11/05/07 - 08:35AM

Updates (Version 1)

• Rotated featured story list. See the list of featured stories (past and present) right here. Congratulations to all who have been picked!
• Weekly rotated polls. See the list of past and present polls here. Obviously, some weren't exactly weekly, but they will be now. Expect a new poll every Sunday!
• We're accepting a few new authors! This will last until December 1st, so anyone who submits a story until then will be accepted. Remember, we do accept original fiction too! This will happen every few months, so be on the lookout for it!
• We've had some spam users registering. Just ignore them, and we'll keep trying our best to delete them on a timely-basis. AlbusLives has been great with that, so hurray for Rach! Their messages are really funny though. (We don't even have a guest book!) I think eventually we'll have to make a page of all the funny ones. Yes/no?
• Who's participating in NaNoWriMo (nanowrimo.org)? If you tell us (either in the comments or by email), we'll mention you on the news page... and later on, if you complete it, we'll congratulate you! (And if you want, if you give us your profile, we'll add you on the NaNoWriMo site. Or I will, at least.)
• Our last news post was before Deathly Hallows. Tell us what you thought of it in the comments! (Late joy or ranting, we want to know!) And how about the movie?

06/20/07 - 10:12AM

Changes

We've decided to make this site invitation-only. We've been contemplating this for a while; it's not a spur of the moment thing. Some of the reasons are:

- Lack of motivation.
- Lack of time.
- Lack of interest.
- Lack of work to do/motivated people to work.

Making it invitation-only allows us to keep our work up and allows other to read and review it, while not actually having to do much ourselves. Seeing how a lot of people suddenly turned busy, this is a good decision. Anyway, we'll be deleting the promotions at LJ, seeing how we won't be accepting new stories, along with removing those who we don't know personally. This makes it easier for everyone.

So, this is just a head's up. Chances are that we won't be inviting a lot of people, probably only those we actively read fanfiction of. We apologize if this limits your postings. But hey, it's only a bit over a month until Deathly Hallows--we hope you have a blast reading it! You're still free to make accounts to review, by the way, since anonymous reviews are turned off.

(This has been sent out to all users via email to try to make sure we do this with as much notification as possible to our users.)

Challenges will no longer take place and will now be given at the 'Challenges' link, unofficially. Also, the site will be turning half original work and half HP fanfiction. A lot of the staff aren't as interested in HP fanfiction as they used to be and have since switched to writing original, so we look forward to reading more of it.

I think that's it. Have fun, and we're sorry if this change affects you negatively. (Also, sorry for waiting so long to post this.)

- Mugwumps Brit and Luna

PS: If you're unsure whether your stories will be deleted, feel free to ask us. Basically, if we beta for you, have beta'ed for you, are good friends with you, or you've been on staff, your work will be safe. This will happen within the next few days, so yeah.

05/13/07 - 04:28PM

Catching Up

Sorry for not making the posts, everyone! We've all been a tad busy, so let me recap.

- Happy Belated Birthday, GryffinGal (Bec)! (It was May 11th.) Hope it was a great one!

- The winners of the second challenge are as follows:

First Place: (TIE!) Unnoticed by midnightdreams_x AND Wrong Colors by GryffinGal
Second Place: Deliberated Silence by unkickableluna

Congratulations to all of you!

- We have a new staff member! Everyone please welcome Dev, who will be coding for us. He'll be coming up with new features and helping with tech support, so we're very happy to have him!

- The deadline for the first original fiction challenge is tonight at 11:59 PM Eastern. At the moment we have no entries (though I'll be finishing mine up and hopefully getting some others to participate too), but you all have time to enter!

- The winners to the first original fiction challenge will be posted on Tuesday, May 15th (if everything goes to schedule).

05/03/07 - 07:21PM

Original Fiction Challenge 1

The next challenge starts today, and it's an Original Fiction Challenge, meaning that the submissions can be of any length and must not revolve around the HP fandom. The deadline is in a week and a half, on Sunday, May 13, 2007, at 11:59 PM (Eastern). You may submit up to two entries. The theme and prompts are as follows:

Dreamscape:
1: an invisible expiration
2: forever falling flowers
3: an illusion of faith
4: point of no return
5: an unconscious decision
6: the ultimate riddle
7: spiraling chaos
8: disturbed tranquility
9: all in my mind
10: frozen in time

All stories submitted must meet the Submission Guidelines and the Challenge Guidelines. Details for how the judging works are given on the Challenge Guidelines page. Also, details for how challenges work are given on both the last challenge post and the Challenge Guidelines page.

All entries must be submitted under the category of "Duels > Original Fiction Challenges > Challenge 1." The winners will be announced sometime during the day on Tuesday, May 15th. Check the Calendar for more details! Good luck to all of you!

I would also like to remind everyone of the challenge already currently going on and request that you all try and enter. I'd hate to have to cancel two challenges in a row.

-Brit, because Luna is lost somewhere doing goodness knows what.

Edit: Hey, I resent that! I was in PA... and then NJ... and then PA... and then NJ... and then back to my sweet, beloved NY! Definitely not lost. But no comment on what I was doing. *grins*
--Luna

04/29/07 - 07:38AM

Challenge 2: Regular

All stories submitted must meet the Submission Guidelines and the Challenge Guidelines. Details for how the judging works are given on the Challenge Guidelines page. Also, details for how challenges work are given on both the last challenge post and the Challenge Guidelines page.

All entries must be submitted under the category of "Duels > Regular Challenges > Challenge 2." The winners will be announced sometime during the day on Saturday, May 12th. The next challenge will be announced on Sunday, May 13th, and the original fiction challenges start on May 3rd. Be on the lookout for those, and check the Calendar for more details! Good luck to all of you!

-- Mugwump Luna, because Mugwump Brit is doing something else.

Edit: This challenge is officially CLOSED. Be on the lookout for the winners, and good luck to everyone who entered!

-Brit