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The Slash Advent Calendar, a multifandom archive for fanfiction and fanart, is 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 the Slash Advent Calendar
- And what to do if you still have questions
Background explanation
The Slash Advent Calendar was a multifandom slash challenge that ran every December from 2002 to 2005. Founded by kira-nerys at Lady Kardasi Productions, it included works from fandoms such as Star Trek, Harry Potter, The Sentinel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Unfortunately, in 2010, the domain name hosting the Slash Advent Calendar was lost, and along with it went a lot of fandom history. Although many of the works are still accessible via the Wayback Machine, some of these were not saved - including most of the artwork and the works posted in 2005. Creators who still hold copies of their own works are encouraged to contact Open Doors!
In 2006, with a new moderator, the Slash Advent Calendar became focused on Star Trek. A series of Kirk/Spock Advent Calendars ran from 2006 until 2017, and then relaunched in 2022.
As the forerunner of a long term fandom institution, the Slash Advent Calendar is well worth preserving. (Open Doors would be delighted to help preserve the older Kirk/Spock Advent Calendars as well, if the moderators are happy to do so.)
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 kira-nerys and Sahviere to import years 2002 to 2005 of the Slash Advent Calendar into separate, searchable collections on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fanart currently in the Slash Advent Calendar will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.
We will begin importing works from the Slash Advent Calendar to the AO3 after January. 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 the Slash Advent Calendar?
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. We will then permanently close down the site.
Please contact Open Doors with your Slash Advent Calendar 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, or would NOT like your works added to the archive collection.
- 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 Slash Advent Calendar 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 Slash Advent Calendar mods 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 Slash Advent Calendar
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 the Slash Advent Calendar 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 the Slash Advent Calendar!
- The Open Doors team, kira-nerys and Sahviere
Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.