AO3/SSA = OTP <3

[lucyp]

The OTW is delighted to welcome the SSA – the Smallville Slash Archive – to its new home within the Archive of Our Own. The Archivists of the SSA (most recently Danceswithgary) have worked hard in conjunction with ADT and Open Doors to make the SSA the first test case for our new mass importer – and the choice is both a symbolic and a practical one.

It’s symbolic because the SSA is a venerable old archive, a relic of an earlier moment in fannish time. The SSA was founded ten years ago, four days after the pilot episode of Smallville aired. Originally founded by Livia Penn and Calista Rose, for most of its life the SSA was hosted by Minotaur, a fan beloved in many fandoms and communities.

When Minotaur died unexpectedly in 2009, a coalition of fans (including Tallihensia and Elke Tanzer — thanks y’all!) worked with his family to ensure that the SSA archivists retained limited access to the site's account on the server where the archive was hosted, but this didn't include the ability to fix broken database code or updating the site.

The limits to the access and the broken code, in addition to the questionable life expectancy of the hosting, meant the archive's survival was uncertain.They approached us shortly thereafter, and have been waiting patiently for us to build the functionality required to save this archive of more than 4700 stories. And that’s why this archive is a practical first test case for our mass importer — the import will preserve the stories if the archive should go offline, and will also give authors direct access to their stories while keeping them within the context of the SSA.

The SSA’s new home is here in the Smallville Slash Archive Collection on the AO3. Our coders have been able to set up a redirect from the original domain to the new urls, to help preserve the validity of old links, rec lists, bookmarks, etc. The redirect will only work from http://smallville.slashdom.net/ urls; sadly slashdom.com is no longer available for us to set redirects. Because the redirects will be set up to go to the version of the work imported with the SSA, if you have a duplicate on the Archive with with comments / kudos you want to keep, we suggest you keep both versions for now (if you delete the one imported with the SSA, then the redirect will break). Down the line, we’re planning to implement a way of merging two copies of the same work so you can deal with these!

The SSA Collection will be kept open for a while after import in order to allow authors who have existing versions of the imported works on the Archive to add their preferred version to the Collection. The imported stories will be set as visible to Archive users only by default; after you claim them, you can use the ‘edit works’ function to set them all to public at once (if you wish). For more information about what happens with imported works, check out Open Doors Questions and Answers. Please note: If you choose to orphan your works, you will want to check them over first and edit out any remaining identifying data.

If you have questions for the SSA mods (or you’d like to give them a bit of love for their hard work keeping the SSA alive) then you’ll find more information at the mod posts: SSA Migration to AO3 - Q&A (Livejournal) and SSA Migration to AO3 - Q&A (Dreamwidth).

We’re thrilled to be able to begin fulfilling one of our longstanding missions, preserving and protecting fanworks which are otherwise at risk of disappearance from the internet. It’s a privilege to begin with an archive which represents such a large contribution to fandom.

Mirrored from an original post on the Archive of Our Own.

AO3/SSA = OTP <3

[lucyrp.livejournal.com]

The OTW is delighted to welcome the SSA – the Smallville Slash Archive – to its new home within the Archive of Our Own. The Archivists of the SSA (most recently Danceswithgary) have worked hard in conjunction with ADT and Open Doors to make the SSA the first test case for our new mass importer – and the choice is both a symbolic and a practical one.

It’s symbolic because the SSA is a venerable old archive, a relic of an earlier moment in fannish time. The SSA was founded ten years ago, four days after the pilot episode of Smallville aired. Originally founded by Livia Penn and Calista Rose, for most of its life the SSA was hosted by Minotaur, a fan beloved in many fandoms and communities.

When Minotaur died unexpectedly in 2009, a coalition of fans (including Tallihensia and Elke Tanzer — thanks y’all!) worked with his family to ensure that the SSA archivists retained limited access to the site's account on the server where the archive was hosted, but this didn't include the ability to fix broken database code or updating the site.

The limits to the access and the broken code, in addition to the questionable life expectancy of the hosting, meant the archive's survival was uncertain.They approached us shortly thereafter, and have been waiting patiently for us to build the functionality required to save this archive of more than 4700 stories. And that’s why this archive is a practical first test case for our mass importer — the import will preserve the stories if the archive should go offline, and will also give authors direct access to their stories while keeping them within the context of the SSA.

The SSA’s new home is here in the Smallville Slash Archive Collection on the AO3. Our coders have been able to set up a redirect from the original domain to the new urls, to help preserve the validity of old links, rec lists, bookmarks, etc. The redirect will only work from http://smallville.slashdom.net/ urls; sadly slashdom.com is no longer available for us to set redirects. Because the redirects will be set up to go to the version of the work imported with the SSA, if you have a duplicate on the Archive with with comments / kudos you want to keep, we suggest you keep both versions for now (if you delete the one imported with the SSA, then the redirect will break). Down the line, we’re planning to implement a way of merging two copies of the same work so you can deal with these!

The SSA Collection will be kept open for a while after import in order to allow authors who have existing versions of the imported works on the Archive to add their preferred version to the Collection. The imported stories will be set as visible to Archive users only by default; after you claim them, you can use the ‘edit works’ function to set them all to public at once (if you wish). For more information about what happens with imported works, check out Open Doors Questions and Answers. Please note: If you choose to orphan your works, you will want to check them over first and edit out any remaining identifying data.

If you have questions for the SSA mods (or you’d like to give them a bit of love for their hard work keeping the SSA alive) then you’ll find more information at the mod posts: SSA Migration to AO3 - Q&A (Livejournal) and SSA Migration to AO3 - Q&A (Dreamwidth).

We’re thrilled to be able to begin fulfilling one of our longstanding missions, preserving and protecting fanworks which are otherwise at risk of disappearance from the internet. It’s a privilege to begin with an archive which represents such a large contribution to fandom.

Mirrored from an original post on the Archive of Our Own.

Links roundup for 5 March 2012

[otw_staff]

Here's a roundup of fandom technology stories that might be of interest to fans:

• Technology has always had a circular relationship with fan practices, with the format and medium shaping what fans could do, and with fans modifying the technology to accommodate their needs. This post about music fans discusses "an extraordinary 20th century of people developing behaviors, values, and communities centered on listening to records" which may now be slipping away due to changes in music distribution. However, fannishness as social glue is a continuing thread: "There was nothing else necessarily in common amongst them at all; they were all different ages and occupations. It was funny to walk into a room where nothing else mattered except he's playing the new Slim Harpo and that was enough to bond you all together."


• One problem that sometimes springs up is that people, whether outsiders or users, confuse the platform with the practice. In this post about how Twitter changed his sports fandom, the writer notes changes in his life that have more to do with communal fandom and his own willingness to interact. "I realized I wasn't alone", "I understood I was not, in fact, bat s*** crazy", "Gameday will never be the same" and "Twitter has provided me great interaction with terrific people" could have been said in previous decades about platforms which are still in use by some. In fact, fandom today may have more problems due to platform diversity, and corporate or government control, than the inability to connect with other fans.


• A lengthy Village Voice piece titled Rise of the Facebook Killers cited how "the architecture of communication was distorting the conversation." The artice details some of the problems users face that new projects such as Diaspora* are trying to overcome. "[Y]our posts can easily be imported into Tumblr, Twitter, and even Facebook...Diaspora* can function as a social aggregator, bringing together feeds from various other platforms...you can communicate directly, securely, and without running exchanges past the prying eyes of Zuckerberg." Additionally, "for those worried about malicious government or corporate interference, the distributed network is much less vulnerable to denial of service attacks, which makes the network much harder to take down."

If the history of fandom technology use interests you, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Links roundup for 5 March 2012

[otw-staff.livejournal.com]

Here's a roundup of fandom technology stories that might be of interest to fans:

• Technology has always had a circular relationship with fan practices, with the format and medium shaping what fans could do, and with fans modifying the technology to accommodate their needs. This post about music fans discusses "an extraordinary 20th century of people developing behaviors, values, and communities centered on listening to records" which may now be slipping away due to changes in music distribution. However, fannishness as social glue is a continuing thread: "There was nothing else necessarily in common amongst them at all; they were all different ages and occupations. It was funny to walk into a room where nothing else mattered except he's playing the new Slim Harpo and that was enough to bond you all together."


• One problem that sometimes springs up is that people, whether outsiders or users, confuse the platform with the practice. In this post about how Twitter changed his sports fandom, the writer notes changes in his life that have more to do with communal fandom and his own willingness to interact. "I realized I wasn't alone", "I understood I was not, in fact, bat s*** crazy", "Gameday will never be the same" and "Twitter has provided me great interaction with terrific people" could have been said in previous decades about platforms which are still in use by some. In fact, fandom today may have more problems due to platform diversity, and corporate or government control, than the inability to connect with other fans.


• A lengthy Village Voice piece titled Rise of the Facebook Killers cited how "the architecture of communication was distorting the conversation." The artice details some of the problems users face that new projects such as Diaspora* are trying to overcome. "[Y]our posts can easily be imported into Tumblr, Twitter, and even Facebook...Diaspora* can function as a social aggregator, bringing together feeds from various other platforms...you can communicate directly, securely, and without running exchanges past the prying eyes of Zuckerberg." Additionally, "for those worried about malicious government or corporate interference, the distributed network is much less vulnerable to denial of service attacks, which makes the network much harder to take down."

If the history of fandom technology use interests you, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.