TG Web Archive

Date	Log
3/26-3/29/23	Began adding site content, starting with the TGG 1997 pages. Updated the home page. A little bare but it'll do. Recreated About and built temp page for the Gallery
3/25/23	Took a bit off, but finally back again. Figured out new sitemap and started implementing. Changed site name to TG Web Archive.
3/16/23	Not a lot of site updates so far tonight but I've been working for a few hours on research and clarifying the purpose of the site. Through all the a.o snapshots of the specific page that the TGG personals were hosted on in 97, but I'm sure they just changed the specific URL. Before looking for the new URL I decided to check out a bit more on TGG and holy shit there is so much. I think I've figured out the scope of what I'm doing here, and potentially a name. I think "TG Web Archive" is broad enough to be consistently finding stuff to add, but not so broad that anyone (or any institution) is doing it so far as I can tell. It also makes what I'm looking for pretty accessible to me, as mostly it'll be about searching through a.o instead of trying to get access to physical media that is costly, already archived digitally, or inaccessible to me physically. The original scope--erotic creative work--is really just... too few in quantity, or perhaps I just havent found the right source. Either way, this change would give me the space to archive such work if I come across it, but also doesn't limit me if I can't find it. I created a research doc with threads I can pull on once I decide how this will be organized. Archiving the personals has been important but I won't lie and say that this isn't a nice change of pace for this work. It will feel like less of a slog once I get back to it. Potential reorganized sections: Sites (for history of them, description of their content,etc), Personals, Writings (notable old site content), Contemporary (a place to host modern essays, erotica, etc.), and About. Wanting to jump the gun and change the site name right away but I will be a good boy and not lean into my impulsivity.
3/15/23	Added two more pages of personals. Unless TGGuide changed the page name of their personals pages, I've now cataloged all the ones available on archive.org. I feel so intensely sucked into this project, perhaps to an unhealthy degree, yet I feel compelled to continue. Fixed issue with mobile formatting on personals pages.
3/14/23	Added more personals and created a curated page. Did not fully realize the emotional labor that this work requires. In many ways I have been brought back to my teenagerdom on similar personals pages, chat rooms, etc. I have managed to stay mostly grounded.
3/13/23, pt III	Changed "Other Faggotry" to "Personals" and archived a page of personals from tgguide from March of 1997. I have basically given myself a data entry job. I had to manually scrub every email, last name, and link from the text. Perfect project to start while unemployed, I can think of no better use of my time. Thinking about broadening the site's focus, but struggling with outline the specific ethos in words. Maybe its just the "Not Like Other Tgirls" in me but "trans erotica archive" doesn't hit for me like T4T Erotica Archive does. Anyway, I'm expanding the scope of the project outside of purely erotica. I want to add an essays/personal stories section. Had a great conversation with an older trans man while in a chatroom with a lot of middle aged trans people after I asked if anyone knew of any old trans forums or sites from the late 90's or early 00's. We talked about a number of things and he mentioned a trans erotica anthology he got at a convention called Gender Oddyssey. He couldn't remember the name of the book, but remembered a story called "The Bears' Den" from it that he quite enjoyed. He also spoke of how wonderful the convention was, and I asked if he was interested in writing out his experiences at it to be shared on the site. He seemed interested, but also was trying to hit on me by the end, I think, so it's hard to say. Nice guy, seemed really lonesome. Either way, that's the sort of stuff I want to host on the site, not just erotic art. I'll have to change About and get rid of some of my nutso ramblings. One of the women in the chatroom mentioned a site called Boy to Woman, but cryptically said "I think it was fake though," or something to that effect. I'll have to look into it more. Turning in for the night, stayed up a half hour past my bedtime to get the first set of personals finished and to write this log.
3/13/23, pt II	Finished Visual Art section for desktop. Adapted to mobile suprisingly easily (thanks ChatGPT). Reaching out to people who mentioned they wanted to contribute. Still need to create artist pages, but until I see if most image contributions are single images or sets, I think I'll hold off cuz that will change how I proceed. Tried to get t4t-erotica.net registered but it's being held for... I'm not sure how long. Once it gets released I'll make the site have that custom domain.
3/13/23	Began work on Visual Art section. Tried to do do Home but was struggling with float and honestly probably just need to get on a call with Darv about it. Image page suprisingly easier since it's just a table. Since the mobile body max-width is like 90% or something, it actually displays alright on mobile without any changes, but I would much prefer if on mobile only one image was displayed per row so they can be seen in more clarity without having to click through. For now, it's fine and I think I just need to fuck around and do nothing. Will probably finish desktop formatting for the gallery later tonight. Once the home page is finished, I want to make some more social media posts letting people know the site exists and that they can submit things.
3/12/23, pt IV	Created changelog page. Added changelog link to About. Temporarily deleted archived copy of This Celtic Heart/The Old Stone Cottage By The Sea, opting for only link instead of link and mirror. Reached out to arhivist at Leather Archives to discuss the ethics of archiving. Considering changing site name to clarify its purpose (not 'trans' exclusive), but keeping for now.
3/12/23, pt. III	Added a link to an off-site writing and began to create an on-site archive, but have been stopped in my tracks by ethics. I feel paralyzed. Is an author posting their writing in one context inherent permission for it to be displayed in any context for the sake of "archiving?" How could anyone say besides the author themself? What if the author is unreachable? Is their work just destined to be lost and eventually inaccessible, or extremely difficult to access? Culture deserves to be preserved, but does that preservation require stripping a creator of their autonomy? I feel trapped and sort of want to just delete the whole site and pretend these last few days never happened.
3/12/23, pt. II	Literature, story pages, and About are all formatted for mobile and desktop. Just now noticed that on mobile the site title in the header changes sizes depending on what page I'm on for some reason. I'm sure it'll be an easy fix. A changelog page might be a useful addition since my next move is probably getting this page ready, but not worth taking up space on the header, so I'll probably just put a link somewhere on About. Thinking about getting up some of the old BF Planet stories now just so there's more stuff up than a single story. It's been a few years since I read any of them, so I'd have to go through them. I sorta wanna keep going and figure out the homepage but it's a bit past 4am right now so I will probably call it quits for now. Tomorrow will probably just be finishing the home page, figuring out a good home page image, and maybe trying to start on the Visual Art Gallery if the Home page goes well. It'll be a lot of the same principles.
3/12/23, pt. I	Responsive formatting for story pages AND header now complete. Mobile support is not finished, I still have to do the About and Home page, and probably should probably do the Literature page as well. At least I'll be able to build the Visual Art section with the knowledge I have of media queries. Still, I think it's going to be a nightmare. About page changes: Special Thanks section, cleaned up, changed pdf display to pdf link, and adapted to mobile view.
3/11/23	Spent the last two days just trying to figure out why my css to make the site better viewable on mobile wasnt working. Finally got it, although certain rules are still not applying. I'll be able to check that off soon. Story page formatting is done on desktop, mobile formatting for story page will be finished next, then the rest of the site will be mobile-ified. After all that will likely be the image pages. Planning on a main gallery page with a single photo from each set that you can then click on to open a page with all photos from that set with more info from the creator about the the work. That one's gonna take a fucking while.
3/8/23-3/10/23	Created site in html after trying and failing to figure out wordpress. Header and basic blocks element created by Darv. Basic formatting worked on. First story posted, mostly to figure out how formatting should be.