Save the Fanfic! (to the Internet Archive)
TL;DR: You can back up pages to the Internet Archive by submitting them here: https://web.archive.org/save. Save the fanfic!
It's been an ongoing project of mine to back up the Chrome and Gunmetal Madhouse to the Internet Archive so that, in the sad event that Chrome and Gunmetal should meet the fate of File 40, it will be as well archived as that site was. Tonight I finished the main work of that project, though I will be going back later to check for fics that I missed or that were not archived properly.
Since I was already in the archiving groove, after finishing with Chrome and Gunmetal, I moved on to MFU Archive. I'm going to have to make a proper start on that some other night, though, as tonight I found it too disheartening. So many fics linked from MFU Archive are no longer on the web and were never backed up to IA. I know that for as long as there have been fanfics, fanfics have been fading away, but it always makes me sad.
At any rate, all this reminded me that not everyone knows that it is possible to submit pages to the Internet Archive. You can do it using this form: https://web.archive.org/save. There are also browser extensions that allow you to submit the page you are viewing. I'd encourage everyone who hosts their fan works on their own site to back them up to IA. You never know what may happen. I'm not sure of the propriety of backing up others' work from their personal sites, but that is also possible. And anyone is certainly welcome to help out with the contents of Chrome and Gunmetal and MFU Archive.
(Note that once submitted, pages often take a while to become available on IA, which means that you usually need to come back after some time has elapsed if you want to check your submissions. I'm not really sure how much time is necessary, but a week seems to be enough. If you register at the Internet Archive, you can use a feature that backs up pages linked from the page you submit. I've found that this technique is not wholly reliable, though, so it's necessary to do a later pass by hand if you don't want anything to be left out. Also note that backing up pages from LiveJournal doesn't always work because of age protections and privacy settings.)
It's been an ongoing project of mine to back up the Chrome and Gunmetal Madhouse to the Internet Archive so that, in the sad event that Chrome and Gunmetal should meet the fate of File 40, it will be as well archived as that site was. Tonight I finished the main work of that project, though I will be going back later to check for fics that I missed or that were not archived properly.
Since I was already in the archiving groove, after finishing with Chrome and Gunmetal, I moved on to MFU Archive. I'm going to have to make a proper start on that some other night, though, as tonight I found it too disheartening. So many fics linked from MFU Archive are no longer on the web and were never backed up to IA. I know that for as long as there have been fanfics, fanfics have been fading away, but it always makes me sad.
At any rate, all this reminded me that not everyone knows that it is possible to submit pages to the Internet Archive. You can do it using this form: https://web.archive.org/save. There are also browser extensions that allow you to submit the page you are viewing. I'd encourage everyone who hosts their fan works on their own site to back them up to IA. You never know what may happen. I'm not sure of the propriety of backing up others' work from their personal sites, but that is also possible. And anyone is certainly welcome to help out with the contents of Chrome and Gunmetal and MFU Archive.
(Note that once submitted, pages often take a while to become available on IA, which means that you usually need to come back after some time has elapsed if you want to check your submissions. I'm not really sure how much time is necessary, but a week seems to be enough. If you register at the Internet Archive, you can use a feature that backs up pages linked from the page you submit. I've found that this technique is not wholly reliable, though, so it's necessary to do a later pass by hand if you don't want anything to be left out. Also note that backing up pages from LiveJournal doesn't always work because of age protections and privacy settings.)