AO3 now also blocked
11 July 2023 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeAs a result of what was apparently a prolonged DDOS attack (allegedly by a group calling itself Anonymous Sudan), AO3 has now installed the same blocking software as fanfiction.net, with identical results being that I can not only not log in but cannot even view the site.
So from now on, presumably, I shall be in the same situation as with FFnet, in that for all practical purposes I can't browse the site at all (not that I very often did, to be honest) and can only upload via short sessions using the library computer network when it is open. Given that publishing fanfic on AO3 involves filling in rather more entries than doing so on FFnet (the only previous advantage being that my computer and browser were actually permitted to access it!) and the viewing figures there appear to be consistently lower, at least for the sort of work I publish, there really isn't a lot of motivation for continuing to do so. Certainly none for fixing my still-broken AO3 stats script, which relies on being able to download the stats page locally!
I'm rather tempted simply to delete the AO3 account, which contains only a small subset of my total writing, in order to concentrate all my work in a single location, but I suppose that would be unfair on the people who have bookmarked stories there. And I suppose that if I am having to cycle into the library with a USB stick containing my latest chapter in order to upload to FFNet, I might as well duplicate the process to AO3 at the same time...
But it certainly makes it a great deal less likely that I ever shall upload the remainder of my back archive to AO3, since I failed to undertake all the necessary laborious exercise while I had the opportunity. And I probably ought to take the trouble to transfer any of my stories that got uploaded *only* on AO3 back over to FFNet, in order to make sure that there is still a location where the complete set is available. (From which perspective I am a bit sorry that I never managed to upload the "Pirates of the Caribbean" fic to my AO3 account, where it would finally have been visibly under the same authorship.)
I *think* the only one that never got uploaded is the "Yellow Poppy" drabble set [edit: no, there were at least three of them, plus anything else I have written since].
It seems that the situation is currently analogous to what initially happened when FFnet started blocking access; I'm getting intermittent blinks of access, which then disappear again. I managed to upload one of my old POTC fics (nothing whatsoever like a vanishing window of opportunity for getting things done!) and evacuate "Appraisal", "A Thing of Value" and "For Valentine". I should be able to upload the other two POTC fics with a bit of luck, but on past precedent I'm not counting on this intermittent situation lasting for all that long. I suppose I ought to do a massive push to try to upload *all* the twenty-five or so other stories that I never managed to 'synchronise'... <groan>
So from now on, presumably, I shall be in the same situation as with FFnet, in that for all practical purposes I can't browse the site at all (not that I very often did, to be honest) and can only upload via short sessions using the library computer network when it is open. Given that publishing fanfic on AO3 involves filling in rather more entries than doing so on FFnet (the only previous advantage being that my computer and browser were actually permitted to access it!) and the viewing figures there appear to be consistently lower, at least for the sort of work I publish, there really isn't a lot of motivation for continuing to do so. Certainly none for fixing my still-broken AO3 stats script, which relies on being able to download the stats page locally!
I'm rather tempted simply to delete the AO3 account, which contains only a small subset of my total writing, in order to concentrate all my work in a single location, but I suppose that would be unfair on the people who have bookmarked stories there. And I suppose that if I am having to cycle into the library with a USB stick containing my latest chapter in order to upload to FFNet, I might as well duplicate the process to AO3 at the same time...
But it certainly makes it a great deal less likely that I ever shall upload the remainder of my back archive to AO3, since I failed to undertake all the necessary laborious exercise while I had the opportunity. And I probably ought to take the trouble to transfer any of my stories that got uploaded *only* on AO3 back over to FFNet, in order to make sure that there is still a location where the complete set is available. (From which perspective I am a bit sorry that I never managed to upload the "Pirates of the Caribbean" fic to my AO3 account, where it would finally have been visibly under the same authorship.)
I *think* the only one that never got uploaded is the "Yellow Poppy" drabble set [edit: no, there were at least three of them, plus anything else I have written since].
Further edit
It seems that the situation is currently analogous to what initially happened when FFnet started blocking access; I'm getting intermittent blinks of access, which then disappear again. I managed to upload one of my old POTC fics (nothing whatsoever like a vanishing window of opportunity for getting things done!) and evacuate "Appraisal", "A Thing of Value" and "For Valentine". I should be able to upload the other two POTC fics with a bit of luck, but on past precedent I'm not counting on this intermittent situation lasting for all that long. I suppose I ought to do a massive push to try to upload *all* the twenty-five or so other stories that I never managed to 'synchronise'... <groan>