Forum Closure

[Claire]

@Labaal I will keep posting new parts as I keep editing them. I still have to edit chapters 7 to 11.

AO3 works similar to our forum here in the sense that whenever you post an update to a story, the story gets a boost in hits. The biggest mistake you can make for a long running story on AO3 is to post multiple chapters at once. When I first started posting on AO3 in May or June last year, I posted my stories far too quickly. Recently, I've settled on a one update per week rhythm, but even that cuts the high attention phase for a recently posted story somewhat short. If you're curious here is some data for the last update of Record Chaser on AO3:

I finished chapter 6 on AO3 on June 13 2026, so a little over a month ago. The story had 14295 and 94 kudos at the time. Here is how the hits develop over the course of the first week:

13.06.26 14295
14.06.26 14699 (+404)
15.06.26 14869 (+170)
16.06.26 15000 (+131)
17.06.26 15090 (+90)
18.06.26 15170 (+80)
19.06.26 15243 (+73)
20.06.26 15310 (+67)
21.06.26 15378 (+68)
...
27.06.26 15671

You can see here how the story made a lot of hits on its first day (404), a total of 1015 hits in its first week, and another 361 hits in its second week. The story reached 2000 hits since the last update yesterday, so after 31 days. By now, the story should have lost all momentum a story gets from a recent update. It seems that the story has settled at ~30 hits per day after one month. So hits are incredibly frontloaded immediately after an update.

The reason why I'm not just posting all chapters there at once is simply that I would cut the number of hits (and kudos) the story receives drastically because I would cut the initial hype phase afer a recent update artificially short. Now, if there was an active community there that left kudos and comments on the story regularly, I would probably post faster. But the sad reality is that every new RC chapter on AO3 gets probably a couple dozen people to follow the link here to read more of it, but only maybe 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 of the people who like the story enough to come here leave kudos for the story on AO3.

Long story short: For original works, the feedback culture on AO3 is even worse than here. If as an author you want to maximize the outreach of your story on AO3 in terms of hits and kudos, you need to spread out the time window between two updates. Based on my experience, I think one update per month for a story is probably close to the ideal rhythm.

So yes, I will keep posting RC on AO3, but it will take a few more months until the story is complete over there. If fans eagerly awaiting the next chapter would leave comments and kudos on the story, I would probably do it faster.

[Vela Nanashi]

I would also like to tell people there is a way to save a whole story topic, you need to click the menu on top or bottom of the topic view that has a wrench, then select print all, that gets you a cleaned up version of a story thread that you can save and edit in a text editor later or read in one. Now if you want the decorated version you will have to go to each page and save that as html with assets so that is a bit less convenient.

[AdmiralPiet]

If anybody wants to copy my stories, they better do it now, as it’s unlikely that I will follow the exodus to AO3, I hardly ever can find anything I want to read there.

That is sad to hear. I greatly enjoyed your writing here.
I would be happy to stay in contact with you via discord or another platform in case you find another place to post

[RSlice]

Hard to hear that this place is once again gonna be shut down. Its one of the last if not the last forum that I know of for this subject and it's gonna be hard to not be able to come on here and read storys occasionally even if there hasnt been too many of my favorites. (Home invasion style for those wondering)

[aprilt909]

Can anyone suggest some other sites?

[Shocker]

Can anyone suggest some other sites?

Stay tuned to this channel. I know of efforts to start a new one. But it’s not up yet.

[RapeU]

Can anyone suggest some other sites?

Stay tuned to this channel. I know of efforts to start a new one. But it’s not up yet.

I’m not surprised someone is trying to start a new one and am totally fine with someone linking the site here before the forum goes down. I may even do a mass notification to help out.

[Shocker]

Can anyone suggest some other sites?

Stay tuned to this channel. I know of efforts to start a new one. But it’s not up yet.

I’m not surprised someone is trying to start a new one and am totally fine with someone linking the site here before the forum goes down. I may even do a mass notification to help out.

Much appreciated, I’m told for a while now expect news soon. There are apparently set backs, once I have some firm news I will share them as widely as possible.

[MisterZ]

Sorry to hear that, but I completely understand not having the bandwidth for a project like this.

[RapeU]

Sorry to hear that, but I completely understand not having the bandwidth for a project like this.

The issue isn't bandwidth or money. The issue is time.

I am a math teacher going into a larger school than the school I taught last year. I also have a child with significant medical issues. There isn't enough hours of the day to juggle everything at once.