News

Where Do You Want Your Stories?

It has been brought to our attention that someone has made a site (http://www.ultimatehpfanfiction.com) and taken it upon herself to archive what she deems to be the best of HP fanfic. Unfortunately she has chosen to do this by copying stories from other HP web sites and posting them on hers rather than just archiving links.

It is important to note that this is not plagiarism; she has credited the original authors and promises to comply with requests to not host stories. However, at SIYE we believe you as the author should have the final say as to where and how your stories are published. We also believe that a better way would have been to contact the authors concerned, allowing them to opt in rather than forcing them to first find out about it and then opt out.

We encourage you, our authors, to go to that site and see if your stories are posted there. If they are, it is up to you to decide whether you're happy for her to continue hosting your story. We recommend that you ask to have your stories replaced with a link to the story in its original location. That way, you retain full control of the story - changes, updates etc - and of course it means you still get the reviews.

Do be polite, though - she has at least tried to do it the right way, even if it hasn't quite worked.

Torak on 2011.12.19 - 05:50PM ()

Comments

MyGinevra came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.20 - 01:34PM to say:

Thanks to SIYE for once again staying on top of the plagiarism issue. This case is not quite plagiarism, but we authors still deserve to have some say in how our stories are handled. The site in question is rather strange, though. It must be taking up a huge amount of the person's time and money. As Torak points out, it would have been much simpler and cheaper (and easier to use) if the site had just supplied links.

aimless came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.20 - 02:02PM to say:

Well. Actually it's understandable idea. Sometimes you trying to find a story and the page doesnt exists anymore... And of course you'd want to have the best stories in one place. For myself I save them in txt files on my PC. Still, if someone makes a site, then it's for author to decide if he/she wants the story there.

aimless came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.20 - 04:22PM to say:

Well. Actually it's understandable idea. Sometimes you trying to find a story and the page doesnt exists anymore... And of course you'd want to have the best stories in one place. For myself I save them in txt files on my PC. Still, if someone makes a site, then it's for author to decide if he/she wants the story there.

Northumbrian came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.20 - 05:41PM to say:

Thanks Torak. None of my stuff is there. I don't know whether to be sad or happy about that. This seems like an odd thing to do. I agree that the author's should have been contacted before their storeies were republished. I agree that a link would be better.

hgromance came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.21 - 01:51PM to say:

thank you for bringing this to our attention. I love you all for doing exactly this kind of thing.

santafe came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.21 - 05:05PM to say:

Once again, SIYE's Sherlocks are on the case. It does seem more chaos than conspiracy and I agree that authors should have the choice, although I don't actively disapprove.

nadie4ever came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.22 - 03:37AM to say:

I am the webmaster of this page. Northumbrian, don't be sad. I'm still sweeping through FF.net (I have many stories to get through) before moving unto Schnoogle. One of my main problems is that I do not know of the best way to contact authors, I do not have their emails and finished stories' reviews are not read that often. But yeah, I give you full control of the story. If you want, I link it to here or I'll just have it up. And no, don't worry. It costs me an good amount of time, but almost no money. I did it for myself, some family and friends and it grew from there. And no, I am not unapproachable, you can contact me anytime in nadie4ever.go@gmail.com

Sir Ollivander came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.22 - 11:08AM to say:

Hi nadie4ever - as a senior administrator, I looked over your web site. You have an interesting concept which looks like a lot of work for you. My issue was that as you place stories on your web site, the authors loose all control of them. They cannot go to your web site and add a chapter, correct any spelling, even change the ending if they want. Also, they don't receive the reviews. They may not even want their stories taken to another web site they don't know about. I am suggesting to them if they are okay with your web site, to have a link to their stories back to SIYE. That way they remain in full control of their work. Any and all editing, reviews, etc. are all available to them.

All authors on SIYE can be reached via their e-mails listed under "Contact - Personal Message" in their membership profile. Please don't confuse a lack of response as permission of any kind.

Good luck with ultimatehpfanfiction dot com

Tom ~ Sir Ollivander

nadie4ever came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.23 - 02:43AM to say:

Hey Sir Olivander, thanks for your prompt answer. As far as I know, I have not taken any story from SIYE. I have been using a piece of software to get the stories from FF.net. However, once I correct the stories in "red" I'll go over the author list and ask them if they want me to link back instead of just uploading the stories. I still remember when SIYE opened, I really liked the concept because you came during a time where most fanfics were going on a HHr shipping and I wasn't too queen on them. Even better luck for SIYE!

Kezzabear came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.23 - 05:30AM to say:

You can contact authors as FF.net as well via the PM system. Please don't use that as an excuse for not contacting authors. I appreciate you taking down my fic.

parakletos came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.24 - 06:36AM to say:

Links to fics is not a problem, the hosting of them without prior permission is.

YelloWitchGrl came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.25 - 09:46PM to say:

I looked through the list and then saw my penname! I laughed and said something not quite PG so I won't repeat it. I was a little surprised ;-) nadie4ever- you can leave mine up. I'm fine with it, but at the same time it would have been nice if you'd contacted the authors first. I think several would have been okay with it and the others that aren't might have given the okay to link to their stories, which still creates that exclusive archive/list. Sarah

MyGinevra came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.26 - 08:45AM to say:

I contacted nadie and she linked my story to FF.net. I would prefer it be linked to SIYE, but a link is better than actually posting it. Nadie, thanks for promptly honoring my request. Your idea and the effort you have put into implementing it are commendable. If you used only links, I think evryone would be grateful and have no problem with what you are doing.

nadie4ever came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.27 - 05:03AM to say:

@Kezzabear: Good idea. Noted. Right now I should contact... 200 authors, ui ui ui. It's a lot. @parakletos: Well, they were just downloaded and uploaded as a "new" idea. @YelloWitchGrl: Non-PG? xD. I quite enjoy your stories. @MyGinevra: Send me your link to nadie4ever.go and I'll put that one up. I don't care either way but you like SIYE more. I put FF up because it was the one I knew. I'm trying to make the page readable for cell phones. I'm having loads of trouble when trying to read long stories on it. Has SIYE implemented this already? If not, I think it is a cool suggestion. Thank you all for the ideas and not crucifying me on the spot

Kezzabear came out of the woodwork on 2011.12.27 - 07:00AM to say:

Well, you should have contacted them *before* you did it. Linking the fic is fine, that's a fic red but unsolicited hosting is wrong. i'm sorry but it has rather annoyed me. However since my fic has been removed that shall be the end of it from me.