PSA: 8tracks is shutting down

2019-12-30T11:32:20Z

Posted by: fanloremod

Popular fanmix and fan soundtrack website 8tracks recently announced that it will be shutting down on December 31, 2019. While the site might be available after this date, there's no guarantee it will stay up - so if you're a fanmix or fan soundtrack creator (or have created any type of playlist on 8tracks), now is a very good time to save the data from your playlists or make them available on another site.

What can I do to save my playlists?

If you've used 8tracks at any point, the site will be sending you an email with the playlist name, art, description and track list from your playlist(s), to help you recreate it/them on another site. It's a good idea to make sure that you can still access the email address you used to sign up to 8tracks. Be sure to also check your spam folder for the email if you can’t find it in your inbox.

You can also use the Download Tracklist button in the notes of any playlist to copy all of the information from that playlist, and the "Save playlist to Spotify" button on top of the mix art to save a playlist to Spotify. Note that some of the tracks may be unavailable or not matched to Spotify's catalog, particularly if they are older songs. Please also be aware that if you are saving someone else's playlist, the playlist will not be attributed to the correct author when saving to Spotify - it will be saved under your name.

Other sites that can be used to create and share playlists of songs include Playmoss (a popular alternative to 8tracks) and YouTube.

Archiving links to fanmixes and fan soundtracks

Another very important thing to do is to use the Wayback Machine to archive the links to your favourite fanmixes and fan soundtracks. This can be done even if you don't want to or aren't able to republish the mix on another site.

To do this, enter the URL of the mix in the box next to "Browse History" and select the button to see if it's already archived. If not, you can select "Save this url in the Wayback Machine" to add it to the archive. Be aware that saving playlists in the Wayback Machine will preserve the creator’s name, the description and the cover art, but not the track list - this can only be saved by downloading the text file.

Link your playlists on Fanlore!

Have you made a fanmix or fan soundtrack that you're really proud of? Do you want other fans to be able to enjoy the links to your favourite mixes and soundtracks? Please add the links to Fanlore! You can do this by finding the page for the fandom, ship, character, trope, fic, etc. that you made the mix for and adding it as an example fanwork. Anyone who has an account on Fanlore can edit the wiki - and it's completely free! Follow this link to sign up to Fanlore, and check out our New Visitor Portal to find out how to get started with editing.

Some examples of Fanlore pages that feature playlists and mixes:

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A PSA about Yahoo! Groups

2019-10-17T21:34:19Z

Posted by: fanloremod

On 16th October, it was revealed that Yahoo! is planning to shut off posting to Yahoo! Groups on 28th October, and permanently wipe all data from Groups on 14th December, in yet another instance of an internet space shutdown that will be hugely detrimental to fans and fan history.

The Organization for Transformative Works is doing everything it can to try and preserve the fannish activity and works on Yahoo! Groups before the shutdown. If you are a member or admin of a Group and want to try and preserve its contents, here are some things you can do.

Contact the OTW's Open Doors project, which works to import at-risk fan archives, if you're the admin of a Yahoo! Group and want to import its fanworks to AO3. If you're not the admin of a Yahoo! Group, you can still publish your own fanworks to AO3 - but the permission of a group admin is needed in order to import all the fanworks associated with a Group.

Create a page for the Group on Fanlore. Anyone can edit Fanlore and it's completely free - you just need to sign up for an account first. Once you have, you'll need to wait four hours before you can create any new pages - this is a precaution against spam accounts. This tutorial will help you get started with editing, and this article will give you more information on how to start a new page.

If you're not confident with making a new page from scratch or want one created before the four hours are up, you can get in touch via our contact form (select "Editing Help" as the message subject) and we will be more than happy to make one that you can edit.

What sort of thing should I put on a Fanlore page about my Group?

You can record anything you like on Fanlore that you think is relevant to fandom and is important to preserve - but here are some suggestions for information that might be useful:

Number of members (from when the Group was most active, if it is no longer active)
Last post date
The information from your About Group page
Number of messages overall
Whether the group was public or accessible to members only
Fun facts, like the subject of the first and last posts
The FAQs
A screencap of the About page
The Mailing List template (which goes at the top of the page)

Here are some examples of Yahoo! Groups pages on Fanlore that you can use for inspiration:

Please note that anyone can edit pages on Fanlore, so the page you create won't stay exactly the same after you create it (but it will receive great additions from other editors!).

Create a Fanlore user page. If you're worried about friends from Groups being able to find you or your work elsewhere, you can create a user page on Fanlore with any fannish handles, hangouts, and other info that you want to share. Make sure to use the user profile template and check out this help page for more information on setting up your user page.

Archive your mailing list data. Fanlore gardener Morgan Dawn has created a post on Dreamwidth with ways that you can migrate or preserve data from Yahoo! mailing lists - check it out and feel free to add suggestions in the comments.

If you have any questions, problems, or just want to know more about Fanlore, please get in touch!

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PSA: 8tracks is shutting down

A PSA about Yahoo! Groups