I began my writing journey on fanfiction.net after a fan page on wetpaint.com went down (wetpaint was my OG springboard for all things fanfics, then ff.net, livejournal and tumblr). I still visit it from time to time, reading fanfics that are not present on AO3.
What about you? Do you still visit ff?
Reading FFN is “scrapping the bottom of the barrel” for me. Like I’ll go there if I mine out a fandom in AO3, but it’s definitely not my starting place.
Some of the older fandoms started out there and it existed when majority of the internet users are younger and just starting out so I can understand the quality. Some of my older works are still there and I cringe at them. But that said, there are some hidden gems in FFN not otherwise seen elsewhere.