FanFiction.Net

Currently, the ratings K, K+, T and M are allowed.

The K rating is for audiences ages 5 or older. Any content that is rated K should be completely free of coarse language, adult themes and violence.

The K+ rating is recommended for audiences ages 9 or older. Content that is rated K+ should only contain minor coarse language and violence and should be completely free of adult themes.

The T rating is not recommended for audiences below age 13. Some non-explicit violence, presence of blood and minor coarse language, as well as minor suggestive adult themes can be used.

The M rating is only for audiences ages 16 or older. Coarse language, violence and suggestive adult themes are allowed if not too explicit. Fanfictions with these ratings often have sexual references.

Currently, the MA rating is strictly forbidden.

Only for people over 18 years old. Many M-rated stories that contain explicit adult themes still exist on Fanfiction.net and are yet to be removed.

As of April 16, 2020, the top 20 fandoms (i.e., the fandoms with the most stories submitted) on FanFiction.Net are (the figures are rounded to nearest thousand):

FanFiction.net also hosts one of the longest works of fiction ever written. The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest, a Super Smash Bros. fanfiction written by FanFiction.net user AuraChannelerChris, gained media attention for its length of over three and half million words at the time of notice, more than three times as long as In Search of Lost Time written by Marcel Proust, and is still being written.[14][15][16] The longest fanfiction on the site is Ambience: A Fleet Symphony, a fanfiction of Kantai Collection, which is almost four and a half million words long.[17]

Fanfiction.net contains some fanfiction works of considerable length.

Some of them, like Ashes of the Past, are over 1.000.000 words long. Those stories are normally written on over the course of many years. The table below lists notable fanfictions of different categories with more than 500,000 words to boast to its name and has a large following of fans.

FanFiction.Net instituted several policy changes as it grew in size and popularity.[19] These policies frequently led to the deletion of fanfiction based on the copyrighted works of certain published authors or containing specifically targeted content.

Since the site's founding, several professional authors and producers have asked that stories based on their copyrighted or trademarked works be removed, including Anne Rice, P. N. Elrod, Archie Comics, Dennis L. McKiernan, Irene Radford, J.R. Ward, Laurell K. Hamilton, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Raymond Feist, Robin Hobb, Robin McKinley, and Terry Goodkind.[20]

In addition, stories based on real-life celebrities were disallowed around 2003. Fan fiction based on professional wrestling, however, is still allowed, being the number one fandom in the "Miscellaneous" category.[20]

On September 12, 2002, FanFiction.Net banned and removed material that was rated NC-17. Prior to the new policy, the site would use a pop-up to prompt readers to say whether they were over 17 or not, but since then, the site has relied on its users to report stories that are inappropriately rated. Some NC-17 material was moved to Adult-FanFiction.org (previously AdultFanFiction.Net), a similar site which was created to serve the adults who write R and NC-17 rated fan fiction. However, many stories containing explicit material still exist and have yet to be removed.

Story titles and summaries must be rated K.[20]

These have been banned since 2005, and the site removed all material that had the potential of inserting the reader into a fanfiction. Under the heading of "Entries not allowed," Item #5 says: Any form of interactive entry: choose your adventure, second person/you based, Q&As, etc.[20]

In 2005, FanFiction.net banned songfics which contain copyrighted lyrics. Public domain lyrics (such as those to "Amazing Grace") or lyrics written by the author of the fanfiction are allowed, however.

Until April 21, 2002, in addition to fiction stories based on existing characters, the site had a section devoted to lists, generally humor-related, for example "20 Ways to Dump Your Girlfriend".