News

Deleted Accounts

We've been trying to trim the database, and since there's no automated way to do it, we have to depend on what the database says, then go through and delete each one of hundreds by hand. If for whatever reason the database says your default is an outdated skin (or whoever's deleteing makes a typo in the userid number and gets yours by accident), and you haven't either written a story or left a review, then your account gets deleted.

AFTER making sure that your email isn't still in the database and you just forgot your password, you can re-register; contact me or Lyndsie if you're not 100% sure you've really been deleted.

For future reference, the best way to make sure you don't get purged is to leave at least one review; that way we can tell that you were at least somewhat active and didn't just create the account and forget about it.

Posted by Mynuet on Oct 01, 2007 12:30 pm (1 Comments)

HP RP - Now with D/G!

So, since some lovely ladies I know asked, I'm posting this on their behalf:

Caliga Ortus is a Harry Potter RPG set in the year 2002. While we might sample characters and plots from the seventh book, this RPG is not Deathly Hallows compliant.

The death of Lord Voldemort has left the wizarding world with a power vaccuum. Now, five years later, a new evil begins to rise.


Draco and Ginny are being played by D/G fans, so while no pairings are set in stone per se, I feel pretty comfortable in recommending this here. So, check it out, okay?

Posted by Mynuet on Sep 16, 2007 11:49 am (26 Comments)

More accounts to be deleted

The following accounts will be deleted for having invalid passwords. I have compiled this list from those who requested new passwords, but the sendmail failed because the recipient email address was invalid. I realize this means you were trying to access your account. I also know that in most cases, you made another one. That's why I'm giving you a chance to speak up and save your account, should you choose. In parentheses is the user id, so you could click one of the profiles in the footer and change the number at the end of the URL to the one in parentheses to check if the account is really yours or not.




MissyD6 (8141)

love_hate_combind (8174)

Pro_bad Snape (8289)

DG-is-Love (11414) (you made a new account; this one contains dashes which would have prevented you from logging in)



Next up will be a list of all of those who signed up for multiple accounts since the software began tracking that in February.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Sep 13, 2007 08:45 am (2 Comments)

September Podcast

The September podcast, "Deathly Hallows Denial Month", is now available at wireless.dracoandginny.com.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Sep 04, 2007 04:26 pm (3 Comments)

FICL

As always, thank you all for the tremendous response. We have enough new members for now, but are still accepting people who would like to write reviews. If so, please contact me using the link in the footer.


There are several of you in the news post who have volunteered but haven't signed up. If you would like to, contact me, as I'll have to create your account for you.



There are another several people who have registered at the FICL forums but not yet emailed me to tell me of your interest, as it says in the "How to Join" post. Please do so. Otherwise I'll have to pick based off of how well I know you (so if I don't know you, you should email me so I can meet you!).

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Aug 30, 2007 06:59 am (15 Comments)

Authors list and accounts

You may notice that the menu bar above is missing a link - the authors/members list is no longer available. This is because it causes too much strain on the databases, and was shut down by the hosting company.



While I am working on a solution with the site code, you can also do your part to address the issue. Keep reporting duplicate accounts! (If you click my name at the foot of the skin, you can contact me through my profile to do so.) Do NOT sign up for duplicate accounts. While I do try to contact people about it when I catch it - which I do, quite frequently - this isn't always feasible, and ALL your accounts might get deleted.



Please please make sure that you go into your Account Info area and select a skin. Mynuet is going to start deleting accounts that have eFiction and PhotoBooth selected. For more information on this policy, see this previous news post. There will not be a list of PhotoBooth users to be deleted generated, as there are as of today 5330, and this is not feasible.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Aug 25, 2007 05:39 am (1 Comments)

RSS feed

Apologies to anyone who has the site RSS feed linked to their livejournal; the spamming of the most recent page was an unintended consequence. But, the good news is that the feed works properly now!



If you don't know what I'm talking about, then perhaps you'd like to find out? If you'd like the most recently updated stories to post to your livejournal friends page as they are updated, then all you have to do is friend this.



You can also subscribe to the feed using other applications, such as iGoogle, by clicking the orange RSS button, in the top right on most skins.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Aug 22, 2007 07:17 am (2 Comments)

Site downtime

Sometime tomorrow during the middle of the day there will be some site downtime. The hosting company is updating the server and it will be rebooted; they don't know when but suggest around 11am PDT (GMT -8). It shouldn't last very long.


This should not affect the way the site runs afterwards, but if there are problems, let me know. (This may actually fix the RSS feed, as we're being updated to newer versions of PHP and MySQL.)



This does include everything at dracoandginny.com - forums, podcasts, archive, and email.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Aug 20, 2007 03:02 pm (3 Comments)

*facepalm*

It appears there was some sort of snafu with forwarding, and so while I could still send mail from the dghbic account, I couldn't receive it. I'll be going through the many, many messages there in the coming days, but I wanted to let y'all know why no one had answered, and apologize for the blip in service.

Okay, the two questions I've answered five times already, and so I'm answering in general here:

1. The site was closed to submissions, hence why y'all couldn't find the option for submitting or updating stories. It's open again, so the options should have returned.

2. If you don't remember your username, contact Lyndsie directly for help. And please write it down somewhere once you have it again.

Posted by Mynuet on Aug 07, 2007 04:47 pm (7 Comments)

More news

I've just updated and reorganized the Help page, so it should be easier to find answers to your questions now. We've also taken steps to clarify some of the classifications.


We've added an entry to the 'era' classification, and added a whole new 'canon compliancy' classification. This is in part to deal with DH spoilers, but also to help eliminate confusion when selecting an era. The full explanation can be found by clicking 'help' above. For an example of how to apply the new classifications, see my profile, linked below.


None of this is meant to apply retroactively, but it would help people find your story in searches if it's represented as accurately as possible. Also, for those who won't read the Help page (shame on you), I'm going to copy the most relevant additions here.



The era represents the time period in which the story takes place, and does not necessarily represent canon compliancy. Past-AU and Future-AU are for time travel fics, or any story in which the original book characters (not their offspring) are significantly out of their own timeline or reality. Note that 'Next Generation' fics are only acceptable where D/G is also present.



And:

Canon compliancy starts with Goblet of Fire. You can choose which book at which your fic begins to deviate from canon. The tags are:

(compliant with)

GoF and below

OotP and below

HBP and below

All but epilogue

Fully compliant


'All but epilogue' includes all of Deathly Hallows except for the epilogue, and 'Fully compliant' includes all seven books.


Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Aug 04, 2007 05:47 pm (7 Comments)

Site submissions reopened

The site is now reopen to submissions. However, keep in mind that if you are submitting a story with DH spoilers, it MUST be placed into the post-DH category, and ONLY this category. You should also add a prominent spoiler warning to the summary. If you do not, your story will not be validated.


That said, keep your eyes open if you don't want to be spoiled. Everything will be properly labeled, so it's your own responsibility if you want to stay spoiler-free.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Aug 03, 2007 10:32 am (4 Comments)

August Podcast

New podcast. See here.



There are also more stories from the podcasts saved as individual files available at the wireless site. (Click link above.)

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Aug 01, 2007 04:33 pm (2 Comments)

Categories

Please make sure that your stories are placed in the correct categories. The Fiction category is only for incomplete stories. If you have a completed story in that category, please move it to the appropriate subcategory of the Fiction category, based on length. (If your story appears on the Most Recent list, I've already done it.)

Placing works in the proper category helps people search most effectively, especially since searching by completed does not seem to be working currently.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Aug 01, 2007 01:56 am (2 Comments)

New mods

I've just finished installing two new mods to the script. Now when you view the authors list, you can select a dropdown to show those who have selected 'yes' to being beta readers in their profiles. It could be a handy way to find beta readers.


The second mod is a 'print to MS Word' function. It allows you to save a story or chapter as a .doc document directly from the site. It appears right next to the other printer icon in the various locations on the skins.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jul 31, 2007 05:05 pm (6 Comments)

Upgrade and old accounts

The site was just upgraded. If you experience any problems, email me (contact through link in footer) or reply here.


The old accounts are going to begin to be deleted in the next few days. Make sure you have a currently existing skin (listed in the dropdown above or below on the right, depending on which skin you use) selected in your profile. There is a list of accounts to be deleted here if you would like to check. This was previously mentioned here.



NEW

A list of accounts with eFiction as their default skin has been added to the delete list, and can be found here. Everyone should make sure they have selected a skin by clicking 'account info' and then 'edit preferences'. Also, if you've left at least one review, it helps us identify you as an account not to be deleted.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jul 26, 2007 02:36 pm (5 Comments)

Closed for Deathly Hallows

You can still read stories until Lyndsie shuts down for maintenance, and leave reviews if you're signed in. Please don't be a jerk, okay?

In the meantime, feel free to check out the many awesome entries in the icon contest. Turnout was great! Email me at gmail.com - mynuet - to vote for your favorite in each category.

Posted by Mynuet on Jul 20, 2007 03:32 am (4 Comments)

Icon Contest

All right, folks, step right up, we're going to have us an icon contest. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make an icon or icons (100x100 pixels) on the theme of "What canon means to the D/G shipper," or on a similar theme related to the impending release of DH.

Email the icons to me and then view the submissions so far here (note: speculation is allowed, spoilers are not). Submissions will close on Friday the 20th whenever I get up, voting will start immediately after, and voting will close at 11:30pm eastern time. There may be another contest for post-DH icons, but those will be locked away until the time of spoilers has passed.

The winner will get bragging rights, and whatever prize will include a copy of Deathly Hallows from Seegrim, a banner or icon from Scarlett Rayne (who makes our site banners), fic from me, fic from Airmid, and/or a hand-knit scarf from Lyndsie, depending on what the winner(s) want.

No pressure, just fun! Let's see what y'all can do!

Posted by Mynuet on Jul 18, 2007 04:54 am (6 Comments)

Reminder

Just a reminder, we're shutting down on Friday the 20th in order to avoid having to deal with buttheads while we're reading the book. If another H/G troll would like to come around and make trouble, he or she will have to wait until August 3, when we return.

Posted by Mynuet on Jul 16, 2007 02:52 am (18 Comments)

Short site closure

There will be a short site closure on Sunday in the afternoon (EDT) so that I can do some restoration. It should only last about 30 minutes, hopefully. Anyone with admin status that can view the site in maintenance mode, please DO NOT do anything other than view things - anything else changes things in the database, which I need to avoid.


Thanks!

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jul 12, 2007 02:58 pm (5 Comments)

Photobooth

The next person to say anything about "But I want the Photobooth skin back!" is going to feel my wrath, fyi.

No one is getting paid to work for the archive. Megh, Lyndsie, and others have been working hard to do things for everyone's enjoyment in their spare time, and when you respond to their efforts with, "That's nice, but when is Photobooth coming back?" it denigrates their efforts. You are not at a restaurant; you cannot send anything that displeases you back to the kitchen.

If someone wants to volunteer to figure out how to upgrade the Photobooth skin from efiction 2.0 to 3.0, while also fixing the myriad problems that we had with the skin, please feel free to volunteer. Otherwise, give it a frickin' rest.

Yes, the artwork is beautiful, and we love Twinkly for giving it to us. Yes, we want to have a skin with the Photobooth artwork again. Yes, it is being worked on, in between other projects that take priority. No, we cannot make it appear overnight. No, we don't owe you anything. No, it's not okay to 'just mention' it, because it's been 'just mentioned' enough to drive me to drink, and I'm not the one on the receiving end of the criticism.

In short: Cut Lyndsie some slack! She's doing the best she can, and deserves better than to have people harping on a trivial issue that just happens to involve difficulty in fixing.

Posted by Mynuet on Jul 07, 2007 04:39 am (19 Comments)

New strategy for database cleanup and a new skin

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE. Everyone, regardless of whether or not they think they already have, must go to "Account Info", then "Edit Preferences". Select a skin to use as your default and hit submit. I repeat, do this even if you think you have done it before. When the site goes down for upgrading, I am going to start deleting the bulk of accounts that fit the following model:

-The account has a non-existent skin selected as default, assuming that the account has no stories, the account has left no reviews, and is over six months old.

-The account has an invalid email address or username.


As always, duplicate accounts are being deleted constantly. Do not sign up for more than one account.


There are 7353 accounts with non-existent skins selected as their defaults. However, 6014 of them are PhotoBooth. Please change to another skin. It will help us weed out truly abandoned accounts.


To avoid confusion, accounts with the following selected as default (mainly skins from version 1.0) will begin to be deleted in the next few days: default2, Romance, 3column, DGArchive, DGArchiveWide, mistletoe and SlytherinsBride. I'm giving more time - until the site upgrade after 21 July - to the 2.0 skins, eFiction and PhotoBooth.


The currently valid skins are: Snitch, Valentine, Blanket, and the black and white version of Snitch that has just debuted, thanks to Foreveress and elyaeru.


Thank you for helping us to make the site run smoother.



ETA: For a list of accounts to be deleted, go here.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jun 30, 2007 11:17 am (13 Comments)

Various forms of audio

There's a new audio fic - "The Infirmary" by Persephone33 - and the July Podcast is up!

wireless.dracoandginny.com!

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jun 29, 2007 06:08 am (6 Comments)

Temporary Site Closing for DH

After consultation with the populace and with the Cabal, we've decided that the site will be closed for two weeks surrounding the release of Deathly Hallows. The shutdown will start on July 20, and end August 3, if all things go as planned.

During this time, Lyndsie will be performing a site upgrade, which will hopefully fix some of the recurring problems that we've been having, especially the search. Because of that, there will be times when the archive is completely unavailable. In the times that Lyndsie is not working on it, the site will be available to read as normal, but I'll be shutting down anonymous reviews in order to head off trolling like "harry&ginny 4 eva!!! " did soon after HBP.

When we come back, there will be a DH spoiler warning added to the existing ones, and that one will be mandatory for a certain amount of time to come. Its omission will be grounds for deletion of the fic and the author's account, so don't test me on this one.

Any questions/complaints/whining? Feel free to use the comments function.

Posted by Mynuet on Jun 24, 2007 03:54 am (26 Comments)

Audio fics

In addition to the monthly podcasts, Persephone33 is reading some longer one-shots and chaptered fics. The first, Locard's Principle by Cinnamon Badge, is up on the Wireless site now.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jun 15, 2007 04:23 pm (3 Comments)

Contest with real prizes!

We're running a Deathly Hallows Theory contest! Those who end up with the guesses closest to what happens in canon will win some great prizes. The contest is taking place at the Forums, so if you're not already a member there, sign up now and participate!



Here's the link:
http://forums.dracoandginny.com/index.php?topic=1507.0

The responses to date have been posted. If you still want to get in on the contest, you can post your response in the topic. You will still have a chance of winning prizes, but will forfeit 5 points.

Posted by Lyndsie Fenele on Jun 03, 2007 11:50 am (3 Comments)