Quick Facts
Biography
FanFiction.Net (often abbreviated as FF.net or FFN) is an automated fan fiction archive site. It was founded on October 15, 1998 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 10 million registered users and hosts stories in over 40 languages.
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 in Los Angeles, created FanFiction.Net. 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.
Rating system
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.
Allowed ratings
Currently, the ratings K, K+, T and M are allowed.
K rating
The K rating is for audiences ages 5 or older. Any content that is rated K should be completely free of coarse language, adult themes and violence.
K+ rating
The K+ rating is for audiences ages 9 or older. Content that is rated K+ should only contain minor coarse language and violence and should be completely free of adult themes.
T rating
The T rating is for audiences ages 13 or older. Some non-explicit violence and minor coarse language, as well as minor suggestive adult themes can be used.
M rating
The M rating is for audiences ages 16 or older. Coarse language, violence and suggestive adult themes are allowed if not too explicit.
Not allowed ratings
Currently, the MA rating is strictly forbidden.
MA rating
Only for adults over 18 years old. Many M-rated stories that contain explicit adult themes still exist on Fanfiction.net and are yet to be removed.
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. 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. The MA (18+) rating is not permitted on this site. The site does not pay money to people for posting content or charge money for posting on the website, and it uses advertisements to pay for costs.
FanFiction.net does not operate a screening or editorial board. Many users leave short reviews after reading stories, most of which are positive. 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." It is the most popular erotica website for women.
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.
Most popular sections
As of December 29, 2018, 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 | 800K |
| 2 | Naruto | Anime/Manga | 426K |
| 3 | Twilight | Book | 220K |
| 4 | Supernatural | TV Shows | 124K |
| 5 | Hetalia: Axis Powers | Anime/Manga | 121K |
| 6 | Inuyasha | Anime/Manga | 118K |
| 7 | Glee | TV Shows | 108K |
| 8 | Pokémon | Games | 95.7K |
| 9 | Bleach | Anime/Manga | 84.8K |
| 10 | Percy Jackson and the Olympians | Books | 75.6K |
| 11 | Doctor Who | TV Shows | 75.2K |
| 12 | Kingdom Hearts | Games | 73.5K |
| 13 | Yu-Gi-Oh! | Anime/Manga | 67.8K |
| 14 | Fairy Tail | Anime/Manga | 65.5K |
| 15 | Sherlock | TV Shows | 60.0K |
| 16 | Lord of the Rings | Books | 56.9K |
| 17 | Dragon Ball Z | Anime/Manga | 52.4K |
| 18 | Once Upon a Time | TV Shows | 51.1K |
| 19 | Buffy the Vampire Slayer | TV Shows | 50.2K |
| 20 | Star Wars | Movies | 50.2K |
Notable information
FanFiction.net is also home to one of the longest works of fiction ever written. The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest, a Super Smash Bros. fanfiction, being written by FanFiction.net user AuraChannelerChris, amounts to over four million words, more than three times as long as In Search of Lost Time written by Marcel Proust, and is still being written. The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest fanfiction have been in the attention of several media outlets and Tv.Tropes.com This was then surpassed by Ambience: A Fleet Symphony, a fanfiction of Kantai Collection, which is almost four and a half million words long. Both of these fanfictions are over six times longer than War and Peace, which is just over half a million words long in English.
Notable fanfiction
Fanfiction.net contains some fanfiction works of considerable length.
Some of them, like Ashes of the Past, are over 1.000.000 words long. Those stories are normally written on over the course of many years. The table below lists notable fanfictions of different categories with more than 500,000 words to boast to its name and has a large following of fans.
| Category | Title | Rating | Length | Author | Theme | Original Run |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games: Kantai Collection | Ambience: A Fleet Symphony | T | 4.550.000+ words | Hieda no Akyuu | Alternate Universe | May 8, 2014 — TBA |
| Games: Super Smash Bros. | The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest | T | 4.100.000+ words | AuraChannelerChris | N/A | March 4, 2008 — TBA |
| Anime: A Certain Magical Index | A Certain Unknown Level 0 | T | 2,500,000+ words | MrQuestionMark | Canon Retelling | January 17, 2013 — TBA |
| Anime: RWBY | RWBY Loops | T | 2,198,000+ words | Leviticus Wilkes | Time Travel | April 25, 2015 — TBA |
| Cartoon: Avatar: Last Airbender | Gladiator | M | 2,017,000+ words | Seyary-Minamoto | Romance | May 27, 2013 - TBA |
| Games: Pokémon | Ashes of the Past | T | 1.800.000+ words | Saphroneth | Time travel | August 7, 2011 — TBA |
| Anime: Code Geass | A Cold Calculus | T | 1,304,471 words | Z98 | Tragedy | June 29, 2015 — October 15, 2018 |
| TV shows: Harry Potter | To Be a Slytherin | T | 1,166,000+ words | Morgana Deryn | Coming-of-Age | May 24, 2015 — TBA |
| Anime: Fate/stay night (Fate/Grand Order) | Fragments of Chaldea | T | 1,060,000+ words | GhostXavier | Slice of Life | June 22, 2016 — TBA |
| Cartoons: Ever After High | Through the Looking Glass | T | 1,002,000+ words | The Celestial Sky Dragon | Slice of Life | November 12, 2017 — TBA |
| Anime/Manga: Evangelion | Shinji and Warhammer40k | T | 791,067 words | Charles Bhepin | Heavily Modified Canon Retelling | November 11, 2007 — TBA |
| Cartoons: Avatar: Last Airbender | Embers | T | 757,772 words | Vathara | N/A | September 24, 2009 — January 18, 2014 |
| Misc: Wrestling | Aria's Shield | M | 730.000+ words | LivHardy | N/A | August 23, 2013 — TBA |
| Anime: Hetalia | Switzerland's Trigger Happy Letters to the World | T | 724,353 words | ConfoederatioHelvetica | Humor/Adventure | June 17, 2011 — October 10, 2015 |
| Anime: Naruto | Dreaming of Sunshine | T | 711.000+ words | Silver Queen | Original Character Self-insert | September 2, 2011 — TBA |
| Cartoon: The Loud House | Reeling in the Years | T | 1,415,363+ words | Flagg1991 | Alternate Universe | November 15, 2017 — TBA |
| TV shows: Teen Wolf | Rising Moon | T | 706,000+ words | BehindGrayEyes | Alternate Universe | September 15, 2013 - TBA |
There are also fanfictions that do not have five hundred thousand words but are still very popular. The next table shows some fanfiction between 100.000 and 500.000 words that are still very popular.
| Category | Title | Rating | Length | Author | Theme | Original run |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games: Pokémon | Alola to our Savior | M | 348.000+ words | The Poke Spectre | Alternate Universe | November 27, 2016 — TBA |
| Anime/Manga: Naruto | Team 8 | T | 276.000+ words | S'TarKan | Alternate Universe | January 2, 2006 — April 24, 2015 |
| Books: Harry Potter | New Blood | T | 100.000+ words | artemisgirl | N/A | August 31, 2018 — TBA |
| Movies: Avengers | Drown | T | 200.000+ words | Ordis | Alternate Universe | May 14, 2012 — March 19, 2015 |
| TV: | ||||||
| Books/Movies: Lord of the Rings | Avengers of the Ring | T | 269, 301 words | Dr Matthattan | Crossover | December 8, 2012 – December 3, 2013 |
Disallowed fanfiction
Copyright and trademark issues
FanFiction.Net instituted several policy changes as it grew in size and popularity. 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.
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.
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-M.
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.
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.
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.
FictionPress.com
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.