I think all authors understand that their support is needed to maintain the Archive.
Sadly, our experience over the last few years suggests otherwise. Which is my entire point. None of the reasons now being given for stories not turning up on the Archive are new. Authors have always cared about getting their stories just right before submitting. Real life has always been a bear. Free time has always been tight. All valid reasons and I wouldn't ever suggest they weren't.
But despite this, stories always made it to the Archive. Very few didn't. Now more don't than do each year. At present, I have almost no stories out being edited and only enough in the upload queue to stretch to the next couple of weeks. My last couple of reminders for submissions met with one story and no stories at all.
I can do no more. The only people who can change the inevitable decline is authors. If they want to.
I guess what frustrates me is that for a fandom for a show that hasn't aired in over a decade we are incredibly lucky to still have as many talented authors producing as much fanfic as we do. Many a fandom in those circumstances would have wound down to almost nothing by now. So, given that that fanfic is still being produced, it's just especially saddening to see the Archive dying on its feet when it seems so unnecessary.
LabRat :-)
