Does it make me a really, really bad person that I get really pissed when someone deletes their fic/journal?

And I mean, 'ARG! THAT IS SO FREAKING ANNOYING!' and then the really awful bit: 'WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?/HOW DARE YOU!?'

I do realise that having a sense of entitlement over a story that belongs to someone else is completely irrational and kind of dickheaded, but that's just the reaction I get.

Now, I realise people often/usually have very good reasons for talking their fics offline. Abuse, C&Ds, publishing, RL pressure, but there are so many better ways of handling things than just vanishing. And I also feel that hello, this is the INTERNET, if you've already put something out there, it's out there, you can't stop the signal, dudes!

When someone like Maya took her fanfic offline, she gave months of notice and put everything into a PDF that people could download to their own machines. She knew that someone would probably host it, but the point was that she couldn't, due to getting original work published, and that the number of new readers would be greatly reduced. She didn't want to cut her old readers who had loved those stories for years, she just had to take them offline. Managed! With grace!

So, I dunno, when I see people just up and vanish, it really ticks me off, because for one thing, their fics are NOT lost, it is highly likely that even if the internet doesn't store them any more, someone will have it on their HD and it will eventually be hosted via some storyfinders page somewhere. So, I dunno, if you've got issues, I wish people would either follow Maya's example, or just, I dunno, freeze all comments everywhere on their journal and slap up a 'I'm leaving. Goodbye' post.

In the end, of course it's any writer's right to leave the internet or remove their fic, I just wish people would realise that, a) it's kind of futile, and b) it's really hurtful to the people who have become emotionally connected to those stories over the years.

Anyway, this wasn't pointed at anyone in particular, I was just reminded of it this morning as I trawled through the internet archive to try and grab all the fic of an author I really like who has gone bye-bye.

Now I have to stop procrastinating and face up to the, 'You know I love you despite your freaky sexuality, right?' text I got from my Dad this morning. Oh joy. :/