FanFiction.Net

FanFiction.Net (often abbreviated as FF.net or FFN) is an automated fan fiction archive site. It was founded on October 15, 1998[2] by Los Angeles computer programmer Xing Li, who also runs the site. As of 2018, FanFiction.Net is the largest and second most popular fan fiction website in the world, coming second in popularity to Archive of Our Own in Alexa rankings. It has over 12 million registered users and hosts stories in over 40 languages.

FanFiction.Net
Screenshot
Screenshot of homepage on January 18, 2016
Type of site
Fanfiction archive
OwnerXing Li
Created byXing Li
RevenueN/A
URLhttps://www.fanfiction.net/
Alexa rank 1536 (Global, December 2019)[1]
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedOctober 15, 1998 (1998-10-15)

The site is split into nine main categories: Anime/Manga, Books, Cartoons, Miscellaneous, Games, Comics, Movies, Plays/Musicals, and TV Shows. The site also includes the Crossover category, added on March 27, 2009. Users who complete the free registration process can submit their fan fiction, maintain a user profile, review other stories, apply for a beta reader position, contact each other via private messages, and maintain a list of favorite stories and authors. There are centralized communities and forums. In lieu of signing up with a new account, the website allows users to use their Google, Facebook, or Twitter accounts. The site also owns a Twitter account called FictionPress where users of the website are updated on changes and improvements made.

Creation

In 1998, Xing Li, a software designer, created FanFiction.Net.[3] The site was created as a repository for fan-created stories that revolved around characters from popular literature, television, comics, or real-world celebrities. Unlike other fan fiction sites, FanFiction.Net allowed stories about any characters rather than revolving around a specific set of characters, such as those from Naruto, Harry Potter, or Kingdom Hearts. Registration was open to all people who claimed to be over 18, and by 2002 over 118,000 people were registered. (The age limit has since been moved down to 13.) At that time, one-third of the registrants self-identified as 18 or younger, and 80% were female.[2]

Site content

Writers may upload their stories to the site and assign them a category and rating (such as K, K+, T, and M). The ratings are no longer done on the MPAA system, due to cease-and-desist demands from the Motion Picture Association of America in 2005.[4] A list of explanations for the rating system currently employed is available from the drop-down rating menu in each of the individual archives on the site.[5] The MA (18+) rating is not permitted on this site.[6] The site does not pay money to people for posting content or charge money for posting on the website,[3] and it uses advertisements to pay for costs.

FanFiction.Net does not operate a screening or editorial board.[2] Many users leave short reviews after reading stories, most of which are positive.[3] While reviews can be left by those without accounts, it is an option for all writers on the site to moderate "anonymous reviews", made by those who are not signed into an account.

The stories are based on books, television series, films, and video games. Stories are about recent works and older works. By 2001, almost 100,000 stories were posted on the website. Steven Savage, a programmer who operated a column on FanFiction.Net, described it as "the adult version of when kids play at being TV characters" and that the content posted on the website serves as examples for "when people really care about something." A. S. Berman of USA Today said in 2001 that FanFiction.Net "reads like the 21st century successor to the poetry slams of the Beat Generation."[3] It is the most popular erotica website for women.[7]

FanFiction.Net uses the rating system from FictionRatings.com. This system contains the ratings of K, K+, T, M and MA. The MA rating and explicit violent and/or sexual themes are forbidden.[8]

In October 2008, the site underwent a major redesign of its admin/user area. Changes to how users check hits and reviews, post chapters, etc. were made.

As of April 16, 2020, the top 20 fandoms (i.e., the fandoms with the most stories submitted) on FanFiction.Net are (the figures are rounded to nearest thousand):

Rank Fandom Category No. of stories
1 Harry Potter Books[9] 822K
2 Naruto Anime/Manga[10] 432K
3 Twilight Books 221K
4 Supernatural TV Shows[11] 125K
5 Hetalia: Axis Powers Anime/Manga 120K
6 Inuyasha Anime/Manga 120K
7 Glee TV Shows 108K
8 Pokémon Games[12] 99.2K
9 Bleach Anime/Manga 85.4K
10 Percy Jackson and the Olympians Books 77.7K
11 Doctor Who TV Shows 76.1K
12 Kingdom Hearts Games 74.5K
13 Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime/Manga 68.3K
14 Fairy Tail Anime/Manga 67.7K
15 Sherlock TV Shows 60.1K
16 Lord of the Rings Books 57.6K
17 Star Wars Movies[13] 54.9K
18 Dragon Ball Z Anime/Manga 53.4K
19 Once Upon a Time TV Shows 52.6K
20 Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV Shows 50.5K

Notable long fanfiction works

FanFiction.Net contains some fanfiction works of considerable length; some are over one million words long. Those stories are normally written over the course of many years. The table below lists notable fanfictions of different categories with more than 500,000 words and a large following of fans.

Notable fanfictions of different genres (500,000+)
Category Title Rating Length Author Theme Original Run
Games: Kantai Collection Ambience: A Fleet Symphony[14] T 4,550,000+ words Hieda no Akyuu Alternate Universe May 8, 2014 — TBA
Games: Super Smash Bros. The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest[15] T 4,100,000+ words AuraChannelerChris N/A March 4, 2008 — TBA
Anime/Manga: A Certain Magical Index A Certain Unknown Level 0[16] T 2,870,000+ words MrQuestionMark Canon Retelling January 17, 2013 — TBA
Anime/Manga: RWBY RWBY Loops[17][18] T 2,650,000+ words Leviticus Wilkes Time Travel April 25, 2015 — TBA
Cartoon: Avatar: Last Airbender Gladiator[19] M 2,410,000+ words Seyary-Minamoto Romance May 27, 2013 - TBA
Games: Pokémon Ashes of the Past[20] T 1,910,000+ words Saphroneth Time travel August 7, 2011 — September 21, 2013[21];
September 23, 2014 - TBA
Cartoon: Gravity Falls/Steven Universe Universe Falls[22] T 1,650,000+ words MiniJen Alternate Universe September 30, 2015 — TBA
Cartoon: The Loud House Reeling in the Years[23] T 1,466,789 words Flagg1991 Alternate Universe November 15, 2017 — October 6, 2019
Anime/Manga: Fate/stay night (Fate/Grand Order) Fragments of Chaldea[24] T 1,320,000+ words GhostXavier Slice of Life June 22, 2016 — TBA
Anime/Manga: Code Geass A Cold Calculus[25] T 1,304,471 words Z98 Tragedy June 29, 2015 — October 15, 2018
Books: Harry Potter To Be a Slytherin[26] T 1,166,349 words Morgana Deryn Coming-of-Age May 24, 2015 — July 18, 2018
Cartoons: Ever After High Through the Looking Glass[27] T 1,002,000+ words The Celestial Sky Dragon Slice of Life November 12, 2017 — TBA
Anime/Manga: Evangelion Shinji and Warhammer40k[28] T 790,000+ words Charles Bhepin Heavily Modified Canon Retelling November 11, 2007 — TBA
Cartoons: Avatar: Last Airbender Embers[29] T 757,722 words Vathara N/A September 24, 2009 — January 18, 2014
Books: Harry Potter Harry Crow[30] T 737,006 words RobSt Alternate Universe June 5, 2012 — June 8, 2014
Misc: Wrestling Aria's Shield[31] M 730,000+ words LivHardy N/A August 23, 2013 — TBA
Anime/Manga: Hetalia Switzerland's Trigger Happy Letters to the World[32] T 724,353 words ConfoederatioHelvetica Humor/Adventure June 17, 2011 — October 10, 2015
Anime/Manga: Naruto Dreaming of Sunshine[33] T 710,000+ words Silver Queen Original Character Self-insert September 2, 2011 — TBA
Anime/Manga: Sword Art Online Fairy Dance of Death[34] T 690,000+ words Catsy Alternate Universe November 6, 2012 - TBA

Disallowed fanfiction

FanFiction.Net instituted several policy changes as it grew in size and popularity.[35] These policies frequently led to the deletion of fanfiction based on the copyrighted works of certain published authors or containing specifically targeted content.

Since the site's founding, several professional authors and producers have asked that stories based on their copyrighted or trademarked works be removed, including Anne Rice, P. N. Elrod, Archie Comics, Dennis L. McKiernan, Irene Radford, J.R. Ward, Laurell K. Hamilton, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Raymond Feist, Robin Hobb, Robin McKinley, and Terry Goodkind.[36]

In addition, stories based on real-life celebrities were disallowed around 2003. Fan fiction based on professional wrestling, however, is still allowed, being the number one fandom in the "Miscellaneous" category.[36]

NC-17 ratings

On September 12, 2002, FanFiction.Net banned and removed material that was rated NC-17. Prior to the new policy, the site would use a pop-up to prompt readers to say whether they were over 17 or not, but since then, the site has relied on its users to report stories that are inappropriately rated. Some NC-17 material was moved to Adult-FanFiction.org (previously AdultFanFiction.Net), a similar site which was created to serve the adults who write R and NC-17 rated fan fiction. However, many stories containing explicit material still exist and have yet to be removed.

Story titles and summaries must be rated K.[36]

CYOA (Choose-Your-Own-Adventure)/Reader-Insertion fics

These have been banned since 2005, and the site removed all material that had the potential of inserting the reader into a fanfiction. Under the heading of "Entries not allowed," Item #5 says: Any form of interactive entry: choose your adventure, second person/you based, Q&As, etc.[36]

Songfics

In 2005, FanFiction.Net banned songfics which contain copyrighted lyrics. Public domain lyrics (such as those to "Amazing Grace") or lyrics written by the author of the fanfiction are allowed, however.

Lists

Until April 21, 2002, in addition to fiction stories based on existing characters, the site had a section devoted to lists, generally humor-related, for example "20 Ways to Dump Your Girlfriend".

Globalization

At first, FanFiction.Net's server was accessible mainly only in the West; and worked poorly, if at all, in other parts of the world. In late 2006, announcements were made of special web links designed for Europe and Asia. These were supposed to give other areas of the world a significant boost in server speed on the website. In 2007, all three web links were combined under one worldwide link. In an announcement on the home page, it was stated that the site would go global that year.

Prior to the reorganizations of 2002, FanFiction.Net contained approximately 20% of English-language fanfiction.[37]

According to Hitwise, as of August 2007 FanFiction.Net comprised 34.7% of all traffic directed to sites in the Entertainment, Books and Writing category. For the week ending August 25, 2007, the site was ranked 159 out of over 1 million websites in terms of hits.[38]

FictionPress.com
FictionPress.com
Type of site
Fiction archive
OwnerXing Li
Created byXing Li
RevenueN/A
URLhttps://www.fictionpress.com/
Alexa rank 49,847 (July 2018)[39]
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
Current statusLive

FanFiction.Net's sister site, FictionPress.com, contains over 1 million original stories, poems, and plays. The site has a similar format and rules to FanFiction.Net, except that no fan fiction is allowed. Currently, there are more poems than prose.[40]

See also

References
  1. "fanfiction.net Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix and Traffic". www.alexa.com. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
  2. Buechner, Maryanne Murray (March 4, 2002), "Pop Fiction", Time Magazine, retrieved 2008-01-07
  3. Berman, A.S. "Lame TV season? Write your own episodes online." USA Today. August 20, 2001. Retrieved on May 19, 2011.
  4. O'Connell, Pamela Licalzi (April 18, 2005). "Please Don't Call It a G-Rated Dispute". The New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2011.
  5. "Fiction Ratings". Fiction Ratings. Archived from the original on 2013-10-09. Retrieved 2013-07-16.
  6. "Terms of Service". FanFiction.Net. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
  7. Ogas, Ogi (2011-04-30). "The Online World of Female Desire". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
  8. "Guidelines - FanFiction.Net". www.fanfiction.net. FanFiction.Fet. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  9. "Books". FanFiction.Net.
  10. "Anime/Manga". FanFiction.Net.
  11. "TV Shows". FanFiction.Net.
  12. "Games". FanFiction.Net.
  13. "Movies". FanFiction.Net.
  14. "Ambience: A Fleet Symphony". FanFiction.Net.
  15. "The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest". FanFiction.Net.
  16. "A Certain Unknown Level 0". FanFiction.Net.
  17. "RWBY Loops". FanFiction.Net.
  18. Part of the Infinite Loops series collaboratively written across multiple categories. The total word count is over four million as of 2017.
  19. "Gladiator". FanFiction.Net.
  20. "Ashes of the Past". FanFiction.Net.
  21. Went on official hiatus
  22. "Universe Falls". FanFiction.Net.
  23. "Reeling in the Years". FanFiction.Net.
  24. "Fragments of Chaldea". FanFiction.Net.
  25. "A Cold Calculus". FanFiction.Net.
  26. "To Be a Slytherin". FanFiction.Net.
  27. "Through the Looking Glass". FanFiction.Net.
  28. "Shinji and Warhammer40k". FanFiction.Net.
  29. "Embers". FanFiction.Net.
  30. "Harry Crow". FanFiction.Net.
  31. "Aria's Shield". FanFiction.Net.
  32. "Switzerland's Trigger Happy Letters to the World". FanFiction.Net.
  33. "Dreaming of Sunshine". FanFiction.Net.
  34. "Fairy Dance of Death". FanFiction.Net.
  35. "Privacy Policy". FanFiction.Net. 2009-03-05. Retrieved 2013-07-16.
  36. "Content Guidelines". FanFiction.Net. 2008-11-20. Retrieved 2013-07-16.
  37. "FanFiction.Net Statistics".
  38. Tancer, Bill (August 30, 2007), "Life after Potter, Bonanza, and Gunsmoke", Time Magazine, retrieved 2008-01-07
  39. "Fictionpress.com Site Info". Alexa.com. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
  40. "FictionPress.com". Fictionpress.com.
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