Back By Popular Demand!

Pud's Great D/G Fic Contest Spring 2007!!!

Featuring an all new prompt, new and improved rules, and a new set of real prizes!

See the lj community ginnylovesdraco for details!

Wall of Shame

So, I check my email, and I find a letter informing that someone has decided to be an ugly little troll. This is not a career path I recommend.

Flavoroflove left a review that consisted entirely of "wow. YOU STINK I HATE YOU!" This, my friends, is what's known as a flame, and not a very good one. I mean, if you're going to be an idiot, you might as well make it count - be mean about something substantive. Hate a story? Say why. "I hated this story because ___________. It could have been made better by __________." And no, "because it sucks" and "never having been written" are not appropriate phrases to insert. If a story is just not to your liking, like it was fluffy and you like angst, or vice versa, realize that your only critique is the style and button your lip unless you have something worthwhile and helpful to say.

So, flavoroflove, your account is being toasted for trolling, and because I don't want to see you mailbombed. I will keep a note of your email address, though, so please don't be stupid enough to do it again.

Proper Use of Series

This issue came to my attention a while ago, but hasn't yet been addressed. It seems there are quite a few empty series here on the site. What a series is intended for is to link together related stories. So, here's the rules: you cannot have a series with only one story, or none. If you intend for there to be more, wait until the other stories are posted until you create a series. And, lastly, all stories in the series must be written by you (unless it is an open series).

These rules are going to be applied retroactively, since series don't give a creation date, so I'm giving everyone one week from this moment to either delete them or add something to them.

D/G Awards

Please go vote for the D/G Awards, here!

If you're upset something wasn't nominated, next time, go nominate!

Important Email Information

Hello email users (this means everybody). The email address used by the site has been changed. This means that if you were having issues with not receiving emails before, they will probably be occurring again. The new email address is dghbic at gmail.com (where the at is the actual sign and there is no spacing).

Hotmail users, this especially applies to you. You should add the account to your contacts or safe list.

I have modified the Help page to reflect this new information.

More fics

While hopefully all the contributors will eventually archive with us, if any of y'all are in need of a fic fix, the D/G Fic Exchange has started posting fics. (Actually, they did several days ago, but I'm slow.)

In any case, if you can go here to read, and anonymous reviews are allowed, so you don't need an LJ account to tell the authors what you think.

Wall of Praise?

A couple of minor notes: Authors are now allowed to delete anonymous reviews, since some utter lamebrain decided to leave spam in one. I'm beginning to favor the death penalty for idiot spammers, just from sheer frustration.

The next thing is that there's a new podcast available on the forums - it's our own Anise reading her story "Chocolate Shags" - yay, Anise! I also have a secret plot brewing, so keep an eye on the podcasts section of the forums so you can participate.

And, lastly, since I take the time to blame people in public, I thought I'd add a public word of praise for a particular author. No, she did not submit a perfect fic - in fact, the poor girl got rejected twice for errors, even though she was trying really hard to improve. What makes her worthy of mention is that she didn't go off and give up writing in a sulk, or whine and moan about how nasty the Cabal is, or tell herself and others that it was the fault of the uploading system or the site's rules being too stringent, or any of the other complaints that we've all heard too much of.

No, this girl sent a charming email apologizing for the trouble, mentioning her efforts with regard to having a beta, and thanking the Cabal members for their attempts to help - and that really is what we're doing when we point out in rejection letters what your errors are, attempting to help you become a better writer.

In any case, I won't name her directly because I don't want to embarrass the poor girl, but I wanted to point out that you don't have to be perfect to get on the good side of the Cabal, you just have to appreciate that we all work hard in order to have a good site and to help the people who archive with us. Yes, we insist on high standards, but we're willing to help people meet them if they treat us with respect and courtesy.

Mea Culpa

Maybe I need to make a Wall of Shame and put myself on it, for rampant dumbness. See up there where it says "contact us"? Up until about five minutes ago, it was set to send mail to an address no one checks. *facepalm*

My deepest, heartfelt apologies to all of you who tried to contact me that way and ended up ignored. Please, if you still have any questions, either contact me directly through my author information (fastest) or use the newly functional contact us menu item.

*wanders off for a spot of self-flagellation*

Wall of Shame

Once again, our Wall of Shame feature has come into play, as someone has attempted to submit plagiarized work to the archive.

This person not only submitted a word-for-word copy of a fic on the archive, she managed to submit a copy of a fic written for the Cabal member on duty the day the plagiarized work was submitted. This is truly a talent for boneheadedness that takes one's breath away, don't you think?

And so goodbye, Envyher. Your account on the archive has been deleted, and you are no longer welcome here. To everyone else, thank you for remembering that there really is nothing to be gained by swiping the works of others.

Featured stories

You may've noticed that the featured stories tend to be updated sporadically and after great lengths of time. Well, no more, because Jandjsalmon is now taking on the duty of recommending two new fics per week to be featured stories.

Now, this is a lot for one person to take on, so this is where you all come in. If you know of a fic that's awesome and deserves attention, contact Jessica and tell her about it! The main thing is that the fic has to be on FIA, because that's the way efiction works. But, hey, if it's a great fic, we want to bring it to this great archive, right? (Okay, we're a bit stringent about grammar and spelling. I think that's part of the greatness, myself.)

So, anyway, yes - new fic recs! On a regular weekly schedule, barring catastrophes! Yay, jandjsalmon!

D/G Awards!

Nominations are now going on over at the forums for a new set of D/G awards. Go check it out. :D

(If you want to register for the forums, you need to send me an email to let me know you're not a spammer. It's a pain, I know, but it's better than having to wade through Viagra ads when you're looking to chat about the wonders of D/G.)

Also, keep in mind that you need to do two things in order to nominate: 1. Register for the forums and send me an email, and then 2. Read the rules for the awards and follow the directions in the rules.

Yay, hosting!

Counting the two people who said they were contributing via snail mail, we have hit the $95.40 needed for another year and so the big ol' donation drive is over for another 12 months. If any of you are really desperate to spend your money, we of the Cabal accept gifts of chocolate and other fabulous things.

Hosting fees

Thanks to The Globat Debacle (details here), I decided to go ahead and check when our renewal date is with our current host, Lunarpages. That renewal date falls right smack in the middle of the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Yule/everybody's broke season, and so I figured I'd go ahead and get the ball rolling in advance for collecting donations for our next year of hosting.

Paypal donations are probably easiest, and the email for that is donations@dracoandginny.com. Alternately you can email me to make arrangements to mail to me directly (although I can only accept US funds, as my bank charges $15 per currency exchange of any size).

In the interests of full disclosure, I'll point out that one year of hosting with Lunarpages will cost $95.40, per the CSR I spoke with this evening. Anything above that I'll apply to the $90 our previous webhost took out of my personal bank account because they are pooheads (seriously, y'all, never use Globat). If they ever get around to giving me a refund of those $90, I'll then apply the funds from this donation drive towards the following year at Lunarpages. (Globat has now promised a refund. We shall see.)

If anyone wants to suggest another webhost, feel free, although it would have to have a comparable fee/space ratio.

Thank you for your patience with this long announcement, and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Podcasting

Ladies and gentlemen (hey, there's a few of those around!), I present to you the first D/G podcast! Hopefully the next one will be even better. :D

Vote here for how often to have podcasts.
(To listen, either click the link or right-click and save the mp3 to your desktop and listen from there.)

If you want to participate in the whole podcasting deal, go here.

Site reopening

The site is now accepting submissions again, and everything should be normal. If there are any problems, then let me know.

Site Closed

The site is now officially closed. I will begin backups immediately. Do not make any changes to your account, as they will not be saved in case I have to revert to saved copies. (This means anything that requires you to hit a 'submit' button.)

This also effects any NEW SIGNUPS; so please don't register.

Submissions closed

New submissions are now closed. For at least the next twelve hours or so the site will still be fully functional, except for submissions. If for some reason a fic does make it to the queue, it will be deleted without review.

The site will still be operational for about twelve hours or so. After that, you make any changes at your own risk. I will post again at that time.

D/G Fic Exchange 2006

I keep forgetting to post, but there's a new D/G fic exchange, and signups are going on now! Go here for details and to sign up.

And don't forget about Smutakkah, and that the site will be down next weekend. Cheers!

Site upgrades & shutdown

VERY IMPORTANT! MUST READ!

The weekend after this (September 15-17) there will be a site-wide shutdown in order to do some upgrades. For more information, please see this post.

Email addresses & upgrades

Recently it has come to my attention that there are many people who do not have valid email addresses in their accounts, or whose email addresses do not accept mail from cabal@dracoandginny.com.

If you are set to receive notifications of updates and reviews and aren't getting them, then you have to add the above email address to your contacts or safe list (this is mandatory for all Hotmail users). Every time one is sent out that you don't receive, it bounces back to the email account and takes up space on the server unnecessarily. Go here if you'd like to be invited to gmail, which does not have issues accepting mail from the site.

If you are an author who is submitting fics and not receiving an email from a Cabal member, then you don't have a valid email address in your account. This is unacceptable, and you might suddenly find yourself unable to log in, because it's the only way left we have to get your attention. Should this occur, you can find Mynuet's contact info on the forums (you can no longer view profiles on here unless you are logged in).

Also, tomorrow there is a scheduled update to the server by the hosting company. The archive may or may not be temporarily unavailable.

Sign up for Smutakkah!

Why Smutukkah? Because we are cosmopolitan kinda people, and because instead of one night of hawt stories, you get eight, woohoo!

*cough* So, yes. A holiday fic exchange for mature/adult/hot D/G stories, and it's now open for signups. As long as you're of age, go here to read all about it and sign up. Spread the love and spread the word, so we all get to enjoy the Festival of Lights with some good ol' fashioned D/G hotness.

Ratings and things

Okay, so the vote seems to be extremely overwhelming in favor of the naughty scale, so that's what our rating system is going to be.
For the record, the scale is:
Not Naughty = anyone can read - milder than some Disney movies.
Sorta Naughty = Not for young children - there may be implications of adult situations or violence, and/or pottymouth.
Definitely Naughty = Teens and up. Not suitable for kids, as the implications are now quite strong. Pottymouth is almost a given.
Extremely Naughty = Adults only. The implications are now statements. Don't click these if you're underage, because the instant that I get any trouble, the whole site goes on lockdown and people will start having to mail me a copy of their driver's license or some other harsh form of age verification. I will trust you all until you give me reason to do otherwise.

And in other news, now that I've laid down the law... ;)

I'm considering adding more categories to the archive. More details are here. Also, the idea of a D/G podcast was floated, and I don't know anything about that sort of thing. I don't know anything about forums, either, so that's not necessarily a stumbling block. If any of you want to chime in on the concept, the thread is here.

And no, it's not a secret plot to make the forums more popular. *g* I forget to check the comments here, and so it's easier and faster to hold conversations there. Still, if y'all want to stick around and play in the forums, you're certainly welcome.

Ahh, Democracy

I've put a poll up at the forums in order to decide what the ratings system should be. Click here to vote.

...And there was something else I was going to have people vote on, but now I can't remember what. When I do, I'll add it here. *glares at own uncooperative brain*

Forums!

The art gallery has been slightly delayed (anyone with experience with online art archives is encouraged to contact Mynuet and be her guide through the wilderness), but...

The forums are ready! Everybody should go over to http://forums.dracoandginny.com, join, chat, and enjoy!


P.S. While Megh is still the official Tech Goddess, Lyndsie Fenele is graciously pitching in to be a second Tech Goddess for us during this busy time in Megh's life. She'd like to request that anyone who's experiencing any sort of bugs with the archive leave a comment here so that she can start gathering a list of what needs to be fixed. If you go here, you can discuss it.

Announcements

Faith of the D/G site Sugar'n'Spice would like to let everyone who visits her site know that they are having some issues with domain registration that they hope will be worked out soon. In the meantime, no one needs to panic, for it will return.


In other news, as soon as we've worked out the rules and the layouts and appointed the moderators, there will be... *drumroll* Forums! And an art gallery!



I'm quite excited, although I can tell you already that our main holdup will be my extreme lack of html/css skills. If any of you out there have some of those and feel like volunteering, drop me a line and you'll be praised to the skies for your efforts.


P.S. - I added a comment to the effect of what we need, and my email address if there are any questions. Cheers! :)