Sink Into Your Eyes

Archive
Name:	Sink Into Your Eyes
Date(s):	2003?-present
Archivist:	Lord Dreadnaught (in 2006), list of staff in 2017
Founder:	SlayerJenn
Type:
Fandom:	Harry Potter
URL:	Sink Into Your Eyes
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Sink Into Your Eyes is a Harry/Ginny archive.

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As of February 2017, it had 4359 stories, 1619 authors, and 9267 members.

Some Links

The Submission Rules are here.

The General FAQ is here.

The Archiving FAQ is here.

The 2005 Obscenity Ban

In 2005, the site found itself in the middle of a fandom discussion regarding censorship, what is "obscene," the right of archive owners to determine what was posted to their site, the value of reviews as fanworks unto themselves, who provides value to fans (archive mods or authors), and much more.

What Happened

On February 16, 2005, the archive instituted a strict ban on vulgar language in new stories. The ban was posted to their front page, and was created in response to a 2004 article on J.K. Rowling which stated that she supported fanworks, but not the ones that were considered "obscene."

This ban did not generate much comment until six months later when the administrators removed a story (and its 1400 reviews/comments) by LaFeeMechante. The story, "Jenny," was deleted without warning and was unrecoverable.

LaFeeMechante was very vocal about her displeasure, and reposted one of the site administrator's response on her own journal:

Not only does SIYE want to obey JKR's wishes, (which you would be well advised to obey as well - or else go and make up your own characters and do whatever crude and vulgar things you want with them) but we wish to provide quality stories. It is my opinion that that good stories written for ANY age that lack obscenity but still convey the most feeling and quality can ONLY be written by the most skilled authors. Any author that must rely on obscenity to communicate obviously lacks a command of the English language. Therefore, it would behoove SIYE to ban obscenity and do it's best to help its authors with their ideas and writing.

After receiving this message, LaFeeMechante began a petition.

A fan wrote of their displeasure regarding the removal of a favorite fanwork:

I have been a great fan of your website until now. I have become very offended by the actions of Robert Scott, your Head Administrator. He removed the story Jenny by the author LaFeeMechante because she had expressed her regrets at having to leave because of the obscenity ban. [LFM], the author LFM, had only left comments on the boards about how she was disappointed that she would not be able to post at SIYE anymore. Robert responded very negatively and insulted [LFM] when she was only expressing her regret. When Robert removed [LFM]'s story without giving her a chance to save any reviews, he robbed her of 1400 sentimental tokens of appreciation from readers. Most of her reviews were written with care and held much emotional value to [LFM]. The fact that he reacted so immaturely and insensitively to her comments offends me very much.

The Letter from WizardTales

Shortly after the ban, WizardTales, a competing Harry Potter archive, sent a letter to many fans. The letter encouraged fans to delete their fic from "Sink Into Your Eyes" and to post their fic to "WizardTales" instead. The letter included a long list of links to other sites, including fans' personal journals where the ban had been discussed. This letter was seen by some fans as unethical because it used a political situation to poach on another archive's members. The links, some fans felt, were also inappropriate.

Dear Fanfic Author (name omitted to protect the righteously pissed off innocent),

On 22 July, SIYE announced a new policy on obscenity that was based on a 2004 article on JKR. Some users objected to this policy and made comments on the SIYE site and via email. One exchange between SIYE administrator Robert L. Scott and author LaFeeMechante, shown here http://www.livejournal.com/users/ginny_​weasley/6308.html#cutid1, received considerable attention.

Following this, Jennifer Bland, the SIYE administrator, began deleting accounts and reviews, starting with LeFeeMechante, and expanding to other authors who objected to SIYE's treatment of the authors who provided their content.

It is not a site owner, such as Ms. Bland, or the administrator, Mr. Scott, who provide the value to such a site - it is the authors who provide the content.

In removing content and reviews without as much as a warning, it is our opinion that SIYE has shown a blatant disregard for the community of authors that has provided the value to the site. Further, given Ms. Bland's stated refusal to engage in any sort of discussion with anyone concerning this matter, it appears to us that Ms. Bland has little concern for the people who have made SIYE successful.

In our opinion, removing reviews without warning is tantamount to destroying the intellectual property of the owners and reviewers. Whilst it is true that SIYE has provided an archive to publish content, by all intents and purposes, they have breached the implied contract with the authors for what is termed as “a duty of care” to respect your “work and reviews.” Publishing your work there does not give them the moral right to delete without your consent.

Secondly, if you are not allowed to voice your opinion, then you are being denied your basic human right to speak your mind. If the site is, as Ms. Bland states, "your" site, refusing to communicate with the community on an area of such concern does not respect the people who make the site successful.

[link snipped ] will be more than happy to archive your work should you decide to leave SIYE altogether and join a site that does not engage in what, in our opinion, is the most oppressive form of censorship.

Already, authors like Jeconais, author of “This Means War,” has pulled his work. More authors have been following suit.

We will be happy to archive your work whether you leave SIYE or not, though you may wish to question using an archive that treats authors in such a fashion as SIYE has treated its authors.

WizardTales Staff

[list of links omitted, see original post]

One Letter in Response

One fan's post in reply touches on censorship, free speech, rights of archivists, and permissions:

I have not been contacted by any staff member of Wizard Tales in order to ask whether they could link to the entry in my journal discussing the SIYE situation. And I have a big problem with the letter. Just as big as any problem I had with SIYE in the first place.

1.) When I made my post, I was speaking as a fanfic author, NOT as a staff member at a competing archive. And yes, whether anyone wants to admit it, archives do compete with each other for hits, fics and reviews. But I digress. I think it is WAY over the line for one archive to declare itself against another and become involved in this little scuffle. If the staff members want to do so individually, that's up to them. But to send out a letter in the name of the archive itself and denounce the policies and admins at another archive is completely beyond the pale.

2). And as far as people having a "basic human right to speak your mind", well, I wasn't denied the ability to express speak my mind and neither was anyone else. I wrote my post, I wrote my email and I hit "send". Voila. Mind successfully spoken. Just because you (or I) have the basic human right to spout off about any given thing does NOT guarantee us that someone else has to listen, site admin or not.

3.) Newsflash: Fanfiction archives are not owned by the government in any form or fashion, nor are they owned by the public. They are privately owned, and as such, are subject to the whims of their admins and owners. SIYE had every right to institute their obscenity ban. This isn't censorship. They are not obligated to post anyone's work. They aren't obligated to post stories they don't like. If they don't like obscenity in their stories, that's their business. It's not censorship. Your first amendment rights are not being violated (for those of us in the US), and if we need a refresher, here's the text of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That does NOT say that you have the right to say anything you want, anytime, anywhere, about anyone or anything, without any consequences whatsoever. If you're in my house, and I don't like what you're saying, I can kick you out. It's my house. If Jenn or Robert for any reason don't like a story you (or I) wrote, or something you (or I) said about the archive either ON the archive or elsewhere, they can kick you off the archive...it's their archive, they own the rights to the domain name and the server space that the site is housed on, as they're paying for it. I'm not getting into the subject of donations made to support the archive...that's between Jenn and Robert and those who made the donations...but I will say that the definition of a donation is a gift, and a gift is something that is bestowed voluntarily and without compensation.

4.) As far as implied contracts go...hogwash. No one is paying for any kind of services at SIYE...they are under no obligation to provide anything to anyone, and yes they can delete anything at any time, including the whole damn archive tomorrow if they get fed up with it. Deleting your story is not destroying your intellectual property. If you had any sense, you should have maintained a copy on your computer or on a disk at home. If not, that's your problem. As for the reviews...I don't know that it can be argued that the reviews belong to you (or me). Those thoughts came from other people, not you, and if you didn't have the sense to go and copy your reviews and your stories before speaking out against SIYE either on the site, in your journal, or in an email...well, I can't have much sympathy. I did exactly that, and my stories and reviews are safe on my own computer.

5.) Sending this email to authors posted at SIYE is tantamount to ambulance chasing, and it's generally despicable. Cloak it under the guise of keeping the fandom informed if you want, but what it boils down to is soliciting authors for an archive, and taking advantage of an unfortunate situation to do it. This site didn't just pop up out of nowhere overnight in an outraged response to the SIYE kerfuffle. The first message on their front page was posted on 2/16/05. It's been in existence for nearly six months, and has 146 stories and 212 authors. They don't care if SIYE goes down or not, and they say in their letter they don't care if you leave your stories up at SIYE or not. They just want you to post your stories on their site. And, hey, I don't have any problem with trying to drum up business for a new archive...but do it in a professional, honest manner.

No, I'm still not happy about SIYE. But I'm less happy about this, and I felt obligated to point out that, regardless of my personal feelings, Jenn and Robert were within their rights as site owner/admin. That is all. I'm going to compose my letter to the staff members at Wizard Tales asking them to kindly remove the link to my journal from their letter. And no, I won't be posting any of my stories there.

::sits back and waits for the wank to begin::

A Retraction

On August 9, 2005, "Sink Into Your Eye"s posted a retraction of the obscenity ban and an apology for the deleted accounts, which read in part:

Those authors and readers that were members of SIYE and had your accounts deleted, have an open invitation to return to SIYE. We regret the action that was felt needed to be taken. Also, those members who removed their stories and/or closed their accounts with SIYE are similarly invited back to join us. You and your stories are being missed. We realize that some people left SIYE based on emotions, strong opinions, and/or misguided information from all sides. We are understanding and are trying to make amends. The members of SIYE Administration apologize for the errors, inconveniences, and misunderstanding we created.