Open Doors
| Name: | Open Doors Project of the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) |
| Date(s): | 2008 - present |
| Profit/Nonprofit: | Nonprofit |
| Country based in: | |
| Focus: | Preservation of at-risk fanworks |
| External Links: | http://opendoors.transformativeworks.org/ http://archiveofourown.org/users/Open_Doors |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Open Doors project of the Organization for Transformative Works is dedicated to preserving fanworks for the future, particularly fanworks which are at risk of disappearance. It is run by the Open Doors Committee.
Part of Open Doors is the Fan Culture Preservation Project.
Open Doors strives to preserve both print and hard copy fanworks as well as at-risk online-archives. Some examples: 1) large and small collections of zines and other hard copy fanworks such as vids and convention programs in danger of being thrown out or disposed of due to changing interests, storage problems, moving house, or other circumstances, 2) online fiction archive sites in danger of failing/crashing/abandonment, fans gafiating and deleting fanworks) 3) other.
Anyone who knows of fanworks online or print collections that are at risk should contact the Open Doors Committee. Please.
Also see Fannish Estate Planning.
Mission
The project provides a point of contact for archivists and others who seek preservation for fanworks they made or are otherwise responsible for. This includes, though is not limited to:
- Housing collections of extant stories in the Archive of Our Own once it is out of limited beta;
- Hosting fanworks that are not easily housed in the AO3;
- Arranging, assisting, or brokering the donation and/or digitization of zines, VHS vids, and other artifacts to major university research collections.
From the time the org was founded, the intention has been that once the AO3 is fully up and running, Open Doors will help maintainers of typical fanfic archives preserve or backup their collections by transferring the contents of their archive into the Archive of Our Own. The OTW plans to collect these stories under the name of the archive from which they came, as well as to set up automatic redirecting from the original URLs if desired and whenever possible. These collections would be listed on the Open Doors project page and linked to the archive/collection/zine's wiki page here on Fanlore.
Fannish projects that cannot be integrated into the Archive at this time may also be preserved as special collections, resources permitting. (A current example is Missed the Saturday Dance by Zoetrope, which, because of its multimedia nature, cannot at this time be hosted by the AO3 and so is hosted as its own project. ) Open Doors is also responsible for the Fan Culture Preservation Project, a partnership with the University of Iowa to facilitate the transfer of analog fanworks and physical artifacts that contribute to the record of fannish history (particularly fan-produced materials made or collected for public consumption) to the university's research collection.
History
Mass Importer: Test Case - Smallville Slash Archive
In early March of 2012, the first archive was imported into the AO3 using the beta mass importer; the test case was the Smallville Slash Archive. The announcement post on the OTW blog read, in part:Many fans responded to the news with jubilation:
- Our Open Doors are now opening wide to at-risk archives! The first generation mass archive importer is now ready for testing: this importer will allow us to import archives built on the popular 'Automated Archive' software into the Archive of Our Own. Many archives were built with this software over the last 15 years and some are now slowly sinking into the sea: four years ago, one of the things that brought the initial wave of fans together to work on the OTW was the desire to save these archives from extinction. We're really excited to have finally developed the infrastructure and functionality needed to move this work forward.[1].
Some fans felt that the whole idea of moving an archive without first seeking permission from the author of each story in the archive was inappropriate:
- It's taken a lot of time and effort on the part of many people, but the import of the Smallville Slash Archive into an AO3 collection has been scheduled. This should be great news to everyone who's encountered the 'out of bandwidth' error that's been occurring the latter weeks of each month.[2]
- I'm really glad this part of my fannish history won't disappear.[3]
- To me, the capability of preserving at-risk archives is a net good for fandom. (Honestly, I think it's net awesome.) When an archive vanishes from the internet, all of the love and joy and heart that went into creating those stories and putting them out there to be shared is gone in the blink of an eye. Every time an archive goes belly-up, it's as though a fannish library has burned down.[4]
- OTW's Open Doors project is taking on the SSA, which, THANK GOD. I had this up on my recs page, years and years ago: It strikes me that if the SSA ever goes down; this fandom is screwed. In short, SSA, you are *never* allowed to go down. Or I'll be reduced to trading "favors" to people who have these stories saved somewhere, man. / So it is a big relief that all the stories will be maintained.[5]
- I am so glad that this is finally happening. Minotaur's passing was a great loss and I value all the fans, the archivists and friends and Minotaur's family, for keeping the Smallville Slash Archive alive while a solution was discussed and planned (and discussed and planned...) with our fandom. I feel this particularly as an author. It will be nice to have access to that public face of some of my stories. [6]
- I just wanted to congratulate you all on finally getting to a point where you can put this into practice. I've been worried about the Smallville Slash Archive for years now, ever since I heard that Minotaur sadly died, and it's good to know that all that work will be preserved.[7]
But others noted[10] that most of the fans crying foul over the archive move weren't actually part of Smallville fandom, and that SV fandom-at-large (or at least Clex fandom-at-large) had been working on the SSA move for two years[11] and had reached reasonable consensus that this was the best way to save their fannish history.
- This is deeply concerning to me. When we put stories on websites we are not entering them into the public domain, and for them to be reposted to another site without our permission or knowledge is deeply troubling. Whether one chooses to use An Archive of Our Own should be the decision of the author, not something decided by the board of the OTW.[8]
- You're not talking about rescuing a baby here. You're talking about archiving fanfics. There's no justification for trampling over authors' rights and basic fannish courtesy from an overwhelming need to save these stories. Yes, it's sad when stories disappear from the Internet, but if the options are let them disappear, or take them without asking, the latter is not the right choice. The right choice is to find a middle path and take only the ones the authors agree to let you take.[9]
As of March 5, 2012, the SSA move was complete[12] and was received with joy[13].
Yahoo Groups Rescue Project
In October 2019, Yahoo! announced that Yahoo Groups would be significantly reducing its functionality; users of Groups would retain the ability to send and receive emails as in a mailing list, but online archives of Groups content would be shut down with all data permanently deleted by December 2019. See also Yahoo! Groups Content Purge. In response, Open Doors launched its Yahoo Groups Rescue Project, which entailed two news posts circulated on Organization for Transformative Works and Open Doors websites and social media, a letter to Verizon both submitted directly and published online, and the beginning of preparations to import to the Archive of Our Own any Yahoo Groups whose creators reached out to Open Doors for help.
Archives Imported with the Assistance of Open Doors
The Foresmutter's Project (2010)
Though not a print zine in itself, this collection is an archive of a website that, in turn, archived some of the earliest Kirk/Spock fiction in print zines.
The Foresmutters Project was the first test case for the Open Doors project. Foresmutters is a bibliography and collection of stories from the very earliest days of recorded slash, principally Kirk/Spock from the mid-1970s. It’s a tremendously valuable resource for the K/S fandom, which is still active today, and for historians of fanworks. We are hoping to grow this collection. If you or someone you know wrote K/S in the 1970s or 1980s, please contact us; we can find someone to help you transcribe or scan your fiction. [81]
Jane Land's Zines (2009)
From the August 2009 announcement regarding Kista and Demeter:
The Open Doors committee of the OTW is proud to announce that we are now hosting two early Star Trek novels by Jane Land: Kista (1986) and Demeter (1987). These can be found on our Open Doors special collections page and are available for download as .pdfs.
Kista (1986), a novel about Christine Chapel, was described by the author as, “an attempt to rescue one of Star Trek’s female characters from an artificially-imposed case of foolishness.” In it, Chapel still loves Spock, but their developing romance is allowed to be complex, with Chapel being more of a rounded person than she was allowed to be onscreen (as well as finally becoming a doctor!)
Demeter (1987; sequel to Kista ). As Henry Jenkins and John Tulloch wrote in Science fiction audiences: watching Doctor Who and Star Trek: “If Kista focuses on the shifting feelings of Spock and Chapel, its sequel Demeter places their relationship within a larger social context, dealing more directly with how women are treated within the Federation.” The plot “concerns the threat a group of intergalactic drug-runners pose to Demeter, a feminist space colony, a world where women have lived without any contact with men for several generations.” Uhura also plays a large role in this novel, commanding the all female mission to Demeter; Robin Reid has argued for the importance of this novel “within the context of second wave feminism, specifically: the creation of the 1970s feminist utopias (which often featured a lesbian separatist culture, sometimes though not always on a separate planet!)” (Reid, “‘A Room of Our Own:’ Women Writing Women in Fan and Slash Fiction,” ICFA 2009.)
Our thanks to Dr. Robin Reid for organizing the preservation of these works. [82]
Memorial Archives set up with the Assistance of Open Doors
| Name | Fandom(s) | Fanworks Type(s) | Number of Works in Original Archive | Started (Year-Month) | Completed (Year-Month) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dannell Lites Archive | Multi-Fandom | Fanfiction | 91 stories | 2012-11 | 2014-09 |
| Leah Adezio Archive | Multi-Fandom | Fanfiction, Fanart |
9 stories; 2 fanart |
2012-11 | 2013-01 |
| Dana Knight | Forever Knight, Multi-Fandom | Fanfiction | 107 stories | announced 2017-11 | 2018-01 |
Criticism
Not all fans approved of the Open Doors project.
I have just seen this post about yahoo groups and how to save the content and share it elsewhere. This sort of thing makes me really uncomfortable. I wrote some stories back in the day and then I decided to get them all taken down. There were some sites that couldn’t take one or two of my stories down when I asked them to for reasons. Whatever. No one’s going to read them. They’re buried on long dead archives or in post histories of yahoo groups, or message boards. Except… oh.They’re still not going to get read, but it’s a lot more likely that they’ll be stumbled across if they’re ‘Rescued’ from their 'At Risk’ historical spaces.
I don’t want them saved. I wanted them taken down. If I wanted them on AO3 I was (and am) perfectly capable of putting them there myself. I didn’t and I don’t. If the authors of that “Fandom History” don’t care enough to go find it and save it, let it go, for fuck’s sake.
There’s plenty of fanfiction out there as it is, some of it being lost isn’t the end of the world.
I might have downloaded Campus back in the day, and still have it knocking about, but it’s sure as hell not mine to share with anyone else.romana03
Meta/Further Reading
- Avoiding Kamino’s Fate: Archives, Archivists, and the Preservation of Works of Fandom, Archived version (March 3, 2016)
References
- ^ Our Doors are Now Opening, accessed February 28, 2012
- ^ SSA Migration to AO3 update - Import Scheduled!, 26 February 2012. (Accessed 29 February 2012)
- ^ SSA rescue coming!, accessed February 28, 2012
- ^ On saving fannish libraries (or: why I'm psyched to see the SSA hosted at the AO3), accessed February 29, 2012
- ^ OTHER GOOD THINGS (IMPORTANT SSA NOTE, accessed February 29, 2012
- ^ comment from Vera, accessed February 29, 2012
- ^ comment from Zellieh, accessed February 29, 2012
- ^ Serious concern, accessed February 28, 2012
- ^ comment from azarias, accessed February 29, 2012
- ^ comment from ciaan, accessed February 29, 2012
- ^ comment from tallihensia, accessed March 1, 2012
- ^ AO3/SSA = OTP ♥, accessed March 5, 2012
- ^ *happy tears*, accessed March 5, 2012
- ^ AO3/SSA = OTP ♥
- ^ 852 Prospect Moves In With the AO3
- ^ German Speaking Slashers United is moving to the Archive of Our Own!
- ^ Stargatefan has found a fully charged ZPM and is dialing up the ÅO3!
- ^ Yuletide is Coming!
- ^ Boys In Chains moves in with the AO3!
- ^ Ink Stained Fingers is Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 21 December 2014)
- ^ The Henneth Annûn Story Archive is Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 22 February 2015)
- ^ The Monaboyd.net Archive is Coming to the AO3!. (Accessed 22 February 2015)
- ^ Table for Three is Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 28 February 2015)
- ^ The Hermit Library is Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 3 July 2015)
- ^ The Seamus/Dean Forever Archive is Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 28 November 2015)
- ^ The Wolf and Hound Archive is Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 28 November 2015)
- ^ The WesleyFanfiction.net Archive and the Innocent Lies Archive are Both Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 2 January 2016)
- ^ The WesleyFanfiction.net Archive and the Innocent Lies Archive are Both Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 2 January 2016)
- ^ The Hornblowerfic.com Archive is Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 9 January 2016)
- ^ The Prydonian and Human Nature are Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 24 January 2016)
- ^ The Prydonian and Human Nature are Coming to the AO3. (Accessed 24 January 2016)
- ^ Announcement on the offpanel homepage (Accessed March 2016)
- ^ Dave & Ken's Diner is Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 4 July 2016)
- ^ Warp 5 Complex Is Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 23 July 2016)
- ^ HP Fandom and The Hex Files Are Coming to AO3! (Accessed 4 August 2016)
- ^ HP Fandom and The Hex Files Are Coming to AO3! (Accessed 4 August 2016)
- ^ Sinful Desire is coming to the Ao3 (Accessed 2 September 2016)
- ^ The Basement, ScullySlash, and the Spooky Awards are Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 9 September 2016)
- ^ The Basement, ScullySlash, and the Spooky Awards are Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 9 September 2016)
- ^ The Basement, ScullySlash, and the Spooky Awards are Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 9 September 2016)
- ^ Turkfanfiction.net is Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 3 October 2016)
- ^ Importing The Quidditch Pitch to the AO3 (Accessed 21 October 2016)
- ^ Due South Archive is Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 21 October 2016)
- ^ Born For War is Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 4 February 2017)
- ^ Pretty Lights is Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 4 March 2017)
- ^ The Least Expected Archive is Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 10 April 2017)
- ^ Death-Marked Love is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 7 May 2017)
- ^ Daire's Fanfic Refuge and HL Raven's Nest are coming to the AO3 (Accessed 22 May 2017)
- ^ Daire's Fanfic Refuge and HL Raven's Nest are coming to the AO3 (Accessed 22 May 2017)
- ^ Hammer to Fall and Bang and Blame are Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 20 June 2017)
- ^ Hammer to Fall and Bang and Blame are Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 20 June 2017)
- ^ Unknowable Room is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 3 July 2017)
- ^ The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive Is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 18 July 2017)
- ^ The Collators' Den is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 12 October 2017)
- ^ The Fandom Haven Story Archive is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 14 August 2017)
- ^ The Alpha Gate is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 5 September 2017)
- ^ A Little Piece of Gundam Wing and Soul Circuit are Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 27 September 2017)
- ^ A Little Piece of Gundam Wing and Soul Circuit are Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 27 September 2017)
- ^ West Wing Fanfiction Central is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 3 October 2017)
- ^ MTAC is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 9 October 2017)
- ^ Firefly's Glow is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 24 October 2017)
- ^ Glass Onion is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 12 November 2017)
- ^ The Boy / Michael Shanks Archive is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 20 November 2017)
- ^ InDeath.net Fan Fiction is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 5 December 2017)
- ^ All Things Rat is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 6 January 2018)
- ^ TER/MA is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 6 January 2018)
- ^ The New Adventures of Sinbad: Fan Fiction Season 2 (Accessed 6 January 2018)
- ^ Artifact Storage Room 3 is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 17 January 2018)
- ^ Obidala Network is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 22 February 2018)
- ^ VinXperience is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 05 March 2018)
- ^ FictionAlley is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 19 July 2018)
- ^ P/K All the Way is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 29 October 2018)
- ^ Elusive Lover is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 29 October 2018)
- ^ Twice Bitten is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 19 November 2018)
- ^ The Tom Paris Dorm is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 03 December 2018)
- ^ Underground is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 17 December 2018)
- ^ Side by Side is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 31 May 2019)
- ^ Watchmen Kinkmeme is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 16 January 2019)
- ^ DoyleCordy is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 22 October 2020)
- ^ Rawhide-fic is Moving to the AO3 (Accessed 26 November 2020)
- ^ The Foresmutters Project
- ^ Jane Land’s Star Trek Novels
