'm sorry to disagree. I have asked to have several files replaced in your tenure as EIC, LabRat. In fact, just last summer, I rewrote Final Forgiveness and The Newlywed show.
Yup, for those taking note of such things, that should have read 'on a regular basis'. I can't see that it matters terribly - the point of my posts is that it's an infrequent thing that anyone asks.
Other than Nan's requests, it's been once in a blue moon. And even though Nan replaces her stories on a regular basis, it's a pretty irregular regularity <g> and also once in a blue moon.
Which is why they barely register on the memory - especially when we're talking a year back.
If I want them removed, I should be able to have them removed. If I want to rewrite them, I should be able to replace the existing files
Certainly, these are your right, Laura. My point is that it's when or if this right comes into conflict with the running of the Archive and the other priorities we have that we would have a problem. Our resources aren't infinite. If they were overwhelmed at some point in the future and we were forced to
choose, between those two author's rights and our own priorities, we might have to say our priorities are new stories not existing ones and authors would then, at that point, have to make the choice to leave the story on the Archive or remove it. That would be up to them, I absolutely agree.
However, I reiterate that this is all just future speculation and we're nowhere at that point just now. For now, it's so infrequent a request that it's not a drain on resources and so we don't have to make that choice. For the moment, authors can have their files reworked.
All that I'm really requesting at this point is that authors are aware that this creates a little amount of extra work for Archive staff and factor some consideration for that fact into their decision. If they then decide that they absolutely need to have a file replaced, by all means email me with the request.
The less files we have to replace, the lower we can keep those numbers, obviously the better for all concerned.
But I'm not at all unsympathic to authors in this regard. In fact, I had an example of it myself just last week when I pulled out some 15-year-old stories from another fandom and cringed when I saw the mistakes in them. Boy have I learned a lot since then!
So I do understand the dilemma.
LabRat
