Archiving

[dani_the_girl]

I remember way back when I was young and green in the ways of web design, I wanted to re-do my website and learn from it at the same time, I started looking at web design blogs and they were all talking about the importance of creating table free designs. I had come in half way through and missed out on the establishing discussion so I was somewhat mystified and I ended up posting to my LJ saying "What is it about table-free design? Why is it good?" People linked me to a couple of posts and I got started from there and was converted pretty quickly.

I feel like I'm in a similar place when I ask the question "What is the point of fanfic archives?" If I've got a DW account with all my fic on it tagged under fic, do I need an AO3 account? What's the motivation behind building AO3. I feel like there are historical reasons for this stuff that I, so far, don't get. Anyone suggest where I can get started finding out? I am asking from a genuine desire to learn - I like the design and I've uploaded a couple of stories, but I'm not sure I have figured out the reasoning behind it yet.

Comments

[dani_the_girl]

This is all interesting stuff - thanks! I'm definitely coming from a perspective of someone who hasn't really been in fandom to speak of for 2+ years yet so I'm still feeling my way around the implications of this type of stuff.

As a reader of fic (similar time frame), I've tended to get into fandoms via an author rather than the other way around so finding fic hasn't been so much of an issue, more a case of branching out from person a to person a's flist. Just recently is the first time I'm getting fannish about something I don't already know people who are fannish about (which is partly what's lead to me getting more curious about questions like these).

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to write!

[princessofgeeks]

this in a nutshell is how LJ changed fandom. i have happily explored by branching off from various people's F lists and focused on people not communities or pairing lists. I rely mostly on rec lists.

But the archive thing -- exactly the other end of the stick from that.

fascinating discussion; thank you!