News
Announcements and Other Things

Hello again, darling EFers.

We have officially closed the book on 2020, a year that, despite being universally panned as just The Worst™, managed to be a pretty good one in terms of all things EF. If you missed it, be sure to check out the year-end wrap-up.

But 2020 is in the rearview, so we’re looking ahead. With this in mind, the EF Mod Team has brainstormed and implemented a few changes that we think, overall, you guys will like.

Bad News First

First, we’ll start with what we’re taking away. In order to continue providing excellent event-themed skins, we’re going to start phasing out some of the lesser-used and redundant skins. So, if your default is currently heaven, mobile, or mobile-night, we encourage you to search through the other available skins for an alternative.

However, when we take, we also give. The holiday skin, which has previously been unavailable for eleven months out of the year, is now available year-round.

New Categories! New Genres! New Warnings! New Everything!

One of the things that happens when you start a fanfic archive in 2006 and it’s still going strong 14 years later is…well, fandom changes. So we’re introducing a slew of genres, categories, and warnings for our authors to use going forward and, if they so choose, apply to any currently published work.

New Categories:

  • Between Seasons (any) – For stories that are set, well, between seasons.
  • Canon-Compliant – For those stories that maintain canon. Canon-Compliant is for the small subsect of fics that aren't canon divergences and don't change canon events (i.e., what we saw on-screen and/or read in comics). These may be missing scenes or stories that fill in gaps by telling the story that occurred off-screen/page but complements the established canon narrative without changing anything. Authors can choose at their own discretion whether or not canon includes the comics. If canon does include comics, then the fics in this category should be comic canon-compliant. 
  • Vignettes – This isn’t new but it is in a new place. Previously, Vignettes was listed under Genre. We encourage everyone who had fics tagged with Vignette to edit these stories, as that tag was lost due to software limitations…in that we couldn’t “move” so much as “delete.” Sorry!
  • Wishverse – For stories set in, you guessed it, the BtVS Wishverse.

New Genres:

  • Slow-Burn – Typically applied to relationships that take time to develop, either romantically or sexually.
  • Fix-It – Fixing something that went awry in canon.
  • Kidnapping – Pretty sure this one needs no explanation.
  • HEA/HFN – For authors who wish to assure readers that they aren’t torturing readers just to gut them in the end, stories can now be marked as HEA (Happy Ever After) or HFN (Happy For Now). Since so many readers prefer to read stories with an HEA, we thought readers might be encouraged to read more WIPs if they know that their pain and suffering will not be in vain.
  • Tragedy – By the same token, if an author wishes to let readers know that there will be tears, and lots of them, fics can now be marked as Tragedy. Sometimes it’s better to know going in. It’s the way Shakespeare operated, after all!
  • Mystery – For fics in which the Scooby Gang becomes the Scooby Gang.
  • Prophecy – For fics in which a prophecy of some sort is prominently featured. This can range from Buffy’s death prophecies to end-of-the-world prophecies to the Shanshu Prophecy to create-your-own prophecy.
  • Under Magical Influence – Our fancy way of classifying those Shag-or-Die fics; or conversely, Something Blue fics, or really any fic where magical hijinks play a prominent role in what a character does or says.
  • Resurrection – Both Buffy and Spike like to die and come back. If your fic prominently features a Resurrection, this is the genre for you.

New Warnings:

  • Underage Sex – It has been an EF Rule since the dawn of EF that stories with Underage Sex were strictly not allowed. Well, we were never good at enforcing this rule, and in terms of our fandom, it confuses things. Like, it’s canon that Buffy was sexually active before she was of legal age, so why shouldn’t those fics be included?

Thing is, when EF was founded, Underage Sex was a Big Fandom Concern™, thanks mostly to super popular fandoms like Harry Potter, which has a host of adult/child pairings that had parents in a moral panic over what their children were reading and what was being normalized. This is also one of the reasons that EF insisted on registered user accounts in which the user verified they were old enough to read explicit fiction. Believe it or not, that was not standard when we launched. But the year is 2021, and the world has changed. Since EF hasn’t really policed these fics and we really have no desire to do so, we added Underage Sex as a warning and removed the rule. We encourage authors to apply this warning on all fics where underage characters are described as being sexually active, regardless of whether or not the sex in question is explicit.

For the purposes of EF, we're defining Under Age as anything under 17, or when Buffy became canonically sexually active. However, authors are free to interpret Under Age as under 18 years old.

  • Mental Health Issues – For stories that have a focus on a character’s mental health or wellness.
  • Emotional/Psychological Torture – In recognition that torture doesn’t have to physically hurt to leave a scar.
  • Physical Torture – What was the Torture warning has been amended to refer specifically to instances of Physical Torture.

Reminders

Just some things that you may not know or might have missed.

  • New Award – In 2020, we launched a brand-new award to recognize authors who completed at least one of their fics within the year. We want to issue more of these awards at the end of 2021! (Hinty hint hint hint)
  • EF Daily Backups – To be proactive in preserving site content, Holly will be performing daily backups of the EF Database, during which time the site will be inaccessible. These backups will occur between 10-11am site-time (EST/EDT) and result, typically, in no more than 10 minutes of site downtime. This reflects a change from the previously announced time, which was between 10:30-11pm.
  • Site Probs – All technical/site issues should be emailed to ssolace@gmail.com rather than discussed in the ShoutBox or the Facebook group. 
  • About Ratings – Fic ratings should be assigned based on the rating the fic warrants. While this isn’t a widespread issue, we have caught a few instances where a fic was given a rating that didn’t reflect the fic’s contents. We know NC-17 is the most popular rating, but fics with this rating should have content to match, and not just assigned this rating because of its popularity. Fics that are rated AO, NC-17, or R do not have to earn the rating in the first chapter, or even by the tenth chapter. The rating can be reflective of what the finished product’s rating would be, rather than what it has earned at the time of posting.

That’s all for now! Don’t hesitate to reach out to the mod team if you have any questions.



--The Mods on January 05, 2021 10:39am 20 Comments
Comments

THANK YOU. Finding what I want to read has sometimes been a struggle; these new genres will help immensely. I know it requires people to start using them, and maybe going back and tagging so the results will be there when I search - and still, I'm really looking forward to the new searches I can do now.

-- Cosmic Tuesdays on January 05, 2021 10:55am

Thank you for doing this!  I'm trying to get a handle on reworking a few non-beta'd one shots and cleaning things up before it gets to be too overwhelming. 

I can't wait to start updating and using these new tags and such.

You all are the BEST!!!

-- MissLuci on January 05, 2021 11:36am

I'm still bemused about the meaning of "under-age", because it varies so much from country to country. Here in Britain you can have sex at 16 and drink alcohol at 18; in both cases some teenagers jump the gun by a year or so, but as long as the partner is of a similar age it's not seen as a huge problem unless there are Results. I was under the impression that the age of consent in California in the late 90s was 17 - is that no longer the case?

It's funny how I have no issue with a hundred-year plus age gap, but feel very uncomfortable at Giles/Buffy, or even Xander/Dawn. Apparent age clearly matters more than in-story chronological age.shocked

-- GillO on January 05, 2021 11:39am

Yay! Precision is our friend!  Aso, I had been wondering how the underage part worked for certain canonical events, whether I was a fan of those events or no, so there's that niggling question solved.

This is all awesome in every way. Y'all are the bestest.

*runs to update descriptions of every extant fic* 

-- Touchstoneaf on January 05, 2021 11:54am

@GillO - the California age of consent has been 18 since 1913 :) That said, you're absolutely right that it's confusing, since it doesn't mean the same thing to our members, depending on where you live. Generally speaking, a good rule of thumb for authors is to always use this warning whenever Buffy is involved in sexual activity at an age younger than seen in canon (17). HOWEVER, some people have concerns when Buffy is depicted having sex under 18, as well, so we don't want to limit the warning to canon's fictional idea of legality, which is why it's being left open. 

-- OffYourBird on January 05, 2021 11:55am

I'm still a little confused by canon-compliant. That would literally have to apply only to fill-in-the-blanks fics, wouldn't it? As soon as something becomes Spuffy before there was Spuffy on screen, it's non-canon, no matter how faithful it may be to all the other events of that episode or season. Ditto for making season 6 Spuffy have a HEA ending. Unless you mean it to indicate the Spuffy is all going to occur within canon seasons? In other words, taking place in Sunnydale, along side canon events for everyone else? AU fics would then indicate only those that take place in an alternate world or universe when canon events never happened at all?

 

 

-- slaymesoftly on January 05, 2021 02:29pm

@slayme: "canon-compliant" refers to fics where canon remains unchanged, such as "missing scenes" and applicable post-series fics, or fics that otherwise work within canon. Anything which changes canon is not compliant and should not use the tag.

-- OffYourBird on January 05, 2021 02:35pm

Is the Wishverse category intended for any story that utilizes wishes in some way or only for ones set in the canon alternate reality? Just wanted to clarify before I finished updating my WIPs with the applicable fun new categories and genres! biggrin

-- Kanita on January 05, 2021 04:36pm

@Kanita: that category refers specifically to the AU created in the episode "The Wish."

-- OffYourBird on January 05, 2021 04:47pm

The kidnapping genre will go great with all those Initiative capture fics.

-- JustWriter on January 05, 2021 05:02pm

@GillO I believe that it was 18 in the 90s. Now, since a law was passed, one shouldn't even have sex in California without verbal consent. They were very intent on telling us this in community college several years ago.

-- JustWriter on January 05, 2021 05:06pm

Alcohol legality in CA is 21. Cigarettes and voting at 18. Learner's Permit (driving a car) is 16. Obviously, all of these are not strictly followed.

-- JustWriter on January 05, 2021 05:10pm
Hi everyone! Thanks for the bulleting and congrats on all this work that you do. I find it quite outstanding!!! In categories I would have loved to been added a Dreams category, you know? there are so many fics in which Spuffy meet or find out about their feelings or there are pushed by the PTB or ghosts from the past in them and to each other. And I loved them! I'm always fishing for those, navigating through summaries to see if I can pick one but well, I guess I'll try to a petition for another time!
-- CC414 on January 06, 2021 01:46am

I love the new categories/genres/warnings! The more you read, the nicer it is to be able to refine your searches. And the HEA/tragedy tags heartheartheart

And I’m super excited that I can now celebrate Christmas in July with the holiday skin!!!!!!!squee

-- Allison42 on January 09, 2021 05:44am

Thank you and BRB adding the "Slow Burn" and "Mental Health Issues" tags to my fics

-- othellia on January 12, 2021 07:25pm

I was wondering what HFN meant! Also, had no idea that underaged sex was technically against the rules- but I very much agree the banning of it makes no sense given the canon content of the show.

Love the new categories!

-- k1ngohats on January 16, 2021 08:42pm

Excellent with the added new categories - thank you to all the mods for all the work you do.  I still would love to have a category for permanent WIP.    I know that it's not a idea that is particularly attractive to mods but from the perspective of the readers it would make searching for works much easier.  If a writer has not worked on a story for more than five years and is no longer an active writer chances are that the works will not be taken up again.  If a writer comes back into the spuffy fandom and actively begins to write again the works could easily to taken off the permanent WIP status.  Don't know if this category would cause too many works to be ignored and the more of a detriment than a help - something to be considered by the mods.  

Thanks for the consideration.

-- nmcil on January 24, 2021 02:53pm

@nmcil: while we appreciate your desire for organization, only the author gets to decide that their fic is a permanent WIP (and when it reaches that point). A number of authors have returned to update their works after 10 years or more, so putting a time limit on a WIP status to note it as abandoned would be arbitrary and unfair (and demoralizing to any author who delays updating for "too long").

-- OffYourBird on January 24, 2021 04:43pm

I just love this site! Thank you for all your hard work 🥰 I love the new tags.....😍👍👍

-- Leighroyal on January 28, 2021 07:29pm

Y’all rock!! Thank you so much.

-- Daisy Rose on January 31, 2021 03:24pm