[CLARIFIED]reposting an abandonded/endangered fanfiction

[chronodekar]

I was contacted (via PM) by a forum member to know if it was alright to re-post a story originally posted on another site for archival purposes. We're talking about cases where the original author cannot be contacted, but want to host the story elsewhere to prevent it from fading into oblivion.

EDIT: Short answer; NO, it looks like the rules can be interpreted to say that we don't allow re-posting for the sake of archiving. Personally, I would like to allow it, but I'll petition for it another time.

Here's my (personal) opinion on the matter,

It's fine to re-post someone-else's story as long as the following conditions are met,

1. You need to mention at the beginning of the post that it is NOT your story. You also need to tell exactly HOW you contacted the original author (email/PM ... etc) and mention (possibly link) from where you copied the story from.

2. If the original author does not respond to your request within 2 or 3 days, feel free to re-post the story, but again, mention HOW you attempted to contact the original author and how many days you waited before assuming that the author has 'abandoned' the story. Also include a notice that if the original author requests you to delete/pull the story at a later date, you will honor the request.


Those are the important concerns that occur to me at the moment. Did I miss anything? For that matter, community thoughts?

-chronodekar

 

[Ninsaneja]

RE: reposting an abandonded/endangered fanfiction

TFF is not an archive. We actually have a rule regarding that.
If you want to announce that you have a copy of a story and will distribute it, you can.

 

[chronodekar]

RE: reposting an abandonded/endangered fanfiction

TFF is not an archive. We actually have a rule regarding that.

Which one is it? :huh: I just skimmed over the rules before making this thread and the closest I found are these,

Default Rules
Category Two: Author Rights
1. The author will have authority on necros, threadjacks, offtopics, and useless posts.
2. The author will be required to accept constructive, on-topic posts.
3. Rules must be declared formally, with notice, with no exceptions.

Category Five: Attribution, Copyright
ALTERNATIVE 1:
1. Recursive fanfiction, or just a new take on the same idea, is allowed, not with the original author's own words and without consent, or with the original author's words and consent.
2. Authors of works that are presented on TFF may always request their works be removed.
4. Sub-fics may not be taken down, but any part that is the original author's own words will be removed.

And they don't exactly answer the scenario I'm concerned with.

-chronodekar

 

[Shirotsume]

RE: reposting an abandonded/endangered fanfiction

Category Five: Attribution, Copyright
ALTERNATIVE 1:
1. Recursive fanfiction, or just a new take on the same idea, is allowed, not with the original author's own words and without consent, or with the original author's words and consent.
2. Authors of works that are presented on TFF may always request their works be removed.
4. Sub-fics may not be taken down, but any part that is the original author's own words will be removed.

Point 1 is what you're looking for.

You need to either rewrite the entire story in your own words, or have the original author's consent- which may be removed at any time.

As he said, TFF is not a story archive. We may not remove stuff, but we won't store it either.

 

[chronodekar]

Well, I'll accept that interpretation of the rules (no re-posting for archiving-only purposes) and inform the one who PM'd me so.

Personally, I would like to see it becoming allowed, perhaps in a sub-forum of its own or whatever, but right now, I'm too busy to petition around for it.

First post has been edited to reflect my conclusions.

-chronodekar

 

[daniel_gudman]

Yeah I'm with Shirotsume on this one.

Regardless of the rules or whatever, hosting fanfiction without permission just... lacks class, you know?

 

[chronodekar]

Yeah I'm with Shirotsume on this one.

Regardless of the rules or whatever, hosting fanfiction without permission just... lacks class, you know?

My official stance on the matter is not to allow it (story re-hosting without permission) until we get the rules changed but in the meantime I'd like to talk about why you consider it to be a bad thing.

Yes, I know that its rather rude to host fanfiction (or even articles in general) without permission, but what about cases where the author has left the scene? There are plenty of stories out there that get lost because the author hadn't re-posted it elsewhere. Just think of the multiple times you needed to use the wayback machine or something similar.

See? I'm specifically talking about situations where its impossible to contact the original author. To re-host a story actively being written like say ... 'In Flight' or 'Lelouch of Britannia' is rather rude and sends the wrong vibes for our community. That is NOT what I'm talking about.

But, Shirotsume's got a valid point too. We're a community that likes to discuss fanfiction. If we start permitting people to re-post old stories, we'll need someone in-charge of making sure that any authors who actually complain get heard. Also, we'll probably need a separate section or something. There are probably a bazillion other things that need to thought out and while I want to see it done, I can't spare the effort right now.

-chronodekar

 

[Christopher Robin]

... but, reposting a fanfic for archival isn't recursive fanfiction. That's a nonsense interpretation of that rule to force it to apply to something it doesn't. Given Shirotsume isn't a mod or admin anymore, I'm not sure why his opinion matters, either.

 

[Shirotsume]

I was chiming in because I'm the one who finalized the rules, so I know the intent of them the best.

That doesn't mean my view is the 'official' one- just me sharing what was intended by the rules written and voted for.

It's still the admin's call at the end of the day.

 

[Christopher Robin]

I didn't mean you couldn't give your opinion. I meant more that chronodekar shouldn't consider the issue closed just because you gave it. He should either be asking the forum at large, or consulting the other mods/admins.

 

[chronodekar]

I didn't mean you couldn't give your opinion. I meant more that chronodekar shouldn't consider the issue closed just because you gave it. He should either be asking the forum at large, or consulting the other mods/admins.

In the interest of openness,

3 forum members said no : Ninsaneja, Shirotsume, daniel_gudman (am hoping he mis-understood me, but counting as 'no' all the same)

1 forum member is undecided: Christopher Robin (at least, I'm not sure where you stand on the matter)

1 admin (Watashiwa) hasn't responded to my PM on the matter.

With no visible support for the idea (and lack of time to campaign/petition for it) perhaps I am being hasty about 'closing' the issue.

But my original purpose with the thread was to see if there was a clear and cut opinion on the matter. Since it looks like we might need an extended discussion to come to some conclusion, I'm (temporarily) pulling out. I want to permit re-hosting old stories here, but don't have the time to spare if we need to arrange something.

Short version: We might see this happen at some later date, but not now in any case.

-chronodekar

 

[Watashiwa]

Whoops, I had a response typed and the forum ate it. Sorry chrono.

My feeling is that Hawk had the right idea when he started the forum: This is a place for author's to hone their writing skills and get editing and feedback before they release their stories to the public, not a final destination. That said, the community has evolved past that; we have dedicated gaming groups and RPs and massive talk threads. So while rehosting stories on the site is missing the point, there IS the TFF Archive website. I don't recall who was in charge of that, but if that person acquiesces we could put stories that we have gotten permission to rehost on the archive.