due South Seekrit Santa Is Moving to the AO3

The older works from due South Seekrit Santa, a due South gift exchange archive, are being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

• A bit of background explanation
• What this means for creators who had work(s) on due South Seekrit Santa
• And what to do if you still have questions

Background explanation

due South Seekrit Santa (dSSS) is an annual gift exchange challenge for fans of due South. The dSSS archive was originally on http://dsss.crocolanthus.com/. After many attempts to communicate with the server admin/owner went unanswered, the crocolanthus dSSS archive went offline, and the domain name was lost. To preserve the archive, the works from the 2004-2009 exchanges are being imported to AO3 by Open Doors and dSSS.

The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s 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 Verushka and Ride_Forever to import the 2004-2009 due South Seekrit Santa exchanges into separate, searchable subcollections within the existing dSSS collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all art and video currently on due South Seekrit Santa will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works from due South Seekrit Santa to the AO3 in November. 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 due South Seekrit Santa?

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 add 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 due South Seekrit Santa pseud(s) and email address(es), if:

1. 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.
2. You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
3. You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
4. You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3, or would NOT like your works added to the archive collection.
5. You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
6. 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 due South Seekrit Santa 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 due South Seekrit Santa 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 subcollections due South Seekrit Santa

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 due South Seekrit Santa 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 due South Seekrit Santa!

- The Open Doors team and Verushka and Ride_Forever

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days, on October 17, 2024. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.