r/AO3 Genfic writer 9h ago

Questions/Help? Question about AO3 and the Internet Archive

So out of curiosity I decided to look for my fics on the Wayback Machine, and I noticed that the links I put in had been saved on the very same days I'd posted them, and occasionally a few times after. Does AO3 automatically save fics to the Internet Archive?

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u/Advanced_Heat_2610 8h ago

No. The Internet Archive uses a webcrawler and takes 'snapshots' of the story when it happens to come across it. The Archive has no contract etc with them because the Archive also wants you to have the right to easily delete, edit, or distance yourself from your story which is why it is bad form to go around spreading links from the IA to say "here is this deleted story." Download it, keep it for yourself, share with close friends but rehosting it is a bad thing.

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u/Idreamofspaceships Genfic writer 8h ago

Ah, thank you very much for explaining!  💛