fandomhistoryproject

Fandom History Rescue Project in the news

A blog that is monitoring the [Yahoo Groups] archival efforts, and their subsequent blocking, has said that the attempts to block archiving now mean that, 'Verizon has lost all benefit of the doubt, and is likely at least aware of what Yahoo is doing to groups, or is at worst, complicit.'"

--Verizon blocks archivers from Yahoo Groups, almost two decades of history at risk of being lost forever, by Government Slaves, quoting our moderator morgandawn. (Cache.)

Writer Dusk Peterson is part of the Yahoo Groups Fandom Rescue Project, "an informal group of fans who are working to preserve the archives of fandom mailing lists." The project has identified almost 30,000 lists at risk of deletion — "comparable to 30,000 multi-issue fanzines being burned" — and need more volunteers to archive material. They're also urging Yahoo to delay the deletion."

--Yahoo Groups Archives, Including Many SF/F Fanzines, To Be Deleted, by Locus Magazine. (Cache.)

Margaret Farrelly is part of the majority that uses Yahoo Groups through email these days. She says she has scaled down from hundreds of group memberships to just a few.

But she was still alarmed when Scott's tweet about Yahoo Groups made it into her feed. The Wisconsin resident knows the site was an early home for something she loves: fan fiction. She belongs to a collective that has identified about 35,000 fandom-related Yahoo groups to save.

Farrelly also knows someone trying to capture more than 100 beekeeping groups, and someone passionate about genealogy and adoption support circles. Another person is focusing on astronomy groups filled with photos they say may not exist anywhere else.

"It's just depressing to think how much is going to be lost," Farrelly said.

Her fandom group turned to the Archive Team for help.

--These crusaders want to preserve ‘human culture’ online. Their latest target: Yahoo Groups, by The Washington Post. (Cache.) s_

Posts and articles about preserving fandom history

Some thoughts re: LJ and long-term fannish content, by our member juniperberry, who also runs ds_ficminers, dedicated to preserving Due South fandom history.

Tumblr reportedly blocked archivists from saving blogs before the NSFW purge, by The Daily Dot. (Cache.)

A 2010 discussion on the ethics and legality of caching fandom content, at fanlore in a thread started by our moderator morgandawn.