#orphaned works

[kybercrystals94]

My heart breaks when I see a work get orphaned on or deleted from Ao3 😢 And while, of course, I’ll miss the story that I loved and bookmarked, ultimately, I just hope the wonderful author is okay 🥺♥️

[transformativeworks]

Is there any exception for illness in the case of orphaned works? I would love to re-upload some of mine to continue them but I absolutely cannot, for brain reasons, accept the amount of mess it will cause I there's duplicates of my fics on the site. I sent a request and they really gave me no hope at all. I don't want to abandon those fics but I don't know what else to do.

Oh Nonnie I am so sorry - both that you were not doing well and to deliver additional bad news --

Orphaning is irreversible.

How can I get my work(s) back if I change my mind after orphaning a work? You can't—orphaning is permanent and irreversible. There is no way for you to re-attach the work to your account, and we can't do it for you. An orphaned work remains in the Archive attached to the orphan_account, and cannot be edited or deleted.

And if you have already sent a ticket to support and they said the same.. then you have done all the things you could possibly do.

I wish I could give you better news.

<3 Mod Remi

[theficlistpodcast]

At the end of the day, it’s your work to do with what you will, but… 

[gnarf]

On Fandom etiquette and orphaned works.

Dear writer friends,

It recently came to my attention that people seek out orphaned works on AO3 to podfic those. It seems to be a regular practice, regular enough for me to make this post at least.

Fandom etiquette isn't the same for everyone. And don't get me started on mutual respect.

If you ever leave the fandom, or decide to get rid of one of your works for personal reasons, please be aware that your works might be seen as open for grabs once you orphaned them.

Once you orphaned a work there's very little you can do to prevent this from happening.

[flyingjemsaucer]

The Woman and The Bell

Up for adoption!

Guys, I’ve officially orphaned this work, and it’s up for adoption if anyone is interested.  I don’t think I’ll be able to finish it, but it’s sad to just leave it languishing like this.  So if you’re interested in finishing a high adventure Tentoo x Rose multichapter fic, let me know.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8712691/chapters/19974769

[mojoflower]

nothingtoseeherejustmovealong replied to your post:

I agree that orphaning a work can be necessary for good mental health and completely your right. But let me add a plea to orphan instead of deleting. The story may be shitty; you may have not been a great writer then; however, that doesn't mean that the story didn't say anything and maybe within it was something that someone needed to read. Some stories resonant with me because of a truth lying underneath bad narrative skills.

Oh, this is so true!  Sometimes I’ll read back on childhood favorites (these would be published books) and they’re objectively awful, but they came at the right time and said the right thing and had a HUGE impact on me.  It is so probable that your work did that for someone, and that they’ll feel a huge loss if you delete it.

This is one of the reasons I love the orphaning function at AO3.  All the kudos and bookmarks and tags stay the same, but your name is forever severed from it.  And the people who loved it get to keep it.

Another thing about not deleting your work is that you can visibly measure your progress (without embarrassment, if you’ve orphaned it).

My son is constantly making his older songs invisible because he’s gotten better, which makes me so sad, because I loved those songs, and I am not the same kind of critical audience that he is.

[ao3commentoftheday]

I actually asked AO3 about continuing orphan works once. They told me that continuing an incomplete orphaned work is allowed, but you absolutely MUST link back to the original work. There's a checkbox for "was this inspired by another work" while you are uploading your story. Check that and put the link to the orphan work. I wish I could find the email, I would screenshot it and put it up, but that is the official word from AO3.

Thank you so much and this is exactly what we’ve been endorsing on this blog. If you’re able to find the email, please send it in and we’ll post it for our followers.

Thanks again.

–Mod M

[ao3commentoftheday]

Plagiarism is when you use the (published) work of someone else and pass it off as your own, so remixing or building on orphan work and link back should be fine, even non-orphan works? But there seem to be a protectivness&fear among writers about content of their fic(even headcanons)that is weird to me as reader, when it's already building on other work by definition? I'd love links to the inspirations a lot more often and binge my way through when I like an idea!Tropes have to start somewhere;D

Thank you for your addition to the discussion, anon. 

–Mod M