lovely anon · 12d
i hope it’s okay to ask, because i’m genuinely a bit confused… i always thought the point of ao3 was to be an archive, so that as much fan art as possibme is safely stored there regardless? and authors could orphan their accounts if they wanted nothing to do with it? like as someone who writes and reads fic…privating and deleting it feels very strange to me, like it goes against the community spirit. similarly i would find it wrong to contact people i’ve sent prints to or given freebies to at events,, it’s just. part of fan history? but after reading your thoughts i’m realising maybe i have to reconsider…but i still dont fully see where you’re coming from? i am realising this isnt really a question but yeah. i would live to hear your thoughts
i disagree, what you write, what you create, is yours and forever will be yours, no matter where you put it. i personnally don't delete my fics, i orphan the most shameful ones, but writers should have the possibility to make sure people don't have access forever to something they once posted. community only goes so far in terms of argument when it comes to someone's intellectual property and work. some fics can be associated with a time, with events that carry trauma, can be something you deeply regret, it can go deep. i simply refuse to agree the "you post it it's not yours anymore and people can keep it forever" mindset. obviously we can't fully control that, but if someone deletes a fic, they have their reason, and i find it cruel to ignore what they want because "they posted it on an archive it's now part of the community"
ao3 is an archive, you're write, and we love many aspects of it because it's an archive (tags, filters, no algorithm...) but it'd be ignorant to assume that people post on ao3 because it's an archive and for their work to be protected and safekept for decades. people post on ao3 because it's where readers go, because it's The platform for fanfiction. if they want to remove their work from it, i think it's basic decency to respect their choice.
also if the archive was built to ensure no work was ever lost, the delete option would simply not be a thing, or not so easily
