Which fics have "vanished"?

[ssokolow]

I've just started an archive of "vanished" fanfiction (fanfiction that no longer has a single place you can go to get the entire story together) and I'd like a little help here.

My site is at http://vffa.ssokolow.com/ and I'd like you guys to tell me which fics you like that have vanished and are not yet present on my site.

Offering me a copy of the fics is preferred, but not required.

[Sanjiyan]

You will find many old and vanished fanfics right here, this sites been archiving alot of them over the space of 4-5 years.

[ssokolow]

You will find many old and vanished fanfics right here, this sites been archiving alot of them over the space of 4-5 years.

Actually, your FFML archive has proven invaluable for finding certain chapters of certain fics and I can't thank you enough. My question is more a matter of "what stuff is no longer reachable from google, FFnet, MediaMiner, and the RAAC archives with a reasonable amount of searching?" Your archives don't index very well.

To explain it in a little more detail, the main reason I run my site is because the wayback machine isn't always reliable, neither the wayback machine nor your site are easily indexable by google, both can be a bit intimidating to the novice reader, and both make preservation of fanart unlikely.

My goal is to provide a single location where, with one zip archive or gzipped text/html file, a reader can get the entire story as it was intended. (including backgrounds for HTML files and fanart that existed on the author's site prior to it going down, if possible)

Cevn's Trial by Tenderness is probably the best example of the problem. It took me months to figure out how to get it all and I was only able to find the last few chapters after finding your site on page 10 of a google search and it took even longer to figure out the URL format so I could get non-MSWord copies from Wayback. Another good example is Jurai-Knight's Quantum Destinies. Apparently, the only searchable copy of the last two chapters is in your FFML archive which, in a normal search for quantum destinies, doesn't appear within the first 5 or 6 pages on Google.

[Sanjiyan]

Does not archive very well?

Please do explain and if needed explain new ways to archive and index the information from the FFML and RAAC :)

I'm always open to new ideas.

Edit: and using google is bad for searching this site, best to use the search function its alot more advanced.

[Sanjiyan]

I'd also be greatful if you could link this site onto your own, if it is relevant to the FFML and RAAC.

Theres many authors who have posted in the past that do not allow archives to archive the fanfics, thanks to many of those authors AND the FFML I'm able to run this archive, mainly because if the header of the email from the FFML or even the RAAC states a no-archive its removed and never stored, and also the same for any author that contacts me and asks me to remove their works.

I feel, that this site, apart from basically being a mirror image of the current FFML and RAAC, also is a archive for future anime fanfic lovers to find what then may be old fanfics, but to be honest some of the past and current authors that allow their works to be posted here are some of the greatest.

[Sanjiyan]

I just noticed that your archive archives Fires Sailor Ranko fanfics, but says that its incomplete.

Heres a follow up for it and also hosts all the images and stories

www.burgerbecky.com

She apart from a RL friend, and great fanfic writer, she also continues the Sailor Ranko series, with Fires permission of course, and has done a brilliant job with it.

[ssokolow]

Does not archive very well?

Please do explain and if needed explain new ways to archive and index the information from the FFML and RAAC

I'm always open to new ideas.

Edit: and using google is bad for searching this site, best to use the search function its alot more advanced.

All I remember saying is "does not index very well". A reference to how your site is almost invisible to my simulations of how the people I know would search for a fic after the author's site goes down.

Most of the fic bundles I have in my Vanished section (the only one where your RAAC and FFML archives might override my archive) include fanart or HTML pages including images. As such, all your site would end up doing is moving them to the "Crippled" section since, to the best of my knowledge, RAAC and FFML are text-only.

As for indexing RAAC and FFML, RAAC is currently on my "not vanished" list. Your FFML archive will probably be in the future, but as of this post, both cases I archived from FFML were cases where it was not appropriate to link to your site:
* I grabbed copies of the last two chapters of quantum destinies from your site to complete my archive (I hope that's not a problem. I was unaware of the primary FFML archive's existence at the time and I'll switch to raw copies when I can spare the time)
* "A Panda's Dream" seems to not be in your FFML index. The only reason I knew where to look was because someone had posted to the FFML after your index started and received a reply stating which of the official archive dumps contained it. I archived it after I failed to find an active e-mail address for the author.

Currently, my site links to the fanfic.net and eyrie.org RAAC archive mirrors as "not vanished" sites. (sites that, if they contain a complete copy, will prevent me archiving of a fic) As for your site and the official FFML archive, they are linked to along with the Wayback machine as one of the sources for "vanished" fics. Thankfully, I haven't been forced to finalize my policy on fics which can be hyperlinked directly in your archive yet. ("A Panda's Dream" apparently only exists as a 5MB dump from November 2002, so it's exempt)

I'd suggest improvements to your indexing of the FFML, but mailing list archives don't make very good fanfic archives, usability wise, and I don't see any easy way to fix that problem.

Theres many authors who have posted in the past that do not allow archives to archive the fanfics, thanks to many of those authors AND the FFML I'm able to run this archive, mainly because if the header of the email from the FFML or even the RAAC states a no-archive its removed and never stored, and also the same for any author that contacts me and asks me to remove their works.

My current policy is to attempt to check all easily navigable RAAC archives (I'm not sure whether yours counts, but I haven't yet needed to decide), FanFiction.net, MediaMiner.com, and Google, attempt to contact the authors for permission, and then publish on my archive if a reasonable search fails to provide a complete copy of the story ina single place and I get permission or fail to contact the author. The only exception is the "Pulled" section which may itself be pulled from my site in a future revision. I'm still deciding what to do with it.

As for author objections, I will pull any fic if the author complains about it, though I will try to get them to change their mind first. If a fic is pulled, I fully intend to archive it privately until it's copyright runs out, even if that means adding a "release these to the world at this date" clause to my will. (copyright terms today would make the U.S. founding fathers roll over in their graves. The original purpose of copyright was to sacrifice temporarily in order to enrich the public domain.)

I just noticed that your archive archives Fires Sailor Ranko fanfics, but says that its incomplete.

Heres a follow up for it and also hosts all the images and stories

www.burgerbecky.com

She apart from a RL friend, and great fanfic writer, she also continues the Sailor Ranko series, with Fires permission of course, and has done a brilliant job with it.

Thanks for catching that. I have no idea why it slipped past me, but I've made the correction. It's now listed as "Moved" with a link to the site.