Welcome to 2022, EF.
For a fandom of a show that will turn 25 in just a couple of short months, our archive is busier now than it has ever been. And thanks in no small part to the pandemic, we have had two back-to-back banner years in terms of community engagement.
As we look toward another year of continued growth, some changes are coming to the administrative team, among those saying goodbye to Elysian Fields founders angelic_amy and Megan. We are endlessly grateful for the environment they helped create and the many years they dedicated to the site, which included time, money, and labor. They will be memorialized on a forthcoming History of EF page and have been assigned Elysian Fields Founder recognition in a new profile tag. Incidentally, all members may now choose to associate as an Author, Reader, or Lurker. All you have to do is visit Edit Bio/Personal Information under Account Info.
Amy drafted a letter to the membership for us to share. Please find it below.
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To the Elysian Fields community,
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Amy, and I am one of the Founders of Elysian Fields. A group of five of us had a dream of creating a place for Spuffy fanfic to be posted (when so many of great old archives were closing up), and to build an accepting community, something that we have strived towards ever since.
To kick start building the archive, we sought and received permission to upload a back catalogue of fanfic from authors we knew personally, who were no longer active in fandom. This was an epic task, but one the few of us who did the uploading were proud of as it built the foundation of the site. And then we opened up to new submissions and the community was ‘born’.
Our responsibilities were shared across a moderating team that changed over the years (with the exception of Megan and myself), but my main focus, my niche area of responsibility, has always been organising and running the site events. Something I loved and something our EF community has always embraced. I’m proud of that, and how the wonderful authors, artists, betas and commenters have collectively made these events so successful.
It has been a great joy in my life to be part of our wonderful archive for the last 15 years. But all good things must come to an end. Leaving my position as admin is not entirely my choice, but I do so knowing the EF community has grown and thrived in small part due to my efforts, recent and past, and that is something I am proud of.
Thank you to everyone who has offered support, kindness, or enthusiasm over the years, I cannot express how much it has meant.
Yours in Spuffy,
angelic_amy
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If anyone has any questions or concerns about these changes, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We are, as we said, forever grateful to the many years both Amy and Megan have given us, and we wish both of them nothing but the best.
--The Mods on January 04, 2022 02:46pm 42 Comments
Thank you so much Amy and Megan for all of your hard work on the site over the years. As someone who discovered Buffy during quarantine, I never imagined that I would find such an active community still going today. It is a wonderful and welcoming place and as such is a credit to you and all the other mods.
To Megan:
- Thank you for your amazing gift. I know that you have new things to focus on now, but I do hope you'll drop in every now and then. It's been fun chatting with you on fb. I pray you'll find new balance in your life this year.
To Amy:
- Thank you for your amazing commitment to community. I hope that this thirst for bringing people together never dies.
God Bless you both. Have a good year.
So sorry you are both stepping down, especially if it was not entirely voluntary. I've known Megan since my earliest days on LJ and followed her trials and tribulations. You have both given an enormous amount to the fandom and I am, like all the commenters, hugely grateful for all your hard work in sustaining our corner of the best fandom ever.
Thank you.
Amy and Megan, though I don't believe we have interacted, I truly thank you for creating this haven and bringing us all together to celebrate and create. Your contribution to the Fandom is invaluable. Thank you for all your hard work keeping this site fun and engaging. I wish you both much love and success!
xTish
It saddens me to hear that leaving as an admin wasn't entirely your own choice and that visiting this site makes you feel sad. It saddens me to see Megan's stories gone. I wish you both all the best and may Spuffy be with you always <3
Thank you for helping create such an amazing site, I've been reading both your stories since joining. sorry to hear you have to go, I wish you both the best for the future. Thanks again.
Oh my darling Megan and Amy!! My heart is forever grateful. You gave so many a voice, a family, and a community. You're still going to be around, right? (Say yes!!) Even if you are not admins.
Forever grateful,
Sweetprincipale
Megan and Amy -- you have no idea the lives you've changed and uplifted by starting this wonderful community! I know I speak for hundreds of people when I say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for everything you've done.
I'd like to thank Amy in particular for being so encouraging and fixing all my typos and grammatical errors on the very first chapter of my very first story before allowing it to post to the site, and encouraging me to find a beta and brush up on how to use punctuation when writing dialogue. I don't know where I would be without that initial advice and encouragement. THANK YOU isn't adequate, but it's all I've got.
About 5 years ago I was reading a Spuffy fic on FF that was posted by Sigyn. I loved it and upon reading her author profile saw a mention of EF. Boy, am I glad I did! I checked out this site and was blown away! I have been reading (lurking) here ever since and have even posted a few things (something I would never have felt comfortable trying before). It's all due to the wonderful environment you helped to create. The authors here are talented and so supportive. Thank you both for all that you did to help make it that way!
Thank you, thank you for all your hard work, effort, commitment, dedication, creativity and dreams in helping to create an incredible, special place. Amy and Megan, your efforts will not be forgotten; may the next steps of your journey be blessed.
Sandy
I don't think any of us can thank any of the founders enough for what they set out to do, and what they achieved. As an oldie in the community, it hurt my heart to see archives close. EF stepped in and maintained a presence that persisted. It was here when I stepped away from fandom writing entirely, and it was still here when I realized my journey needed to take me back to fandom writing and came back. Thank you Amy and Megan for everything you've done.