Here's what I've found.

We have a problem. A huge problem. by Outhra on 2014-02-06 22:09:00 UTC Reply

PPC: The Lost Tales is gone. Every spin-off that had been attached to it, which by my count includes almost all of the important older ones that survived the horrible website crashes in the past, is shut down. Every time I try to go on the site, I get the same page, saying that the site no longer exists and asking for all references to that site to be removed. I know that the shutdown happened sometime between Monday and now, since the last time I checked the site was Monday evening, but I don't know what caused it, and more importantly, I have no idea how to get any of the stories back. Did anyone save any backups of the Lost Tales? Does anyone have any idea how to fix this?

Okay, so... by Neshomeh on 2014-02-11 14:56:00 UTC Reply

I've been informed that a certain page, Teena and Wyldehorse's first mission, was found to be in violation of Tripod's terms of service. I don't know how yet—I've asked, and of course I'm going to go over the TOS myself—but in the meantime, they asked me to take down the page, so I did. The rest of the site should be accessible again, though, and hopefully I'll be able to put "Captured by the Breeze" back soon. If not, I guess it'll have to go on Gdocs. Bleh. Could be worse, but bleh.

~Neshomeh

Thanks for working on that! by doctorlit on 2014-02-13 04:34:00 UTC Reply

Sorry it happened at such a bad time.

I guess I'm not entirely surprised Teena and Wylde's stuff was the cause? When I was researching their minis, I was a little surprised by their spin-off. Compared to other TOS-era stuff, it has a lot more swearing, and the second mission has some pretty overt sexual stuff (from the badfic, but still).

(If anyone's wanting to read the first mission while it's down, it's still available on WayBack! Love that site so hard! http://web.archive.org/web/20050213180527/http://www.angelfire.com/anime2/linkfarm/PPC/Report1.html )

Yeah, but... by Neshomeh on 2014-02-13 16:30:00 UTC Reply

If swearing or mature content was the reason, why wouldn't the second mission have been flagged instead of the first? Anyway, Tripod's TOS doesn't actually prohibit mature content. They acknowledge that it exists and advise their members to exercise caution, but they disclaim responsibility for it. Things that are prohibited include illegal activities and actively harmful content... none of which apply here. There's always the dubious claim of copyright infringement, but if that was really an issue, I should've been banned ages ago.

Tripod was no help, either; the rep I talked to told me it happened in a routine screening by their automated system, and he had no idea as to the specific (alleged) violation. He told me to get in touch if it happens again so they can take a closer look, so I'll put the page back up in a couple weeks or so and we'll see what happens.

(I think Teena and Wylde postdate TOS a little bit, by the way. If I remember right, they're more 2004-2005. I should make notes of these things.)

~Neshomeh

Right. Didn't mean to sound like a censorship apologist. by doctorlit on 2014-02-14 02:21:00 UTC Reply

And it seems I'm mixing up my PPC eras! I have a pipe dream of making a page on the wiki that just lists every published PPC story in chronological order. I'm not sure it's worth even my time, though. Maybe after I retire.

The problem is most don't have an established chron. order. (nm) by Ekyl on 2014-02-18 06:41:00 UTC Reply

You might be surprised. by doctorlit on 2014-02-18 19:43:00 UTC Reply

I've been looking through the old LJ character journals lately. A lot of them reference events in their characters' respective mission reports, as well as events role-played by Boarders at the time. Even without dates for the missions (the journal entries have them, of course), it's possible to construct a relative timeline based on the order each character's story occurs, and fitting things in around the spots where the different authors' characters interact.

The same can be done with more modern spin-offs. The work of Miah, Caddy-Shack, Tray-Gnome, Guvnor of Space, Pretzel, Herr Wozzeck and Neshomeh (and Luxury) are all linked through a set of co-writes. (Neshomeh is further linked to Phobos, Tungsten Monk, Artic Blade, Inkling, Tomato and Sedri through hers. Sedri brings in Trojanhorse, who links to July, insanegrrl and Cassie (and Luxury again). July links to Makari.

Going back to Neshomeh, (Did I just start a new paragraph during a parenthetical? I think I did.) her usage of the older FicPsych personnel allows us to add parts of the spin-offs of Nenya Quende, Spud Avec, Nathonea and Jay and Acacia! Nathonea connects with Kaitlyn, Calista and Tawaki, as well as with the rest of Nenya's stuff, which connects to Vemi, Bjam and Miss Cam. Vemi connects to Huinesoron's Dafydd+Selene spin-off, which connects Rath and Kippur; Kippur brings in Hellga, Leto Haven and Artemis. Kippur also connects to Elvea Aure and her co-authors and to Godforsaken and Lantarmiel. Elvea's spin-off links to Chak and the Oracle at Delphi. (By the way, we've wound up right back at the old LJ journals, where this post started.) We hit the original series earlier, which connects to Rosie and Araeph (and Luxury again).

Luxury really gets around! We already saw her connected with the spin-offs of Trojie, Caddy and Jay and Acacia. She's also linked to those of Poor Cynic, Sergio Turbo and Nin Brandt in the That Series series. All of those spin-offs connect to even more . . .

Also, since we hit Dafydd, Tawaki, Artic Blade and Leto Haven, we can also connect everyone who participated in the 2009 Memorial Party, the Borg Assimilation Crisis and the group exorcisms of Arda and Narnia. But I think this post has gone on long enough!

So, uh, hey everybody: How many degrees of ~~Kevin Bacon~~ Original Series is your spin-off?

Still better than Webs were for me. by Huinesoron on 2014-02-13 20:21:00 UTC Reply

They took my entire site down three times in the space of a few months, sent the same stock reply every time I emailed them immediately after, and were eventually able to say nothing better than 'Someone else [their service provider?] told us to take it down, maybe it has swearing in it'. Which it doesn't, though they even suggested that 'WTF' counts (hence a certain arbitrary decision by Legal). Eventually I got fed up and moved it all to GDocs.

At least Tripod are pretending to help.

hS

The site's accessible (nm) by Antigone68104 on 2014-02-11 16:00:00 UTC Reply

I'm on it. by Neshomeh on 2014-02-06 23:52:00 UTC Reply

I don't know how much I can do this weekend, since I'm away from home and basically won't be available from tomorrow afternoon until Tuesday, but I DO have backups of all the content that was on the site. Don't panic.

~Neshomeh

(sighs in relief) by Outhra on 2014-02-07 00:04:00 UTC Reply

Oh, good. At least we know now that everything that was deleted can be back online once we find somewhere to put it.

Do you have any idea what happened to PPC: The Lost Tales? It's not exactly typical for everything on a site to suddenly get deleted at once.

I don't know much yet. by Neshomeh on 2014-02-07 00:07:00 UTC Reply

I've contacted Tripod about the matter, but I won't know anything for sure until I hear back from them. However, it seems that my account may have been locked due to "suspected abuse."

I'll keep you guys informed if at all possible, but this is basically one of the worst possible times for something like this to happen.

~Neshomeh

Oh snap. Damage control! by SeaTurtle on 2014-02-06 22:37:00 UTC Reply

Well, TOS and the original DoI stories are still hosted on Miss Cam's site here and here, so they're safe.

What else was on the Tripod? I think the A/V stories were there too.

Here's what I've found. by Outhra on 2014-02-06 23:35:00 UTC Reply

According to the wiki, this was as of September the stories stored on PPC: The Lost Tales that weren't duplicated anywhere else:
The twenty-first TOS mission, The Dark Elf
The JAAKSONS spin-off
The first All-Purpose Department spin-off
All but one of Diocletian and Suicide's missions
The SIELU spin-off
The A/V Department spin-off
The Dee and Milask spin-off, one of the first to cross over with TOS
The Teena and Wyldehorse spin-off
The Kazra and Rich spin-off
The Kwennyfer and Jane spin-off
The Aerilyn and Zera spin-off
The Amy and Brent spin-off

Most of those are important, or at least historical, though I'll admit this is the first I've heard of the last four. If we can recover the previously Lost Tales-hosted content, we should find some other more stable place to put everything in case this happens again.
I distinctly remember other records that had been stored on The Lost Tales as well, including several RP logs and Techno-Dann's character backstories, but I can't recall any individual details regarding those.
Someone needs to message Neshomah. (nm) by Mikelus on 2014-02-06 22:59:00 UTC Reply

Someone needs to message Neshomeh. by Mikelus on 2014-02-06 23:00:00 UTC Reply

After all, she worked on that site, right? Maybe she has a solution.