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The Big Bang, Baby Challenge, a Harry Potter fanfiction and fanart archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).
In this post:
- A bit of background explanation
- What this means for creators who have work(s) on The Big Bang, Baby Challenge
- And what to do if you still have questions
Background explanation
The Big Bang, Baby Challenge was created in 2005 to incentivize the creation of more canon-based novel-length Harry/Draco fics in the wake of The Order of the Phoenix, and was twice repeated following the publishing of The Half-Blood Prince, and The Deathly Hallows. Over the Big Bang, Baby Challenge’s run, dozens of invite-only fanartists contributed to richly illustrating fics which met the challenge’s minimum 50,000 word count. The Big Bang, Baby Challenge is the origin of the name and style of the Big Bang type of fic/art exchanges. The archive is being imported in order to preserve the works and ensure their availability to future fans.
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 Dana, Aja, and Reena to import The Big Bang, Baby Challenge into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all art currently in the Big Bang, Baby Challenge will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.
We will begin importing works from The Big Bang, Baby Challenge to AO3 after September. 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 have work(s) on The Big Bang, Baby Challenge?
We'll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on 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 The Big Bang, Baby Challenge 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 AO3, or would NOT like your works added to the archive collection.
- You are happy for us to preserve your works on 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 The Big Bang, Baby Challenge 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 The Big Bang, Baby Challenge mods to confirm your claims.)
Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on:
- importing your works to AO3
- adding your works to the new collection The Big Bang, Baby Challenge
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 Big Bang, Baby Challenge 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 Big Bang, Baby Challenge!
- The Open Doors team and Dana, Aja, and Reena
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.