(no subject)

[rusty_halo]

I love that LiveJournal has turned the Buffy fanfic world into such an interactive writing community. However, from an archivist's perspective, it's made this whole fic archiving thing very difficult. It used to be very clear-cut; a finished story would be posted, on a list or a website, with a title and author and story notes. Then I'd ask for permission, hopefully get it, and archive the story.

But now it's so often this gray area and I never know whether I should ask or not. There's always "this is snippet" or "this was a dream" or "this is an idea I might follow up." Or "this is a meme response" or "I wrote this to cheer up someone" or "this is totally unbeta-ed" or "this might be part of a larger story" or whatever. Sometimes there's a title; sometimes there isn't. Sometimes there are story notes, sometimes there aren't.

Now, the easiest solution would be to say, well, these aren't finished stories, so I'll wait and see if the author turns it into something final and posts it somewhere. But it's not that easy; quite a few authors have taken to only posting things on their LJ. Or, when/if they do post it on their site, it could be weeks or months later and I'll have forgotten by then. If something is really good, I don't want to lose track of it.

So, then the another option is to post in the comments, "I liked this! Do you think I may archive it?" Which feels very weird to do, because some things are really just snippets that the author doesn't want out there officially, so then the author either has to say no or clean up the story, or ignore me, or whatever, and it's awkward. And I feel awkward asking; I want to clarify that, basically, I mean, "When/if you have a final version of this that you're comfortable posting, I would like to have it on my site. But I don't mean to put any pressure on you, and if you don't want me to archive it that's fine." But if I go around posting that everywhere it sounds really pretentious and like I'm making a big deal out of something small.

(ETA: Although, one thing that really helps is that, if you know I tend to ask about archiving your fic and you know you want the story on my site, send me a note when it's finished that you wrote this fic and you're okay with me archiving it if I'd like. People do this occasionally when they want to bring a story to my attention, and it's actually very helpful. That way I don't have to worry about the whole asking for permission/wondering if it's ready to be archived thing. And if you supply title/summary/rating/pairing/time period, that's an extra bonus.)

And then there's the issue with authors that I've never contacted/archived before. I feel okay posting in LJ comments asking someone I'm familiar with if I can archive another of their stories, but I don't feel comfortable posting in LJ comments to someone I don't know. If it's a new author, I want to send them a polite email explaining how my site works and asking if they'd allow me to archive their work. I don't just want to jump out of nowhere going "can I archive it," because likely they won't know who I am or how my site works, and they'll say no. So what do I do when I come across a brilliantly written snippet that I don't want to lose track of from an author I've never contacted before?

Anyway, it's all confusing and annoying. And I'm obsessed with being organized and complete so it's just driving me crazy knowing that I'm losing track of all this really wonderful fic that just sort of slips into the LJ ether.

In other news, the weekend was fun. jaydk and drujan came over Saturday night for "Cheesy Movie Night." We watched The Lost Boys and The Crow, though we ended up thinking that The Crow might not really be a cheesy movie, because it's genuinely sad. The Lost Boys is definitely a cheesy movie, though, and so fun. And drujan hadn't seen it before! So mostly we just drooled over Keifer and laughed at everything else. That's such a classic movie.

We also started out by watching the first two episodes of Angel season five, which was interesting because jaydk and drujan have such opposing views. (drujan didn't like them at all; jaydk loved them, especially episode two). It was fun to discuss, though. After drujan left, jaydk and I watched episode two again. I think I like it more every time I see it. (Please let this season live up to the immense potential it's showing at the beginning.)

We also argued over, if Spike and Angel were played by Depp and Bloom, who would play whom? I think Depp would be Spike and Bloom would be Angel; jaydk disagrees. But, c'mon ... Bloom has that whole stoic, taking-himself-too-seriously Angel thing, and Depp has that whole doesn't-care-what-anyone-thinks completely weird Spike thing. It makes perfect sense.

Then on Sunday the three of us went to see Pirates again. Which is, honestly, a bit too much Pirates for me; I think it was my seventh time seeing it. (And Jane's seen it more than I have, which is just scary). But it was fun to hang out, and that's the important part. :)

Totally random:

I think I'm the only one who doesn't get what's so special about the extra Smashed footage. There's no more Spike than we already had; it's just SMG humping the ground. I care why?

Comments

[zyrya]

I'm with you on the Smashed footage. But then, all the Spuffy sex in season 6 is profoundly unerotic to me because while JM has smouldering chemistry with anyone and anything, SMG most emphatically does not. The Spike/Anya scene in Entropy has more sexual magnetism than all the Spuffy scenes combined. And Smashed is particularly egregious: Buffy looks like she's undergoing a painful medical procedure, and Spike looks like he's concussed. Which, after falling through the floor, he probably is.