Ficwad Is Closing (?) -- Long Live Archive of Our Own

[auronlu]

In the past I have recommended two different alternatives to ff.net, and both times got burned.

The first time, Ficwad, looked like a great archive, but it was buggy, neglected, and may be losing its domain name in March. That will kill links to anything posted there. There are unconfirmed rumors it may shut down altogether. Considering the admin hasn't been seen in years, that seems likely sooner or later.

The second time was Fanlib, and I nixed my recommendation after everyone pointed out why it sucked raw eggs.

So my track record isn't exactly super. But third time's the cure?

I want to recommend that Everyone who has stories on Ficwad take the time to download them, upload 'em on Archive of Our Own.

If you've checked my Index to All My Fanfiction page lately, you'll notice I've been doing exactly that. I was only halfway through, but this is the kick to get me to finish.


[ETA: Aha, Wayback Machine to the Rescue!]

It appears that the Wayback Machine last crawled Ficwad in May 2008. That gets a lot, although not all of the Final Fantasy fanfiction posted there. It's still be better to have it more accessible elsewhere.

Comments

[haku-kaen.livejournal.com]

I always feel a bit sad when I think about Ficwad. It had so much promise right up until its old server got so horribly slow, then they switched servers and somehow everything went pear-shaped in the process. Really, I could have handled most of the ways it ended up broken since I wasn't using it as my primary archive, but then it started doing that thing where it throws extraneous backslashes into stories where italics are supposed to be. My patience for messed up coding ends when its ugliness starts creeping into the stories I'm trying to post or read instead of just mucking up behind the scenes stuff.

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, the broken italics was when I stopped using it.

Also, it didn't always tally review counts accurately. There weren't many, but sometimes it would say 0 when someone had left a comment.

Ficwad makes me sad as well. It had potential.

The one drawback to AO3 (which I am trying to help change) is that there is less reader-interaction, because so many of us post on LJ first and then archive that our comments tend to be on the LJ posts instead.

Which on the one hand is convenient... I log in here and can see immediately which posts have comment...but down the road, it's harder to find 'em later.

[renay (from livejournal.com)]

Yes, third time is the charm! AO3 is awesome. \o/ Sooon, sooon you will be able to upload under "Final Fantasy X & Final Fantasy X-2 which is fucking great and I cannot WAIT.

The taaaags are amazing! Tempt people in with the tags! Plus, they're about to get WAY MORE AWESOME. \o/

[trekqueen.livejournal.com]

cruddy.... as you all said - it had a lot of promise but the rate system was rather jacked up and only some trollish people started to really wander through there anymore than the common ficcer. :(

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

Ficwad had a number of good ideas, but it drove me nuts with its formatting issues, as well as the fact that it was unable to accept chapters above a certain file size. I got tired of trying to mess with it, seeing as to how that was one of the reasons I was already wary of FFN.

AO3 is likely to be the future, but you are always welcome over at EFFN, too. :-)