Hi tooaddicted2tv, so great to see you popping in!
Yes, Sara and I have discussed AO3 in the past. There's a couple of things one needs to be aware of:
* the Archive itself (lcfanfic.com) is hosted by Lauren and not part of the message board budget, so Sara and I can't say either way.
* stories published on the Archive and the Boards are first and foremost copyrighted by the authors themselves. While many might be okay with their public stories getting archived / re-published on AO3, that's not something we may take for granted.
* the nfanfic is behind a password, both here on the boards and on nfanfic.com. This is done both because some authors don't actually want their work to be publicly accessible and because of the age restriction.
So, all this means we would need to first get individual approval from each author for both the Archive and the boards, and then export and re-publish their works on the AO3. I am aware that there's a bulk option, but I'm not sure we could do this without express permission of each author. It may be something to revisit in the future, for now, though, we're here on the boards and the Archive and thank each and every one of you who supports our community with their presence and participation and also of course a little donation from time to time to keep the engines running
Personally, should the fandom ever dwindle to the point where the Archive and Boards are no longer sustainable, yes, I would be all for making sure the works are preserved in e.g. AO3. Then again, we're now in the 25th year of the Kerth Awards and in the 30th year after the show started and there's still fresh blood and even a new generation of FoLCs (literally!) showing up, so there is a magic here which I hope to help sustain well into the future
Michael
