Archive your fandom stuff

dingo-inna-domino-mask:

olderthannetfic:

tzikeh:

thebyrchentwigges:

As we sit on the cusp of changes to the Internet, after your other activities to support Internet freedom, archive your
fandom stuff.

Save the electronic files of your favorite online fandom works. Consider print-outs of your favorite online
material. And save paper
ephemera from fandom events.

Why save? Because you put the effort into a fanwork. Because you may be surprised when a fandom stays alive for years, or gets revived, or when an academic asks to cite your work. Because it’s stupidly hard to find items on Tumblr. Because, lo, in ages past, many fandom archives have risen and fallen, taking favorite fics off the ‘Net. Because it made you happy, makes you remember. Because you never know.

What can
you save?

• Fanart
• Stories you wrote
• Epic comments on stories you wrote
• Stories you love that other people wrote
• Meta and meta-related discussions
• Translations others did of your works

• Physical items: paper ephemera, clothing, accessories, art prints and drawings.

Behind the cut…saving from Tumblr and AO3, delving into lost web sites, how to save computer files for the long term, and why I’m glad I saved physical fandom items from 10+ years ago.

Keep reading

Back up everything you love, by you or by anyone else. If you have money, buy external hard drives or dedicated Kindles or something and just STOCKPILE fan works. Go back into your history and grab shit from fandoms you never thought you’d visit again–one day you may want it, or someone else may want it and you will be able to provide. Save all that you do and all that you love.

I actually don’t revisit my old fandoms that much, so if all the fic disappeared, I would only be a tiny bit sad. You know who would be sad? All of the people who showed up late! Me when I join some other new-to-me fandom!

Don’t just save it for you: save it for everyone else.

I strongly recommend against Kindles, which use a proprietary format. PDFs are good. There are services/programs designed to archive websites. Fandom really should have AO3 crawled by one of those on the regular tbh.

Put things in at least three places, whether physical or digital.

~an actual archivist