Since 95% of the emails we receive is about accessing NC-17 and/or AO rated stories, I thought I'd AGAIN remind all readers of our Terms of Service.

You MUST HAVE AN ACCOUNT REGISTERED WITH ELYSIAN FIELDS TO ACCESS ADULT RATED STORIES. Registering an account is free; you are not obligated to contribute fiction upon doing so. After registering, please go into the tab under "Account Info" labeled "Edit Account Information." Toward the bottom of the screen, you will find this:

Please make sure you have done this BEFORE emailing the mods, as it becomes clear to us that the Terms of Service are being ignored or bypassed by readers. This is a basic rule at Elysian Fields and has been since we opened.

If you are still having trouble accessing adult material after having registered and submitting verification of age, please DO email the mods. That is a valid concern, and we are happy to help.

The winners for Round 5 at Spark and Burn Awards have been announced! Congratulations to all of the authors who won. 

Many of the winners archive here at Elysian Fields, so an extra congratulations to all of you talented people. 

To the reader's on our archive, if you have not read the fics that have won... DO SO! You won't regret it. And don't forget to review.

There are a few things that need be addressed, based on recent letters the mods have received.

We're going to come out and say it: we are not a perfect archive. We strive for perfection, yes, but we do make mistakes, and over the past few months, we've made them in an abundance. The mods have varying schedules; the most active mods live not only in different time zones, but different hemispheres, therefore coordinating to review submissions in great detail is not only time-consuming, it's near impossible considering the submission ratio we receive on a daily basis. For this reason, we've been a little lenient in what we've validated. Our personal lives have interfered with the way the archive is managed; this is our fault, not yours, and it will be addressed immediately, involving a full revamp in how we validate to make it more thorough and manageable. However, to do so, we need some help from you.

 It has come to our attention that a variety of fics violating the Terms of Service were validated. Again, this is NOT the fault of the writers —it is entirely on our shoulders for not being thorough or checking in with each other before validating whatever was in our submission box. However, we are not going to negotiate or amend the TOS to accomdate the fics currently in the archive. The process will be a long one, but necessary in order to maintain the integrity of Elysian Fields, and play fair with the authors who are already following the rules.

 Here's what's going to happen. The mods are going to pick through the archive as it stands based on varying reports we've received from readers. If we find a story that needs addressing, we WILL contact the author to alert them to the problem and give them the opportunity to remove it (we won't be so presumptuous as to ask them to change it, but that option is, of course, available). If the story is not removed or we have not received a reply within 5 days, the mods will take action. The process will begin immediately, though given our conflicting schedules, as previously stated, it will be a long process we don't expect to really get underway until the beginning of the year.

 What can you, the author, do? Refer to the TOS. If you have any questions — (ex. "Does my story violate any of the rules?") —please do not hesitate in contacting the mods. We will look over the story in question and respond within 24 hours.

 We understand this problem is one we allowed to happen, and the blame is ours and ours alone. We are not punishing any of the authors who published a story in violation of the TOS. We, the mods, should have watched the submissions more carefully. We should have scrutinized every entry. We accept full responsibility for what has occurred, and while we are incredibly apologetic to all our authors and readers, we expect full cooperation.

 The next major issue is the following: in corresponding with the moderators, there have been select instances of disrespect from authors or readers. The following is NOT addressed to members who have written us regarding pennames, passwords, and accessing stories; we understand the aforementioned (and other like-problems) can be frustrating, and are therefore very understanding to any letter we might receive concerning these issues. However, there are select instances in which authors or readers have written to the mods and, after receiving an answer they didn't like, become argumentative. It's perfectly fair to have a differing opinion; we merely ask you to remember that, yes, while this archive is open and free to the public, it is so because we, the mods, pay for the space and, even with our blunders, manage its content. It is at our discretion what we do and do not want at the archive. There have been mistakes, and we're owning up to them now, but we do ask that your letters remain professional and respectful in tone, as well as the understanding that disagreements are allowed, but when it comes to the archive and its content, the mods have the final say.

 We desperately want to maintain a friendly atmosphere at Elysian Fields, and we understand the blunders on part of the mods and the clean-up process we are now undertaking might make that difficult. We are NOT above approach, so if you have any questions, comments, observations or so on, PLEASE drop us a note. We WILL listen, we WILL respond in kind, and we WILL do our best to accommodate your needs. We just ask your respect and cooperation in turn.

 Thank you, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING CATEGORY SEARCHES.

When searching for fics here at Elysian Fields the Reclaiming the Divine FotM category has always been empty. This category was specifically created when we opened the archive as a way of identifying Fics of the Moment (FotM) or featured fics. But nothing was added.

Until now.

All past and present featured fics have been added to the Reclaiming the Divine FotM category. So if you want to search specifically for any stories with the red or blue rosettes next to them you can now find them all in one neat place.

This is a locked category and only moderators of the site can add fics to it. Authors, if you were wondering why your fic was added to a new category now you know!

Happy Reading!

In case you hadn't noticed, over the last 24 hours or so the archive was offline. It was incredibly frustrating, so apologies to anyone who tried to access the site but couldn't.

Apparently the archive has become too popular because we reached our bandwidth limit (basically we had too many visitors over the last month) so our account was temporarily frozen.

It would have reset itself on the 1st of June but we didn't want to keep people waiting. We've upgraded the account so hopefully this won't happen again.

As a precaution, so we can email you if there are ever any issues with the site in the future, it would be really great if everyone could sign up to either a) our new yahoo mailing list, or b) become a member of the LJ community for the archive. 

Yahoo Mailing List: HERE

LJ Community: HERE

Thanks, welcome back and happy reading!

It has been brought to our attention by several members that we had another underage author. Please pay attention to our Terms of Service when signing up for an account and submitting fiction.

ALL authors MUST be at least 17 years old to post, regardless of the rating of the story in question.

We would like to thank the members who brought this to our attention.

The author has been contacted and the matter has been dealt with accordingly.

We have a new skin available. To view, go to the panel on the left-hand side of the screen and switch from "smile" to "soft." If you wish to switch skins permanently, log into your account, go to edit personal information and select it from the skin selector there.

Last January, there was a modification to the TERMS OF SERVICE regarding the appropriate posting age for perspective authors.  This has not changed. ALL authors MUST be at least 17 years old to post, regardless of the rating of the story in question.

Occasionally an author will slip past the notice of the mods. For this reason, I thank everyone who contacted me and Elysian Fields with concerns regarding the subject of this post. The matter has been dealt with accordingly.

Elysian Fields is officially one year old today (the 1st of December). On behalf of my fellow co-mods I'd like to thank everyone who has been involved in creating and building our wonderful archive; readers, writers, lurkers and artists... all of you. Without you all the archive would not be the success that it is.

Nominations have opened for Round 4 at Spark and Burn Awards . So go nominate all your favourite fics guys, there are a gazillion wonderful fics on this very archive and I'm sure the authors would appreciate the recognition!

So head on over and nominate your favourite authors and stories today. Just please make sure you read the rules.

We've gotten a large response to the question posed by Amy in regard to anonymous reviews. Unfortunately, the response has varied and while it was larger than expected, it did not proportionately represent the whole archive. Therefore, I have put up a poll on the Elysian Fields Community Journal on LJ. Please take a minute to vote. Our decision regarding anonymous reviews will depend upon the vote.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to email us. We did receive quite a few stories, one very long story which makes me in particular very reluctant to turn off anonymous reviews. However, as seen here and here, we do have a rather serious problem on our hands.

Thank you all very much for your patience and cooperation.

Click here to fill out the poll!

We have a new skin available. To view, go to the panel on the left-hand side of the screen and switch from "heroes" to "smile." If you wish to switch skins permanently, log into your account and select it from there.

Elysian Fields took home two awards from LSA. Thank you so much to whoever nominated us!

Welcoming our newest affiliate, Tranquil Daydreams!

All affiliates/links/extras can be found here. Please don't hesitate to drop us a line if you'd like to affiliate and/or want your site added to our link list.

We've been nominated at the Shades of Grey Awards for Outstanding Site! Thank you SO MUCH to whoever nominated us!