Fanfiction
Fanfiction is written fan-content about a piece of media.
This typically consists of stories written my fans that take place in a fictional universe that they love.
These stories might explore barely touched upon parts of a fictional world's lore, or might explore what might've happened if a certain plot point happened differently, or might explore character dynamics and mentality.
There used to be dozens of different fanfiction websites in the late 90s and early 2000s, during the earlier days of the internet, and while many still do exist, two sites have come to reign supreme above all others, FanFiction.net and Archive of Our Own (AO3).
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Archive of Our Own
This is the newer of the two sites, being created in 2008, but it has taken over Fanfiction.net's position as top fanfiction site due to its improved appearance and functionality. It claims to be home o more than 70,000 fan-communities and 14 million works.
I find this to be easier to get used to, having text formatting on par with many larger reading websites.
Searching here is also fairly easy, with AO3 having a similar index to Fanfiction.net, but it also has a very detailed advanced search feature, allowing users to chose or block stories with certain "tags" or descriptors, characters, character relationships, and content warnings. You can also specify a time range, an author, a minimum number of words, likes, or views, in addition to the many ways you can narrow results.
You can find the search button in the upper toolbar, or you can narrow results using a toolbar to the right within specific fan-communities and tags. -
FanFiction.net
FanFiction.net is the older of the two sites, existing since 1995, and this does somewhat show in its design, which is somewhat plain and sparsely decorated compared to newer sites. Despite this, it's still used by millions of users and has millions of fanfictions on it.
I find the site somewhat poorly formatted compared to other reading sites like Kindle or Libby, but it's quite easy to use and search through.
Searching within the site is relatively easy. First, you click on a category of media, such as "Books" or "Movies". This brings you to an alphabetical index of popular media that the site has fanfiction about. Clicking onto a link will show you a list of every associated fanfiction, which can be sorted by date of publication, number of "favorites" (essentially likes), or reviews. You can also add limiters, such as time range, length, genre, and language.
Though these sites are the largest, they are not the only ones, and you may find that a smaller site fits your interests more. Many fan-communities will also have their own dedicated fanfiction sites that may have content not present on these larger platforms.
As always, I recommend that you do your own exploration to see what appeals most to you.
Fanart
Fanart is art of a piece of popular media created by fans. I also include fan-animations under this category. While you may already know about some of the larger sites for fanart, such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Pintrest, here are a few others:
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DeviantArt
DeviantArt was one of the largest websites for small, independent artists to share their works in the 2000s and 2010s. Though lately it has been eclipsed by social media sites like Twitter and Instagram, it still has a dedicated userbase. It also allows users to upload fanfiction, though it's less popular for this than the aforementioned larger fanfiction sites.
You do not need to be an artist to make an account here, as anyone can use the website to find and follow artists.
Searching through the site is relatively simple, as you can just enter in keywords directly. However, though tags exist, the website does not offer a way to search for tags themselves, just for the art associated with a tag. There are also no formal categories, so different users may use different tags to describe different things.
I will also note that the quality of the site has gone down in recent years, as AI-art has flooded the site, causing many real artists to abandon it. -
Newgrounds
Another site popular in the 2000s and 2010s, NewGrounds offers a space for users to view and upload art, videos, games, and music, much of which is fan-content. While it has also faced a decline in users with the rise of major sites like YouTube, it still maintains a thriving community.
You will not need an account to use this site, though certain features may be locked away if you do not have one.
Using the site is fairly simple, though the search functionality is a bit lacking.
You can chose a media type at the top navigation bar, which will bring you to another page where you can chose to sort works by whats new or popular, or by date, user score, or views, or by a more specific media type, such as "pixel art" or 3d art".
Fangames
Fangames are games created by fans about a piece of popular media.
These pieces of media may already be games themselves, or they might be movies, TV shows, or books. Anything could get a fangame.
These may be built with entirely unique code, or they may be built of of existing, official code (which is sometimes of "questionable" legality when it comes to copyright, unlike original code. I will not be linking any games that break copyright here).
Here are some websites for fangames and game-content:
Mods
Game mods, or modifications, are edits or additions to existing game code. These can be as simple as bug-fixes or quality-of-life changes, or can be as extreme as adding hours of entirely new content onto a game.
These are different from questionably legal hacks, as many game publishers will open up their game to legal modding with a few restrictions, such as not allowing direct monetization of mods.
Here are two popular websites for mods.
Be careful when downloading mods, as while there are measures in place to detect viruses or other malicious code, some innocent code may simply be poorly made and therefore incompatible with the base-game or may be incompatible with other mods, which can lead to crashes or even data-loss. Also be careful when downloading mods for multiplayer games, as not all servers allow mods, and you may be banned for "hacking", even if that was not your intention.
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CurseForge
CurseForge is one of the largest game modding websites, with over half a million mods. It also offers monetization based off of downloads and collaboration with official game publishers such as publishing mods through official platforms.
Mods for popular games such as Minecraft, World of Warcraft, or The Sims 4, can be found here.
I personally find this to be a rather useful and relatively easy to use site.
To find a mod, simply enter a game into the search bar and you'll be directed to a page for that game. The "Discover" tab will show you what's trending, while the "Browse All" tab will allow you to sort mods by popularity, downloads, and upload date. You can also try entering in keywords into the search bar for the game page to find relevant mods, though CurseForge doesn't have much advanced functionality. -
Nexus Mods
Nexus Mods is another popular site with over 700 thousand mods. Nexus also offers its own monetization program.
Mods for the popular games Skyrim and Cyberpunk 2077, as well as mods for games in the Fallout franchise can be found here.
This is another modding website that's relatively to use.
Searching here is similar to searching in CurseForge. Search for a game and enter it's game page. There you'll find what's new and what's trending or popular. Alternatively, use the search bar and search for keywords while also selecting a game's tag. True advanced functionality is unfortunately also sparse here.
Original Fan-Games
Not all fan-games or game-content is based off of existing code, and much of it is entirely original. Here is one source for original fan-games:
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Itch.io "Fangames" Tag
Itch.io is a website that allows anyone to publish games. As it has far fewer restrictions than other, major platforms, it's cultivated a large userbase of independent game makers, as well as many fan-game creators.
Here is a link to the "Fangame" tag on the website.
The website is incredibly easy to use.
It has additional search functionality that allows you to chose additional "tags" or descriptors for desired games, as well as options in the left side-bar that allow you to pick platform, price, release date, genre, and accessibility features, among other things.
To download a game, simply click onto its page and navigate to the download button. Clicking on it will show a recommended price, though for most games on Itch.io this is optional, as most games on there are free. You'll also be given a list of downloadable files. Many programmers offer programs for a variety of platforms, so make sure you chose the correct one. Many also code games to run directly in the browser, so not all will need downloads.