fanfiction.lol

An independent fanfiction archive forked from the OTW-Archive codebase, the open-source software powering Archive of Our Own.

Live site: fanfiction.lol
Source code: source.tube/brennan/fanfiction.lol

What Makes This Fork Different?

No Invite Queue

Unlike AO3 (where 144,000+ people wait for invitations), anyone can register immediately. Sign up and start posting.

Fandom-Agnostic Moderation

I care about the writing of fans, not fandom internal politics or discourse. Write whatever you want, tag it honestly, and readers can find what they're looking for.

Expanded Content Warnings

The archive warnings have been updated to include:

• Systemic Oppression
• Colonialism
• Ableism
• Homophobia/Transphobia
• Racism
• Real Person Fiction

Expanded Relationship Tags

Relationship categories include:

• Aromantic/Asexual Spectrum
• QPR (Queer Platonic Relationship)
• Non-Binary/Genderqueer Focus
• Poly/Ensemble
• Casual
• Getting-Together

All Tags Are Canonical

Every tag you create goes into the searchable record—no volunteer wrangling required.

Technical Stack

This fork runs on a complex stack containerized with Docker Compose:

• Ruby on Rails 8.1.0 on Ruby 3.4.6
• MariaDB for the database
• Redis for caching and job queue
• Elasticsearch 7.17.5 for work search (2GB RAM requirement)
• Memcached for fragment caching
• Resque for background jobs with scheduler
• Cloudflare Tunnel for HTTPS/SSL without port forwarding

Deployment Architecture

The archive is deployed on a homelab server (Apple Silicon M4) behind a Cloudflare Tunnel:

• SSL termination handled by Cloudflare at the edge
• No port forwarding required—home ports stay closed
• Container isolation for all services
• Automated backups via cron scripts

Deployment

Prerequisites

• Docker with Rosetta enabled (for Apple Silicon)
• Cloudflare account with domain configured
• At least 6 GB RAM allocated to Docker
• 20-30 GB free disk space

Quick Start

1. Configure environment:

   cp .env.example .env
   # Edit .env with your secrets
   

2. Configure Cloudflare Tunnel:

   • Create tunnel in Cloudflare Zero Trust
   • Add public hostnames pointing to http://web_prod:3000
   • Add tunnel token to .env

3. Initialize database:

   docker compose run web_prod script/reset_database-prod.sh
   docker compose exec web_prod bundle exec rake db:schema:load
   docker compose exec web_prod bundle exec rails runner script/ensure_required_tags.rb
   docker compose exec web_prod bundle exec rake skins:load_site_skins
   

4. Create admin account:

   docker compose exec web_prod bundle exec rails runner script/create_admin.rb
   

5. Start services:

   docker compose up -d web_prod worker sc cloudflared
   

Services

• web_prod — Rails application server
• worker — Resque background job worker
• sc — Resque scheduler for recurring tasks
• cloudflared — Cloudflare Tunnel daemon
• db — MariaDB database
• es — Elasticsearch 7.17.5 (amd64 emulation on ARM64)
• redis — Redis for caching and job queue
• mc — Memcached for fragment caching

Important Technical Notes

CSS in Database

The site uses a custom skin system where CSS is stored in the database (Skin model), not in files. To update styles:

1. Update CSS files locally for reference
2. Update the database skin via Rails runner:

   docker exec fanfiction-web bundle exec rails runner 'skin = Skin.find_by_title("fanfiction.lol"); css = skin.css; css.gsub!("old", "new"); skin.save(validate: false)'
   

3. Clear Rails cache: docker exec fanfiction-web bundle exec rails runner 'Rails.cache.clear'
4. Restart container: docker compose restart fanfiction-web
5. Purge Cloudflare cache

Elasticsearch Indexing

Elasticsearch 7.17.5 is required (gem pins 7.17.1). On Apple Silicon, it runs with Rosetta emulation. After database changes, reload Elasticsearch:

docker compose run web_prod bin/reload_elastic

Tag System

All tags are set to canonical: true by default for immediate searchability. The tagging system is the same robust AO3 system but without volunteer wrangling bottlenecks.

About the Original OTW-Archive

The OTW-Archive software is developed by the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit organization by and for fans. You can see the original in action on Archive of Our Own.

For detailed setup notes for the original codebase, see SquidgeWorld's guide.

Contributing

This is a personal project, but I welcome feedback and issues. The upstream OTW-Archive has a Contributing Guidelines if you want to contribute to the original codebase.

• Report issues: source.tube/brennan/fanfiction.lol/issues
• Contact: mail@brennanbrown.ca
• Mastodon: @brennan@social.lol

License

The Archive code is licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later by the Organization for Transformative Works.

Acknowledgments

• The Organization for Transformative Works for creating and maintaining the OTW-Archive
• SquidgeWorld for the foundational setup guide
• Melo for the deployment guide
• The entire AO3 community for building the infrastructure that makes this possible

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Write whatever the hell you want!