I don' know if this has ever been suggested or if it is even possible, but what about emails that tell a reader when an author has updated a story...Chapter Alerts...or something like that

@ Jan 04, 2005 09:52 am

Definitely contests, but not the silly kind that require mentioning such-and-such object and using the word "argelfraster". A serious contest is what I'm trying to say, I guess!
Overall, though, I'm pretty pleased with the way everything is!

tudorrose1533 @ Jan 04, 2005 02:17 pm

Always interested in challenges, they're a great way to expand our skills! Also, some of the other archives who use eFiction have a section called "View Unanswered Reviews" on the "Account User Page" - I know I find this handy and wondered if it were possible to implement here. I'd also just like to tell you all that you've done a great job and the hard work of the site mummies is always appreciated :D

dragonsangel68 @ Jan 04, 2005 02:53 pm

First of all, Thanks so much for this wonderful site, i think a cool feature would be like a link to find betas, it would be very helpful. Happy New Year!

Draco Luva @ Jan 04, 2005 06:42 pm

I would really like to see more of everything. Well, specifically, a round robin would be fun, but also I think it would be a good learning tool. It would give authors the chance to just see what they can do with themselves. Also, big fat Draco Kisses to all of you guys who put so much time and effort into the site, it is really appreciated. I also just had an idea to encourage reviews...you could award fan-art to author's stories when they review a certain amount of times. Sort of like Schnoogle or Literotica, if you leave a certain number of comments you get an avatar...maybe you could do something like that. Thanks again, and Happy New Year.

SlytherinsWench @ Jan 04, 2005 07:09 pm

I would like to thank you and the lovely Miss Meghan for this site. It is wonderful to be able to have tons of Draco and Ginny all in one place. It would be nice, however, to have some sort of rating system. You know, someway of telling what other readers have thought of a fic.

lielabell @ Jan 04, 2005 07:30 pm

I would love to have a few contests/challenges to really get the creative juices going. Plus, having a deadline attached may spur a few of us slowpokes *coughmecough* to greater heights. Best wishes to all in the New Year! Cheers!

sweetproserpina @ Jan 04, 2005 07:31 pm

First, I really love the site; it's a good resource for D/G fans! And like Elle Blessingway, I too would like an 'Author Alert' of when a new chapter is posted. I tend to get several chapters behind on works in progress, even if I really like them, just because I don't pay close attention to “Recently Added.” I'd be much more likely to finish reading a fic if I got an e-mail about new chapters. Regarding contests, I personally am not that big on them; I write when I feel like it and when I'm inspired, and my stories are about whatever comes to mind. But if you want to have them, go for it! A ratings system would also be nice. Thanks again for this fabulous web site - you guys do an awesome job!!!! :D

Sue Bridehead @ Jan 05, 2005 06:01 am

Oh, one more thing: Could there be a "Recently Completed" section (wouldn't include poetry, essays, or short stories), so we know when a work in progress has been finished? Just an idea.

Sue Bridehead @ Jan 05, 2005 06:06 am

I love this site, first off. I'ts great for all of us F&Iers. It would be cool to have a fanart section here.(I understand why you wouldn't though, it does take up bandwith) But I think more contests and challenges would be good and entice to get involved more!

pinksunryse @ Jan 06, 2005 02:51 am

I love this site as well! I really love the way it is set out and how easy everything is to find. I review alot, almost everything I read, and I really think that maybe if you had a 'reviewer of the month' or something, maybe more people would tell the author how much they liked their work - but just a thought... if anyone is wondering why they have never seen my pen name attached to reviews it is because I am lazy and forget to sign in, I always review by the name Laurels :D Thanks to the Admins for all their hard work *hugs* - Laurels

The Emerald Queen @ Jan 08, 2005 06:01 pm

I've never participated in a round robin, but I reckon it would definitely be an idea to build a stronger sense of d/g community togetherness. Besides, (and this is just my opinion) people may review more if they kinda know the author a bit better... I dunno O__o Rea.

@ Jan 08, 2005 11:03 pm

I fell in love with this site very fast and I am recently joined. I want to congratulate everyone on this site and wonderful community.
Personally, I like challenges, serious and silly. They're a lot of fun. I don't participate much but it's cool to see how many different ways people can respond to one challenge.
~B

RavenJaguar12 @ Jan 09, 2005 05:23 am

First off, I really appreciate all the work you guys have put into this site to make it so great and lovely.

Also, there is an itty bitty thing that'd be cool if it is possible to code, namely some kind of e-mail alert that an author has answered a review - somtimes I only notice a review reply months after I posted that review.

Then somebody suggested a rating system - I myself am not so fond of this, because everybody has a different take on what constitutes good and bad. We had something like that on Portkey once, but got rid of it because of that reason, and because of the abuse - flamers love to leave more than one review with a very bad rating to drag the average rating down dramatically. Also, I, as an author am not really keen on my fics to be 'rated' because, in my experience, reviews that praise a story as "one of the best so and so I read in ages" and then give it a mediocre rating just point up the hypocrisy of some reviews, something that I'd rather be ignorant than aware of. Just my thoughts on that matter.
Author and/or Chapter alerts would be really cool - they encourage people to read a story even if they forgot about it.
Rea Yume brought up a very good point about the Round Robin, and it'd be interesting to see where that would go, but I'm not entirely sure how that could be coded, unless it's done in a manner much as I'm writing now, which would make it rather hard to comment on single RR posts, though *scratches head*. Oh well, perhaps you or someone else can think of something.

~Ri

Szaranea @ Jan 11, 2005 04:18 am

For round Robins, it would seem to me that it would be hard for people to all post to the one story. So I think if a round robin had a leader and all parts got sent to that person to be posted, it would work well....

I am also not fond of the rating system. It is a bit harsh to me to put a number value on something someone has worked hard on to write.

The Emerald Queen @ Jan 11, 2005 09:34 pm

I think that having some fanart would be a brilliant thing for D&G.com. But I think it would be necessary to restrict it to D&G only and that way you would be able to change the site skin more frequently and perhaps the members could even vote which skin we use.

@ Jan 12, 2005 02:16 pm

Contests would be really awesome, and fanart would be really nice. My favorite idea is having the sites awards. I'm already making a mental list of what stories I would nominate:P

Onylin @ Jan 17, 2005 03:51 pm

I'd like to echo everyone's comments about thank you and Megh for all your hard work in maintaining this site. I'd like also like to commend you (if this was an hmtl thing you changed) on the slight change I noticed recently whereby each page now has the title of the story on it. Previously, if I had 5 windows with different stories open they all read "dracoandginny: Proudly flying th flag of true love..." and now they show the name of the story. A small change but it helps when scrolling through many open windows.
Suggestions that I would have include: 1. I love the idea of contests and as a non-writer, I would be interested in sponsoring contests too. I don't have the knowledge or energy to create my own livejournal to have my own DG contest but maybe users could sponsor contests by buying the prizes (a small price to pay for DG fic) and setting the parameters? 2. I would like to see some sort of drop down menu to give feedback to fics. Although I don't mind ratings, and find it useful when deciding to read something, I can understand that its bothersome to some writers. Sometimes, I am just too lazy to write a review for a fic (usually when I'm eating and reading at the same time) and it would be nice to have some sort of easy to click, pre-selected feedback so I can least ackowledge to the author that I've read their story. Maybe it doesn't have to be a numerical rating but other choices? 3. Please find a way to give us updates by email. That would be sweet! 4. I love the idea of a 'beta exchange'. For example, I'd be happy to beta someone's work but how do you get your name out there? 5. Awards - it would be fun to have story of the month or week or whatever and let the readers vote on this. Or to have us write a review/recommendation of a story that we really like and you place that on the home page. Sort of a reader's choice. 6. Again, thanks for all you do!!!

wcoast_girl @ Jan 18, 2005 11:06 pm

HPFF has some great features such as View Unanswered Reviews and Favorite Author alerts when they update. I don't know how you'd go about finding those scripts but perhaps if you e-mailed the site admin, he might be able to tell you (though it might take a while for him to get back to you).

RowenaMcKinnon @ Jan 20, 2005 06:32 am

I know for a fact that the list you created a while ago listing the top ten most read fanfics was a really good idea - I read all ten and was mightily impressed. So I think that for my tuppenceworth, I'd like to see a monthly 'Top ten most read' fanfic list.

Myanceris @ Jan 21, 2005 07:54 am

I like the idea of chapter alerts as well. But I was thinking, what about a permanent chatroom? The d/g community could get to know one another, exchange ideas, theories, discuss the books etc. I am a member of the Derbyshire Writer's Guild at austen.com and we added one of those a while ago and it proved really popular. I am not usually a great chatroom fan, but I liked the JA chat and I think that a d/g chat would be interesting. The chatroom drew more Jane Austen fans and generated more fan fics as well. - Elise

LadyEndymion @ Jan 25, 2005 08:50 am

I'm not sure if someone has suggested this yet, because I'm way too lazy to read through all the comments. First off, I'd like to say that I love this site. It has become my favorite fanfiction site. I do have one one suggestion/comment. I've noticed that when you go the categories and sort them by rating or character or genre, it only sorts for the first page. As soon as you click on the link for the next page, it reverts back to all the fanfictions in this category. It is very annoying, and if it could be fixed, I know I would really appreciate. Thank you so much for all your hard work! The site is great!

enoimreh @ Jan 29, 2005 05:20 pm

Wow, you have gotten some wonderful responses here. I am a little behind the times but oh well. I would also like to thank you Sharlene and Megh for giving us this wonderful site to archieve D/G stories.

It's nice to be able to have a site totally dedicated to them. I also appreciate that fact that you have had the foresite to review submissions so that......how do I put this delicately. It is frustrating at other when you have to wade through a large number of stories that are poorly written; net speak or written by teeny-boopers. I mean no offense to younger writers as some have put out good work but others have not.

So thank you for reviewing stories before putting them up on the boards. I myself have had to go back and fix things up before my story would be posted, it encouraged me to get a beta reader which has proven to be a very good thing.

One of the nice things is when the reviewer leave comments when notification is sent. While I understand that it is not possible every time but to get comments from you guys is very inspiring.

I agree that chapter alerts would be a positive addition to the site. For the writers who have extended periods of time between updates this would assure them that people are getting a chance to see their work.......when there are a large number of submissions your story doesn't always stay on the home page very long and people miss the update.

Rating systems are both good and bad..........the cabal does a good job of ensuring the quality of submissions which is a problem at other sites. It could be a good stick to measure by but then if you have someone reading who doesn't particualy like a certain genre giving a lower rateing. For example: I much prefer humor/romance/drama to angst. I do read stories with angst as their catagory and I do enjoy some as a rule they are not always my favorite. I'm not sure everyone would be objective enough to comment on the quality of the writing in that situation.

Contests are a wonderful suggestion especially after reading all the wonderful entries for Jade and Serena's 'The Feast' on live journal. Themed contests would be an excellent way to generate more fics and hopefully reviews.

I liked a couple of suggestions for encouraging reviews especially sighned reviews. Even the drop down menu of comments has some merit. I think an email alert of review replies might encourage people to sign in when leaving reviews. I do try to go back and comment from time to time in case anyone checks the reviews of my stories. I know at LJ we have some interesting dialogue when this happens and if done through email would hopefully not cause the website too much trouble.

Site awards would be nice also but I understand that they take up someones time and energy so I do not know how you would go about setting something like this up.

I know that bandwidth costs money but perhaps a survey to see if people would be willing to cough up a couple bucks to make it possible to expand the site to offer D/G fanart.

I love fanart and I wish there was more artists who drew my favorite pairing I'd be in heaven. Thank god for cupid12203 for her beautiful work. If perhaps FIA would sponser a contest on LJ to bring more people into our ship or perhaps an art for fic exchange?

I have seen at hpff that banners have been created to go with stories. Perhaps if we could hook up those who make the banners with writers (like me) who have no clue how we could have that here as well.

I also like the idea of a fic of the month and perhaps a forum here also. I have found at LJ that alot of the D/G writers here are wonderful people and what a great way to tie our community together. With a forum perhaps we could do a something similiar to a book discussion group for a featured story.

Truthfully almost all ideas suggested here have some merit. It would depend on the ability of our wonderful administrators to included these things because in the end it all costs money and the willingness of the rest of us to help them make these other features available.

As usual I was long winded and I'll shut up now but thanks for asking the question.

TTFN
Kelly

tkmoore @ Feb 18, 2005 04:46 am