Hello EF,

So, there have been some pretty dramatic changes this month, and all of them unanticipated. This is going to be an epic “all-in-one” post to address the results of these changes and make new announcements.

First and foremost, we are beyond pleased to announce that DarkVoid116 and EllieRose101 have agreed to join the Mod team. Dark’s official position is the Social Community Mod, so he’ll be instrumental in managing the archive’s social extensions, Discord and the Shoutbox. He has also agreed to provide additional support on the tech side of things. In fact, he is the reason Elysian Fields regained chapter/story updates as quickly as it did, so we all owe him a hell of a big thank you for doing so much work even before his position had been officially announced.

Ellie’s official position is Event Management Mod, and as such, she will be the point person on all of EF’s major events following the April Challenge. She brings a ton of excitement and mad organizational skills to the role, which makes her beyond the perfect fit.

Secondly, in response to recent events, the Mod team reviewed the site's existing rules (which can be found here) to add clarity, address how warnings must be used, and most importantly, how the Mod team will approach stories found in violation of the rules. Previously, the wording found in the EF rules stated: “Submissions found to be in violation of these rules may be removed and the author's account suspended at the discretion of the site administrators and/or moderators. The site administrators reserve the right to modify these rules as needed,” which is how the archive has functioned in recent years.

The changes we have made offer an opportunity for communication about the issues that concern the Mod team, but still require the author’s full and respectful participation in the ensuing conversation.

The new procedure for dealing with rule violations is as follows:

• Step 1: The author will receive notice from the Mod team informing them the story is in violation of site rules and may be removed. This notice will be issued both via the site Warning system and privately through EF’s email account. While under review, stories will be subject to manual validation.
• Step 2:  After confirming receipt of the message (either through email or EF’s software, which will mark messages as read), the author will have up to three (3) days to address the concerns issued by the Mod team. This can be a discussion, by providing additional materials for the Mods to review, or however the author feels they can best address said concerns.
• Step 3: The Mod team will have 24 hours to consider if the concerns have been satisfactorily addressed. This period may be extended to allow for further communication between the Mods and the author, if necessary.

A story will only be removed if the concerns A) are not satisfactorily addressed, B) the author is incommunicative, or C) the author declines to discuss or otherwise cooperate with the Mod team. In all cases, story removal is considered a last resort.

We’re hopeful that this new procedure will help alleviate concerns that stories might disappear without notice. To be clear, that will not and has never happened, but recent events have demonstrated that additional time to address Mod concerns should be factored into the decision to remove any story from the archive.

Thirdly, the archive functionality is not yet at 100%. The ability to issue a new challenge remains temporarily suspended and site-time is still wonky. We request any bug discoveries be sent to the site email (ssolace@gmail.com) so we have them all in one place.

That’s it for now, EF. Our next post should be all about fun stuff, like April Challenge Month. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Mod team if you have any questions or concerns you would like to share.