I find it interesting that people worry about the more public archives like fanfiction.net and the A30, but I find as a reader the more stories an archive has the harder it is to actually find what I'm looking for so I'm not sure if the stories are really all that public? (which is another problem all together)
I think that's why I'm a bigger fan of the niche archives that cater to pairings, ships, or types of content like threesome archives or something.
I'm on board with what the OTW is trying to accomplish but I can see why not everyone else is comfortable with the idea. You're not the only author that likes to have more control over their work and presentation of their stories.
As for your one question about whether or not Yuletide is more public or the A30 archive? I think the longer a archive has been in place the more public it becomes so I thought everyone knew about the yuletide archive but now that all the yuletide stories are being moved I'm not sure it's going to be easy to find all the older yuletide stories. (I think that's the part that worries me) Plus I'm not sure what they are going to do with all the links.
I think the people running the archives (if they are anything like me) worry more about not losing the stories and sometimes it's hard to see the author's pov in the face of "saving the stories." There are so many stories that were lost when Voyager and X-Files archives went down. I think the only reason some weren't lost for good is that at some point I'd asked permission to archive them and the author said yes.
I also kind of feel like an outsider myself in that my views don't always mesh well with authors because I'm so focused on saving stories that I know I do have a hard time understanding why some authors prefer to have their stories in only one spot.
So I think maybe that's one place as to where the archivist for the A30 are coming from and it's incredibly hard to to have a one on one relationship with every author. I feel lucky if I get to know any of the authors whose works I archive. I find that by going to conventions I manage to make more friends that away than threw online communications.
I did have one question though, you said "The movers and shakers of fandom don't want to answer my questions, they don't want to be bothered with my moodiness, and they certainly don't want to cater to my needs, which are emotional in nature."
I'm confused because I've written to the OTW archive people a few times asking questions and I've gotten answers. I've sent in bug reports and asked about features that don't exist and each time I got a response. I'm not sure why they would not have responded to your questions. This is the first I've heard of a person's questions not being answered. But I never got the impression that they don't care about the authors. Many of their features are in place due to author's input.
For the record I'm not a volunteer for the OTW, nor am I a spokesperson. You brought up some interesting things in your post and I felt compelled to respond.
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Date: 2010-01-03 01:58 am (UTC)I think that's why I'm a bigger fan of the niche archives that cater to pairings, ships, or types of content like threesome archives or something.
I'm on board with what the OTW is trying to accomplish but I can see why not everyone else is comfortable with the idea. You're not the only author that likes to have more control over their work and presentation of their stories.
As for your one question about whether or not Yuletide is more public or the A30 archive? I think the longer a archive has been in place the more public it becomes so I thought everyone knew about the yuletide archive but now that all the yuletide stories are being moved I'm not sure it's going to be easy to find all the older yuletide stories. (I think that's the part that worries me) Plus I'm not sure what they are going to do with all the links.
I think the people running the archives (if they are anything like me) worry more about not losing the stories and sometimes it's hard to see the author's pov in the face of "saving the stories." There are so many stories that were lost when Voyager and X-Files archives went down. I think the only reason some weren't lost for good is that at some point I'd asked permission to archive them and the author said yes.
I also kind of feel like an outsider myself in that my views don't always mesh well with authors because I'm so focused on saving stories that I know I do have a hard time understanding why some authors prefer to have their stories in only one spot.
So I think maybe that's one place as to where the archivist for the A30 are coming from and it's incredibly hard to to have a one on one relationship with every author. I feel lucky if I get to know any of the authors whose works I archive. I find that by going to conventions I manage to make more friends that away than threw online communications.
I did have one question though, you said "The movers and shakers of fandom don't want to answer my questions, they don't want to be bothered with my moodiness, and they certainly don't want to cater to my needs, which are emotional in nature."
I'm confused because I've written to the OTW archive people a few times asking questions and I've gotten answers. I've sent in bug reports and asked about features that don't exist and each time I got a response. I'm not sure why they would not have responded to your questions. This is the first I've heard of a person's questions not being answered. But I never got the impression that they don't care about the authors. Many of their features are in place due to author's input.
For the record I'm not a volunteer for the OTW, nor am I a spokesperson. You brought up some interesting things in your post and I felt compelled to respond.