The QS Archive is a success!

[dlodoski]

I've no wish to be critical of a story archive. I think that is a great idea.

I realize that. I was referring to Viridian's remarks.

I should have been more specific.

[Fred588]

You have a very valid point Fred, with such an abundance of stories being contributed so fast, I wasn't able to cover every angle correctly. My apologies. Your indeed right, if there are stories (and there are) from people still around, they should be given access and they will. PM me for the Story list. If you see even one of your stories, please let me know asap and i'll get you in pronto.

I have a lot of idea's I'd like to see come to fruition concerning archiving, but it's going to take sometime, given the massive amount of material. In the meantime, I take no offense at advice given and welcome it freely. I can use all I can get.

Actually the issue was highlighted by Dave when he said something to the effect that he would have preferred one of his own stories to remain buried. I don't have his exact text in front of me. There might be others who would prefer what they wrote not see the light of day again. That might even be related to why those people are no longer active.

[dlodoski]

It's true that personally would rather my stories remain lost. However, my last remark was; "I won't begrudge the archiving effort and forbid their inclusion. Shit happens, as they say."

And that's the point. This is an archiving effort, and embraces the essence of how this community started. If TheWolverine79 buys into the pessimism that has invaded this topic, he won't see the project through. That would be bad.

I will submit that I privately advised him to include whatever is donated, and remove items upon request after the fact. And this isn't a case of sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. In many instances, it would be impossible to ask for permission.

There is no precedent for this sort of thing. TheWolverine79 either presses forward in the original spirit of the community, or he caves to the sort of political correctness that seems to be taking over here.

[Northerner]

I like your approach Wolverine. In the past, the prevailing attitude in this community seemed to be: "don't post other people's stories without permission." That is a very considerate approach, WAY above the bar set by most Internet communities for freely contributed materials of this type. To make the biggest and best story archive, I think it makes sense to include every story you can, and make creators opt-out / send take-down request if they want to. Also, I hope this archive could be opened to the public eventually (I know this idea is in its formative stages), and access is not locked-down by the contribution requirement.

Aw, I liked your stories Dave! I was hoping to find some more of them some day, I think my collection was not complete. But, that folder has about 10 years of dust on top, so I don't quite remember.

[Boggy Man]

I have idea's that go beyond just the stories, but I'd rather elaborate on that at a later date.

Would it have to do with archiving old websites, or links to old websites that are archived (Wayback Machine, Reocities)?

Whether or not the archive goes fully public will be up to the community at large. If the vast majority want that, then like Number 2, I shall make it so. (Star Trek reference....I'm such a geek!).

Time shall tell. Thanks for the support.

I believe Riker was referred to as "Number 1". "Make it so, Number 1."

[Chimerix]

That said, should ANYONE object to their work being shared via the archive, I will remove it right away without question.

May I point out what I see as an oversight on this point? Since no one but people who submit stories know what is in the archive, how would an author know to object if his/her work had been submitted by another? I can understand requiring participation in order to allow access, but keeping the list of submitted stories a secret does make it impossible for someone to protect their intellectual property.

[Viridian]

You can post the attachment in the Stories forum.

[Aiko]

I assume you have received stories in a variety of formats by now. Mine were in HTML and simple plain text, others use DOC or PDF or who knows what...

Is there any preferred format you would like to use for the archive, or are you just going to include them in whatever format people contribute?

[Viridian]

I'm curious about drawing the line between archiving work and respecting the wishes of the original author. I can understand if a story is particularly sensitive and the author wishes it to not be seen again. But, does that mean authors are able to be selective in what is displayed in the archive, and would this not defeat the purpose? Also, I'm not sure if this is addressed, but is there a catchall policy in which all currently available stories become part of the archive?

[Viridian]

That was very impressive. I can say I've learnt a lot about copyright law from that explanation. I was actually aiming the question in a smaller scale in terms of whether current authors are expected to submit their works or whether you (or someone else) is already saving currently circulated works for the archive, as far as forum communication goes rather than in legislative terms.