Small Reminder That You Should Really Download Your Favorite Fics Off Of AO3. We Are Seeing Mass Censorships

Small reminder that you should really download your favorite fics off of AO3. We are seeing mass censorships well as the chance that anything, such as another severe DDoS attack can shut down the site making works unaccessible and possibly lost for good.

If you do not know how to download fics, it is a simple 2-button click. I've written a tutorial here.

You think your stuff is safe until it's suddenly not, and then often times it's too late.

This post starts with AO3, (because it seems to be the common denominator across all users on this website /joking) but I recommend extending preservation efforts to anything online if you can manage to download it.

I'm not saying panic and start buying tons of storage devices to hold immense amounts of stuff. A cheap usb can hold plenty of things. You don't have to stop using services still available if it's more convenient to read books on your phone than to fill your backpack with 7 of them.

But you should still get (either buying or creating) physical versions because nothing is guarantee that it will remain forever. From shows being pulled from streaming services, to banned books, to losing access to digital copies of media because the service doesn't support it anymore, the account is lost, or the company goes under. This goes for messaging platforms as well. Your role-plays with your friends on discord can be lost forever, your photos can too.

This doesn't even include media most vulnerable to censorship and how quickly it can be removed, and quietly.

You think it will not happen to you, it will. Do not wait for unforeseen circumstances. Go back up and preserve what you can, your future self will be happy that you did.