#Fic Archiving

[anghraine]

Hey, if you follow for fic and also use or are thinking about using Dreamwidth—

I'm gradually backing up my fic and fixing typos on a Dreamwidth community (moirharad.dreamwidth.org—you can subscribe but not join, and in any case, there's only one fic up currently, but it's where you'll be able to find them). I made it to function entirely as a fic archive. I've meant to back up my fic for awhile, but it seemed a good time to have it posted somewhere other than AO3, and specifically more reliable/less corporate than Tumblr. I also wanted to be able to f-lock specific fics should I so desire, which DW can do.

Also, it's nice to have some pre-established structure, but with the freedom to choose my own format and tagging system, with the bonus that they won't go into some common site tag. And communities allow for multiple people to post fic to it, should I ever want to do that. And I can use all the icons and perks of my personal account. So if you use/at least know Dreamwidth, I'd recommend doing something similar unless you'd rather build your own site or something like that.

Creating a community is very simple, btw; go to the main dreamwidth.org page and drag your mouse over "Create." The last option is "Create Community."

Some more details:

Once you have a community, you can run your mouse over "Organize" and select "Settings" under your community. Click on the "Privacy" tab. This lets you choose things like if you want to enable comments, only logged-in comments, if you want them to go into a moderation queue, log the IP address, ban specific users from commenting, be indexed by search engines, etc. I chose to put anonymous comments into a queue while allowing all logged-in Dreamwidth accounts to comment should they wish, and to not log IP addresses.

When it comes to choosing the aesthetic of the archive, some styles are pretty dire, but here are some that I like:

Dark Blue by ninetydegrees—the one on my personal blog and the fic community; I've used it forever and find it very soothing.

Simplicity by timeismymeasure—nice and clean.

Too Much Wine by ninetydegrees—mostly for the convenient sidebar.

Atlantic by ninetydegrees—similar design, but more "writerly" in some ways, if you want that vibe.

Prose by timeismymeasure for Five AM—pleasant and elegant. I almost used it, but wanted more contrast.

Právda by rising for Five AM—similar design IIRC, but more vivid. I considered it for Pride month (the coloring looks kind of rainbow-y), but the orange was just a bit much. Fun if you go for that, though.

Pigeon Blue by dancing_serpent for Blanket—I prefer dark text on a light background, but I liked the look of this for the reverse.

Marble IV by dancing_serpent—same issue with the light text/dark background, but I like the design.

Neutral Good by timeasmymeasure for Practicality—another no-frills but pleasant one.

If you have an account and want to post to a community you've made, it's also pretty straightforward. Just go to "Post" from either the Dreamwidth main page or your logged-in header from most anywhere on Dreamwidth. It's the second link under your username.

From the "Post" page, you should see a drop-down list that contains your main blog and all communities you're a member of. You just click on the fic archive community you made and that means your post will go to the community instead of your main blog.

My standard format for fic posts, incidentally, lists the title, the verse (if it's in a series or shared continuity), the story's length, major warnings, the characters, the relationships, a chapter or fic summary, links to previous chapters/sections if any, and a link to any podfic. e.g.:

This is overly detailed for some, and that's fine! But I like to be upfront.

Anyway, if you're thinking of using Dreamwidth to back up fic, I hope that helps!

[just-french-me-up]

'ao3 needs a like and dislike button'

what you need, my algorithm-rotten minded friend, is a grip

[theaftersundown]

the holy grail types of fanfic

[frownyalfred]

the fact that I’ve actually had this happen multiple times when I’ve entered a new fandom is hilarious like what do you MEAN

[queer-here-and-in-fear]

BTW i see these posts all the time like "ohhh i dont know what to comment on fics.." and every response is "keysmashes! or hearts!! anything works :3" and thats GREAT!! thats helpful!!

but: consider. if u genuinely like analyzing writing.. do u know ur just allowed to go through and quote your favorite parts and ramble abt what they mean to u and the author will LOSE IT WITH HYPE?

genuinely. i felt SO WEIRD the first time i did it.. but like. holy shit authors love it. its crack for authors. the first time i did it, it was on a fic that hadnt updated in half a year, give or take, and the author made 3 updates that month BECAUSE OF MY COMMENT.

LIKE. as an author every comment is INCREDIBLE!!! but also, dont feel like your comment has to be short or otherwise ur invasive or smth!! authors ADORE long comments more than ANYTHING.

[moonchild311]

"you've already left kudos here. :)" ok and I'll leave some more. You got a problem? Because in my opinion, this work is so good and the author totally deserves it

[bittermedicinespitter]

if i ever tell you "i cant possibly read a book in a day!" i am LYING. i am a FUCKING LIAR. because last night i read a 50k word fanfic in three fucking hours.

[bebx]

"undoing this character's death would take away his sacrifice and character arc" girl I don't give a shit. I'm bringing him back through the power of ao3 fix-it fics and there's nothing you can do to stop me x

[the-bar-sinister]

Fanfiction literally cannot "normalize" anything. Fanfiction is a weird little niche and fics are not something with massive cultural impact.

[kitkatt0430]

If you're seeing 525 errors while trying to download fics off of Ao3 using Fanficfare + Calibre, I suggest turning on using the browser and browser cache only options for ao3 in the personal.ini - commenting out your login and password at the same time since the browser should be logged in already and it can potentially cause conflicts that prevent fic download or meta-data updates.

It'll take over your browser to download but should have fewer failures than having it run headless. It does mean that if something gets borked in the cache that you may need to clear your cache for Ao3 or potentially go as far as restarting your computer. Though usually one fic being held hostage by bad cache data won't affect other fics so you could also make a list of 'revisit these later' urls for after a reboot.

It is a bit of a nuclear option to have it take over your browser (admittedly if this were ffnet I was talking about it'd be the only way to be sure), but usually Ao3 settles down pretty quick when cloudflare gets cranky so hopefully this is a temporary work around or something I'll find a better option for later.

[innerenigma]

•Normalize Fanart for Fanfics Again You Fools•

It's not cringe anymore (it SHOULDN'T be cringe anymore), just do it. You're doing something you enjoy, who cares what anybody else says! So spread the words my fellow internet brethren.

Spread the Word :)

[theaftersundown]

You, every night.

[stardustloki]

Heads up everyone, there's a new scam in town!

(Or perhaps an old one and I am late to the party)

Reasons it is a scam:

1) long, but doesn't reference the fic or characters at all

2) wants money - and will only communicate through dms, they don't have a public profile with proof of their work

And finally!

3) I googled this copy paste text and... suprise! It is a copy paste text. Loads of other people have the same ask

Stay safe and don't fall for this all!

[homosexual-hairflip]

fanfic authors b like ‘haha this chapter got a little out of hand it’s a little longer like 60k words’

babes that’s a novel. you wrote a novel.

[frownyalfred]

I’m using ao3 the way god intended: via 36 open semi-abandoned tabs on my phone at 2 AM the night before work