Suggestion Box
The suggestion box is for members who would like to recommend features they would like to see on Elysian Fields. We take all suggestions into consideration, but we are not able to make every idea into reality. Even if a suggestion is very popular, our resources and coding time are limited, and that can prevent some features even if they sound like simple additions.
We will respond to new suggestions when we are able. Please be patient.
We will respond to new suggestions when we are able. Please be patient.
| Suggestion | Admin Response | I would love an option to have the epub of a new chapter in my favorite stories sent to my Kindle email address or even attached in the notification email so I can set up my own forward. --lariff @ 11/19/24 11:43am | The ability to mark comments as read would be brilliant, especially for fics with multiple authors! --flootzavut @ 11/13/24 10:30am | Is it possible to have a "fic completed" icon AND an "already read" icon on the fics shown on the home page? Right now there is a white checkmark to indicate the fic is complete, but you have to click on the fic to see a red checkmark that indicates you have marked it as already read. Thanks! --the_big_bad @ 9/23/24 4:35pm | Ability to tag artists for series banners and include multiple authors for a series. --CheekyKitten @ 8/27/24 9:50am | Me again with my sorting questions! Any chance it would be possible to sort Favourites by Date Added to Favourites? :) --MillennialCryBaby @ 8/22/24 1:40am | To be able to sort Bookshelf by multiple Ratings. Right now you have to pick one Rating to include, but would love either a checkbox to include a range or like "Rating and higher" options. Advanced Search has the checkbox, but I don't believe it's possible in Bookshelf. :) --MillennialCryBaby @ 8/22/24 1:30am | I know we have lots of great events on the site, but I remember the challenge months sometimes used to be
"Artistic challenge month" and have banner claim challenges, where artists would make banners with ideas, and the author could claim them. I managed to write several good stories inspired by these banner challenges, and as I recall they were fairly popular and resulted in great fic. Would it be possible to do that again, either incorporated into another event, or on its own? I miss it greatly.
--Sigyn @ 8/19/24 9:25pm | Hi all! Would be super cool if we had some type home page feature for challenges. Either a selected or random challenge always present on the home page to help keep challenges top of mind and show off older challenges that might have gotten lost in the shuffle. --CheekyKitten @ 7/28/24 9:49pm | Hi Admin team!
This is just a small thing and depending on how things are implemented, it could either be a very simple or a very complicated suggestion, so please feel free to disregard if it's more than 5 minutes work. So, we have a default site skin that changes to special event/holiday themed skins for the duration of the events and holidays, right? But if someone has a preferred skin selected, then the event skins don't show up while logged in. Would it be possible to maybe add a checkbox beside the preferred skin selection so we can set if we want the event skins to override our preferred one or not?
(And if it's not possible, then as an alternative, do you think you could add an option to reset our preferred skin to default? I know we can pick the same one manually, but then that one will be shown all the time, regardless if the logged out site skin changes.)
Thank you if you consider! :) --werehorse @ 6/30/24 8:47am | Hi! Pertaining to a discussion over on the discord; would it be possible to add "kink" in genres or categories? I 100% understand not having it as a warning, because it implies negativity, but I think some people would still like to be able to filter it out (or in!). --flootzavut @ 6/25/24 11:11am | Is it possible to rearrange the Category Options when submitting a new story to be alphabetical after seasons 1-7? And to maybe add One Shot as a cat? --Geliot99 @ 6/11/24 6:32am | Hi! We thought this was a great idea and have implemented it on the site. We have reordered to show the Season-related tags first, then the two artwork categories, and everything else follows after that in alphabetical order. We did not add a one shot category but stay tuned for improvements related to one shots soon! --EF admin team @ 6/30/24 11:35am | Is there a way that we as authors can choose to disable commenting on our stories? Thank you. --all choseny @ 6/6/24 12:39pm | Hi guys! I love the Sunnydale press channel and the digest to get updates on what’s been published. I wondered if you ever considered showing chapter descriptions instead of the main story description (or in addition?) so that it’s a more specific update? If I knew that would get published, I’d write a more specific chapter description. Just a thought. --the_big_bad @ 6/5/24 4:38pm | Hi,
Thank you for the suggestion. We discussed and have decided that, as chapter notes are widely used as communication from author to readers and not as description for the contents of the actual chapter, implementing this would create more confusion. We also don't want to place restrictions on how this space is used by authors currently. We definitely appreciate the spirit in which this was asked, but it's a no from us. --EF admin team @ 6/11/24 12:32pm | Could you please add an official warning option for "Slavery"? This is pretty triggering for many people, so it would be nice to have a way of more officially calling it out. --Ragini @ 5/26/24 11:45am | Thank you for this suggestion! We will be adding Slavery to our list of warnings. --EF admin team @ 5/30/24 12:33pm | Hi, would it be possible to add other ways to sort an author's works when you go to their profile? Right now, on an author's profile, you can only sort alphabetically or by 'most recently updated.' For authors with tons of works, it is really hard to scroll through. It would be helpful if you could sort by 'most liked' and by 'length of story' (could be # of chapters or # of words). That way, if you are looking to read an epic versus one-shot, or if you want to read an author's most popular works first, it's an easy way to see that quickly instead of endless scrolling. OR, alternatively, is it possible to add all the filters that is at the top of the 'my bookshelf' section to the author's page-- this would allow even more specific filtering- like filtering out the stories you've already read. --weallhavedemons @ 5/21/24 2:41am | This is a no from us. The ability to filter this way already exists. To do it by author, go to the Browse By Author section of the site, choose the author you wish to explore, and make the appropriate filter settings. You can reach out to us at elysianfieldsarchive@gmail.com for further clarification if needed. --EF admin team @ 5/30/24 12:39pm | Is there a system to add tags (or suggest a tag) for a story? For example, if I am purposely filtering out 'All Human' fics when I do a search, but end up reading a fic that is All Human, is there a way to suggest it be tagged as such? I've come across this several times, where a category I purposely filtered out is not in the tags. --weallhavedemons @ 5/20/24 3:38am | Hi,
If you feel a story is missing a tag, contact the Mods with the details. We'll review and determine if a tag is warranted. --EF admin team @ 5/26/24 4:27pm | Maybe consider making a special banner for Classics, Golden Oldies or Best of, for the stories that held up over time. For example: Niamh's Origin's Universe or Passion4Spike Unexpected Universe, KnifeEdge's West of the Moon, East of the Sun, sus's Replacement. Or maybe consider a special Classics section for them. You could set up a quarterly/monthly voting on 3 or more choices for members to choose from. The best of Spuffy stories that linger with us for years. --Lily Strong @ 4/22/24 10:36pm | This is a no from us. While we do appreciate the spirit with which this was requested, EF already has a selection of Top Lists for fics/authors that have received the most accolades or broken stats barriers in one fashion or another. We also believe it would be discouraging to many of our authors to further single out works that we find more worthy of recognition than others by an inherently subjective set of criteria. Recs can always be requested in the ShoutBox or on our Discord server for a selection of fics that might meet what you're looking for. --EF admin team @ 5/30/24 12:43pm | An option to exclude a character when searching for fics/challenges. --Lady Emma @ 4/5/24 12:47pm | Is it possible to add a warning tag for Torture(implied). It's just like rape where there's an actual and an implied tag. I have a story that I put as torture warning but I never put the actual scene in. So I was wondering if this can be added too, since it's also a sensitive topic. --DeamonQueen @ 4/4/24 11:48am | Great suggestion! We have added this warning. --EF admin team @ 4/13/24 11:38am | As a non-author, not sure how easy this would be to do, but in light of a number of instances of writers (sometimes very experienced ones) attempting to delete a chapter and ending up accidentally deleting their entire story, can we have something in place to make this less likely to occur. Possibly an additional check before deletion, or making it clearer what is being deleted I.e. a single chapter or a whole story. --JustMe2 @ 3/28/24 6:19am | Hi JustMe2,
Authors are already prompted to confirm if they wish to delete a chapter or story, and are warned when they are attempting to delete a whole story. We are however investigating improvements to the user interface earlier in the process to reduce confusion. --EF admin team @ 3/28/24 12:50pm | Can we please add a voyeurism warning to the list. It comes up fairly often and is a bit different than dubious consent. It can include seeing/watching another character actively participate in something sexual OR just in state of undress. Would offer a bit of clarity for those fics that include this before readers get to the notes. --CheekyKitten @ 3/22/24 12:29pm | Thank you for the suggestion! We agree and have added this warning. --EF admin team @ 4/13/24 11:38am | It turns out I was inept, and just needed to find the advanced search, please ignore me mods! --Geliot99 @ 3/20/24 4:09pm | Thanks for updating us on this suggestion! --EF admin team @ 6/11/24 7:23pm | Hey Mods! I might be a bit inept so apologies if this is just me, but the titles search function; the categories to include/exclude they only give you one option each yes? so you can only do (for example) "include season 1" and "exclude (say) drabbles", but that still doesn't really narrow the scope of what one might be searching for, if you specifically *only* want to read, say, season 5 fics? is there a way to make the search function more specific, perhaps have the option to exclude more categories? --Geliot99 @ 3/20/24 4:06pm | As you discovered, this is possible through Advanced Search, though we're going to look into ways to make this more intuitive. --EF admin team @ 6/11/24 7:23pm | Can you add Dracula to the list of characters we can select/search on, particularly for challenges? --the_big_bad @ 3/14/24 8:16am | This has been done! --EF admin team @ 3/15/24 11:00am | Building on my earlier suggestion, turns out you currently can't filter challenges by word count at all, only stories. Could that feature (search by word count) somehow be added for challenges? I feel like it might make it easier for people to find the kind of challenge they are looking for, for example short and concise ones (under 150 words maybe). --simmony @ 3/3/24 5:22am | Thank you for adding artist of the month! I’d suggested adding beta of the month as well as artist of the month a while back and was told it wasn’t possible. Since, EF now has artist of the month, could beta of the month be added as well? Betas do so much for us writers. It would great to see them recognized equally. --Dynamite @ 1/30/24 8:40am | I noticed that currently, the lowest searchable word count for challenges is less than 500 words. Could you maybe add the option to search for lower word counts to make it easier to find shorter challenges? --simmony @ 1/12/24 12:43pm | Would it be possible to present the list of previous winners of MotM in a format where we could see it alphabetically or have other ways to search? --the_big_bad @ 1/1/24 5:35pm | Hello!
Thank you for your suggestion. We will explore ways to make it easier to nominate eligible people and see if we can make the list page more navigable. Will report back when that is implemented! --EF admin team @ 6/11/24 12:51pm | Just a thought on this: "If you fail to hand over your gift by the deadline, you will be ineligible to take part in Secret Santa next year. Or possibly face a lifetime ban if you not only do this, but also don’t reach out to the Mod Team to tell us what’s up." It's possible that if RL issues keep someone from delivering on their gift, they may also be unable to reach to the Mod Team, or even respond if the Mods reach out to them. You seem to be an amazingly kind and compassionate group of moderators, so I hope someone dealing with something horrific won't also lose EF because of they don't have access or ability to reach out or respond. --swonderful @ 12/7/23 11:16am | Hi swonderful, we appreciate your concern, but think there might be some confusion. We will not ban members from EF for ghosting us on Secret Santa for any reason. Depending on the circumstance, we will, however, ban them from participating in Secret Santa again if they prove to be unreliable or unreachable, as participant dropout can create a lot of stress for administrators and alienate those participants who went to great lengths to follow the rules.
We will clarify in the news post that we mean from the event, not from the site itself. --EF admin team @ 12/7/23 11:25am | Obviously this is just my humble opinion, but as fairly new member of EF, I feel like I can attest to the fact that the ‘like’ option for stories isn’t super apparent to newbies (or at least it wasn’t immediately for myself). Just a thought that, in a world used to like buttons and emoji reactions, maybe a more obvious design might result in more people engaging with the feature. ???? That’s it. I love you all, goodbye! --Melme1325 @ 12/6/23 9:56pm | Hi Melme1325,
Apologies for the delay in responding to this, especially since we have clarified the like language! It should be clearer on stories now. Let us know if you still run into issues! --EF admin team @ 6/11/24 12:41pm | CD85 mad a beautiful banner for "Prayers of Amara" https://dark-solace.org/elysian/search.php
can we ask her to make a similar skin for EF?
I would also like to suggest a banner maker of the month category for our members of the month.
--Joan963z @ 12/3/23 4:27pm | Hi! Thanks for the suggestion. We have reached out to cd85 and are working on something with her. We also rolled out a new Artist of the Month feature today for all of our artists, including banner artists and people who post fanart on our site! --EF admin team @ 12/15/23 12:02pm | Is it possible to add the choice to remove the cover before downloading? Its visual confusing to have all my downloaded fics have the same cover. I know eventually some books will have their own covers, but in the meantime it’d be nice not to have to include the cover and for fics where the author chooses not to add a cover. --Dynamite @ 11/20/23 8:04am | Hi Dynamite,
Thank you for the suggestion. We understand the same covers can be confusing. Unfortunately, there is no way to opt-in at this time, and we'd prefer to keep the image on. There are some Google resources you might explore on how to remove them from individual downloaded epubs for your own collection. --EF admin team @ 6/11/24 12:52pm | In the individual stats area we can see our total number of words ever written on the site for fics. Is there away to do an annual word counter where we can see the total number of words for the calendar year that resets midnight January 1st? --all choseny @ 10/31/23 6:46am | Done for current year! We might implement this for past years at some point, too. --EF admin team @ 11/17/23 7:47pm | No hurry (since it will take a bit for me to write the fic(s) I have planned) but may we have the Slayers Audio Play added to the categories? It needs some Spuffy fixin'. --bewildered @ 10/15/23 11:05pm | Done! --EF admin team @ 10/17/23 6:55pm | Consider if there would be a way to save the current chapter you are on, regardless of whether the story is in your bookshelf.
Also, can we reset the last chapter read or will it always be the furthest chapter read. --the_big_bad @ 10/2/23 6:28pm | This is a no from us. While we understand the objective, we believe this would potentially cause more issues than it fixes. --EF admin team @ 11/22/23 9:55am | Hi! Can we get a "One Shot" category. I noticed in vignettes, a lot of the entries were chapter fics, and sometimes a good ol' one shot does the trick. Also, it would make it easier to search for them, and as a writer that would be a neat categories for fics that are only one chapter long. Thanks! --all choseny @ 9/22/23 12:40am | Hi all choseny! We have added including a filter option for "One Shot" to our list of site improvements. We'll let you know when it's implemented! --EF admin team @ 6/11/24 12:35pm | I think it would be cool if there was an “artist of the month” section along with the comments and authors for our lovely artists --disco-tea @ 7/31/23 9:44am | Hi, thanks for the suggestion! We rolled this out today. --EF admin team @ 12/15/23 11:59am | Add a sensitivity reader column to the beta search and into beta profile. --Dynamite @ 6/12/23 3:40am | This has been added! --EF admin team @ 2/17/24 3:42pm | In reference to Passion4Spike's 'NOT FOR ME' suggestion on 3/29/22, at 6:23pm:
I already use the 'Read,' 'Not Read,' function for this, if I have decided to not finish something (or if I have already finished reading it, as was its intended function), since there's the option to filter out stories marked as 'Read.' --JustWriter @ 6/10/23 2:58pm | Please do not use the suggestion box to remark on previous suggestions. The purpose of the suggestion box is only to suggest new ideas. --EF admin team @ 6/11/23 2:09am | I wish there was a way on EF to go to an author's profile, click on one of those tabs, labeled something like "art," and see links to specific stories and chapters which feature their artwork and banners, even if they're stories by other authors. Can we make that a thing? --JustWriter @ 6/10/23 2:44pm | This is a no from us. We understand the spirit with which this was suggested, but it's not feasible to program. You can filter by artwork on the browse page for those artwork-only stories that have been published since we started accepting those submissions. --EF admin team @ 6/12/23 3:02pm | request: can we get a specific warning for "gun violence"? for two reasons— one, it's not a common tool of attack in the world of btvs/ats, so the typical "violence" warning doesn't necessarily make readers think of gun-related crimes, and guns are fairly jarring within the buffyverse. two, due to the rising frequency of mass attacks and traumas perpetuated by guns, at least in the western world, more and more folks are at risk of being triggered or directly affected by reading stories that involve gun violence— and this would allow for readers to make informed decisions. --trevino @ 6/1/23 1:25pm | This has been added! --EF admin team @ 6/7/23 6:11pm | Request for a new category: Recently, a number of new multi-chapter works have the 'drabbles' tag because all the chapters are 100-word drabbles. Once a story is more than 100 words, though… it technically can't be a drabble. So what should these be called? The internet (or at least a quick Google search) doesn't say. Elysian Fields should COIN A TERM! Our grateful, teary-eyed descendants will remember this moment in history! --Soulburnt @ 5/9/23 7:47am | While drabbles are defined by their 100-word count limit outside of EF, EF has always defined drabbles as fics less than 1,000 words.
Stories that are told through multiple drabble chapters are fine, too. We may revisit this in the future but at this time, we don't see a need. --EF admin team @ 5/9/23 11:32pm | Can we have a warning for depictions of bigotry? --Wojtekstan @ 5/7/23 3:14am | We will be adding a warning of this nature to the archive. Right now, the Mods are trying to determine the appropriate definition of such a warning and what all it should encompass. We will make an announcement when it goes live.
Thank you for this suggestion! --EF admin team @ 6/2/23 3:34pm | *shy wave* Is there a way to turn off default skins? Like for this challenge, it was all pink. And i could change it, but not for long. I like to choose my own because I read A LOT, but I am susceptible to migraines from brightness levels (and my screen is already at like 33%). Just a thought. Thank you for your time and efforts. --Sweetbutnutty @ 4/30/23 3:09pm | Hi Sweetbutnutty,
You can actually set your own preferred skin by visiting https://dark-solace.org/elysian/user.php?action=editprefs. If you are logged out of the site, it will switch to the default skin, but as long as you're logged in, your preferred skin should be all you see, regardless of what the site default is. --EF admin team @ 5/1/23 2:35am | Hi, would it be possible to add a link to the Advanced or Keyword Search from the Challenges page? I know those search the challenges too and with so many pages of challenges it can be hard to find one by digging through them all. :) (And filtering only goes so far.) --cawthraven @ 2/21/23 4:01pm | Done! ;) --EF admin team @ 3/22/23 3:03pm | I'm an avid commenter at EF and sometimes some one else says something interesting or exciting in their comment about a story and at the moment we can't add a comment/respond to someone else's at EF. I was wondering if this feature will be added to EF too? --Teuntje @ 2/5/23 4:00am | This is a no from us. While we appreciate the sentiment behind this, we don't want to turn the comments into general fic discussion, as there are other platforms for that (like Discord). That said, all readers are welcome to reference other comments while making their own! --EF admin team @ 2/9/23 3:29pm | Is it possible to add a section for stories we are waiting on updates for? I know setting up a notification system for stories and authors is a logistical nightmare for a site that is being held together by the dreams of wood nymphs, but I figure maybe, and this is a long-shot maybe, there's a way to create another “bookshelf” of sorts for in-progress stories we want to keep tabs on? Lord knows I'm constantly forgetting which stories I'm trying to watch out for and marking them read leaves me in danger of skipping over them when I'm browsing. Here's hoping. May the nymphs remain strong and sleepy. --WhenFandomStrikes @ 1/9/23 10:07pm | This is a no from us. We actually already have a notification system in place, with emails being sent to the email on file when stories you have added to your Favorites list are updated, or authors who are on your Favorites list post something new. You may visit the "Edit Preferences" section under "Account Info" to select this option. --EF admin team @ 1/11/23 4:03pm | What happened to the Not Without a Fight skin? That was my favorite because the golden brown background made the text look like it was on parchment. Please, bring it back. --Lakitalover @ 10/23/22 5:47am | As noted in the News posts, EF has permanently retired some of the older skins in an effort to visually modernize the site in accordance with current practices in web design. As such, most of the old skins, including Not Without a Fight, have been removed as options. We definitely understand how upsetting it is when sites revamp their look and have made efforts to accommodate the visual needs of members as they have been brought to our attention. That said, there will be some gaps in the color schemes available that will hopefully close as we add events. --EF admin team @ 10/26/22 1:09am | Is it possible to make it so Buffy and Spike are the first two characters in the Character list? Like via an asterisk or something? I figure we're all selecting at least them and it'd be nice to make them easier to find (especially since Spike's way down near the bottom). :) --cawthraven @ 9/2/22 8:26am | We're working on a more elegant solution to this that doesn't involve an asterisk, but for the time being, we have added the asterisk that should put Spike and Buffy at the top of the character. Thanks for the suggestion! --EF admin team @ 10/26/22 1:10am | Adding a infertility issues and/or miscarriage type warning. --Daxeah @ 8/23/22 6:48am | This has been added! --EF admin team @ 8/24/22 4:41pm | It's more than fine if this is a logistical nightmare but I want to ask about the possibility of adding: 'read' and/or 'unread' to author pages - in conjunction with 'most recent' and 'alphabetical'.
For authors that have 20+ stories I tend to power read through a heap and then come back, only to find myself meticulously scrolling through a multitude of red ticks to find fics I've missed or haven't gotten to yet.
Once again, more than fine if not a viable option.
Just wanted to ask.
Thank you for all the work you do keeping this amazing site up and running :)
--Blackmysteria @ 6/23/22 3:23am | The archive already supports functionality that allows you to filter out "read" stories for a certain author if you use the Advanced Search feature. :) --EF admin team @ 6/28/22 12:51am | I may be overlooking this in the navigation (ToS, FAQ, etc.), but is there a short history of Elysian Fields (an About Us)? It doesn't need to be anything that requires a lot of mod time, maybe just a timeline with the year founded, those responsible like founders and mods (so they can be celebrated!), when the big site crash happened, maybe milestones of the first 1000 stories, etc. When a site gets older -- er, more distinguished, those things get lost, and noobs like me (member since 2018) are nosy. Thanks! --Soulburnt @ 6/7/22 9:33pm | Thank you for your suggestion! This is actually on our to-do list. We'd planned to have it done a few months ago, but, alas, a lot happened and our focus has been on other things. It is something we will do because, you're absolutely right. Everyone who has ever been involved with this site deserves to be recognized and celebrated, as well as our many milestones. Not sure when it will be done, but we're hoping before the EOY. --EF admin team @ 6/8/22 3:00pm | Add Oliver Pike as a character. It's a common question on Discord fic recs and I've stumbled across a few other fics of the site than mine that use him especially in pre-series. --Dynamite @ 5/14/22 10:30am | Done! --EF admin team @ 5/16/22 4:47pm | Add Beta and Banner Artist of the month to the members of the month categories. --Dynamite @ 5/14/22 9:37am | We've actually had this request before (from now-Mod EllieRose101, as a matter of fact!). We're going to repeat what we said there:
'This is a very nice idea, but logistically we don't see it being workable, due to the lack of member visibility regarding what each beta's efforts have been and the limited pool of betas currently available for awarding (even assuming some new betas take on the mantle). We have added beta awards to our site events and will continue to do so. For a monthly award, however, it's a no from us.'
Additionally, just on a technical end, setting this up in the database would not be easy (for either beta or artist).
We definitely understand the desire to recognize the hard work betas and artists do for authors, which is why we do recognize them in our event months. --EF admin team @ 5/20/22 3:10pm | Can we add Cecily as a character?
I realize that Halfrek is already there, but considering that there are a number of fics in which she only ever takes part as a human, and no one ever learns that she's a vengeance demon, it would be nice to have the opportunity to select Cecily and not Halfrek.
As an alternative, could we perhaps change Halfrek to Halfrek/Cecily, as a way to embrace the fact that she can appear as both characters?
Personally, I'd prefer the first alternative. Seen from a reader's perspective, if you see Halfrek on the list, you'd assume vengeance was going to happen. --The Danish Bird @ 5/10/22 3:52am | Done! --EF admin team @ 5/12/22 12:51am | Can we add Roger Wyndam-Pryce as a character? --Jws1993 @ 4/17/22 10:14am | This is a no from us. In terms of Spuffy storytelling, we don't anticipate too many readers searching for stories containing this particular character. --EF admin team @ 4/19/22 2:57pm | Hello! Could we have Cassie as a character? --violettathepiratequeen @ 4/7/22 10:16am | Sure! --EF admin team @ 4/8/22 7:58pm | Is there a way to put a series on our bookshelf, so that, when a new story is added, it shows up on our shelf as updated? --JustWriter @ 4/4/22 2:07pm | This is a no from us. We understand the logic behind the suggestion, but recommend simply subscribing for notifications when a particular author updates to remain on top of series work. --EF admin team @ 4/8/22 7:58pm | In some future wish list of things, would it be possible to privately mark a story as 'NOT FOR ME' (or something like that) so that we remember that we TRIED reading it but it wasn't to our taste, so we don't accidentally try reading it again at some future date only to discover again that it's not to our taste? --Passion4Spike @ 3/29/22 7:23am | Hi Passion4Spike,
We know it's been a hot minute since you requested this, but we've been working on it and can confirm it is in progress. We'll let you know when it's live. --EF admin team @ 6/11/24 12:37pm | (I know your plates are overflowing right now, but I wanted to put this out here while I was thinking about it). Have you ever considered making an annual award sticker thing for authors who respond to all (or most?) comments on their fics? I know it takes extra time to do reply to comments, I thought acknowledging the authors who spend that additional time to acknowledge and thank readers for comments might encourage more authors to do it on a regular basis and perhaps encourage more people to comment, as well. --Passion4Spike @ 3/14/22 3:41am | This is a no from us.
While we understand the spirit in which this is intended, it would be nearly impossible to execute on the back-end of the site. Review responses are saved in the same file as the initial review, so there isn't a shortcut to querying these. It would also require the Mods to do a lot of manual checking that we simply do not have the time to do. --EF admin team @ 3/16/22 4:27pm | Can we have Spike Shanshues as a warning tag? --Tellhulla @ 3/2/22 9:55pm | This is a no from us. We had actually discussed this at one point but opted to encompass all potential prophecies under a single "Prophecy" tag, which is currently available. --EF admin team @ 3/6/22 5:56pm | Hi, I was wondering if you could add a "Alcoholism" warning? It doesn't effect me personally, but I do know people who have suffered from Alcohol abuse in the past. It will help recovering Alcoholics (if there is any on here) know what stories to read or avoid. --Jws1993 @ 2/5/22 10:33am | In lieu of creating an entirely new warning, we will adjust the Drug Use warning to Substance Use/Addiction. --EF admin team @ 2/6/22 12:40pm | Hi All! This site is amazing and I am in AWE of the work the mods do. I know there is a Live Journal for this site. Has there ever been any discussion of a DISCORD page? I am more than willing to help/moderate/set up if this would be something that the group would like in the future. I find Discord makes discussing topics more in-depth alot easier! Just a thought and by NO means something to add more work to. I only say this as I’m on a few discords for fan-fic and they can be a really fun community. Truly, you all are amazing! --tm_writes @ 1/22/22 5:05am | Well, great minds think alike, as they say. The Mods have been hard at work in creating a Discord space for EF for quite some time, and are opening it up to the community right now! Read about it here: https://dark-solace.org/elysian/news.php?action=newsstory&nid=190 --EF admin team @ 1/22/22 12:26pm | Would it be possible to code a mobile skin for the site? Numerous people have spoken about difficulties accessing certain features on their phones or tablets. --Cosmic Tuesdays @ 1/20/22 2:08pm | As the Mods have told people experiencing issues, our site is very old, and the coding is held together by hellmouth energy, ducttape, and Holly's force of will. All of our skins are mobile responsive to the point that we can make them so already. None of the current issues are able to be resolved at this point in time. --EF admin team @ 1/20/22 9:19pm | As someone who tends to write queer romance in fiction and in fandom, I know it can mean a lot to have a way to locate stories that represent us. And I know there are a number of them on EF. I would love to see either a category or tag for this. I think it would be really helpful. --Blade Redwind @ 1/20/22 8:12am | Thanks so much for your suggestion! We have added "Queer Themes" as a genre to the site. Happy ficcing! --EF admin team @ 1/20/22 11:02pm | I really like how EF acknowledges everyone's birthday with their user name and balloons. I was wondering if every January 19th Buffy Summers could appear in the birthday area with some balloons, too? I know a lot of coding goes into making the birthday shouts happen, so I understand if that isn't doable. Thanks! --all choseny @ 1/19/22 1:06am | Thank you for the suggestion! Member birthdays are displayed per the individual account settings selected when a new member registers. The only way to display Buffy's birthday would be to create a user account under her name and set her birthday. Unfortunately, we already have members using the handles Buffy Summers and Buffy Anne Summers, so this is a no from us. Feel free to celebrate her birthday in the ShoutBox, though. --EF admin team @ 1/19/22 11:29am | I know there is a tag for Baby fic, but sometimes the babies grow up. Can you add a "kid fic" tag? Thank you! --all choseny @ 12/24/21 1:39pm | Rather than add a new category, we're updating the current Baby tag to include Kid. Thanks! --EF admin team @ 12/26/21 11:10am | Would it be possible to add a "Glory's Minions" character tag? --Cosmic Tuesdays @ 11/19/21 5:22am | We received a suggestion along these lines in July regarding Chaos Demons. We'll repeat what we said then: This is a no from us. We don't want to establish a precedent where we include unnamed characters in our character list. --EF admin team @ 11/19/21 2:39pm | And can we also add Lothos? --all choseny @ 11/8/21 9:30am | Done! --EF admin team @ 11/9/21 1:33pm | Can we add Amilyn as a pre- series character since a few pre-series characters are on the list? Thank you! --all choseny @ 11/8/21 9:28am | Hi all_choseny. While we do have some pre-series figures listed, we are only adding major characters. Amilyn is not well-recognized, so this is a no from us. --EF admin team @ 11/9/21 1:33pm | Could a domestic violence warning be added? Obviously Spuffy has a strong element of that, even on the show but it is sometimes triggering for me and when I'm feeling low a warning for it would be useful --SlayerOfSunnydale @ 11/3/21 10:05am | We have added the warning Abuse. The sort of abuse the story contains can be elaborated upon in the story/chapter notes. --EF admin team @ 11/4/21 7:41pm | On the Manage Images screen, the Add New Image link is way at the bottom. Any way this could be at the top above our current images? Or both places? I just know that when I go to that screen it is usually to upload something new, not to deal with older banners etc, and I at least have enough images now that it's a significant scroll. --bewildered @ 10/30/21 6:36pm | Done! --EF admin team @ 5/2/23 2:49pm | Hi, I'm wondering if you could add a warning for possession? (Like demonic or stuff like that) I know that could fall under the "Under Magical Influence" Genre. But It could be a easier way to differentiate the two. Thanks. --Jws1993 @ 10/29/21 6:25am | This is a no from us. The warning tags are designed to be broad. Clarification regarding what "Under Magical Influence" means can be included in Story/Chapter notes. --EF admin team @ 10/30/21 11:19am | Hi,
I was wondering if we can maybe add the option of listing the LA crew in a single tag, for cases where they are part of the story but not important enough for the author to mention every single one of them, kind of like ensemble tag we already have.
Thanks.
Thea. --Tellhulla @ 10/5/21 7:02am | Thank you for your suggestion. We have added 'AtS Ensemble' as a selectable character. --EF admin team @ 10/6/21 4:47pm | Hi! This is just a tentative suggestion (I understand it if it can't be done.) Currently my "Bookshelf" is absolutely overflowing. It's near impossible to even pick and select what to read because the list is so endless, lol. I've taken to adding stories I want to read now to "Marked as Read" as a result (even if I haven't read them), just so scrolling and sorting is easier.
Could I suggest adding a new category/space/option like "Marked TO-Read" or "Additional Bookshelf"? That would ssssbe in addition to the main "Bookshelf" and "Marked As Read" options. Hope that makes sense—it would make sifting and scrolling so much easier, the list really gets huge, lol. I looked if there was any previous suggestion like this and couldn't find one. Apologies if I missed any. Thanks so much! --Glitz @ 8/16/21 3:37pm | This is a no from us. We understand the desire to experience a more streamlined Bookshelf; we suggest using the search features at the top of your Bookshelf page to get a better idea as to the sort of fics you have saved to find something specific. --EF admin team @ 8/17/21 3:42pm | Is it possible to add a warning where the torture was implied or merely talked about? I am writing a scene where someone sees the result of torture but not the actual act itself. --DeamonQueen @ 8/8/21 7:48pm | This is a no from us. We recommend using the tag and clarifying its purpose in an author's note. --EF admin team @ 8/9/21 4:29pm | Could you perhaps add Merrick to the character list? --Amina @ 7/31/21 9:38pm | Done! --EF admin team @ 8/1/21 9:15pm | Hi, I was wondering if we could add Evil!Buffy to the list of warnings? --Blackmysteria @ 7/30/21 1:18am | This is a no from us. You can indicate in your story notes anything you feel a reader might need to know before proceeding. --EF admin team @ 7/31/21 9:14am | Can you add Chaos Demon as a character? --Passion4Spike @ 7/23/21 1:54am | This is a no from us. We don't want to establish a precedent where we include unnamed characters in our character list. --EF admin team @ 7/23/21 11:11pm | Is it possible to be able to use different font styles when writing a fic? It doesn't have to be All Fonts available in MS, just some different ones that can be used so at least for change of POV, it would help if the font was different. I remember that there used to be an option to have another font for a story because I saw one fic with different fonts a while back. Thank you. --DeamonQueen @ 7/21/21 12:32am | This is a no from us. The ability to use different fonts was a part of our older programming and intentionally disallowed, as this presented its own set of complications we do not wish to revisit. We recommend using line breaks, asterisks, italics, or other available features to denote a POV swap. --EF admin team @ 7/21/21 10:35am | Could you add the option to tag a fic with an animal abuse warning, please? --EllieRose101 @ 7/19/21 12:23am | Done! --EF admin team @ 7/19/21 1:28pm | Hello! I'd be interested in seeing a page that lists all past EF awards, cuz I think they're so pretty to look at! And if possible with slightly larger images than the ones that show up on a person's profile? --violettathepiratequeen @ 7/18/21 3:44pm | This is a no from us. While we enjoy issuing awards (and love hosting events where authors, readers, and artists can accumulate them), the awards are not a primary feature of the site, just a nice added bonus for certain events. --EF admin team @ 7/23/21 11:16pm | When you enlarge the text of a story, can you make it so it changes the size of the chapter notes too? And is it possible for an option to keep the text large, without having to reset it for every page you load? (It stays big if you click directly through to the next chapter, but not if you've submitted a comment and then have to go back, or if you've navigated away from the site and return later.) --EllieRose101 @ 7/10/21 12:52pm | This is a no from us. We recommend hitting CTRL on your PC (or COMMAND on your Mac) and the plus (+) button to adjust your screen size to whatever is most comfortable. This should remain in place without needing to be reconfigured. --EF admin team @ 7/11/21 9:58pm | Is there a way to search challenges by keyword or like the 'advanced search' on stories? If not, can it be added? --Passion4Spike @ 6/27/21 3:55am | This function already exists. :) When you search for a keyword in the normal search, challenges are pulled as well. --EF admin team @ 6/27/21 11:53am | It would be awesome if we could have a "warnings" section on stories that needs to be actively clicked on to be viewed instead of automatically seen. Like a "spoiler section" for people who want to know what they're getting into but that could be avoided by the people who want the surprises. --Dusty @ 6/21/21 2:39am | This is a no from us. The purpose of the warnings section is to prepare readers in advance for any content that might upset them. Hiding that section would make it less accessible. Authors may choose to add warnings as the story progresses and content related to the warning in question becomes the subject of the chapter. In this approach, we encourage authors to alert readers to any new warnings that were added in the author's note section so that readers are adequately prepared. --EF admin team @ 6/21/21 10:26am | Also, I'd like to suggest putting an extra button for site events on the green header. The site events can currently be found under Browse but we have had so many site events in the last years with so many fics that they deserve their own button for better visibility. -- @ 5/6/21 7:01am | Thank you for the suggestion! We have added an 'Events' button to our main navigation. --EF admin team @ 6/24/21 3:30pm | Is it possible to add an option that would allow us to sort the previous members of the month alphabetically? When I want to nominate member XY I usually check the list of previous members. However, the list has gotten quite long now and it would be easier if I could just scroll down to the letter x to check if XY is listed. -- @ 5/6/21 6:55am | Thank you for the suggestion! We recommend using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F. Upon entering this keystroke, a search box should appear on your screen, where you can input the name of the author you wish to double-check prior to nomination.
Since there is already a handy shortcut available, this request is a no from us. --EF admin team @ 5/7/21 9:57am | Could we have Lydia as a character in the list? --Passion4Spike @ 2/7/21 6:09am | Done! --EF admin team @ 2/8/21 11:32am | Hello! Would it be feasible to split the Top Lists into two columns "Top of all time" and "Top this year", so readers who have already exhausted the top lists can find some new stuff? I know there are already really good search filters but just thought it was good for discoverability. --AlloSpoike @ 1/27/21 6:42am | This is a no from us. We appreciate the interest and spirit with which it was suggested, but after some consideration and troubleshooting how it could be done, we determined it would add unnecessary clutter to an already-inflated navigation bar. We appreciate the suggestion, though. --EF admin team @ 1/17/22 3:28pm | Could Eating Disorders and Self-harm be added to the list of warnings ? --TuoshNell @ 1/27/21 3:21am | Hi TuoshNell, those suggestions both fall under the pre-existing warning option of "mental health issues." Adding subsets of warnings isn't something we can feasibly accommodate, as it would enlarge our warnings list into hundreds of options. If you wish to delineate a specific issue in a fic you're writing, you can mention it in the story or chapter notes. --EF admin team @ 1/28/21 3:17pm | Please can Rack be added to the character list for story submissions? Thanks. --AlloSpoike @ 1/12/21 10:13am | Hi AlloSpoike,
Thank you for the suggestion. We are adding Rack to the list of characters. --EF admin team @ 1/12/21 6:05pm | Hi, I read the previous suggestions back to 2018, so apologies if this has come up prior to that; would it be possible to add a category that would be Vampire fics? But, like, Buffy as a vampire? Or just characters that are canonically human as vampires? Mostly I wanted a Vampire Buffy category, as they are so many of those, and searching them all out across countless categories can be very difficult and time-consuming.
Also, wanted to know if Sunday could be added to the characters list? --Puppet @ 1/12/21 10:10am | Hi Puppet,
There is already a warning available for Vampire!Buffy for those stories in which she becomes a vampire. As such, we don't see the need in duplicating this as a genre or category, as all stories featuring Vampire!Buffy should come attached with the warning. If you're seeking out Vampire!Buffy fics, we recommend searching the warnings.
As for adding Sunday to the list of characters, we're happy to do so.
- The Mods --EF admin team @ 1/12/21 6:34pm | Hi FF Team! Can we add the ability to hide unfinished stories once we have posted them? For example, if you have a WIP you won't be working on for a while, but want to hide until you're ready to come back to the story. Thanks. --all choseny @ 1/2/21 2:51am | Hi all_choseny. As with other fandom archives, publishing a story on this archive means you are deciding to make it available to the readership for the duration of its posted existence, no matter its level of completed-ness. If you want to let readers know you won't be updating a fic for a while, you are welcome to add a note to the Story Notes section of the fic and/or to your profile page to mark it as "on hiatus." In the future, if you don't want to make WIPs available for reading, you may wish to wait to post them until they're complete. --EF admin team @ 1/2/21 11:30pm | Any way we can keep the Holiday banner around until Twelfth Night? --kittyfajitas @ 12/25/20 2:18pm | Hi Kittyfajitas,
You are more than welcome to continue using the Holiday skin as long as you like. However, the default EF skin will revert to The Time in Between at the end of December. --EF admin team @ 12/27/20 10:12pm | Would it be possible to add a category for stories which treat only Buffy as Canon and completely ignore Angel the Series? --SlayerOfSunnydale @ 12/6/20 10:54am | Hi SlayerofSunnydale, since we are a BtVS-centric site, this is an unnecessary category for us. AtS inclusion is considered crossover content, for which we already have a "crossover AtS" tag. If you wish to note exclusion of AtS canon in your own fic for coherency purposes, an author's note is the best place for this. --EF admin team @ 12/6/20 11:25pm | I was wondering if there's an easy way for the site to count the word count for review responses. It'll count how many words someone has made in comments, but not how many the author gives in responding to said comments. Sometimes commenters give lovely little essays, and in thanks for them I try to respond in kind, and given that I try to respond to every comment, I'm curious how many words of those I may have written over the years. (But if it's not just an easy click of a program counter, probably not worth too much effort.) --Sigyn @ 11/22/20 11:02pm | Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, this is something our software can't accommodate. --EF admin team @ 11/23/20 11:35am | Thank you for adding the two new genres and one new warning. It reminded me of something I've been wanting for a while.... There's already a suicide warning (which is great!), but I feel like it's not specific enough. Like, I never know if I should tick it if it's just suicidal thoughts, or it has to be the completed act. It's maybe too much work, but is there a way you could have Suicide (Actual), Suicide (Attempted), and Suicide (Ideation)? --EllieRose101 @ 11/21/20 8:10pm | Hi Ellie,
Thank you for this suggestion. We will add Suicide (Ideation) to the list of applicable warnings. --EF admin team @ 11/22/20 2:12pm | Is there any way to add a search for 'recently completed' stories? I know there is a box for 'completed' on the search page, but I'd really like to see newly completed ones, or have them sorted by most recently marked as completed, something like the recently updated page. I love looking through the recently updated, and am attracted to start reading, but WIPs are just not something I can do and most on there are WIPs. So, if there was a recently completed page, or a way to sort in the search area by date completed to get most recent first, that might help me in my browsing. This is kind of an off-shoot of my previous, pending suggestion to get a completed notification of favorited or bookshelved stories. Thanks for the consideration. --Passion4Spike @ 10/7/20 6:56am | Hi Passion4Spike,
This feature is actually already accessible through the Most Recent page. At the top of the page, you can select the means by which you wish to peruse the latest batch of stories, excluding WIPs in the process. Any story that has been completed within the last 28 days would show up with that search. Since the site already has this function, we don't think it's necessary to create an additional page for it. --EF admin team @ 10/7/20 2:21pm | I'm not sure if I'm overlooking it, but today I went to respond to a comment on my fic and after I submitted, I noticed a typo (darn autocorrect). I tried to edit my comment, but I didn't see an ability to edit my response as an author. Can this feature be added? Thanks! --all choseny @ 10/7/20 3:30am | Hi all_choseny,
As much as we'd love to give authors the ability to edit review responses, this is something that has been explored in the past and with the conclusion that it is a feature our software doesn't support without providing the author the ability to not just alter their response, but the review itself. For this reason, it's a no from us. --EF admin team @ 10/7/20 2:35pm | Dear EF team,
I have seen some suggestions that are similar but more elaborate than this and I apologise in adavance if this is simply a bit too much to ask. I'm looking for a way to privately mark a story as 'don't come back here'. I don't need a way to browse specifically for those or exclude them. For me, a little icon or even just the title in in strike through font wherever I come across it would be ok. Sometimes an author is just a tad too graphic or takes a violent situation a bit too far and marking that story as favourite to be able to note down that fact just doesn't sit quite right, if you know what I mean? It wouldn't be meant to discredit the author in any way, just a small flag to draw your own attention that you tried this before and need to proceed with caution or better not return here.
Thanks for thinking about it! --chaoz @ 10/3/20 9:48pm | Hi chaoz,
This is a no from us. While we understand the spirit in which this was requested, even anonymous "dislikes" of a story could be detrimental to an author's morale. Any story you wish to not read or reread can be marked as read. --EF admin team @ 12/4/20 10:51am | I didn't see this anywhere on a glance through the suggestions already made, but I didn't read all the way to the end. I wonder if there is, or could be, a specific place to ask about fics other than the shoutbox? Like on TSR where there is a sort of chat box of its own specifically for readers looking for specific fics that they can't find and don't know or remember the titles or authors? Just a thought.... --slaymesoftly @ 8/31/20 3:29am | Hi slaymesofty, this is a no from us. The Shoutbox is a very acceptable place for that conversation, and we also have our FB Discussion page as a second spot for posting fic finding/recs. On the tech side, our site coding is also very old, and we'd rather not stretch its capacities that far. --EF admin team @ 9/18/20 5:22pm | Would it be alright to add a short cut in the challenge section where one can contact/Pm the owner of the challenge without having to go to the person's profile and click contact them there? I notice that when I try to contact the owner of a challenge, I would have to copy their challenge (because some have more than one), then click the name of the member so I can contact them before I write down my question for their challenge. It would be cool if one can just click something like Question about this challenge and I would be directed to the member's PM page. Just a suggestion. --DeamonQueen @ 8/5/20 7:39pm | Hi DeamonQueen, This is a no from us. If you wish to remain on the challenge page while PM'ing a member, you can simply open a new tab on the browser of your phone or computer, which will allow you simultaneous access to both pages. --EF admin team @ 8/12/20 1:32pm | Can there be a button/drop down category added to gift a fic to someone on the site. If an author writes a story for another member they can mark it as a gift. --all choseny @ 6/19/20 2:26pm | Hi all_choseny,
This is a no from us. We don't have the internal coding for "gift" fics to show on members' profiles, so there is no functionality to adding a gift dropdown. Please use the Story Notes or Author's Notes fields to dedicate a fic to another member. --EF admin team @ 6/23/20 2:47pm | I'm not sure how this could be added, but I think it would be really nice to have the video of James Marsters addressing the Elysian Fields fanfic group that was posted in the Facebook group embedded somewhere on the main page since it can't be pinned to the top of the Facebook group page. Perhaps before or after the Site News or even at the bottom of the sidebar? I think it would be a nice addition for those perusing the site and aren't a part of the Facebook group and may even help bring others to join us in her glorious Spuffy-ness! :D --EffulgentEllie @ 5/24/20 6:24pm | Hi EffulgentEllie,
Thank you so much for the suggestion. As it is, we were working on getting that set up. It's now available on the sidebar above the social media icons. :) --EF admin team @ 5/25/20 5:34pm | I don't know how feasible this would be, but it would be nice to get an email update with how many "likes" a story or chapter gets, the same way AO3 sends a nightly update with how many "kudos" one has gotten. I know it would probably be a lot of coding, so it really is just a suggestion. --Sigyn @ 4/18/20 5:05pm | Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, we are not able to add this feature at this time. --EF admin team @ 12/11/23 10:04am | Perhaps this suggestion has already been made, but would it be possible to get a notification when a favorited author uploads a new story? --Story Time @ 4/1/20 8:51am | Hi Story Time, you should already automatically receive an email notification when a favorited author publishes a new story. If you are not receiving those notifications, please A) double-check that your "Email me when one of my favorites is updated" box is checked under Account Info >> Edit Preferences. If it is, then B) check to make sure the email has not been caught in your spam filter. If it has not and you are still missing the notification, please C) email our Administrator account at elysianfields@dark-solace.org and we'll troubleshoot with you.
Please do note that email notifications may take up to 24 hours to reach you once a story is published, since they are sent out in automatic batches so as not to overload the site. --EF admin team @ 4/1/20 4:29pm | I suggest that the background colour be changed to white. I find it difficult and tiring to read the text as there is not presently enough contrast. --dogbreath @ 3/27/20 11:19am | Hiya,
There are actually a variety of skins, including those with light/white backgrounds, that you can select to change the way the site appears for you. Under Account Info, go to “Edit Preferences” (within the Profiles and Preferences box), scroll down to Site Settings. At the bottom of the Site Settings box is a selection box for “Default Skin.” You can alter how the site appears to you specifically from there.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions. Thanks! --EF admin team @ 3/28/20 5:13pm | Is it possible to introduce an award for 'Beta Reader of the Month' alongside Authors & Reviewers? --EllieRose101 @ 2/1/20 3:55pm | Hi EllieRose101, this is a very nice idea, but logistically we don't see it being workable, due to the lack of member visibility regarding what each beta's efforts have been and the limited pool of betas currently available for awarding (even assuming some new betas take on the mantle). We have added beta awards to our site events and will continue to do so. For a monthly award, however, it's a no from us. --EF admin team @ 2/14/20 12:03pm | Hi, not sure if this is actually a "suggestion" but in the Issue a Challenge page when if you don't have all of the red * filled out and hit the button to post the challenge then the page refreshes and you lose everything you've written out. This loss of data also happens if the page on the New Story, or add chapter pages get refreshed. Is it possible to save that progress to some kind of temp file. I ask, because one you get to about 5000 words in a chapter the window you're writing in gets choppy and refreshing is really the only way to speed it back up. But in order to do that you have to copy everything, then refresh, then repost the content.
If the deletion thing can't be changed could you at least disable the Post Challenge button until all of the red * sections are filled out properly? OR maybe give us a warning that one of the sections isn't filled out when we do push the button? Thank your for your time. --Its all fluffy @ 1/23/20 11:23am | Hi Its all fluffy, the EF editing pages are made to place content for publishing, and are not equipped to save it in draft form, so we do not recommend that EF is used in a word processing capacity. Please save all text to a word processing program (or google docs, etc) before transferring to EF's editing pages to ensure no loss of content. With regard to the challenge page, if you hit the "back" arrow/button on your browser (without refreshing the page), your content will still be populating the boxes. --EF admin team @ 2/14/20 11:54am | Hi! Is it possible to get notifications when a story on our bookshelf is marked as 'completed'? I often add stories to my bookshelf to read later, but I'm not crazy about WIPs, so I wait for them to be done before starting. But then, I sometimes (often) miss that they've been completed for a good while after it happens. Or is there some other way to get that type of notice? Thanks! --Passion4Spike @ 12/26/19 3:18am | Thank you. I apologize for not having noticed it before. Please pardon my observation, but it doesn't look like someone laughing. My greatest apologies to the artist; I very much enjoy the rest of the mojis. But, :lol: is the one I find myself needing the most. Could we then have a replacement :lol:? --JustWriter @ 12/13/19 1:16pm | Hi JustWriter, our current emoticon set was a custom-made gift from an EF member. As such, we will not be changing any of the standard emoticons. If you would like an alternate :LOL: aesthetic, you are welcome to insert an emoji-style graphic/picture/gif using the "insert/edit image" option in the text box headers --EF admin team @ 12/23/19 3:28pm | Could we please have a :laughs: smiley? --JustWriter @ 12/7/19 11:33pm | Hi, JustWriter. We do have a laughing smiley already in our list under ":lol:". You can find the code (along with all of our other smiley options) hyperlinked under the Shoutbox and also found here: https://dark-solace.org/elysian/smileys.html --EF admin team @ 12/9/19 12:11pm | Sorry to bug again, but may we have Allan Finch and Kralik as character options? TIA! --sandy_s @ 10/25/19 5:43am | Hi sandy_s, Done! Allan Finch and Kralik have been added as character options. --EF admin team @ 10/31/19 5:37am | Can we have Lloyd, the Asphyx demon, as a character option? He may already be there, but I didn’t see him! TIA! --sandy_s @ 9/23/19 4:31pm | Hi sandy_s, Done! Lloyd has been added as a character option. --EF admin team @ 9/26/19 12:12am | I've noticed the featured fic is sometimes all R and up, and occasionally all NC-17 and up. Would it be possible to have one G or PG or PG-13 fic per featured list? These ratings often seem to be overlooked. (Thanks for combing through so much fic all the time forever, pfeifferpack!) --KillerSnotMonster @ 9/2/19 3:37am | Hi KillerSnotMonster, We definitely try to vary the ratings with featured stories, but sometimes that variety doesn't happen based on a certain theme that we're trying to focus on. That said, the most used rating by far on EF is NC-17, so we have to deal with the pool of stories we have. However, we will try to do our best to make sure we represent all ratings as much as possible. --EF admin team @ 9/5/19 9:11am | Is it possible to get statistics on stories by year? Like reads, downloads, likes, and comments counted by year? The reason I'm asking is, on A03 and FF I continue to get notices when someone favorites a story or gives kudos, which sometimes come LONG after the story has been posted. On EF, the only feedback I get on a story is if someone comments, which, let's face it, once the story is finished just doesn't happen that often. People download the story and often never come back to leave any comment. I find that the continued (if sporadic) emails I get from the other sites is kind of nice. It's nice to know people are still reading old stories. Anyway, I just wondered if there was any way to do something like that where I could go in and see which stories were still being read, favorited, downloaded, or getting 'likes'. Not asking to send out more emails, but if it was in the stats page, then authors who were interested could check and see if the stories were still being read/liked/favorited. --Passion4Spike @ 7/27/19 2:50am | Hi Passion4Spike, Unfortunately the system doesn't save dates for when favorites, reads and downloads are added. There's no way to separate them out by year. Reviews are already listed by most recent, so it's relatively easy to see new ones. The easiest way to see new stats for stories would be to save a screenshot of your stats page that shows the numbers you're interested in, and that way you can compare the older counts with new ones as time passes. --EF admin team @ 9/5/19 8:58am | I think it would be good if the option to orphan a story was suggested in the course of deleting a story, perhaps at the point where the site goes, "Are you sure you want to delete this story?"
I think some authors aren't aware orphaning is a thing & might not choose to delete if they knew/remembered. --thenewbuzwuzz @ 6/12/19 5:12pm | Hi buzwuzz, One the deletion confirmation screen, authors are now given the option to orphan their stories as an alternative. We're not sure how many authors will take us up on this option, but at least we know that they'll know it exists. Thanks! --EF admin team @ 6/17/19 2:49pm | Quarterly challenge month? Maybe that would just be too much... But there are so many folks who are nervous to start writing, or who toy with challenge responses but never finish and post them. I think site events help give people a boost of motivation, and it'd be cool to have even more challenge prompts fulfilled. Maybe the October challenge month could have a bit of organization or a vague theme, and in April/July/January it could be like the April 2019 challenge month? Idk! Just an idea :-) It's definitely great to have the bonus April one this year!! --KillerSnotMonster @ 4/1/19 6:42am | Hi KillerSnotMonster, thanks for your suggestion. We discussed your idea, and while we definitely agree that site events encourage writers and artists to create new content, we feel that quarterly challenges will be too much. There's a fair bit behind the scenes that goes into preparing the site for these events, and we also try to give authors/artists plenty of time to create prior to posting. With your suggestion we'd be rolling from one event to the next, and this could put a lot of pressure on authors who feel they should participate, and the last thing we want site events to do is cause anxiety. We appreciate your enthusiasm, but it's a no for this suggestion. --EF admin team @ 4/6/19 6:27am | It would be great to have a way to search for stories that I have not marked as read. Similar to the “Completed” checkbox on Advanced Search, could there be a “Unread by Me” checkbox? --Tzigane @ 3/22/19 4:12am | Hi Tzigane, On the advanced search page, logged in members will now have an additional drop-down option that will allow them to search only stories marked as read or stories not marked as read. --EF admin team @ 4/2/19 6:46pm | Would it be possible to add a beta reader award badge for challenge months? The thought just occurred to me and I think it would be cool! Idk what goes into the behind-the-scenes of challenge months, so maybe you can't roll it out for April 2019, but maybe in the future? --KillerSnotMonster @ 3/19/19 9:01am | Hi, KillerSnotMonster, this has been done! Beta badges have been added to the award line-up starting with our April Challenge. --EF admin team @ 3/29/19 11:52am | I was hoping that the option to include or exclude multiple categories could be added when one is choosing filters for a story search. --DarkVoid116 @ 3/11/19 12:43pm | Hi DarkVoid116, Unfortunately we don't have that functionality in the regular browse pages because those filter dropdowns aren't built to do multiple selections. However, when using the advanced search function, you do have the ability to include and/or exclude multiple categories when looking for a story. --EF admin team @ 3/15/19 4:27pm | I think we should add a section to the FAQ with suggestions for how people can interact with the site’s external connections (fb, lJ, tumblr, chat) --Tzigane @ 2/23/19 9:59am | Hi Tzigane, a new section that lets people know how to interact with the site's external connections has been added to the FAQ. In addition, you can find links to these sites on the main page, and in the site footer. --EF admin team @ 3/1/19 4:30pm | I just noticed a spot where it still says 'reviews' instead of comments. I edited a previous comment and it comes up and says 'Thank you for your comment' then below that it says 'back to your reviews'. --Passion4Spike @ 1/21/19 12:39pm | Hi Passion4Spike, Nice spot! We must have missed that one when making the update. It has been addressed. Thank you! --EF admin team @ 1/29/19 2:19pm | *waves* Hi!
I was wondering if we could add the icon links to pillowfort (like we have for tumblr/LiveJournal etc.) when available. I don't know the technical restraints and as that site is in beta, maybe it's not really 'there' yet, but as a large chunk of the Spuffy fandom on tumblr finds a new home, it would be cool to have the same option on our profile. But it's also not a big deal for us to just add to the text of our profile, so if this doesn't work, no worries! Just a suggestion for future consideration. Thanks for all the awesomeness you Mods do for our lovely Spuffy home!! :) -- @ 12/7/18 7:35am | Hi Badwolfjedi, thank you for your suggestion. We will definitely keep Pillowfort in mind as something to add to user profiles. However, we’ll put that idea on hold for now since Pillowfort is such a new platform, and it’s still in development. We’ll watch to see its stability and how many of our members end up using it consistently before adding it. Stay tuned! --EF admin team @ 12/17/18 12:49pm | Is there anyway to put a direct link back to your bookshelf at the very bottom of the page?
Using mobile the top of page arrows sometimes don't work reliably and it's a giant pain to scroll all the way up especially on really long multi chapters/stories.
Also can we have a confirmation pagefor adding things to your bookshelf- like with adding favorites and deleting things off your bookshelf. On mobile it's difficult to reliably hit the 'Mark as read' button because the footprint of the 'Add to bookshelf' is -comparatively alot bigger and also spans both the first and second lines on my mobile's browser. I frequently end up adding random stories to by bookshelf by accident. --Micrindle23 @ 11/15/18 12:53am | Hi Micrindle23, Thank you for your suggestion. We've never gotten any complaints about the scroll to top arrow before. It does use javascript, so if your browser doesn't allow that, it won't work as it's supposed to. If you continue to have issues with it, please email the details to ssolace@gmail.com. We'd prefer not to clutter up the footer with extra links, so we won't be adding a bookshelf link at this time. The confirmation page for favorites was added a few years ago when we upgraded the site software. When it was added, we had a number of complaints about members not liking the extra step. For that reason, we won't be adding a confirmation page for the bookshelf. If you're having issues pressing the wrong link, you can always increase the text size on the site in your preferences. That will increase the size of links. --EF admin team @ 12/1/18 9:00am | On the back of the FB group discussions, can we add Spike's Demon as a character - if we can also update fics to add the character as we find them, it'll make it easier to find purely Demon fics :D
Thanks! --Fraggleshrew @ 10/31/18 2:38am | Hi Fraggleshrew. The mods have discussed your suggestion, but have decided it's a no. Thinking canonically. as a character, there is Spike and there is William. He *is* his vampire, and owns who he is, unlike Angel/Angelus. Adding a Spike demon tag then opens up a whole can of worms... who else would need to be added? There's Randy, Joan, cave!Buffy, vampire!Buffy, vampire!Willow, dark!Willow, doppleganger Xander, hyena!Xander, Ripper!Giles, BandCandy!Giles... I could go on. Where do we stop? We have a pretty extensive list of characters for authors to select and readers to search for, and adding facets of characters personalities, when they might be infrequently used, is something we don't think the site requires. --EF admin team @ 11/17/18 12:16am | Hi, Have you considered in the 'longest series' section to do that by word count instead of story count, or in addition, perhaps? I was looking at the longest one in the list, and each story within the series is only one chapter, which really doesn't make the series that long in terms of words. Just wondering if you'd considered that option. Thanks! --Passion4Spike @ 9/16/18 1:53pm | Hi Passion4Spike, thanks for your suggestion. At this point we're going to have to say no. Adding a longest series section would require a lot of coding, because the way series are stored in the database is separate from the stories themselves. Perhaps it's something we can consider in the future. --EF admin team @ 10/4/18 5:34am | Hi All! Based on discussion on the latest site posting, I'd like to request changing the places where it talks about leaving a "review" to leaving a "comment". Can we also change the note beneath the review/comment box from "*Note: You may submit a review, an opinion, or both.*" to "Note: You may submit a comment, a like, or both." ? (Changing that note might clear up some confusion about the like button.) Thank you! --OffYourBird @ 8/24/18 5:04am | OffYourBird, Done! --EF admin team @ 8/29/18 9:37am | I was wondering if you could add Samantha (Sam) Finn to the list of characters available to add to a fic? She happened to blossom in my current fic and would love to give her the 'credit' she deserves. :) Thanks! --Passion4Spike @ 8/20/18 1:58pm | Hi Passion4Spike, Done! Sam Finn has been added as a character option. --EF admin team @ 8/20/18 11:03pm | I was just wondering if you could give Dalton his own character category? He has become a sort of fan favorite in the Spuffy community due to his intensely human qualities that are reminiscent of William. SunAlso's deft and prominent use of his character has definitely given him a bit of a cult following.
Thanks for your consideration, Slowburn
--Slowburn @ 8/17/18 8:38pm | Hi Slowburn, Done! Dalton has been added as a character option. --EF admin team @ 8/18/18 5:26am | I was just wondering if you could give Sam Lawson his own character category. I really loved the guy in AtS and I'm one of those that thinks his part was cut tragically short. He was 'living' proof that Angel's, "I'm good and I don't do anything morally questionable ever" line was a load of hooey. I know Sam is in several stories on this site but, without a search tab, it is practically impossible to find them.
Lindsey MacDonald is another person who deserves their own character tab. If Lilah has a tab, Lindsey should definitely have one.
Thanks,
Shelly --Elftwanger @ 7/20/18 1:56pm | Hi Elftwanger, Done! Both Lindsey and Sam Lawson have been added as character options. You're particularly right about Lindsey, he should've been added a while ago (and not sure how we missed that). --EF admin team @ 8/18/18 5:31am | Hello, good day, I was wondering if you guys can add a "surprise me" option for stories. I saw the option in the challenges page and I liked it so much. I think it would be a cool thing to add if readers can just press an icon and the site will give them random fics to read. Plus it would be useful for readers who sometimes find it hard to find new stories to read. They can just press a button and viola! New fic. Not to mention other older stories that aren't in the featured fics can get attention as well. This is just a suggestion. And thanks for listening to it. I always love that you are willing to listen this site's supporters! Have a pleasant day and thanks again! --DeamonQueen @ 7/15/18 9:01pm | Hi DeamonQueen, we already have a random story section on the home page of the site. If you want a new random story, you just have to click the home button or the refresh button, and the random story will change. --EF admin team @ 8/17/18 10:33am | I am not sure if someone asked this yet, but anyway, I was wondering if it would be possible to change the color scheme of my preferred skin for this site. This is because I like the main banner I have for the skin but the color of its text and background hurts my eyes. I wear glasses but still have problems with this site when I read on my computer. I'm just suggesting if it would be possible to have a selection for the color of the background and text for the site. Nothing too complex just easy primary or secondary color. Thank you and I hope it won't be too much trouble! --DeamonQueen @ 7/9/18 3:32pm | Hi DeamonQueen, At this time, the skins aren't customizable, If you don't like the background or text color of a certain skin, you'll need to choose another skin option. --EF admin team @ 8/17/18 10:31am | I sort fics by putting the ones I haven`t read yet on my bookshelf. The ones I have read and absolutely loved go on my favorite list and all the others get marked as read. But there are still so many good fics, even if they are not my favorites and I would like to be able to distinguish further. Is there any possibility, to have different sections or rankings within the marked as read fic or the favorite fics?
Oh, by the way, this is a wonderful place. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this site.
flow -- @ 6/29/18 7:49am | Hi flow, unfortunately there aren't additional ways to sort stories listed as favorites. However, when marking something as a favorite, you have the option of adding comments, which are private, and viewable only by you. Feel free to use that space to make notes to remind yourself how you feel about certain stories. --EF admin team @ 8/17/18 10:29am | Can y'all add Comics Season 12 as a category in the new fic section...I had to choose Comics season unspecified or something for my new fic. Thanks so much! --sandy_s @ 6/28/18 4:00pm | Done. --EF admin team @ 7/9/18 12:33am | Hi, mods! I wanted to suggest that our FB discussion group somehow get added to the links at the bottom of the EF page, so that new EF members have a way to find it once the original announcement gets really buried under newer ones. It has proved to be so lively and fun!
Thanks so much for all that you do here on EF. --yellowb @ 6/23/18 1:32am | @yellowb, Done! --EF admin team @ 7/3/18 6:23pm | Could we have a pinned post on the EF LJ about proposed changes to the site that aren't from the suggestion box? The members of this community put their time, effort, and even money into this site. It would be nice to be able to have some kind of input/discussion about changes in policy. -- @ 5/22/18 6:33pm | Hi zabjade, it's a no to this. Donations given by members are voluntary, and while very much appreciated they are just that, a donation. They are not a purchase and do not come with ownership shares. Elysian Fields is a privately owned and maintained site, and as such the admins have the final say. Where appropriate member input is taken onboard, anti-bullying site policy is not one of them. --EF admin team @ 5/24/18 5:28am | With the talk of warnings in the chat box, can we have just one more warning for mention of sexual assault? I'm not sure if this goes with the "Rape (implied)" label (if it does, ignore this), but I know that when I was adding warnings to my story, Take Me to Church, which has Buffy and Spike dealing with the scene from Seeing Red, I was unclear on which warning to use, so I settled on writing it in the summary. --Jane Smith @ 4/22/18 1:32pm | Hi Jane Smith. Thanks for your suggestion. The mods discussed it at length, but presently have no plans to extend the warnings list as sexual assault falls under the three options already existing. --EF admin team @ 5/18/18 7:03pm | I know that there's an "add to this response" button, so this is fairly minor, but can we have an "edit" function for authors responding to reviews? --Jane Smith @ 4/22/18 1:28pm | Hi Jane Smith, unfortunately this isn't possible. The way the system is set up, is that the original review and any author response after it, are all saved together in one big block. An edit option would bring up the text of the review, the response, and any additional reviewer/author responses as well. We can only suggest that you proof over your responses prior to submitting them, or respond a second time to cover anything you miss. --EF admin team @ 5/18/18 6:49pm | There are so many wonderful stories floating around in the challenges category, begging to be written. I was wondering if they could somehow be incorporated into the next anniversary/reunion challenge? --javajunkie247 @ 4/13/18 2:31am | Hi javajunkie247, we really like your idea. This is something the mods are going to discuss further as we approach the next site challenge. --EF admin team @ 4/25/18 4:48am | There was a shout box discussion several days ago about fics where Spike ends up losing his soul and how some people love the idea and others hate it. I was wondering if maybe there could be a warning for it, like we have for vampBuffy and humanSpike, since it's the same sort of polarizing thing. Something like "Spike loses soul" so it isn't too long. -- @ 4/5/18 4:54am | Hi zabjade, we're going to say no on this one. Spike is a character that we were introduced to pre-soul, so no-soul Spike is almost his default setting. :) And the loss of a soul for Spike doesn't usually introduce a huge personality shift, like it does with Angel & Angelus. We feel that this is something authors would either a) keep a surprise in their fic, or b) use an A/N to disclose, if they wanted to. The use of all warnings is at author discretion, so its likely the creation of the warning may not even get used. So it's a no. --EF admin team @ 4/25/18 4:46am | I don't know how much of a problem this is for everyone else, but when I am on this site on my phone, the scrollbar is white. That would be fine except that the site skin I use is comic. It is very hard to see the white scrollbar on the pale yellow background. Is there any way to fix that? I realize that it is not a big deal, but I just thought I could ask. --Sithstalker @ 4/4/18 12:56pm | Hi Sithstalker, we're going to say no to this one. There are 16 different skins to choose from, and they've been coded with certain colour schemes to match the artwork. We're glad you enjoy the comic skin, but perhaps use a different one for reading on your phone? Some of the skins were made specifically for phone use. --EF admin team @ 4/13/18 12:03pm | Hey! I sometimes cannot remember if I actually sent reviews or not, and I always stumble up against the "Your Reviews" sorting. I suggest that when you hit "sort by review date", it list the most recent review first, instead of the earliest. (I suspect that's more generally useful than finding out repeatedly that, for instance, I finally stopped lurking when I read "Sideways.") --yellowb @ 3/31/18 1:18am | Hi yellowb, Done! Now when you chose the review date sort option, the newest review will be listed first. --EF admin team @ 4/18/18 7:01pm | Hello! We had a discussion in the SB about the pitfalls of separating explicit content into two ratings (AO and NC-17), since there isn't any consistent or inherent line for what makes something one or the other, and it was thought that the appropriate usage of warnings was more informative than rating with regard to content type. Would it be possible to combine both ratings into a single rating of "Explicit" (or something similar)? Thank you! --OffYourBird @ 3/19/18 3:49pm | Hi OffYourBird. Firstly, apologies for the late response. We won't be combining the ratings; back-editing all of the fic from one into another would be a mammoth task and we have a stance on not editing fic unless specifically requested by individual members. I understand the confusion between the ratings however, and in our discussion we were reminded that we have the ratings defined in the FAQ and submission rules. Here is the link: http://dark-solace.org/elysian/viewpage.php?page=ratings Hopefully that helps clear up any confusion. --EF admin team @ 5/24/18 4:51am | When editing a review on a story, there isn't an option to return to that particular review or story's reviews. There's only an option to go back to *all* of your reviews. Could we add a link to go back to that review or story's reviews? --swifthorse @ 1/25/18 11:59am | Hi swifthorse. Sorry, but we're going to say no to this. You can return to previous pages with the back button, or you can open reviews for a particular story (and individual reviews as well) in separate tabs and clicking between screens. --EF admin team @ 2/9/18 1:46am | I think a number of people have accidentally scrolled down and hit the dislike button (I've done this! Oops!), or they are fearful of doing it. Considering it is almost never used, except by accident, I think it would be nice to remove the option altogether. I'm thinking that if someone doesn't like a chapter/story they could simply avoid adding a like or comment instead. --swifthorse @ 1/25/18 11:54am | Hi swifthorse, We agree that the dislike option isn't necessary, and could be seen as mean-spirited. It has been removed, but readers still have the option of leaving a like. --EF admin team @ 2/6/18 1:20pm | Sunalso's concern about warnings in the SB made me think about something I struggled with at first. When adding multiple characters and warnings to stories, Control-Click doesn't work with Macs. It took me a while to figure out that I had to hit Command-Click to add more than one warning/character, etc. (Mostly because this is my first Mac.) Is there a way to add that to the form? (There may not be...) Thank you for all you do! :D --sandy_s @ 1/21/18 10:24am | Hi sandy_s, thanks for your suggestion but it's a no on this one. I also had to learn the different shortcuts when I moved from a PC to a Mac, so I understand your initial struggle. However, adding more warnings/instructions will make input fields overcrowded, and keeping the site forms clean and consistent across the board (with formatting) is what we want. --EF admin team @ 3/3/18 7:28pm | I might be the only person with this problem, but I often get pms that don't need responding to, read them in my email, and then go on my way. I now have 84 unread messages scattered over 44 PAGES of pms. However, there's no option to checkmark messages in batches, or "mark all as read", and if I want to delete messages, I'd have to mark every single pm one at a time...which would take a lot of time. I'd like some way to easily tidy up my mail (or at least mark everything read), is there any way to add any of that functionality to the pms? --Sunalso @ 1/17/18 7:43am | Hi Sunalso, Done! There is now a check all box, so you can check all messages that show on a page (not all messages in your account), and you can either choose to delete all checked messages or mark them all as read. --EF admin team @ 1/25/18 2:27pm | I was using my phone to read stories and I decided to read the stories that I had added to my favorites, but then I noticed that there are no short cuts to it and I had to either go to my personal page to access it. Would it be possible to add a Favorite page in the tool bar above beside the bookmarked stories? this is option will only appear if the person has an account for the site though. Thank you! --DeamonQueen @ 1/16/18 11:54pm | Hi DeamonQueen. We discussed your request, but at this point it's a no. The tool bar is as crowded as it can get without major changes to the site. With 16 different skins that's a lot coding, and unfortunately that's not something we have time for at the moment. --EF admin team @ 1/22/18 1:05am | After responding to a review, could we have a link to just go back to looking at all the reviews for the story/chapter we were just in? Not replacing going to the unread reviews, just adding another option. There have been a lot of times when I've replied to a review or two, and then wanted to reread the responded to reviews and have to do a lot of extra navigating to get to do that. -- @ 1/16/18 3:11am | Hi zabjade. Sorry, but we have to say no to this one at present. You can get back to what you were just looking at by hitting the back button, or by opening multiple tabs and clicking between screens. --EF admin team @ 1/22/18 1:16am | Hi, I don't know if it is possible but I think it would be useful to maybe add a section on the site where you can ask for strange things.
For example, for my fic I need to know how much would it cost a two floor house in America. I could ask into the shout box but after some time it will "disappear" and if no one answered me I will have to re-ask or go on google and try to find the answer there.
A space forum like where people could ask questions.
As said I don't know if it's possible and if it's too much trouble we could still do with the shout box, but it could be an idea. --Spuffy93 @ 1/11/18 10:58pm | Hi Spuffy93, The best place to ask a question like this is in the shoutbox or in chat. Those are out most used areas to talk to other members, and questions like that are usually answered in the shoutbox. We have no plans to add a forum or message board to Elysian Fields. --EF admin team @ 1/17/18 9:24am | Hi, all! Much as we have a "vamp!Buffy" option, would it be possible to get a "human!Spike" option? It's a very polarizing story category, and I know a lot of readers (myself included) might appreciate the callout. Thank you! --OffYourBird @ 1/7/18 8:47am | Hi OffYourBird, Done! There is now a Human!Spike option under warnings. --EF admin team @ 1/13/18 1:25am | First time suggestion giver(if that's a thing) A lot of people seem to want a between category option and I was wondering if you could add a "-" dash option so we could add a "Season 1" then "-" then "Season 2", baring that maybe a Summer option? Maybe even take the separate "Season 1" make a "Season" options and just have a list of numbers? Since you select one category it takes you to another list would it be hard to make that a sub category? So a person could click "Season 1" and then choose something like "Summer before" "Summer After", Or maybe that Dash option with another season so when you finally click the arrow it becomes something like "Season 1 - Season 5" All as one category? That's probably a coding nightmare but it would give authors more precise categorical options. Baring all that is it possible to see who seconds a story in the Challenge section? Or in the suggestion box? Maybe make that little +4 into a link that takes you to a list of the profiles who seconded it, as you have to have an account to actually second something in Challenge and Suggestion. Thanks for you time. --Its all fluffy @ 1/3/18 9:55am | Hi Its all fluffy, We've had multiple versions of this suggestion before, and the answer is the same as it's been in the past. We aren't able to add a dash feature for stories that cross from one season to another. Authors just need to choose the most appropriate season the categorize their stories. Also, at this point, we don't plan on showing who has seconded a challenge/suggestion. --EF admin team @ 1/17/18 9:14am | Hi. I was updating my profile when I noticed it was lacking a few major sites that link out where the Tumblr, Twitter, etc is listed. I was wondering if you could add ones such as FaceBook (for those of us not on Twitter or Instagram), DeviantART (for the banner makers who also post there), and STARS Library (http://www.starslibrary.net/) (it's a popular multi-fandom fanfiction site like FanFiction.net). That's all I could think of off the top of my head. Thank you! --EffulgentEllie @ 11/20/17 6:29am | Hi EffulgentEllie, profile options for Facebook and DeviantArt have been added. Since AO3 and FanFiction.net are major archives that most of our users are likely to frequent, we think it makes sense to include those as an option. However, adding smaller archives isn't something we think is necessary. Thank you! --EF admin team @ 1/2/18 11:26am | Not sure if this is possible or not, but for the list of who has favorited an author, could the date be added next to the name? Or at least the word "new" included when someone new adds the author? -- @ 11/1/17 12:59pm | Hi zabjade, The site does not store the date when a member favorites an author or story. If we added the functionality, it would only apply to favorites going forward, so that would leave out the thousands of favorites that already exist. We have to say no to this one. --EF admin team @ 11/25/17 5:00pm | Would it be possible to have an "add comments" option for fics in our bookshelf the way we do for fics in our favorites? The notes are so helpful for organization and remembering what I like about a fic. Thank you! --OffYourBird @ 10/23/17 1:06pm | Hi OffYourBird, This is something we might consider in the future, but we'll need to explore how adding comments to bookshelf stories will affect the database, and unfortunately, that's not something we have time for at the moment. --EF admin team @ 11/25/17 4:57pm | Could Buffybot be added to the list of characters? (I'm asking because I'm writing a story featuring her prominently, but I've seen other stories where she's a significant character and don't think I'm the only one who would find this useful.) --Catryona @ 9/18/17 12:12pm | Hi Catryona, Done! The Buffybot has been added as a character option. --EF admin team @ 9/20/17 4:49am | Another thought, this one may or may not be too popular, but could we possible make the category selection when submitting a challenge a required field? It makes it so much easier to find and browse challenges when that field has been filled in, especially when so many challenges don't have identifying titles. --kittyfajitas @ 9/11/17 11:08am | Hi kittyfajitas, if you're looking for stories that are responses to challenges, we already have a browse page for that: http://dark-solace.org/elysian/browse.php?type=chalresponses. Challenge responses are listed there even if authors don't include challenge response as a category for their story. --EF admin team @ 9/21/17 9:56am | So, I realize that similar suggestions have been shot down a few times, but I was thinking about the categories for time periods in between seasons, and it occurred to me that perhaps a category literally called "between seasons" might work? That way you're not adding categories for each individual between season time period, and ppl can put categories like, for example, "season 5, season 6, between seasons" to indicate the story takes place between season 5 and 6. Anyway, just a thought! Thanks for your consideration. --kittyfajitas @ 9/11/17 10:59am | Hi kittyfajitas, as with before, we're going to turn this one down. We realize there's no perfect solution here, but a single category for all the times that occur between seasons doesn't seem right. There's a huge difference between the time between seasons 1/2 and seasons 6/7, and we don't feel like those stories would belong together in the same category. If there's a story that is categorized as season 1 and season 2, we think it's assumed that the story might contain material that occurs between the season as well. --EF admin team @ 9/21/17 9:52am | Can I suggest a story for "featured story" here ? I would like to suggest "Gathering Loose Ends" by pfeifferpack. If this is the wrong place for suggesting featured stories, could I suggest it somewhere else ? -- @ 8/24/17 9:30pm | Hi flow, This area is more for suggestions to add to the site, not featured story suggestions. Our amazing mod pfeifferpack, who also happens to be an amazing author :), is the one who puts up the featured stories. If you have a suggestion for feature, just send her a PM and let her know. --EF admin team @ 8/26/17 3:39pm | We have some lovely character options, including Andrew and Jonathan, but we don't seem to have one for Warren or The Trio as a whole. Would it be possible to add these? Oh! And possibly one for The Fanged Four, for when a fic includes all four vampires, mainly as a group and especially during their hunting days? Those would be awesome! Thank you. --EffulgentEllie @ 7/23/17 4:42pm | Hi EffulgentEllie, Warren has been added as a character option. Him not being included previously was just an oversight, so thank you for pointing it out. Since authors have the option to add as many characters as they need, we think we'll leave it as individual character options instead of groups like the trio or fanged four. --EF admin team @ 8/1/17 10:41am | I would like to make a suggestion of fanfics about SMG/JM - RPF - real person fic.... It's so hard to find, there is a lot of chemistry and someone must write that! pls? --didilicia @ 7/22/17 12:41pm | Hi didilicia, Our submission rules prohibit RPF. We are strictly a Spuffy site, and intend to stay that way. We're afraid you'll have to look elsewhere for RPF. --EF admin team @ 7/24/17 2:45pm | Hi! Not sure if this is possible, but I was wondering if there was a way to add chapter banners, similar to the story banners and the recently added series banners, but for individual chapters? Perhaps to display after the chapter notes, right before the story text? I may be the only one who adds individual chapter graphic banners (I'm not sure to be honest), but I do know other author's have posted banners that were made for their story or for an individual chapter by other members within the individual chapter, so it may be useful and look a lot cleaner. Thank you! --EffulgentEllie @ 7/22/17 11:18am | Hi EffulgentEllie, We added the story banners option mostly so they would all be shown uniformly on the browse pages. At this point, we don't feel like it's necessary to add a special way to add chapter banners. If you'd like to use them, they can be added in the chapter notes box. --EF admin team @ 7/24/17 2:43pm | This is just a minor annoyance, but I'm hoping it might also be a minor fix? When finishing a chapter and leaving a review, the next screen has a link "Back to story". If there is a next chapter, it takes you to that page - which I love! But it also resets the text size back to default. Is there anyway to carry over the text size I'd previously been using in the last chapter? I read the stories on my iPad and usually bump the text up two +'s. If I don't leave a review, it'll remember and keep my text size. Alternatively, is there a way to set my preferred text size as a preference so every story automatically opens with the larger text? Thanks so much for all the great work you all do! --Chrissel @ 7/18/17 1:57pm | Hi Chrissel, We actually already have an option where you can set your preferred text size on EF. On the edit preferences page, there's an option that says, "Default text size:" The default option is normal. Choose medium or large to increase the font size used all over the site. --EF admin team @ 7/24/17 2:40pm | Disclaimer: this is the first time that I've made a suggestion, and I'm relatively new to the community, so please forgive me if anything is faux pas:
It's come up for me personally a few times (particularly when I'm trying to respond via phone), but we've all probably posted in the Shoutbox something with a spelling or grammar error. I've seen a few people say as much today alone, so I thought I'd pose the question here: Would it be possible to have an edit option on our Shouts? I understand if that's a coding nightmare, I just wondered if we'd be able to go back and edit a shout after it's posted (instead of having to currect *correct ourselves). Thanks in advance for taking the time to read these and for all that you do! --Ceruleansoul @ 7/12/17 4:11pm | Hi Ceruleansoul, This one is a maybe. The issue here is that when shouts are edited, the text to edit contains the code that shows the images and the code that turns links into hyperlinks, so it doesn't look like it does in the actual shoutbox. We're hesitant to allow editing with all that extra code because it might end up messing the shout up even more than it was before the edit. I'll see if I can make the process more simple, and allow for editing without coming into contact with code, but until then, we won't be able to edit shouts. --EF admin team @ 7/24/17 1:46pm ETA: Done! You are now able to edit shouts from the shout archive page. --EF admin team @ 9/6/17 9:51pm | This might be a bit much to ask, but I was wondering if there was a way to set it up so that authors could add chapters in advance and have them set to post to the public at certain times? Maybe like a queue with specific dates and times for the chapter to post? This might be especially useful for people going on extended vacations who have a posting schedule or people who have multiple chapters done in advance and want to have them ready to go at certain times. I was just wondering, well, hoping. :) Thank you! --EffulgentEllie @ 7/9/17 8:48am | Hi EffulgentEllie, This is actually very similar to a suggestion that we've already received:http://dark-solace.org/elysian/suggestionbox.php#16. Our answer is the same now as it was then. --EF admin team @ 7/24/17 1:42pm | I read through the challenges a lot and it seems a shame that so many of them are lacking official responses. Would it be possible to create a way to match existing stories to existing challenges? I read through many that remind me of stories I know I already exist. Could we submit a story to a challenge and possibly have both the story author and the challenge author required to accept that it meets the criteria for the challenge and that the story author is willing to associate it with the challenge?
I don't want to discourage new authors from writing stories based on challenges but if there are already stories I think the people who read the challenges would like to know and be able to read those stories.
--Chrissel @ 7/5/17 8:31am | Hi Chrissel, Unfortunately we're going to have to say no to this one. It's at an author's discretion if they want their story connected to a challenge. Adding a story to a challenge implies that the story was inspired by the challenge, and that most likely isn't the case. In addition, trying to put stories and challenges together, and then getting author and challenge creator permission would be a huge undertaking. --EF admin team @ 7/6/17 11:38pm | Is it possible to add a 'random page' button to the challenge section so if we are searching for inspiration we can just go to the challenges and keep hitting random. That way it's possible some of the older ones may get a second look.
Thank you. --Rezol87 @ 7/5/17 1:26am | Hi Rezol87, Done! On the main challenge browse page, there's now a Surprise me! link that will give you a random challenge. If you want to keep getting random challenges, just hit refresh and a new one will pop-up. --EF admin team @ 7/6/17 11:29pm | This is really not important, but I get a kick out of seeing my name on the "All-star Reviewers" list each month and check how I'm doing...but what happens to that data? Is it dumped after each month? Is there anyway to have it saved in such a way that I could click on a link for a month/year and see that historical list? --Sunalso @ 7/4/17 10:38am | Hi Sunalso, The All Star Reviewers list itself isn't actually saved anywhere. The site just pulls the list of qualifying reviews for the month and displays them accordingly. With the site being almost 11 years old, it would be difficult to display every month of its existence and have links to pull up reviews from the selected month. You can view your review word count in your stats, you can view your reviews by review date, we have a yearly reviewer top 10, and 2 site top lists for reviewers (word count and total reviews). We won't be able to offer historical monthly review breakdowns. --EF admin team @ 7/6/17 11:25pm | I had never messed with the Series options until now, when I made one of my own and I was saddened to see that there was no Banner URL option. If we want to add a banner we have to add it to the summary, but it makes it look a tad messy. Is there a way to add a Banner URL option like we have with individual stories?
Also, when I edit my series I am left with a 'rn' at the beginning of a new separate paragraph. What causes it and is there a way to remove this? --EffulgentEllie @ 7/2/17 6:44pm | Hi EffulgentEllie, Done! You can now add banners to series, just like with stories. As far as the 2nd part of your suggestion, I looked at your series, and it looks like when you copied the summary into the text box, you inadvertently copied some extra code, which was producing the 'rn' that you were seeing. In the future, if you're seeing unexpected things in from something that came from a text box, go into the text box and click the source code button to see what's producing your unexpected material. --EF admin team @ 7/6/17 5:08pm | This is trivial compared to some of the great suggestions that have already been mentioned, but what about Spuffy related emotes? As in replacing the emoticons with Spuffy (or even just BtVS) versions of them. --EffulgentEllie @ 6/19/17 1:27pm | Hi EffulgentEllie, We would love Spuffy/Buffy emoticons for use here. In fact, we've looked for them in the past. The problem is that we haven't found any such emoticons out there that are available for use. There's a message board that has Buffy emoticons, but they're not for use anywhere but on that site, We would be happy to feature themed emoticons if quality open source ones can be found or if one of our members wants to create them. --EF admin team @ 7/5/17 10:50pm | I know that there has been a lot of adding genres and stuff lately but I was wondering if you could possibly add the warning "cheating/indefinitely" or something along those lines to the warnings section? I know it's not a major thing sometimes but for some people that's a story killer. I know it would only be for those stories that are newer or the authors that are willing to go and add it but it's just a suggestion. Thank you. --Rezol87 @ 6/13/17 9:11am | Hi Rezol87, a Cheating/Infidelity warning has been added. The use of the warning, especially in older stories, is at the discretion of the author. --EF admin team @ 7/5/17 10:45pm | Could some new categories be added? I know divergence has been shot down, but I often find myself frustrated because I can't find a category that fits, and categories are required in order to post. One I'd like to suggest is The Summer of Dead Buffy. A lot of fics start around then, and there isn't a specific category for it. Also, something for fics that aren't really AU but end up going down a path that makes categories like Season 6 not really fit despite that being when they would be timeline-wise. -- @ 5/31/17 9:41am | Hi zabjade, we know there's not always a perfect category for new stories, but we try to do the best we can to meet most stories without making things confusing or overwhelming. The issue with categories for the times in between seasons, is that we'd have to do new categories for every time period between every season. After a while, this would really add up, and we feel like it would end up being too much. As for the second request, we feel like adding a 2nd AU category would end up causing confusion. We feel like AU can mean different things to different people depending on their experiences in fandom. Even back when you requested a divergence category, we looked at definitions for what that actually was, and found some definitions (ex: https://fanlore.org/wiki/Canon_Divergence_AU) basically saying that they were also sometimes known as alternate reality fics, and we already offer that as a category. We feel like adding a 2nd AU/AR category would just make authors unsure of which one their story fit into. --EF admin team @ 6/12/17 5:33pm | Would it be possible to have a line, like we have for birthday, available as an option so we can list our state/province and country? --jhiz @ 5/25/17 11:26am | Hi jhiz, We've actually had this suggestion before, and our position remains the same: while some people might like to list their location in their profile, we think that there are probably also a lot of members who would be uncomfortable with sharing that information. Because only some members would choose to use this, we don't think it needs it's own field. If you want to share your location, you can easily just include it in your bio. --EF admin team @ 5/31/17 11:34am | I'm officially asking for new genres to be added without removing or changing any current ones. Possible additions: Erotica, Dark or Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Humor, and (after a lot of thought) Light Drama (where I could stick my stories:-) Thank you! --Sunalso @ 5/10/17 9:50pm | Hi Sunalso,
Done! A number of new genres, including some that you suggested, have been added. --EF admin team @ 5/20/17 8:18am | I know this might be silly, but... When you add a story or author to favorites, it gives you a chance to add notes and confirm you really want to add them. But, removing an author or story from favorites is done with one click. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally removed one of them when all I was trying to do was scroll down the page. Would it be possible to add a "Are you sure you want to do this?" thing to the remove function? Maybe it's just cause I read the site on my iPad, but I seem to run into this problem a couple times a week. --Chrissel @ 5/6/17 3:06am | Hi Chrissel, Done! You'll now be asked if you actually want to delete favorites before they're gone for good. --EF admin team @ 5/24/17 7:47pm | Under "Your Statistics", I'd love to be able to view only one story's chapters at a time under the "view chapters" option - as currently, it gets very bulky to scroll through. Also, being able to sort stories alphabetically or by most recent would be fantastic (also under "Your Statistics"). Thanks so much! --OffYourBird @ 4/29/17 3:33pm | Hi OffYourBird, We aren't going to add the ability to view only one story's chapters at a time under statistics because all of the chapter information is easily viewable on a story's index page already. You can just click on the story title and go to the index page to view one story at a time. However, we did change the statistics to default sort to most recent first, and there's now a link at the top that says, "List Stories Alphabetically" that you can use to change the listing order. --EF admin team @ 5/1/17 2:21pm | I had lots of fun participating in the Artistic Anniversary Challenge and it brought out many other talented artists as well so I was thinking it would be nice to add "Banner" to the "Members of the Month" category. Nominating a banner designed for a story that's posted on EF. Though seeing that we have a lot more writers and reviewers than banner artists, a member not being named "Banner of the Month" more than once wouldn't be feasible here. (and I just realized, I might have answered my own suggestion.) Any thoughts? --javajunkie247 @ 4/28/17 6:23pm | Hi javajunkie247, You're right that there are fantastic artists creating amazing banners here. We do try to recognize them when we can, and we always encourage authors to recognize artists who have made banners for their stories. However, the main focus of Elysian Fields is fanfiction, and we don't think that there is enough new art, or enough active artists to warrant a new section of members of the month. --EF admin team @ 5/1/17 2:11pm | I can understand if this isn't a possibility, but would it be possible to add a section for art? Or a category for art? And one for fan comics? There are a number of folks on here that are great artists but they usually have to post outside of site and link it through the shoutbox for folks to see it. --swifthorse @ 4/4/17 1:28am | Hi swifthorse, We know that we have a number of talented artists here at Elysian Fields. However, we consider ourselves a fanfic archive, and are happy simply hosting stories. We will continue to offer artists a chance to display their wares as story banners, but in order to show other types or art, they'll need to use one of the many other sites designed for that purpose. --EF admin team @ 4/6/17 8:20pm | Would it be possible to prevent the site from sending us to a new page when we add a new bookmark? Maybe, instead, have a popup box that'll confirm that we want to bookmark it. I'm not sure if other people have this problem but if I'm searching someone's favorites and decide to bookmark a piece, unless I open the story in a new tab to bookmark it, I lose my place and have to scroll back down to where I was searching. Thanks for the consideration! :) --swifthorse @ 4/4/17 1:26am | Hi swifthorse, At this point you're going to have to continue using the back button or use a new tab when you bookmark a story. For a bookmark to be saved, the bookmark page has to open. I worry that readers with pop-up blockers or who have javascript turned off won't allow the pop-up to open, and they won't be able to save items in their bookmarks. --EF admin team @ 4/6/17 8:17pm | Hi! I'm wondering if there's the ability to change the login to a secure login. Neither my laptop nor my phone consider the login as safe as they'd like. Maybe some extra password encryption? --swifthorse @ 4/4/17 1:20am | Swifthorse, You're right that some browsers have begun to display warnings on sites that don't encrypt information input by users when it's sent to the server. It's easy to see that we don't offer such encryption since the site begins with http://, not https://. The thing is that we don't require a lot of personal information, and we certainly don't require anything such as a credit card number. The only thing of value we require is a password, and if you're worried about the chance that someone might see it if you log in using an unsecured connection, you should make sure that don't use your EF password on other sites.
To make our site https:// compliant, it would cost us $75/year above what we already pay for hosting and DNS fees. At this point, with us being a small site that doesn't require much personal information, we just can't justify the cost. --EF admin team @ 4/6/17 8:05pm | Hi! Several people have recently deleted reviews by accident when they thought they were deleting their own replies to those reviews so they could fix misspellings, etc. Is there a way to either allow editing a reply, or to make it clearer that the delete button refers to the original review? Thank you for all that you do! --yellowb @ 4/2/17 2:38am | Hi yellowb, I've gone ahead and changed the wording from "Delete" to "Delete This Review" to make it more clear what an author will be deleting. However, I don't think we'll be able to add the option of editing a reply. The way the system is set up, is that the original review and any author response after it, are all saved together in one big block. An edit option would bring up the text of the review, the response, and any additional reviewer/author responses as well. It would even show the text that notes where the author response begins. There's so much room for an author to edit way more than they need to, and I'm afraid of the issues that this could cause. --EF admin team @ 4/4/17 2:38pm | Is it possible to add some of the Season 7-only characters to the Character drop-down menu? Vi, Rona, Amanda, Kennedy and Robin Wood (as well as Nikki Wood, even if she's less popular) aren't available as characters to choose, while many other minor characters from Angel and the comics are included.
Going one step further, if it's not too much trouble, would it be possible to also add Warren, Glory, Hank, Forrest and Graham? They're all recurring/moderately-major characters within their seasons.
I don't know if there's a limit to the number of characters available for inclusion, but if many characters who never show up on the BtVS TV show and are only important in the overaching 'verse are included, I'd definitely like to see people who had important roles on the BtVS show included as options for main characters beyond "Ensemble". Thanks! --DarkVoid116 @ 3/25/17 8:33am | Hi DarkVoid116, Done! A number of new characters, including the ones you requested, have been added. --EF admin team @ 3/31/17 1:59pm | Would it be possible for authors to move reviews from one chapter to another? From time to time, I've gotten reviews meant for a later chapter that ended up as reviews for the first one. -- @ 3/22/17 12:31am | Hi zabjade, Sometimes when readers leave reviews directly from a list of a story's reviews, rather than the chapter text page, the system doesn't know which chapter to assign the review to, so it just sticks it in the first chapter. To add the ability for authors to move reviews around would be a pretty difficult undertaking. In addition, I worry about the greater possibility of user error. I know many authors would be fine with moving things around. However, we already deal with a lot of issues with people accidentally deleting or inadvertently changing something, and adding another option might add to those problems. If it's really an issue, I can remove the option of writing a review directly from the review listings. However, I fear that might cut down on reviews if a reader has to click around to leave one, and I don't think that anybody wants that result. --EF admin team @ 3/31/17 1:56pm | Hi! I love the shout box, but when I log out and head off into dream land, and then come back the next morning and find that there's ten pages of discussion waiting for me to read... Well, it can be really hard to find the last shout I saw before logging off. It's especially annoying when I don't actually have time to search through all the pages. So, is there a way for your account to "remember" the last shout posted before logging off, and will take you back to that last post when you log on again? I completely understand if this is too hard to do, but it would definitely save time. Thanks! --Wonder and Ashes @ 3/12/17 5:10am | Hi Wonder and Ashes, Done! See here for details. --EF admin team @ 3/31/17 1:48pm | I'm not sure if this is possible or easy enough to do, but could there be download links to get an entire series in one go instead of downloading each individual story? Or possibly a way to download all of the current works of an author? -- @ 3/8/17 4:18pm | Hi zabjade, The download options are specifically set up for individual stories. They won't work for series, or multiple stories, and would require a major overhaul to do so. At this time, all we can offer is individual downloads. --EF admin team @ 3/9/17 1:27pm | Just a though/random idea.
Veteran member award. Like if someone stays an active member for example 3 years they can get a little award for their profile page. Maybe that way people who can't get on to often or don't do a bunch of reviews maybe because they are nervous about leaving them can still get a pretty for their page. Maybe they get disqualified if they don't long on for more than a year. Just a random idea. --Rezol87 @ 2/16/17 1:16pm | Hi Rezol87, It's difficult to do time based awards that appear or disappear based on how often members log on. Plus, when we have challenges, it's not terribly difficult to meet the requirements if one really wants an award. At this time, we don't have any plans to add this type of award. --EF admin team @ 2/28/17 7:42pm | The genre box can be a little limiting if your story isn't angsty or fluffy or technically romance, particularly for short-fic. Any chance of adding "vignette" as a genre? --Sigyn @ 1/18/17 10:26pm | Hi Sigyn, Genre isn't required to add a fic, so if a story doesn't fit one of the genres we already have listed, it's not a necessity. Classifying a fic as short can already be accomplished by choosing one-shot, missing scene, or drabble in the category options. --EF admin team @ 1/26/17 4:53pm | Hi! Okay I don't know if this is possible or maybe this is something you don't do without the author authorization, but sometimes some stories are left unfinished here but have more chapters in other pages so I was wondering if you would be able to add a link or maybe add the chapters that are left? I don't mean stories recently created but the ones in which the authors have been inactive like since 2006 and is really improbable they are gonna update them now.
I don't think you have time to look for those chapters but I have some links saved of some stories in case you wanted to do it.
Anyway I think you probably will say no cause I'm talking about stories in which the authors have been inactive in the fandom for a while so they probably can't give permission to do it. But I just wanted to ask in case it was possible. (i didn't know if I had to post this hero or contact you directly, but in the contact us it didn't let me send an email so...)
Thanks for reading and sorry to bother you :) --Ubikoctober @ 11/29/16 12:28pm | Hi Ubikoctober, It's really up to authors to post additional chapters, or a link to another site where additional chapters can be found. We don't add any additional material or links to stories without author permission. --EF admin team @ 12/9/16 1:47pm | I don't know if maybe I'm missing it, but when I do an 'Advanced Search' would it be possible to filter out stories that I've marked read? --Sunalso @ 11/14/16 7:34am | Hi Sunalso, If you're looking to filter out stories marked as read, you'll need to use the regular browse pages. The advanced search doesn't have that capability, and we don't plan on adding it at this time. --EF admin team @ 11/21/16 12:18pm | Hey there. Thanks for working on the site! It's sooo cool! kiss kiss OK, when I go to "Most Favorited Completed Stories" and the like, the list I get gives me 20 or so (I haven't counted) and then stops. Could we have all the stories listed from most down to least? Or, barring that, could we get more like 50? --internetname @ 10/26/16 10:21am | Hi internetname, Done! Previously the top lists all showed the top 30 in each category, but we have bumped the number up to show the top 50 for each. The top lists are only for the, well, tops in each category, so we don't want it to include all stories. However, we have added sort options for all the browse pages so you can now sort stories by the number of favorites and the number of bookshelves that stories have been added to. --EF admin team @ 10/29/16 11:37pm | So, yeah, I know this one is a long shot. But I was taught that it can't hurt to ask, so... Is there a way that we can filter the most recent stories (or all stories, but I personally run into this in recent) to *exclude* what's already on our bookshelf? So I guess the filter would be "stories not on shelf." I'd even be willing to do an extra step to mark a story as "exclude from search results" if that's what is needed. I know a lot of us don't read a story until it's complete, and during months that a lot of new stories are added (and that isn't necessarily just challenge months) I always feel like I'm going to miss some fabulous one shot because I'm scrolling thru a couple dozen multi-chap fics that aren't anywhere near completion... Anyway, thanks for your consideration! --kittyfajitas @ 10/25/16 3:04pm | Hi kittyfajitas, We're not sure why there would need to be a bookshelf filter for this since you can already accomplish what you want with what we already have. If the issue is that you don't want to have to sort through multi-chap fics that are still WIPs, and just want to see completed stories (one-shots or longer ones), all you need to do is choose Completed Only instead of All Stories in the sort dropdowns. --EF admin team @ 10/29/16 11:18am | Would it be possible to add a history of stories one had read or at least opened? This is so readers who read a fic can still look the fic up even if they haven't really marked it as read, favorite, or bookmarked it. I thought of this because a few weeks back, I was reading a fic using someone else's computer and I forgot to bookmark that fic, now I am searching for it but I don't know how to find it because I have a very vague recollection of its major plot. It doesn't have to be much, just add it on the users account page and that's where we can find the stories we had clicked opened. You can even decide to auto clear the history list once a month or so. --DeamonQueen @ 10/12/16 6:14pm | Hi DeamonQueen, you already added this suggestion, and the response is still the same: http://dark-solace.org/elysian/suggestionbox.php#58 --EF admin team @ 10/13/16 8:56am | Is there any chance of a box to tick which tells us where (which country) readers/authors are from when they join or on profile (as part of their profile). I know its a big ask admins, but sometimes it can help when you read something by someone who's first language is not English. Many thanks for considering this and much appreciation for everything you guys do x ---Carrie-Ann- @ 10/11/16 11:02am | Hi -Carrie-Ann-, A very similar suggestion was already added and responded to here: http://dark-solace.org/elysian/suggestionbox.php#47. --EF admin team @ 10/13/16 8:54am | Is it possible to create an event like 'the story of the year', where we can nominate our favorite story? That would be kind of like an award. --annamatte @ 10/4/16 2:41am | Hi annamatte, While we do have featured stories and members of the month, we still view ourselves as an archive, not an awards site. We don't feel comfortable singling out one story and declaring it the best of the year. There are still active award sites in the fandom, and we'll leave this kind of stuff to them. --EF admin team @ 10/13/16 8:52am | Hi! I've noticed that with the skin mobile-night some old stories appear with the chapters in blank.
I don't know if it happens with other skins and I think it's just some stories with different font or size (Maybe the authors put the color of the letters as black and that's why the chapters can't be read?)
Anyway I just wanted to tell you in case you could do something about it. Now I just change the skin but maybe some other reader won't realize and won't read the story because of it.
Thanks :) --Ubikoctober @ 9/30/16 2:50pm | This is more of a technical issue than a suggestion. If you encounter a problem reading a story, please use the contact us link and let us know the title and author of the story in question (a link to the story would be helpful too). --EF admin team @ 9/30/16 9:59pm | Is it possible to put a date beside the chapter showing when it was uploaded or revised in case an author updates more than one chapter at a time so we don't accidentally skip one? --Rezol87 @ 9/11/16 3:53pm | Hi Rezol87, Done! Well, mostly :) . The site didn't start recording chapter upload dates until 2013, so chapters published before that time won't show dates. However, all chapters since that time now show a publication date on the story's table of contents page. --EF admin team @ 9/12/16 11:44am | Add a search function for stories posted or updated within a specified timeframe. Or just add a changeable number of days to the most recent button. --490440 @ 9/5/16 3:48pm | Hi 490440, We already have options to sort stories by the date updated and the date published, as well as the option to look at stories from just certain years. If you want recent stories, but more than the standard 28 day time frame used in the Most Recent page, you can just pull up the Titles page, sort by date published or updated, and scroll through that way to go back how ever many number of days you want. We don't see a need to add anything beyond what we already have. --EF admin team @ 9/11/16 2:29pm | Can there be a way for one to immediately read the latest chapter of a fic without having to open it and scroll down to the last part of the story? I know there's a bookmark option but it takes you to the part where you last read and you still have to go to the next page for that. It'd be more convenient to just press something next to the name of the fic when you see an update and it'll take you to the latest chapter or last chapter of the story, just like on another fiction site... --DeamonQueen @ 9/3/16 3:28pm | Hi DeamonQueen, we don't want to just add a blanket latest chapter link to every story because occasionally authors add multiple chapters of a story at a time or do frequent updates. Just linking to the most recent chapter would cause readers to unknowingly skip over other new chapters that they may have missed. However, we have modified the bookmark feature so that now when there are new chapters past the last one that was read, there will be a link to the first new chapter that's available. Also, if you have a story marked as a favorite, and you have favorite notification emails turned on, as always, there will be a link in the email that leads directly to the newest chapter. --EF admin team @ 9/11/16 2:21pm | I had someone leave me a review in Russian today, but as the site doesn't support the Cyrillic alphabet it became a meaningless string of letters and numbers. (I took Russian in school and can actually read quite a bit so I'm sad I missed this person's review). Would it be difficult/expensive to add Cyrillic as a supported script? And if it's neither of those could it be added? I realize this is a very tiny problem but I still thought I'd ask. Thank you! --Sunalso @ 8/28/16 8:12am | Hi Sunalso, The original software that the site uses was created with iso-8859-1 encoding, which was standard for the time. iso-8859-1 covers most Western characters, but that's about it. The new standard for encoding is utf-8, which covers many more characters. However, it wasn't ever really an issue since the vast majority of our authors and readers come from Western countries. I'll look into what it would take to upgrade to utf-8 when I get a chance. If it's something relatively painless, I'll see what I can do. --EF admin team @ 9/8/16 5:13pm | With all the amazing banners that have recently been submitted for the art challenge, is there any way to use some of them for site skins so that banners that go unused for fic writing don't go to waste? --djellibabe @ 8/17/16 12:17am | Hi djellibabe, At this point we're still talking about options for the banners that go unclaimed from the art challenge. We'll try to get them used, but not as site banners. Since the banners were created to be used with a story, we're going to try and make sure they get used for that purpose. --EF admin team @ 8/19/16 10:39am | Hi, following the conversations in the shout box today, I wondered if there was any way to add another warning to the 'Warnings' when you post a story with Suicide/Attempted Suicide. Much as none of the writers can preempt everything which might upset readers in an NC17 or AO fic, this one has upset a reader and I just thought I would ask, Kind Regards, Cazmo. ---Carrie-Ann- @ 8/16/16 8:55am | Hi Cazmo, Done! An Attempted Suicide/Suicide warning has been added to the warnings options. --EF admin team @ 8/19/16 10:31am | I love the new birthday banner, but I have an add on suggestion so that we don't have to have everyone in the chat box saying happy birthday everyday and filling it up ( I know I type happy birthday a lot ) is there a way we could have a little section where we "sign" a birthday card for them? We just go and type our user name and it sends it to their inbox at the end of the day with all the people who signed it? --Rezol87 @ 8/13/16 2:54am | Hi Rezol87, we have has a number of birthdays lately (since August is the best month for birthdays :) ), so the shoutbox has been filled with greetings, but we honestly don't mind them. We don't have any plans for adding anything else to the site regarding birthdays (including a card option). --EF admin team @ 8/16/16 7:22pm | Can you add another option on the members list so one can separate the ones who are still active to those who haven't logged in for months now? --DeamonQueen @ 8/10/16 2:01am | Hi Deamon Queen, When looking for a beta or a banner artist, we can understand why it is helpful to know that only members who are active are showing so that you don't contact someone who isn't involved in the fandom any longer. However, the beta and banner artist lists already only show members who have logged in to EF in the last 7 months (and you can narrow down the beta list by using the beta search option and choosing to only select betas who have logged in during the last month). Also, if you're interested in a particular story and are curious about whether or not they're still active, you can pull up that author's profile and see when they were last active. However, we don't see why it would be helpful for a member to pull up a list of every member based on how recently they have logged in. Therefore we won't be adding this option. --EF admin team @ 8/13/16 4:51pm | Hi! Could there be a fast and easy way to re-nominate your previous month's AOTM and ROTM? --Mia Vaan @ 8/6/16 8:56pm | Hi Mia, Honestly we think it's pretty quick and easy to retype to previous month's nominees or to open up your list of previous nominations and just cut/paste the old ones into the nomination box if they didn't end up winning. There's not much else we can do to speed up the process. --EF admin team @ 8/8/16 5:21pm | I know I just made a suggestion recently but I thought of adding this one. Is there a way for you to add an already viewed this story suggestion? We have a marked read one. But that is only if you pressed the option and marked it as read. This one is something that happens automatically right after you clicked the story. I've read a lot of fics but sometimes I read them sometimes I don't, this way people can tell if they had seen the fic or not. It doesn't have to be technical like adding some check on the story and such, it can just be a little blot on the side of the title or maybe the color of the title text changes after opening the story or something. Just something to tell readers you have heard the fic and opened it one time ago but haven't read it for some reasons or just haven't read it yet and you forgot to add it in your bookmarked stories or some other reason as such... Just a suggestion. --DeamonQueen @ 7/25/16 12:38pm | Hi DeamonQueen, Sorry, but I have to say no here too. automatically saving every story that every member clicks on would be a huge resource hog. --EF admin team @ 7/30/16 9:27am | I know we have a new section where we can find out a way to greet happy birthday to all our members on their special day. But I was wondering if there'd be a way to find out about the birthdays ahead of time, like-- say a day or two and via email, especially if one has favorited that person, that way not only will they get greeted a happy birthday on their birth day, we can also prepare something like a gift for them, like a short fic, a video, or a photo or something. Just a suggestion, and it can also be optional for a member to choose to let their birthdays be revealed ahead of time. --DeamonQueen @ 7/24/16 2:55am | Hi DeamonQueen, At this point we've done all we're going to do for member birthdays. We don't really think that gifting fic or art for birthdays is a thing that's going to catch on, and even if it did, we don't want people feeling left out if no one does anything for them on their birthdays. --EF admin team @ 7/30/16 9:25am | I would really like to see Divergence as a category. To me, AU seems like it should be for big changes to the entire universe, like Buffy going to a Slayer academy as a child or someone else being the Slayer. Divergence would be nice for things that are basically the same as canon up to a certain point, where one small change from then on makes a significant difference. I think it would be easier to search for and categorize stories for readers who aren't looking for something wildly AU. -- @ 7/22/16 8:38pm | Hi zabjade, we've discussed this and have similar opinions regarding what an AU fic is as you outlined, but we believe any fic divergent from canon is the point of fanfiction. Unless a fic diverges from Canon, it's pretty much just a replica of the show. I agree that AU should be for wildly different universes (for example All Human or Wishverse/ Space/ 100 years into the future) but we don't feel there is a need for a category that would describe every other fic. Not only this, but the effort to go through thousands of existing stories to re-categorise them is something that none of us really have the time to do. It is unlikely that many past authors would come and do it with their fics and so the category would be a very small one, relying predominantly on new fics posted. Hopefully this explains why we've decided that this one isn't something we think is necessary. --EF admin team @ 7/28/16 5:06am | Hi guys, being in a different time zone to many other people who frequent the site (only assuming most are mainly US based) I always wonder whether people are asleep when I post updates or comments in the shout box. I just wondered if it was possible to show site time just so we might have an idea? Kind Regards. ---Carrie-Ann- @ 7/19/16 11:28am | Hi Cazmo, Done! On the main page, under the shoutbox links, you'll now see the current site time. It will show the time when you initially load the page, but will not update itself automatically. --EF admin team @ 7/21/16 12:21am | Can there be a way to follow an author without actually favoriting them yet? I mean, I read stories from different authors but sometimes one stands out but not to the extent that would immediately earn a fav. So I wonder if there was a way that one can follow authors and their stories without favoriting them for the time being. --DeamonQueen @ 7/11/16 7:40am | Hi DeamonQueen, we had a similar suggestion earlier about adding another favorites category, and I'm going to give you the same answer I gave before. Adding more ways to categorize authors/stories will just take up space and make things confusing. The term favorites is just a term. An author/story doesn't have to be an actual favorite for you to add them to that category. --EF admin team @ 7/11/16 9:16pm | I like the option to have your email address on your profile either public or hidden, but I'd quite like a third option: to have it viewable only to members who are logged in. See, I love and trust this community, but I'm not so sure about Google. --EllieRose101 @ 7/9/16 12:31am | Hi EllieRose, the only options for email addresses on profiles is completely hidden from everyone or shown to members only. There is no option for an email address to be shown to the general public (or search bots like Google). Under Edit Preferences, the option states, "Display my email address on my profile to other logged in members: " --EF admin team @ 7/11/16 9:01pm | something that would be helpful to people new to the fanfic/Spuffy way of life would be a little link (probably on the FAQ page) to all the slang that is commonly used with the stories. Like what it means when the is a "!" in the middle of a word 'Vamp!Buffy' or what a challnge is or what some abbreviations mean (like PWP) and so forth. I spent a good 15min trying to explain alot of this stuff to my sister and I'm pretty sure I didn't cover it all on top of the fact Im still running across things that I have to look up lol. It would probably require collaboration on the members parts and continued update because things change so often but it would be super helpful to some people. Thank you. --Rezol87 @ 7/4/16 3:51pm | Hi Rezol87, we got together as admins, and frankly none of us felt like we were experts on the subject of fanfic terms and abbreviations. Kathleen found a number of websites that had detailed information on the subject, so rather than re-inventing the wheel, we now have links to those sites in our FAQ. --EF admin team @ 7/11/16 8:58pm | I don’t know if more people want this, maybe is just me :) But would it be possible to post reviews in a challenge?
Thank you :):):) --Ubikoctober @ 6/18/16 11:47am | Hi Ubikoctober, we're not sure why challenges would need to be reviewed. If you read a challenge, and think it would make a great story, you can second it to show that you're interested in it as well, or you can respond it it with a story of your own. If you don't like the challenge, just ignore it and move on. A while ago we talked about the possibility of allowing other members to add notes or ideas to challenges, but it was voted down because we felt that the added ideas could move the challenge away from the original challenger's intent. We're going to have to pass on adding reviews as well. --EF admin team @ 6/19/16 2:36pm | Not sure if someone suggested this already, but I would love to be notified if someone responds to a challenge I posted! --FoolForSpuffy @ 6/7/16 4:04pm | Hi Sunnydalesis, we actually already have this feature. When an author responds to a challenge, the challenge author is sent an email letting them know about the new story that their challenge inspired. --EF admin team @ 6/17/16 10:08pm | So it's probably my fault for so many challenges saved (what can I say? The members here have great ideas!)
Would it be possible to get a way to search the ones in our saved files like there is in the main list? --Convi @ 6/7/16 12:50pm | Hi Convi, unfortunately this would be something that would require a lot of time, as it would need to be created from scratch, and we don't think that it's something that would be used by a large number of people. We're going to have to say no to this one. --EF admin team @ 6/17/16 10:10pm | When you edit a review and get to the confirmation page, could that page have a link back to the review section? --EllieRose101 @ 6/2/16 6:38am | Hi EllieRose101, now if you edit a review, on the confirmation page you will have a link to go back to the reviews you've written. We aren't able to add a link to the reviews to that specific story. --EF admin team @ 6/17/16 10:29pm | I'd quite like it if there was a field to list our location on our profiles. --EllieRose101 @ 6/2/16 6:35am | Hi EllieRose101, while some people might like to list their location in their profile, we think that there are probably also a lot of members who would be uncomfortable with sharing that information. Because only some members would choose to use this, we don't think it needs it's own field. If you want to share your location, you can easily just include it in your bio. --EF admin team @ 6/17/16 10:13pm | In our Edit Preferences (or Edit Bio/Personal Info) account, can there be an option to post our birth dates?
Thanks! --RESPICE FINEM @ 5/31/16 6:42pm | Hi RESPICE FINEM, Done! Well, sort of. Details here: http://dark-solace.org/elysian/news.php?action=newsstory&nid=98 . --EF admin team @ 6/17/16 10:58pm | Hi, is there any way that the random story selection could only contain completed stories? There is nothing worse then clicking on the random story, reading the summary, seeing it sounds amazing and then realising that it's not finished hadn't been touched for years. --djellibabe @ 5/26/16 9:46am | Hi djellibabe, while we understand the frustration with finding an amazing story, only to discover it's not complete, we don't want to take the spotlight away from stories that are still actively being worked on, or from WIPs that still deserve a read even if they aren't finished. We are going to leave the random story section as it is with WIPs and completed stories included. However, now you'll know right away if a story is finished or not because completed stories will have this check mark: ✓ next to the story rating. Hopefully this will help. --EF admin team @ 5/30/16 9:12pm | I've only been in this site for half a year and even though I know more or less how everything works, the medals symbols etc that are next to the stories still confuse me a little, could you do a guide for them or something similar?
Thanks :) --Ubikoctober @ 5/13/16 5:14pm | Hi Ubikoctober, The FAQ page has loads of information about the site that you may not be aware of. The General Questions section of the FAQ has information about specific site features and the icons you can see around the stories. In addition, if you're on a computer and you hover your mouse over most of the icons around the site, a description appears, which will explain the icon. --EF admin team @ 5/14/16 10:44pm | So our oldest fic on this site is posted on October 26, 2006 (almost 10 years!). Noticing that made me think if it would be possible to add to the Top Lists page of 'most favorite/liked/reviewed stories by year', since we will be coming up on 10 years of accumulated stories.
I also would like to suggest this because there are so many under-appreciated stories in 06-07 because we had so few members working the system of likes/favs/reviews then to bring the stories the recognition they deserve. This way we can highlight popular ones from their own 'era'. --RESPICE FINEM @ 5/11/16 9:20pm | Hi RESPICE FINEM, Done! I wasn't able to add the listings to the Top Lists page, but I added a new browse page where you can choose stories that were published or updated in a certain year (direct link here: http://dark-solace.org/elysian/browse.php?type=years). Once you pull up the year you want, you can use the dropdowns to sort and include/exclude the options you want. --EF admin team @ 5/14/16 10:36pm | If possible, when we get an email about a review response from an author would it be to hard to add what story it is for beside the authors name? --Rezol87 @ 5/4/16 9:27am | Hi Rezol87, Done! Review and review response notification emails now contain the title of the story that they refer to. --EF admin team @ 5/12/16 11:13pm | In the search options (either simple or advanced), is it possible to make it so you can just search through your favorites? I have a lot of favorites. --EllieRose101 @ 4/21/16 5:27pm | Hi EllieRose, back in February, there was a suggestion asking me to add the sort drop-downs to the list of favorites, and I was able to add them. Since then, members have the ability to pull up their favorites list and pick and choose which categories, ratings, word counts, etc... they want to see in the list. I'm not really sure what adding a favorites only search option would add on top of that other than being able to search for a keyword in the title or summary. I don't see searching for keywords in favorites as being something overly useful. When looking through your favorites, just sort through them with the dropdowns on your favorite stories page. --EF admin team @ 4/24/16 10:24pm | I wonder if there was a way to put a different rating for one chapter as to warn everyone beforehand that that chapter will contain smut. I've mostly written PG rated fics but I occasionally throw a bit of smut in one chapter or two to spice the story a bit. But I don't think it would be adviseable to change the entire rating for my fic for one chapter only. Is there a way you can do this? Please? --DeamonQueen @ 4/19/16 11:37pm | Hi DeamonQueen, if one chapter of your story has material rated R/NC-17 or AO, the whole story must be rated that way. If you have a story that is PG, and you decide to add higher rated material later on, you need to change the rating of the story to fit the new material. Readers need to be informed of the content of an entire story, not just a few chapters, so it needs to be consistent. --EF admin team @ 4/20/16 11:31am | I know someone already suggested that we have a featured challenge or challenge of the month and I can completely see how that would be really hard and complicated but would maybe having a "Random" challnge spot like we have a random story sopt be an option? That way that challenges that get skipped over or not seconded a lot can get another look see. --Rezol87 @ 4/17/16 1:26pm | Hi Rezol87, the problem with adding a random challenge section similar to the random story one is that it would be in the sidebar where we don't have a ton of space available. The description would be limited to 75 characters (which is the character limit for the random, featured and most recent sections as well). The issue is that most challenges have pretty significant summaries, and the idea wouldn't come through in just the first 75 characters. Also, this has changed a bit recently, but a majority of the challenges are titled something like "Author's choice of name", so the title wouldn't add much to conveying the idea behind the challenge. --EF admin team @ 4/20/16 11:26am | Hello I was wondering is there a way that notifies us if a story is updated?? Like how fanfiction.net sends an email, do you guys send notifications or alerts when stories are updated? If not can we maybe get something like that? --alaynaryann @ 4/9/16 4:58pm | Hi Alaynaryann. If you go to your account info under the profiles and preferences select edit preferences. Under e-mail settings/alerts you will see that option for alerts for individual stories as well as a digest. Click on the ones ou want and the hit the submit button on the bottom and you will get notified for any of your favorites. Be sure to mark a story as a favorite and you will be notified when the update is published. --EF admin team @ 4/10/16 12:01am | When I read a story that I thought I hadn't before, and I go to 'like' it, it turns out I had read and liked it already. My request is: can there be a link on that warning message page that lets me 'continue to the next chapter anyway' instead of having to go back then forward again? --RESPICE FINEM @ 4/5/16 9:46am | Hi RESPICE FINEM, Done! There will now be a back to story link. --EF admin team @ 4/7/16 4:40pm | This is probably a really simple one, I feel really silly asking, but - can we get a "scroll to top" arrow on the left side of the screen? I'm a right-hander, and if I am doing anything while I read (like eating, or cooking, usually something to do with food) I hold my tablet in my left hand. My teeny tiny hands can't reach all the way over to the other side of of the screen, though. Eh, like I said, silly... --kittyfajitas @ 4/1/16 2:25pm | Hi kittyfajitas, just imagine the anguish of our left handed readers who always have this struggle :) . I didn't put the up arrow on the right side to taunt those who were stuck using their left. I put it there because it lines up so nicely with the down arrow up top, and because it's pretty widely accepted as the customary side for such a thing. I don't think there's really much need for a second set of arrows on the left side. On smaller phones, the arrows would be just about next to each other, and it would look pretty silly, IMO. --EF admin team @ 4/7/16 4:05pm | I love reading what other readers have to say about stories in reading also. I go back and look at reviews left by other readers and what the author has responded almost as much as I go and look for an updat. Sometimes I see someone else's review and go WOW I really agree with that. I know it would be completely unnnessisary but is there a way to add an option where we can "like" or "Ditto" someone else review, just so that the author knows when other readers agree even if they don't leave a review them self. --Rezol87 @ 3/29/16 10:49am | Hi Rezol87, unfortunately I'm going to have to turn this one down. On a personal level, I fear that this would cut down on actual reviews since a reader could just like or ditto someone else's without writing their own. However, the more important reason I'm saying no is the technical aspect. Allowing likes or dittos for each of our 144,018 (as of today) reviews would be an enormous resource hog. Even adding the ability to comment on another member's review would be tricky because it's not really possible the way the software is written. It would require me to reinvent the wheel, and that's not happening any time soon. --EF admin team @ 4/1/16 4:21pm | While I understand the intention of supporting many members -and offering all opportunities to shine- with the "no repeats" rule behind the Members of the Month selection, there is a significant downside: If I get a knocks-my-socks off review, or a series of great reviews from a single member, and nominate that person, that nomination can easily be immediately tossed out, because the member in question has committed the crime of adding enough value to the community to have been previously noticed.
The "no repeats" rule, while obviously well-meaning, can leave a member in the position of being noticed early in his or her tenure on EF, and never again, no matter how much they contribute to the community, over how many years. There's a distinct lack of fairness in that.
What if the "no repeats" rule was only within a year? Or a rolling 12 month period? Most people will not earn recognition every year, but those are consistently giving quality content to the site (be it in reviews or stories) COULD.
The reviewers who knock my socks off deserve recognition, and shouldn't be immediately disqualified from a chance at getting it, just because someone else noticed them two years ago (as an example).
Thank you for listening. --myrabeth @ 3/26/16 6:37pm | Hi myrabeth, thank you for your suggestion. We talked quite a bit about this because a member's contributions to the site don't stop once they've been author or reviewer of the month. However, the reason that we made the rule of votes only counting if the member hadn't won before was because we believed the fairest way to do things was to give more people a chance to win. We can only have 12 winners per category each year, so with repeat winners, that really cuts down on the opportunities for new winners. The fact is that MOTM hasn't even been around for a full two years yet. We looked over the nominations for the last few months, and they are still very strong. There hasn't been a shortage of new talent to nominate. MOTM is meant to be an honor, but it's not the only way to recognize members who you think go above and beyond. Let them know their stories/reviews make your day, post their praises in the shoutbox, etc... At this point, we're leaving the voting system as is. If we feel like enough time has gone by with MOTM to allow repeats, or we see nominations start to slow down, we might reconsider in the future. --EF admin team @ 4/1/16 4:15pm | Currently when I add a story to 'favorites' is then takes me back to my account area instead of the story. So if I'm doing several actions with a story if I forget and don't click 'Add to Favorites' last I have to go and search for the story again. Would it be possible to have the option to return to the story after adding it to favorites instead of just being returned to the 'my account' area? --Sunalso @ 3/24/16 6:00am | Hi sunalso, Done!. Now when you add a favorite story, series or author, you'll have the option of going to your account area, or to go back. The back button will take you to the page you were on before you added the favorite, so you'll still see the add to favorites link even though it's now one of your favorites. --EF admin team @ 3/29/16 10:00pm | I struggle with sorting fics. Stories I've read are easy, so are stories I want to read but after that it gets a bit confusing. Is there any chance of a mega-favourites category? If that's not possible does anyone have any advice on how they sort or categorise? I have added notes in the past but you can only do that if you favourite a story, what about if I stop reading because a tale took a turn I didn't like or I might want to come back to it one day but not now? --djellibabe @ 3/10/16 8:28am | Hi djellibabe, we already have favorites, bookshelf and marking stories as read. Adding more ways to categorize stories will just take up space and make things confusing. If you're looking for ways to keep track of your stories, you can head to the shoutbox or LJ page and ask other members how they do it. Also, remember you can use your own browser bookmarks to save stories, it doesn't need to be just saved within the archive. --EF admin team @ 3/12/16 10:34am | I've been reading through some challenges, and am curious when they were posted. Is it possible to have the date they were posted listed on the challenge? Thanks! --nowinlivingcolor @ 3/6/16 10:03am | Hi nowinlivingcolor, the site does not save the date information for when a challenge was posted. I could add it for future challenges, but for the existing 1,355, there wouldn't be date information. When you sort challenges by most recent, it uses the challenge id number (which is chronological), not the actual date it was submitted. --EF admin team @ 3/6/16 3:20pm | Hi! I have been having problems finding a beta. The ones I asked either were too busy with a fic of their own or didn't even bothered to reply to me. I understand the first group of betas but the second one were just rude. Do you think you can find a way for new writers to identify whether a beta is currently busy with a fic/fics to do any more betas for someone else? And also find a way for us new writers to easily identify betas who either takes too long to reply or would no longer do betas for any authors. My suggestion is that you try adding another info detail in their beta profile stating that they are currently working on this fic/fics and they can't work on any other fics. And maybe a put a symbol that signifies that this beta hasn't logged on in many weeks so don't expect help from them yet.. this wayno new author would have to wait too long for them to reply only to find out that they wouldn't even plan to help in the first place. Anyway That's all for my suggestion thank you for listening. --DeamonQueen @ 3/5/16 8:04am | Hi DeamonQueen, we already have all of these options available. In a beta profile, members have the option to change their status to "Not currently accepting stories." If they choose this option, they will not be shown in the active beta list. Unfortunately we can't force members to select this option when they're busy. It's up to them to keep it up to date. Also, on the active beta reader list, there's a link that says Narrow down the list with a Beta Search. On the beta search page, you're able to use any of the search options, the last of which is to only show betas who have been active in the last month. If you're looking for a beta who has been active in recent weeks, I'd suggest using that option. --EF admin team @ 3/6/16 2:45pm | I know that there are so many challenge and many of them aren't noticed by the authors. So would be possible put a challenge - "challenge of the month" or "featured challenge" - (it would be selected by you like the stories) in the column of the featured stories? It would be a way to point out to the authors some particularly and interesting challenge that otherwise would end up in oblivion. --annamatte @ 3/5/16 5:51am | Hi annamatte, there are definitely some excellent challenges out there that deserve attention. However, we don't have any way of knowing which challenges will spark an author's imagination, and we don't really have time to sort through all the challenges to attempt to locate the diamonds in the rough. Readers are already able to second challenges, and authors are able to see which ones receive the most seconds, so that's a great way to find challenges that are interesting and desired by readers. --EF admin team @ 3/12/16 10:39am | Hello all, me again! Currently when I click on a story it tells me the date I added it to my bookshelf (just under the author blurb in lovely blue italics) is there any way to include a comment telling me that I have reviewed? --djellibabe @ 3/4/16 10:02pm | Hi djellibabe, unfortunately this would be a drain on resources, and would likely slow down loading of the browse pages. The date added to bookshelf/last read information, is stored with the rest of the bookshelf info, so it's all called up in the same query. The review information is handled in a totally different way, so it would have to be called separately. The database would have to sort through 140,300 reviews just to see if you've written a review for that specific chapter. I'm afraid we can't offer this option. --EF admin team @ 3/6/16 2:37pm | Hi Susan (ducks from flying bricks). How hard would it be to put together a feature we could call Fic Orphanage where the writers (and ONLY the writers) of fics that they cannot complete, WIPs that are going to remain that way, and are willing to let someone else "adopt" them to complete them?
Like I said only the writer could submit their story for adoption and a link to the story in its current unfinished form would be listed and like the challenge box other writers could look through and "adopt" and finish a story?
I suppose authors could also offer links to fic that, while finished, were intended to have a sequel but they know they will never get round to it to be adopted.
The story as currently written would not be altered merely continued by someone else. Not talking about rewrites just WIPs and/or promised sequels offered by the authors themselves.
How hard would this be to do and is there interest in doing so?
Kathleen (always causing more work for our beloved Susan) --pfeifferpack @ 2/28/16 5:21am | Hi Kathleen, we actually tried something like this a while back based on a shoutbox conversation (see http://dark-solace.org/elysian/news.php?action=newsstory&nid=74 for details). Some members were for it, but others, like myself, were concerned that it might encourage readers to contact authors of WIPs to ask them to give up their fics, which was something we didn't want. Despite the reservations, we decided to give a fic adoption category a trial to see if any authors would use it. During the trial, not a single story was put up for adoption, so we took it down. I know it's frustrating for readers when a WIP gets abandoned, but I don't think that many authors are actually willing to give up their fics to other authors. --EF admin team @ 2/29/16 9:53am | So I've been reading a few of the stories written as responses to last year's challenge month, and I've noticed that not all of them have been completed, or updated in a while. Some only have one or two chapters. I know that not every writer has a lot of time on their hands (I'm the same), but I remembered that we had about one month to prepare, and I wondered if maybe...we could have maybe two or three months notice for next time (like say, a quick reminder that it's coming up soon) so we can start preparing for it sooner? That way authors can get more planned (and written) so stories aren't left unfinished, and so authors don't feel like they have to rush in order to get something posted. Thanks. --Wonder and Ashes @ 2/28/16 2:49am | Hi W&A, we don't currently have challenges planned out, but we're starting to think about ones for the future. For the previous 2 challenges, we gave about 3 weeks notice, which made for 7 weeks total including the actual challenge month. We discussed adding more time, but the truth is that it's hard to keep up excitement and momentum if it's known about for such a long period of time. There's an initial flurry of excitement with the announcement, and then it dies down until the month actually begins. Having to keep up that excitement for 2-3 months before it even starts would be very difficult. We think people are going to finish, or not finish their stories no matter how much time they have. Also, we do try to plan challenges when there are no other fests or events so that authors have plenty of time to devote to their challenge story. --EF admin team @ 2/29/16 10:04am | I regret the days of AllAboutSpike, not so much for the beautiful stories and fantastic authors--we have a bunch of excellent new ones!--but for the attention to avoiding typos and common mistakes. I get dismayed at the number of cannons, alters, you're for your etc. that are present into otherwise good fics. Spellcheck can help to a certain point, but it doesn't know what the writer is saying. I'm not sure what could be done, maybe praise good grammar with a special ribbon, or constitute a beta force just for checking that kind of problems?
I don't even know if it is felt as a problem by other readers... --relurker @ 2/24/16 12:15am | Firstly, I want to thank you for your suggestion. It has generated some good discussion and a new awareness, I think, of authors and their process. I want to discuss now why taking further measures to ensure perfect fanfiction is not appropriate on this site.
Over 9 years ago, a group of authors got together to start this site. Our urgent need to do this was based wholly on some abusive behaviour an author received on another site. She was rejected several times from the site, told to get a beta, and then one of our own actually betaed and knew what the final product was, the writer was STILL rejected, and the language accompanying that was quite shocking. It became known that many writers were being treated as such, and so that core group of us that started this site left the other one and vowed we would be encouraging of writers to the best of our ability, that we would provide a safe place for writers to spread their wings. However, we did not make the site a free for all. We do have a minimum set of requirements before we pass a fic—if there are numerous spelling errors, grammar that makes no sense, or plots that seemingly make no sense, we send a letter to the writer asking them to get a beta, or making more personal suggestions as to why they need a beta. I know I personally tend to do that.
Sometimes fics start out with very well written first and second chapters, and so understandably are passed, but then the following chapters go right off the rails and we are left with quite a quandary. On the one hand we feel that writer needs to be made aware in the slip in their own standard—and sometimes we see it as serious enough to contact them—and other times we feel that the story has already been passed and rejecting it would be cruel. You need to remember that this archive isn’t a business—this is run by volunteers that love Spuffy and love the community this site has generated, and sometimes being cruel to be kind is just being cruel, and for what purpose? If you simply cannot read a story that isn’t to a publishable standard, then I have to wonder why you read fanfiction? Not all authors are at a publishable standard, and that is totally okay. That is why we offer fanfic instead of trying to make the big bucks!
All About Spike was an INVITATION ONLY archive. I know of brilliant writers in this fandom that submitted to that site and were rejected. The stories that did make it to the site were because the site owner had a particular liking for that story. That is also okay, because she paid for that site and she (or he, I don’t actually know who ran it) made the effort to load those stories and get permissions from the authors. Of course being included was a very great honour and it ensured every work on the site was exceptional, but it is very far removed from what we offer here. The main difference is that you ALL contribute—financially, in the shoutbox, with reviews and with betaing. This is a community and a community is made up of all levels of society—the intellectuals and those that just want something fun to read. We want to cater to all, not just those with English degrees.
All of the Mods here on Elysian Fields struggle with rejecting works, and we all STRONGLY AND CONSISTENTLY recommend everyone uses a beta. Not only is it important for making sure your work is the highest quality it can be—for the enjoyment of your readers but also just the satisfaction that you’ve produced a ripping story for all—but the relationship you can develop with your beta can sometimes be one of the best relationships you will ever make in the fandom. My best friendships in this fandom were with people I betaed or who betaed me. It was exciting to share my work with others before I posted and I looked forward to hearing what they thought and whether I could make things better. But, the bottom line is, even with a beta work can be less than perfect, and as a respectful community, I’d hope we can all offer criticism that is an attempt to help and enthuse a writer rather than bringing them down. We all have choices—if you stumble across a story that you balk at because of spelling errors or grammar, close that window and find another story. It’s really that simple.
This site has been running for over 9 years. We have had our issues but in general, everyone is respectful and helpful. If you DO get a crappy review, perhaps learn to shrug it off or come to one of the Mods to discuss it before you respond. Reading in the shoutbox that a reviewer was told to F&*# off is really not a reasonable response. Taking the time to read something and offer usually valid feedback is worthy of a thoughtful response and not one couched in knee-jerk reaction. It can be hurtful to be criticised, but the majority of those who take the time to offer it just want to help you. However, anyone receiving vile reviews need to bring that to our attention. As I said, this archive is meant to be a safe place. We want writers to feel comfortable here to explore Spuffy and learn something about their own skills.
I’m sorry we cannot offer an archive with 100% perfectly written works. In a perfect world, that would be awesome, but it would also mean that many, many of us would never belong here. Many brilliant stories would never see the light of day. We at EF simply refuse to be that kind of archive. --EF admin team @ 2/27/16 6:32pm | Would it be possible to add the smileys to the shoutbox? It would be an unnecessary, but nice thing. As long as it is not too difficult to accomplish. --annamatte @ 2/15/16 4:57am | Hi annamatte, Done! --EF admin team @ 2/21/16 10:59pm | Would it be possible to add a 30,000 word option to the search? It's a pretty big jump from 10k to 50k. Thank you. --Rezol87 @ 2/14/16 1:26pm | Hi Rezol87, Done! The 30,000 word option has been added to the search page and browse dropdowns. We'll leave it at that though since I don't want to overwhelm people with word count options. --EF admin team @ 2/18/16 8:28pm | Hi, could there be an option on profile pages where people can view challenges in a different order, like how people can view stories either in alphabetical order or most recent? E.g. people can view them in order of Most Wanted or which ones have been responded to (like on the main challenge page). I've got so many challenges that it's hard to keep track of them all, and being able to view them in a different order on my profile page would be a big help. :)
(Also, could there be a Date Published option when viewing people's stories on their profile pages, too?)
Thanks. --Mia Vaan @ 2/12/16 11:44am | Hi Mia, If you want a more sortable way to look at an author's stories while you're on their profile page, click on the text (which is also a link) an the top of the story list that says "Stories by (author name)". That will give you more sort options, as well as all the regular browse page drop-downs. As far as the challenges, I don't think that will receive additional sort options. I don't think there are many other members who need/would use this feature, and I can't justify the amount of time it would take to code. --EF admin team @ 2/12/16 5:50pm | Could there be an option in profile settings to make it so people have to be logged in to read someone's stories? I know there are some authors who have been marking things as NC-17 or AO when they shouldn't be, just so people have to log in to read. It makes it a little irritating if you're trying to find a certain type of story. -- @ 2/8/16 1:01pm | Hi zabjade,To be honest, this is the first we're hearing about authors marking things with higher than needed ratings just to keep them members only. Rating stories can be subjective, so some authors might consider something NC-17, but you don't. At this point, we already get enough grief about locking down NC-17 and AO stories, so we don't see a need for adding additional restrictions. --EF admin team @ 2/12/16 5:36pm | Hi! Could there be a section of the site simply devoted to recommending and finding fics? Like I said with the banners, when people are trying to find a fic they post it in the shout box, but their shout doesn't always get answered. For instance, someone who knows the fic may not see the shout in time. Also, if someone is looking for a type of fic they want to read (like a good claim fic, baby fic, season 2 fic, etc.) then people can recommend good ones for them. I know something like this would probably need a lot of work, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway.
Thanks! :) --Wonder and Ashes @ 2/4/16 8:40am | Hi Wonder and Ashes, we know that sometimes the shoutbox isn't a great place for in-depth conversations or asking about lost stories or fic recs. However, I think the only solution on EF itself for better conversations would be the addition of a message board, and to be honest, none of the mods want one here. They take up resources (human and electronic) and they're spam magnets. We already have a site sponsored chat room, and we are working on opening up our archive LiveJournal community as a place for more in-depth discussions and questions. We'll post more details on that later, but for now, I'm afraid that's all we can offer. --EF admin team @ 2/8/16 11:01pm The LJ community is now open and ready for any fic recs, fic searches or general discussions. It is located here: http://elysian-archive.livejournal.com/ --EF admin team @ 2/15/16 2:40pm | If saving posts as drafts wouldn't work, I'm guessing this might not either, but I thought I'd ask, just in case.
Would it be possible to schedule posts?
If, say, chapter updates are ready, but the author doesn't want them going out too soon (doesn't want them all going out at once, and/or wants to leave people enough time to keep up), and they're going on holiday or something? --EllieRose101 @ 2/1/16 9:34am | Hi EllieRose, Unfortunately I'm going to have to say no to this one too. The amount of work it would take to create timed chapter releases just doesn't seem justified. To me, it's simple to just post a chapter when you're ready for it to go out to the public. Also, if you're on holiday, just go enjoy yourself. Your readers can wait for updates until you get back :) . --EF admin team @ 2/4/16 10:00am | When I'm responding to reviews I usually start by clicking Account Info, then recent reviews, then the column under "unresponded ." After I write a reply the option given is "return to reviews" which takes me back to the page that has every review for the story ever. If you have a lot and are not going chronologically it's a pain because then you have to start the process all over again. Is there anyway to after replying to a review that there could be a choice between returning to reviews and returning to unresponded? --Sunalso @ 2/1/16 5:06am | Hi Sunalso, Done! I love easy suggestions :) . Now when you respond to a review, you can choose to go back to the unresponded reviews for that particular story, or to the entire list of your unresponded reviews. --EF admin team @ 2/1/16 1:30pm | I have a very long list of favorites, and it can be difficult to find which story I am looking for on my list. Is it possible to have a search function for favorites the way we do our bookshelves? Thanks so much! --nowinlivingcolor @ 1/29/16 7:35am | Hi nowinlivingcolor, The way favorites and bookshelves are handled is actually pretty different, which is why the bookshelf has the drop-down options where you can narrow down the list. I'll see If I can covert the favorite story list to the way that the bookshelf is displayed. I can't promise anything, but I'll see what I can do. --EF admin team @ 2/1/16 1:27pm ETA: Done! Now, when you go into account info then favorite stories, the list will have the same customizable drop-downs that the bookshelf and other browse pages have. --EF admin team @ 2/2/16 11:16pm | Searching through challenges can be very confusing, and I have often wondered if it would be possible to add a simple search, like the search box which will look in "summary" for something like a keyword. Looking for a challenge that references "souls" or "buffybot" or something, as opposed to simply character, season, or category, particularly as many challengers don't mention or list which season, or which characters, etc. would be in their challenge. Thank you! --Sigyn @ 1/28/16 6:24pm | Hi Sigyn, We don't have a specific search function just for challenges, but if you use the regular site search, either advanced or simple (title or summary), it searches series and challenges, as well as stories. For example, I typed buffybot into the simple summary search, and the results pulled up 7 challenges:
click this link to see how the results appear. All I would need to do is click on where it says 7 challenges, and I would see the 7 challenges that have buffybot in the summary. --EF admin team @ 1/29/16 5:27pm | Hi, was wondering if it's possible to be able to sort stories by publish date instead of update date? When I sort by 'most recent' it comes up with recently updated stuff mixed in, but there's no option to sort by most recently published. Is that something that's doable? --AgentKalGibbs @ 1/27/16 1:19pm | Hi alive_or_dead, Done! The most recent sort option is now known as Date Updated. You can now also sort by Date Published and by Author. --EF admin team @ 1/29/16 5:16pm | Hi! Just wondering, could it be possible for authors to advertise on their profiles (maybe similar to the beta profiles) their willingness to make banners for people? I noticed that people always ask for banners in the shout box, and their requests don't always get noticed. Things might be easier for them if there was a way to search for an author who could make one for them, similar in how they would search for a beta reader. Thanks. X --Wonder and Ashes @ 1/25/16 12:11pm | Hi Wonder and Ashes, this is a great suggestion. It would be nice to have a spot for our artists to advertise their services to authors. I will add this to my to-do list and will see what I can do. Thanks! --EF admin team @ 1/26/16 11:16am ETA: Done! --EF admin team @ 2/6/16 10:02am | Hiya, I'm not an author so I'm not sure what the set up is when an writer is uploading to this site but there is obviously some sort of pro forma that they fill in stating series, category, characters etc. Is there any way to add a 'previously' prompt or a 'what happened last chapter' ? It would be great to not have to re-read a whole story or series just because I'm old and can't remember what happened in the last update! Cheers, djellibabe x --djellibabe @ 1/25/16 10:50am | Hi djellibabe, I agree that it can be hard to remember what happened previously in a story or series, especially if it's been a long time since the last update. However, adding a "previously on..." synopsis is really up to the author and not something we require. There's already a spot for chapter notes, and that's a perfect spot for authors to remind readers of what happened in the last chapter if they choose to add it. Thanks for your suggestion! --EF admin team @ 1/26/16 11:14am | I've noticed when I run a search for two or more Categories in Advanced Search, the results show me all stories for all the categories I chose, so it seems like by selecting >1 category the query is using an "or" operator for the results. Usually if I'm looking for a fic I don't know the name/author of, I at least know if it's, like, a Ssn 4/Claim fic. Or a Ssn 6/Baby Fic. So by getting results for all of the SSN and all claim fics I'm actually increasing the # of search results rather than narrowing them down. Is there is a way to add an option for an "and" operator, so it will narrow down the search results? Thanks! --kittyfajitas @ 1/25/16 7:49am | Hi Kitty, thanks for your suggestion. This sounds doable. I will see what I can do and will report back when I've made progress. --EF admin team @ 1/26/16 11:09am ETA: Done! --EF admin team @ 1/29/16 5:14pm | The site has search options by most favorite, most recent, most hits, etc. Can there be a search option for most 'likes'? Oftentimes a story ends up with a different amount of likes than reviews. Thanks! --RESPICE FINEM @ 1/24/16 5:46pm | Hi RESPICE FINEM, Done! In the browse and search pages, you can now choose to sort by like count. --EF admin team @ 1/25/16 12:15pm | Hi! It would be great if you could add the comics characters, or at least the most important ones, to the add new story page. Thank you! --Bjarka99 @ 1/24/16 3:24pm | Hi Bjarka99, this is a great suggestion since we want our comic-based writers to be able to fully classify their stories. While EF admin team, Kathleen and I have a basic knowledge of the comics, I don't think we have a good enough understanding of them to know the comic based characters. If you could send me a PM with the names of the comic based characters important enough to be listed, we'll get them added. --EF admin team @ 1/25/16 10:12am ETA: Done! --EF admin team @ 1/26/16 10:20am | Is it possible to make a way when we go to our profile and our reviews for us to sort the reviews we have given to others stories by most recent date? Thank you. --Rezol87 @ 1/24/16 9:37am | Hi Rezol87, I have actually had a request for this option before (via email, not in the suggestion box), so it's clear you're not the only one who'd like this option. The main review layout is currently sorted by story and ordered by story publication date, which will remain the default because I think that way it's easy to see all your reviews for a single story. However, I will try to add a toggle option where you can change the sort to simply review date regardless of what story it's for or the story's publication date. Give me a bit to work on it, and I'll report back when I've made progress. --EF admin team @ 1/25/16 10:07am ETA: Done! Now when you look at reviews on a profile (your own, or someone else) or from the link in your account information page, there's a link to change the sort order. The default is by the story based pub date, but you can choose to change to review date. --EF admin team @ 1/26/16 10:49am | Is it at all possible to temporarily save chapters/stories as drafts to the site? --EllieRose101 @ 1/23/16 5:20pm | Hi EllieRose, at this point, I don't think we're able to add the ability to save as a draft. With just under 4,000 stories (yay!), we already have a large number of files to store, and I worry that adding drafts as well would start to tax our resources. With so many free, online options to store and save your work (Google Docs, Word Online, etc...), I don't think this is really all that necessary anyway. If we ever upgraded to our own server, this might be a possibility, but for the time being, we'll have to stay the place your stories go when they're ready to publish. --EF admin team @ 1/24/16 9:01am | Would love if you could add a readspeaker to the site. Then I could listen to the fics being read to me during my stupidly long daily commute. :) --Teep_P12 @ 1/23/16 11:21am | Hi Teep_P12, thanks for being our first suggestion! There are a number of text to speech add-ons that we can add to the site, but they would all be third party software, and they don't come for free. In fact, some of the better ones cost quite a bit, and at this point, we can't justify the cost (and, frankly, don't have the money anyway) to pay for it. However, that doesn't mean you can't have your wish come true and have stories read to you. Since you mentioned that you want this feature for your long commute, I'm assuming that you're wanting this to work on your mobile device, which probably already has this capability. Once you turn on your phone's text to speech option, just open the chapter or the entire story view, and your phone will read it to you. If you have an Android based phone, you can learn how to use the feature here, and you can go here to see how it's enabled on an iPhone/iPad. --EF admin team @ 1/24/16 8:49am |
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