so, this is a bit of a shot in the dark, but I'm looking for anyone that might have a way to contact a fic writer named exileandtrust.
They're best known for their Optimus/Reader fic called "Handprints", which has been through several iterations, and has been deleted from Ao3 and the internet at large multiple times. Sadly, it seems as though they've deleted it and themselves yet again.
While I wasn't familiar with this fic's latest iteration, I was familiar with it,(it brought back repressed PTSD memories. yay.) as were many of my close friends. It meant a lot to these people and functioned as a huge source of comfort during what is arguably the shittiest fucking time period on earth. I'm not going to try to guess why they felt the need to delete it again, or convince them to come back. But I am going to extend to offer to, should they be amicable to it, adopt the fic from them and finish it.
If you have a way of contacting them, I'd deeply appreciate you letting me know. I don't even need to contact them directly. We can do whatever sort of middleman fuckery everyone's comfortable with. I'd like to request the synopsis/notes/etc if they're willing to share. If they're not, that's also fine. I'll do my best to continue where they left off and pick the brains of those who were invested in it this time around to get the best idea of where it was going plot-wise.
IDK how the fuck I'm gonna do this w Bread and Hard Mercy also looming over my shoulders. God willing, if one or more of y'all wanted to make this a group effort and go in as co authors, that'd be fucking dope. But letting this holy relic disappear from the fandom isn't something I'm willing to let slide if I can help it, and no matter how fucking daunting this seems it also seems like the right thing to do, so I'm gonna try.
Hello! I wanted to ask about this one fic where shane is a pair figure skater with rose, and he moves in with Ilya during rookie year and they fall in love. I think the fic has been deleted cuz I'm not finding it anywhere but if it's not, please share it! Thank you! Also your blog is amazing!
hello! i think this is hanging by a moment by frozenmorningdew (goldenboygate), who recently left the fandom and hid all of their fics.
here's its link on the wayback machine
this is also one of the fics i have downloaded as a pdf or epub if you want to reach out privately for it!
For the past month, I’ve been working on a fun little project to recover as many fics that were deleted from the tag as possible. I’ve managed to find quite a few of them (some I never even knew existed), and I will happily share them with anyone who is interested, but there are also many I haven’t been able to recover yet, so I thought I might as well try asking tumblr for help!
Here’s the Dropbox link with the full list of deleted Coldflash fics I’ve been able to identify.
Please send me an ask or message me if:
you’ve kept a copy of one of the missing fics and you’d be willing to share it
you can think of some deleted Coldflash fics that are NOT on the list (even if you don’t currently own a copy of them)
you’d like a copy of one or more of the deleted fics that I did manage to find
I’ve considered making a zip folder or public OneDrive or something where everyone has access to them, but there are several problems that have kept me from doing so quite yet
If you want a more detailed explanation, I will ramble about that below
The main problem is that most of these fics were originally saved in different formats. Some of them are .epubs, some are .pdfs, some are .txt files, and a few still only exist on the Internet Archive, as I haven’t gotten around to making a copy of them.
In order to share them, I’d have to convert them all to the same format, for ease of use and because I’d like the drive to be at least a little organized!
I also wasn’t sure if anybody would even be interested in this idea and which format they would prefer if they are. Please note that a lot of these fics were unfinished, some are just drabbles and some only have one chapter. I was interested in retrieving them for archiving purposes, but I’m not entirely certain they’ll necessarily all be of equal interest to anyone else…
So, basically, let me know what you’re thinking, whether you would like me to create a public drive or not, and which format you’d prefer if I do!
In the meantime, definitely send an ask or a DM my way if you see a deleted fic on the list that you’d like a copy of and I’ll get back to you ASAP
There’s a fic called ‘Call Answered’ that appears to have been deleted. I don’t remember who it’s by, but Harry attempts suicide and is in a coma for most of the fic while Louis reflects on their on and off relationship while listening to instrumental tracks Harry left for him. And I think the titles are all dates something happened in their past.
Hi love. I don't know this one.
Does anyone have this deleted fic? @fundamental-blue @shippingalongnicely @justalarryblog @leah3477sblog Anyone?
Hello! I am looking for a deleted BBC Sherlock fanfiction called “The Holmes Boys” (originally posted by Anonymous / Orphan Account).It is a Parent Sherlock AU with 18 chapters and around 41,210 words. John is a child named John Hamish Adler Holmes, and his parents are Sherlock and Irene Adler.The original recommendation link was from the Tumblr blog Inevitably Johnlocked. Does anyone have a backup PDF or EPUB copy? Thank you!
(submitted by bialovesjohn)
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Hi Lovely!!
You’re in luck!! Because I still had the link (since you said the fic was originally recced on my blog), I was able to grab the Wayback grab of the first chapter, and then from THERE I was able to grab the “Entire Work” link, and then from THERE, I was able to find the capture link!
Here it is here! I also saved a PDF of it, so if you have issues with getting the link, DM me and I’ll send it to you :)
i feel like we are the fandom who needs this post the most any fandom has needed it ever.
all of these methods require you to know the title, author and/or link of the fic.
[disclaimer: the fic i am using as an example is not deleted, i just can't think of any other fics to use as an example right now.]
Method #1: Wayback Machine
this is my go to method that i always try first.
steps:
every fic on ao3 has a url of archiveofourown.org/[specific-numbers]. you're gonna need that url, doesn't matter if it doesn't work anymore.
eg.
2. now you're gonna go to archive.org and enter your url in the search bar.
3. something like this will come up. it probably won't be saved as many times though, just once or twice.
just click any of the links now, either the dates marked blue on the calendar or the earliest/latest date. that's it.
drawbacks:
often, a problem arises when searching for fics rated mature or explicit.
the site will have archived this page but not the actual fic. though, maybe lady luck is on your side and clicking proceed will lead you to a saved version of the actual fic. but usually not. and not all fics are saved here. in those cases, i have some more methods.
Method #2: Search Engine Cache
search engines like google and yandex often save a cached version of sites, though yandex is much more reliable than google. i'll give you a tutorial for both.
steps (yandex):
the link isn't completely necessary, just the title and author of the fic will suffice.
go to yandex.com and search for your fic by either entering the url or entering the title and author as such.
3. this will probably immediately come up.
just enter the captcha and it should let you in on the first go but there's a glitch i've encountered where you could be entering the captcha completely correct but for some reason the site still won't let you in. for that, you just have to keep trying again and again until eventually the site lets you in. might take more than 10 tries.
4. once you're in, search results will pop up. directly clicking them will only lead you to the not found page. what you're gonna do is hover over the box of the search result and you'll see 3 dots pop up on the right.
click those and a dropdown menu will appear. click the first option 'saved copy'.
and thats it! this is a much more efficient method especially for explicit or mature fics.
drawbacks:
for some reason, when i open yandex in google chrome, i can't see the 3 dots. i can in firefox though. don't really know what thats all about.
i'll show you how to do it with google too just in case yandex doesn't work.
steps (google):
in the url bar, type cache:[link of fic]. that's pretty much it. google doesn't have a lot of fics saved though so you'll probably get a 404 page.
Method #3: Reddit
there's a subreddit called r/DeletedFanfiction that can probably help you out. either search for the fic as it may have already been posted or req it and someone will probably get you a google drive link soon enough. u/throwthisaway11112 is my lord and savior.
afaik it's still up and running fine despite the reddit protest thing (which i recommend taking a minute to look into).
Method #4: Archive.org Database
okay, now you're gonna need a lot of memory on computer for this one. i'm not gonna even bother and try to explain it, i'll just link you to the original post. thank you once again to the anon who sent me this method!
Method #5: Fandom
if absolutely none of those methods work, you can still just send me an ask and maybe my followers or i will have a saved copy. same for any other fandom, i recommend asking around in popular fandom spaces, someone is bound to have it.
How to use the Wayback Machine to get a deleted fic
The easiest way to do it is when you have the url of the fic you’re searching.
If so, you just open the Wayback Machine (url: https://web.archive.org/) and you paste the url in the search bar.
If you’re lucky, copies have been made of this web page and you’ll get a timeline with the days when the copies were made.
From there you can try to click on the link indicating the most recent one, and see if the fic was still available at the time.
Sometimes you’ll encounter an error 404 already, if so try to go further back with the blue arrow at the left of the date you’re watching.
And then, tadaaaa:
From there, you can use the Print to PDF function of your device to save it as a PDF.
How to get the url of the fic I’m looking for ?
The fastest way I found is to Google the title and author.
Most of the time I’ll find a tumblr post with a fic rec or a fic post, with the link to ao3. I’ll follow it and end on the error 404 page on ao3 but from there I can copy the url of the fic to use it on Wayback Machine.
And if I can’t find the link to the fic ?
Then you can try to search with the username of the author.
On ao3 the url page with the works are all like https://archiveofourown.org/users/********/works (******** being the username of the author)
Or you can also try from their user page with http://archiveofourown.org/users/********/ or http://archiveofourown.org/users/********/pseuds/********
Sometimes you’ll get an old copy of their work page and from there you’ll be able to click the fic links.
Some of them will work, some others won’t.
And, unfortunately, if the fic is Mature or Explicit, I haven’t found the way to access it. There is the warning about adult content and even if I click Proceed it doesn’t work, probably because the fic page wasn’t saved from the url with the ‘?view_adult=true’ suffix
