what happens to your fic after you die?

It depends. Like anything else on the internet, it could just sit on the Archive forever.

But if you want something more than that, then you might want to look into a Fannish Next of Kin (FNOK). This is a person you choose to get control of your account if you’re ever incapacitated or if you die. 

How do you choose them? They can be a real life friend or family member. They can be someone you know in fandom. Whoever it is, it should be someone you trust because they’ll be given access to your account in the event of your death. You’ll need to be able to talk to them about how you feel about your fanworks and what you want to have happen to them. Do you want them to stand just as they are? Do you want them added to the orphan_account? Do you want your entire account deleted?

After you have chosen your FNOK, both you and your chosen person will need to send a message to the Abuse team - they’re the team who also manage next of kin requests. Both of you will need an AO3 account in order to do this, so if the person you choose isn’t involved in fandom they’ll need to get an account first.

You don’t have to be next of kin for each other. It’s fine if the relationship is just one way. But, you can only have one next of kin. If there are 2 or more, there is the possibility of disagreements about what you want done, and AO3 has no way to arbitrate those disagreements.

You can end the agreement if you want to. If you have a falling out with your friend, or if they leave fandom and you lose touch, or if you want to end this part of the relationship for any reason, either one of you can send another message to the Abuse team and provide both usernames of the people involved. They’ll send you both a message to let you know the FNOK relationship has ended. 

How does AO3 know you’re dead? Your FNOK will tell them by submitting another report to the Abuse team. The Abuse team will then send an email to the address they have on file. If you don’t reply back within 10 days, they’ll pass control of your account over to your FNOK. It is important that you keep your AO3 account email up to date so you don’t miss this message. Remember that AO3 doesn’t know your real life identity, so if the person you trust says you’ve passed and you don’t tell AO3 that you haven’t, then they’ll believe them.

If your account is transferred but you’re still alive, submit a form to the Abuse team and let them know! They’ll do their best to get your account back to you.

You can read these and more details about Fannish Next of Kin over at the AO3 Terms of Service FAQ. Live long and prosper - and plan for the future 🖖

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Editing this post with an update! As of January 12, 2023 you should contact Support and Feedback instead of Policy & Abuse

always just beyond my reach

Light dragon armor set 

(set bonus: spawns a surprise froggy in your inventory every once in a while).

kissing the atsv character designers directly on the lips

Spiderverse thots

TOTK Spoilers!! The Dragon’s Tears :’) Might have been veeeeery emotional after that last one :’)

starting to suspect that tech bros actually just don’t know what reading is

“The average US president has been charged with 1.54 felonies” factoid isn’t true. The average US President has been charged with 0 felonies. Donald trump, who has been charged with 71, is a statistical outlier and should not have been counted

despite staff's recent changes, we're... winning??????

Nothing funnier than Link getting the Tony Hawk treatment

[Please do not dub this comic! I’ll be releasing it for the VO community in a few weeks! <3]

WHY ARE HYOY SO SMALL

STOP STOP HES ALREADY DESD

they cant stop grilling my boy. manlet simulator

the saga continues

umm compilation

I would chase you to the ends of the world

So the CONTEXT is that Xbox is releasing Diablo IV and they changed their logo to match that, BUT I'm CACKLING over the idea that Xbox decided 4 days of pride was enough and that the gays should burn in hell now

funniest thing about the “reddit migration” is that I haven’t seen a single post shitting on anyone coming from Reddit. when twitter started bleeding users everyone was firing rent-lowering posts but with redditors skittering about we’ve left the doors open and put out food bowls

There's a house on my way home that has one of those Home Depot 12 ft. skeletons and they haven't taken it down since Halloween, just dressed it up in holiday-appropriate wear and of course for June it's all about Pride so please allow your dash to be blessed by 12 ft. Pride Skeleton