Hey authors, a general plea:

[giandujakiss]

Put your old fics on AO3!

Yes, those 10, 15 year old fics you posted to Livejournal back in the day. I want them - which means others do, too!

Comments

[kore]

Yes!

[acari]

Yes!

And I should get on that myself.

[giandujakiss]

You should!

[giandujakiss]

!!

[havocthecat]

It doesn't matter what fandom it is, someone wants to read it!

I mean, I have specific needs and desires, but also just dig up all that old fandom from LJ or mailing lists - egroups and yahoogroups and even those giant old listservs - and zines! God help us, the zines! Your fanfic is never too old. Even if your LJ, like mine, is legally an adult.

You will be making many, many, many fans happy.

[giandujakiss]

Yes! It's so wonderful when you go looking for that fic you read *ahem* years ago and can actually find it!

[alexseanchai]

yes but to do that I would have to reread them in order to correctly tag them

(also someone would identify a sort-of-original character as a self-insert, not as an alternate version of a canon character as seen in the larger AU I was bouncing off of, just because the character is a boy named Alex. I am not sure I had yet heard the word 'transgender' even once in my life as of when I finished writing that story. I do not wish to deal with that reaction.)

[giandujakiss]

Well, I don't know what the answer is on the updating/language issue - maybe it could be addressed in a note, and the piece backdated? - but if you even tag the fandom and pairing, people who read the original story and may be looking for it again will be able to find it!

(This plea occasioned by my desire to read my old SPN faves. Some are gone from the internet; some are still on LJ but very hard to find, and in unfriendly formats)

[out_there]

To be honest, I took the lazy option and just didn't bother putting additional tags. It has pairing and rating and fandom, and publishing date. I'm never going to find the time to read a hundred old fics and figure out additional tags, but at least if someone is searching for that old story they read years ago, they can find it on AO3.

[yourlibrarian]

In fact, all your fanworks! This is what marchmetamatterschallenge is all about each year, getting more people to back up their meta to AO3.

There may be some interest in this post about what kinds of fic tended to get backed up to AO3 -- meaning there's a lot missing -- and also the problems with trying to find it.

[yhlee]

I'm so tempted to upload the dozens of old Buffyverse fic that I either took down from AO3 (I can't remember why) or never had up there in the first place...someday, when I have free time again??

[giandujakiss]

Yes! If you can't remember why they came down, put them up! I am 100% confident people want to read them!

[yhlee]

I'll see if I can dig them up! :D

[starwatcher]

 
Exactly! I admit I was laggard -- but last spring when my chances of surviving Covid if I caught it (I'm 69) were low -- I made the push to move everything over, and I'm happy I did. If nothing else, I have proof that people are still interested to some degree; hit counts and kudos are low on old works, but more than on my Dreamwidth fic journal.

You're right -- I want those old HL fics, and SGA fics that were on Wraithbait but never moved over. Maybe someday they'll show up again.
 

[giandujakiss]

I'm glad you did! And I hope others do too!

I can't believe some of the amazing stories still floating around LJ that never made it to AO3. (Rereading one right now)

[jotribe2]

I second this!
thank you for this post!

[giandujakiss]

:-)

[wembley]

Me: Yes, everyone should do this!

Also me: But stuff I wrote as a teenager that is full of "the taller man", that's exempt, RIP but I'm different?

[giandujakiss]

No they're not exempt! Post from an orphan account if you need to!

[havocthecat]

I guarantee you're not the only one self-conscious about your teenage fic, but I also guarantee that some people will love it and not realize you wrote it when you're a teenager. Also like giandujakiss said, that's what orphan accounts and alternate pseuds are for if you're truly feeling like it's too much to post from your main.