Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Time to reorganise the Archive?

Hey, guys

I've been thinking about this for a long time now and I've been wondering if the time has come to radically alter the way we collect stories for the Fanfic Archive

Traditionally, as most of you will know, most of the authors who post their stories here on the mbs, once they are sure they have a finished version, submit them for uploading to the Archive.

This year has seen the quietest time for the submissions that I can recall since I took over as EIC of the Archive. There have always been troughs and rush periods, of course, but this is the first time I've seen submissions being more often than not slow to come in and GEs twiddling their thumbs for months at a time.

Most of the year has been spent thoroughly convinced that next week will see no upload (although it's curiously always at this point that some author thinks to send in a story and we get a small flurry of two or three. How you guys know when to do that to keep us ticking over baffles me. Some kind of author ESP maybe. )

I think that part of the reason for this is that there has been a steady erosion over the years of the traditional link between the mbs and the Archive. Many new authors, I feel, come in and join the mbs and don't even know the Archive exists. And trying to ensure that everyone knows it's out there is difficult. Posts requesting submissions generally only spark off receipt of a couple of stories before the status quo settles back in. And such posts are quickly lost among newer posts.

There is of course a stickied thread with instructions on how to submit your story to the Archive, but who reads the stickied threads when joining a new mbs? I know I don't. Who has the time for that? So I'm sure that's less read than it is overlooked.

So, is it time to drastically reorganise the way we do things?

Many other fandoms, for example, work on an automatic system of collecting stories for their Archive, where the author has to actively opt out of having it uploaded rather than the onus being on them to volunteer their story.

Now, I've never liked this option, I have to say, as I think it tramples on an author's right to say where their story is posted. And we in this fandom have a specific problem with implementing something like that because, unlike those other fandoms, we insist on editing submissions before they are uploaded to the website. And taking an author's story and editing it, essentially without their permission, seems to me to be taking a step much further than just taking it and uploading it.

So I don't think that option works for us, but I toss it out anyway for debate.

The only other possible solution I've thought of is perhaps I should start posting an official EIC post in the comments folder of any new story posted here on the mbs. A "congratulations on posting your story. Do remember to send it along to the Archive when you're through' kind of thing.

Or I could email authors directly and solicit submissions from them.

In the past, I've always avoided doing either of these because I felt it was intrusive. If an author wanted their story on the Archive, they'd submit it. They didn't need me nagging them to do it.

But if we've gotten to the point where it's not choice that's leading to a dwindling of submissions but ignorance that the Archive is out there and available, maybe it's time to reassess that one. And to add to that, I've lost count of the number of times an author has mailed me with a story saying, "I found this on my hd. No idea why I haven't sent it in yet! Thought I had." so obviously one of those nagging emails might not go awry as a reminder now and then.

Anyway, I was going to do a poll, but I don't really have any solutions to offer, other than the vague ramblings above, and I'm not sure those are any help <G>. So I decided just to post the problem here instead and throw it open for debate and suggestions.

Maybe you don't even feel there's a problem that needs solving. If submissions are dwindling so be it, if the Archive has stories to upload fine, if it doesn't one week, that's fine too. And if that's the majority opinion, that's okay. I personally think it would be a shame. I don't think there's been a week on the Archive without an upload since its inception. I'd be kind of sad to see that tradition broken. And we're getting closer to it every week.

Discuss!

LabRat
Editor-in-Chief
The Lois and Clark Fanfic Archive

If you have the time to do it, I would say an official EIC post on the final comment folder of each story would be great. It's a nice reminder and for those new people who aren't aware of the archive, it's letting them know about another place to potentially get feedback.

I'd post in the final comment folders only, but that's only my own humble opinion.

Irene

Answering a question with another question, is there any way of ascertaining how many stories are written which don't make it to the Archive? By which I mean, how big a problem are we looking at? Is there a dwindling numbers of stories being written, which then reflects on the submissions to the Archive, or is it that people don't, for whatever reason, submit their finished stories?

I guess someone with nothing to do for a few days could go through the fanfic MBs for an entire year and count the number of completed stories posted. Any volunteers? <g> I know there are a few stories which aren't posted on the MBs (many of ML Thomson's stories come to mind, for example) but they wouldn't scew the results too badly, I wouldn't have thought.

Personally, I wouldn't object to the automatic option, but I also think it would be a great shame to lose the fandom's editing process. It makes us different (and better, dare I say?) to all the others and ensures that PG fic remain clear of inappropriate language.

Editing without the author's permission is a definite non-starter. What you *could* do is send an email to authors whose stories had been picked up by the automatic process offering them the chance to stop their story entering the Archive process (ie being edited, etc). If you don't receive a response from the author within a pre-defined time-frame, or you receive a negative response, the story doesn't go on the Archive.

Yvonne

Well, as someone who has taken the year off from writing fanfiction I did try and do my part by sending most of the old stories I had left on my hard drive in so that I would still be represented this year.

Like others I'm not sure if its a problem of writers not sending there stories in, or there is just fewer stories being posted. It does seem that there has been fewer ongoing stories being concurrently posted in recent months.

Personally, I don't think there needs to be a radical change in the way things are done. I think an occasional reminder thread like this one should be enough. If Labby posts such a reminder every few months I think those who are posting their stories on the mbs will get the message.

Tank (who wishes to point out that having his stories on the archives allowed him to retrieve most of his stories when a hard drive crash wiped out his entire cache of fanfiction)

Actually, it's much easier to calculate than that, Yvonne. Quoting for speed as at the moment I'm supposed to be cooking dinner for my soon to be home from work hubby and not here on the pc from an email from the Index Crew:

So if anyone has time to do that, before I do...


Tried that, Tank, but it's very much a short-term solution. It doesn't work over the long-term to solve the underlying problem.

All that happens when I post such a reminder is that I get a tiny flurry of email - say three new submissions, tops. Then silence again.

What I'm looking for now is a more long-term solution that solves the problem once and for all. Posts such as these, as I've done in the past, just work out as a temporary bandaid, unfortunately.

LabRat

Is only the number of uploads to the archive that are decreasing or thenumber of stories posted as weel? i mean, less stories posted might mean there are less uploads.

Since I have saved just about every story I've read and gone back and reread a number of them I must say that I prefer to download to my personal archive from the ARCHIVE. The file sizes are much smaller than me have to take each chapter from here and copy it into Word to make one file and save it. Also I like the descriptions of each story.

Since I'm not a writter I guess I should express and opinion but I'm going to anyway. I agree that probably many don't read the threads. Also it is easy to forget if you've done something or not. So I would think that a nicely worded email asking an author to submit their finished story to the Archive would be appropriate. You could also mention as Tank did that it saves their work in case they have a system crash. Although to quote Clark Kent, "Don't you back-up to floppy disks." Or in this day and age CD.

Again my vote is email or at the least the comments folder.

I think it may well be a reduced number of stories being written. A fair number of authors seem to have moved on to other fandoms, or at least to be splitting their attention between fandoms. And the list of new authors coming into the fandom is, I believe, getting smaller.

If that's the case, then maybe not updating every week is the way to go. It wouldn't be the first time. If you go by date, you can see that, back in the early days, updates were rather spotty. Sept '96, for example, had only 4 stories uploaded for the entire month, and there was no update between October 15 and November 11 of that year, either. February of '97 saw three stories in a single update, and no more.

Of course, that predates the GE system, and you can also see that there were times when huge batch uploads were followed by dry spells. April '97 being a good example. Seven stories on the first, three more on the fifth, and then nothing until a huge upload at the beginning of May.

Anyway... Reminding authors isn't a bad idea. I don't like the automatic idea, though. I do try to send in even throwaway fics (usually), but some need more work and editing before they're archive-worthy. I prefer being in control of what gets sent in, and to get it polished and ready myself.

(Note, BTW, that with the fundraiser coming up, there are a good number of stories currently being written which won't be publically posted for over a year... I know I'm working on one. It's turning fairly long by my standards, too. It's already nearly halfway to the mid-length barrier! So, expect something of a drought for the next couple months. It's only temporary and not really what you're talking about, but my point is that things will artificially look worse than they are for a while.)

Oh... poll thought. How about one to find out about FoLCs' awareness of the archive?

Do you archive your stories?
1. Of course!
2. Usually...
3. No, I don't think my stories aren't good enough for that.
4. No, your GEs frighten me with their helpfulness and gramatical knowledge.
5. Archive? What's that?
6. No, I don't write.
7. Other

Or something like that. Might be interesting to find out how much of a problem non-awareness really is, and maybe see if there are other reasons people aren't submitting.

I guess what I'm saying is that we should find out first what's causing the decline of submissions. If people not knowing about the archive really is a significant contributor, then sure, post an invitation/reminder in the comments thread for the last part. It'd help motivate people and raise awareness, if you're willing to put in the time. If the major reason, though, is that there just aren't as many stories being written these days (the show has been off the air for almost a decade...), then maybe it's time to consider updating every other week, or even monthly.

Paul

Okay... purely unscientific counting here..

TOC Folder:
-- 35 posts per page
-- 4 pages of posts since Jan 1st (5th page, top post is Dec 30th)
-- Subtract 1 for sticky post
-- Just a round number of about 10 unfinished fics
----------
129 possible fics


Uploaded to the archive in 2005:
January: 25 (includes fics posted on the boards in 2004)
February: 11
March: 11
April: 14
May: 21
June: 12
July: 21
August: 10
September: 1
-------------
Total number uploaded: 126

Subtract the two stories from authors who never (or rarely) post on the boards, plus 5-10 from 2004, we can make it about 116.

Which leaves about 13.

Makes you wonder if we should track those people down.

Ohboy. You know, there's a lot more people who post to the Archives than the Boards than I thought. There's also a few that were written years ago that just got posted this year (Tank).

Counting them up, there are a total of 64 of this year's TOC'd stories that made it to the archive. Out of 139 TOC's.



You know who you are. We're coming for you. Because I'm saving this file. *smirk*

(and now I'm going to do something productive. Like find a life)

Well, chiming in as someone who archives almost all her fics but, this year, has two unarchived stories...

Yes, in the main I believe that all stories should be sent to the Archive. And it's normally immediate for me: finish story, submit it. The two I didn't send this year are stories I consider out of the ordinary. I have personal reasons for not submitting one of them. The other is the tongue-in-cheek story I wrote about CC after the posting of In A Better Place: Revenge of the Muses. After a discussion in the fanfic folder, I decided that I would submit it to the Archive, with an explanation, but only after IABP had been uploaded.

Which leads to a question... CC, why isn't IABP on the Archive yet???

The other story, which I said hasn't been submitted for personal reasons, is Saying Goodbye - given the circumstances in which that was written, I didn't feel comfortable submitting it.

Over the years, the only other stories I can remember not submitting were cameo fics or other silly fics written in response to challenges - there was the Irish one for Sara a few years ago, a haircut story, several plot untwists and other similar types of story. It never occurred to me that those were suitable for the Archive or that anyone would be interested in them.

Anyway, yes, it seems that there are a number of stories so far this year which need to be submitted... time to chase up the authors!


Wendy

"Although to quote Clark Kent, "Don't you back-up to floppy disks." Or in this day and age CD."

This is not the time to discuss your compulsive behavior Kmar.

But actually, my old computer didn't have the capability of burning a back-up CD, and didn't have any floppy drives. In order to create back-ups I would have had to add an external unit of some kind, which I didn't have. So... I lost everything... BUT thanks to the archives I regained all the stories that were posted there and only lost a few stories that I hadn't sent.

Tank (who is pretty sure he now has the capability to burn back-up CDs but isn't sure how to do it... and hasn't really written anything anyway)

We have the e-mail each week of completed stories. Could an e-mail be sent to these people to now archive their stories?

I archive all my stories. Even the silly challenge responses. (I once had one removed, but it was a really silly thing so the Archive is better off without it )

Last month, I finished posting a long fic, The Walls Between Us. I haven't gotten to the process of getting it ready for the Archive yet, though, because I'm not very satisfied with it. I want to tweak some things here and there and I'm also considering deleting some things altogether, but this is a very time-consuming task I wasn't in the mood for lately.

Automatic archiving doesn't sound like a good idea to me either. I do believe that all stories should be submitted to the Archive, but at least give the writer some time to process them. They might have come across a major plothole that needs fixing, or something in equal need of editing.

Will be following this thread.
See ya,
AnnaBtG.

Yes I'm kind of compulsive about backing up my data files but that is because I once had a crash and lost all of them. Wasn't picking on you I had just watched that particular episode before I read this thread.

If you have a newer computer with a CD burner if you pop a CD into the machine it should start up the burning program by itself. Just be sure to close all other programs first. Then it will prompt you through the procedure.

Wow! So only roughly half the completed stories posted here make it to the archive? Houston, we have a problem...

Yvonne

Karen, just to be clear - I'm assuming that all of that 139 TOC'd stories represent completed stories? Not just stories that authors began posting and perhaps never completed?

LabRat

Okay, I don't have time to do the whole thing, but I just went to the fic index and did the ABC title page (all stories begun on these boards since their inception with titles beginning with A, B, or C).

I did it by counting up the stories on my screen, jotting down the numbers, scrolling down, and counting the next page. My findings, page by page, with totals:

Complete Stories:
9 + 14 + 10 + 10 + 12 + 8 + 11 + 9 + 12 + 5 = 100

Complete stories not yet archived:
3 + 05 + 02 + 02 + 04 + 4 + 02 + 1 + 04 + 2 = 29

So, for the ABCs, about 1 completed story in 3 has yet to be archived. Not only does that hold up in total, but the ratio pretty much holds true page by page. 3/9, 5/14, 2/10, 4/12... all pretty close to 1/3. There are some exceptions (4/8, 1/9...) but it still averages out neatly.

I may do DEF tonight, or someone else is welcome to do the next batch. Or maybe this is a reasonable sample. It's a good number of stories, and a cross-section of authors. Probably, if you took out the incomplete stories from Karen's count, you'd end up with a similar number.

Paul

no, 139 is total TOC's. My computer was running too slow to figure out which ones were complete. Probably 10-20 are not complete out of the 139.

I'm not sure there is a problem.

Writers of longer stories may hold back for some time as they re-edit their stories, taking into account comments received during the posting process on the mbs as well as their own second thoughts on writing style, plot, characterization, etc. I know that I did that. Also, it takes time for a GE to edit a story, and, speaking from my own experience, my GE's critique definitely improved my stories. (hi, Jeanne:) ) So that a story is not yet on the archive doesn't mean it won't be there.

Also, I'm wondering if the minimal feedback that many of us recieve once we do post to the archive makes the effort of posting not seem all that worthwhile.

Finally, I do believe that the decision to post to the archive is very much an individual writer's decision, and that we, as a group, must respect the decision of a writer to delay or hold back a story. For us, as a group, to interfer with that private decision, seems, to me, a tad... well... disrespectful.

That's not to say, though, that i don't look forward to seeing some stories ultimately posted on the archive

c

I entirely agree that it is and should remain an author's choice to put their story on the Archive. However, the amount or lack of feedback received from archived stories is completely irrelevant to my own reasoning as to why I submit stories.

I send my stories to the Archive - and Annesplace - because:

• a lot of people prefer to read stories in one piece, and for them the Archive is better.
• there are, after all, many readers who never come to the message boards - and we'll never know how many there are of those, since most of them are lurkers. However, every so often I'll get an email from someone I've never heard of before who's just read one of my stories on the Archive, and that's a lovely experience.
• I like to think of the Archive as the place to find my - or other authors' - 'collected works', so to speak. It's like going to a really, really good library and finding everything your favourite author has ever written, all there in one place. You can find their latest work on the message boards, but what if you want to see what they wrote earlier?
• and sometimes - as you said yourself, Carol - the Archive version may well be the truly 'final' version, in that changes may have been made between the version originally posted on the boards and the version uploaded. So archiving can offer an opportunity to make revisions, and readers can be directed there to see the changes.

Anyway, for all those reasons, I hope people will continue to choose to send their stories to the Archive. It's so handy to have it as a genuine one-stop-shop for Lois and Clark fanfic, unlike in some other fandoms where readers have to search around in several different archives and websites to find what's out there. We have a unique and wonderful resource, and we should treasure it.


Wendy

Stories out being GE'd don't really figure in the mix because they have been submitted to the Archive. It's the stories which haven't been that I'm focusing on. As EIC of the Archive, I'm aware of which stories have been submitted but not yet uploaded because they are still in the system and so these have already been factored into the count of submitted stories and can be ignored.

Nor do I think the quiet year the Archive has had this year has anything to do with authors editing and tweaking their stories before submitting them. Authors have always done this. They did it in 2004. They did it in 2003. And it had no impact on the number of submissions we received across the year in 2003 and 2004. It's only been this year that we've been so quiet. So the fact that authors tweaking isn't a new phenomenum would tend to make me think this isn't part of the problem.

Just so that it's clear, I'm not at all advocating telling authors they have to submit their story to the Archive. It seems such an obvious truth to me that this is entirely the decision of an author.

LabRat

Every story that I write is in hopes of getting it ready for the Archive. The process is a long time, but in the end that's one of my goals.

I also have to agree with ccmalo though. When I don't receive a lot of feedback on something I'm currently working on and posting, I tend to take longer to get it completed and ready for upload to the Archive.

just wanted to make it very clear that I'm an avid supporter of the Archive as a final place for "Lois and Clark" stories.

In fact, I'm much more likely to read longer fics on the archive than on the mbs because they have usually been tweaked that final time by the author, as Wendy says, and well, also because I like to have the whole story to read either all at once or at my own pace.

I do think that there are a variety of reasons to explain why not all mbs fic make it to the archive. Right now, one of those reasons may simply be that it's summer Re-editing a fic is an indoor sport, (chore? <g>) for dark rainy evenings.

c

I am not in favor of the automatic upload, at all.

However, I have to admit, I have been sitting on a story that I 'completed' back in 2000. Once I 'finished' it, I wasn't satisfied with it. I've been futzing with it since, but I put sooo much effort into it originally, that I just sort of got burned out on it and so the rewriting of it has been like snow in May, sparse and pathetic.

I'm hoping that with this new K-Factor activity from my Muse that s/he/it will be more amendable to helping me out with the rewrite of '7 days of Superman'.

James

Hi,

I'd have to say that I'm not in favour of an automatic update to the archive.

However, I do feel that perhaps a post on the final fdk section of a story on the MBs, reminding a writer that the archive does exist and that many people prefer to read once a story is completed, is a good idea.

I also think that our fanfic archive is special because of the GE system and would be against seeing that disappear.

To tell the truth, I don't think that the lack of stories being submitted to the archive has much to do with writers being unaware that the archive exits, but more that there are fewer stories being written. This might be for a number of reasons. I know that I have less computer time than I did when I first started writing L&C fics.

Perhaps the time has come for the archive to only be updated every second week. Though if those missing stories are submitted, then the problem could disappear.

Just my two pence worth.
Yours Jenni

Okay, let's recap

I think we're all agreed that automatic uploading is out. Which I'm neither surprised at nor disappointed by. I never liked it as an option when I've seen it operating in other fandoms and beyond that I just don't think it works for FoLCdom, with its added editing considerations.

Email nags don't seem to be popular, but gentle reminders in a story's fdk thread seems to work for most of you - appropriately worded, of course, so that no one gets the mistaken idea they're being ordered to submit their story to the Archive if they don't want to.

So, that's the option I'll probably adopt in future. Time can only tell whether it will help the problem.

I do feel that such reminders would sound less like a nag if they were included as part of a general post of fdk on a story, rather than an official EIC post. So, since I wouldn't have the free time right now to provide fdk with such a post on every story, anyone reading a story who wants to remind the author the Archive will be delighted to have it, with their fdk, feel free!

If no one else does it on a particular story, I'll post one myself with the final segment.

Regarding the problem itself, I remain unconvinced that there's been a significant drop in stories being written to account for the drop in submissions. I have no evidence for this <G>, other than an eyeball perspective of the mbs. But - other than a short period a couple of months back when the fanfic folder was very quiet (probably due to it having been the summer vacation season, a dip we get every year, not just this one) - I haven't noticed the fanfic folder being any less busy than last year.

Yes, we've lost quite a few of our older writers, many of whom, for varying reasons, have been producing less than they used to a few years back. But we've had plenty of new authors replacing them, far as I can tell - with my deeply unscientific eyeball.

And the problem with switching to uploading the Archive every second week rather than every week, or every three weeks or whatever is that...it doesn't solve the problem. Because the submissions aren't coming in in a regular enough pattern to maintain any kind of regular upload, no matter what weekly pattern you use. That's precisely the dilemma we're facing and why it's a problem I'd like to solve.

Instead, what's happening is I'll go for, quite literally, weeks or months, without a single submission coming in. Then we'll hit a very short period where we get a few in. Then total zip for another long period. This week was a 'busy' period. I've had 7 submissions in this week - probably partly as a result of this thread reminding some authors they have stories pending. But before that? There's been a drought for quite a while. Perhaps the odd story coming in, but mostly nothing at all. Which is why we're down to just two or one stories being uploaded per week as I eke out our meagre supply to make it last.

It's those long periods of drought that we somehow have to fill in. We need a steady supply of submissions coming in at regular intervals, rather than in irregular bursts. And that should be possible with the numbers of stories being posted to the mbs, just as it's been the way of things in previous years.

Of course, it's possible that even if we don't solve this problem and things continue as they have done all year, then we'll continue to roll on, just making an upload by the skin of our teeth and we won't miss a week. As I said earlier in this thread, it has been the case that every single time I've thought we were heading for no upload one week, that's when I get in a story or two that just tides us over for a couple of weeks.

But it would be nicer if we could figure out why this year has been different from the submission pattern of previous years and figure out a way to circumvent it. For curiosity's sake, if nothing else. <G>

Thanks, everyone, for your input and suggestions. All appreciated.

LabRat

As an author whose been basically out of the loop for over two years now...

I too would be able to completely rebuild my personal fic folder off the archive after a hard drive crash just over two years ago [partially what precipitated my absence]. I do have two fics out there that I need to send to my absolutely favorite Rat of all times *stops to wonder if Nan's Matilda is related to Labby at all*. I haven't made it to the archive in eons or the boards much either for that matter, but I love knowing that one day, when my life slows down, and I don't have three kids under age four crawling all over me day and night, that the archive will be there for me to play 'catch up' on.

I'm also grateful that these boards, unlike some others I'm part of, don't delete threads after a few days [those aren't fic boards though] as the two fics I need to send to Labby were lost in said crash and will have to be rebuilt from here.

Hmmm - sounds like something I need to get to in the next week or so and get it all to Labby...

That's the new plan - off to pay bills [urg!] and reward myself by BRing a fic that's been in my inbox for WEEKS and then either write or assemble those fics...

Schoolwork? What schoolwork? *closes eyes* I don't see any schoolwork...
Carol

FDK thread reminder posts sound like a good plan, and I think, in a way, it'd be even better if they came from people not officially associated with the archive. Great idea!

As for number of stories, though... I just went through the eligibility lists from the last five Kerth Awards. (Thank you, Wayback Machine ! Also thanks to Notespad's line counting feature. )

In 2004, there were 215 eligible stories and 13 new authors. (That's this year's awards, since the 2005 ceremony covers the 2004 eligibles.)

In 2003, there were 293 stories and 23 new authors.

In 2002, there were 302 stories and 46 new authors.

In 2001, there were 256 stories and 44 new authors.

In 2000, there were 246 stories and 45 new authors.

The 2000 Kerths page doesn't have a list of stories or new authors eligible from 1999, but it does mention that the story total was over 300.

Also, out of curiousity, I gave the archive's URL to the wayback machine. Their last caching was Oct 31, 2004. Interestingly (I had to double check this because of my dyslexia) there were 2468 stories then, while there are now 2648. I guess it would be more accurate, though, to use the September 24 caching (which is the closest to a year ago, since it lists the September 19 archive upload). At that time, there were 2444. There's obviously some overlap, but at least it's a reasonable estimate. So, in the last 50 weeks, there have been 204 new stories added to the archive.

I think it's safe to say that there has been a decline in stories, and definitely a decline in new authors. How much of the difference it accounts for, though... That's harder to say.

Moving on... I'm not sure I see what you're saying about submissions patterns. The way I understand it is this:

You're currently taking submissions as they come in, having them edited, and then parcelling them out from week to week so that there's always at least something to upload. But you're having trouble even with that because there have been large periods with no submissions. You get sporadic bursts of submissions and you have to spread them out as best you can, even if that means spreading them thinly. So, wouldn't reducing the frequency of updates help you spread the stories out better? Or is the problem that you don't want to have to hold stories in the upload queue too long?

In any case, if 1/3 of the completed stories posted on the MBs aren't making it to the archives, maybe it's time to start sending out another batch of "we noticed you finished this story but haven't submitted it yet..." emails? If so, do you need volunteers to help do so? Or would people find that nagging too intrusive or something?

Not really sure what else to suggest. Hopefully, the FDK thread campaign will help...

Paul

Exactly, Paul. I feel guilty enough holding on to them for as long as I have to right now and would really like to be uploading them faster than we are. Our GEs are fast enough that, techically, most stories would be uploaded within a week or two of being submitted. But that, of course, would mean that we would probably have months at a time with no Archive upload, until a new submission came in and was edited and ready to upload.

I've never actually sent out this kind of nagging email, Paul. It was just one of the suggestions I made in this thread, that perhaps it was time to start. I have always felt that this would be intrusive though, which is why it's not something I've already adopted. The response on this thread was lukewarm to it, too, so it seems it's not a popular option.

I just can't get away from the notion that a nagging email is different from a nagging post. Like cold calling. <g> It seems more invasive somehow to target someone's mailbox.

I have, in the past, posted this kind of nag here on the mbs. But, as I say, it's no longterm solution. It simply nets an instant response of two or three stories from authors who've been reminded into sending them in, and then the situation very quickly settles into the status quo again of no submissions.

I could continue to do that, but I do feel that if I did it on a regular basis, it would very quickly be ignored as something routine and probably not even read after a few months. There's only so many ways you can say, "Give us your fanfic, you stingy gits" <G>. So the same post repeatedly posted would quickly blend into the background and become invisible, I think.

The posting in the fdk folders option might actually work out. Certainly it would get the knowledge that there is an Archive to send stories to out to all authors posting on the mbs, without exception. So that has to be a boon, right there.

Thanks for collating those figures. Very interesting.

LabRat

Okay, not wanting to hold stories back too long... That's understandable. I mean, I wouldn't mind, as an author, but I can see not wanting to do it to people in general.

As for the nagging email... What about that message I got from you back in December, explaining that the index crew had turned up a bunch of old stories which had never been archived, and would I care to submit a copy of mine?

I think we're agreed that the FDK post is a good idea. Hopefully, it'll improve things in the future.

Still, email or otherwise, might it be a good idea to remind people of stories they may have forgotten? 1 story in 3 is a lot more than I expected, even if you count throwaway gags and such.

Or maybe those authors currently reading this thread will be good enough to go back through the index and see for themselves what they may have missed. Can't hurt to look and give those dusty old things a second chance...

Paul

Ah, that was a one off. The Index Crew had sent me a list of stories they had noted on their records. The point of that one was that they were stories which had only been posted on Zoomway's old mbs, many years before. Zoomway had closed down those mbs, so the stories were no longer available anywhere. The Index Crew felt that perhaps authors would like the opportunity to submit them to the Archive - if they still had a copy - so that they wouldn't be lost entirely.

So in that case it wasn't a case of nagging authors to submit stories they hadn't submitted. But to offer authors somewhere to host the stories that had been lost, if they wanted/needed one.


LabRat

Well, the reason I haven't been writing any fanfic lately is because I joined a writers' critique group that meets once a week, so I'm writing original stuff. It's been a great learning experience so far.

Oh, it's inevitable along the way, that many writers will stop writing, for various reasons.

Course, it's the writers who are still writing - and posting - on the mbs that this is really aimed at. You know who you are.

LabRat

Just on a positive note, a bunch of us have been telling new people on the MBs that the Archive exists and to be sure to visit there. Also when there is a new story we remind new authors to submit the finished story to the Archive.
But I don't know if that is helping. Personally, I just need time to write.

Artemis