snowgall: (close-up)
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?
snowgall: (close-up)
HPFandom and TheHexFiles are looking for volunteers!

HPF & THF


The fanfiction archives HPFandom and TheHexFiles are both looking for volunteers to help move fics over to Archive Of Our Own (AO3) using the Open Doors project.

[livejournal.com profile] separatrix, HPF & THF's owner, will not be able to take on this project herself due to health issues so it's up to us fans to come together and move as much as we can in only 3 months before both sites close permanently.

If you are seriously interested in helping out please drop a comment at either [livejournal.com profile] hpfdotnet or [livejournal.com profile] hex_companion and let us know.

Useful links for someone thinking about volunteering:
The Open Doors Special Collections Gallery - Archives saved with Open Doors, where the archives will end up, hopefully.
Importing Works with an Archivist Account - A tutorial of what we'll be doing.
The archives use an early version of eFiction so each chapter has a different ID number so chaptered fics will need to be imported differently than oneshots.
- How do I import a chaptered work? (Up to 100 chapters at a time.)
- How do I import multiple works in one go? (Up to 10 oneshots at a time.)
snowgall: (knitting)
So as part of my plan to count the number of fics posted to fests each year (see chart), I've been chasing down masterlists of all the HD fests I know of ([livejournal.com profile] hp_masterlists and Vaysh's lists have been extremely helpful). At times it has been necessary to re-create a masterlist for a fest, like I did here and here. But there is still one fest that seems to have been lost to time: The Eros Affair Third Wave.

There was a prompt list, and over 50 people signed up to create fics and art. The first fic of the fest was dutifully posted on July 24, 2007 here (f-locked), and then so far as I can tell, the next thing on the site is an admin post from [livejournal.com profile] bookshop on August 13, 2007. She explains certain technical difficulties due to livejournal's policies and says the plan is to upload the rest of the fest's fics to a message board on her website. If this message board exists, I can't find it, or any links to the fics in any centralized location. (I did send an ask to Aja's tumblr account, as she seems more active there, but I haven't heard back Edit: she commented below, yay! But I would still appreciate any information anyone else might have).

And from time to time I have come across fics posted to various archives where the author's note says the fic was written for the third wave of The Eros Affair. So it makes me think it might be possible to re-create a masterlist. But I'll need help.

Here's what I have so far:

Read more... )




But that's just 12 works out of over 50 claims. I think there's probably more. Below is the remainder of the claim list. I'm hoping that some of you who have been part of the fandom for longer than me might know where some of these fics/artwork might be hiding, or if they even exist.

Claim list )

Thanks in advance for any help!
snowgall: (knitting)

I'm interested in seeing how the popularity in HD fanfic has changed over time, and I thought one way to do that would be to look at how many fics get posted to fests each year.

I did a count for 2014 a couple of months ago, but before I can count how many fics were posted in 2013, 2012, etc. I need to know how many fests there were each of those years.

Question: Has anyone else already done this? I hope I'm not duplicating someone else's efforts!

To start with, I'm just going to look at Drarry-focused fests, not more general HP fests. I went through [livejournal.com profile] hp_masterlists and tried to come up with a chart of HD fests through the years. The html table is inserted below the cut. (You may have to use the slider bar at the bottom of the post to see the whole thing - I seem to have trouble formatting wide tables to fit within LJ's specifications. It's very frustrating):

Edit: screenshot here (click to enlarge). HTML table is still below the cut

 

Click for chart-y goodness )

 

General observations:

  • There were a lot fewer fests before 2010 than after. This could be because I've inadvertently left some out. If anyone has any corrections please let me know.
  • 2011 had more HD fests than any other year (counting communities who put on more than one fest that year)
  • 2014 had the second most fests of any year, which seems to indicate that interest is not waning :)
  • I chose not to include [livejournal.com profile] hds_beltane, since that fest also includes fics that aren't HD
  • I also chose not to include comment fests, since those are harder to make counts of, but I could be persuaded to change my mind

Of course, more fests don't necessarily mean more fics. If could be that one year had a lot of fests with hardly any fics. I won't know until I've done a count.

But that brings up another question: should I count drabbles in the overall fic count? For example, in 2010, [livejournal.com profile] hd_birthdaybash had a couple of drabble-a-thons which produced several dozen drabbles. If I counted each of these as a 'fic', that would probably skew the count for 2010. Anyone have an opinion on this?

And again, any corrections or suggestions are welcome. And if you can't see the full table, let me know and I'll try to fix it (or if you know how to get LJ to like my tables, that would also be helpful :)

snowgall: (close-up)

What's the deal with all these "year's best" lists I've been posting?


(see e.g. Best of 2012)

Note: a version of this essay has been uploaded to AO3: Dates Matter


Basically, it started with me being frustrated that I couldn't always tell when a work was first published (see long discussion of this problem under the cuts). Consequently, I began noting the original posting dates in the lists I kept of all the fics I'd read. As this sometimes involved a fair amount of sleuthing (see below), I thought it could be helpful to share this information publically. But the world really doesn't need a list of all the hundreds of fics I've read, some good, some not so good. And so instead I decided to create the series of "Best of Year X" lists I've been posting so far. It was really just a way for me to feel that this detective work I'd been doing had a point :)


So, why is it so difficult to determine when a fic was first published, and why should anyone care other than me? Well, I'm so glad you asked.


Why date fics: The Big Picture )
Why date fics: The Small Picture )
How hard is it to date a fic anyway? )
TL; DR

In sum, accurately dating fics is good practice, and is useful to both individual fans and the fandom as a whole. Yet finding accurate publication dates for many fics is nearly impossible: some fics don't have dates at all, some fics have hidden or lost dates, and others are incorrectly dated when they are re-posted to a new archive.


A plea to authors

Please, please, please make sure your fics can be dated. If possible, provide a link to the original posting in your masterlists. If the original work is no longer available, at least give a date. And if you add older works to AO3, please add an author's note explaining where and when the work was first published, and adjust the "published" field to show that date if you can.

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