After a few years of that, I changed it and saved *nothing* - it seemed unnecessary because the stories were always up on fanfic archives/mailing list archives etc. After a few years of this (about 2005) and after one or two fics I loved that I couldn't find online anymore at all (or in full) because the site was deleted/free host disappeared/chapter pages disappeared, I changed it again. Now I save everything I really love and/or what to be able to be sure of finding it again later for whatever reason. In the last year or so, I've also started using Delicious in addition to saving to my HD - I bookmark fics I don't want to save nor love, but still like to be able to find again later if it's still online... usually, this is because the type of the fic is rare or some aspect of it is.
I have been through that tragedy. It's such an awful feeling to go back to a story, especially a story you've gone back to many times before, only to find an error message acting as a placeholder. :( That's such a perfect use of delicious though, to keep the things that are interesting to you in some way, but that you're not emotionally invested in enough to be dismayed if they do disappear from the internet.
Fics by other people I save only on one long-term location (external HD), but my own fics I make sure to have permanently saved at least on two different locations (my laptop and an external HD), and the fics I'm currently writing, I also like to upload to Google Docs so that I have an online back up of it just in case, and also so I can work on them when ie. at work and there's nothing to do.
Ahhh, very clever! Your works in progress I imagine you would want to be ESPECIALLY careful about backing up and keeping synched together.
no subject
I have been through that tragedy. It's such an awful feeling to go back to a story, especially a story you've gone back to many times before, only to find an error message acting as a placeholder. :( That's such a perfect use of delicious though, to keep the things that are interesting to you in some way, but that you're not emotionally invested in enough to be dismayed if they do disappear from the internet.
Fics by other people I save only on one long-term location (external HD), but my own fics I make sure to have permanently saved at least on two different locations (my laptop and an external HD), and the fics I'm currently writing, I also like to upload to Google Docs so that I have an online back up of it just in case, and also so I can work on them when ie. at work and there's nothing to do.
Ahhh, very clever! Your works in progress I imagine you would want to be ESPECIALLY careful about backing up and keeping synched together.