Sigh...

[borgmama1of5]

When I see a long fic, over 7000 words, I usually copy the html link and I save it in my gmail in a draft labeled "Need to Read" so I can read it when I have time.

I had at least 60 stories saved in that draft.

I accidentally deleted it this morning and didn't realize it until just now.

I am very sad.

Comments

[raloria.livejournal.com]

You mean it's not still in the trash folder?

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Nope, I investigated...when you delete a draft in gmail, it's gone. If I'd sent it to myself and then deleted the mail, then it would be in trash.

[raloria.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sorry. That sucks, B. *hugs*

You might want to try using Google Drive instead for things like that. It saves your document continually and even saves past changes.

[phyllis2779.livejournal.com]

Yes, sometimes mail can be undeleted, depending on how often you e-mail trash is programmed to be finally deleted.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

When you delete a draft it doesn't go into the trash. It's just erased. Believe me, I researched like crazy to see if I could find a loophole.

[sw0rdy.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I have lots of 'To Read' fics but I'm not organised enough to store them where I can find them. I hope you can find some of them again. :(

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

:(

Thanks for the sympathy.

[jennygeee.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry, that is terrible!

I usually save the pdf in my external hard drive, of there's not a pdf I usually make one or if I'm really lazy I just save the link in my favourites.

xoxo

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

These were ones I was going to pdf but hadn't gotten around to yet, so it was just the link to it. :(

[anactoria.livejournal.com]

Damn! I hope you manage to find some of them again.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

I didn't have any of yours on the list, I've read what I've found of yours right away!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Argh! I feel your pain... I save all my 'to read' fics on my laptop and those folders are all backed up on Dropbox (I love it because it updates everything automatically every time I'm connected to the internet so I don't have to think about it).

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

I just had a list of the links to them. :(

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I've done that too - one way round it for the future - copy the links into a word document and save that on Dropbox or similar as well as on your computer.

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

Oh no!!!!!!!!!! I'm so sad for you!!! :-( can you recreate anything? like "I remember this writer" or "it was this challenge, check master list" and pick it up? (OMG I'm sure not 60, but maybe a couple of dozen?)

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Well, it consisted of the links to fic over 7000 words posted on a friend's journal or a rec page on LJ anytime over the last 18 months...minus the ones I had time to read...

Thanks for the sympathy, though.

[kazluvsbooks.livejournal.com]

OH NOES!!! That's awful. (((hugs)))

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Your icon...exactly...

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Oh no, what a nightmare.
*hug*

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Appreciate the hug and sympathy.

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Ack!!!!!

((hugs))

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[sandymg.livejournal.com]

This is why AO3 is the best. I wish everyone posted there. Do you use their Bookmark feature? It's the best!

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

You'll have to tell me about that feature, I have never used it. Although usually I dl the AO3 stories right away and kindle them. It's the 50000 word LJ ones I mostly lost...

[metallidean-grl.livejournal.com]

Oh man that just absolutely sucks.

I had a similar experience when my desk top hard drive failed on me over a year ago. I hadn't backed up my computer in over a year so all the fics that I had saved in that year were gone. Thankfully, a super genius tech was able to recover my hard drive, otherwise all those fics would have been lost. It is very unfortunate you totally lost those fics. I save all the fics I want to read as a pdf to my hard drive, and then my hard drive is backed up several times a day. I'm not taking anymore chances on losing stuff on my computer.

I hope you were at least able to recover some of the stories you had saved.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Sadly, those fics to be read are gone for good.

OTOH I already have a long new list...

[justmep2.livejournal.com]

Oh this sucks!
If it's any consolation, since hiatus started there are tons of new fics posted daily so I'm sure you'll be able to find some that you'll like and make yourself a new reading queue.

I usually save fics I find as epubs (there's two very simple chrome/firefox extensions to allow this, if you're interested I can send you a link to a tutorial), or bookmark them temporarily with Pocket or permanently with Pinboard.
These are all very simple solutions (also faster than copying the fic to Gmail), it's not bullet proof but it would be probably safer.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Yep, I already have a new list that will take a while to get through!