She's DarkLight, Paradoxically Bright

I think I've always had some of the "archivist tendency" to document, back up, and archive things that would otherwise be lost, especially those things that most people don't see the value in. I think I inherited it from my dad. One of his job titles is actually "archivist". 

Anyway, this is going to be a weird post, but does anyone else remembers Matmice, a web host for kids and teens from the 00s? If so, do you remember the novel/story sites where people posted fiction they wrote? Most of the "novels" weren't novel length. They were more like serial stories. Matmice didn't let you create multi-page websites, so users would instead link together a bunch of individual pages, each of which had different accounts and passwords (though in practice people often reused the passwords and had their entire collection of accounts hacked by bored teenagers with nothing better to do.) It really was impressive what some of these kids were able to do given the limitations.

So, generally each novel would have a main page with links to different pages for each chapter. I never made a Matmice site myself, but I would religiously follow the "novels" and check in multiple times a week on some of them to see if there were new chapters.. When I found out Matmice was shutting down sometime in like 2007 (EDIT: it was apparently 2008), I opened up Microsoft Works and backed up copies of every single one I was aware of, copying and pasting every chapter for each story into its own file. All in all, I saved over 200 different stories. Most were never finished, but a few were. Some were fanfiction of something else, while others were original. There was even some fanfiction of other Matmice novels.

For like 12 years I thought the files were lost to time, since the computer I used at the time of archiving got a nasty virus in 2009. I didn't touch the computer for years because I was terrified of the confirmation of my files being gone. But in 2021 I recovered a bunch of files from the hard drive, which I had to extract from the computer and connect to my Macbook using cables I bought on Ebay. These files included the Matmice novels.

They were in an old Microsoft Works file format (.wps) I could no longer open (like most of my documents), so I found file conversion software and now I have a bunch of pdfs of old, often cringy stories written by kids and teens in the mid-00s that are probably lost media outside of my hard drive. Now what?

If somehow you remember any of these (or wrote one!), feel free to email me at metaparadox11 at gmail dot com and I'll send you a pdf, but I don't plan to post these anywhere publicly for ethical reasons.

Sadly, it seems like a lot of similar story/novel sites on Freewebs or Buddy4u, cringe as they were, are long since completely lost to time. Rest in pixels.

Here's a list of the stories/novels I have in my "archive":

The Vintage Girls
A High School Love
The Story of a Girl
Journey (this one was very popular and even had fanfiction of it)
The Devil's Territory (this was the sequel to Journey)
The Protectors
Yellow High Heels
Starless Academy
Welcome to the Band
Just My Luck
Alex Can You See Me
Strut Like You Mean It
Happeh Teeth
Triple Threat
Random Life
Catz Novel
Left Handed Girl
Soundproof
Mismatched
Diary of a Teenage Soul
The Diary of a Tween
A Teenage Diary
Last Days
Truth Novel
Seven Days
Normal Girl
Lex Hunter
Ashes
Flames
Albino
Hannah Montana's French Adventure
My Fairytale
Untolled Storie
The Teenage Drama
Fallen Novel
The Last Three Weeks
Luv is Nothing
Shock of Your Lifetime
Warriors Book
Heiress Novel
Adonia
Trashy Awful Stories
Baily Novel
The Getaway
Rise of the Warrior
Life Novel
Outcast
From the Heart
Just 15
I Can Fly
The No Names
The Fairies
Ocean Enchantment
Cheetahpaw's Journey
Warrior - A Novel
Tafara
Elvenlands
Can You Take Me Away
Cardboard Wings
Black - Journey Fanfiction
The Fight
The Black and White Ball
Breathe
Untitled
Willowhand
The Land of Asteri
The Blood Poems
The Blood Songs
The Life and Times of Cielo Draw
A Summer Story
Absolutely Fabulous
All About Atika
Anime Novel
Bliss Novel
Call Me Later
Ciao Bella
Dramatic Benders
Tales of Evil Pooh, Elmo, and Millie the Kitty
Rose Enchanted
Fashion Assassin
Do You Believe
Elwyn
Endure School
DarkRider
The Doghouse
Guilty
I Ain't Fakin' It
The Golden Locket
Junior High Drama
The Group
TreeClan Writing
Moonlight
Season
The Realms
Lies and Secrets
Lost Souls
Lucy Cringalot
Life At Random's Random Stories!
Loveluck813
MerPrincess Aquaria
Nami's Journal
Not Just for Christmas
Tim's Stories
No One But Strangers
The Orphan
Perfect Novel
Populaire
Real in Reality
All About the Stories
The Timekeeper
Shay
Show Me How
Sparky Rainbow - The Blog Story
Stalked
Sundown
The Land of Klyidom
Fate
Story of a Young Teenager
Take Me Away
That Fateful Day
Totally Impact
Totally Me
Tragic Hearts - A Camp Rock Novel
Unique - The Story of Vanessa Danson
Verbs
Wizard
Zandora's Grove
Decizouris Novel
Sunset Hill
Dorky
A Book About Nobody
But... I Love You
The Writer's Block
Elite Novel
Twilight
Overcast (this was also a popular one)
Brain Freeze
Finding Myself
Flipped
The Servant's Revenge
The Experience
Into the Darkness
If You Can Dream
Your Ghost Stories
Love Life
Angel, Mina, Demon-Book 1- Little Girls Grow Up Fast
Black Novel
Moonlight Novel
Castella's Tale
The Throne is for the Pure
Zowie's Writing Challenge
Never Look Back
The Amulets
Aesop's Nightmare Opera
Doomsday Comics
The Pitiful Adventures of Scab and Pig
The Orphan
Heartbeat
Wait I Made You a Muffin
Heavenly Muffins
Oceanclan Entries
Thunderclan Story
Warriors 001
Cliffclan Elder's Den
Gladeclan Elder's Den
Lame Novels
A Girls Guide to Love
A Girls Guide to Parties
How to Remain Sane
LoveLost
Disused Love
Love is Joanna
Nomeyo Valley
Skies of Onyx
Leslie's Tears
U May Even Be a Popstar
Wow Based Saga
Unloved by Everyone
Cindy Rell
Hidden
Girls Glammer
Mirror
Outcast - Confessions of a Teen
Written
Story of a Nobody
The Protectors
Just Like a Butterfly
A Frindre's Tale
A Frindre's Tale Version 2
Ezi's Tree
Lola Novel
Me, Nothing, and You
Never-Ending Novel
Ponovel
Writing Center
Annette Novel
Fringleton
Ringo Power
The Dummies in the Attic
My Story Warriors
Scary-Stories - The House of the Dead
SQIZOID VS SHADOW GUY AND GLAM GAL
The Great Escape
Good Advice
The Truth is Told
The Color of Love
Aamir Saga
Claire and Charles
The Freeway
My Big Fat Teen Diary
The Life of Young Katie
The Melodie Mysteries
The Adventures of Evil Pooh
Your Eyes
Love, Life, and Loneliness
My Emo Romance
Teenage Tragedy
Hilary Starr Stories
Diary of a Tween
Diary of a Confused Tween
Freddie's Fight
Scribble It
The Opening
Everlasting
Delicate Kiss
Born in Hell