The Fanfiction Archive Timeline is a visual representation of fanfiction archives from 1996 to the present. It captures years when archives were active, inactive, closed, and available through a preservation project.

How to Read This Document

Years are listed along the top and bottom. I begin capturing data for an archive the year it opens.

Archive names are listed along the right. They are listed in chronological order, based on the year they opened with the oldest archives at the bottom of the spreadsheet. Within this annual cohort, archives are next organized based on how long they were open (active or inactive). Since archives sometimes open and close or become active after years of inactivity, this is not necessarily perfect, but I try to have currently active archives at the top of their annual cohort.

Archives are labeled by year as follows:

• A - active: at least one story posted or updated during that year
• I - inactive: the archive remains online but no stories were posted or updated during that year
• C - closed: the archive is not available at its URL, and it has not been preserved
• P - preserved: the archive has been preserved by Open Doors or another preservation project

Along the bottom of the spreadsheet are historical events:

• Tolkien: important events in the wider Tolkien fandom.
• HP: important events in the wider Harry Potter fandom.
• Fandom: key fandom-wide events.
• Internet: the percentage of US households with internet access.

To the right of the archive list are further data and classifications for each archive:

• Years Online: Number of years where the archive was available to read, i.e., either active, inactive, or preserved.
• Years Active: Number of years where the archive had at least one fanfiction work posted or updated during that year.
• Delta: The difference between Years Online and Years Active. A delta of 0 means that the archive has been active for the full duration of its existence. Larger deltas indicate an archive that has remained online, but new stories have not been posted.
• Current Status: The archive's status as of the last full year.
• Fandom: The fandom for which the archive accepts fanfiction.
  • M: multifandom
  • T: Tolkien
  • HP: Harry Potter
• Archive Type
  • FS - Fandom Specific: The archive only hosts fanfiction for a single fandom.
  • MF - Multifandom: The archive hosts fanfiction for two or more fandoms.
  • SN - Social Network: A social networking platform that is used to host communities that function as fanfiction archives.
• Software Type: The software used to build the archive. When an archive has used more than one software type in its history, all are indicated.
  • AA - Automated Archive
  • AO3 - AO3 open-source codebase
  • CC - Custom Code - An automated archive (authors can add and edit their own stories) built using a codebase developed by the webmaster.
  • EF - Efiction
  • HC - Hand Code - A nonautomated archive (stories are added and edited by a webmaster) that uses HTML/CSS developed by the webmaster.
  • IF - Interactive Fiction
  • SL - Storyline
  • UA - Unknown Automated: The archive was automated (authors can add and edit their own stories) but the software or code used is unknown.
• Community Base: If the archive was associated with a social network, these platform(s) were used.
  • LJ - LiveJournal
  • Forum: A threaded forum hosted on the archive itself using software like PHPBB.
  • Y!G - Yahoo! Groups

I update the spreadsheet annually, as close to the beginning of the year as my schedule allows. Whenever possible, I gather data from the archive itself; if the archive is offline, I use the Wayback Machine. I try to view captures that let me see each year the archive was in existence but I will fill in missing data when it is all but certain that it will match the other years around it. For example, if the Wayback Machine shows an archive was offline in 2018 and 2019, and the archive was still offline in 2023 when I collected the first set of data, then I will assume the archive remained offline.

If I cannot document the year where major events happened on an archive, then I do not list it. Major events would be when the archive came online, when it went offline, and when it became inactive. If you have documentation for an archive I have not included—and the Key tab in the dataset includes a list where I know information is incomplete—contact me, and I will add it.

Note also that I am not a part of the Harry Potter fandom and never have been beyond enjoying the books and films in a more innocent time before JK Rowling joined the Army of Mordor. I added Harry Potter fanfiction archives to the dataset as part of my (Re)Archive presentation because, as a book-based fandom with popular films that followed a similar trajectory to Tolkien fandom in the early 2000s, they provide an interesting point of comparison. However, I lack the deep knowledge of that fandom's history and culture. I also want to be clear that, despite including these archive data in the set, I do not support JK Rowling or engage with Harry Potter-related content in any context where she serves to gain financially.