just now but you know what I mean, they're written by people who have had longer to hone their craft. Also it's crazy active next to FFN.

Thanks! I see! Wow I'm surprised that FF7 is still very active at AO3.

Hmm...may I ask what does AO3's general attitute to OCs...? OC, OC pairing with characters and such. Well I'm from a country with a very harsh attitute to OC (and even BG pairing for already existing characters...at least from my experience) so I am always very cautious about entering a new online community since I definitely don't want to see those disturbing comments under a good fic anymore. I guess i take a site's attitute to OC as a standard for its friendliness. Not to say they can't criticize OC but at least don't treat them with a presumed malice...
Yeah...sorry about rambling again. So what's our experience?

 

[CrashOuch]

There's plenty of OCs on AO3 and tbh I never even see the comments unless I'm commenting myself so it's easy enough to keep away from them. I think the specific attitude to them varies from fandom to fandom though.

 

[lithiumkatana17]

AO3 is VERY OC friendly. I read quite a bit of fanfics from there, mostly in Dragon Age and Far Cry 5. Haven't checked out any of the FF work over there, although I can say the website itself is more active than FF.net these days.

 

[solo player sab]

I noticed that most people who are still active on FFN cross-post on AO3 nowadays, so you wouldn't be missing anything (in the FF7 fandom at least). AO3 is definitely way more active and (in my opinion) probably has better quality fics. But I also like FFN 'cause I'm a loyalist and also for their olddddd buried treasures since its been around for so long. I would venture a guess that FFN probably has more Final Fantasy fanfics in general but you'd be combing through a lot of trash to get to the good stuff haha

I actually wasn't aware of the negative sentiment around OCs...why people be hatin?? damn

 

[fancy]

I'm personally wary of OCs X). They're great when they feel organic to the universe and the story, but when they are obvious self-inserts who are there specifically to either a) "fix" the story b) one-up our heroes (who are often uncharacteristically incompetent) or c) date/pair up with their favourite canon character, I find it jarring as all hell. That said, again, I've read a number of fanfics where the OCs fit right in.

Anywho, agreed with the general sentiments shared here. AO3 seems the way to go. It's been a while since I've read or dabbled in fanfic myself, but I reckon I've always preferred AO3 because their system is neater and it's loads easier finding exactly what you want with the filter system. FF.net is incredibly clumsy and clunky by comparison imo.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I'm not normally an OC fan, but a good writer can reconcile me to anything. The moss stomper has created a number of fabulous OCs; they even get into relationships with Reno, which would normally have me backing right out of a fic as fast as possible. And "Kanpo-i" by razziecat has possibly my favourite OC ever. As long as your OC is a well-drawn, interesting character who fits in that universe, it's unlikely anyone will hate on him/her/them.

 

[Clement Rage]

FF7 is one of those fandoms that has a good community in both AO3 and FFN. AO3's works are of better average quality, but FFN tends to have a wider selection of everything except porn, because its older and has deeper backlists.

If you're writing/reading in something more obscure, FFN's more likely to have a better selection, though. Neither are explicitly hostile to OCs, but it can be hard to gain traction with OC focused stories.

I have found feedback to be generally better on FFN, a lot of AO3 readers drop kudoes and don't say anything. You can also reply to reviews without clogging the reviews page, and FFN has a PM feature.

AO3 has a more precise search function, but I actually find it easier to find what I want in FFN, because they have limited slots, so a fic that tags Yuffie has better odds of actually being about her rather than feature her walking by in one scene. The tags can be be very misleading.

Haven't been writing much lately, but I get the feeling AO3 is currently more active. It can be very shipping focused though.

 

[Celes777]

Wow, thank you guys for all the insights!
I did see an FFN and AO3 cross-post fanfic. And all AO3 tags arw INSANE. They are as long as a chapter!
And about the OC thing, yes definitely the attitude should vary. Self-inserts are bad. Sues and stuff are bad. But maybe it is a cultural thing. I was really surprised by how friendly and open people are here. It seems natrual to introduce some OCs as minor roles and some of them develop relationships with in game characters. But in east asia (again totally subjective experience) ppl are much more harsh to OC. I've seen okay OCs people here have no problem with that will absolutely get crucified in asia. Lol.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

On AO3, no one can tell where you're from. I mean I guess that people writing in Chinese are probably from China and people writing in Polish are probably from Poland, but even that's just a level of probability if you know what I mean. And if you're writing in English you could be from anywhere and everywhere. Chile. Norway. Russia. The Philippines. Who knows? Who cares!

On FFN there used to be a little nationality flag next to your name, I think it just posted itself automatically depending on where in the worlkd you were. I don' know if they still have that.

 

[Clement Rage]

You can turn it off easily enough.

People tend to make certain assumptions about OCs, which may or may not be borne out. I've read good ones, I've read bad ones, I've read good and bad self inserts. I think the lack of OCs is an actual problem in a fair amount of fics, because it means only a small cast ever do anything in giant organisations (ex: Reeve needs to investigate something, but the named Turks are busy, so he goes himself instead of calling on some of the thousands of other employees- not a real example, btw).

 

[Obsidian Fire]

I find Ao3 just has the more modern features. FFN is a relic of the era it was started in and just hasn't kept up with the times. This is especially true for newer fandoms that have a way larger presence on Ao3 and a non-existant presence on FFN. If you ever want to look at other fandoms, Ao3 usually has more.

Your best bet is to figure out what fandom specific tags you should keep an eye on. Weather that is to read the fics that have it or to filter them out. The very few times I go on FFN, I find myself getting frustrated that they don't have the features Ao3 has.

 

[Clement Rage]

Does anyone know how AO3 measures hits? If someone reads an eight chapter story, is that 1 hit or 8? FF.net distinguishes between hits and visitors, I know.

 

[Celes777]

I think AO3 only has click per work instead of click per chapter . There's no "chapter" option in the statiatics

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Here is the Ao3's FAQ for Statistics: https://archiveofourown.org/faq/statistics

But here's the relevant question.

What is a hit?

Hits are a counter of how many times a work has been accessed. A hit is registered every time a visitor navigates to a work's page, with the following exceptions:

• If two visits in a row come from the same IP address, only the first one is registered.
• Moving between chapters in a work will only register one hit in total, not one hit per chapter.
• If you're logged in, hits are not counted when you visit your own works.

Note that hits only log the number of visits to a work, not the duration of the visit. The number of Hits in the Totals box on your Statistics page (refer to Where do I find Statistics? for instructions) is the total number of hits all your works have received.

 

[Octo]

It's been years since I've paid much attention but FFN in my experience is clunky and full of garbage. It's a lot harder to find quality stuff. The user base is pretty young and the reviews uh... aren't reviews... "I luv Ur fic Reno is my favvvv bae UwU" etc

And for that reason I can imagine there's more hostility towards OC no matter how well written they are.

I'm sure Ao3 has it's issues too but in general it seems to attract a better standard of writing.

 

[Clement Rage]

So... does this mean that there's no way to tell if someone has actually read a multichapter work or clicked back out at chapter 1?

 

[Celes777]

I guess we can't tell, provided how AO3 does their stats. But I'm sure if you can hack the system...maybe you can tell?

 

[Clement Rage]

Sigh... alright, time to assemble a crack team of infiltrators.

 

[Fangu]

Clicks will never tell you if someone read anything though. They might have just clicked through all the chapters and left without having read anything

 

[Clement Rage]

That means they care enough to troll, which is good enough for me.

So are you in on the heist?

Edit: Or are working for the NSA, I suppose.