# Story archive sites - any tips?



## quoting_mungo (Oct 8, 2021)

I've been writing a bit lately, after way too much of a dry spell, and as I'm tapping along on my keyboard I realize I'm lacking one major point: a place to post the damn story. I would _love_ to be able to use AO3, but alas, what I'm writing is original fiction, and they limit their scope to fandom-based writing. (Fandom as in "fan community around a property," not as in "furry fandom," in this case.) But the closer a possible candidate is to AO3 in terms of features and community (a place where people go seeking to _read_ is such a boon!), the greater the chances it'll fit the bill.

*Must-haves:*

Permits explicit adult material with minimal restrictions on subject matter
Permits human characters without reservations
Robust tagging system
Stories as a distinct content type
Puts adult content behind a warning/click-through, rather than requiring login
No monthly fees or similar - small one-time payment might be acceptable if the archive is otherwise a good fit.
I'm finding that all the alternatives I've been able to think of fails on one or more of the above points. I can expand on them with examples etc. if needed.

I do have a WordPress-based blog, which I may just cave and use, but I've not yet found a theme that quite does everything I would need it to do in order to work the way I'd like it to. Obviously that lacks the discoverability of a larger story site with a good tagging system, but it's something I already have.

Does anyone know of a story archive that could work for me, given the above? My Google-fu hasn't yielded the results I'd hoped for, so word-of-mouth might be how I have to find my stories a home.


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## wolfthewriter (Oct 10, 2021)

AO3 has an "original fiction" tag for... Well, original fiction. It's not used as heavily as the fandom based tags, but you can post there. The benefit I found is that they will not require you to mediate anything you've written, and you can find your target audiences through the subject tags. I personally read a lot of original fiction from there. 

Another option is Wattpad but I believe that is mostly mid-tier fanfic based around the "character X reader" trope, although it's not a site I've spent much time on myself.


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## quoting_mungo (Oct 10, 2021)

wolfthewriter said:


> AO3 has an "original fiction" tag for... Well, original fiction. It's not used as heavily as the fandom based tags, but you can post there. The benefit I found is that they will not require you to mediate anything you've written, and you can find your target audiences through the subject tags. I personally read a lot of original fiction from there.
> 
> Another option is Wattpad but I believe that is mostly mid-tier fanfic based around the "character X reader" trope, although it's not a site I've spent much time on myself.


AO3's "original fiction" tag is explicitly intended for content created in a fannish context or imported through their Open Doors program, though. Signing up in order to post original fiction is technically against their rules, and I don't feel comfortable relying on, essentially, flying under the radar. Would they take action against me? Probably not. Would it be dishonest? Yes, because I don't believe my body of original work to be fanwork. 

Wattpad doesn't want content that's porn for the sake of porn, and is pretty unclear on whether (or under what circumstances) they consider taboo/illegal acts portrayed in stories kosher. I'm not sure whether the story I'm currently working on runs afoul of, well, either of those, to be honest. 

Thank you for your reply, though! I do appreciate you taking the time to give your input.


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## Kellan Meig'h (Oct 28, 2021)

Ever thought about creating your own website? It doesn't cost that much, as long as you use some host other than Godaddy or the ilk. I use Omnis Hosting for my site so it allows me to just do whatever I want with the site. they can provide hosting and domain name services for you at very reasonable rates.

You can take a look at my site for an example of what can be done without the whole "Point and Click" website building garbage offered by Godaddy and such.

The Web Home Of Kellan Meig'h


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## quoting_mungo (Oct 29, 2021)

Kellan Meig'h said:


> Ever thought about creating your own website? It doesn't cost that much, as long as you use some host other than Godaddy or the ilk. I use Omnis Hosting for my site so it allows me to just do whatever I want with the site. they can provide hosting and domain name services for you at very reasonable rates.
> 
> You can take a look at my site for an example of what can be done without the whole "Point and Click" website building garbage offered by Godaddy and such.
> 
> The Web Home Of Kellan Meig'h


As I said, I do have a Wordpress-based story blog, and that is self-hosted on a service I’m generally quite happy with. I just don’t seem able to find a WP theme that ticks all the boxes I need ticked, and the plug-ins that supposedly make some other aspects of what I want to do possible… don’t. It’s an interim solution that I feel forced to make do with, but I crave the community and discoverability aspects of a larger archive if one exists. (I can and have in the past done things from scratch, but encoding stories and updating navigation pages is boring, and I don’t trust my ability to make a custom WP theme without compromising site security.)

Especially since Twitter apparently algorithm-curates hashtag feeds, even when supposedly sorted by time/date. So much for tapping into THAT as a source of tenuous community.


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## HarpyFeather (Oct 29, 2021)

The only thing I can possibly think of is Wattpad, but that seems really hit or miss. Not using it myself it strikes me as another very fanfiction heavy site. But I do know original works are a lot more accepted there, at least the last time I checked. I've also encountered this problem, when posting works I do that don't fall under a fandom, and I hope something crops up soon. It would make life a lot easier.


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## Kellan Meig'h (Oct 29, 2021)

I could also suggest Sofurry, a site I use a bit. The exposure is pretty good and you can make all the key words you want for each posting. No reformatting is used if you're just doing cut & paste from your chosen word processor. I use .odt format in LIbreoffice and I just cut/paste with no real ill effects.

I tried Wordpress for a blog once, it was terrible and I could not get it to integrate into my website properly. What worked for WP formatting blew up my website and vise-versa. Now I use Blogger and the integration is fairly close as to not stand out like a sore thumb.

That's all I have . . .


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## quoting_mungo (Oct 29, 2021)

First of all: I do appreciate the input! I know I might come off as poo-pooing suggestions or whatever, but that's essentially a byproduct of the situation being what it is. It's honestly heartening to see that I'm not the only one seeing the void in the offerings available. I was sort of hoping that there'd be a perfect archive out there that's just bad at SEO (or I'm bad at selecting search terms), and that someone here would know about it, but I also knew it was hell of a long shot.

If I was any good at Ruby I'd be thinking about setting up something myself using AO3's open source software, but I'm rusty at best at programming as a whole, and never touched Ruby at all.


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## Kellan Meig'h (Oct 30, 2021)

quoting_mungo said:


> First of all: I do appreciate the input! I know I might come off as poo-pooing suggestions or whatever, but that's essentially a byproduct of the situation being what it is. It's honestly heartening to see that I'm not the only one seeing the void in the offerings available. I was sort of hoping that there'd be a perfect archive out there that's just bad at SEO (or I'm bad at selecting search terms), and that someone here would know about it, but I also knew it was hell of a long shot.
> 
> If I was any good at Ruby I'd be thinking about setting up something myself using AO3's open source software, but I'm rusty at best at programming as a whole, and never touched Ruby at all.


Yeah, I can understand your POV. I'm working to update one of my websites with W3CSS formatting so it's that whole full size/tablet/cellphone resizing thing. What a pain, since formatting for image galleries are generally cr@p at keeping a good spacing of the elements. One of the downfalls of W3CSS that has yet to be addressed properly.

I also just despise SEO spammers that have made it very difficult if not impossible to really do a proper search anymore. When I do a search, I have to use the code to disregard all variants of Pinterest. That site has become the "Circular Reference" of the internet, just links to other links to more links to a dead end site that no longer exists in most cases or to a site you can't access without signing up or paying to access. An SEO spammer usually drops Wall Of Text posts with their links in them, then their signup profile has more links in it. All that does is confuse the actual search results.


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## Ariento (Jan 20, 2022)

Hope you don't mind me bumping an old post, but there shouldn't be any problem posting it to Ao3 as long as you follow their policy on non-commercial works. This is a Tumblr post by a former Ao3 staffer explaining the history of the policy and the full text of the FAQ's explanation. This text specifically from the FAQ should be of note to you:


> We presume that, by posting the work to the Archive, the creator is making a statement that they believe it’s a fanwork. As such, unless the work doesn’t meet some other criterion, it will be allowed to remain.


So there's no moderators reading the original fiction tag judging which ones are fannish enough to stay.


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## JollyCooperation (Jan 21, 2022)

I can sympathize with your frustration, since I have been through a similar process, where every website I looked at for posting stories was lacking in some regard. In the end, I had to conclude that FA is, at least for now, the least restrictive and obnoxious one for the things I am intending to post. But I guess FA fails your warning/click-through requirement if I recall correctly, been ages since I browsed FA without being logged in. 

May I ask why that part is so important to you? Do you fear that your adult stories will not get enough exposure if people need to log-in in order to see them?


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## quoting_mungo (Jan 21, 2022)

JollyCooperation said:


> May I ask why that part is so important to you? Do you fear that your adult stories will not get enough exposure if people need to log-in in order to see them?


A lot of my content is non-furry. One of the things that got me motivated to write again was prompt challenges. There’s little to no point in posting to a challenge hashtag if most of the people browsing the hashtag will get a “you must be logged in” screen for a website predominantly catering to a community they’re not part of. (Plus I just don’t like registered-users-only systems for art and similar in general very much.) So it’s not about exposure per se; it’s more about feeling a part of the community of people doing the challenge.

Honestly FA kinda falls on the robust tagging system front, as well. I can’t call AO3’s system _perfect_, because it definitely has its flaws, but FA’s tags have those same flaws and more.

This is not me dunking on FA; I’m fine with FA’s story interface for _some_ things. But I kinda have to acknowledge that it doesn’t have the things I’d like for it to have.


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## HarpyFeather (Jan 22, 2022)

I personally was just thinking about getting a website to post them, it really seems like the only option at this point. As someone who writes for a whole incredible spectrum of people, it be really cool to have a place that let's you sort them by what type of work they are. 
Like if someone is interested in your work, they click you, then can see all your works, or look through the types you have. Similar to A03's fandom list. Like specific kink ones would be nice, or even just Furry fiction, Fandom fiction, even poetry or love letters.

I appreciate writing in it's many forms, and I would kill for a site like that, I just don't have any of the knowledge on how to do it.


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## Trevorbluesquirrel (Jan 23, 2022)

I'm sure you've already considered these sites, but here they are anyway!

LITEROTICA

NIFTY.ORG

All I got!


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## quoting_mungo (Jan 23, 2022)

Trevorbluesquirrel said:


> I'm sure you've already considered these sites, but here they are anyway!
> 
> LITEROTICA
> 
> ...


Wasn’t actually familiar with either; I’ll have to have a look!


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## Trevorbluesquirrel (Feb 9, 2022)

quoting_mungo said:


> Wasn’t actually familiar with either; I’ll have to have a look!



Let me know what ya think!


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