# About This Site

About this site

This site, ao3.store, is an independent information site about Archive of Our Own. We are not AO3, we are not the Organization for Transformative Works, and we do not run any part of the archive. We built this site because readers kept asking the same practical questions in the same places — is AO3 down, how do I log in, how does the invite queue work, how do I search with tags, and is that app real or fake. Clear answers in one place save people time, especially during an outage when rumours spread fast.

Our coverage focuses on the things readers actually need day to day. We explain status updates in plain language, we walk through search and filters step by step, we cover invitations and accounts without shortcuts or tricks, and we warn readers about fake sites and fake apps that try to steal logins. When AO3 went down on 29 October 2026 and stayed in extended maintenance for weeks, that kind of calm, checked information mattered more than hot takes. We would rather publish a short correct update than a long guess.

What AO3 is, in brief

Archive of Our Own is a nonprofit, ad-free fan archive run by the Organization for Transformative Works. It was created in 2008, entered open beta on 14 November 2009, and now hosts more than 16 million works across more than 75,000 fandoms. It won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work in 2019. The only official address is archiveofourown.org. There is no official AO3 app. Those facts are the backbone of everything we publish here, and we check them against official sources before we update a page.

How we work

We write for readers first. That means short paragraphs, direct answers at the top, and steps in the order you would actually follow them on your phone. We link to the official archive when a task has to happen there, like joining the invite queue or downloading a work as EPUB. We do not host fan works, we do not mirror AO3, we do not offer account creation, and we never ask for your AO3 username or password. If a guide on this site ever points you somewhere that asks for your AO3 login outside archiveofourown.org, do not use it and treat it as a warning sign.

We also update pages when facts change. Status pages change fastest during an incident, and we mark dates clearly so you can tell what was true on 29 October, what changed during the 2 to 4 week maintenance window, and what is true now that the site has returned with limited functionality on 15 November 2026. If you spot an error, the best place to raise it is in the discussion on the relevant page on this site, with a link to the official source that shows the correction.

Thank you for reading. Use the official archive for reading and posting, use this site for plain-language help, and keep your account safe.