wherein Liz thinks (very idly) about archives

[edenfalling]

I am idly wondering if it would be worthwhile to crosspost all my fanfic to AO3. And by "all my fanfic," I really do mean ALL my fanfic. Which is... over two hundred stories, several of which are multi-chapter, dating back to April 2002. That would be a VERY BIG undertaking, best done in small pieces. Also, while I wouldn't pull a story from the internet, there are some things I've written that I am perfectly happy to have languish in obscurity on my journal, rather than crosspost them anywhere more public. And it's not like I haven't already bashed LJ/DW into acting like a faux-archive in some ways.

On the other hand, making a journaling site act like an archive does require extra work -- I have to actively remember to update my directory posts -- and that's a continuing work cost whereas backlog uploading to AO3 would be a one-time work cost.

...

I dunno, anybody have an opinion?

Comments

[musesfool]

AO3 can import from LJ/DW, though in my case it always keeps the metadata, which then needs to be stripped out, but I found it worthwhile to move a lot of my stories over. I like that there is no index to maintain, and in some fandoms it is a lot more active than LJ/DW right now.

[edenfalling]

Oh right, there is a import function! I forgot about that. *headdesk*

[askerian]

I'd be for exporting every fic you like even a little bit, if only because of exposure. People WANT to find your fics, and how are they going to if they're hidden in a private journal, even unlocked! D: Granted some fandoms over there you'll get maybe two kudos and no comment at ALL, but it's the principle of the thing!!!

I am totally not reposting everything over there, personally. XD;;; Way too much work.

[edenfalling]

Yeah, I keep thinking, "Oh, hey, potential audience!" and then... going off to do other things, because work = bleh. And also because I am embarrassed at having things that are still WIPs after ten and a half years, jegus fuck.

I think my new plan is to export the Naruto stuff and then do the HP stuff once I finally finish "Secrets." Which is my new goal for the rest of the year.

[mischif]

Echoing the replies above. Import makes things so much easier and faster, and I kind of consider Ao3 to be a 'Best of'. Tend to post the older stuff I'm still proud of, current stuff for fledgling fandoms, and a few extremely rare fandom.

It's actually kind of interesting, things that might not get any comments or response on DW or Tumblr will get tonnes over on Ao3, and vice versa.

[edenfalling]

Yeah, different sites have really different audiences.

[lynati-1.livejournal.com]

Potential new audience for those who avoid ff.net and haven't previously found your work there or through livejournal? And if you don't want older works further publicized, don't cross-post them, just leave them as easter eggs for people who like your work so much they'll take the time to look into your old journals on the mere hope it may have more writing?

[edenfalling]

The main reason I am thinking about this is to have a unified archive of my work that I don't have to manually update every time I post a new story. Not crossposting everything would therefore defeat the purpose. And it's not like I'm ashamed of my dumber or more awkward fics. It's more that I don't want anyone to read them without fair warning, I guess? And also there are some things that will probably remain permanently unfinished, and the idea of putting fragments on a public site feels different from putting fragments on my own journal.

Hmm. I guess it couldn't hurt to at least crosspost some of the bigger and/or more popular things, though.

[sablin27.livejournal.com]

You could add "dumb/awkward" and "permanently incomplete" warnings at the start of fics. Or make them part of an series entitled "Unlikely To Ever Be Finished".

[edenfalling]

Interesting ideas!

[lukita.livejournal.com]

Upload the stuff you want more people to see, the other stuff can disappear into obscurity.

[edenfalling]

I may do that, even though that would mean keeping my journal as my main archival resource, which is currently and will continue to be kind of a pain. *sigh* The trials of laziness are many.

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

Well, I have enjoyed using A03, myself. I like the organizing systems and the fan friendly uploading format.

[edenfalling]

Yeah, I have a bunch of stuff there. It's just that I started posting there because of Yuletide and Remix, and then because of Homestuck pesterlog formatting and the ability to embed illustrations, and so my account there is dominated by small fandom stuff and nothing from before 2009/2010-ish. So thinking of crossposting all my old fic is a little daunting.

[deralte.livejournal.com]

If you upload the stuff you don't want people to see first, it'll languish at the bottom of your list while the more recent stuff will sit at the top.

A03's the only place that has all my writing in one place and I haven't regretted taking the time to upload it (I've got about 50 fics). However, I was able to shortcut a bit by taking some stories directly off of ff.net (which has resulted in a hilarious argument in one of my fics over how I formatted a fic back in 2003).

[edenfalling]

Aaaaah, but that would not be in either strict chronological order, or chronological-by-fandom, and that would bug me. *headdesk*

Yeah, I was reminded that AO3 has an import function, which would speed things a LOT. I think, aside from line breaks -- I use a weird line break (o-o-o-o-o-o-o) on ff.net to get around the way their file uploader strips punctuation from documents -- the only thing I'd have to reformat is a bit in one chapter of "Secrets" where Sir Vladislav crosses out something he wrote. Which is represented literally via strikethrough in my own file, but which I had to write around to describe for ff.net.