Squidge.org

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Website
Name: Squidge.org
Owner/Maintainer: Squidgie
Dates: 1994 – present
Type: website and mailing list hosting service
Fandom: multifandom
URL: squidge.org
squidgeworld.org
Squidgelogo1.jpg
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Squidge.org is a fan and slash friendly website founded by Walter Hopgood that offers both website hosting as well as mailing lists to fandom. Squidge.org takes its name from the fannish term squidge, which was popular at the time.

Sites hosted at Squidge.org include:

See the List of Squidge.org Mailing Lists. For more see Category:Squidge.org

The SquidgeWorld Archive

In November 2020, webmaster Walter Hopgood created The SquidgeWorld Archive using AO3's open source archive software - making it the first archive (besides AO3) to do so. He was assisted in setting up the archive by a number of AO3's team members, particularly james_, one of AO3's sysadmins. He published extensive documentation on the process in order to help others who might decide to go down the same path.

The site states: "Please remember neither SquidgeWorld nor Squidge.org are affiliated with AO3 or the OTW."

The site is here.

The archive The Wonderful World of Makebelieve, or WWOMB, founded by PEJA and hosted on Squidge.org since its creation, was imported to SquidgeWorld shortly before the archive went public, making it a foundational part of the site.

After three weeks of damned hard work, I'm happy to say that SquidgeWorld is now live! If you were a part of Peja's WWOMB, all of that information has been transferred over to SquidgeWorld.

Head on over here: https://squidgeworld.org[1]

In July 2023, SquigeWorld Archive added a third type of relationship for queerplatonic relationships that are neither romantic nor friendships/strictly platonic. This new type of relationship will use "~" instead of "/" or "&".[2]

In Jan 2024, Squidgeworld updated the way relationships are tagged, changed the "Gen" fic icon for a green icon with a black "&" in the middle, and added Queerplatonic relationships (QPR) as an icon with a "~" symbol over a rainbow background.[3]

About SquidgeWorld Archive

SquidgeWorld Archive is a new archive replaceing Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve because The WWOMB utilizes old, insecure software.

SquidgeWorld Archive is brought to you by Squidge.org, a fan owned and fan run organization that has been around since the early days of Internet fandom. Squidge.org came about in 1994, and hopes to be here for years to come. Please remember that Squidge.org is independent of The OTW and AO3; we just utilize their open-source software for SquidgeWorld Archive.

The SquidgeWorld Archive offers a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanworks using open-source archiving software. [4]

A Home For At-Risk Archives

In April 2021, Hopgood posted to the squidgestatus Dreamwidth about abandoned fannish archives, offering up SquidgeWorld as a new home for any "at-risk" archives or archives that their owners no longer wanted to manage.

I've been thinking about abandoned and lost archives quite a bit today. As a friend pointed out, the Stargate fandom has lost not only WraithBait, but Area 52 as well. And as each day passes, we lose more and more fandom spaces.

Let's change that!

If you have or know of an at-risk archive, or maybe an archive that you're not wanting to manage anymore, let me know. We've got resources available and can re-home just about anything as long as we can get to it. We're here to preserve fandom - so let's get at it![5]

An Alternative to AO3

The launch of SquidgeWorld has prompted some to recommend it as an alternative to AO3 for those who object to AO3's content policies, or recommend that objectors follow in Hopgood's footsteps by establishing their own archive.

However, antishippers and others who want an archive without RPF, noncon, underage, or incest stories may ultimately be disappointed by Squidge.org's terms of service, which is similarly lenient to AO3's and only bans snuff films and "kiddie porn" (meaning images and video).[6] The SquidgeWorld Archive TOS is even shorter and doesn't have anything to say about the content of fanworks beyond adopting a no-commerce policy similar to AO3's noncommercial restrictions[7]. The same Archive Warnings are present and in use on SquidgeWorld.

As of May 2023, SquidgeWorld does differ from AO3 in its stance on AI Generated Content, in that it has expressly prohibited it,[8] whereas AO3 has taken the stance that AI-generated fanworks are within its remit to preserve.[9]

ao3 uses open source coding SO ! someone used the same coding and created squidgeworld which is basically ao3 but they don’t allow CP if anyone wants to check it out !!![10]

This one is for all the “I hate the ao3 but where are we supposed to post our fanfiction????” people:

Squidgeworld is the first site that has used AO3′s (free, open-source) code to create their own separate archive. Now, they’ve posted documentation on the process of creating their own site with AO3′s code!

Go forth and multiply the archives! Archives for everyone![11]

Why this is a BAD idea.

Many moons ago before A03 when adultfanfition.net was still a very big ting and fanfiction was kicking everyone off their site I tried to do this. I was actually able to do this. Do you know how much money it cost me? $90 a MONTH and that was or 1 fandom and it was tiny. I ended up not being able to pay for it and many fanfics were lost[12]

Fan Comments

[olderthannetfic]

The venerable Wonderful World of Makebelieve was started in 1999, and its host squidge.org in 1994. Back in the day, this is where you found safe hosting for your porny slashfic.

I’ve just been alerted to the fact that they’ve updated from the old eFiction software to AO3′s and WWOMB has become the Squidgeworld Archive.

I’m really excited to see a second archive using AO3′s format: there used to be countless efiction archives and all kinds of different little spaces, not just a couple of centralized ones.

[squidgiepdx]

Thank you! I had no idea I would be the first until The AO3 folks told me. And if anyone wants to attempt the code for themselves, ping me. I have a guide and copious notes. :)[13]

I’m fond of AO3, but I’m all for new archives. Definitely using it.

If you look, there’s one single Hetalia work. I read it and it’s pretty good so far. I highly recommend it. 😁[14]

Migrations from AO3 to SquidgeWorld

There have been instances where a significant number of users have expressed dissatisfaction with Archive of Our Own and migrated to SquidgeWorld, either by removing their fanfiction from AO3 or choosing to cross-post their works. One notable example of such a migration occurred in 2022 when a large number of AO3 users, moved to SquidgeWorld after a BNF did, resulting in the SquidgeWorld administrator making a news post to welcome the influx of new users.[15]

In 2023, there have been four separate instances where AO3 users migrated to SquidgeWorld. The first occurrence happened when AO3 announced that AI-generated fanfiction would still be allowed on the platform as part of the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) mission to preserve fanworks. This decision sparked significant uproar within the AO3 community, leading many users to migrate to SquidgeWorld. Some users opted to delete their fics from AO3, while others moved them into unrevealed collections or simply cross-posted them on SquidgeWorld.

Another wave of migration to SquidgeWorld took place during the "End OTW Racism" movement and the controversy surrounding OTW volunteers. The SquidgeWorld administrator addressed the influx of users and requested patience regarding tag wrangling, which had become a more challenging task due to the increasing number of posts and the introduction of new fandoms.[16]

Not long after, a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on AO3 prompted even more users to migrate to SquidgeWorld, this time not as an act of protest, but as a precautionary measure to ensure their works were backed up in an alternative archive.

In November 2023, Just got a second official warning (post by le-bjorn) prompted a Twitter user to recommend SquidgeWorld as a viable alternative to AO3. This led to a significant influx of new fanfics on the website within a day. Unfortunately, misinformation circulating on Twitter created confusion regarding the Terms of Service (TOS). The TOS of the image hosting archive on squidge.org were mistakenly shared as if they were the SquidgeWorld TOS, causing some individuals to believe that SquidgeWorld was "anti-aligned"[17] due to the image hosting service's restrictions on explicit content. As a result, this misinformation deterred some potential users, and a few antis explored the archive only to discover that "proship fics"[18] were indeed allowed.

Further Reading

  • Update: Back Online!: A reflection by Hopgood on the importance of maintaining Squidge.org and SquidgeWorld.org for free to anyone who needs them (even if it means occasional downtime)
  • ABOUT SQUIDGE.ORG: A summary of the history of Squidge.org by the maintainers, including the statement "As of April 2023, Squidge.org has received IRS 501c3 non-profit status from the Internal Revenue Service. This means that Squidge.org is officially a non-profit, and will soon be able to take donations."

References

  1. ^ Tweet by @SquidgeORG, November 8, 2020. (Accessed June 1, 2021).
  2. ^ https://squidgeworld.org/admin_posts/70 New "Relationship" Type Published: 2023-07-14 17:31:59 -0400
  3. ^ https://squidgeworld.org/admin_posts/90
  4. ^ About SqWA
  5. ^ Abandoned Archives, squidgestatus via Dreamwidth. Published April 15, 2021 (Accessed June 1, 2021).
  6. ^ The "Terms of Service" for Squidge.org, Archived version (Accessed 14 August 2021.)
  7. ^ "Users will not add any link, in their profiles or in their profiles or in any posted work or comment that points to a fundraiser of any kind including, but not limited to, Patreon, Ko-Fi, or the like. The only exception to this is in the case of a piece of work that is of original work, meaning the fandom used is Original Work, and no other fandom is listed." Terms of Service, Archived version (Accessed 14 August 2021.)
  8. ^ A Note About AI and Squidge, Squidge.org WebBlog, published May 12, 2023 (updated May 13, 2023). Accessed May 20, 2023. Archived May 19, 2023.
  9. ^ "AI and Data Scraping on the Archive". AO3. 2023-05-13. Archived from the original on 2023-05-13.
  10. ^ tumblr ask sent from jaessix to kibumkim, Archived version, 28 February 2021. (Accessed 14 August 2021.)
  11. ^ Tumblr post by teiandcookies, May 5 2021.
  12. ^ Tumblr reblog by librarybunny13, published May 27, 2021 (Accessed June 1, 2021).
  13. ^ AO3′s Software Used to Revamp WWOMB!, by olderthannetfic via Tumblr, posted December 10, 2020. Reblog by squidgepdx 11 December 2020. Accessed June 1, 2021.
  14. ^ Tumblr reblog by scicytrenchfry, published May 25, 2021 (Accessed June 1, 2021).
  15. ^ https://squidgeworld.org/admin_posts/47 Welcome!
  16. ^ https://squidgeworld.org/admin_posts/65 Notes on Tagging
  17. ^ https://twitter.com/antynomia/status/1729941837790544133
  18. ^ https://twitter.com/SnowyKaai/status/1730454316497228050
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