Shutdown rumors, hoaxes, and scares
In general, when there is warning for a shutdown or a removal, it comes from a source whose veracity does not need to be questioned. A few times this has happened:
- December 2020, there was a rumor - allegedly confirmed by a purported May "change" in their retention policies that had not actually taken place - that Mediafire was going to start removing old uploads in January (May + the 8 months for accounts to become inactive). This had a positive outcome though, as it led to the proactive project which still (February 2023) runs for that site.
- September 2022 there was a rumor that Fanfiction.net was going to shut down. Despite the rumor being "stronger than normal" this did not happen. [1].
- December 2023, a hoax screenshot announcing the shutdown of the Flash game Poptropica spread around.
- July 2025, Amino, after a disgruntled moderator put the worst possible spin on news that the company was outsourcing its development and moderation work.[2][3][4]
- ↑ https://fanlore.org/wiki/FanFiction.Net#2022.27s_Shutdown_Rumors[IA•Wcite•.today•MemWeb]
- ↑ https://aminoapps.com/c/therian/page/blog/amino-is-shutting-down-soon-psa/3WpD_LGRFBuPonMkpgol1RMX2LM8JEzbj[IA•Wcite•.today•MemWeb]
- ↑ https://aminoapps.com/c/fairy-tail/page/blog/psa-potential-shutdown-for-amino/R4Qe_WnTwuwNXKdv7EKLE4PodX7Mgzbrbm[IA•Wcite•.today•MemWeb]
- ↑ https://aminoapps.com/c/wings-of-amino/page/blog/psa-app-updates/r8Vr_rxseurrqVj7KMl0pENQ0QNgQxavNY[IA•Wcite•.today•MemWeb]