They don't tell the heroes' stories when they fail
Lately there's been stuff happening in Jane Austen fandom or the not-fun variety. Not fun as in not even wanky fun, though there's probably wank about it somewhere.
For those who are not in this fandom, what happened is that a big forum-archive of adult stories (I want to say the first forum archive of adult stories, but I'm not sure because I don't know where Darcyfic, drool, and Firthness fit in the timeline) has been lost.
It was down for a long time, and a few days ago the owner confirmed it's not going to come back up--or if at some point it will, it will not have any of the old stories, because the information was lost.
Cue to much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. There are various issues. One is those authors who fell from fandom when the Hyacinth Gardens went down; how are we supposed to contact them? To let them know fandom keeps going, that there are bigger, functioning forums still? The other one is authors that are still around but don't have copies of their stories. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but it happens.
Initially I got involved by cleaning up a list of HG authors that was being posted. Lots of those are posting elsewhere, and some (turns out, not quite two) have all their stories posted elsewhere already. So I cleaned it up, separating in three, and put in links to those other archiving sites in two of them (obv. there wasn't anything to link in the one of the exclusively HG authors). That done, I got contacted by Sandy, who has a list of the stories posted at HG, so I'm now cleaning that up. I do it for three reasons:
I hope it works. Points two and three are the most important, but I doubt there will be a lot to be done about it, and it seems a bit like a lot of pointless work. I've done the lion share of it already, so that's done, anyway.
And all the other bits in that forum! The Knot Garden! When I got into fandom that was practically the only place where you could discuss canon and meta from a fan perspective (i.e. non academic). There wasn't a lot of that, but there was some, and I liked it. And I used it to footnote my fanlore article, so now I've to think about alternatives and fix it. :(((
I've also just realized that there are authors who now only have their stories in Geocities pages, so I made an announcement at AHA letting people know that's going down, too, but I don't think anyone has taken notice. That's the problem with not being popular in a fandom. :(
I love the AO3. I can't wait until it goes live, seriously. It will be just in time to invite lin in and use the co-writing functionality! Every time someone talks about the appearance of exclusivity of it, I can't but laugh. Seriously, if I have an account, then it's not lj BNF exclusive; it's volunteers exclusive, and that's for good reasons. But in any case, it will be cool when everyone who wants to will be able to be there. I'm planing on inviting as many JA writers as I can lure into it, or at least as many as I have invitations for.
On another subject, I've been postponing a bit of organization I've to do with my teams, and I'm not happy. I will tell you a secret: I'm not that good in this liaison thing. OK, that's not a secret, but you probably wouldn't have known unless you're on one of my teams. :/
On a happier note, yesterday I chatted with sound with lin and E!!1!1 It was weird, and I was totally shy at first, and I can't imagine how little of what I said was understandable, but it was really really fun. Mainly hearing the voices for the first time was weird, and talking in English made me shy. And the fun doesn't need to be explained. ;)
I realized that I haven't been imagining lin with an Spanish accent. :P E's accent was no surprise (particularly because I have some trouble recognizing accents in English), but her voice sounds younger.
And my mother got teary eyed. Seriously. And no, I don't know why either.
OK, I have to go write my lab reports, because I'm so late with them it isn't funny.
ETA: Please remind me not to read unfunnybusiness when they talk about Africa/India or any other colonized continent/country. Please. I don't want to have high blood pressure.
This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. That post has
comment(s). You can comment there, or here.
For those who are not in this fandom, what happened is that a big forum-archive of adult stories (I want to say the first forum archive of adult stories, but I'm not sure because I don't know where Darcyfic, drool, and Firthness fit in the timeline) has been lost.
It was down for a long time, and a few days ago the owner confirmed it's not going to come back up--or if at some point it will, it will not have any of the old stories, because the information was lost.
Cue to much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. There are various issues. One is those authors who fell from fandom when the Hyacinth Gardens went down; how are we supposed to contact them? To let them know fandom keeps going, that there are bigger, functioning forums still? The other one is authors that are still around but don't have copies of their stories. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but it happens.
Initially I got involved by cleaning up a list of HG authors that was being posted. Lots of those are posting elsewhere, and some (turns out, not quite two) have all their stories posted elsewhere already. So I cleaned it up, separating in three, and put in links to those other archiving sites in two of them (obv. there wasn't anything to link in the one of the exclusively HG authors). That done, I got contacted by Sandy, who has a list of the stories posted at HG, so I'm now cleaning that up. I do it for three reasons:
- To assess the damage. Right now it's a relief to realize that most (though not all) stories that haven't been posted elsewhere are small PWP (called NB or naughty bits in this fandom)
- To link to authors who have posted elsewhere but are not searchable by the JAFF Index. If you write Austen fanfiction, please register your stories! It's only so people can find you! If you don't have the time, link me to them, and I'll do it. (Though I realize that I'm delayed with this, too.) All stories are welome, from any author. Doesn't matter if you don't consider yourself to be part of fandom. It's just a link! With author controlled info around it so it can be findable inside a database!
- To mark those stories of which there are reader copies, so the author can contact that reader and get a copy to post.
I hope it works. Points two and three are the most important, but I doubt there will be a lot to be done about it, and it seems a bit like a lot of pointless work. I've done the lion share of it already, so that's done, anyway.
And all the other bits in that forum! The Knot Garden! When I got into fandom that was practically the only place where you could discuss canon and meta from a fan perspective (i.e. non academic). There wasn't a lot of that, but there was some, and I liked it. And I used it to footnote my fanlore article, so now I've to think about alternatives and fix it. :(((
I've also just realized that there are authors who now only have their stories in Geocities pages, so I made an announcement at AHA letting people know that's going down, too, but I don't think anyone has taken notice. That's the problem with not being popular in a fandom. :(
I love the AO3. I can't wait until it goes live, seriously. It will be just in time to invite lin in and use the co-writing functionality! Every time someone talks about the appearance of exclusivity of it, I can't but laugh. Seriously, if I have an account, then it's not lj BNF exclusive; it's volunteers exclusive, and that's for good reasons. But in any case, it will be cool when everyone who wants to will be able to be there. I'm planing on inviting as many JA writers as I can lure into it, or at least as many as I have invitations for.
On another subject, I've been postponing a bit of organization I've to do with my teams, and I'm not happy. I will tell you a secret: I'm not that good in this liaison thing. OK, that's not a secret, but you probably wouldn't have known unless you're on one of my teams. :/
On a happier note, yesterday I chatted with sound with lin and E!!1!1 It was weird, and I was totally shy at first, and I can't imagine how little of what I said was understandable, but it was really really fun. Mainly hearing the voices for the first time was weird, and talking in English made me shy. And the fun doesn't need to be explained. ;)
I realized that I haven't been imagining lin with an Spanish accent. :P E's accent was no surprise (particularly because I have some trouble recognizing accents in English), but her voice sounds younger.
And my mother got teary eyed. Seriously. And no, I don't know why either.
OK, I have to go write my lab reports, because I'm so late with them it isn't funny.
ETA: Please remind me not to read unfunnybusiness when they talk about Africa/India or any other colonized continent/country. Please. I don't want to have high blood pressure.
This entry was originally posted at dreamwidth. That post has
comment(s). You can comment there, or here.