On January 15th the collaborative short fiction website Ficlets will close its doors. The shut-down has created a vacuum for authors who write, post, and collaboratively compose stories.
Some of these writers have moved to Protagonize, a flourishing site where members create Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style fiction and build interactive stories. In a recent blog post, Protagonize founder Nick Bouton addressed what the closure means for other collaborative sites:
“I have had a few authors on the site email me and voice their concerns primarily about the deluge of re-posted material from Ficlets, which is shutting down for good later this week … Re-posted content can be a little tough to deal with in an established collaborative community, as our existing authors aren’t really sure if they can contribute or not. I would ask that if you are re-posting material from another source, that you please clarify whether it’s okay for people to contribute to it in the author guidance for the story.”