When stories disappear...

[skaredykat]

In recent weeks and months, I've seen stories by several SGA writers get friendslocked or taken offline entirely. In a very few cases, I've had comment- or PM-conversations with those writers. Usually me telling them -- very belatedly -- about my enjoyment of the stories and asking if sharing the stories would still be okay

Comments

[debris_k]

I totally agree with you that writers (esp. fanfic writers) should have a right to decide what happens with their work. I didn't know about that list so I'll be rushing over there to see what I've missed. It sounds like a great idea/project. :-)

[skaredykat]

Hee, re that list, moment of entertaining irony (and proof that sensible ideas may cross-pollinate between fandoms?) here: it was directly inspired by your post at merlin_finders. :)

[debris_k]

*g* That's pretty awesome! (Though it's also pointing out my own laziness with not having all those categories on my post; I rely on a tag do the sharing info collecting for me, which isn't as good but seems to have been working lately, what with new requests not popping up as much.)

[skaredykat]

Well you already know how much I ♥ tags at storyfinding comms (and you also know how fond I am of (pimping) handy SGA resources!) -- but this list with the multiple categories does seem like a handy resource to have in one place/not depend on the tags in just one comm, what with there being several active storyfinding-comms focused on SGA/SG.

If merlin_finders is the main/most active storyfinding comm for that fandom, and it has extensive tags, which it looks like it does, then primarily using the tagging system to collect/propagate the info seems like it'd work just fine!

[michelel72]

I think I agree with you on all points. And I don't have any stories to mail out, but I think your caution is reasonable.

[skaredykat]

Thanks -- when possible, I do try to be about reasonable caution rather than complete paranoid fancy or utter carelessness. ;) And it turns out to be handy sometimes that when I started reading SGA fic I mostly read offline and still have a number of stories saved!

[shibela]

I'm in agreement with you here.

While I could wish that all the authors could give a week or two's notice about removing their work, I definitely appreciate those authors that actually leave a statement in regards to what is acceptable to them as far as sharing their work.

I did notice in my travels to various author's LiveJournals in the Harry Potter fandom that there are some communities devoted to giving notice of journal removal (or at least the stories themselves). So while I'm not very familiar, still being somewhat new to SGA & a few other fandoms, with the authors listed there, most of them seem to come from the Harry Potter fandom. That said, the profile for the journals is not fandom-specific, so I'm just going to pass the addresses onwards in the hopes that maybe other fandoms might use them for notification, as well.

LiveJournal: http://community.livejournal.com/deleting_my_lj
InsaneJournal: http://asylums.insanejournal.com/deleting_my_ij
Dreamwidth: http://deleting_my_dw.dreamwidth.org

[skaredykat]

Oooh yes, I really appreciate it (especially when I find out in time) when an author whose stories I liked but did not have saved makes an advance-notice post that they'll be taking down their stories or journal! Definitely another druther.

And thanks for those links! The concept sounds useful (...even if those comms don't seem to be superfrequently used) :|

[shibela]

Yeah, I don't know whether to regard the lack of activity in those communities as a good thing or not, but either way, I definitely like the idea of it. Although, in the case of some, maybe the community should just be called 'removing my fic' since the authors kept their journal, but deleted / locked-up their stories.

Of course, I really like perfica's & debris_k's idea, too, in the case of late entry to a fandom & seeing recs with dead-links to deleted journals or dropped sites - it's always nice to see what's allowed to be requested & not.

[skaredykat]

Yes, the idea for the "deleting my journal, and/or removing my fic" comms is great, but might be harder for people to keep up on than a subtle (watch me and my mallet, probably doomed to fail) attempt to encourage writers (or their in-the-know friends) to comment at the central post at stargate_search and encourage requesters to go there first?

The main thing: I'm very much in favor of a relatively easy way/place to find out whose stories are a-okay to request and whose one ought not, both for looking things up myself and to send others to -- whatever form that way/place takes! :)

[hnix]

Though sometimes people offer/ask for more in the comment-thread not the main request-post, and that seems to be tacitly allowed/ignored by the mods. I'm just hoping I don't jinx it by noting this!

Hee! I thought I might clarify this, so you don't have to worry - people can request whatever they like in the comments, we only concern ourselves with the post itself. I do track the comments of posts requesting stories that have been taken offline (hence my probably-super-creepy appearance here), but only to keep an eye out for anything untoward, like somebody putting the stories up online without the author's permission or the author popping in with a complaint. (Neither of those things has ever actually happened, mind you, but just in case.)

[skaredykat]

Dude -- not creepy at all! Seriously, I like to help useful information/resources about SGA stories get out, but it's so much better if what I tell people is, like, y'know, accurate. ;)
Having the mods of the comms I love check in and correct, clarify, or confirm any practical info I'm trying to point people to or compile seems highly valuable to me, thank you! :)

(*goes to update relevant bit with cunning use of strikethrough*)