What's insufficient about user profiles linking to their non-fannish work?
Well, it's the same that makes having an archive better than just having personal spaces for fanworks. Not everyone may have such a space available, also it would lack the intention to be a permanent thing, archiving works permanently, beyond your own involvement in fandom, and it would not be accessible through the archives thematic searches.
The first I think actually applies even more to fanart than to text, because for example free picture hosts (and many other places) will not let you host explicit images in their TOS, but it is also true that many webhosts (at least affordable ones) have rules against using it for all kinds of porn. And obviously if you drop dead tomorrow, and three months later your webhosting expires, your archive account will still be there, hopefully as long as OTW will exist.
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Well, it's the same that makes having an archive better than just having personal spaces for fanworks. Not everyone may have such a space available, also it would lack the intention to be a permanent thing, archiving works permanently, beyond your own involvement in fandom, and it would not be accessible through the archives thematic searches.
The first I think actually applies even more to fanart than to text, because for example free picture hosts (and many other places) will not let you host explicit images in their TOS, but it is also true that many webhosts (at least affordable ones) have rules against using it for all kinds of porn. And obviously if you drop dead tomorrow, and three months later your webhosting expires, your archive account will still be there, hopefully as long as OTW will exist.