One of the earliest places I archived my stories (besides fanfiction.net) was a little spot called fanfics.org. Compared to other sites, it seemed like a little hole-in-the-wall spot, not frequented by the big names, and seemingly abandoned by its owner, a guy from England named Philip. He used to chat with me on IM from time to time, and every time he did, he told me he was drunk… not exactly  something to inspire confidence.

Then, in 2005, he decided to revamp his site. He made a stab at it, coming up with a rather teeth-grating brown design. I signed up, interested to see what was going to happen. He made a few announcements about it on the old site, but it never seemed to be completed.

Then, just yesterday, I got an email from him. It was a mass generated one, not personal, but it said that the revamp was pretty much complete, and the new site would be open today. If I used the old address, it would take me to the new site. Not only that, but any stories I had on the old site could be moved to the new. Sooooo… this afternoon I checked it out.

Gone was the brown site he’d started with. In its place was a soothing bright green, with a leaf, and a cool, clear font for the logo. Nicely mature in design. The site wasn’t quite finished, he said in a "story" post, but he was putting a deadline of August 26th – of this year – to complete the work. And if I wanted to move my stories, I just had to let him know and he’d do it for me.

Which I did, being the first to add a "review" to his "story" (at least, I think I was) and request that my works be moved – just the stories and not the art (yeah, this place archives fanart, too).

It’ll be interesting to see what other features he has planned, and more importantly, if his commitment to the site will hold up over time. That’s the main thing I’ve found with fan-created sites; as real life closes in, the site suffers because, let’s face it, real life trumps fan-stuff every time. The same thing happened at FicWad, and Lunaescence suffered a slight bout with it this year (submissions were temporarily suspended so the owners could catch a breath from all the stupid emails they were getting – mostly from people who don’t know how to read the instructions. I respect the owners at Luna immensely for warning people about it; heck, I respect them immensely anyway!)

In any case, if you’re interested, check it out: fanfics.org . You might be surprised. I sure was.