Hello EF! In case you haven’t heard, it is somehow, inexplicably, 2025. That’s right, we’ve completed another journey around the sun together. And as is apropos at the end of a year and the start of a new one, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we have accomplished over the last 12 months as a community, as well as all the stuff your mostly benevolent Mods have been doing to improve your overall experience.

We’ll start with what the admin team has accomplished so we can save the best (that’s you guys and your accomplishments) for last. Over the last year, we:

• Added even more gorgeous site skins right out of the gate, increasing the variety of options as well as artist representation on the site
• Successfully completed EF’s second mini-event, Monster Mash, and had a ton of fun doing it
• Shepherded in the triumphant return of Mystery Month, the third ever, and first following the community-wide vote to trade off years with Drabblemania
• Kicked off the year with a new commenting challenge that yielded gorgeous awards
• Implemented a much overdue Artist of the Month Award, resulting in 27 members being nominated over the last year, and 13 Artists of the Month having been chosen (counting January 2025)
• Rolled out sensitivity reader as a distinct type of beta reader
• Introduced a new crediting system so artists, betas, and sensitivity readers are properly acknowledged with each work
• Revisited and refined the existing guidance resources for authors and betas, and expanded them to include sensitivity readers
• Added warnings to help members better curate their fanwork experience
• Cleaned up our categories to minimize confusion
• Resolved the email issues that remained from 2023’s server migration
• Vastly improved the site’s previous stance on constructive criticism
• Implemented member-driven initiatives in community spaces, such as Spotlight Saturday on our Discord server, in which members can recommend the works that mean a lot to them but do not or have not historically received as much attention as other works. Each work can only be recommended once and is compiled into a spreadsheet for reference. This is in addition to thematic watch parties and recreational game nights, which we hope to increase over the coming year.

The Mod team keeps busy behind the scenes discussing and implementing ideas to improve the member experience. There are a lot of initiatives still in the works, so look for those in the months to come. And as always, if YOU have ideas regarding how we can improve member experience, don’t hesitate to drop them in the Suggestion Box. We are always open to hearing your thoughts, ideas, and feedback regarding how Elysian Fields can continue to improve.

And all of these accomplishments were made in conjunction with our annual site events. We’ve already mentioned the Monster Mash Mini-Event and Mystery Month in July, but other events included Challenge Month in April, the Betrayal Challenge in October for EF’s 18th anniversary, and our fifth Secret Santa Exchange. That is in addition to all the other new works added or cross-posted from other archives over the course of the year. We crunched the numbers, and 2024 was the second largest year in terms of new fanworks posted on Elysian Fields in the last five years. The only year that beat it was 2023 (most likely courtesy of Drabblemania). It is also the second year in recorded site history that exceeded 10M words in terms of new words added. The only other year to do this was a bona fide pandemic year, meaning we were all confined to the indoors in ways we haven’t been since 2022 or so. Let that sink in.

Now that it has, did you hear that zipper being lowered? You should have, because we SMASHED 2024.

In the fifth year of recognizing the milestone of Completed Works, 119 creators completed a total of 450 works.

All creators who completed a work of any length (one-shots count!) in 2024 have been issued this award:

Also in its fifth year is the Event Complete Award (formerly the Challenge Complete Award). This was awarded to site members who during the most recent calendar year completed works submitted for the April Challenge, Mystery Month, or October Anniversary Event site event for all years through 2024. Our events generate many great contributions to the archive, and this award seeks to recognize those creators who not only start a new work for a community event but also finish it. As such, single-chapter or single-day events do not qualify (so no Monster Mash or Secret Santa).

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

We had 41 event contributions, which during the posting window garnered 918 likes and 456 comments, and for the first time, we welcomed commenters, artists, and beta and sensitivity readers to participate. That resulted in 27 artists and 28 beta and sensitivity readers helping to make the Santa works sparkle, and 47commenters completed the commenting challenge. All participants who completed their works, as well as commenters, artists, and betas, should now have their awards on their profile.

P.S. If you haven't read the fics or oohed at the art yet, you can find them all on the Secret Santa event page, which is also accessible by going to Browse >> Events >> 2024 Secret Santa from the site menu.

In 2024, we added:

• 10,320,149 words
• 566 stories
• 3,208 chapters
• 1,956 new members
• 99,718 new likes
• 39,923 new comments to the archive (comprising 2,175,381 words)

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

Top 10 Commenters

• violettathepiratequeen (156,694 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Commenter Award 2024)
• Nightcandle (155,089 words)
• magnus374 (147,248 words)
• pfeifferpack (133,844 words)
• swonderful (128,797 words)
• All4Spike (118,334 words)
• Green (98,452 words)
• acekoomboom (71,023 words)
• werehorse (56,350 words)
• bmerb (56,037 words)

Our most prolific commenter for 2024 was violettathepiratequeen!

Top 10 Authors

• Ragini (1,022,197 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Author Award 2024)
• Maxine Eden (611,744 words)
• CheekyKitten (500,901 words)
• Passion4Spike (493,995 words)
• In Mortal (414,608 words)
• Spikelover4ever (361,728 words)
• Melme1325 (330,544 words)
• Holly (274,667 words)
• honeygirl51885 (255,098 words)
• scratchmeout (250,047 words)

Our most prolific author for 2024 was Ragini!

We also ran the numbers and issued the very first pretties for our Commenting Star and Commenting Superstar Awards!

As a recap:

• The Star Award goes to any member who makes the All Stars Commenter list 6 months out of the year by leaving at least 15 comments, each of at least 5 words
• The Superstar Award goes to any member who makes the All Stars Commenter list each month out of the year

In 2024, 49 members received the Star Award, and 24 members received the Superstar Award. So if you were an All-Star Commenter 6-12 months out of the year, check your awards because one (at least 6 months) or both (12 months) of these babies should be there.

We love how this incentivized comments for our fanworks, and are pleased to announce the return of this award in 2025. Details (and pretty artwork) forthcoming. So if you want this award in 2025, start commenting!

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

Friends, we had an amazing year. None of this would be possible without you. Thank you so much for everything you give to the community. We’re so excited to see what 2025 brings—both the stuff we know is coming, and the stuff that will take us by surprise.