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
--Pfeifferpack on October 26, 2015 10:20pm 6 Comments
It's October, and that means Challenge Month here on Elysian Fields. We're hoping to have lots of new challenge responses this month, so please join in and celebrate with us by adding a story or by reading and reviewing the new responses! Besides the enormous sense of pride you'll feel if you add a story, your profile page will be the envy of all others because it will sport this beautiful award, made by the incredibly talented DauntlessGrace.
Instead of our usual featured fics in the sidebar, you'll notice we're currently featuring random challenge responses (both old and new), along with a link to the official Challenge Month fic list.
If you're not sure about how challenges work, or don't know how to make sure that your story is marked as a challenge response (it needs to be marked in order to count for Challenge Month), please check out the challenges section of our FAQ. If you haven't written a story yet, don't worry - it's a month long celebration. Go check out the challenges, get inspired, and start writing! What are you waiting for?
--Susan on September 30, 2015 08:01pm 2 Comments
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.
--Susan on September 11, 2015 08:56am 9 Comments
I know many of you may be new to the fandom world of Buffy fic and don't know some of the conditions regarding award sites. The most active of which is the Sunnydale Memorial Awards. A wonderful site with great people offering their time to showcase good fic.
http://sunnydawards.dragonydreams.com/
Obviously there are rules there as there is here. We have people register if you wish to read/access NC17 and above ratings. We do this to protect the site from legal accusations of allowing underage reading of "porn" or other age restricted material. Because of that rule of ours the Sunnydale Memorial awards site will not take NC17 and above stories if the link is to our site.
As the awards are reader voted upon they do not want the voter to have to register to read. This is stated in their rules with EF specifically mentioned.
If your story is under an NC17 rating you can link from here but if it is NC17 or above you have to have the link to a site where there is no registration needed to read it. This means posting somewhere that is acceptable AS WELL AS HERE (I say that because I really don't want anyone NOT posting here....we value our writers and stories!)
So. If you write and your story is NC17 or above and you want your story to be able to be nominated for an award you need to look into someplace like LJ or your own site or Archive of our Own or FFnet or a site where registration is not required. These are free sites (even LJ) and most user friendly.
If you, reader, wish to nominate one of the great stories or authors here make sure their story is under NC17 or look for another place to link the story.
Hope I haven't confused anyone.
Here are the rules from Sunnydale Memorial BTW:
- Please nominate only one person per submission.
- When you nominate someone for Best Beta, please say who they beta for in the space provided.
- Only ONE character can be nominated per story for the Best Characterization category. Please say which character in the space provided.
- You can NOT nominate an author for both Best Author and Best New Author.
- If you nominate someone for Best Author or Best New Author, please nominate a story of theirs as well.
- A story can not be nominated as both Angst (or) Drama and Comedy (or) Fluff.
- You CAN nominate a story in more than one category.
- You can nominate an Unfinished fic in ANY category.
- You can nominate yourself, but you still can not vote for yourself.
- You can NOT nominate more than one story by the same author in any category.
- An author can be nominated no more than 3 times in a category, and only if each nomination is by a different person.
- If an author (Best Author or Best New Author), story or website was a Winner or Runner Up in the last round they/it is not eligible for that category for the current round.
- You must include a working link to the story nominated - no locked LJ entries or sites you must log into in order to read the stories (like Elysian Fields), as well as a working email address so that the author can be notified of their nomination. If these are not provided, the nomination will be discarded.
--pfeifferpack on August 10, 2015 05:04pm 4 Comments
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.
--Susan on July 25, 2015 05:50pm 8 Comments
We recently received an inquiry about the minimum story length requirement here at EF, which prompted a conversation between the admins about allowing drabbles to be added to the archive. Neither Megan, Kathleen nor I could come up with a good reason to continue to impose the 500 word count minimum, so we are now officially opening the doors to drabbles, poems and other shorter non-traditional story types. You'll now find new category options when adding or searching for a story.
If you're adding a series of drabbles that all center around a similar theme, then you can add one story, and the drabbles can just be separate chapters in the story (it will use less database space that way). If they are not at all related, then they can be published as separate stories.
Please use these new categories responsibly, and don't inundate us with drabbles just for the sake of publishing something (As opposed to me, since my new masterpiece titled, Portrait of a Demon is vital to all Spuffy readers. I'll give you a special look at it in its entirety now: Spike drank. Also, wept. WHERE ARE THE KITTENS?!? THE END (review please!)).
As always. let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
--Susan on June 26, 2015 11:55am 4 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.
--Susan on June 10, 2015 05:18pm 0 Comments
As feliciacraft kindly pointed out in the shoutbox, ebooks-tree.com has been downloading fics from AO3 (and perhaps other sites) and posting them for download as ebooks, without the consent of the writers.
How you can tell if they have your fic:
Go to ebooks-tree.com and in the top search bar, enter any username that you use to publish your fic. If it says "Searching "username" books (0)", then they don't have anything of yours, but if links show up with your fic titles, they do.
Do not bother trying to download any stories they have because you need to register to do so. During the registration process, they claim that they need your credit card information which is incredibly shady. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION!
What to do if they have your fic:
Go to the contact page at http://www.ebooks-tree.com/info.php?contacts and make the subject line read: "DMCA Complaint". Use the following template with your information (it's recommended that you only use your username they have listed, not your legal name). The parts in italics need to be personalized:
A story/stories was/were copied onto your website without permission. The original story/stories, to which I own the exclusive copyrights, can be found at:
Link(s) to an authorized version of your work (whether on EF, AO3, tumblr, LJ or somewhere else)
The unauthorized and infringing copy/copies can be found at:
Link(s) to the unauthorized works (link to the pdf, the mobi and the page hosting all of it - just right click the links and hit copy link location so you can paste them in)
This letter is official notification under the provisions of Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) to effect removal of the above-reported infringement. I request that you immediately remove the specified story/stories and refrain from posting the infringing story/stories to your website in the future. Please be advised that law requires you to "expeditiously remove or disable access to" the infringing story/stories upon receiving this notice. Noncompliance may result in a loss of immunity for liability under the DMCA.
I have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of here is not authorized by me, the copyright holder, or the law. The information provided here is accurate to the best of my knowledge. I swear under penalty of perjury that I am the copyright holder.
Please send me a prompt response at the email address below indicating the actions you have taken to resolve this matter.
Thank you.
/s/Your Name
Your email address
How did they get your fic:
It seems that the site probably used bots to mass download from the bigger fanfic sites (especially AO3). AO3 is doing a good job of posting updates about the situation and trying to prevent it from happening again. However, there's only so much they, or any site for that matter, can do. The very nature of putting your work up on the internet makes you susceptible to this kind of thing.
How this affects Elysian Fields:
At this point, it doesn't seem that any work was taken from Elysian Fields, but we're a small fish in a big pond. Chances are we slipped under the bot radar since we're not a giant archive like FFN or AO3. All the story pages are protected under our robots.txt file, but so were A03's. Those files can be ignored by unscrupulous bots. AO3 has an option for authors to choose to only allow their fics to be shown to registered users, and I'm sure I can code something to make that feature available here as well. However, we already lock down NC-17 and AO fics, and we do take a bit of grief just for that. I figured I'd throw it out there as an option and see if it's wanted here. Also, I'm open to any other suggestions you might have to make authors feel more secure about posting stories here.
--Susan on April 14, 2015 06:26am 1 Comment
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.
--Susan on March 09, 2015 06:04pm 0 Comments
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)
--Susan on January 01, 2015 09:31am 0 Comments
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.
--Susan on November 14, 2014 05:07am 7 Comments
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.
--Susan on September 12, 2014 07:02am 2 Comments
Okay, I know I just posted a news item, and I hate to post them too frequently. However, I felt these awesome new site awards, created by EffulgentEllie, deserved a post all their own. From now on, all our members of the month and members who make our yearly top 10 lists, will get a gorgeous award placed in a new section on their profile. Let's all take a moment to admire the awards that have already been added.
Thank you again, EffulgentEllie!
--Susan on August 04, 2014 07:13pm 13 Comments
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...
--Susan on August 01, 2014 09:15am 5 Comments
We have so many wonderful authors and reviewers here at Elysian Fields, and now you have the chance to help us recognize some of the members who make EF such a great site. Every month we will have two members of the month, one author and one reviewer. So, how are the members of the month chosen? That's where you come in! Starting on the 1st of every month, nominations will open and you can head over to the nominations page to fill in your choices. Not sure who you want to nominate? You have until midnight on the 20th 25th to get your nominations in. Also, if you change your mind, you can change your vote since the nominations aren't counted until after the 20th 25th (your nomination only counts once no matter how many times you change your vote or hit the submit button).
Since nominations are open for most of the month, we're choosing for the following month (for example, right now nominations are for the August members of the month). After voting is over, the members with the highest number of nominations in each category will be selected. If there's a tie for the highest number of nominations, the tie breaker will be chosen at random. The members of the month will then be displayed for all to see in the new section on the main page sidebar.
There's some more information over on the nominations page, so be sure you read that over before submitting your nominations. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
--Susan on July 01, 2014 06:10am 3 Comments
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.
--Susan on June 27, 2014 05:53am 2 Comments
A little while back EffulgentEllie and 3hours made a couple of suggestions for the challenge section, so I did a bit of work to hopefully fulfill their requests. When you look at challenges, you'll notice that at the bottom there are 2 new options. If you see a challenge that piques your interest that you might want to respond to at a later date, just click the first option [Save this challenge] and the challenge will be stored on your saved challenges list, which is accessible on your account info page. If you see a challenge that you don't want to take on, but feel like it's a great idea that you'd love to see come to fruition, click [Second this challenge]. You can see how many members have seconded a challenge on the top row next to the number of responses. In the example below, you can see a '+1' because one member decided that Puddinhead's challenge is awesome and should definitely be brought to life. If 2 members seconded the challenge, it would show a '+2' and so on...
)
On the challenge browse page, there are new sort options. Before, you could only sort alphabetically or by most recent, but now you can sort alphabetically by the challenge author, by most responses (i.e. the number of stories created from each challenge) or most wanted (i.e. the number of members who have seconded a challenge).
Since there are a couple of new challenge options on your account info page, you may notice that the order of the boxes is a little different. I switched things up just to keep things looking even (lack of symmetry makes me twitchy).
Big thanks go to spuffy luvr for looking over all this for me. Her awesomeness never ceases to amaze me 
.
As always, let me know if you have any questions or issues.
--Susan on May 29, 2014 10:24am 7 Comments
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!
--Susan on April 24, 2014 05:45pm 7 Comments
2013 brought Elysian Fields many changes (server issues, switching hosts, upgrading software, new features, etc...). With all those changes come growing pains, and we can't thank you all enough for sticking with us, being patient and continuing to support us. Despite being a 7 year old archive focusing on a show that went off the air in 2003, we have remained active, and that is all thanks to our wonderful authors and readers. Here's to an even better 2014
. Happy New Year from all of us at Elysian Fields!
2013 by the numbers:
Total number of words written for stories: 4,688,476
New stories: 174
New chapters: 1,313
New members: 1,602
Reviews written: 6,543
Most prolific authors of 2013:
1. Passion4Spike (366,354 words)
2. sweetprincipale (273,320 words)
3. KittenOfDoomage (190,407 words)
4. spuffy luvr (188,626 words)
5. badgervamp (122,560 words)
6. hulettwyo (119,862 words)
7. tempestt (116,873 words)
8. ginar369 (76,585 words)
9. abstracted (75,972 words)
10. ddysrs (72,570 words)
Most prolific reviewers of 2013:
1. magnus374 (966 reviews - Wow!)
2. ginar369 (354 reviews)
3. All4Spike (242 reviews)
4. Lou (188 reviews)
5. ScarlettDuck (184 reviews)
6. ILoveLamp (156 reviews)
7. lambean (152 reviews)
8. waddiwasiwitch (151 reviews)
9. nmcil (145 reviews)
10. Amasirol (140 reviews)
--Susan on January 01, 2014 04:46am 4 Comments
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
--pfeifferpack on December 15, 2013 01:13pm 1 Comment
Just a few items for this Thursday morning (or whenever it is where you are).
First, I wanted to point out that I have done some work on the reviews section. When you get an email saying that you have a new review or an author response, it will now include the review/response text (this is only if you have it set to email you for those things in your preferences, of course). Also, the author response section now includes the date/time of the response and it is more clearly separated from the review itself so that it's more noticeable. This will not apply to previously posted responses though since they are already formatted and I don't want to go into the database and reformat thousands of reviews. The biggest change though is that once an author responds to a review, the reviewer has the ability to add additional comments, as does the author. The screen cap below shows the new threaded review system. I've been staring at a screen for a little too long, so if this is confusing, let me know and I'll answer any questions you may have. As always, let me know if anything looks off or doesn't seem to be working properly.
Next, I wanted to update you all on the addition of classic Spuffy fics to EF. As you can tell by the lack of classic fics being updated, it's kind of come to a screeching halt. I sent out lots of emails, but most got returned due to out of date email addresses. If you happen to know any of the older authors, feel free to let them know that we would be more than happy to load their fics on here for them, but other than that, I think that well has kind of run dry.
Finally, I noticed that as of late October, Elysian Fields has been online for 7 years. Happy birthday to us 
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--Susan on November 07, 2013 05:44am 4 Comments
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 
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--Susan on September 27, 2013 06:04am 7 Comments
So I was chatting with spuffy luvr, and I got an idea (Isn't that how all great ideas come about? By chatting with spuffy luvr?). Anyway, the gist of it was that there are so many wonderful classic Spuffy stories/authors that are slowly disappearing as various author websites and other archives go offline. It's really a shame that many quality stories are vanishing even though there are so many people still in the fandom around to enjoy them. I'm hoping to contact some of the classic authors to see if they will give Elysian Fields permission to add their work to our archive (nothing will be added without the author's permission first). If you have any classic authors who are no longer active in the fandom that you'd like added, you can let me know through the site email (ssolace at gmail.com), and I'll see what I can do. One of the main issues is finding current contact information since most of the listings are woefully out of date, so if you happen to have contact information for them, that would be pretty swell.
I have already gone ahead and contacted a few of my favorites, so there are a few things to add already. As new (old?) stories get added, please review them as usual. Just don't get too excited when you see them in the most recent list. They're not headed back into writing Spuffy fanfic, it's just me adding stuff.
--Susan on September 16, 2013 07:16am 14 Comments
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!
--Susan on August 12, 2013 11:59am 25 Comments
As requested, we now have detailed beta profiles where betas can specify their preferences and abilities. The previous beta list has been removed, so if you want to beta, you must go fill out your new profile. To do this, go to your account info page. Under the Profile and Preferences section, click on the link for Edit Beta Profile. For your beta status, if you select 'Currently accepting new stories', then you will be added to the active beta list and your beta profile will also be viewable on your main profile page. If you select 'Not currently accepting stories', you will be marked as a beta, but your information will not appear in the active beta list and your profile will note that you are not currently active. Please fill out the information in your beta profile as completely as possible.
If you don't want to be a beta, you don't have to fill anything out. By default, members are not betas. You only need to fill out your beta profile if you want to be added to the list.
I need to thank Puddinhead for her help with this. She looked over everything for me, wrote the new tips for beta readers and authors, and is just generally wonderful. Let's all take a moment to reflect upon her awesomeness.
As always, additions to the site can sometimes be a little glitchy in the beginning. If anything looks buggy, send me a message and let me know.
--Susan on July 19, 2013 06:43am 7 Comments
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
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--Susan on June 25, 2013 04:00pm 3 Comments
I just added a new feature that might help some of our members who prefer to read on an e-reader. When viewing a chapter, you previously had the option to print or download the Word version of the chapter or the entire story. Now, after the Word option, you'll see a new choice with this icon: 
. This allows you to download the chapter or story in ePub format. EPub is a widely used eReader file type and is compatible with the Nook and Sony Reader. Also, you can easily add the ePub file to iBooks on your iPhone or iPad. To do this, use Safari on your device to browse to the story of your choice. When you select the ePub link, you will be able to select Open in "iBooks". This will place the chapter or story on your iBooks shelf and you can read from there even if you're offline. ePub is not compatible with the Kindle, but it's easy to convert the ePub format into MOBI, which is compatible with the Kindle. To convert the file, you can download a program such as Calibre, or you can convert online with a site like this one: http://ebook.online-convert.com/convert-to-mobi. I think that the Kindle Fire can open ePub files with an app like Overdrive but I'm not sure. I only have an iPhone 4 and an old school Kindle, so that's what I've tested with. I'll gladly test with other devices provided you purchase them for me .
Hopefully this will make reading on an eReader easier for you if you have one. However, since you'll be reading offline, make sure and come back to leave a review for the story!
It took me a little while to get things to work properly with this, so there may be a few kinks (not the good kind). If you run into any problems, just let me know and be patient while it all gets worked out.
--Susan on April 07, 2013 05:38pm 16 Comments
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.
--Susan on March 03, 2013 03:35pm 11 Comments
Fic idea submissions are now finished. This does not mean you can't continue donating. No, what this means is the fun part...waiting for the writers to start producing new fic! If you volunteered to write for the Auction for Kain, a list of the fic ideas is now up. Please comment on which idea you want--and please pay attention to if someone might have requested you for a specific idea. We have two weeks in which to write, but obviously if you can submit work before then, all the better. Fic is to be sent to Susan to upload, so PM me for her email address if you don't have it. Also, any questions and I will answer as best I can. I am bound to have forgotten something important! Here is the link: http://auction.dark-solace.org/?p=757
PS: I don't have time to locate everyone's email addy, so if you know someone who said they would write but don't think they might have seen yet that the ideas are up, please give them a buzz and put them in the know. Thank you all!
--Megan on January 28, 2013 03:55am 4 Comments
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/
--Megan on January 14, 2013 06:48pm 2 Comments