ATTN Authors, Artists, Readers and Lurkers!

[henpecked.livejournal.com]

I've been lurking around for a while, but now is as good a time as any, really, to make myself known. Hallo!

As everyone in indeedsir knows, we've been having a devil of a time with this business of a comprehensive archive for all the Jeeves & Wooster stories out there. msp_hacker has compiled a fairly extensive list of links for the fic out there. mechanicaljewel has compiled a download-able archive of fiction. I'm not trying to negate the great efforts of these people. I've used both to great acclaim. However, I'm a bit of a nut when it comes to cross-reference and organization. As it happens, I've come up with an idea of my own. I have webspace available, time, a decent knowledge of PHP and a friend whose got a knack for web design.

What I'm aiming for is an archive that is wholly comprehensive. So, I've been going about collecting information for a Jeeves & Wooster Links Archive where someone can look for stories and art by author, story title, rating or genre. The stories and art themselves would not be hosted on the site. What the archive would provide is an extensive list of links to as many, if not all, the Jeeves & Wooster fan-made material on the net. There would also be author information (such as their livejournal name and/or an email address) and story/art information (such as summaries, warnings, ratings, length, etc.). I want the material to be as easily accessible as possible.

So, what do you think?

Comments

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

I have a decent knowledge of PHP (and MySQL) too, and I'd be willing to help if you need it, but the Automated Archive software already exists and takes links as well as stories. It would probably be faster/easier to use existing software than to start from scratch.

Either way, however, I would be interested in helping if you need it. I looked into starting an archive myself, but the money (and commitment) for maintaining a long-term site just isn't there right now. I like the idea of a link-only archive, since it saves storage space and bandwidth problems--especially if it links to either fan art or videos, which I think would be awesome.

[henpecked.livejournal.com]

While I do like the idea of an automated archive to some extent, I do have two issues with them. I'm really only familiar with eFiction. I hate eFiction. It's given me no small amount of problems in the past, to be honest. Do you know of any other ones? And there's the fact that with automated archives, there's a really high margin of error as far as URLs go. I'm just not knowledgeable enough with the system, probably.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

The automated archive software I'm most familiar with is the one offered here (http://www.netspace.org/~shalott/archive/), as "Automated Archive". You can see it in action at 852 Prospect (http://www.852prospect.org/archive/cgi-bin/search.cgi) a rather ancient Sentinel archive, or the Yuletide archive (http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi). Another archive, Axe-Bow (http://axebow.lcwsites.org/cgi-bin/upload.cgi), uses the link option.

I'm not familiar with eFiction, so if that turns out to be another name for the same software I apologize.

Regarding URLs, I can see where a link entered by a user could have problems, but I have to say that every archive I've seen in the past that relies on archivist-entries has sooner or later gone to the cobwebs. It's a lot of work--at the very least you need a system simple enough for multiple volunteers to enter items.

[henpecked.livejournal.com]

I've been giving it some thought and I do agree with you. I weighed the long-term feasibility of a manual archive and you're right.

I like "Automated Archive" a lot actually. I just put it up on my server and played around with it for a bit. The problem with it though, is that it only lets you upload (or input) actual files. If there's a way around it, I've yet to find it.

I did also give in and download eFiction (because, honestly, it IS the most customizable auto-archive out there), but I've yet to make headway with that--it won't run the install script without fatal errors. *groan* I'm trying to figure out the problem with the script, but.. Ugh. I thought I knew mySQL, but apparently not. So, slowly but surely.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

The third archive I linked to, Axe-Bow, does allow links. It's version 3.2--which did you get? I know the archivist at Axe-Bow, so I'll ask her if she did anything special to get the links.

[henpecked.livejournal.com]

Wow, two reasons I feel rather dumb. 1) I didn't realize that Axe-Bow had a link option as well as a story option. 2) Literally just as my comment posted, I got the script to run.

So yeah, if you would ask her, that would be great. I'm going to continue fiddling around with eFiction (because I'm too excited about getting it to actually work).

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

Just asked her. No idea when I'll get a response, however.

Computers will always wait until one minute after you've said something is impossible before working. The only thing more reliable is that it will always work while the tech support guru is watching.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

She says it's built in, without giving any details on how to turn it on. You may have to play around with it a bit--if you don't have time, let me know and I'll install it locally and play. I understand the lure of playing with eFiction now that you've got it working, however!

[ajat.livejournal.com]

What a lovely idea ! All of you are really, really kind. Thank you.

[skyblue-reverie.livejournal.com]

I'm very late in responding, sorry, but this project sounds fantastic! Thanks so much for putting in the time and effort for this!