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Originally Posted by seabream
I wouldn't be so sure that they've not given any thought to it. An issue is that FFN is an advertisement funded site whereas AO3 is donation funded. Using FFDL or hypothetically providing an epub as a whole work as opposed having each chapter separately on FFN webpages, drives/would drive down their ad views, which essentially means that people who are actually reading on the website are subsidising the people using FFDL because they actually provide revenue, while FFDL users just add to costs.
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Based on the direct communication I've had with them over the past couple of days, they in fact have not previously considered this technology. They asked numerous questions, most of which were focused on what the reader would need, but the nature of those questions made it clear that this was a new concept for them. While you're certainly right about the page views driving their revenues, they were very concerned about the fact that I was moving away to different sites because they didn't provide this functionality.
FFN was one of the first in the game, and while they have undoubtedly made some improvements in their technology and interface, they are one of the few fanfic websites that doesn't even allow automatic compilation for the purposes of printing. They are way behind the curve on that, and I think they should be concerned that readers will abandon them for other sources. As a fanfic author, I have posted there, but now post my work at three other sites that allow the reader to fully download either for printing or ebook compilation.