GeoCities Rescue Project!

[francescacoppa]

Just to say that I'm thrilled at arduinna's call for folks to list links to (and maybe stub? screencap? fill out? add to?) GeoCities pages. We could really use all the help we can get, here!! I'm wondering if maybe this can be the first fanlore challenge as suggested by ratcreature earlier today--maybe folks can take a look over there and see if there's a page they're invested in documenting/saving?

Examples: some fan pages that have been stubbed or preserved in Fanlore as part of GeoCities Rescue:

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Nic
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Alassenya
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Jonquil
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Sweet_Sorcery
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unovis
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Silver_Chipmunk
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Rabidsamfan

Any help anybody wants to give here is greatly greatly appreciated! (And if you know the owner/moderator of a GeoCities fanfiction site, please tell them to contact me: we can give them a beta account for their fic!)

Comments

[unovis]

Good grief--I have an entry?
How do you correct things? The LJ reference for me is wrong. I'm unovis_lj, not unovis there; LJ wouldn't delete some guy's inactive account and let me have the name.

[francescacoppa]

I can do it for you, but of course you can go in and do it yourself also--its a wiki! (Didn't you get my email? *worried* I sent you an email to say we would stub you in fanlore and screencap the page??)

[unovis]

I just created an account and waded in to try myself; thanks! I'm terrified of making mistakes on all things OTW related. I'm just -- not good at this kind of thing.

I can't find the email. I'll check my spam folder.

ETA: I know I'm cursed, but I can't find this email anywhere, not even sent to my ancient aol address (which might have survived somewhere on that website). Maybe it went via the incorrect unovis LJ addy?

Hmm.

[francescacoppa]

I just checked through my records and I don't have the email because I wasn't the one who corresponded with you about your LJ--Heather Cook did, maybe? (We've talked about that list of HL sites that's out there...)

What I do have in my records, on the GeoCities masterlist, is that a Unovis with a gmail address, with site http://www.geocities.com/unovisunovis/index_stories.html (which I think is yours!), was sent an archive invite--did you get that? *hopes* And then that the site was screencapped in fanlore by Meri of wikicomm, though I can see the confusion because with just the unovis @ gmail and unovis at DW they might have just jumped to conclusions about LJ.

Anyway, let me know if you got the archive invite and I'm really sorry about any confusion! Usually there's a very clear back and forth--we verify the site, send an email, send an archive account, screencap the site!

Re: Hmm.

[unovis]

Might be why I didn't find anything; I was searching for an email from you or one that mentioned the creation of the entry on Fanlore and the screencap, which I didn't receive from anyone. I did get an invitation to AO3 and started archiving stories there from my geocities site. Sorry to cause you trouble.

Re: Hmm.

[francescacoppa]

No, we do sometimes send an email afterwards with the fanlore URL also, particularly if we don't have a lot of information (I mean, as you see, the fanlore site is really a stub! I don't imagine it captures you in all your infinite variety *g*), hoping that folks will add to it. And also so that folks know we've done it, but its not essential and I guess this one slipped through the cracks. I do apologize for the mistake in LJ url though--it was an honest mistake! (We all have too many names now! *g*)

[francescacoppa]

Aaaaand someone's beaten me to it! But you should totally make an account!

Go to create an account (left hand tool bar, bottom) or here:

http://fanlore.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Userlogin&type=signup

If you create an account, you can click on the "edit" link that will appear on any page, and make any changes you want - don't worry about formatting, other people will clean it up if need be!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm confused by the "was preserved as part of the GeoCities Rescue Project" that is on some of these pages (like Jonquil's), it implies that the sites still exist somewhere? *Are* they preserved somewhere, or is the fanlore stub (and presumably forthcoming non-stubbiness, like on some of the others) the preservation?

(Also, I think arduinna's post should be hyped on the otw blog, at the very least, it's not getting much love!)

[francescacoppa]

If it says that, it means they were given A03 beta accounts for their fic, and the "look and feel" of their site was stubbed. You're right, though--and you worry me, in a way--because the presumption is that the person themselves is responsible for uploading the fic themselves; I suppose if they don't DO it, its not so much "saved", sigh. But we haven't the resources to actually upload everyone's stories for them: horse to water, drink, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I also wanted to ask - is it ok to say, like "documenting this page for OTW's geocities rescue", if one is not actually associated with otw?

Poi

[francescacoppa]

*dubs you an official GeoCities Rescue Volunteer!!* *g* Or "angel"!!! We need loads of angels to help!

Oh, n00b signing in!

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about everyone's rescue projects. My own project consisted of "get my fansite transferred to my own server, even though I've tried not to host any smut there since I normally keep a partition between my fandom identity and RL identity."

My fansite (http://www.geocities.com/auronlu (http://www.geocities.com/auronlu)) is devoted to all fanwork on an obscure pairing. I archive some of my own fanwork there, but more importantly, I've cataloged and linked to all the fanwork devoted to that ship. Should it go on the Big List? It's not just fanfic, and it's mostly not an archive, but a resource to FIND fanfic and other fanwork devoted to one pairing.

So:

1. I'm not sure what OTW is. Would it be appropriate to host my fansite there?

2. I've never dealt with Wikis except to do spot edits of existing articles. I don't quite know how to start from scratch, or if my humble and obscure contribution to fandom deserves to be noted in Fanwork (Y/N)? I can probably figure it out, but if there's a "getting started" page, FAQ or template I should read first, a little direction would help nudge me into doing it.


3. There's also another fansite that needs rescuing, and the problem is, it's not mine -- the maintainer disappeared years ago, and almost certainly has forgotten it. It's collected on two pages: Auron/Lulu Fanart (http://www.geocities.com/kiminy_2000/fanart.html) and fanfic (http://www.geocities.com/kiminy_2000/fanfic.html).

Ethical question time: I'm gonna save all the content from that site for myself. Normally, I would not DREAM of reposting someone else's work, even with credit, without permission. But those are some of the best-known pieces of fanwork in my fandom. Even those who hate the ship have made reference to a couple of 'em. Do I let it die, or do I rescue the contents, put them on my shrine with proper credit, and include a disclaimer saying it was rescued off the Geocities site, and that if anyone wants their work removed, [link] to email me? I have contact with some of the artists, but not all of them.

Re: Oh, n00b signing in!

[francescacoppa]

The resource stuff should totally go into Fanlore--its what fanlore is FOR. You could make a page for the fandom and pairing if there isn't already--or even start it, and others will help.

Meanwhile, if its true what you say that "But those are some of the best-known pieces of fanwork in my fandom. Even those who hate the ship have made reference to a couple of 'em. " then they may meet the notability requirement for Fanlore, and I'm fairly sure that you can upload screencaps there and make reference to them--basically saying this, that these works are famous and important--on the pairing's fanlore page. I had to run a case like this by our legal team not long ago, and apparently if a work IS really famous there's a different standard for us hosting screencaps of it on Fanlore.

(It's also worth doublechecking though that the work's not already in the Wayback machine at archive.org.)