FAQ: When Will We Find Out about Uploading for Yuletide 2009?

[elynross]

And the answer is...not quite yet. There's still a bit of testing and migrating of tags and other information that has to happen before the AO3 is ready for us

Comments

[attempt_unique]

I was just reading through the proxy uploader post. I am not super familiar with the Archive of our Own, so this might be a silly question but you mention that 4 warnings are enforced.

Is there more detail to that? like, how are they enforced (could a yuletide fic be kicked off the archive for not complying?) and who does the enforcing? also how does canonical character death work in terms of the major character death warning?

sorry if this is just splitting hairs, but it would be nice to know.

Not-a-mod

[miss_prince]

The answer I found in the Ratings and Warnings section of the AO3 FAQ:

"If we sustain a complaint about ratings, the fanwork will remain available on the archive, but it will have the "not rated" label. If we sustain a complaint about warnings, the fanwork will remain available on the archive, but it will have the "choose not to warn for some content" label."

I have no idea about the policy on canonical character death. But for the record, you needn't specifically include the "character death" warning if you don't want to; there's a "choose not to warn" option that covers everything.

Re: Not-a-mod

[lesserstorm]

I'm not involved with AO3 either, but further down that page there's a question -

"What if there's only a brief reference to rape in a story-am I required to use either "rape" or "choose not to warn," or can I still choose "none of these warnings apply" if I think that's a better description?
This is the kind of decision that is up to the discretion of authors. In general, we will not recategorize a fanwork in response to a complaint when the content at issue is a reference or is otherwise not graphic."

I'd extrapolate that to mean that a character death warning would only be enforced if the death was a significant part of the story or onstage in some detail and that the author would get quite a lot of discretion in deciding

/still not associated with AO3

[telophase]

I believe it's enforced as in the code is written so you can't upload the fic without choosing from a set of warning options: *(ETA; Or, looking at the other reply, perhaps not?)

1) Pick 1-4 of the standard warnings
or
2) Pick "No warnings apply"
or
3) Pick "I choose not to warn"

As to the canonical death question, I don't know.

[loki_dip]

Just want to check - will the new archive work with IE6? I don't have internet at home, and the work comps don't allow installations unless your an admin (and lowly scientists - are not!).

Basically... I'm all done and beta'd, but do I need to ask someone else to upload for me?

[elynross]

From the AO3 FAQ:

the Archive is currently optimised for Firefox 3.0 and above. We also support Internet Explorer 7 and above, although we're still optimising for IE7 and you may notice some discrepancies between IE and Firefox. We're doing our best to support a range of other browsers and welcome your feedback on any bugs you encounter, but at present we need to prioritise fixes in Firefox and IE. If you'd like to help us improve support for your browser, consider volunteering!

So, if your only reason for needing a proxy is browser type, I think IE6 should work fine (even with optimising for IE7). If you find you have trouble, you can check on the yuletide post at that point?

[loki_dip]

That works, I'll do that then.

Thanks!

[cesy]

We're having some issues with IE6 at the moment, and need someone to test a few things out. Would you have some time to volunteer and help us make it work properly in IE6? We don't have very many coders or testers with access to IE6.

[entropy_house]

I'm kinda hesitant about this for reasons of exposure. On LJ I feel reasonably invisible, but I have seen names harvested from large fan archives and put up in a place I am REALLY not comfortable with as it exists to publicize & make fanficcers more easily identified. For this reason I had decided not to join AO3.

I would not have signed up for Yuletide if I'd known I was going to be required to post to AO3. It's just too... large and public. I'm timid. I do not have have the nerve to fight copyright battles.

Is there any way I can write my story & have it posted with a sort of... anonymous name without giving OT3 any information that could lead to me being outed?

not a mod, nor affiliated with OTW or AO3

[kindkit]

It was announced before the signup period began that posting would be on AO3 this year. The information is also in the Yuletide FAQs.

You say your concern about AO3 is that it's large and public--I don't quite see the difference between that and the Yuletide archive, which is also large and public. You don't have to use your real name when signing up at AO3, so I don't see how it could lead to you being outed. Apologies if I'm misunderstanding what your concern is.

I don't have an answer to your question about posting under a different pseudonym, although it seems to me that it might create problems for the Yuletide mods for keeping track of who has posted their assignment and who's defaulted. But one thing that I know you *can* do is post your story and then take your name off of it. The AO3 calls it "orphaning" and it's very easy to do and is all explained on the archive.

Re: not a mod, nor affiliated with OTW or AO3

[entropy_house]

When I read the announcement I mistakenly thought what was meant by 'archive of our own' was that the Yuletide archive was being redone. And since it's fandoms so tiny they barely exist it didn't seem like a target.

I'm basically paranoid because in RL the sort of thing that people always say 'oh don't worry about that it never happens' always happens to me. I don't like being paranoid, but I like even less the disasters that happen to me when I'm not.

Re: not a mod, nor affiliated with OTW or AO3

[doro_chan]

I know of at least one Yuletide fandom where the author asked fans not to write fanfic. She didn't outright forbid it, AFAIK, but she discourages it. There's a Robin Hobb fandom on the current list of requested fandoms as well.

"Small" generally doesn't matter when an author or person is angry either, in my experience.

[taraljc]

If we're uplaoding to AO3, does that mean we can edit the stories ourselves, without needing to ask a mod to re-upload for us? And what will this mean for stories from previous Yuletides we've already uploaded to AOS?

[dizmo]

Yes, from my understanding, it does mean that!

As for stories previously uploaded, also from my understanding (but I'm an AO3 tag wrangler, so I'm pretty sure my understanding is correct in this case) if you uploaded them using the import function past a certain point back in closed beta that they made a code switch to let it happen, then it'll recognize it as a yuletide story and will leave that story alone when it pulls the entire archive over. If you pasted it in to the posting interface, then when the archive move happens, there'll be a duplicate, and you'll be able to remove the extra, I believe.

[taraljc]

I uploaded from my personal site, since I'd gone through and corrected them since they were originally posted to the Yuletide archive.

[blackmagie]

From what I understand, that means there'll be a duplicate. (Believe me, I sympathize. I did the same thing and now I'm like, "Shoot!")

[alley_skywalker]

Ok, somewhat confused here...
Do have to have an already existing AO3 account to be able to upload ourselves? Because right now they only allow accounts to be made by invitation so...can someone clarify this for me, please?

[doro_chan]

You'll receive an invitation if you signed up as soon as uploading is possible, I think.

[writingdawn]

As I understand it, all Yuletide participants will get archive accounts once they're ready for us.

[elynross]

Just to confirm, yes, everyone who is signed up for Yuletide (or who has stories in the archive) will receive invitations when the archive is migrated, allowing them to create accounts for uploading and editing and tagging all their Yuletide stories. !!!!