AO3 News' Journal

Smoochies is Moving to the AO3

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/26161

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Smoochies, a multi-fandom fanfiction and fanart archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

Background explanation

Smoochies was a site dedicated to bishounen, shounen-ai and yaoi fanworks. It ran from late 1997 to early 2003. During its life, it hosted some amazing works that its moderator, Melanie, would hate to see lost. They need to be preserved and enjoyed by new fans, instead of living on an old submissions cd-r in the back of a drawer.

The purpose of the Open Doors Committees Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Melanie to import Smoochies into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fanfiction and fanart currently in Smoochies will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works from Smoochies to the AO3 after July. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.

What does this mean for creators who had work(s) on Smoochies?

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. We will then permanently close down the site.

Please contact Open Doors with your Smoochies 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.
Youd like to import your works yourself (including if you dont 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 Smoochies 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 Smoochies 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 Smoochies

If you still have questions...

If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.

We'd also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of Smoochies 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 Smoochies!

- The Open Doors team and Melanie

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days, on June 22. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.