#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!

[not-rude-ginger]

To anyone who is subscribed to my Ao3 profile directly, I am so sorry for all the notifications you've been getting.

I'm done archiving my old fics now, I promise!

Sorry!

[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

[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 :)

[the-bar-sinister]

This is your signal to let yourself write the deranged, uncomfortable, disgusting fiction that you've been thinking about.

[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

[shaftking]

Ao3 is actually massively culturally important and very very good at being what it is. I’m so serious when I say that ao3 needs to be protected as the anti censorship, by fans for fans, nonprofit, volunteer run, expertly designed archival site that it is. You don’t have to read or like fanfiction to understand that on principle, ao3 is a site that should be defended.

[pixiemage]

Please, for the love of god, please don’t be this person. No matter how long it’s been since an update, no matter how many unfinished stories are sitting on their account, no matter what - do not be this person.

Not only is it insanely rude, but you also do more damage than you think be being such a self-entitled ass about something someone created for free and for fun. “This author” can see what you say.

RIP decency indeed.

[lokorum]

jon needs a door and i need a fucking break from this weather uhhh

music from the..floor?? ♪┏(・o･)┛♪

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

“why would you write fics for small, unpopular fandoms? you’re not gonna reach that many hits in fandoms not many people know about” ?? because I’m not writing fics for hits or kudos, I’m writing them for me because these characters are my blorbos and I have so many ideas, so much thoughts about them that my brain might explode if I don’t write them out.

[kyri45]

[bebx]

fanfic writers are so fucking awesome in the sense that they can take one single scene, that lasts less than a minute, from the source material and turn that one single scene into a 40k word long fic with depth, feels, character study and development and create a whole storyline out of that one single canonical moment.

fanfic writers are so fucking awesome in the sense that they can take one single scene, that lasts less than a minute, from the source material and write 40 entirely different fics about that one single canonical moment and each one of those fics is a literal masterpiece.

shout out to us fanfic writers ♡♡♡♡♡♡

[tadfools]

You guys are commenting on the fics you read right? You’re at least leaving kudos on the Astarion smut and the pairs that have less than 20 fics for them too? You’re bookmarking stories you really like that are still being updated and ones that haven’t been touched in over a year right?

You know that even the smallest interactions are like cocaine to fic writers right? You understand how important a string of emoji hearts left behind on a chapter at three am is right?? Right????

You’re treating AO3 like a community and not a content factory….right?

[givemeureyes]

day 1 without ao3: i have gone through all 5 stages of grief multiple times and have invented a 6th. i will not disclose what the 6th stage of grief is.

[millermenapologist]

Fandom friends, we have won the battle (although we definitely did not win the war).

Yesterday, I wrote this post about lore.fm, an AI scraping app that was being marketed as an accessibility tool. Now, the person that has been promoting this app decided, in the light of plenty of backlash, to backtrack and pull it down, as they "feel uncomfortable" with how authors reacted to it.

Of this video, it's very important to highlight a couple of things:

the video is 3 long minutes of guilt-tripping: she keeps repeating that her (and her team, whose existence wasn't disclosed until yesterday: this app was marketed as being a sole woman's pet project) wanted to do good and create an accessibility tool. This comes with the underlying layer that all the authors who rightfully decided to defend their creations are ableist and in the wrong. It's a manipulation tactic;

there is no acknowledgement of the fact that the app was created by a team that specifically works to create apps that generate AI stories;

there is no explanation as to where the money to fund this app is coming from, and we all know that, when you're not paying for the product, you are the product;

this is backtracking, not genuine conversation: since the other day, the videos promoting this app went viral on r/Ao3, and plenty of people began contacting team@lore.fm to ask for their works to not be included. Then, the news spread on Tumblr too. They originally thought they could get away with "legally" stealing as much material as possible, and had to cut the project short because authors were doing everything in their power to stop them. The decision to take the app off for "reassessment" doesn't come from the goodness of their hearts.

At this point of the conversation, I think it's clear that the entirety of the project was relying on the perceived naïveté of fanfic readers and writers, who are oftentimes seen and stereotyped as being silly teens and not adults with real jobs and real knowledge of the law. When they saw dozens, if not hundreds, of authors contacting them to ask their works to not be featured, some of them threatening legal consequences, they had no other choice but to backtrack.

For now, the issue is closed, but don't think it'll be forever. Know your rights, even if you're "just" a fic author, and defend yourself and your works too from these scummy companies that see us as nothing but machines that churn out material for them to steal and profit off of with no consequences.