Jane Austen Fanfiction Index
| Website | |
|---|---|
| Name: | The Jane Austen Fanfiction Index (JAFF Index) |
| Owner/Maintainer: | |
| Dates: | 2006-today |
| Type: | Searchable database for fanfiction links. |
| Fandom: | Jane Austen Fandom |
| URL: | http://www.jaffindex.com/ |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The JAFF Index is a searchable database for Jane Austen story links, classified in a number of fannishly accepted ways.[1]
All Jane Austen fanfiction is accepted for listing. And, because the desired outcome is for the Index to be as complete as possible, they continually search for new Jane Austen story postings[1]--of course, obtaining the author's permission before displaying the link. The Index is run by its creator and admin, Victoria CL, along with a team of volunteers that help to collect permissions, keep track of stories, and classify the stories themselves so they will be easily found.[1]
It now gets about 600+ logins every day from all corners of the world, a tripling of usage since the earliest months.[2]
Teen-friendly username and password (both are case sensitive):
Login: FLReader Password: History
History
What eventually turned into the JAFF Index began around 2004 or so as a simple list of stories under thematic categories, added to as the admin found stories of interest, or as inspired by lists others made on the boards.[2]
The list turned into a web page with story links as a personal project when the Admin learnt html, shared with only a few others in the fandom who collected stories or frequently provided titles or links in response to reader questions on the boards.[2]
It had been her intention to post the list, but a bit of checking with website admins made clear that author permissions for the listings ought to be acquired first.[2]
In 2005, Victoria began working with Sue on the Regency Encyclopedia, figuring out the best ways to present her list of collected and categorized facts to the users. The same techniques, she realized, could be applied to the old list of stories and the JAFF Index database was born. Now stories could easily be categorized, searched, and displayed in any number of ways.[2]
The website existed only on a local computer for a few months; a small team of assistants came together to help acquire the initial author display permissions, and once Victoria CL and her husband had the domain names registered and the webserver configured and in place, the JAFF Index went online in June of 2006.[2]
The Index database in its opening days contained working listings for a little over 1000 stories, and permissions to display for about 300 of those.[2]
Content
At the beginning, it covered Regency stories only; about a year later, it began to include retellings of Austen works with modern settings, too.[2]
It has two public login modes, one for readers of 12+ with teen-safe content only, and another for adult readers with access to explicit stories and items on adult-only sites.[2][1]
Over time, several additional features were added, such as the Therapy List (randomly selected "feel-good" stories for a quick lift of spirits, from a list suggested and voted on by the users) and Recent Updates (story chapters posted to the various boards for the past two weeks).[2][1]
At the end of 2008, the JAFF Index contained potential listings for about 4500 stories from all the major postings boards, archive sites, and authors' personal sites; a little over 2000 of those have public display permissions. (They're working on the rest, many of them were last updated before the year 2003, or with authors not easily reached.) [2]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Paraphrasing of public announcements in JAFF boards. A Happy Assembly post under the Recommendation subforum. 50 Miles of Good Road's post under the Recommendations subforum.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k All information provided by Victoria CL, the JAFF Index admin. Personal e-mail received Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 10:32 AM quoted with permission.