Girls when AO3 is down
| Related terms: | when will my lover (ao3) return from the war, nooo my bedtime stories, me when ao3 is down, ao3 my beloved come back to me |
| See also: | 2023 OTW DDOS Attack, Heat Waves#Chapter 10 and AO3 downtime |
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girls when ao3 is down is one of a number of memes which circulate whenever fanfiction site, Archive of Our Own, goes offline, either for planned maintenance or unexpectedly, such as during the DDOS attack in 2023.
It is a common fan activity, whenever AO3 is offline, for fans to go on social media and post dramatic and deliberately exaggerated responses to the temporary loss of AO3. Commenting under the social media accounts for AO3, particularly the Twitter account for AO3_Status is especially popular.
While AO3 going offline does sometimes prompt serious responses, including complaints about how the site is managed or accusations of various sorts about how the site is being run or maintained, these are typically not the same people who are engaging in the hyperbolic dramatising about the loss of access to their fanworks. Sometimes someone might start out making joking memes or comments, then become increasingly annoyed or frustrated if downtime goes on for longer than expected and start to make more serious or accusatory comments. Generally speaking, though, most of the people who are posting memes and about how they cannot cope without their bedtime stories are just having fun with other members of fandom.
Sometimes, people who do not use AO3 or who are not in fandom will see the posts as the volume tends to prompt the terms AO3 or Archive of Our Own to trend on social media; some do not understand that the over-the-top posting is typically not serious and will express concerns about people's attachment to the site.
In addition to the memes and dramatic comments, members of fandom will often also post to AO3 accounts with comments of appreciation for the AO3 volunteers and their hard work maintaining the site. Comments about how many tabs readers have open and about how they have forgotten to download fanworks to read offline are also very commonplace.
Example Art Gallery
The Wojak comic meme, 'Stop giving me your toughest battles' edited for Ao3 being down
the text "me and the boys when" over three sobbing cartoon characters clutching each other's shoulders with the AO3 error page underneath
