The past dragging along behind us like a wrecking ball.

[clo_again]

I was just reading (read: procrastinating from writing) Versaphile's post about importing old fic to AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/5644.

I'm massively anti-deleting fanfic - I feel that once something has been released to run wild on the internet, you have no idea really who's read it or what impact that had on them, even if it's yours, even if it has your name on it; once it's posted, it should stay available somewhere forever. On the flipside, I've always been firmly set on not importing my old fic to AO3 because most of it I feel needs more editing than I'm happy doing, or was written when I still had no clue what I was doing other than bashing out words in a vague succession of sense, or is frankly (imho) terrible. All my old stuff is sitting around on clofic or in a much neater indexed collection on Insanejournal and that's fine. It isn't as if I'm locking it in a drawer; if anyone wants it, my username is the same everywhere.

But then- reading Versaphile talk about archiving fandom history and how important it is made me think that's irresponsible. Likewise the level of outrage I went through listening to a podcast discussing tennis slash last year, with a panel of four tennis ficcers who flat out stated that tennis slash "started around 2007 with Nadal/Federer" (hahahahaha I guess we all hallucinated all that Roddick/Federer fic that happened 2004-onwards, or that there was at least one person writing Roddick/Ferrero before that which no longer exists because the original tennis fic comm got deleted) implies that maybe fandom history is already getting fuzzy. Like all the teenies on tumblr who keep LOLing at oldtimers for including disclaimers on fic and then can't believe it when the oldtimers turn around and tell them The Epic Saga of Anne Rice's Lawyers.

So I don't know. Maybe I should see how much editing some of the longer things would need so I can post them with only moderate-to-crippling shame.

-

(Also, HEY, HEY I'M STILL HERE, HAI LJ. It's my fourteenth LJ anniversay on October 8th. Every year I say I should do something and every year I wake up in November and go "...ah shit, maybe next year.")

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

Ooh, that's an interesting point about our responsibility to preserve history. I haven't posted any of my old works to AO3; the thought makes me feel a bit awkward (particularly as I've got a small handful of subscribers on there and I think subscription e-mails still get sent out for backdated works, so I'd have to upload everything at once to avoid spamming everyone with alerts). But I do feel it's important to keep writing backed up. Maybe I should at least collect together some of my older things and post them there.

(And hello! It's good to see you.)

[nilhenwen.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting to read because I've been on Ao3 a lot recently and have started writing for a new fandom. It made me look at my Works list and think ... I've written so much more than 3 fics.
But I feel very much like you with this. There isn't a wild amount of fics I would want to move over as a lot of them aren't my best work. Most produced during a very active and prolific time but often quite artless. I don't know
Maybe I'll love some over and others not. For some reason I don't feel like my tennis fic fits well with the fictive already posted on Ao3.
It's a strange thing
Going to read he link too - love the idea of fandom history
Also LOL Federer/Nadal being the start. Obviously I missed something.