Bless the Orphan Account Option

[greyliliy]

 I just read an amazing Hawks/Endeavor series and I was only able to because the Author Orphaned it instead of deleting it.

Every time I see a "This has been deleted. Sorry!" message in my AO3 bookmarks I instantly regret that I didn't keep better notes in my bookmarks to figure out what fic was lost or that I didn't download a copy of it.

"Bad" fics, unfinished fics, great fics that were removed from peer pressure--I feel an ache in my chest every time I see one disappear. It always feels like such a loss to see stories and literature disappear, even if it only had one reader.

I've started to get better about saving copies of fanfics I really love, but there's such a long back log of bookmarks (on AO3 and my old internet browsers) that I'm not sure I'd ever get through all of them. Heh.

But for now, I'm thankful for the orphan account option and that I got to read an amazing series today. (Though I do regret that it doesn't create a separate Orphan account for each user. I want to read more of their stuff.)

Comments

[cal1pso]

I get so sad when I find deleted works in my bookmarks, or when I start searching for a story I liked a lot, just to find out it doesn't exist anymore. Its nice that at least orphaning is a thing people can do instead of deleting their works

I need to start to save the copies of my favorite fics.

[greyliliy]

Same. The worst is when I can't remember what fic was deleted (or worse, I know which one it is but forgot to save it).

[strollinginskies]

Oh same! I don't post a lot of fic bc of horrible perfectionism, but even the one time I felt too embarrassed about keeping a one-chapter-never-continued Thing I wrote on a whim up there, I just. Felt too bad for the few kudos it got to delete it, so I orphaned it instead. I'm really grateful AO3 has that option. It's a problem anywhere- lots of great art has been deleted, sometimes because the author just. Left, and decided to take everything they made with them. Some of my own old art (absolute treasures once enough time has passed, though) is lost to time because I felt that it was too embarrassing to leave up. I wish more places had this kind of anonymous archival feature. And bless the people who individually go through the trouble of reposting famous fic if it gets deleted (My Immortal, for example, future generations DESERVE to be able to read it).

[greyliliy]

I came to terms with my old, embarrassing fic years ago. It's actually sort of a cathartic feeling. My oldest, oldest stuff isn't online, but there's still some pretty old stuff in the old archives. I've actually been re-reading it as I've started crossposting all my old FFnet stuff to AO3.

It's rough and my write's improved a lot, but it's still got it's charm. It's sort of like seeing those "ten years later" redraws for art.

But it is what it is. But for real. Bless the orphan option. XD