First off, congratulations to our first members of the month for 2015, tempestt and juggler!

Looking back on 2014, we had an incredibly active year. We added the members of the month nominations, and the process has been quite a success due to all of you who have voted. Make sure to keep it up in the new year to continue showing our authors and reviewers that they are appreciated! During the year, we had more new stories, reviews and members added than we did back in 2013. Not too shabby for a fandom that occasionally gets accused of "dying". It looks to me like we're still going strong. On behalf of all the mods, thank you to all our members who made 2014 such a great year in our little Spuffy haven. We can't wait to see what you all come up with in 2015!

2014 by the numbers:
Total number of words added: 4,922,186
Total number of stories added: 239
Total number of chapters added: 1,689
Number of new members: 1,835
Number of reviews written: 12,578
Number of words written for reviews: 416,455

Most prolific authors of 2014:
1. DauntlessGrace (392,807 words)
2. AGriffinWriter (287,870 words)
3. BeneficialAddiction (231,535 words)
4. sweetprincipale (211,095 words)
5. Slayerfan (195,536 words)
6. CupcakeCute (185,131 words)
7. Lilachigh (178,239 words)
8. KittenOfDoomage (177,132 words)
9. pommedapi (152,969 words)
10. stuffandnonsense (146,673 words)

Most prolific reviewers of 2014:
1. magnus374 (33,156 words)
2. ginar369 (23,147 words)
3. Braxen (20,030 words)
4. SoaringClaws (19,461 words)
5. Amasirol (11,109 words)
6. AGriffinWriter (10,768 words)
7. nmcil (10,545 words)
8. jhiz (9,945 words)
9. lambean (9,632 words)
10. juggler (8,385 words)

Many new stories are featuring banners, and they are wonderful. We love banners, and are in awe of the work and creativity it takes to make them. That said, we know they can make it difficult to inconspicuously sneak a peek at the most recent list while at work sometimes you just want things simple and clean. So, you now have the option to hide banners from the browse pages and story index. Banners are always shown by default. To change your settings, go to your preferences, uncheck the box for 'Display banners on browse pages and story index' and click submit. If you uncheck the box, the banners will be hidden, and in their place you'll see a message that says '** Click here to see this story's banner**'. If you want to view the banner, you can hover over that message to see a thumbnail of the image, or you can click the message to view the image full size. Remember that it sometimes takes a little push for your phone/computer to register the style changes, so you may need to refresh your page if things don't look quite right.

In totally unrelated news, you may have noticed that your statistics page now includes your total wordcounts for stories and reviews written. I recently modded the reviews to keep track of review wordcounts (this only includes your initial review, not responses by you or the author) because I felt review wordcount was just as, if not more, important than the regular review count.

As always, let me, Megan or pfeifferpack know if you have any questions.

We now have our first Members of the Month! Congratulations to stuffandnonsense and magnus374! 21 authors and 7 reviewers were nominated by a total of 36 members (not everyone nominated members for both categories), which is a really great start. The nomination process can only be successful with your help, so please continue to use this as an opportunity to let our authors/reviews know that you appreciate their contributions. Nominations for September members are now open!

Previously, when viewing a story on EF, you could read online one chapter at a time or download chapters/entire stories as Word, HTML or ePub files. However, you now have the option to read an entire story in one page while online. If a story has more than one chapter, on that story's table of contents, you'll now see a link to "View All Chapters". This option also can be found in the chapter listing drop-down menu you see while viewing the story itself. If you choose to view all the chapters, you'll notice that at the end of every chapter, there's a link to leave a review. Clicking the link will open up a pop-up window where you'll be able to leave a review for the chapter you just read without losing your place in the story. One thing to note, if you have a story in your bookshelf, it will note the last chapter you read only if you're reading the story one chapter at a time. If you choose to view all chapters, the system has no idea which chapters you've actually viewed, so it will not keep track of your last read chapter.

A month ago, we added a category for authors who wanted to put their fics up for "adoption" on a trial basis to see if there was interest in such a category. We didn't have any fics added to the new category, so we're assuming that author interest just isn't there and it has been removed. That said, if an author does want to give up a fic to a new author for whatever reason, we have no problem with that author noting their feelings in the story's summary, or letting others know about it in the shoutbox.

As always, let us know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc...

I just wanted to post a brief news item on Adopt-A-Fic, a new category that was recently added. A few members wanted a way for authors to show that they are no longer willing nor able to finish a WIP that they have written, and they are now interested in giving the fic to a new author so that it may be finished. If this is the case, authors may add the Adopt-A-Fic category to their stories so authors interested in picking up an existing story can easily find available works. There is some debate on author interest level, so the category has been added on a trial basis. We will re-evaluate the necessity of such a category after one month.

The decision for a story to be added to the Adopt-A-Fic category is that of the original author alone. Please do not contact authors asking them to do this. Asking an author to give one of their stories to another author is one of the surest ways to anger them.

Edit 11/08/14 The deadline for this trial has now passed.  I will be deleting this category, but this does not mean that any authhor at ANY time can't choose to offer an unfinished fic up to the masses with a new chapter/Author not or announcing it's availability in the tag.  If you have any questions, please PM me.

We now have a new way to contact other members here at Elysian Fields. Before, the member contact link had you send an email, and a few people mentioned to me that they were leery of sending out their email addresses. So, after much coding (and a little frustration), we now have a new method. When you click the envelope icon in a user's profile, it will allow you to send a private message. The message will be stored here, and will not force you to include your email address.

When you receive a private message, you will be sent an email notification with a link to the PM (don't reply to the email because the PM sender won't see your reply). Also, you'll know you have a new PM because there will be a little envelope icon in the top menu (the envelope wont be there if you don't have any unread messages):

If you hover over the envelope, it will tell you how many new private messages you have, and if you click on it, it will take you to your inbox. There is also a link to your inbox on your account info page. Once you're at the inbox you can view and reply to messages.

This was a big project for me, so the possibility that I've forgotten something or messed something up is definitely there. If you notice anything not working as you think it should, be patient and let me know about it (with a PM, perhaps ) . If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks!

Hi all!  The holidays are upon us!  Yup, not only Christmas but the Solstice, Yule, Kwanzaa, New Years and we just missed Hanukkah (came so early this year).  There are likely even more holidays that I am forgetting but you will remember fondly.   Anyway....

Time for  fic rec's to give us that 'ole holiday feeling.  I'm trying to select fic that haven't already been featured so anyone with a special fav you would love to clue everyone in to enjoy, now is the hour.  Drop  a comment here or e-mail me with the fic rec (provided it's here on our site of course LOL) and we'll see about letting everyone else in on the yummy holiday treat.

Thanks and wishes for a very Spuffy holiday,

Kathleen

I feel like I keep posting new news items. I'm not usually this productive, so I don't know what's gotten into me. There are a just a few items that I wanted to bring to your attention. First off, we have a new skin thanks to a wonderful banner that was submitted by Spikesterolic. If you look in the skin dropdown, you'll now see an option for drinking buddies (Don't forget, the best way to change your skin choice is in your preferences. The other dropdowns don't always save the change.).

Next up, we've always had the option to either leave a review, an opinion or both in the review area at the end of a chapter. As soon as someone marked that they liked a chapter (whether there was an attached review or not), the thumbs up icon appeared on the story and chapter. There wasn't really much information after that since the icon appeared the same whether 1 person or 100 people liked the chapter. I thought it might be handy for authors to see how many people had liked their works, so I modified it to show the number of likes per chapter and story. As always, there may be some coding issues I've overlooked. If you notice anything off, let me know.

Readers, make sure you're out there leaving reviews and marking that you liked the work you've just enjoyed. According to the site statistics, there have been over 2,500 members active in the last 3 months, so our authors should be getting plenty of constructive, considerate feedback.

In slightly related news, I wanted to thank the Chatzy crew for humoring me when I show up with ideas or ask for guinea pigs to help test new items. You guys are the best .

There's a magical period of time coming up that will be after my kids begin school and before my job starts back up. Since that means I'll have some free time, I thought I'd see if there are any requests/suggestions/comments about the technical aspects and features on the site. Is there anything we don't have that you'd like to see? Any ideas on how the site could be more user friendly? Please submit your thoughts in the comments below, and try to be as specific as possible.

The other mods and I will take all the suggestions under consideration, but please keep in mind that we may not be able to make them all happen. We are restricted somewhat by the software that powers the site and database usage considerations, so there are some limitations. However, we promise we'll do our best.

Thank you! 

Over the last few weeks, I've made a few tweaks to the site based on comments and emails from various members, so thanks to those who have let me know when they noticed a bug. There were a few issues with the advanced search that have been resolved, and the issues with the ePub files that have a ? in the title have been fixed.  Also, I added a random story section on the main page (under the most recent stories), because who doesn't love a random story once in a while. Basically, every time you load the homepage, a new story will appear at random.

However, the main reason for this post is a new feature I wanted to explain. Previously, each story gave you the following options: [Add to Bookshelf] [Add Story to Favorites] [Add Author to Favorites]. Now, there's an additional choice: [Mark as Read]. When you click Mark as Read, you'll be taken to a confirmation page. When you look back at that story in the listings or on the story page, it will have a red check mark next to the title. This way, when you're looking at a long list of stories, you'll easily be able to differentiate between stories you've already read and once you haven't. If you want to see a listing of the stories that you've marked as read, there's a new option for that in the Favorites and Bookshelf section of your Account Info page. The stories you mark as read are not public, and are only viewable by you.

Let me know if you have any questions, and as always, feel free to let me know if something with the site seems buggy or isn't working correctly. Also, I still remember the request for a better beta list, and it's definitely on my radar, but I just haven't had the time to work on it lately. I'll get to it eventually.

Sorry it took a few days to get back online. I thought that this would be the best time to do a software upgrade for the site since it had to be offline anyway, and that added on some extra time.

First, I need to thank Puddinhead, Science and Tennyoelf who beta-tested the site upgrade for me. They helped me immensely with their comments and suggestions, and the transition will be smoother than it would have been without their contribution.

Now, the changes...

--The shoutbox is now integrated into the site instead of using a 3rd party script. You can view the shoutbox as a guest, but you can't post until you're logged in. When you post, your name has a link to your profile, which means we can't put other links in our name anymore. After you type your message, hitting enter will not submit your post. You need to hit tab and then enter or click the shout button. If you hit refresh right after posting a message, it will probably end up reposting. If you want to refresh the page, use the refresh the shoutbox link or hit HOME in the top menu.

--All the skins have been redone a little because they had to be recreated to work with the new software. Also, there are 2 new skins, simple and mobile. Mobile is meant to be used on mobile devices (shocking, I know). Remember that changing your skin in one of the drop-down menus does not change your default skin. To make a certain skin always shows up when you log on, you need to change it in your account preferences.

--All stories added or updated in the last month have a New! or Updated! tag next to the title in the story listings.

--Stories now have a read count. Since it's new, it doesn't have a history of old views. The count for all stories is starting at 0.

-- There is a new Bookshelf feature that allows you to add stories  you're reading/want to read to a list. You don't get an email when a story on this list is updated, but it lists the date when you last read the story, and if it has been updated since that date, there will be an Updated! tag no matter when it was updated.

--When you click on a story, you have the option of being taken to a table of contents page for the story instead of the first chapter. You can turn this feature off or on with the table of contents setting in your account preferences.

--This has nothing to do with the upgrade, but while I was adding things, I remembered that there was talk of wanting a Holidays category, so I added one. I'm not going to go through old stories and reclassify them, but if you have a story that fits, please add it to the list.

--When you add a favorite author or story, you are taken to a second screen where you can choose to add comments to remind yourself why you added it to your favorites list. The notes are for you, and do not go under reviews. You do not have to add any comments, but you do have to click submit after being taken to the second screen to add the author/story to your favorites list. You can edit items already on your favorites list to add comments.

--There are a number of changes in the account info/preferences section:

----You can now view/edit reviews you've left for other authors. Your reviews are listed under the storyand are in order of when that story was first published (starting with the earliest).

----You can set a default story sort of either alphabetical or most recent and choose to be notified when an author responds to your review of their story.

----In your bio, there are new profile fields if you want to enter your LJ, DW, Tumblr, Twitter or Facebook accounts.

----The beta information was unfortunately wiped in the upgrade, but it was woefully out of date anyway. While you're checking out the new profile fields, be sure to mark if you're interested in being a beta reader or not.

--The text editor has been updated, with a few notable changes:

----The best way to add an image is now with the button that looks like a picture of a tree. Click the button, and enter the image URL/direct link into the top line of the pop-up window. After filling in any other information that you would like to enter about your image, click Insert. Make sure your image isn't wider than 920px, or it won't display correctly. If you need to make your image smaller, you can do so in the appearance tab of the pop-up window.

----The button with the checkmark/ABC is a spell check. It only works after you've clicked the button.

----The happy face button has some emoticons, which have no real purpose other than the fact that smileys make everything better (is it just me?).

-- At the end of the last chapter of a story, there are additional story notes that mention other stories in a series (if that title is part of a series), has a listing of how many other stories the author has written and links to a list of other stories that are favorites of people who also favorited that story.

--Stories can now have more than one author. When adding your story, there is a space for you to enter co-authors if there are any.

--When adding a new story, you can enter story notes. These notes appear on the table of contents page and at the top of every chapter page. This is a perfect place to put a banner or a disclaimer so you don't have to put them in every time you add a new chapter. There are still chapter notes and there are now end of chapter notes as well.

--From the chapter pages, you can now choose to save a chapter or story as a Word doc.

--You can now share a story to tumblr or Twitter. From the table of contents page, you can share the link to the story, or from a chapter page, you can share a link to the chapter.

--In the top navigation, there's a link to the Chatzy page. The link is only visible when you're logged in.

--The registration page now has a captcha on it. It won't stop spammers, but maybe it will slow them down a bit.

--Last, but not least, the site now has a favicon, which is the little image that shows at the top of your browser, in your bookmarks, etc... When I was trying to add a favicon initially, I just snagged an image that I had sitting on my desktop, which just happened to be Underdog (yes, I had an image of Underdog on my desktop). I'm well aware that Underdog doesn't really fit the site, but I'm not artistic enough to create a new favicon. That's where you come in. If you want to submit a favicon for the site, send me your 16px x 16px creation at susanelysianfields (at) gmail.com. It can be anything you think that would represent the site, and remember, it's small, so you don't have much room to work with. You have until March 10th to submit a contribution and then we'll have a site-wide vote to determine which image will be used.

I think that about covers it. There may be a few other things I forgot to mention. With upgrades, there's always glitches and growing pains, so if you notice that something isn't working properly or that something's missing, please let me know.

Auction For Kain: http://auction.dark-solace.org/

It's finally time for us to open this up for donations.  Not everything is there yet--we have had some last minute donations of memorabilia and some handmade beauties that haven't been finished or photographed yet, so stay tuned for further announcements as the week continues.  We are also loading up graphics that you can share as the week progresses.

 For those that aren't quite in the know about this yet, one of our original and very much loved Administrators--Spikeslovebite--has suffered the extreme loss of her 11 yo son, Kain, 5 days after Christmas.  Kain suffered from Severe Cerebral Palsy but has been a huge figure in the lives of everyone who knew Tam.  While the loss of her son is heartbreaking, having to be concerned about where the money is coming to cover funeral costs is bitterly cruel.  As a loving, supportive community, members new and old are banding together to do what we can to relieve some of this burden for Tam and her family.  If you can donate to the cause, it would be greatly appreciated.  Your generosity will not only make this load a little easier for one of our own, it also shows how strong and caring our own community is.  And to top it all off, new fiction from authors that have been out of the 'biz' for a while--some of us a long while.  

 Here is how it will work.  Graphics are free for you to claim or share.  Use them to pimp all over your LJ, FB and wherever else you commune with fellow Spuffy lovers.  When you make a donation, you will have the chance to submit fic specifications--genre, rating, favourite season, and any other details you like.  You can even suggest who you'd prefer to write it...make up to three suggestions.  Those that have the highest donations will have the chance of getting their first choice of writer and the story of their suggestion coming to life.  Leftover fic ideas will be divided up--writers have the choice of choosing between these or writing something else if they don't find something to suit.  These fics will feature on the Auction site as they are posted for a number of weeks and then will be able to be posted wherever the writers choose.

And, for those that are interested, we will be auctioning off some Buffy memorabilia, I will be knitting a shawl, and hopefully a  some other crafty morsels for those that would like them.

So, on with it.   Everything about setting this up has been Susan's baby and I think she's amazing for doing this.  Show your love and appreciation wherever you can. Finally, Tam, we love you, and would take away the pain if we could.  Please accept this effort from all of us to you as proof how very much we care.

Auction For Kain: http://auction.dark-solace.org/

One of our original Administrators is going through great pain at the moment.  Spikeslovebite is well loved and admired for her brilliant writing, but she also has been the mother to Kain for 11 years.  Kain had Cerebral Palsy and Tami has been the most brilliant mother I've ever known.  She has been devoted to his love and care and has taught me a thing or two, one of them being the introduction to Spongebob Squarepants, one of Kain's favourites back in the day.  I remember very clearly Tami telling me that I had it so much harder than her, having two boys with autism and one in particular who is a nutbag, because my lot was so much more unpredictable. 

Kain is no longer with us, having passed last Sunday night.  I haven't been able to talk to Tami yet but I hope she knows that we are all saying prayers for her and her boys and that we love her very much.

Edit:  As you all will know, funeral costs can be exorbitant and this time is no exception.  If anyone would like to donate some money to help Tami with these costs, you can do so at raizing.kain@gmail.com

Thank you all for your understanding and support through this horrible, heartbreaking time.

Hello everyone! We're back!! Woohoo!! *does the Numfar dance of joy*

After an extreme amount of stressing, freaking out, pulling hair in frustration and praying to every internet god out there Elysian Fields has finally returned! Our 'never give up' attitude, paired with the technical skills of our new resident admin genius Susan has returned the archive to it's rightful place in the Spuffy fandom. Have you missed us? Because we the mods have certainly missed all of you.

Long story short, the cause of our disappearance (and resulting in said freak out by the mods) was not Hurricane Sandy. We believe we were hacked. We say 'we believe' because there is no definitive proof for any other cause. We certainly did not delete the archive, hence something nefarious must be the cause.

Luckily, with a lot of blood and sweat (courtesy of Susan) and tears (from yours truly, megan_peta and pfeifferpack) we are happy to say the archive is back mostly in one piece. PLEASE NOTE: some works are missing chapters. Those authors have been contacted by the mods so that their stories can be reloaded. We are not perfect though, and if we miss something and if you stumble across a story with missing chapters PLEASE NOTIFY US. That would be greatly appreciated. :)

Last, but in no way least, our gorgeous new banner is courtesy of Knifeedge. Isn't it pretty!? I, for one, cannot stop looking at it. The name of the skin, "Not Without a Fight", is the name of the piece and a very fitting title. To paraphrase the artist it's called that because there's no way we'd give up EF without a fight.

Keep your eyes peeled, as this gorgeous layout is not the only new pretty artwork that will be gracing the site. We will be debuting several new looks over the next few weeks. We hope you are as excited about the return of Elysian Fields as we are.

Yours in Spuffy,
The Mods.