[ SECRET POST #5518 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5518 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #790.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. https://i.imgur.com/q3ROj2d.png

[(Anonymous)]

Anon so many of the fics you're bitching about have probably been abandoned by their owners and you should be happy they are up at all. Before ao3 and ffnet there wasn't really another option esp if your fandom didn't have an aggrigate site like the bigger fandoms did.

Like I know this is a secret, and I shouldn't bitch, but the internet was a much more decentralized place, and yes it would be very nice if ppl aggrigated their fics over on another site (esp where they arent currently in danger of being lost to time), but im just so damn thankful they still exist.

[(Anonymous)]

Man, but I miss geocities. It was much better than AO3 for finding fics. Plus AO3 is the worlds biggest, least helpful, slushpile. I have never managed to find a fic on that on my own, the only times I've managed to find a fic worth reading on AO3 is when someone else has already waded through the slush and linked to it directly.

I'd actually prefer if everyone went back to maintaining their own site, with webrings and referral forums and mailing list services.

[(Anonymous)]

I think that just means you are bad at finding fic...

[(Anonymous)]

Genuine question with no intent to be snide, how did one manage to find anything on geocities? Stumbling into something to my liking on one of countless standalone websites with no way to search or filter anything always felt like a very rare miracle to me.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh man I miss my Geocities site. I spent SO MUCH TIME designing that hideous piece of crap. (I say this affectionately. Looking back on it, it really WAS hideous.) But it really made me feel like I was part of a community, because building your webrings and mailing lists and learning how to navigate the internet when it was still pretty new was-- it was an experience.

[(Anonymous)]

You can also just do a Google site search instead: "character" "fandom" site:archiveofourown.org

The AO3 search is very complex for a reason and seriously allows you to narrow your search as you go, but it also relies on authors to tag appropriately.

[(Anonymous)]

Whenever people complain about not being able to find fic, I always wonder "Why are so sure the fic even exists?" There isn't an endless font of good fic for every fandom/pairing/character. Maybe you got lucky with whatever you were looking for on Geocities being really popular but with FFN/AO3 you happen to be looking for stuff that just isn't as popular. I mean, I had no trouble finding Mulder/Scully fic back in the day, but that was because there was a shit-ton of it.

If you can't find the fic, you don't know there is actually fic to be found.

[(Anonymous)]

So your complaint isn't that you can't find fic, but rather that you can't find fic that YOU like. Those are two very different complaints.

[meadowphoenix]

Are you sure your problem isn't that people aren't doing the labor of curating fic for you? Because it sounds like that's your problem. And I hate to say it but tumblr helps.

[(Anonymous)]

AO3 is the worlds biggest, least helpful, slushpile.

I can remember when it was recommended as the place to find quality fic, and ff.net was derided as a pit of voles! How times change.

[(Anonymous)]

I recently followed some links someone put together to a fansite like this. It was like seeing an endangered species in the wild.

[pantswarrior]

Hahahha, the other day I was doing an image search for my cosplay WIP, and came across a pic I hadn't seen before, so was curious if it was a fan render or what. Wound up on one of those sites. Which linked to a bunch of other such sites that I remember from back in the day, which are all dead now (like the fandom). With the little banners and everything, at least the ones that weren't broken. Complete with a "fanfics" page that said at the top (in centered text) "I don't have any fanfics myself yet and don't know if I ever will, so here's some links to sites with fanfics!" It was cute and so nostalgic for like 2001.

[(Anonymous)]

Copypaste it in a Word doc?

[(Anonymous)]

This is what I do literally any time I can't find a fic on AO3. Even if it's on FFN or LJ, I'd much rather c/p it to a Word doc.

[(Anonymous)]

If it is collection (as opposed to just one person's fic), you can petition AO3 to import it. Not sure what steps they have to go to do that.

[(Anonymous)]

^^; Sorry, OP! I'm in the veeeeery slow process of moving shit over to AO3 but, yeah, the bulk of my fic isn't on there yet. *shrugs* I just don't feel like moving fifteen years worth of fic over quickly. So I do it now and then, when I feel like posting a 'new' story.

[(Anonymous)]

(not OP)

Sounds fair - that kinda paperwork can be daunting. Good on you for doing it!

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with other people in the thread that if it's an old fic, it's a miracle it's still there at all. AO3 is also fairly easy to search on, for the most part (I recently got into a massive fandom, and even though I focus on 1 specific character, it's incredibly difficult to find stuff I like)

What bugs me is when people write new fics and don't post them on AO3. Tumblr is many things, but not an archive. Someone deletes their account or changes their username to their obsession of the week, and all that fic is lost. Hell, even if they leave it alone, the search function is terrible. Plus, you know, there's great alternative right there!

[(Anonymous)]

On Firefox, there's a "toggle reader view" icon on the top menu. It turns pages into plain text. You're welcome!

I use it on tumblr all the time, because I can't read that "tiny white text on pale pink" shit some people are posting fic as...like...why.

[hey_hey_hey]

If the fic is on some geoshitties type website with broken pics and links, I think it's safe to say they've moved on from fandom. Or they're dead.

[(Anonymous)]

See, this secret is a reminder of why I want to make a master rec list site. Granted, it's all the fics I like, but there's probably people who will like them too. And I mean I'm going to be reccing fics from specific archives, some are from sites you had to get a whole ass account for (Hawthorne & Vine lol or whatever that Dramoine site was). But....

OP, I'm going to recommend you use a site like ficsave.xyz or what have you to save the fics from those sites. Or hope they're available on the way back machine. Because some of those go defunct. My first true fandom experience site went offline around 2008. The forum is still open but it's only spam bots. Save what you can. I save the fic I enjoy (AO3 or otherwise) because you don't know when the author will pull the work, if the site will go down, etc. And to be clear, I'm not going to be "sharing" the fics I save (especially if the author posts something to the effect of please don't share this/etc.), But your private collection and almost as a museum of such fucking good stories. I don't look back for quite a bit of them because I'm afraid they'll be gone. But what can we do?

[(Anonymous)]

So the complaint is that you dislike having to be recced good fics on Ao3 because it's difficult to find them so you'd rather...go back to needing to be recced good fics? Essentially?

Regardless of how easy it is to sort through fics, there is always going to be a volume of low hanging fruit to slap aside before you find the good stuff. And that's if good stuff is even there to find at all. It can be annoying but that doesn't mean Ao3 is bad, it just means you're being exposed to more of the "ew, no" fics because it hasn't been curated yet. Personally, finding fics aside I find Ao3's interface very user friendly for me personally and easy to read. Plus it allows you the option to download stuff without having to worry about reformatting it so it's readable.

[(Anonymous)]

When I can only find a fic on some old, independent website and nowhere else, then I typically assume the person is no longer in fandom and probably hasn't been in a long time.

OTOH, when I can only find a fic on FFN, that gets a bit of a groan from me. Ultimately I'm about 80% less likely to read a fic if it's only posted on FFN. I know there must be some good fic on FFN somewhere, but literally every time I've followed someone's rec and given a FFN fic a chance, I've come away disappointed.

I say that as someone who used to post there, back in the mid-00s. There is a reason some of the fics I have on FFN aren't cross-posted to AO3. That reason is because said fics are old and bad.

[(Anonymous)]

There, there, anon. *pats*