Lost Works and Posting Rates on fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own
Recently, I posted an analysis of these two large fanfiction archives using work numbers (nodes) to get a sense of how active they have been over the years. Investigations since I’ve discovered how different these node counts are from the works CURRENTLY available in these archives.
In Red and Green above are the number of nodes assigned per month in each archive, going back to 2001 for Fanfiction.net and to AO3’s beginning in 2009. These nodes are assigned to each new work, or (on AO3) each new saved draft on the archive. The Blue and Yellow are estimates of the works currently in each archive from these past times, hence, works surviving.
Not only is the gap between Nodes and Surviving Works very big, it is shaped totally different for these two archives. To see this directly, here is the percentage of nodes with works currently in the archives, by month.
If we are going to compare fan activity on these archives from these data, Nodes and Current works, we need to get a better sense of what is going on. Below I get into the details of where these numbers come from, their historical context, and justify my interpretations, but here are the main points fanfiction readers might want to know:
Fanfiction.net has lost a lot of posted works over the years, up to 70% of those posted before 2003.
The proportion of works removed from fanfiction.net has gone down to ~20% since 2016
While some loss of works is to be expected, this amount of works removed over time suggests active curation by the FFN community and staff.
On AO3, the proportion works removed, or drafted but never posted is probably around 20%.
AO3 has a spam problem, with non-fan agents flooding the archives with fake works.
AO3 outpaced FFN in terms of works being posted to these archives in 2015 (as suggested in previous analysis) in the middle of messy part of the plot at the top.
In 2019, AO3 could reach FFN’s past peak posting rate of ~3500 fanworks per day.
So where are all the fanworks?
Did they disapeare or did they never exist in the first place?
Find out under the read more, where I also explain these numbers, how I reached these conclusions, and some historical explanations for the changes over time.
I’ll also try to add corrections there, if new information comes to light.
“Caravaggio was the BEST renaissance painter, because he knew his shit. Literally. Look at this painting, he’s painted shit on everything, even Saint Peter!”
“For those of you fortunate enough to Not grow up catholic, a baptism is where you mist a baby like an orchid to keep it from going to hell.”
“You get Extra Credit for you eerily comprehensive knowledge of Muppets. Now stop talking.”
“GOD I love flying buttresses. They’re so melodramatic!”
“I don’t call him “Da Vinci” because that means “From Vinci”. That’s like calling Steve “Of Greeley” instead of his real name and that’s just rude. And not just because Greeley is Awful.”
“Michelangelo was really depressed because his job sucked. Also because he was a bit of a douche, but mostly the job. He should have been doing literally anything else.”
“Everything can be improved with a Simpson’s reference!”
“Send me Memes, I like having recent content in my lectures.” *Next day* “Stop sending me memes. Please.”
*whilst angrily pointing at a picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* “The Turtles have all their names mixed up for their personalities and frankly that’s embarrassing. The techie should be Leo, the Flirt should be Raphael, The Boring Leader Dude should be Donatello and the angry one should be Carvaggio because that asshole literally spent his life drunk, fighting people and blackmailing cardinals. Carvaggio was the BEST.”
“I could have studied in Rome. I could be trying to match boxes of broken dicks to statuary. Instead of dicks I have you assholes.”
“Warhol was, as you young people say, A Troll. The art is not the Art, the Outrage is the Art. Which is kind of a Dick Move, which we old people say too.”
“Remember Kids- mental illness and heavy metal poisoning are not actually substitutes for Talent and Hard Work! Get therapy and don’t drink your paint water!”
While sailing in the Mediterranean sea, in 1962, the American aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV-62) flashed the Italian Amerigo Vespucci with light signal asking «Who are you?», the full rigged ship answered «Training ship Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Navy». The US ship replied «You are the most beautiful ship in the world».
@devcon03 I remember you were wondering about this.
friendly reminder that fanfic authors write full length novels for free, and all most of us ask in return is exposure in the form of recommendations, reblogs, and feedback
Not just full length novels, but full-length BOOK SERIES.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stones was 76,944 words.
Eragon was 157k words
The Hobbit was 95,022.words (and yes, those 22 at the end are very important words~)
Anyway, please PLEASE review, comment, and share the fanfictions you like.
These authors are, for free, giving you hours and hours and hours of entertainment.
Thank them.
I can’t believe a complicated fanfic I wrote just for myself is novella length and still growing.
