Seekers unite
For those in the know, The Silver Snitch site is no longer up and running. It sucks so epically that as soon as anyone tries to go to the site for the first time in a while, they immediately go to the well of knowledge that is Google and will try to figure out where it could have gone…
It isn’t just a joke to say that there are thousands of seekers for The Silver Snitch.
For those who aren’t in the know, The Silver Snitch is a site that was (and is) devoted to Harry Potter fanfiction, but is a bit more specific than fanfiction.net in that it caters to the fans who know terms such as ‘yaoi’ and ‘slash’ fiction.
They also recognize the fact that a great deal of the people who write this kind of fanfiction write straight PWP straight out, and while that’s nice occasionally, some plot would be nice, and so many people were flocking to the awesomeness that is The Silver Snitch…
On of my favourite authors there is Vorabiza, who you can find on Google from a number of writing sites… My favourite story by her is ‘Secrets’, and you can go to the link on her name to see the Google options for where you can read her stories, and you can go HERE for my favourite story by her. Happens after Half-Blood Prince, and is extremely addicting to read.
For those who try fafiction.net, it seems as though they have suspended her account for a little while, likely from the people who decide that a certain type of fanfiction shouldn’t be on fanfiction.net. It’s not out to get the yaoi and slash writers, but against the poorly written and hack edited things, and they have somehow decided to abuse their power to also go out for any writer who hints at something M rated or beyond.
But, to the creator of The Silver Snitch, she has sent out a message HERE about what has happened. More updates HERE, in addition to the original message
As most should know, sites that are run privately are run on money… money ran out for the creator of this site, and so when the date came for when she needed to renew her claim on the site called thesilversnitch.net came, she had to choose between the site and the bills on her home.
But on the site above (or HERE if you don’t feel like going up a few lines) you can donate.
If you don’t particularly care, I can’t do much about that except put it into your heads the possibility of slash fiction (not violent as it sounds… book and non anime version of yaoi though some HP fiction writers call it yaoi (anime fans)), but if you know of the site and were wondering what happened, well there it is, and there’s a solution… go ahead, look at it.
Gaze at the solution…
Donate to bring the site back up, will ya? Even a few dollars or insert-form-of-money-here will help.
Thanks!
*EDIT* Read comments below for info about donations problems. Apparently she has not replied to any comments or questions as to how much money was raised. I live in hope, though, so simply stop giving huge sums of money. Stick to small change. Or, if you can spend that much, buy the site (maybe). I can’t do it, but….
Stay Optimistic!
Drawn In And Quartered 
I have never heard of the Silver Snitch, though i do know what you mean when it comes to fanfiction.net. Those admins there suck. LOL.
I like the amount and variety that can be found at ffn.net, but the admin certainly does suck if they are deciding it’s a good idea to take down stories and suspend accounts because of spelling and grammar and something that is generally agreed on as PWP. Plot, what plot? No really… But some people are testing out their writing skills when they post their stories, and are looking for feedback. You can’t always get a good beta, so… yeah. I would suggest you check out TSS.net, but as it’s currently down… seems kind of a moot point… 😀
I don’t know much about fanfiction.net but I do know about adultfanfiction.net… go there to get your yaoi fix 🙂
And I’m disappointed… an author there referred to a story on the silver snitch and now it’s not here 😦
It was probably a story by Vorabiza that was suggested… There is a link above to go to a site with her stories 🙂
I do know of adult ffn.net, but TSS was nice, and had some amazing stories posted.
Thank you so much for linking to another archive that has Vorabizas’ work! I wanted to re-read one of my favourite fics by her and couldn’t find Silver Snitch, and being unable to find that put a black in my head and I couldn’t even remember enough to try and start googling to see if I could find her work anywhere else.
Also, it’s great that you’re trying to raise awareness for the work that goes on behind the scenes for these sights! I think a lot of people don’t realize the costs and work that some dedicated people commit themselves to so that we can enjoy reading these wonderful fics.
😀 I agree with you and I hope that a few people who read this will go an check it out, and maybe donate a few dollar.
I don’t like asking for money (unless it’s from my parents… I’m a poor student :D), but the site is the slash site for HP fics the way that fanfiction.net is the usual site for most people to go read fics…
Wow that may or may not have made sense 😀
I love Voribaiza’s work, so it’s no problem for me 😀 another one that I likefrom the site is AislingSiobhan… you can find her on ffn.net though 😀
I offered to take over the finances of the site if she would tell me what they were and if I could afford it. I never heard back from her. I assume that she is not serious about reviving the site but actually just collecting the money.
fleetzz (fleetzz@yahoo.com)
Well I’m going to hope that is not the case 😦 It could be that she has honestly been busy with other things, could be because she wants to take responsibility for the site herself…
I really don’t know, but another possibility is that she wants to keep it all to herself… like if your dog needed surgery, and you put up that people could donate to help… and omeone said they could just take the dog off her hands… but then, you aren’t suggesting that you take it over (right?) so it might again be for other reasons.
I’m not trying to make up excuses, I’m just hoping that I’m not encouraging people to donate to a person rather than to the site.
I’m sure she’s nice, but when you donate to a site, you’re donating to a site.
I live in hope, and I hope that she will get back to you….
It would certainly help if she gave a goal as to what she is hoping to reach, money wise, rather than just asking for money that will eventually reach $x. I do see your point.
Thanks for the comment 😀
I do not have the technical expertise to run the site, I was just offering to pay for the site directly while collecting (and PUBLICLY) posting any funds donated. If I could afford it. Unfortunately I have no clue how much it costs to run a web site/archive, it may be out of my reach or it may not. In any case if I could afford it I would pay for it, and publicly post each donation received with appropriate credit for each person who donated. At least people would know that their money is being collected then used for the site, how much is available to pay for the costs of the web site, and how much of a surplus or deficit there is at any particular time. I noticed she didn’t post my comment on her request for funding either. She never posts how much she collected nor how much the site costs. I just get suspicious at this (just like my local church just pushes people to donate more but never published how much is collected and how it is spent, unlike my previous churches). I tend to not want to donate when I don’t see accountability.
I literally have not purchased a book in nearly a year because I have read so much from public HP archives, so I might have the funds. Unfortunately I remain in ignorance until somebody fills me in.
fleetzz
fleetzz@yahoo.com
Hm, makes me think that I should change this post then. Or else petition everyone to spam her messages with ‘how much does it cost? How much has been collected?” until she answers.
Still, I hope things will turn out.
In an early post on the original request thread she stated that it cost $40 a month domain fees and $15-$20 a year for something else (I can’t remember what). Back in November someone stated that they had just donated $50 and various others posted that they had just donated $20 and $25 amounts. That’s not including the numerous random posts stating ‘Just donated, hope the site is back up soon’. One person offered half of their $220 a month SSI (I think) cheque and various experienced people have offered their services to get the site back up and running. Yet here we are near the end of February and the site is still down. People aren’t getting replies to their messages on her thread anymore either. I seriously think people should stop giving her money (the last ‘I just donated’ post was on the 13th of this month) until the site is back up and running. I’m not saying she’s ripping people off but she’s been getting donations since the beginning of November, that’s nearly 4 month and the site still isn’t back up. Honestly, it’s really not looking good.
I know! It’s very hard to be optimistic about this when it seems as though she’s not doing anything 😦
Though I have to give props for the number of people giving such large amounts… I was imagining dollars and change, not substantial bills :S
But, I am going to try to be optimistic. Perhaps she has not been able to get to a computer. Lame, yes, but I like it better than someone swindling for money…
If someone else bought the site, and just hasn’t done anything with it, too… That would be horrible 😦
In any case, I hope the site eventually goes back up 😦
Thanks for commenting
Are we not able users of the Internet I say we make a call to arms and find her search for blogs facebook ffnet everything to try to find somewhere she is active and ask what the hell
True, and all the power to you if you decide to try and find her, but one of the issues raised was that she’s refusing to respond. Or unable to respond (Remember: OPTIMISM!). I really do hope she is not being an a-hole, but with the site being down for longer and longer… :S
If you DO find anywhere we can bug her for information at, please share a link 😛 I’d love to help find her, but as a student, I waste enough of my time even here on my blog, and I can stand waiting for a bit longer 😛
Luck!
She did reply to you, on the twelfth. I think before then both our posts were supposedly “screened”. which is weird since no other posts were screened. It seemed to me that before then they were BLOCKED. but what do I know?
I remain faithful that she isn’t some evil person. Maybe she did use the money or herself, but it was a situation where she would be out on the streets if she didn’t. If that were the case, people would hate her, but I’d still want to know. She could always transfer ownership of it to someone else who has experience with websites, is willing to pay OR try to do what she did to get donations, and wants to take on the site.
What I am worried about is how long the old providers will keep the websites archive information, before deleting it.
That is true
I wonder if they even still have everything… Well, maybe someone with more funds than I could petition for it, I don’t know how it works. I don’t think tat they require any real personal information, other than where to bill the site to, but perhaps it’s more copyright and whatnot.
Oh! nevermind! she did reply! There is an update on her site that my comp didn’t load to.
LAST COMMENT
D: I HAS FAITH. the update is positive. At the very least, we will know if she decides to give up on that website. All hail Deirdra, for putting up with all us hp fangirls and guys crap! XD
Ah 🙂 Good then ^_^ And I hope that if she ever sees this post she’ll see that in between the speculations of hidden evils there is a consistent amount of hope and confidence 😉 Also, to the comment before this, I say ‘ah, I see’ 😛
Props, btw, for the number of comments 😉 I think this is the most comments I’ve gotten on a post ever 😀 (not including my replies, which generally doubles the number, which I think is kind of silly)
I can’t believe people are still so interested in getting the site back up in running. I keep giving it a google to see if it’s up. Given up hope 😦 I really loved The Silver Snitch I want it back soooo much!
I think pretty much everyone who has checked out the site wants it to be backup… Her latest update said that it was going to be put back up as soon as she could get a credit card and arrange things with the people who actually arrange all the sites, but they aren’t getting back to her about it.
I’m assuming it’s a lot of automated answering machines, with a “Press one if you are looking for generic section A, Press two if you are looking for generic section B” kind of things.
All we can do is be patient, so don’t give up hope quite yet.
A lot of the wait is due to her moving, so hopefully now that she’s been moved in and whatnot, maybe she’ll get it up sooner rather than later.
In any case, keep up hope!
True. I am worried about this, because if I were her I would give up by now, and we can’t expect her to keep trying to do this if they keep stonewalling her. But, I doubt she would want to drop it now, seeing as how she has put in so much effort.
about your “if she ever sees this”- I do feel a bit ashamed, as she seemed to be very stressed in those updates. I know she referred to YOU personally as one of the people who had misconceptions about the way this was done (I believe you were called “the book guy”), but I don’t think either of us said anything malicious. If she has a problem with me I think my opinion of her will go down for it.
lol, I don’t think I really thought that was referring to myself 😛 I’m a girl, I don’t think I’ve hidden that. I have posted a number of pictures of myself in posts against my roommates, so yeah… Book guy? That kind of confuses me…
Aaand I’m not finding it :S
Well, I agree with you about if she actually takes offence, and I think it should say something that it took someone giving me real reasons to actually think about the more nefarious possibilities as to the site not being up for me to actually worry.
I just thought maybe people weren’t giving money, which was why I was so excited to (finally find) see the post about what had happened to the site. Also the reason why I even wrote this post 😛
And, slight backtrack, I am still confused about book guy.
Hmm.
I hope people who read this post actually read these comments, so that they can make an informed decision as to whether or not to donate, or to find out about what exactly has been happening with the site.
I think a lot of her stress is due to the people not getting in contact with her about the credit card and about the site it self… Stressful things in itself, as well as internet popularity. I personally don’t think it’s much important, but some people do. Then again, I have x amount of people giving me notifications, not xxx people 😉
I will obtain a credit card for her in her name hell any name if you know the right people look it is not hard to get means to pay over the internet. Don’t kid yourself at this point. If she told me anything that she needed I would get it to her with in two three nights at top five if its a passport.
🙂 Sadly I think you need personal information for that, and sending it out via the internet is not the wisest choice. I’m sure things will be figured out soon though, there’s only so much hemming and hawing the people at whichever credit company she’s contacting can do 😀
If she would just give us the domain information, we could all do a polite group spam to the provider saying “hi! so I hurd u wuz stallin'”
XD jkjkjk
True,,, I hadn’t actually realized that the site had been down for so little time before everyone started speculating about money being stolen. I mentioned that paypal will give back their money if they contact her and they can prove she signed in but ignored them, but it was only after someone assured me that they had added up the numbers people had donated and claimed that it was enough for months. Once again though, that wasn’t really malicious, and I don’t think the majority of the comments were malicious more than they were frantic. People ARE obsessed with the site.
I think it was a matter of people feeding off the fears of others, so everyone in the community got worked up about it. That, as well as the initial silence following the donations, which she put down to both a lack of internet and procrastination on her part.
I remember emailing the site years ago asking why they didn’t try to get money through advertising, and being told they were worried about x rated advertisements for gay sex sites.
Well that explains the lack of advertisements… i just thought that there was a place on the site that you could donate money at, and I just wasn’t seeing it.
It sucks when fear feeds fear
What really sucks is unless I have missed my guess no one has heard anything. This means that any money taken as a donation was essentially stolen as she had at least enough to open the site back up or post to stop donations and give the money back has she done so? I have posted on any place I can find her online and not gotten a response has anyone else had better luck?
Read the whole slew of comments in this post. There’s a huge debate about if the money was being used for the site or not, and apparently she’s paid off the debts that built up on the site, but now apparently needs to get a credit card of some sort due to the new paying-format that’s developed in order to hold onto a site.
I have been checking in very rarely now, have not quite given up on her getting the site up and running. If the cost is 40 per month that is easily within my budget. However, after posting that I would be willing to cover the costs if they were affordable, I just got insults from her response, because she is upset that she is not trusted!!!! How dare I ask for private information!
In actuality, I was just asking for accountability.
Sorry, just because my church asks for money doesn’t mean I give it without knowing why it is needed and how it is spent. Just look at the US government, they demand our taxes and waste it, despite the public having access to how it is used.
I have not seen progress on getting the Silver Snitch up to date, and so far am glad I have not “donated” to this person.
Good luck to all getting their money back.
Apparently she’s used a great deal of the money to pay off debts that built up from the site from before, and is saying that the new format for owning a site requires a credit card of some sort. That’s last I heard.
Is baffling and understandable that she got upset. She’s probably gotten a great deal of e-mails and whatnot accusing her of stealing the money, or for using it for something non-silver-snitch related…
But she obviously is having trouble with the site, and it’s not ‘not trusting’ her if someone offers to take the problem off her hands.
I’m actually impressed that you got a response though… From what I’ve been hearing, people have been complaining about her not getting back to them about anything :S
I still live in hope, and I hope that no one donated a ridiculously large amount on the off hand that she’s actually a fraud… or I hope that they at least used something other than paypal, because you can’t cancel a transaction with paypal…
:<
I know :C
Any news?
As far as I know, no progress. I haven’t been keeping up, just checking if the site is back up every now and then.
Checking her site about updates usually includes her freaking out about things happening in her life and people being a-holes to her about the speed (or lack there of) in which she’s putting the site back up… It’s hard to take it seriously when you have to read through all that flack to get that no, she still hasn’t gotten anything up yet.
It seems like she’s not even considering adding on anyone to help… We aren’t saying that she’s incompetent, just that perhaps in all her busy and hectic life, she might need some help.
I don’t know if she ever reads this post, but if she is: GET HELP.
This isn’t like not having a new chapter up in a story, it’s not like having stopped posting blog posts, no, this is the entire site down.
Keep your fingers crossed, but in the meanwhile, try >> archiveofourown . org << (archive of our own DOT org)
They have a lot of posts, and seem to be managing their accounts and file sizes well… also, their site is up and doesn't seem to take down stories because they have very clear warnings that can be given to stories.
Hope that helps.
I’m just really bummed, because I’d bookmarked a LOT of good stories on SilverSnitch, and hadn’t gotten around to saving them. I’ve been looking, but 90% of them are no where to be found now. I just wish she would at least put up the authors’ info so we could contact them ourselves.
I know 😦 It’s sad… but I know/remembered at least Voabiza, and she had three or four stories on the top ten most reviewed/liked/whatever thing so do check her out in the link I posted 🙂 I also suggest checking out “archive of our own (DOT) org”… you can choose the pairing and any other kinks you want, and it’s pretty good stuff 🙂
If the silversnitch does somehow, in a miracle, come back up do all the authors’ work stay there automatically or do all the authors have to re-post their works? Because if it is the latter then I am less hesitant to see it up when so many authors are on permanent hiatus.
I honestly don’t know. I think it depends on if anything was saved when the site was taken down, and if so, if it is still saved (and hasn’t ben deleted) even after all this time.
I can understand the sentiment, though, on the lack of hiatus stories…
So many stories I was waiting on…
But I found another site that’s pretty convenient, called Archiveofourown (dot) org… has many more options for ratings, and more tags and longer text space for summaries.
I strongly suggest you check it out. It’s pretty awesome.
=+= Seriously… I get that she has real life stuff going on but almost immediatly people said they would take this off her hands
try archiveofourown (dot) org …
It’s good as a replacement, and has a more extensive rating system than either tss or ffn.net…
Also has a lot on other fandoms… I’m really liking it, even though I’m still frustrated that tss STILL isn’t up.
It’s been more than a year. I think we’re all justified in our united “WTF?!’ front.
So are we all just giving up?
I think pretty much. But again, Archive of Our Own (Ao3) is looking to take up the mantle of a good fiction site, even if it isn’t specifically slash or Drarry, and has a lot more options than fanfiction dot net. But yeah, I’ve pretty much given up.
RIP TSS, RIP…
(Also FU moderator for failing in your job!)
(If you read this, I mean. You did respond to this once in your bloggy whatever thing.)
I’ve been out of the community for about a year and a half and just got back into it. I found out about a month ago that tss was down and emailed the creator (?) of tss to see if it was still in hopes of being put back up. One of my fav places ever to find fics.
Yeah, I”ve pretty much given up hope. The only reason why I’ve kept this post up is because people need to know that it’s pretty much down. If you check out the other comments on this, you can find links to known authors. otherwise I suggest ‘archive of our own’ (google it) as another great site to find fics
Sorry that you had to come back to a distinct lack of TSS
Thanks. I’ll look at the comments and archive of our own. Know any place I can post to find a specific fic that was on there?
No, though in the comments should be a link to Vorabiza, who had a number of stories in the Top tens.
Most people had their stories posted in multiple places, so f you look up keywords you should be able to find them.
Though, definitely check out Vorabiza, most people end up thinking of her stories when they want to re-read things…
Good luck finding the stories you’re looking for 🙂 Kudos if you find them too!
You had mentioned that somebody should just buy the site, whenever I go to the web site is says “this site may be fore sale”. What I worry about is that if I purchase the site (hopefully I purchase the correct one), am I also purchasing all the archive? What would happen if I purchased the site and they wiped everything off? Could I purchase it and keep all the great stories and everything else that it came with?
fleetzz (fleetzz@yahoo.com)
I don’t know. I can ask my hubby. But if its not too much, I can go in with you to purchase the site
If you guys do, keep me informed! I’m sure that if the archives are gone (a sad possibility) the authors will be willing to repost…
And if/when you buy the site, it’s not hard to set up a donations link to help keep the site up.
With how many people are interested in the site, even if everyone donates like $5 or less, it’ll help keep the site up.
But I really don’t know if the site (and there should be some sort of description, maybe) will have even any of the links or any of the archives…
Crossing my fingers for you!
Domain name and content are two separate things. You may be able to purchase the content, but it is not always assumed to be bought when buying the domain name.
Krishna
Hi Krishna,
The domain owner wants $7500 for the domain!!! That is WAY more than I ever expected.
fleetzz
Holy Merlin! $7500???? Wtf? Does the owner need a kidney or something?
…Holy O_O
Not acceptable….
And this is the owners asking price???
I put in a bid, low, and got an email inviting me to get the asking price since it wasn not an acceptable bid. So i responded yes. I will let you know what they come back with. I wonder if I have to ask for the content as well. I didn’t. But I can ask.
I put in a bid for ” thesilversnitch.net”
Is this correct? Damn, should have checked first.
Well, it is a mute point anyway. I just got the email back and the domain owner wants $7500 for it. I didn’t bother asking about the content. Now that, that is WAY over my budget.
I looked up thesilversnitch.co and it is available! so is thesilversnitch.us.
Unfortunately, the content is what I wanted to preserve, too bad we can’t just copy everything over. I wonder where everything goes when somebody stops paying the hosting bills.
Replying to everything here…
it IS thesiversnitch.net , but it’s the content we’re all interested in 😦
It’s ridiculous that the asking price is $7500 especially since people have been donating towards TSS for over 2 years now…
And that’s the asking price without the guarantee for all the content…
Yeesh.
If an entirely new site was set up, I’m sure people would be posting, but you’d need mediators and someone to continuously update the site…
hey, get in contact at scottie070406@gmail.com and we can talk about getting TSS up and running gain 🙂
Fleetzz and Doodle would you email me about this? My email is scottie070406@gmail.com.
I just saw this and emailed you.
Hi guys, I know this is a year late, but I think raising $7500 from the public should be no trouble. But the thing im wondering is, is the content for sale? I hope someone can get back to me on this!
I’m pretty sure she’s raised that much already.
I really don’t know if the content has been saved, or what, but from what I’ve heard quite a few people have gotten in contact with the person who had TSS, offering to help bring back the site, and has been brushed off.
The last update was in 2012.
I’m still hopeful, but I’m pretty sure it would have to be an entirely new site, so hey, if anyone wants to start up a new site, all they have to do is let me know and I’ll put a link here. *shrugs*
For some reason, I can’t see all of this text, it keeps disappearing? Are you using XHTML?
Nope. Are you looking at/for the comments, or the post itself? You can send me a message on my (honestly I made it up when I was in middle school and now mostly use it for fandom) e-mail at punk_elmo93@hotmail.com and I can send you a screencap or the text itself.
About TSS though: Not likely going to happen. I remember the site fondly, but it’s probably not getting back up again. Stories posted there have probably been posted elsewhere. I have no clue if the original creator of The Silver Snitch is still asking for donations to ‘get the site back up’ or whatever. I don’t know why it’s disappearing for you, but send me what you’re looking for and I’ll do my best to help out.
I’ve been able to use the wayback machine to browse authors and fic titles but none of the actual content is archived.
Yeeah, only way you’re going to get to fics from TSS now is if the authors posted elsewhere… And of the stories I remember from the site, just Vorabiza stands out in my memory as an author.
I’ve been looking all over for a fic called Aberrant by PauraSorridere with no luck 😦
Mmm, only thing I can say is maybe they didn’t post it under the same username? I like keeping the same username, but some people don’t. Looking up HARRY POTTER FANFICTION “ABERRANT” will give google something specific to look for in the title, and if you remember a specific line from the fic (I know it’s been a long time) then include that in separate “X”.
Also asking on tumblr is usually helpful, just tag it ‘fic finder’. Ppl are unusually helpful 🙂