As you aren't in the fandom, you won't know the history of the Forever Knight Website Archive. Back in 2009, when Yahoo announced it was going to close GeoCities, there was much concern on the FORKNI-L mailing list that a lot of our history would be lost. Several people (who, I suppose, had used GeoCities Site Builder software to create their own fan sites) reported that Yahoo's instructions for downloading simply didn't work. So I saved their sites for them, edited them so they'd run properly outside GeoCities, and then sent them off to their owners.
That was when it was pointed out that much of what would be lost would not be personal sites but ones associated with the fandom more generally, specifically the War sites and faction sites. That was when Steph stepped up to offer space in her website; and I took months collecting sites and sending them to her. The War sites, though they had been created by (usually) the warleader of the day, were basically RPG logs with some ancillary material; and as many as 400 people might have taken part in each game. The Wars were a big part of FK fandom culture: no one on list demurred at our saving them.
As for the faction sites, we contacted faction leaders (or someone in the faction who'd step up to that role) and made any changes they wanted. I recall the NatPack wanted to have some pages of photos removed as well as a birthday list; and, of course, we did that.
We tried to contact as many owners of personal sites as possible; and no one ever refused us permission to include their site in the archive. We did sometimes edit someone's name or remove personal stuff. On the other hand, there were people who basically just said, "Oh, that old thing! You can do what you like with it!" And others expressed their gratitude, since (like the others on list) they'd not been able to save their sites using Yahoo's instructions.
All archived sites were reported to the list, along with their new URLs. This is not just some private endeavour of Steph's and mine. Every step of the way we discussed what we were doing with the members of the FORKNI-L list. The general reaction was relief that someone was stepping up to save the fandom's history.
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That was when it was pointed out that much of what would be lost would not be personal sites but ones associated with the fandom more generally, specifically the War sites and faction sites. That was when Steph stepped up to offer space in her website; and I took months collecting sites and sending them to her. The War sites, though they had been created by (usually) the warleader of the day, were basically RPG logs with some ancillary material; and as many as 400 people might have taken part in each game. The Wars were a big part of FK fandom culture: no one on list demurred at our saving them.
As for the faction sites, we contacted faction leaders (or someone in the faction who'd step up to that role) and made any changes they wanted. I recall the NatPack wanted to have some pages of photos removed as well as a birthday list; and, of course, we did that.
We tried to contact as many owners of personal sites as possible; and no one ever refused us permission to include their site in the archive. We did sometimes edit someone's name or remove personal stuff. On the other hand, there were people who basically just said, "Oh, that old thing! You can do what you like with it!" And others expressed their gratitude, since (like the others on list) they'd not been able to save their sites using Yahoo's instructions.
All archived sites were reported to the list, along with their new URLs. This is not just some private endeavour of Steph's and mine. Every step of the way we discussed what we were doing with the members of the FORKNI-L list. The general reaction was relief that someone was stepping up to save the fandom's history.