HP archives

[ratcreature]

Sometimes I really yearn for the more or less centralized fandom infrastructure like I was used to in The Sentinel.

I'm reading the results for a poll about HP fic archives and recs, and there was a question on which archives one regularly visits, including also an open option for people to fill in archives not listed.

I hadn't even heard of (let alone visited) many of the archives people mentioned, and ended up googling a whole bunch. And okay, it's understandable that I didn't know all of them as most are pairing specific, but not for my favorite pairings. And I know of a bunch of other archives that didn't appear in that poll too, and when I looked up the ones I didn't know, I found yet more archives. Some rather small, others quite large. I get that HP is really, really huge, and that specialized archives may be practical for fans with strong pairing preferences, and yet -- I'm not an OTP person in HP, I have read and enjoyed stories with most of those pairings, and some I even read quite frequently, but I'm not even aware of all the archives.

Surely there don't need to be *four* (or maybe more) Harry/Ginny archives? I'm not much into pure H/G romance stories, but if it's an interesting action/adventure story that's also a H/G romance for example, I like that pairing fine, certainly more than some others. And yet I knew of only one of those archives appearing in the poll (PhoenixSong), and otherwise mainly read H/G stories at The Sugar Quill and Fiction Alley. Now I know that there are several other Harry/Ginny archives, namely Sink Into Your Eyes (which apparently is so widely known that the poll author only listed it with its cryptic acronym SIYE in the poll), Written with a Quill, Sealed with a Kiss (which still seems quite new?), Simply Undeniable (also for Ron/Hermione), and The Broom Cupboard (that one seems to be a message board rather than an archive, though people listed it as the latter).

Personally I think that kind of thing, where you have half a dozen or more archives for a single pairing, is really inconvenient. What is wrong with having larger archives with good search functions? I get that huge archives in fandoms like HP are a lot of work, and that hosting costs are probably a factor too, but that's why archives can be group managed, no? Why do people found the fifth Harry/Ginny archive or the fourth Snape/Hermione archive? I just don't get it. It's not like more archives equals reaching more readers, at least for me it's rather the opposite, I'm not likely to regularly check multiple archives, much less multiple archives for a single pairing.

Other HP archives I didn't know about: Checkmated (for Ron/Hermione), Magical Theory and Fire and Ice (both for Draco/Ginny), Dark Sarcasm and Whispers (both for Snape/Hermione, whereas I only knew of Ashwinder for that pairing), Apparition Point (I couldn't figure out if that's in any way specific by browsing the site briefly), Portkey (Harry/Hermione), The Quidditch Pitch (seems to be for romance, but not pairing specific, and accepts het, slash and threesomes), Hand Me My Robes (seems for explicit het, not pairing specific), Malfoy Slash Archive (I only knew of the Malfoy Family Archive), Thin Line (for Snape/Sirius), Godric's Hat (for gen), and the list goes actually on for a bit more... also, there's a Snape MPreg archive?!

Unrelated to the sheer number of archives, am I the only one annoyed that (some) HP archives tend to name their categories in fairly cryptic ways? So that they have to include an explanation sheet what those categories are?

Comments

[jan-aq.livejournal.com]

From the snitch.

I read all the comments and I think that we share similar thoughts about this. I wish that there was some centralized place where you can find and search for everything. I believe that having a specific pairing or type of story doesn't need so many archives, but at the same time, I rejoice in the fact that there are so many archives and so many stories. I was in smaller fandoms before HP and it didn't take long to read everything and exhaust them (Batman? Star Wars Luke and Vader fanfiction anyone? Angel and Connor fanfiction took only a DAY to clean out). :\

But perhaps NOT having a centralized place might protect the more daring types of stories from being found on smaller, hidden archives if say, JKR or her Laywers or Warner Bros decided to make it a quest to erradicate them from the net. Or if they wanted to delete ALL fanfiction.

I actually don't visit many of the other archives at all. I mean I do VISIT lots of them, probably all of them, but I only end up reading things on only a few types of archives besides my own. Of the smaller archives, I actually have only read things from:

-The Wizard's Playground, which is a HP fanfiction archive safe for children, sometimes it's a relief to read innocent things (http://hpficforkids.magnoliamama.com/index.php)

-Naice a Nilme, a LotR Aragon and Legolas angst archive, no slash (http://www.naiceanilme.com/index.php)

And Potions and Snitches, which is my own archive for Snape and Harry Gen stories. (http://www.potionsandsnitches.net/)

I guess that I am one of those people who started a specialized, specialized archive since a complete Snape and Harry archive in general, OR a really big Harry Potter archive with the Snape and Harry category (no slash) could have covered this area, but I found that that wouldn't cut it for me, and there really wasn't a big one at the time that I personally could work on and improve and make right.

I actually pondered the decision to make Potions and Snitches for awhile, and when I did decide to make it it was only because a large number of people were into it (Severitus type fics are like a huge subgenre, I'm sure you know) and there wasn't anything like it out there already. There was no Snape and Harry Gen archive, or website, or giant rec list. This Gen genre was actually big enough to support one. So when I did decide to do it, I decided that it would become a resource for the people in the fandom, that it would be the most complete Snape and Harry Gen place I could make it.

So while I want to tell all the Harry/Ginny archives to band together and make one great, giant archive already and split the costs and work, I can't for fear of being hypocrytical. XD

I actually started off in Star Trek fanfiction, going from people's personal websites before I found Fanfiction.net, and because it's so big and as centralized as you can get for all fanfiction, I'm regretably dependant on it. It's true that they have made strides with C2 groups and other things, but I still don't like the way things are there.

Of the Harry Potter large archives, I've only actually used Fiction Alley and Sugar Quill. All the others seem to have the same exact stories from fanfiction.net, too few members and stories, or have that administration problem of deleting people's stories without warning.

If I wrote non Potions and Snitches stories, I wouldn't know where to put them, it's kind of a stiffler.

[ratcreature]

Heh, I've read stuff on Potions and Snitches, but I don't check it often. It's not so much that I'm against specialty archives, as that I think it's cool and very practical if they supplement one main archive (or very few, like in fandoms that split gen/het/slash or gen/adult or something like that), rather than each story being just archived in some ghetto, because people only use the specialty archives.

I mean, as an example, back when I was into X-Files there were quite a few specialty archives, but also the central Gossamer archive, where you'd find most of the stuff as well (admittedly not all, but a lot). I checked the specialty archives for genres I liked in particular, like the archive for Mulder as profiler stories, or the archive for novel length stories, as well as some archives for particular kinks and such, but for example if I was searching for a story, but only remembered it vaguely, I could just search Gossamer's keywords and summaries. There's no way something like that could work in HP.


BTW I'm surprised that there isn't a lot of fic focusing on Angel and Connor, ATS being isn't that small is it? Unless you mean Angel/Connor? I can see that not being common. And I totally agree that there ought to be more Batverse fanfic. Unfortunately DC fanfic is also rather decentralized, though at least with it being smaller, the approach to have indexing communities like dcfic_index in order to be able to easily find fic posted to LJ is feasible.

[jan-aq.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, archived in some "ghetto". I'd love some big main archives for HP fanfiction. I think that it's just a weird fandom how it all turned out, mostly the way FictionAlley is structured with searches being so hard, and the NC-17 issues with all the archives. And all the ones that you'd think would be "main" HP fanfiction archives because of their domains, just aren't.

Yeah I mean Angel and Connor not Angel/Connor. XD Where's the fics? i've found a few good ones. What does ATS mean? Isn't it ATV? I'm not so into that fandom, I just like Angel and Connor fics.

ouuu thanks for that link to dcfic_index. I looove Batman. *_*

[ratcreature]

Yeah, FA is an odd archive. Not that I have a clue about HP history, but I think it might be that those who created it didn't have a lot of experience in other fandoms and the already existing systems with special search and archive functionalities for fanfic, and instead sort of went about reinventing the wheel again, with slightly different results. I mean even before eFiction became so popular there was the Automated Archive astolat created, and probably others.

And you're right about the HP archives like hpfanfic.net and such. I think that shows that just infrastructure isn't enough for an archive to become widely used, perhaps it is not even the most important part (as archives that not that convenient to use but still very large and popular show), but that it has to be associated with a community to flourish. I don't mean that the archive site itself has to have forums attached necessarily or anything like that, but most of the major, central archives I can think of were initially archives of a central mailing list or newsgroup and then expanded from there. Even if the lists and such split later on, the archive remained central infrastructure.

I mean, the Raywars of Due South over the whole RayV vs RayK issue are legendary as ferocious shipperwars (and even years later when I came into that fandom, lists were deeply divided and the whole fandom felt like an emotional minefield where you had to navigate carefully around old grudges lurking everywhere) but Due South still has one central archive that AFAIK is used and accepted by all "sides". So archives can weather community splits, but what's much harder is to establish an archive that spans across subcommunities and forums after the fandom is already splintered or if it was never unified in the first place. I mean, some archives had some success with that, like in Farscape the Leviathan archive was IIRC established to provide a central, all-inclusive archive for all Farscape fanfic that was scattered across different archives and boards and such, and now I think it's the largest of the Farscape archives (though not the only one), but of course Farscape is much smaller than HP, and the whole "Save Farscape" campaign brought the fandom closer together.

Re ATS: To my knowledge ATS is the most common acronym for "Angel: The Series". Unfortunately I have no clue where you might find Angel&Connor fic, as I rarely read in the Buffy/Angel-verse, and the only archives I'm aware of are Buffy Fiction Archive and Slayerfanfic, which I'm sure you have searched already.

[jan-aq.livejournal.com]

I guess FictionAlley is the new Harry potter hub since they now have a combined search for all areas. Well, I don't think they have NC-17 content on there so maybe not.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I noticed the new search engine. You could hear my squee overseas. Now if only everybody archived all their G-R rated fic there... ;)