News

June Podcast

The infamous Podcast of [Doom] is now available! Why is [doom] in brackets, you ask? Well, to paraphrase Miranthridel Bloom, we can't let it escape, now can we?



Click here or visit the wireless homepage, above.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on May 31, 2007 10:03 am (6 Comments)

Awards

I'd previously mentioned Quill to Parchment, which is still taking nominations through June 4th for all pairings.

There's another awards going on which I should mention, although it's more in the mode of viewing, since the nomination period is closed. The Hourglass Awards are being run by the Unknowable Room archive. While I have to admit I don't know much about it other than that Lush Life was nominated, it seems like a nice place to explore and check out fics and fanart.

Posted by Mynuet on May 29, 2007 02:24 am (1 Comments)

Community Reading

I'm a bad mod, and I should've posted this before, so y'all wouldn't have missed all but the last bit of PoA - mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

But, if any of you are interested (forgiveness of me is optional), you can go to this board on the forums and take part in a D/G community reading of the HP books before the seventh book comes out in just a few short months.

Speaking of the seventh book, we're still formulating what we're going to do in terms of a policy regarding the release and avoidance of spoilers. Last time, we just shut down for two weeks, but after the reaction to April 1st, I'm a tad reluctant to do that without a loooooot of prep time. So, if anyone has any suggestions, chime in - but in the meantime, rest assured that anyone spoiling things for the rest of us will be dealt with harshly.

Posted by Mynuet on May 17, 2007 02:53 pm (33 Comments)

New Skin!

There's a new skin, Snitch, designed by the lovely Foreveress. The artwork is by Makani.



In reply to some of the comments: So the link color is hard to read on the light brown then? I thought it might be, but apparently my monitor is not to be trusted. Same problem as with other skins - the link color is on multiple background colors, so it's hard to adjust. I'll try to fix it.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on May 14, 2007 10:48 am (19 Comments)

Nominations

There's a new awards site starting up, Quill to Parchment, open to all pairings and genres. They're taking nominations through June 4th, so go check it out and nominate all your favorite fics and authors, not just the D/G ones.

Posted by Mynuet on May 08, 2007 12:53 pm (0 Comments)

May podcast

There's a new podcast, from Persephone33!



Click here!

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on May 05, 2007 11:44 am (3 Comments)

Passwords at signup

In the past we've had problems with people inputting invalid email addresses; to combat this, passwords at registration were randomly generated and emailed out. Since there seem to be some issues with the password generation emails, I'm switching it so that you can select your own at registration. If you have questions about passwords or about changing them, please see the help page.



However, I'd like to remind everyone that having an invalid email address is not allowed, and could lead to account deletion (I'd send you an email and warn you, but that's not exactly possible).


Please continue to inform us of any unused accounts you may have (we can use their associated emails to find the account if you can't remember the name).

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Apr 10, 2007 07:22 pm (2 Comments)

Podcast!

So, yeah, hi. Not to detract from the last post or anything, but we have another podcast done by the lovely Persephone33!



It's here.



Happy April 1st!





PS from Mynuet:



As of the past week, Persephone33 is now in charge of the podcasts! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, Perse! Any suggestions you have should go to her.



Big hand, ladies and the one or two gents running around, for the one, the only, Princess of Podcasting, Persephone33!




PPS from Lyndsie: If anyone missed out on the last podcast (number 3) because of the file size, you're in luck! I've just uploaded a smaller mp3 version. Click 'wireless' above to access it.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Apr 01, 2007 05:13 pm (4 Comments)

The Evilest Evil

There's a further explanation on LJ, to where many of you found your way today, but the short version is that the site was down because the Cabal and I were playing an evil prank. It's back, and it won't go down again without plenty of notice, and that only for maintenance or legal action. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Posted by Mynuet on Apr 01, 2007 04:20 pm (26 Comments)

Spring is here! (Or Autumn...)

Sitting here typing this message, I'm listening to the birds chirping and the cars drive by without the sound of slush under the tires. These lovely noises mean that spring is here! (Or fall, if you're in the southern hemisphere, but I suppose you have your own upside-down noises.)




To celebrate the coming of the new season, I've designed a lovely new spring-inspired skin for the site. April showers bring May flowers, but your input has helped me design this skin!



Enjoy!

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Mar 31, 2007 05:44 am (20 Comments)

Few small items

I'd like to thank everyone who signed up to help the Library. However, there are several people who must not have read the instructions properly as they have not contacted me to be validated for the forums. If you are one of the twelve, you have 24 hours to do so.



Also, I've been working on a new skin that should be done soon, so keep your eyes open for that!



Please continue informing us of any old & unused accounts for deletion (by emailing me, please), as it will help things run faster. Thanks!

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Mar 28, 2007 08:36 am (0 Comments)

Livejournal dgficexchange

Jandjsalmon has asked me to remind you all:



Once more into the breach dear friends, once more...



It's that time again... well, it's actually early this year.

The Third Round of the Draco/Ginny Exchange on Livejournal has started its signups again.
They run until April 1st.



Deadlines and Dates

Sign ups: March 20, 2007 - April 1, 2007

Picking Prompts: April 1, 2007 - April 10, 2007

Fic/Art Due Date: May 25, 2007

Awards: June/July, 2007



The exchange is no longer just for fic, but fanartists are encouraged to participate as well. Everyone is welcome to join up, whether they have a Livejournal or not. If you are just a fic reader... you are still welcome, some of the best fics in the ship were written for past fic exchanges.



http://community.livejournal.com/dgficexchange/39811.html


Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Mar 26, 2007 07:21 pm (1 Comments)

Pending Site Upgrade

Wednesday night the site will go down for a short while as I complete an upgrade. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable. Hopefully it'll clear up some of the problems we've been having.



Also, seriously. The site now logs IPs during registration. I can tell immediately if you've created more than one account. To the two people who have done so today: you will be receiving an email from me shortly.



You must input a valid email address at signup or else you won't receive your password email. If anyone ever has any problems logging in, then don't hesitate to email me. I can almost always fix it right away!

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Mar 19, 2007 06:31 pm (2 Comments)

Revision of Site Rules

I revised the submission rules, but unfortunately for y'all, they're still as strict as ever - there's just less explanation. I also edited the terms of service, which everyone has to agree to before they sign up. These apply retroactively, so I thought I'd post them here so y'all can know what standard you're being held to. Don't worry, though, they're mostly just the common sense that most of y'all have been using anyway.

-------


This is fanfic, not brain surgery. We do our best to have a good site, but we're doing this on our own time out of love, and we don't actually owe anyone anything. Except JKR, for creating the world we all love and play in.



Now, that being said, there's rules anywhere. First off, before you submit a story, you're expected to read the submission rules. They'll show up when you first upload a story, or you can view them at the link in the menu bar.



In terms of rules for other behavior while on this site, I expect you to act like civilized and adult human beings. If you want to say something negative in a review, do so respectfully, or your account will be deleted for flaming. Hatespeech is not allowed, and the use of "gay" or "retarded" as pejoratives definitely count as hatespeech. Don't believe that I won't find out about it, or that I'll give you a second chance.



If you use Hotmail, you will have trouble getting email from the site, which includes your password. Check your bulk mail folder, and then add dghbic at gmail to your contacts. Or, the method I recommend, get a better mail client - I recommend gmail.com, and am willing to hand out invitations like candy at Halloween.



Do NOT make more than one account. We are currently winnowing out duplicates, and if we find more than one account per person, all but one will be deleted. Do us all a favor and help the archive run more efficiently by preventing cruft in our database.



Lastly, please check the help page if you have a question about anything. If you don't find your answer, then contact me, or any member of the Cabal - but check the help page first.



That's not so hard, right? So welcome aboard, and enjoy your stay.



--Mynuet

---------


PLEASE make sure you go back and tell Lyndsie about any duplicate accounts that need to be deleted.


Posted by Mynuet on Mar 18, 2007 03:34 pm (7 Comments)

Multiple Accounts

Hey all, another techie-style post. As you may have noticed, we are fast approaching 9000 members. However, I know for a fact that many of those accounts are inactive. Have you tried loading certain pages, especially clicking the "authors" link above, and it's taken forever? (Odds are, yes.) I'm trying to alleviate some of the problem by eliminating multiple accounts. If you know that there is an old account that you were unable to access for whatever reason and created a new one, please email me (lyndsie dot fenele at gmail dot com) and let me know the name of the old account. I prefer you email me from the address used with the old account.



I'm going through the databases and picking up on the more obvious duplicate accounts, so you might be seeing an email from me in the future. I don't want to have to run a script that will delete accounts for me, because a lot of ones people are still using will get axed, so hopefully it won't have to come to that.



So fess up, please, and save me some work! (And maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to use coauthoring without killing the server times!)

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Mar 16, 2007 06:03 pm (4 Comments)

Podcast!

Our own Persephone33 has persevered through technical difficulties to bring us our third podcast, in which she does an incredible job of fic-reading. The fic content is towards the PG-13 side, so fair warning.



And now, the podcast



Right-click and "save target as" to download, if you'd like a smoother listening experience.

Posted by Mynuet on Mar 13, 2007 04:55 am (5 Comments)

New block

You might have already noticed that there's a new block appearing on the index page, called "Who's Online". It's pretty self-explanatory. It still looks a little wonky in the Valentine skin, but fine in Blanket. I've also added the "Table of Contents" link to the story listings in Valentine and a link to the News Archive (below the news posts on the index) in both skins.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Feb 25, 2007 09:02 am (12 Comments)

Contest

Since it got pushed off the front page by the update and my wibbling, I'd like to remind you all that our beloved Rainpuddle is sponsoring another D/G contest (with real prizes!), and that you should all go check it out... And enter! I'm one of the judges, and I want lots to read during my spring break, so chop-chop!



The link for rules and information:
http://community.livejournal.com/ginnylovesdraco/profile



Sorry, it wouldn't let me put up a real clickable link for some reason. *kicks it*



PS: I can't exactly make it a featured fic, but I highly recommend this D/G video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rbHtjp900Y

Posted by Mynuet on Feb 24, 2007 05:46 am (10 Comments)

Features

So, I put Jandjsalmon in charge of featured stories, and she insisted on featuring one of mine. I did it, but I'm kinda hyperventilating about it. If any of you want to weigh in on the subject of whether it's fair and/or self-aggrandizing. I mean, my name is all over the site, so I think I get enough attention, but I promised her it'd be her decision to what to feature, so, yes.



I'm not asking for "OMG U R THE BEST" or "er, your archive, your decision" so much as input as to what your impressions are.

Posted by Mynuet on Feb 21, 2007 03:42 am (28 Comments)

Email addresses

This is just a reminder that having a proper working email address is imperative. Those who are found otherwise might find their account locked or deleted. We need to be able to contact you, especially if you've submitted something.



What is does "proper working email address" mean?

-It must be valid (ie actually exist)

-It must not have exceeded its quota or be too full to accept new messages



Additionally I recommend that if you feel it necessary to only allow in emails from people on a safe list (Earthlink is notorious for this), then be warned that you will not be getting messages and/or really annoying the Cabal.



The current site email is dghbic at gmail dot com (formatted like a proper email address), so you should add that to your safe lists to avoid emails being put in a spam folder.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Feb 13, 2007 02:40 pm (3 Comments)

The skins & submissions open

I forgot to mention this before, but yes, it is planned to bring back the Photobooth skin. The problem is that we've had an entirely new software upgrade. This means that I can't just use the old skin - it doesn't work properly. Because eFiction 3.0 is relatively new, the development team (who also happen to being doing their work as volunteers, just like everyone here at FIA *ahem*) hasn't had a chance yet to build a tutorial on skin upgrading. We do have a skin similar to Blanket with the Photobooth header that is almost ready, so you may be seeing that soon. I cannot give you an ETA on the old skin design, though.



On the red links: yes, I realize they're a little hard to read. I've actually adjusted it somewhat from what it originally was. The problem is that the link color appears on three different colors: grey, black, and blue. Change it to look good on one and it looks like crap on another. I'm working on it, but I work 40 hours a week and have classes. I am sorry about this - in the meantime, you could use the Valentine skin.



Also, to those of you who have sent what I consider the equivalent of hate mail (you know who you are) about the skins - can I just say that there is a difference between respectfully pointing out your opinion (see the reponses to the previous news post) and an email titled "WTF!!?". Cannot use the words I'd like to here to describe how angry that makes me.



Oh, and submissions are now activated. You should also be able to edit your stories.



An extra note from Mynuet: If I hear one more complaint, someone is going to rue the damn day that they decided to open their big fat mouth. Lyndsie has been working her tail off, and to see people whining and complaining is making my eye twitch with the urge to smite. No one owes you a damn thing, and if you like the privilege of having this site, then show some frickin' respect to the person who's been sweating over making sure it's here.
In short, the next person to complain is going to become the target of my wrath.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Feb 08, 2007 04:52 am (51 Comments)

Grand Reopening

Hi all!

Welcome to the brand new d&g.com. Go ahead and explore the new features. We've tried our hardest to make it a bug-free experience, but I'm sorry to report there is one lingering problem for IE 6.0 users - the header backgrounds for the boxes on any page but the index tend to disappear in the Blanket skin. There are no known issues with the Valentine skin.



Submissions are still turned off, and will be until sometime tomorrow.


If you encounter any problems, there is a thread on the forums here: http://forums.dracoandginny.com/index.php?topic=969.



VERY IMPORTANT: All characters were switched from being category-specific to sitewide and several were added. Unfortunately, this means that every fic has now lost its assigned characters. You can re-add them through the "Account Info" panel. You should do so to help users to know who is starring in your fic.



Also, the main categories have been changed. All uncompleted fiction belongs in the general "Fiction" category, and should be moved to the appropriate subcategory when completed.



There is now a classification "era" that can be added to fics. The current ones are Hogwarts-era, post-Hogwarts, Past AU and Future AU.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Feb 07, 2007 03:13 pm (7 Comments)

Submissions closed

I've just turned off submissions, so only validated members can post stories - which I do not recommend! Later this evening I will be doing database backups, and after that point any action where you have to log in to do (besides viewing Extremely Naughty fics) will not be saved. This means changing profiles, reviewing, editing stories, etc.

It may seem strange that I am doing backups tonight and not starting the upgrade process until tomorrow afternoon, but the reasoning is that my Internet connection speeds are so slow during the time of day that I want to being the upgrade process, that it would add an extra couple of hours. I get better speeds at night. : )

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jan 31, 2007 09:38 am (0 Comments)

Fire and Ice Classics Library

Hey everybody,
With the members waiting to be approved (who are all going to send me emails, right?), we've got enough librarians at the current time. If you're dying to join, or are one of the people that expressed interest on the forums but hasn't signed up yet, then you can email me (the contact link from my profile works).

Thanks to everyone who volunteered, and be on the lookout for the new Library, coming soon!

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jan 30, 2007 01:12 pm (0 Comments)

Announcing Site Upgrade

I know you're all going to love me for this one! The site will be going down for upgrading in about a week and a half. There will be a host of new features (see the forums for more detail).

How it's going to work:
-I'll be turning off submissions the evening of 31 January (so, say 7pm EST).
-The archive will still be available for reading, and anything posted before then will be reviewed as normal. However, I HIGHLY suggest not changing anything that requires you to log in to do it, since if you do it after I back up the databases and I have to revert, your changes will be lost.
-Sometime on Thursday, February 1st I will be beginning the upgrade. This means the site will be completely offline, even for viewing. I do NOT recommend attempting it, as you will likely only see a whole bunch of errors.
-Hopefully by the weekend (no promises, though), the site will be back up for viewing. However, we will not be accepting submissions again until Thursday, February 8, so that the Cabal members have a break.

Contact me with any questions, but note that I will not be responding to emails inquiring as to when the site will be back while it is down (wouldn't you rather I spend my time getting it back up again anyway?).

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jan 22, 2007 01:24 pm (8 Comments)