It hardly seems possible, but it is indeed that time of year again. That is, the start of a new year, and time to look back on the journey we have taken over the last 12 months.

I want to start by personally saying this was a challenging year in many ways. Elysian Fields experienced some turbulence, not aided by the host’s update in March of 2022, which upset a lot of our systems for a good amount of time. We have not entirely recovered from that and are continuing to explore our options to avoid repeats. That said, with whatever we faced, we (the Mods) are endlessly thankful to you (the membership) for your support, encouragement, and patience.

Here are some things to come in 2023:

• New and/or reshaped events, courtesy of the irreplaceable EllieRose101, who was a force of nature as Events Mod over the course of her inaugural year in the role. 
• The registration of EF as a non-profit. This will allow us to recommence site donations (and thank you so much to everyone who has reached out, asking why donations were discontinued last year)
• More information about SpuffyCon 2024
• Continued site improvements and additions, including the History of EF page

As stated above, 2022 was a challenging year. We said goodbye to two Mods. While kats_meow was not a Mod for long, she made an indelible impression on the team and her absence has been strongly felt (though we understand work comes before play, much as we would wish it otherwise). And of course, OffYourBird, who founded, initiated, led, or managed many of the features that make EF, well, EF (including but not limited to the weekly sprints, the Friday check-in, the Secret Santa Event, watch parties, the Discord server, and the Facebook group before that) stepped down as Mod. I think it’s especially important to recognize the enormous contribution she made to EF, and how even though she has moved on to other things, she set into motion and enhanced so many of the aspects of the community we enjoy today.

Suffice it to say, it was not easy filling these shoes, yet we ended up with a successful, joyful year, courtesy of DarkVoid116 and EllieRose101 who joined the Mod team in March 2022. They have been irreplaceable additions to the Mod team and are directly responsible for the wonderful state of the archive today, working both behind the scenes and taking center stage. If you enjoyed your time at EF in 2022, you have them to thank. I, personally, will never stop.

We made some additional changes in 2022, including the retirement of site skins (many of which had been with us since our founding) and the addition of new site skins with art provided by some of the most talented, active artists we have in the community. We also rolled out the inclusion of artwork-only submissions for storytellers and artists alike—the more ways to tell Spuffy stories, the better.

Then there were our four site events. Challenge Month in April, Mystery Month in July, Road Trip Challenge in October, and our third Secret Santa Fic Exchange in December. The response was overwhelming, as the numbers will show.

So it’s time to start issuing awards.

In the third year of recognizing the milestone that is Completed Fics, we had 110 authors complete a total of 387 fics; that’s 27 more fics than last year. 

All authors who completed a fic (one-shots count!) in 2022 have been issued this award: 

The other award seeing its third year is the Challenge Complete Award. This was awarded to site members who completed any site event challenge in 2022 (that is, the challenge events that are overseen by the EF Mods and come with spiffy thematic skins and stuff). The exception here being Secret Santa, as finishing the fic is baked into the challenge itself.

And speaking of Secret Santa, we have some numbers to share.

We had 47 event stories, which garnered 1,196 likes and 581 comments. And as a last-minute addition to the awards this year, we also awarded commenters who provided more than 15 story comments comprising 15 or more words with an award as well. So all participants who completed their fics should now have their participant award on their profile; those commenters who met the requirements should also have an award.

P.S. If you haven't read the fics yet, you can find them all on their site event page, which is also accessible by going to Events >> 2022 Secret Santa.

We also have issued awards to our most prolific members. These are chosen by the numbers. 

In 2022, we added:

• 9,820,415 words
• 488 stories
• 2,586 chapters
• 1,641 new members
• 89,909 new likes
• 32,741 new comments to the archive (comprising 1,628,229 words)

That is a lot of content, all made possible because of you guys.

Top 10 Commenters

• magnus374 (171,004 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Commenter Award 2022)
• bmerb (75,490 words)
• swonderful (72,399 words)
• Green (66,706 words)
• All4Spike (58,896 words)
• The Danish Bird (58,013 words)
• honeygirl51885 (44,924 words)
• violettathepiratequeen (44,919 words)
• pfeifferpack (39,101 words)
• Chosenname (36,045 words)

Top 10 Authors

• scratchmeout (537,330 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Author Award 2022)
• Violette-Milka (493,104 words)
• Jws1993 (402,319 words)
• Passion4Spike (355,708 words)
• Holly (351,043 words)
• cawthraven (350,890 words)
• violettathepiratequeen (310,966 words)
• Dynamite (304,387 words)
• honeygirl51885 (296,825 words)
• Sigyn (247,131 words)

Our most prolific author for 2022 was scratchmeout!

Our most prolific commenter for 2022 was magnus374! 

If you are missing an award you should have received, please reach out to us (ssolace@gmail.com) and we’ll verify and get that corrected.

Guys, it was a hell of a year. We are so thankful to the members who make up our wonderful community. Thank you so much for your contributions—fic, art, betaing, commenting—and your company. We look forward to a great year ahead.