FanFiction.Net

FanFiction.Net has nine categories for the various fandoms/sub-categories on the site: Anime/Manga, Books, Cartoons, Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, Plays/Musicals, and TV shows. Stories on the site can be published as either "Fanfiction" with only one assigned sub-category, or as a "Crossover" with only two sub-categories. Excluding crossovers, the top fandoms on the site are Harry Potter,[5] Naruto,[6] and Twilight.[5]

Writers may upload their stories to the site and must assign them a sub-category, language, and content rating. FanFiction.Net uses the content rating system from FictionRatings.com. This system contains the ratings of K, K+, T, M and MA. The MA rating and explicit violent and/or sexual themes are forbidden.[7] The ratings are no longer done on the MPAA system, due to cease-and-desist demands from the Motion Picture Association of America in 2005.[8] A list of explanations for the rating system currently employed is available from the drop-down rating menu in each of the individual archives on the site.[9] The MA (18+) rating is not permitted on this site.[10] A short K-rated summary is also required for a story to be published. While not required, the website recommends authors upload a cover image to their story.

Readers can interact with the FanFiction.Net content in various ways. If the reader likes a story and/or its author, they can favorite both the story and its author.[11] Favorites are similar to likes, hearts or Archive of Our Own's kudos. Favorite stories and authors are displayed on a user's public profile page at the very bottom. A reader can also follow a story and/or its author. When a reader follows a story, they receive email notifications whenever that story is updated. When a reader follows an author, they receive email updates whenever the author updates any of their stories or publishes a new one.[11] Readers can also leave reviews after reading stories, most of which were positive as of 2001.[3] While reviews can be left by those without accounts, it is an option for all writers on the site to moderate "anonymous reviews", made by those who are not signed into an account. Reviews left by signed-in users cannot be moderated or disabled. FanFiction.Net does not operate a screening or editorial board.[4]

As of October 8, 2022, the top 20 fandoms (i.e., the fandoms with the most stories submitted) on FanFiction.Net are (the figures are rounded to nearest thousand):

The top fandom for each category on the site are:

FanFiction.Net also hosts one of the longest works of fiction ever written. The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest, a Super Smash Bros. fan fiction written by FanFiction.Net user AuraChannelerChris, gained media attention for its length of over four million words at the time of notice, more than three times as long as In Search of Lost Time written by Marcel Proust, and is still being written.[12][13] The longest fan fiction on the site is The Loud House: Revamped, an ongoing crossover fan fiction of The Loud House which has been over 16,750,000 words long since around 2020. However, the exact current word count of The Loud House: Revamped is unknown as it surpassed the word count limit of the site of 16,777,215 words.

FanFiction.Net instituted several policy changes as it grew in size and popularity.[14] These policies frequently led to the deletion of fan fiction based on the copyrighted works of certain published authors or containing specifically targeted content.

Since the site's founding, several professional authors and producers have asked that stories based on their copyrighted or trademarked works be removed, including Anne Rice, P. N. Elrod, Archie Comics, Dennis L. McKiernan, Irene Radford, J.R. Ward, Laurell K. Hamilton, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Raymond Feist, Robin Hobb, Robin McKinley, and Terry Goodkind.[15]

In addition, stories based on real-life celebrities were disallowed around 2003. Fan fiction based on professional wrestling, however, is still allowed, being the number one fandom in the "Miscellaneous" category.[15]

On September 12, 2002, FanFiction.Net banned and removed material that was rated NC-17. Prior to the new policy, the site would use a pop-up to prompt readers to say whether they were over 17 or not, but since then, the site has relied on its users to report stories that are inappropriately rated. Some NC-17 material was moved to Adult-FanFiction.org (previously AdultFanFiction.Net), a similar site which was created to serve the adults who write R and NC-17 rated fan fiction.

Story titles and summaries must be rated K.[15]

Choose-your-own-adventure and reader-insertion fanfiction have both been banned since 2005, and the site removed all material that had the potential of inserting the reader into a fanfiction. Under the heading of "Entries not allowed", item #5 says: "Any form of interactive entry: choose your adventure, second person/you based, Q&As, etc."[15]

In 2005, FanFiction.Net banned songfics which contain copyrighted lyrics. Public domain lyrics (such as those to "Amazing Grace") or lyrics written by the author of the fan fiction are allowed.

Until April 21, 2002, in addition to fiction stories based on existing characters, the site had a section devoted to lists, generally humor-related, for example "20 Ways to Dump Your Girlfriend".