Maybe you were going through all your old favorites, or checking out the bottom of your "read later" pile. Maybe you link-hopped from story to user to story and aren't entirely sure how you got there. However you arrived, you're there, currently looking at a dead story.

I don't mean cancelled. I don't mean placed on hiatus. And I certainly do not mean a story that was started and then abandoned before it even had a chance to stretch its metaphorical wings. I mean a story that was going well, continuing strong, sharing a message, coming to life; but suddenly the author disappeared. Weeks, months pass; they don't even log on anymore. No blog post sharing real-life troubles, no post proclaiming "zomg I'm leaving teh fandom five-ever!!!11!!!1!", they just... disappeared into the background. And with no author to fuel the world, it, too, faded away; dying long before its due time.

This group finds those stories. We share those stories. We remember what others have forgotten.

We mean not to mock the real-life challenges of these vanished authors. Perhaps there are circumstances beyond their control that we are ignorant of. What we do mean to do is give stories that have died before their intended end another chance at being heard.

So read these stories. Find inspiration, learn from the past, and remember.