History YMMV / FanfictionDotNet

** "There are no FFN Mods" [[labelnote:Explanation]] The site's moderators are almost non-existent, and there's no real way to contact a specific one directly. Even if somebody does contact one, they rarely respond to what the other person's contacting them about. As a result of this incredibly lax moderation, most of FFN rules (such as no {{Alternate Reality Game}}s, {{MST}}s, {{Lemon Fic}}s, or fics with real people in them) are pretty much ''never'' enforced, and the rule-breaking fics can stay up for years without issue.[[/labelnote]]
** Korean adbots [[labelnote:Explanation]] For some ''bizarre'' reason, FFN Forums tend to get flooded with the adbots, with the worst cases resulting in the front pages of Forums reading like a Korean website. It's so infamous that the site admins had to remove links from Forums... and that seemed to do absolutely nothing for the situation. To this day, you can ''still'' see adbots flooding the Forums.[[/labelnote]]

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: The reason the site became and has remained a mainstay for authors. The site's general functionality and interface haven't changed that much from 1998, and it shows: there's no way for users to interact with each other aside from private messages, limiting how people can find and discuss stories outside of forums, and limiting the author's ability to interact with their readers.[[note]]Uploading a chapter that is only a message from the author to update readers and communicate with them is a common practice, but it is actually against the rules to upload author's note-only content.[[/note]] The site also has limitations on how users can tag and categorize their fiction, how readers can filter search results while browsing, and how the text can be formatted. All of these shortcomings are things few would defend. However, for years after the turn of the millennium most other fanfiction websites were either for a single fandom, for hosting mature content, had worse interface and functionality, were not properly maintained behind the scenes, and/or most damning of all, had a much smaller userbase. It was only in the New 10s that [=AO3=] began picking up traction as a serious competitor.

* FandomRivalry: With Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. Though many writers do cross-post on both sites, there's a strong rivalry between the two because they're the two most popular fanfiction archives and have differing aims (FFN is dependent on ad revenue and has more content restrictions, while [=AO3=] is a nonprofit organization with much looser content guidelines). Some fandoms also seem to lean towards one site over the other (for example, [=AO3=] has a bigger ''Anime/YuriOnIce'' section while [=FFN=] has a bigger ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' section). Interesting enough, {{Crossover}} fics tend to be more heavy leaning towards FFN, despite it being more limited than [=AO3=] (FFN only lets users categorize a crossover between two series, while [=AO3=] allows users to tag as many series as they like).

** "There are no FF.N Mods". This is because the Mods are almost non-existent, and there's no real way to contact a specific one directly. Even if somebody does contact one, they rarely respond to what the other person's contacting them about. Naturally, most of FF.N rules (such as no {{Alternate Reality Game}}s, {{MST}}s, {{Lemon Fic}}s, or fics with real people in them) are pretty much ''never'' enforced, and the rule-breaking fics can stay up for ''years''.
** Korean adbots. For some ''bizarre'' reason, FF.N Forums tend to get flooded with the adbots, with the worst cases resulting in the front pages of Forums reading like a Korean website. It's so infamous that the site admins had to remove links from Forums... and the adbots ''still'' keep flooding the Forums.

** As of June 2015, links outside the site no longer show up in forum posts, and any outside links that were on a profile page and didn't link to Fictionpress (FF.N's sister site) link back to the original profile page. To say site-goers weren't pleased would be an ''understatement''.
** The site uses the robots exclusion standard (robots.txt) in its programming, which prevented archival sites such as the Website/WaybackMachine from working with the site for a long time.[[note]]The Internet Archive no longer follows the standard unless they are specifically requested by a site's webmaster to continue doing so for their site.[[/note]] As a result, this rendered a ''lot'' of forums, {{fanfic}}s, and [=RPs=] {{Missing Episode}}s. This is especially infamous because the higher ups like to periodically purge forums, threads, and fics that haven't been touched after a certain point to save on space, even if said threads were unable to be reactivated or the fan fiction was already completed. Naturally, bringing up robots.txt is a good way to ignite a bonfire that can be seen from space.

* FandomRivalry: With Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. Though many writers do cross-post on both sites, there's a strong rivalry between the two because they're the two most popular fanfiction archives and have differing aims (FFN is dependent on ad revenue and has more content restrictions, while [=AO3=] is a nonprofit organization with much looser content guidelines). Some fandoms also seem to lean towards one site over the other (for example, [=AO3=] has a bigger ''Anime/YuriOnIce'' section while [=FFN=] has a bigger ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' section). Interesting enough; {{Crossover}} fics tend to be more heavy leaning towards FFN, despite it being more limited than [=AO3=] (FFN only lets users categorize a crossover between two series, while [=AO3=] allows users to tag as many series as they like).

* FandomRivalry: With Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. Though many writers do cross-post on both sites, there's a strong rivalry between the two because they're the two most popular fanfiction archives and have differing aims (FFN is dependent on ad revenue and has more content restrictions, while [=AO3=] is a nonprofit organization with much looser content guidelines). Some fandoms also seem to lean towards one site over the other (for example, [=AO3=] has a bigger ''Anime/YuriOnIce'' section while [=FF.N=] has a bigger ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' section). Interesting enough; {{Crossover}} fics tend to be more heavy leaning towards FFN, despite it being more limited than [=AO3=] (FFN only lets users categorize a crossover between two series, while [=AO3=] allows users to tag as many series as they like).

* FandomRivalry: With Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. Though many writers do cross-post on both sites, there's a strong rivalry between the two because they're the two most popular fanfiction archives and have differing aims (FFN is dependent on ad revenue and has more content restrictions, while [=AO3=] is a nonprofit organization with much looser content guidelines). Some fandoms also seem to lean towards one site over the other (for example, [=AO3=] has a bigger ''Anime/YuriOnIce'' section while [=FF.N=] has a bigger ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' section).

** The site uses the robots exclusion standard (robots.txt) in its programming, which prevented archival sites such as the Website/WaybackMachine from working with the site for a long time. As a result, this rendered a ''lot'' of forums, {{fanfic}}s, and [=RPs=] {{Missing Episode}}s. This is especially infamous because the higher ups like to periodically purge forums, threads, and fics that haven't been touched after a certain point to save on space, even if said threads were unable to be reactivated or the fan fiction was already completed. Naturally, bringing up robots.txt is a good way to ignite a bonfire that can be seen from space.

* FandomRivalry: With Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. Though many writers do cross-post on both sites, there's a rivalry between the two because they're the two most popular fanfiction archives with differing aims (FFN is dependent on ad revenue and has more content restrictions while [=AO3=] is a nonprofit organization with much looser content guidelines). Some fandoms also lean towards one site over the other (for example, [=AO3=] has a bigger ''Anime/YuriOnIce'' section while [=FF.N=] has a bigger ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' section).

** "There are no FF.N Mods". This is due to the fact that the Mods are almost non-existent, and there's no real way to contact a specific one directly. Even if you do contact one, they rarely respond to what you're contacting them about. Naturally, a ''lot'' of FF.N rules (such as no {{Alternate Reality Game}}s, {{MST}}s, {{Lemon Fic}}s, or having real life people appear in fanfics) are almost ''never'' enforced, and not only are rule-breaking fics still posted on a regular basis, they can stay up for ''years''.
** Korean adbots. For ''some'' reason, FF.N Forums tend to get flooded with them, with the worst cases resulting in entire front pages of Forums reading like a Korean website. It's so infamous that the site admins had to remove links from Forums... And the adbots ''still'' flood the Forums.

** As of June 2015, links outside the site no longer show up in forum posts anymore thanks to the previously mentioned Korean adbots, and any outside links that were on a profile page and didn't link to Fictionpress (FF.N's sister site) just links back to said profile page. To say site-goers weren't pleased would be an ''understatement''.
** The site uses the robots exclusion standard (robots.txt) in its programming, which prevented archival sites such as the Website/WaybackMachine from working with the site for a long time (although the Wayback Machine in particular eventually stopped honoring it in 2017 in favor of requiring explicit requests for exclusion from their servers). As a result, this rendered a ''lot'' of forums, {{fanfic}}s, and [=RPs=] {{Missing Episode}}s. This is especially infamous because the higher ups like to periodically purge forums, threads, and fics that haven't been touched after a certain point to save on space, even if said threads were unable to be reactivated or the fan fiction was already completed. Naturally, bringing up robots.txt is a good way to ignite a bonfire that can be seen from space.

* FandomRivalry: With Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. Though many writers do cross-post on both sites, there's a rivalry between the two because they're the two most popular fanfiction archives. Some fandoms also lean towards one site over the other (for example, [=AO3=] has a bigger ''Anime/YuriOnIce'' section while [=FF.N=] has a bigger ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' section).

** The site uses 'robots.txt' in its programming, preventing archival sites such as ''Website/WaybackMachine'' from working with the site. As a result, this renders a ''lot'' of Forums, {{Fanfiction}}s, and [=RPs=] {{Missing Episode}}s. This is especially infamous because the higher ups like to periodically purge forums, threads, and fics that haven't been touched after a certain point to save on space, even if said threads were unable to be reactivated or the fanfiction was already completed. Naturally, bringing up robots.txt is a good way to ignite a bonfire that can be seen from space.

* NeverLiveItDown: '''''The Purge''''', one of the most infamous events in the site's history. In an attempt to free up space, the FF.N admins saw fit to purge inactive Forums and threads, extremely old fics, or fics that break their set guidelines, without informing anyone until ''after'' it had already happened. Not only did this render a lot of popular fics {{Missing Episode}}s, most of the "inactive" Forums removed were ''still active'', causing recent threads and memories to get removed at random, PlayByPost {{Role Playing Game}}s to have important arcs rendered as {{Missing Episode}}s, and any activity that was in the Forums was killed, with many users jumping ship to other websites in disgust. Even years after ''The Purge'', the effects can still be felt, with many archived Forums of popular franchises like ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' rendered virtual ghost towns.

** "There are no FF.N Mods". This is due to the fact that FF.N Mods are almost non-existent on the site, and there's no real way to contact a specific one directly. Even if you do contact one, they rarely respond to what you're contacting them about. Naturally, a ''lot'' of FF.N rules such as no {{Alternate Reality Game}}s, {{MST}}s, {{Lemon Fic}}s, or having real life people appear in fanfics is almost ''never'' enforced, and rule-breaking fics are still posted on a regular basis, with some staying up for ''years''.
** Korean adbots. For ''some'' reason, FF.N Forums infamously tend to get flooded with them, with the worst cases resulting in entire front pages of Forums reading like a Korean website. It's so infamous that the site admins had to forcefully remove links from Forums... And Korean adbots ''still'' tend to flood the Forums.
* NeverLiveItDown: 'The Purge', one of the most infamous events in the site's history. In an attempt to free up space, the FF.N admins in all their infinite wisdom saw fit to purge 'inactive' Forums and threads, extremely old fics, or fics that break their set guidelines, without informing anyone until ''after'' it had already happened. Not only did this render a lot of popular fics {{Missing Episode}}s, most of the 'inactive' Forums removed were ''still active'', causing recent threads and memories to get removed at random, PlayByPost {{Role Playing Game}}s to have key arcs rendered as {{Missing Episode}}s, and any activity the Forum section of their archive had to be killed, with many users jumping ship to other websites in disgust. Even years after 'The Purge', the events can still be felt, with many Forum archives of popular franchises like ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' rendered virtual ghost towns.

** As of June 2015, links outside the site no longer show up in forum post anymore thanks to the previously mentioned Korean adbots, and any outside links (besides the sister site, Fictionpress) on a profile page just link back to said profile page. To say site-goers weren't pleased would be an ''understatement''.
** The site uses 'robots.txt' in its programming, preventing sites such as ''Website/WaybackMachine'' from working with the site. As a result, this renders a ''lot'' of Forums, {{Fanfiction}}s, and [=RPs=] {{Missing Episode}}s. This is especially infamous because the higher ups like to periodically purge forums, threads, and fics that haven't been touched after a certain point to save on space, even if said threads were unable to be reactivated or the fanfiction was already completed. Naturally, bringing up robots.txt is a good way to ignite a bonfire that can be seen from space.

** As of June 2015, links outside the site no longer show up in forum post anymore thanks to the previously mentioned Korean adbots, and any outside links on a profile page just link back to said profile page. To say site-goers weren't pleased would be an ''understatement''.

* NeverLiveItDown: 'The Purge', one of the most infamous events in the site's history. In an attempt to free up space, the FF.N admins in all their infinite wisdom saw fit to purge 'inactive' Forums and threads, extremely old fics, or fics that break their set guidelines, without informing anyone until ''after'' it had already happened. Not only did this render a lot of popular fics {{Missing Episode}}s, most of the 'inactive' Forums removed were ''still active'', causing recent threads and memories to get removed at random, PlayByPost {{Role Playing Game}}s to have key arcs rendered as {{Missing Episode}}s, and any activity the Forum section of their archive had to be killed, with many users jumping ship to other websites in disgust. Even years after 'The Purge', the events can still be felt, with many Forum archives of popular franchises like ''Franchise/Pokemon'' rendered virtual ghost towns.

** The site uses 'robots.txt' in its programming, preventing sites such as ''WebSite/WaybackMachine'' from working with the site. As a result, this renders a ''lot'' of Forums, {{Fanfiction}}s, and [=RPs=] {{Missing Episode}}s. This is especially infamous because the higher ups like to periodically purge forums, threads, and fics that haven't been touched after a certain point to save on space, even if said threads were unable to be reactivated or the fanfiction was already completed. Naturally, bringing up robots.txt is a good way to ignite a bonfire that can be seen from space.

** The introduction of 4 character choices in filters. For most of fandoms, the site is used solely for {{Shipping}} characters together. Since the update, the ability to add more characters has lead to an infuriating level of people who put all the main characters in a story as the 4 characters, even if the story is just for shipping one of them. Want to find just stories for your pairing? Good luck, since filtering for those two characters now also brings up dozens of non-shipping stories that have them included in the filters.
*** There ''are'' filters for pairings, which most people use. Unfortunately, not enough people do it to avoid irritating the people who just want to find a fic of their pairing.
*** [[BrokenBase On the other hand]], this has now made seeking out pairings like the OT3 a ''lot'' easier, now that fics that deal with just two thirds of the threesome can be filtered out.
*** [[AuthorsSavingThrow The hatred is somewhat lessened]] by the introduction of exclusion filters, which allows you to filter out stories with specific characters and/or genres that you don't want to read. It's especially helpful when trying to exclude a story with an OC (thanks to the newly created OC character added to all sections) in order to avoid a shameless SelfInsertFic, or exclude a character you don't particularly like. Unfortunately, this created a ''different'' problem, since many stories made before the creation of the OC character filter aren't updated to have it, ensuring that several fics always manage to avoid it.