Searching for SGA stories? Some tips.
ETA: Updated July 2010. Added LJSearch, changed a bit of text, added more text, reordered sections based on current usefulness.
sgastoryfinders is a great, great resource. I love it very much. In fact, I get a notice every time someone makes a new post. (I'm not a stalker, I swear.) Yet, I've never had to make use of this resource. And you know why? Because I run myself through a rigorous set of criteria before I even think about posting there. I will search to the ends of the Earth to find what I'm looking for first, and apparently I'm good at it. XD
So, here are my suggestions so that you, too, can avoid pleading for help at sgastoryfinders and having someone yell at you because you were the 17th person this month who asked for help finding Coping Mechanisms by amireal.
How to search:
Things you should and should not do before posting to sgastoryfinders:
Other places you might look for stories:
What to do when all else fails:
sgastoryfinders is a great, great resource. I love it very much. In fact, I get a notice every time someone makes a new post. (I'm not a stalker, I swear.) Yet, I've never had to make use of this resource. And you know why? Because I run myself through a rigorous set of criteria before I even think about posting there. I will search to the ends of the Earth to find what I'm looking for first, and apparently I'm good at it. XD
So, here are my suggestions so that you, too, can avoid pleading for help at sgastoryfinders and having someone yell at you because you were the 17th person this month who asked for help finding Coping Mechanisms by amireal.
How to search:
- If the story was posted in the last week, is there really some reason you can't check sga_newsletter, sga_noticeboard or the relevant communities it may have been posted to first?
- LJSearch. LiveJournal now has an internal search function for public posts that works better than LJSeek, and you can even search public comments. Advanced search allows you to narrow your search by user (or exclusion of a particular user), by journal or community, by links included in the post and/or by date(s) posted. It's a lot more thorough than LJSeek, returns a lot of results and has opened up a whole wealth of new (or rather old, but new to me) content that I'm slowly sifting through.
Tip: Make sure to use quotes when searching for a particular pairing, as something like Woolsey/Kavanagh will return every post that lists the words Woolsey and Kavanagh in that particular order rather than posts that have a pairing of Woolsey/Kavanagh.
- Delicious. My number two suggestion if you're looking for fic posted to LiveJournal (number one suggestion for fic posted elsewhere, like DreamWidth). I find more fic with Delicious than Google. With almost any word or phrase that you're likely to remember, the chances are good that someone has used it either as a keyword or somewhere in the description of the story. Most important search terms are pairing and specific words related to the story (words describing plot, ideas, challenges the story was written for, etc.). Phrases from the text of the story are fairly useless here, though.
- LJSeek. If the story has been posted in the last year or two, you might be able to find it if you remember the pairing and some of the story. Specific phrases will work well, because the text of the post may be archived. LJSeek seems to return search results based on how many journals have linked to the post, so if you're looking for a really popular story, this may work in your favor. The more journals link to an entry, the higher its order in the search results.
- Google. Most useful when you remember an exact phrase, even if it's only two words. That combined with a possible author or pairing usually works fairly well. Google is actually less reliable because of the amount of chaff that will come up in a search. You'll have to look harder with Google than LJSearch, Delicious or LJSeek, but it may be your last resort.
Tip: Use Google's advanced search to restrict your search to a particular site (livejournal.com, dreamwidth.org, etc.) if you know where it was posted. This will help weed out all those unrelated results from the wilds of the internet.
Things you should and should not do before posting to sgastoryfinders:
- Go back through the last month's worth of entries at sgastoryfinders to make sure you're not repeating a recent request. LJSearch can help you with that.
- If you're interested in replies for a request made by someone else, use the tracking button (looks like this: ) to follow the thread.
- If a story request piques your interest, bookmark it or track it. Do not forget how and why you were reminded of a story and then post a duplicate request. This annoys the mods and other users.
Other places you might look for stories:
- Crossroads, the Stargate Atlantis Slash Index.
- sgagenrefinders
- stargate_search for SG-1 fics.
- skaredykat's list of frequently requested stories.
What to do when all else fails:
- Post to sgastoryfinders.