https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/26449
from the post (emphasis theirs):
Quote:
- We attempted several different mitigation and blocking methods and settings changes to counter the attack. These brought the site up intermittently, but were not enough to contain the attack. Eventually, we implemented Cloudflare's Under Attack mode as a temporary—and extremely effective—solution. Cloudflare is a service that provides added security between our servers and the internet. Under Attack mode is not meant to be a permanent part of the Archive's setup. All content remains on our servers.
- You may be seeing a Captcha challenge when you access an AO3 page. That happens so that the Archive can make sure you're a human and not a robot. We know it's annoying, and we're sorry! We also know some browsers and older devices aren't currently able to access AO3. These measures are temporary and will be reassessed once the attack has stopped.
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so
Jim's personal opinion was right
My FFF downloads have been working as usual, though from previous behaviour seen elsewhere I suspect it may depend on where the user is located (I'm in Canada).
my personal opinion/advice (which may or may not be endorsed by Jim): download your stories as usual, though perhaps not a whole bunch at once. If you get an error, wait a few hours before retrying.