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Another archive down?
Anybody know what's happened to www.thequidditchpitch.org?
It seems like every few months another classic fanfic archive is in danger of closing. I know that these archives have nostalgic value (and indeed, as someone who's very concerned about accurate dating and records, I prefer having the original places of publication still available online) but it really seems to me that it would be prudent to try to get the owners of these sites to allow transfer to AO3 through the Open Doors project. Short term solutions like funding drives are just that - short term, and I worry about the long term availability of these fics.
But I'm pretty new here, so what do I know?
It seems like every few months another classic fanfic archive is in danger of closing. I know that these archives have nostalgic value (and indeed, as someone who's very concerned about accurate dating and records, I prefer having the original places of publication still available online) but it really seems to me that it would be prudent to try to get the owners of these sites to allow transfer to AO3 through the Open Doors project. Short term solutions like funding drives are just that - short term, and I worry about the long term availability of these fics.
But I'm pretty new here, so what do I know?
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I do hope that these fics don't get lost for good.
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(disclaimer, I know it was a sister site to ANOTHER fanfic site, and my brain is saying hpfandom, but I could be mistaken as to that)
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But this just shows why moving to AO3 is preferable. One person owning several archives means that the fate of all those fics rests in one person's hands - if they go broke or give up on fandom or whatever, then we're all up a tree.
(I know you know this - I'm just sorta whining out loud :/ )
It may be a bit late now for tqp but...
HPFandom and TheHexFiles are looking for volunteers!
The fanfiction archives HPFandom (http://hpfandom.net) and TheHexFiles (http://www.thehexfiles.net) are both looking for volunteers to help move fics over to Archive Of Our Own (http://archiveofourown.org) (AO3) using the Open Doors (http://transformativeworks.org/projects/opendoors) project.
If you are seriously interested in helping out please drop a comment at either
Useful links for someone thinking about volunteering:
The Open Doors Special Collections Gallery (http://opendoors.transformativeworks.org/collections/special-collections-gallery) - Archives saved with Open Doors, where the archives will end up, hopefully.
Importing Works with an Archivist Account (http://opendoors.transformativeworks.org/node/66) - A tutorial of what we'll be doing.
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I love ao3, I pretty much only read there, except for lj of course, and I love when fests post their fics there, not just the long ones. I love the collections, it's so easy to look for something to read. :)
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I will say that of all the old archive sites, I mind thehexfiles the least. That is, something about their color scheme is oddly soothing to me, and makes me nostalgic for fics I've read there. I still prefer AO3 for all the usual reasons, but thehexfiles ain't so bad :)
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Do you know what the reasoning for changing their mind? It seems with the help offered it would have been a good time to do the transfer.
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And I know what that's like, as I have struggled with ADD, and this often makes me feel like starting anything new is impossible, no matter how easy other people tell me it will be.
But it's a real shame, as yes, this would have been the perfect time to do it.
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I find it genuinely upsetting when I go to read an older fic only to find out it's just gone, perhaps forever. Whether it's a personal fave or something I've never read before, it's such a loss. I'm getting to the point where I'm tempted to copy/paste/save everything I come across and enjoy for fear that it might be gone soon.
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With the presence of AO3 and how awesome it all is, I think people are looking to simplify their archiving and going for maximum readerage (that's soo not a word). Years ago ff dot net was big and it still is, but since they have gotten less friendly to authors and readers wishing to read on ereaders, many folks have migrated away from there and AO3 has done a spectacular job of picking up the slack. I'm just thankful that the fics on these sites can be uploaded to AO3 and archived there. It would be a shame to lose them all.
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The problem is that although these fics *can* be uploaded to AO3, I am very much afraid that they *won't* be. Without the site owner's cooperation, I don't think the fans can do anything themselves, and it would be up to all the individual authors, many of whom are no longer active.
I don't know the owner of THF and HPF personally, but I wish that someone could convince her to let the fans go ahead and help with a transfer to AO3.
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See this post.
And then this one.
That's why I'm frustrated :/
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the quidditch pitch
(Anonymous) 2015-06-29 03:08 pm (UTC)(link)Re: the quidditch pitch
With TQP, it's just that I didn't see any warning messages that it was going down. I had just visited there a few months back and it was still up. With THF and HPF, I saw mentions in fandom spaces that these archives were at risk. Maybe I just missed it for TQP. I dunno.
Re: the quidditch pitch
(Anonymous) 2015-07-22 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)Re: the quidditch pitch
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Respectfully, this doesn't matter; if we all had that kind of attitude, we'd never save/rescue anything; we need to just say "Screw it!" and jump in with both feet, if we're ever going to get anything done....
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I still don't know what happened to the Quidditch Pitch, but I am glad to report that the owner of the Hexfiles and HPF finally did allow the Open Doors project to archive all of those fics on AO3. So at least some got saved!
There are still more independent archives out there which would be nice to have backups of. Like Fictionalley (which went down a few months ago, and then came back) and skyehawke (which might be multi-fandom? not sure). Anyway, we can hope!