I don't think anyone's talking about copying other people's work and posting THAT to AO3. That'd be flat out plagiarism. However, I have iffy feelings about making a wayback copy as well. Is that not also taking the original post out of control of the poster?
Example. Ten years ago, Sally posts a hot take about Star Wars fandom. I respond with my own hot take on her post, and link back to Sally's post. We all have a nice long wank about it because it's Star Wars fandom, and it's just always gonna be wanky.
Ten years go by, both my post and Sally's are still unlocked, but no one's looked at them in years. Now I want to post what I thought were some pretty good Star Wars thoughts to AO3 as part of the meta project, but my post is in conversation with Sally's. Do I a) edit in context and leave Sally out of it, but without quoting her directly either, b) link back to Sally's original post, c) link back to a wayback copy of Sally's original post?
If I link back to Sally, I have a reasonable to good chance of stirring up Star Wars wank she probably would like to have forgotten about ten years ago. If I make a wayback copy of Sally's post, it's still got her name on it! And now she can't lock it to shut down the wank because the copy is out of her control. And, given that my example is Star Wars, there probably WILL be wank.
Overall, I think editing out the links, and adding some vague context like: "Fan discussion of X topic made me think of Y."
no subject
Example. Ten years ago, Sally posts a hot take about Star Wars fandom. I respond with my own hot take on her post, and link back to Sally's post. We all have a nice long wank about it because it's Star Wars fandom, and it's just always gonna be wanky.
Ten years go by, both my post and Sally's are still unlocked, but no one's looked at them in years. Now I want to post what I thought were some pretty good Star Wars thoughts to AO3 as part of the meta project, but my post is in conversation with Sally's. Do I a) edit in context and leave Sally out of it, but without quoting her directly either, b) link back to Sally's original post, c) link back to a wayback copy of Sally's original post?
If I link back to Sally, I have a reasonable to good chance of stirring up Star Wars wank she probably would like to have forgotten about ten years ago. If I make a wayback copy of Sally's post, it's still got her name on it! And now she can't lock it to shut down the wank because the copy is out of her control. And, given that my example is Star Wars, there probably WILL be wank.
Overall, I think editing out the links, and adding some vague context like: "Fan discussion of X topic made me think of Y."