[FFML] Fic archiving and FF.net

[Christopher Smith]

I can personally atest to this. I've been running Darkscribes.org for several 
years and finding the money to keep it going has been difficult. It makes no 
revenue at all, and even with a place for donations nothing is really made to 
assist. I've had to lie cheat and steal to keep her running. I've been lucky, 
especially since my web guy is capable of getting us server space. 

We recently took Evafics.org offline mostly because of lack of interest from 
the community. It didn't help that we tried to moderate what went up and my 
quality control team rarely did their jobs. A lot of little failure resulted 
in the eventual closing of that site.

Fact is it is difficult to keep something like that running, espeiclaly when 
you find a site that's bigger, making money, and has features you could 
only dream about. LIke being able to upload doc files or odt files or 
whatever your word processor puts out instead of converting to HTML ot 
TXT.

It also doesn't make one feel good when you get the typical eb and flow of 
things. I have pretty much made myself a pariah of the Evangelion 
Fanfiction world due to the way I've tried to keep DS running over time. Not 
many people comment or even let us know they are there.

In a perfect setup DS would make enough cash to cover domain 
registration, server fees, and things of that sort. But right now it's just me 
and a guy trying to keep it running.

Oh well. My two cents on the subject.

LD

On Thursday 07 May 2009 07:48:56 Richard Lawson wrote:
> > 	That would be awfully nice.  But I suspect that, in the era of FF.net
> > and its ilk, RAAC is losing relevance.  We seem to have a new 
generation
> > of authors who aren't even aware of its existence.
>
> This.
>
> One of the last anime conventions I went to a couple of years ago, 
everyone
> on the fanfic panel blasted Fanfiction.net.  I felt the need to defend it
> because I have a couple of my Ranma fics posted there.
>
> The general feeling was that no one should be allowed to profit from
> fanfiction.  A hosting site that earns ad revenue for its owners goes
> against the very concept of fanfiction, which technically violates
> copyright.  The only way fanfiction should be allowed to happen is when it
> is freely available in a format that doesn't earn money for anyone.
>
> The problem is that the internet isn't free.  Usenet is going the way of
> bulletin boards; there are a niche of people who still use them, but
> because they are awkward to access and not well-moderated, they're not
> generally useful.  More and more ISPs have given up on Usenet 
altogether,
> and who can blame them.  It required a lot of infrastructure for a
> seldom-used feature.
>
> Free, non-ad-revenue-generating hosting sites aren't the answer either. 
> This thread alone shows how ephemeral such sites are; here one day, 
gone
> the next.  Honestly, about the only way a long-term fanfiction hosting site
> is going to exist at all is if it generates revenue for the owners.
>
> There are exceptions, loving fans with money to spare to host a site for a
> certain fanfiction genre - I can think of at least two.  But I honestly
> think the future is going to be sites like Fanfiction.net.
>
> What this means with regards to copyright I don't know.  Most publishers
> turn a blind eye to fanfiction because they realize it keeps interest high,
> and the more fanfiction there is the more likely people are to seek out the
> source material.  Down the line, however, FF.net may find itself facing a
> Cease & Desist order from a persnickity author.  We'll have to wait and
> see.
>
> In the meantime, if you want a particular piece of fanfiction reliably
> archived, FF.net seems to be the way to go.
>
> All right, back to writing my Enchanted fanfics.  =)
>
> -Richard
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