Thank [insert diety here] for the Wayback Machine!

[moonbeamsfanfic]

You know what's really frustrating? Authors who decide to quit fandom and wipe ALL TRACE OF THEIR EXISTENCE off the intarwebs when they leave.

I get why you might want to leave, I really do. There's lots of perfectly good reasons, and more power to you if you feel one of the them is the right decision for you. But does that mean you have to remove every story you've ever written from every place it is posted before you go? I mean, sure, that's your prerogative as the writer, but there's one little downside you may have neglected to think about first.

I still want to READ them!

::pouts::

Comments

[crimsonquills.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. This is why my horrible, awful early fic is not only still on archives, it's on my own website. I solemnly hope no one reads it, but I can't take it down because I remember all those times I went looking for a fic I'd heard about and it had vanished and I got incredibly frustrated.

[moonbeamsfanfic.livejournal.com]

And as a reader who's read and liked even your older stuff, may I just say THANK YOU! ♥

(Seriously, have I told you before that I love your Johnny/Rayden Mortal Kombat fics? Cuz I totally do! :P)

[crimsonquills.livejournal.com]

*grins* I think you left feedback when I first wrote them! I don't mind those ones too much, though I still think they read a bit...immature, in terms of writing quality. But oh, the horrid, horrid X-Files stuff. *shudders*

[eerian_sadow]

yeah, it does suck incredibly. may i ask who you're looking for?

[moonbeamsfanfic.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've come across a few lately in my multifandomational pursuits which lead to this post. Folks like Anais from the Stargate: SG-1 fandom, or Theresa Green from LOTR, or Ecolea from The X-Files are some of the most notable.

Of course, it didn't help when I discovered that the entire Skeeter network of The Sentinel websites had (apparently) mysteriously gone bye-bye in the last week or so too. Thankfully, some judicious Googling has revealed that they are merely being moved to a new server after a series of hacker-attacks and will be back up eventually. Because otherwise the combined loss of the Cascade Library, Wolfpup's Den, The Browsery, and TVLIT101 would have been an absolute tragedy! And the worst part is, most of those fics can't be found anywhere else!

This whole experience has been a really good reminder that diversification is definitely a Good Thing when it comes to posting fic. Spread the love around, people, post your fics in multiple places - just in case!

[redwolf]

Frustrating!

Then there's the vanishing archives. As annoying as the Pit of Voles is, it's large enough to have stayed afloat for years.

The Buffy fandom was one of the worst I've seen for flaky archives. Every other over enthusiastic new fan grabbed an archive in a box application and it lasted until the domain/hosting was up for renewal in a year then disappeared without warning.

[adoxerella.livejournal.com]

There were so many stories I liked lost during the end of GeoCities it makes me want to cry. The worst part is that I never think to back up stories I like because I think 'oh I can just bookmark it' d'oh!

There are a couple authors I have heard of who had legit reasons for going poof from fandom. I don't know the reasons, but other fans who I trust asked really nicely for people to help track and erase links, and warned people to back up fics they liked.

The only person person I knew most of the facts about was over in Superman/Batman fandom, when Mithen (and her husband) changed all her names and links because one of her students found her work. I can understand why a teacher wouldn't be comfortable with a student reading their NC-17 fanfic, even if it was a college student. Plus, I imagine a student could use it to their advantage depending on the school. Luckily Mithen had her friends trickle in her new id and jumped right back in the pool. However, the idea of being cyberstalked wigs me enough to make me understand why people would bail if it happened. As much as I love fandom, RL has to trump it.

[leni-ba.livejournal.com]

I know. It's even more frustrating when you manage to contact them BUT they don't have the fic in their own archives, and the people who DOES have it, won't pass it around because the author had stated that she wanted to be gone from fandom completely.

One of my favorite HP fics ever, gone!

I understand fleeing fandom. Heck, if my fandom persona got leaked at work, I'd be gone so fast. But I wouldn't delete my stuff from my archive, and I'd try to come back asap.

*hugs*

Hope you find what you want!