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yeah, I'd post here, as long as it is restricted to Gatch/BotP ect and crossovers featuring the same. I would be interested to know what restrictions, if any, you propose to add, will smut be allowed, and if so, would minors be prevented from accessing it? Ditto yaoi etc. As for potential names, could I suggest we keep it simple and to the point? Along the lines of "Gatchaman fiction site" or similar. Thanks for proposing the idea, MsAnn, I'm sure a lot of fans will appreciate it.

That's a nice idea...it would be so sad if something happened to all of those glorious fics over at Gatchfanfic. So no fan art...but it would allow pictures to be placed into fics, correct? I have tons of fics with pics embedded, so that would be nice... It might take me a while to migrate things over there...but I'd use it for sure!

Like Springie, it would take some time for me to get things transferred over (not to mention how it`s going to take for me to get anywhere near the writing level I was at before charcot...) Anyway, I think it`s a good idea, especially since we all seem to have a need to occasionally post stonger fanfic than most other sites allow. Hats off to you, msann, for your willingness to take this on!

I was poking around other sites that use this same program and I started making out a list of things I want or want to look into doing, if I do this. One of them is to have something in the author profiles where people could add their social media accounts, Deviant Art accounts or even the other places they post stories, like FF.net. KT: Smut would be allowed, but it would have to be rated Mature or Adult. I would want to try and set things up like Gatchfanfic where you have to be a registered user in order to read those stories. Springie: I'm not going to rule out ever adding fan art to it. If there is enough interest in a fan art gallery, I'd consider it. I definitely want to make it so people can embed pictures. EW: My thing in all of this is the sense of community, even though there isn't much of a community at the site itself (because we're over here), we're still a community and that is something I would miss. It's going to take me awhile to migrate things over, too. Thanks for the feedback!

I would certainly be interested in having another, reliable site! I know Julieann is having personal issues,but this has been going on for years. It would appear that the site is not getting better. As EW said, it would take some time to migrate fics, but it is better to do this when the gatchfanfic site is still readable.

Would you be able to maintain the site over time? Or do you see this as a stopgap measure for the moment?

Efiction is easy to navigate as a user and an admin. It is fairly easy to upgrade if upgraded regularly. The issues crop up when efiction sites, like GFF are modified and not compatible with efiction updates, there I are too many updates skipped to make them possible, or the story load is too high to make updates/transfers realistic (Ashwinder/Sycophant Hex in the HP fandom had this issue). The biggest issue to consider is moderation/administration. Will each and every story go up when posted? Will authors need to be validated, with unknown authors needing story approval before posting? If stories need to be approved, how many admin/mods do you want to ensure stories get put up in a timely manner. As a former admin for SH, I recommend validating known authors, but making unknown authors wait for approval until it is known that they aren't a bot, a troll, or just untrustworthy. What type of standards do you want? GFF was fairly loose with mods just making sure you didn't post anything offensive or illegal. SH was more restrictive with Both grammar and story standards, it wanted a place for a higher level of fanfic than the dribble that is often found and hides the good works at ff.net or AFF. Archive of Our Own is another possibility for posting, but IMHO, it is harder to read, harder to find the story you want, and it has the same Crowds issue as ff.net or AFF, Crowds stories are mixed in with all the Gatch/BotP. As both a reader and a writer, I prefer efiction based archives.

Originally, I thought about doing this as a temporary thing, but now, I'm thinking it would be permanent. I don't think the issues at GFF are going to get any better. As far as moderation goes, I'm still mulling this over. I don't want to be heavy-handed, but on the other hand, I don't want people posting crap or spam. The trusted author thing is a good idea. People who have already posted a lot at GFF would not have to go through a trusted author thing because I already "trust" you. I know there is a lot to think about with this and I have been thinking about it. As soon as I get the domain name and get it pointed to the right place, I'm going to start setting things up.

I have a domain and a site. Since this is a small group, I'm going to post the URL so if anyone wants to, they can create an account and upload stories. http://crescentcorallibrary.com/ If you run into problems, please let me know. I'm still trying to figure out how this program works from the admin perspective and your help is appreciated!

I really appreciate you doing this, msann!

Aw, thanks EW.

Woohoo.

Looks great! Hopefully I'll have some time to check it out on the weekend.

Just uploaded 'Love on the God Phoenix' to the site, and wanted to let everyone know the files have to be txt format still, also Copy and pasting into the textfield didn't work. Nevertheless, I was able to edit and format the text once it was uploaded. These are just minor niggles really, of course I'm still waiting for validation, since I'm a new member but that doesn't worry me.

KT: Do you have the TinyMCE checked? If you do, you should get all the formatting buttons and the paste from Word and Paste text clipboards. You're validated and I approved the story. It posted and everything looks good.

Thanks, I will add more stories in due course

I tried but it says the site is undergoing maintenance?

Keep trying, it is up and running, honest.

Originally posted by E.D. Darling I tried but it says the site is undergoing maintenance?

I turned it off. Maybe its a browser issue? Try emptying your cache.

I will take a look this weekend and try to post a fic as well. maybe one of the small ones to get started. Thanks for taking this on, msann!

I'll try again! Thank you for setting this up!

Ok, I got it worked out, "user error!" Thanks for doing this MsAnn!

Have registered, but won't be uploading fics for a few days. Have other fics that are a bit more important right now. A couple things I have noticed that would be nice to work on as you have time: 1. Most recent fics on the Homepage. If you want people to read the notices, it is really important, other wise they will bookmark the story list and never go to the home page. 2. (of much less importance) an icon for bookmarks so that people can see the image instead of just a square or blank space. I know when I look at my bookmarks, I scan for the images and then words. It will make finding the bookmarks easier for users, plus it looks cool and more professional. I'm sure I'll have more suggestions for you, but not until I finish with the exchange.

Originally posted by amethyst Have registered, but won't be uploading fics for a few days. Have other fics that are a bit more important right now. A couple things I have noticed that would be nice to work on as you have time: 1. Most recent fics on the Homepage. If you want people to read the notices, it is really important, other wise they will bookmark the story list and never go to the home page. 2. (of much less importance) an icon for bookmarks so that people can see the image instead of just a square or blank space. I know when I look at my bookmarks, I scan for the images and then words. It will make finding the bookmarks easier for users, plus it looks cool and more professional. I'm sure I'll have more suggestions for you, but not until I finish with the exchange.

Most Recent is sort of a design issue depending on the skin. Some of the skins put Most Recent on the home page and some of them don't. Design is a big thing on my list because I've noticed that the skins and designs that came with the software were created before people had smart phones and tablets. My web design skills are extremely rusty. I want to relearn and refresh myself on CSS and I want to learn HTML 5. I have one skin I'm modifying where the links don't work on the main page. Ultimately, I want to just make my own skin from scratch, but that's going to be a huge undertaking. I will create a "series" for the Gift Exchange fics, but I won't do it until after the gifts are revealed and it's okay for people to reveal themselves.

Awesome! After the holidays, I'll contact my friend, Metamuse, who created Ashwinder and a Sycophant Hex. She created most of the skins for those archives, so she might be able to give a few pointers for working with it. However, she just got married, so I don't want to bother her with this right now.

Originally posted by amethyst Awesome! After the holidays, I'll contact my friend, Metamuse, who created Ashwinder and a Sycophant Hex. She created most of the skins for those archives, so she might be able to give a few pointers for working with it. However, she just got married, so I don't want to bother her with this right now.

Thanks! I know it's kind of a busy time right now in general so I can wait.

FYI: Links aren't showing up. This is an issue with the TinyMCE editor, which I'm working on. If you post something with embedded pictures or hyperlinks, just be aware that the tags might be stripped. I still very much want to make it so people can embed pictures or link to other things. In the meantime, I've been posting the links as text, so at least someone could copy and paste it if they wanted to see what I linked to. The version efiction uses is older than the current version. Ultimately, I would like to update the TinyMCE editor to the current version because it has a lot more features than the one in the program.

Some of us use the chat room function of Gatchfanfic quite a bit. That's definitely a feature that would be nice to have working on your site in case Gatchfanfic goes down.

Originally posted by ChrisW Some of us use the chat room function of Gatchfanfic quite a bit. That's definitely a feature that would be nice to have working on your site in case Gatchfanfic goes down.

That's something I will keep in mind. I'll look around at chat programs to see what's out there (and what's actually maintained).

I have some not-so-good news and some sort of good news on the site. First, the not-so-good news: The TinyMCE editor (where you post the text of your story) is broken. I cannot configure it because for some weird reason, the configuration page does not exist. What this means is that until I get an answer on how to fix this, nobody can post links or use HTML (to embed images) because this non-existent configuration page is where I would change the settings. Right now, the program is stripping away any HTML tags I would add. I'm not familiar enough with PHP to go in and try to fix it that way, plus I'm afraid that if I try it that way, I will break something. I know that embedding images and adding links is something important to you and it's important to me, too. But if it won't work in this program, then I have to find something that will work. I have posted this in the efiction forum asking for help, but it seems that the response time is slow on getting answers, if they answer your post at all. The better news: I have a back-up solution, but it won't be ready until January. I'm more familiar with Wordpress and they do have a plug-in that takes a Word Press powered blog/website and turns it into a fan fiction archive. However, the current plug-in is broken and the developers are in the process of writing a new and better one, but it won't be done until sometime in January. The other advantages to using WP is that the program is always updated and it's easier for me to add functionality to the site. Chris mentioned a chat room. It would be easier for me to add chat with a WP plug-in than try to create a page or create a hosted room somewhere else and then try to bridge it to efiction. So, there will be a new fiction site, but it may be a bit longer before its up and running. So, if you have stuff at the other site, you might want to start backing it up now, just in case GFF goes down before CCL is ready.

Remember that with the holidays approaching the help forum might be slower than usual.

Originally posted by ChrisW Remember that with the holidays approaching the help forum might be slower than usual.

True, but just looking at the forum in general, it's not that busy (like one post every few weeks) and some posts asking for troubleshooting help never received replies.

After my family is gone I might be able to ask my hubby to help you. He's a coder. Now's not a good time though since he's been sucked into preparing the house for the incoming neat freaks.

The earliest I could go to plan B would be mid January. I might try to reinstall the program to see if this wasn't some glitch due to installation. I'll keep your offer in mind, Chris. The Wordpress plug-in I was looking at (for plan B) runs a lot like efiction does. In the end, I just want a website that works like it's supposed to.

Oooooh a chat room would be awesome! Thank you for u again for all the work you're doing MissAnn!

I appreciate all of the work as well. I will wait patiently for mid-January!

ED & TJ: You're welcome.

I did get a reply to my post on the efiction MB and they can't help me. They had no idea what I was talking about. So it looks like I will be resorting to Plan B. The plug-in I need to install to make Wordpress behave like efiction won't be released until January 19, so the new site will be on hold until then. I will keep everyone posted. Thanks for being patient.

Thanks for all your efforts.

And here I thought the fanfic glitch was on my end because I hadn't logged in for so long! Kudos to you MsAnn for tackling this monumental task.