West Wing Fanfiction Central, a West Wing fanfiction archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).
In this post:
- A bit of background explanation
- What this means for creators who have work on West Wing Fanfiction Central
- And what to do if you still have questions
Background explanation
West Wing Fanfiction Central is an archive for West Wing fanfiction which was created by the moderator, Jessi, in January 2002. As well as The National Library, which contains over 5000 works, West Wing Fanfiction Central also includes 2 other West Wing archives (West Wing Fanfiction Archive and Big Block of Cheese) that Jessi rescued “to keep great stories on the internet”.
Due to hacker attacks and activity slowing since the site’s early years, Open Doors will be working with Jessi to import West Wing Fanfiction Central into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own.
We will begin importing works from West Wing Fanfiction Central to the AO3 after October.
What does this mean for creators who have work(s) on West Wing Fanfiction Central?
We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We’ll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will invite it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.
All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.
Please contact Open Doors with your West Wing Fanfiction Central pseud(s) and email address(es), if:
- You’d like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than you used on the original archive
- You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
- You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
- You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3.
- You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
- You have any other questions we can help you with.
Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your West Wing Fanfiction Central account, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with the West Wing Fanfiction Central mod to confirm your claims.)
Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on
- importing your works to the AO3
- adding your works to the new collection West Wing Fanfiction Central
If you still have questions…
If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, contact the Open Doors committee.
We’d also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of West Wing Fanfiction Central on Fanlore. If you’re new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.
We’re excited to be able to help preserve West Wing Fanfiction Central!
– The Open Doors team and Jessi