Newshot 
What Ellipsus offers is control. Authors can control who can see their work and how they can interact with it. They can turn on comments, and readers can leave kudos (called “props” on Ellipsus), as well as custom fonts and themes. Rosenberg says the company noticed that many of the users were fan fiction writers and adjusted features for them before the outage, for example, a button that exports work directly to AO3.
”We know that people want a space to not only write but share new writing, in a way that feels safe for them,” says Rosenberg.
Another reason the outage has felt so fraught is that the world of fan fiction has broken containment, becoming mainstream in part due to shows like Heated Rivalry and the adaptation of former fan fictions such as Alchemised by SenLinYu, which was originally published on AO3, into bona fide novels.
“It’s the Tik-tokification of fanfic,” Avery says.“Everyone wants a snippet and a graphic and a one shot, and they can share it on Twitter, and then suddenly a thing I wrote years ago goes viral. Fan fiction never used to go viral.”
Rosenberg, who is writing a book on fandom, thinks that so much of the backlash comes from a mismatch between how big the community actually is and how small it still feels to many. The giant drives and libraries drew outrage due to their scale and a fear from many fans that their stories could be taken down. That fear has a real history within fandom spaces.
“In the ’90s and 2000s, there were cease-and-desist notices and takedown controversies on Fanfiction.net and LiveJournal that led to AO3’s founding,” Rosenberg explains. “So there is this shared history and memory within fandom culture as a whole when it comes to fan fiction.”
The demand for fan fiction does not come only from people active in fandom circles. It also comes from people who are seen as casual fans—those who are not as invested in the wider fandom. Fan fiction operates on norms where people ask permission, and there is a tolerance for a certain level of informal sharing. The AO3 outage has tested these norms and has exposed the lack of practical protection an author has once their work is posted. Readers are doing what they have always done—sharing work that they love. However, the burden of this sharing is uneven, as authors fear losing track of their own work.
“I think this whole AO3 going down thing has reminded people that the internet is forever for better or for worse,” Avery says. “Long after I die, if we still have the internet, my fics will float about even without AO3.”