Hi everyone. It's nearly at that time for fic posting for the Artistic Anniversary Challenge. Yay! We know everyone's excited to get started (including us!), and we know you all have questions about how everything is going to go. We'll try to answer everything here, but if there's something else you're curious about, please let us know in the comments. There's a lot of information here, so grab a snack, get comfy, and get ready to learn about all the amazing things happening in October...

How and when do I post my story?
Starting at midnight on October 1 (site time, which is Eastern US time-it's listed under the shoutbox), you'll see a checkbox on the page where you add a new story:

As soon as you see that box, you're free to post. If your story is part of the challenge, check the box and you're good to go.

Your fic does not need to be complete prior to posting. In fact, it doesn't even need to be completed during October. So any authors stressing about the timeline, please take a breath because you have the whole month, during which you only need to BEGIN posting the story.

In terms of banner credit, the artists need to be credited for the wonderful works, so all authors need to include the following line in the Summary section when uploading your fic. Written for the Elysian Fields 'Artistic Anniversary Challenge'. Banner 00 by artistname.

Here's a fictional example of what it should look like:

Summary: The day began just like any other for Buffy. Just your average Tuesday. That is, until the phone rang. Written for the Elysian Fields 'Artistic Anniversary Challenge'. Banner 375 by angelic_amy.

You can link to the banner master list also if you wish: http://dark-solace.org/elysian/artisticanniversary.php. This might be a good idea so that your readers are aware of the challenge specifics. Alternatively, you could copy and paste the challenge specifics into the Story or Chapter Notes of your story.

Hopefully by this time all of your authors have made contact with your artists. If you've not been able to make contact with them, or forgot, please let Amy know and she'll put you in contact with each other.

To add the banner to your story, you can upload the banner to your account in the Your Images section of your account info page, or to an image sharing site (imgur.com, photobucket.com, etc...) . Enter the image URL (which should end in .jpg, .gif or .png - nothing should be after the file type) into the line marked Banner URL:

How do I find the stories that are being added to the challenge?
Besides the note in the story summary, challenge stories will have a little artist's palette next to the title:

This will make it easy to spot challenge fics. Also, don't forget that we have a site events browse page where you can view all the stories from previous site events, as well as the ones from this challenge.

Will you be featuring regular stories while the challenge is going on?
There won't be any mod-chosen featured stories in October. To celebrate the 10 years of stories, we're doing a little something different. Since this is all because it's Elysian Fields' 10th bithday, from the 1st-10th we're highlighting stories from each year of EF's existence. Each day will focus on one year (1st-2006, 2nd-2007, and so on...), and will contain a random assortment of stories published in that particular year. Starting on the 11th, that section will change to feature a random assortment of fics that are part of the Artistic Anniversary challenge.

This challenge celebrates the amazing authors and artists at Elysian Fields, but what about the readers?
Don't worry readers, we haven't forgotten about your incredible contributions to EF. We want to celebrate you by having a challenge you can participate in as well. If you write at least 15 reviews in October that all contain at least 8 words (for any stories here on EF, not just the challenge ones), you'll meet the requirements of the reviewer challenge! You'll see a link to the review challenge leaderboard on the homepage under the Members of the Month where the all star reviewer list is usually located. Authors and artists who participated/are participating in the Artistic Anniversary challenge are welcome to participate in the reviewer challenge!

Besides an amazing sense of pride, do we get anything for participating in these challenges?
Of course you do! We have some amazing awards that will be given out after the end of October. Our wonderful Kathleen (pfeifferpack) created the following awards for participating authors: , artists: , and reviewers: .

What's going to happen to the banners that weren't selected for the challenge?
That's still being determined, and will be announced shortly after the challenge ends.

That about covers it. Please let us know if there's any additional questions. Hurray for Fictober!

Writers note that there are two new warning selections for your stories available if needed.  They are for suicide and attempted suicide.  

We will not be going through the thousands of existing stories and adding this warning because  none of us have the time to cull through.  If you have written a story where the warning would have been appropriate and you wish to edit your story to add the warning please feel free.  Otherwise please note that these warning labels are available for future stories from now forward.

If you are a reader please realize that the warnings were not available until now, August 19, 2016 and read at your own risk.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Kathleen

Hi everyone. It's nearly at that time for banner claiming - less than five hours and counting. Yay! o/ 

First of all, important dates to remember: 
Banner creation: 17th of July - 6th of August 
Banner claiming: 7th - 13th of August
Banner confirmations: 14th – 15th of August
Writing time (but no posting of fics): 16th August - 30th September
Posting of fics to begin: from the 1st of October (and of course authors can continue to write/post throughout the month and beyond)

Now that we've got that out of the way... if you are someone who has been ogling admiring the pretties over the last few weeks (and there was just another massive upload of another 18 banners/challenges, so make sure you check them out) then here's what you need to do.

Firstly, you need to follow the rules and regs of the challenge. I'm reposting them in case anyone has forgotten. By signing up for a banner, you are agreeing to comply with the rules and regs, and write a fic with the following specifics:

• Length: Minimum length 1,500 words, maximum completely up to you!
• Characters: Buffy, Spike, any other characters shown in the banner.
• Content Specifications: Must abide by the Must and Can’t Haves specified by the artist. Obviously the Can Haves is voluntary! All fic MUST follow the guidelines set by the banner artist, unless changes are agreed upon by both parties.
• Dates: no posting of the fic on the archive (or anywhere else) until the 1st of October.
• Banner claims are for new fic only, not to be attached to an existing story. 
• The banner must accompany the fic when it is posted on the archive. Modification of the banner with fic title and author name should be discussed with artist once the first part/chapter is ready for publishing. Authors, the mods will put you in contact with the artist when we confirm your banner selection.

Another reminder, each banner will ONLY be allocated once, and it will be first come, first serve. So make sure you are ready to hit send on the email when sign ups commence (very shortly). Sign ups will be for your top three banner choices, in case your first or second is chosen. If you want to list more preferences than that, have at it. But understand you will only be allocated one banner to begin with. Secondary signups for unclaimed banners will happen later on (dates to be confirmed).

If you think you can follow these specifics, and would like to claim one of the gorgeous artworks just begging to accompany a fic, then here is the last piece of information you need. When you can grab your pretty. 

Susan, our resident tech guru, has the banner claim page set up to automatically switch to banner claiming OPEN at midnight SITE TIME.

So make sure you have the site open. When the message at the top of the page switches you need to email me at angelic.amy.fic@gmail.com with the following information:
     Author penname:
     Email address: (so contact can be set up with the artist for text additions)
     Banner request: List your banner choice(s) by title (number) and artist name, in order of preference. 

And that's it...

E-mails will be sent to authors to confirm their choice of banner, and then your Elysian Fields ID will be linked with the banner on the master list, which is why providing your penname is essential. Early email claims will not be accepted. So don't start writing until you receive your confirmation. 

Any questions? Comment here.

And when the time comes... happy claiming!

Ordinarily I don't feature Adult Only stories not because they aren't worthy (believe me there are lots of fabulous stories with that rating!).  I try to make the features accessible to the widest audience including those in the age groups that cannot read AO stories.

However I really want to give nods to some of the best of them out of fairness.  So I figured what better time than the hot days of summer than to feature AO stories?  It's summer in the northern hemisphere so the features this time will all be AO stories.  We'll do it again when it's summer in the southern hemisphere.

So...enjoy!

Kathleen

Hello everyone!

The tenth anniversary of Elysian Fields is fast approaching--where has the time gone? The mods have decided a challenge is in order to celebrate this fact, and I come to you today with that information to encourage fresh blood and life (of the living and undead variety) to our wonderful community. Also, the challenge will involve both artists and writers. 

So here’s the sitch. Authors have banners created for their fics all time. In most cases the art is made after the fic. Well, we’re switching it around. This will be an art before the fic challenge. It’s not a new idea, but it’s one that works, and I speak from experience having run such a challenge for a Livejournal community many years ago. 

What will the Artistic Anniversary Challenge entail? Information is as follows. 

Artists:
We’re asking you to create a banner with the following specifics.
Dimensions: Width 900px x Height 250px (maximum)
Text: In a small (approx 8 – 10 pt) clear font along one of the edges, Designed for the Elysian Fields ‘Artistic Anniversary’ Challenge. The fic title will of course be left up to the author but suggestions can be posted with the banner (just not on it) if you have something you think fits with the art. 
Design: Completely up to you! The banner can be theme or episode specific, whichever works best for you.
Fic Specifications: In a similar style to what you’d find under the challenges section of many eFiction archives. Must Haves, Can Haves, Can’t Haves list. No more than three specifics per category. An example of how it should be laid out can be found below in the rules section.
If you are an artist within our archive community and would be interested in participating, PLEASE reply to this post so we can gauge the interest in the challenge, and so we can all look forward to your wonderful creations. Once complete your banner and specifications are to be emailed to me at the following address, so that they can be added to the Artistic Anniversary Challenge page for the archive: angelic.amy.fic@gmail.com

Authors:
Once the art has been created, there will be a sign up, where banners will go up for grabs. Each banner will ONLY be allocated once, and it will be first come, first serve. So make sure you pay close attention to signup dates. Sign ups will be for your top three banner choices, in case you first or second is chosen. 
We’re asking you to write a fic with the following specifics:
Fic Length: Minimum length 1,500 words, maximum completely up to you!
Characters: Buffy, Spike, any other characters shown in the banner.
Content Specifications: Must abide by the Must and Can’t Haves specified by the artist. Obviously the Can Haves is voluntary.
The banner must accompany the fic when it is posted on the archive. Modification of the banner with fic title and author name should be discussed with the artist once the first part/chapter is ready for publishing. Authors, the mods will put you in contact with the artist when we confirm your banner selection.
Banner claims are for new fic only, not to be attached to an existing story.

RULES AND REGS:
1) All entires MUST include BOTH Buffy and Spike.
2) All banner entries MUST comply with size restrictions.
3) All fic entries MUST meet minimum word count.
4) All art entrants MUST accompany the following form with their artwork:

Characters:
Rating: 
Season/Episode: (if specific) 
Must Have: 
1)
2)
3)
Can Have:
1)
2)
3)
Can’t Have:
1)
2)
3)

5) All banners and specifics MUST be emailed to the address provided.
6) There is no limit to the amount of banners an artist can make, nor fics an author can write! 

DATES:
Banner creation: 17th of July - 6th of August
Banner claiming: 7th - 13th of August
Banner confirmations: 14th – 15th of August
Writing time (but no posting of fics): 16th August - 30th September
Posting of fics to begin (and of course authors can continue to write/post throughout the month): from the 1st of October

That’s about it. If any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! 

Yours in Spuffy,
The Mods.

Just a quick news blurb so I don't clog up the shoutbox...

We have a brand new skin here at Elysian Fields thanks to our very own -Ash-. She was kind enough to submit some lovely artwork, and it inspired the new skin called heaven. You can preview it with the drop-down menus on the main page or in the footer. To make it (or any other skin) your default one, make sure to set in in your preferences.

Speaking of wonderful art, we have a number of banner artists here, and Wonder and Ashes added a suggestion asking for a better way for authors to find artists who are willing to volunteer their services to creating amazing artwork to go along with their story. If you are such an artist, you can now make it known that you're available to help by creating a banner artist profile from within your Account Info page. You can specify what information you need from an author if they make a request, and you can add 1-3 samples of your work.

The link to the list of volunteer artists can be found in the top navigation bar. I have my artist profile up as an example of what the profiles look like. I know you'll all want me to make banners for you based on my example, but please, try to restrain yourself. I'm sure many other talented members will join me on the list shortly. If you're an author, please remember to always be polite when making a request, and be sure to give the artist credit in your story notes.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

2015 was a very active and prolific year for Elysian Fields, and our stats are here to prove it (for reference, see our 2014 stats here). This year we held our first ever challenge month, and it went so well that we decided to do it again. We attempted to slay the email eating monster (and were slightly successful). We added beta and shoutbox search options, daily email digests, new categories, drabbles, and many other behind the scenes tweaks and fixes to try and help the site keep up with the times and to run more smoothly.

2016 will be Elysian Fields' 10th year online, and it is shaping up to be another big year for us. During the year, it looks like we will welcome our 4,000th story and our 15,000th member.

Thank you to everyone who made 2015 so wonderful: the authors, the reviewers, and even the lurkers !

2015 by the numbers:
Total number of words added: 10,487,862
Total number of stories added: 538
Total number of chapters added: 3,623
Number of new members: 1,987
Number of reviews written: 35,888
Number of words written for reviews: 1,502,228

Ten most prolific authors of 2015:
1. mak324 (679,583 words)
2. myrabeth (407,448 words)
3. Sigyn (395,082 words)
4. sweetprincipale (351,759 words)
5. Wonder and Ashes (284,961 words)
6. DauntlessGrace (261,623 words)
7. -Ash- (261,237 words)
8. Slayerfan (231,752 words)
9. bewildered (223,610 words)
10. reenasas (192,067 words)

Ten most prolific reviewers of 2015:
1. pfeifferpack (156,482 words)
2. magnus374 (154,835 words)
3. Blue Eyes2 (54,549 words)
4. annamatte (53,533 words)
5. acekoomboom (41,068 words)
6. jhiz (38,884 words)
7. ginar369 (37,282 words)
8. Ashinthe (37,134 words)
9. solstice (33,995 words)
10. All4Spike (33,806 words)

Let's take a short break from all the holiday goodness to introduce something new here at Elysian Fields.

A short while ago, a number or members were having issues with emails that were sent from our email address. Because of this, I put on my thinking cap, and wound up changing the way that the site sends out emails (instead of sending bulk emails out all at once, we now put them in a queue, and they go out in small batches, which makes the emails less suspicious to spam filters). Based on some comments I've received, it seems that this method has had some success, and the majority of emails are now showing up as they're supposed to (even if they're still being filtered to junk mail, at least they're getting there). The reason I'm bringing this up is because while I was working on the email issues, I also added a brand new feature. From now on, every night at midnight server time (Eastern US time or GMT -5:00), the site will compile a list of new and updated stories, and any new site news items that were added on the previous day. Then, that list will be emailed out to members who have elected to receive it. If you'd like to subscribe to our new daily digest, head over to your preferences, and check the box next to the option that says, "Email me a daily digest with new/updated stories and news items:" Make sure you've added our site email address (elysianfields@dark-solace.org) to your safe senders list to lessen the chance that our emails end up in your junk mail folder.

As always, let me know with a comment below or a PM/email if you have any questions or comments.

December is full of holidays, and to celebrate we're having two different challenges throughout the month.

The first challenge is for authors. Your job is to come up with a new story (be it a one shot or multi chapter fic) that includes or is inspired by a holiday in December. Of course there are a number of widely celebrated holidays such as Christmas, New Year's Eve, etc... that you can choose. However, you can also revolve your fic around one of the lesser known holidays in December. For example, did you know that Letter Writing Day, Cat Herders Day, Make Up Your Mind Day and Chocolate Covered Anything Day are all celebrated in December? Don't believe me? See those holidays and more here. Go ahead and start looking for inspiration and start thinking about your story/stories, but don't publish until December. There will be another news post in the coming weeks about how to make sure your addition is counted in the challenge, so keep an eye out for that.

The second challenge is for everyone. What's a holiday without a gift? The authors of EF provide us with the gift of stories year round, and it's our turn to return the favor by gifting them with some quality feedback. To participate this challenge, all you need to do is write 15 reviews that consist of at least 5 words during the month of December. We'll keep track throughout the month, so you can see where you stack up. I expect the list to be filled with reviewer MVPs (I'm looking at you magnus374) as well as long time lurkers who have 142 favorites but only 2 reviews. I hope to have a lot of awards to give out at the end of the month.

Speaking of awards, solstice has gifted us with her incredible talent, and created the awards for both challenges. If you contribute a fic and meet the review limit you can have both these beauties added to the awards section of your profile:

Questions, comment or concerns? Let me, Kathleen or Megan know with a note below or a PM.

BIRTHDAY

Elysian Fields is celebrating our 9th birthday on Tuesday, October 27.  We want to thank all of our writers and readers because it is YOU who make this site not only possible but a joy.  This month we also surpassed the 14,000 member mark!  We have 609 authors and close to 4,000 stories.  Quite a lot to be proud of and we are.

Megan, Susan and I (Pfeifferpack) are the current active administrators and we strive to keep this a friendly, encouraging site and also to keep it as transparent as possible.   In the interests of that transparency we want you to know that the site is paid up for the next two years thanks to all of you.  That also means the Paypal site (located by clicking on the Donate button on the bottom of the main menu) is now depleted.  Not to worry though because we have plenty of time to raise the needed amount when we need to pay again. 

There are some sites that ask for donations all the time and people wonder just” how much it costs to host this site anyway?” I’ve wondered at times myself.  So here are our current charges (all in U.S. dollars) and status:  the domain costs $21.37 a year.  We are paid for this year and next.  The Web host costs $167.70 a year and, like the domain it is paid for this year and next.  Thanks to your generosity we’ve managed to keep the site up and going.  If you would like that to continue I hope you will find it in your heart to chip in a bit over the next year so we can have a balance there to pay next time.  Absolutely NO money is touched from this PayPal account except for the charges I just listed.  Until it is needed, it sits there looking pretty (and comforting for your poor, literally, administrators).

On another note we are looking at staging another “event” likely in December.  The Challenge month was a great success bringing in lots of wonderful new stories and plenty of excitement.  With NaNoWrite taking up the time of many of our authors this November we decided not to schedule anything out of the normal and wait until December.  More news on that will be forthcoming.

Again, thank you all for making this our happy Spuffy home and keeping our fandom alive and well.

Kathleen

By popular demand (and by popular demand, I mean a conversation in the shoutbox), we are officially making October Challenge Month. This means we hope to have many new fics added next month that have been inspired by the challenges that we have here at Elysian Fields.

So, what do you need to do to participate? Right now, you need to prepare. Look through the challenges and find one that speaks to you (hopefully not literally). We currently have 1,079 challenges listed so surely there's one that strikes your fancy. Remember, you can sort through challenges based on a number of different criteria, and you can save challenges to your own personal list which is accessed through your account info page. It doesn't matter if the challenge has already been filled or if someone else is planning to use the challenge since they can have more than one response. Once you're sufficiently inspired, start writing! You can create a drabble or a novel length tome, that's up to you. Don't publish yet though. Hold off on publishing your story until October to join in the deluge (trickle?) of challenge responses.

Here on EF, the space on the main page normally used to show featured stories will instead show challenge responses. We will keep a running tally of the challenge response stories that are published during the month, and every author that contributes will get a swanky new award on their profile page at the end of the month.

Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Let us know with a PM or a comment below.

P.S. In case you missed my earlier shout, I wanted to point out that some changes have been made to the site skins which mostly affect the mobile view. However, the changes may not go through automatically, and might take a little push to display correctly. If this is the case just refresh your page, and everything should appear as it should.

Based on requests from sweetprincipale and RESPICE FINEM, we have some new categories for stories.

First up are categories for individual comic seasons and for comics in the buffyverse that don't fit within a specific season. Previously we only had one category for all comic based stories, but each season now has its own category. I haven't removed the comic category yet since there are currently 47 stories in that category. If you have a story in the comic category, you can now edit it to reflect the correct season. There is still a post-series category that can cover stories that are both comic and non-comic compliant. Any thoughts about the need to split this into 2 categories (post-series comic compliant and post-series non-comic compliant)? I'm not sure if there's a need for this, but I know some people avoid the comics, so I thought I'd throw it out there.

Next, there are now categories for award winners and award runners-up. There used to be categories just for Spark and Burn award winners, but we opened it up to winners and runners-up of all fandom awards. If you have stories that fit into these categories, feel free to add them accordingly. It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway :) , please don't add your stories to the award categories if they don't belong there.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions or comments.

This isn't terribly newsworthy, but I didn't want to cram all this into the shoutbox. Hey, speaking of the shoutbox, I received a request from stuffandnonsense, who asked for the ability to search for shoutbox posts. Based on this request, if you now look underneath the shoutbox on the main page, or at the top of the shoutbox archive, you'll see a link to Search Shouts. On the new search page, you can search for shouts in one of three ways. Using the dropdown, you can search for keywords within a shout, for shouts written by a specific member, or for shouts written in a specific month. Make sure that your search type matches the term you enter, or it won't work properly.

If you have any questions, issues, or concerns, please let me know.

A few months ago missambermarie asked me about the possibility of adding a way to filter the beta reader listings so that you're only looking at betas who meet your needs instead of having to scan through every member with a beta profile. Well, it took me a while to get around to it, but I just added a new beta search feature. You can access it on the main betas page at the top where it says 'Narrow down the list with a Beta Search.' Once on the search page, you can filter the list with the areas where you'd like help, the ideal average turnaround time for a chapter and your story rating. The final item in the beta search is the ability to only include betas who have been active in the last month. The thought behind this option is that a beta may be more responsive to a request if they have been on the site recently. Feel free to play around with the options and let me know if you notice anything not working properly. The search page is (ironically) un-betaed, so it's certainly possible I missed something (let's consider it a WIP ;) ).

Also, just a reminder in case you missed my posts in the shoutbox, we now have 2 additional skins, kiss and comic. In addition, nominations for April's members of the month are open, so make sure to recognize an author and/or a reviewer whose words have impressed you lately.

ETA 12/1/14: Another new sort item is the ability to filter by whether a story is marked as read or not. SoaringClaws asked for this a while back, and it's taken me a little bit to get it set up, but now on most browse pages, if you're logged in, you'll see this option among the top of the page drop-downs:

Remember, you need to mark stories as read for them to be included, since they aren't automatically marked that way if you view a story.

There's an item I wanted to point out just to hopefully avoid confusion. I had a few members ask me to add a new option to the bookshelf sort choices. They wanted to be able to sort their bookshelf by the date stories were added. The reason I didn't add that option in the first place is because the date isn't set in stone. What that means is, the date is added when you add the story to your bookshelf. Then, every time you click on a new chapter of the story, the date changes to reflect the day when you read the story. Since the date is fluid, I didn't want people to be confused but the fact that the stories would frequently appear to be in a different order since the dates would change. However, after a few people asked for the option, I figured that we're all big boys and girls (or we should be ;) ), and that you all could probably figure is out. So, now when you look at your bookshelf, in the sort drop-down, you can now choose 'Date Added to Shelf/Last Read'. This will show the stories in your bookshelf starting with the ones that were most recently added/read.

Also, I added this a while ago, but I don't think I ever pointed it out. For members who like to read on a dark background, I added a darker version of the simple skin called, uh, simple-dark. Creative, I know.

Holidays are coming up, so before the rush starts, be sure to get your Member of the Month nominations in!

Let me know if you have any questions.