Fanfiction Platforms as Cultural Infrastructure

Community‑run fanfiction sites are maturing from hobbyist experiments into stable cultural infrastructure that archives, mediates, and adjudicates large swaths of popular creativity. Their longevity, volunteer technical governance, and huge userbases give them de facto authority over norms (tags, privacy, distribution) that used to be set by publishers and mainstream media. — If volunteer platforms like AO3 become long‑lived cultural infrastructure, policy questions about moderation standards, archival access, platform liability, and cultural representation move from niche to mainstream politics.