*** Lookit! An Update Thingy! ***

Welcome to the Spring FanFic Forum Update, brought to you by Lieutenant Tawny Madison.


<img src="http://www.aboutfilm.com/movies/g/galaxyquest3.jpg">

?All systems are working, Commander.?

MOD STUFF

Momma Vader is pretending to be busy getting ready to move, but was recently seen shopping for ?Fangirl in Training? onesies. Congrats!

Jade will be taking final exams April 28 - May 13, so just ignore the crazy lady that week and smile politely when she shuffles by drooling and mumbling incoherently.

oqidaun had to step down due to DRL and now we?re stuck with some new guy and his rather unhealthy butter fixation. (Blunt trauma still available by request.)

corellian_ale was also smitten by DRL and so you?re stuck with some new chick and her definitely unhealthy obsession with a certain green-eyed blond and his pants. (I know, I know. Not a fair trade-off at all.)


We blame Leona.

?Look! I have ONE job on this lousy ship. It's stupid, but I'm going to DO it. OKAY??

RULES AND SUCH

1) Reminder about Spoilers

We follow the same Spoiler Policy as the Literature Forum, which is that spoilers must be HTR (highlight to read) for:

? One month (30 days) after a novel release

? One week after a comic book release

This will be added to the FAQ shortly.


2) As a matter of etiquette, please remember to not hijack story threads by posting about or links to your own stories.

3) Thread managers, we delegate responsibility to you. If you are a thread manager and are faced with users pimping stories, disputes between users, or pages of off-track socialization, you're allowed some discretion in getting things back on track. If things are really out of hand, or you're at a loss as to what to do, contact the mods.

This, of course, does not mean that you should simply start yelling at people in your thread. That's not cool. What it does mean is that the authority you wield when leading discussions or running challenges is the same authority you can use to get your thread back on the rails.

4) We?ve had a couple of requests from thread managers who would like to give colors to their challenge hosts and winners. We have decided that, in order to ensure that colors are special and to be fair to all of our many (many!) challenge threads, colors will generally only be given to winners of the Trivia contest and Mod-sponsored challenges. Along those lines, we are discussing the possibility of more frequent Mod-sponsored challenges.

?Well, Alex, at least you had a PART. Okay? You had a character people loved! I mean, my TV Guide interview was six paragraphs about my boobs and how they fit into my suit. No one even bothered to ask me what I DO on the show.?

AROUND THE FORUM

1) New Fan Fic Index! Bask in its glory and thank NYCitygurl for volunteering her sanity to organize it.

2) Official Fan Fic FAQ! Bask in its glory and read them rules, forwards and backwards. We're still working on updating the ratings for the novels, but everything else is peachy keen.

3) April Fool?s Day shenanigans were declared a success and we want to thank everyone who participated and made it a memorable (and hilarious!!) day in Forum history.

(For anyone looking for the thread about a certain perfectly pumped posterior, it has been moved to EU Community and the assless chaps icon has been uploaded. We blame Bri_Windstar. )

4) Congratulations to the winners of this year?s Dare Challenge!

5) Talk about

 

Thanks for the update! A lot of information in an easy to read package.

 

It's been so long since we've had one of these, it was nice to see it again, though almost missed it with the stickies!


Very informative update too. An addition, the next PT Rewrite Contest will be starting this week!


Galaxy Quest is such a great movie

 

I nearly missed it in the stickies as well.

Great job, Trace!

 

So Bri is responsible for the lovely new icon...you are the best.

Also, nice update.

 

Everything is Herman's fault

Nice to see the updates again! I missed them.

 

I do what I can for the community.

And I'm so glad to see these back!

 

QFT.

You're too selfless for your own good, Bri-chan.

I'm glad to see updates back, too.

 

Which leads me to a question I've always wondered about: Why is it that the winners of the Fanfic awards never get colors? Surely those that win the awards are worthy of at least a months worth of colors!

 

Great update, Trace!

 

Well, for one, I don't know of anything on the boards short of being a moderator that gets anyone a full month of colors. But as for giving colors for a more reasonable time to the winners, last I checked there are 27 categories in 3 eras.

That is 81 winners.

Granted some of them will be repeats but there will also be ties. The forum would be lit up like a particularly gaudy Christmas tree, and since the winners would have them all at once they wouldn't look all that special. The pride of knowing that you won the vote has always been enough. And speaking more personally, I hate to give the whole affair more weight than it already has. If anything, I wish they were more casual.

 

Also, the way I see it the mod-sponsored challenges offer more of a common prompt to work with, along with other factors that put everyone on more of an equal level with each other when vying for colors - word limit, time limit, etc.


Edited for comma abuse.

 

It's about time!

And are we ever going to do another Writer's Race? I met my current roommate because of that and it was a lot of fun.

 

Please no!

The awards are already way too stressful and insane anyway with people treating it like it's an Oscar ceremony. Adding colors on top of that would just be an absolute nightmare, though seeing the crazy colors for awhile would be kinda funny but let's not add another layer of competition to an already competitive contest. I'm with Face in that I think the awards need to be relaxed not more charged with tension.

 

Yeah, though having Best Author and Best New Author get a week of VIPship would be fun.

 

Ooh exciting, an update!

And what a wonderful and imformative one too. Love the Galaxy Quest theme.

 

Whoa. Talon Intelligence Squadron got a nod on the update. Thanks a bundle.

Pssst! Everyone's invited to join the fun, BTW.

 

The fan fic/RP crossover thingy sounds cool!

(And thanks for the shout-out.)



Oh, and the Archive got hacked for about 12 hours. That was news.

 

Leona, Leona, Leona, I think you need to see Galaxy Quest a few more times. Just for the laughs.

I love that movie (my favorite non-SW movie) and the lines Trace quoted were wonderful. Great job.


Just once, maybe for April Fool's day, everyone in Fanfic could choose colors? We'd be sooo bright and cheery.

 

I personally don't find colors for the awards necessary. It's already recognition from your peers for a spectacular job well done on a fic, a character, a plot, etc. At a certain point, things become excessive. The colors and the recognition lose value.

 

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

I've added it under Community Events.



I'll try to post updates more than quarterly and, in the meantime, feel free to PM me about anything you think could be added to a future FFU.

 

Thank you!

I really do enjoy these updates, they are so very useful, it's nice to see them again

 

Woot for information blasting! Thanks so much Trace!!!!! Now I know where to waste my time....

 

Trace, you're fun and full of info. Do miss your talents in the ... L/M direction though. Hugs!!!!!