Closed

Alright, I just completed the closure of the archive. All unsolicited submissions are turned off. This means that no one except for Cabal members have the ability to add a story to the archive. At least until we've all read HBP and had time to digest it.


Please note, no new accounts can be created while submissions are turned off. At least, that is what eFiction says happens.


Also, I have not turned off comments, but if I get any reports of spoilery comments being made, I will turn them off, and I'm not entirely confident that they were downloaded correctly in the most recent backup. So, don't make me do it. It would be a tragedy to lose comments.



With all that said, I hope everyone enjoys the new book, and I'll see y'all in a week.

Going down!

Because we, your Cabal, would like some time to read HBP without coming across spoilers in fics, and because we assume there are some of you who would also, we're going to stop accepting submissions for one week surrounding the release of the book. You can still read the stories on the site, but uploading will be disabled from July 14 to July 21. When we come back,m there will be a new warning for HBP spoilers, and we would ask that you use it, and also refrain from revealing any details in your titles and summaries until a reasonable amount of time has passed for everyone (including those overseas who have to wait for the book to be released) has had a chance to read it for themselves.


Hopefully y'all won't desert us during our vacation, and will enjoy the release of HBP!

Top Fics for June of 2005

The top ten chaptered fics for June of 2005 are:

Unforgivable, by Anise

Sweet Bondage, by MercyAller1977

Getting Personal, by Jessica K Malfoy

First Comes Marriage, by Smprsgrrl

Quidditch, by Fallenwitch

Dragon and Angel, by Dragonsangel68

Owned, by Mynuet

Sunshine and Shadows, by GotSnape

The Quick and the Dead, by Anise

Coming Home, by Embellished




The top five one-shots are:

Sex God, by Mynuet

At Flourish and Blotts, by Erised

Treason!, by Sarea Okelani

Bare Naked, by Dee

Punishment, by Nucking_futs



Keep in mind that these are strictly by hit count, and in hit count order. I haven't even read all of these, so this shouldn't be taken as my personal list of recommendations.

May 2005 Top Fics

The top ten chaptered fics for May of 2005 are:

Quidditch, by Fallenwitch

Sweet Bondage, by MercyAller1977

Coming Home, by Embellished

First Comes Marriage, by Smprsgrrl

Stripped, by Nucking_futs

Dragon and Angel, by Dragonsangel68

Before the Storm, by Glass_Mermaid

Sunshine and Shadows, by GotSnape

Do You Suffer From Long Term Memory Loss?, by Skully

Getting Personal, by Jessica K Malfoy




The top five one-shots are:

Sex God, by Mynuet

Treason!, by Sarea Okelani

Bare Naked, by Dee

The Stuff Legends Are Made Of, by Gianfared

Get Down Make Love, by Nucking_futs



Keep in mind that these are strictly by hit count, and in hit count order. I haven't even read all of these, so this shouldn't be taken as my personal list of recommendations.

Website links

Just a word to the wise, since I've noticed a lot of y'all have this problem:

When you enter a website into your user bio, you must have an http:// in front of it. If you don't, it defaults to thinking your page is a subset of this domain, so it reads dracoandginny.com/www.livejournal.com or whatever you put in. Obviously, this does not get people where you want them to go, so just put in the http bit, okay?

Top fics for April 2005

The top ten chaptered fics for April of 2005 are:

Before the Storm

Immortal Vow

Sunshine and Shadows

A Matter of Identity

Getting Personal

Coming Home

Anything But Secondhand

The Scarlet Tide

Hold Me, Heal Me

The Quick and the Dead



The top five one-shots are:

Saying Goodbye

Peppermint Kiss

Let the Eff Go of Me, Malfoy

Of Ears and Icing

Brightside




Keep in mind that these are strictly by hit count, and in hit count order. I haven't even read all of these, so this shouldn't be taken as my personal list of recommendations.

Ratings Change

In light of recent prosecution against the owner of a fan-site for using the copyrighted MPAA ratings system (G-NC17), we’ve changed our ratings system. The new system (suggested by the wonderful Rainpuddle) is as follows:



Not Naughty = G

Mildly Naughty = PG – PG13

Naughty = R

Really Naughty = NC-17

(All equivalencies approximate)



Please go through your fics and check that the rating is still appropriate.

Thanks!

Submission Emails

For some time now, and I'm not sure how long it's been, our automated system for receiving copies of emails sent out by the Cabal hasn't been working, and I'm not sure whether or not people who have had fics in the queue received the emails saying why they had been accepted or rejected. It turns out that it was because the email address we use didn't delete messages after they were forwarded, so the mailbox quota was filled. It's been fixed for now, so if you didn't get an email for your fic (and don't see it on the site), please let me know.



Also, please do NOT use the cabal [at] d&g.com email address to get in contact with us. There were several emails in there that had never been answered because they were never read. If you go to the help section, you'll find at the bottom of the page a list of the Cabal members, and you can click on each author name to send them email. If that's too much trouble, or you don't know who reviewed your fic because they didn't sign the message, feel free to send me email directly - mynuet [at] gmail.

March's top fics

Once again, the top fics by hit count! Presenting, March of 2005:



Before the Storm


Slow Burn


Dragon and Angel


Dark Days


Bound


Tantamount


Anything But Secondhand


First Comes Marriage


Buy Me a Rose


Immortal Vow



And because chaptered fics have an advantage, I'm throwing in the top five oneshots:



Thin Line


The First Sign of Spring


Oh Dear God: The Smut Cookie


Peppermint Kiss


The Eternal Gesture

Preview!

Related to that last news item, but also a good general rule... THE PREVIEW IS YOUR FRIEND. You have to do it before you can submit. If it looks like your fic is full of gobbledygook, or like your fic isn't there at all, then you've got a problem that needs fixing, not ignoring by hitting the post button and not worrying about it farther. I know all of you have to go through the preview step, because I have to, and there's no one on the site besides Megh that has the same privileges, so please - USE IT.

Display Issues

Microsoft Word is a great product in many ways, but in many others it's a pain in the butt. Why am I mentioning this? Because, as is explained in greater detail in the help page, its little foibles are causing a lot of your stories to not display properly in browsers other than IE. I'd really appreciate it if y'all took a look at the help section, as I came close to rejecting a story tonight because of an issue that's the fault of Word and not the author, and I'd really hate for that sort of mistake to mean an author's story got rejected or delayed because of this.

February's Top Ten

I feel so slacker-ish not having posted any other news item in the whole month, but here, for your viewing pleasure, are the top ten fics, by number of hits, for the month of February 2005.

KEEP IN MIND THAT SOME OF THESE ARE NC-17! If you're not sure, go to the author's page and click from there. Don't come crying to me if you read smut by accident, okay?

Winning the Cup, by Madalene3666

Bound, by Anise

Anything But Secondhand, by MrsDanielRadcliffe

Immortal Vow, by Enchanted18

Tantamount, by Maleficent

The Head Boy's Laundry: Lingerie, by Sugarbear_1269

Telling Draco, by TKMoore

Feast of Fools Outtake, by yours truly

SlowBurn, by Sillysun

The Little Gryffindor, by Wyvern159

January's Top Ten

Thank you all for your suggestions! I'm nowhere near being able to respond to them all, but since this one was relatively easy to implement, I give you the top ten most accessed fics of January 2005.

1. Caught, by DragonsAngel68
   
   
2. Bound, by Anise
   
   
3. Winning the Cup, by Madalene3666
   
   
4. Smoking in the Head Boy's Room, by Sugarbear_1269
   
   
5. Telling Draco, by TKMoore
   
   
6. Of Snowballs and Smirks, by Sillysun
   
   
7. Caught Cookies, by Dragonsangel68
   
   
8. The Lush Life, by Vesanmyn
   
   
9. Learning to Breathe, by CliodnaHPFan
   
   
10. Portkey Party, by Sarea Okelani

New Year

So, it hasn't been a year that we've been up, but the turn of the year seems as good a time as any to reflect on our mission statement and do a little back-patting. We currently have 659 members and 479 stories, and we've averaged 9,600 unique visitors monthly since we moved to our own webspace in August - pretty exciting stuff as far as I'm concerned! :D



So now the question is to all of you out there reading and submitting - what would you like to see in/for the archive in the coming months? What would entice y'all to leave more reviews, which is something I'd really like to see happening. Would y'all be interested in a round robin, or a contest, or our own awards? Sign in and comment on this item or send me an email so that you can let us know what you, the reader and author, want to see.

Merry Christmas!!

Do y'all see the FABULOUS holiday skin for the site? If not, go to your account and choose "mistletoe". The artwork is by LyraKristine (and don't take it without permission or we will set attack rodents on you), and the hard work of putting it together is from Megh.



A small word here, and bite me if you think I'm being too sentimental....



It's easy to forget that every day this site exists, it is all down to the fact that Megh has been willing to put in time and effort to make it happen. This simply would not be here without her, and we all owe her a huge debt of gratitude. Personally, I also think that she's an immensely fabulous person whom I'm very proud to call one my very good friends. Much love for you, Megh.

Ficmas

I want to encourage everyone to mosey over to the DGFanfic yahoo group and check out the twelve days of ficmas, which started on the twelfth. Your own Site Mom Mynuet has posted, as have fabulous authors such as ClanMalfoy, StrangerWithMyFace and Anise, and there's much more fabulousness to come, plus you can access a link to see the results of ficmasses past - lots of great D/G stories with a holiday theme, what's there to lose?

Rules update

I tinkered with the rules a bit - the main change is this:

Per JKR's official website, Ginny's full name is Ginevra Molly Weasley. If your story has her having a different name, please put an author's note (up top or at the bottom, not in the text) to the effect that you know and are still going with a different name - maybe you just have a seething hatred of the name, maybe you wrote it before that bit of canon was known, whatever... Just put a note on there somewhere. Fics that are already on the archive won't get kicked off solely for not complying with this rule, but all new fics must comply with this rule.

And Ginevra is subject to the Zabini Rule - it's G-I-N-E-V-R-A, not G-I-N-E-R-V-A. Thank you.

For the full text of the current rules, go here.

Feedback

Due to recent events, I would like to remind you all that there is a significant difference between critical feedback and a flame. One can express an opinion, even a negative one, without flaming. Observe.


Bleh. GothGinny? Could this get any more angsty? Tried to finish this chapter, but couldn't because of the bile rising in my throat over "Goth" Ginny. Oh well, to each his own.


This is a flame. Note the condescending tone and the bitchy delivery. The reviewer is trying to say they did not like the story, but they are letting their pissiness get in the way. The same thing could be rewritten to still convey the same message while not being offensive. Like so:

I don't care much for the portrayal of Ginny as a goth, so I didn't finish the chapter. If this is what you like then you're certainly entitled to write it, but keep in mind that it does alienate some readers.



See the difference? One concentrates on simple derision, the other one explains why the author might possibly give a damn about this particular reviewer's opinion. It still doesn't put the author under any obligation to change their story, mind you, but at least it falls within the category of what might be considered 'civil discourse'. It also makes it harder to just ignore the reviewer as a bitter and hateful lunatic if you actually apply the manners you were taught in kindergarden.



You should also note that, if a review goes beyond criticism of the story and to direct criticism of the author, this is beyond doubt a flame and will get your little troll ass kicked soundly. Got it?



Don't make me turn this archive around.

Ahem.

So far I've had two submissions come through where all of the highlighted text, instead of using the tags for bold and italic, instead was using links to a spyware site. This is a major no-no, and I don't want to see it ever again. I don't know if this is happening because the site offers some kind of promotional benefit or if it's not intentional on the part of the author, but any stories with such links will be deleted no matter how wonderful they might be otherwise. I don't want to take away the ability of the rest of the users to put in links to harmless things, like a fanart site or their livejournals, just because a few people are causing problems.

The D/G Feast Fic Contest!

Attention all writers of D/G fic and fans of food! ; ) I wanted to let you know about a fic contest I'm sponsoring, featuring D/G, recipes, and cool prizes. Full details can be found on my Live Journal, here.

I encourage everyone to participate, both seasoned writers and those who have been thinking about joining the fray. Feel free to contact me with any questions!

: )

Sarea

Bitch mode ON

Apparently there's a girl somewhere in Canada who is under the impression that I am stupid. She started out using the name Cara and has tried using various aliases, including Canadian Kitten and Mariah. She does not, however, change her bio (except to change her age), or her email address, or what story she chooses to plagiarize. Once again, this absolute moron has attempted to submit a ripoff of Echo's "A Bit of the Dark Sinister". There's a saying that goes that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and if we use that standard, this chick is completely and totally loony. So, officially, for the record, on the front page of my archive, I will say that the chick who sometimes goes by Cara and is currently using canadian_rocker_kitten@hotmail.com, you are an absolute and complete troglodyte, a form of life apparently incapable of thought. You are not welcome here and we would like to request that you kindly go away until you have figured out how to pick up a clue when it is dropped on your head attached to an anvil.

Everyone else, do not, whatever you do, make me go through this again. Seething homicidal rage is not a state I enjoy spending time in.

A word on plagiarism

As a few of you may have discovered from a few places, we had a bit of an issue with a brainless plagiarist over the weekend. Just so that everyone is quite clear on the fact that this is a practice that is unacceptable, I'l like to let y'all know that all plagiarists we spot will be turned over to the Known Plagiarists website for public humilation and/or excoriation.

On a related note, you would not believe just how angry I get on the topic of harassment of one of our authors. Don't do it, or I will do my best to make your life extremely unpleasant.

Server Service

Just as a heads up, we've been contacted by our host with the following notice.

On Sunday, October 17th between the hours of 11PM and 6AM Pacific Standard
Time, the server will within our weekly maintenance window.
Our technicians will be performing an upgrade and reconfiguration of your
server. The upgrade will take between 10 minutes and 2 hours, but is
expected to be short.



Your website will NOT be accessible while the upgrade is in progress.

I wanted to pass this on as a heads up. Please do not email us about the outage. Your emails will be bounced and then we will be flooded when everything goes live again.

Thanks,
Megh.

Do Not Taunt the Happy Fun Mods

People, we have a help section for a reason. If you have a question, please read it before you send out snippy emails. And definitely do NOT EVER send a snippy email directly to Megh. Megh is a busy woman who does our code work out of a genuine love for the pairing and the goodness of her heart. She does not deserve to be treated like a lackey, and there is nothing you can do that will get your ass banned faster than being mean to Megh. If you feel like you've got a genuine grievance and need to yell at someone, the address you want is mynuet@ DandG.com.



And, for those of you who still won't go look at the help section, the reason your story is showing up on the recently added list but not on the site is because the world is united in a cosmic plot against you. If you don't like that answer, go read the other one that's in the help section, because I ain't typing all that again.



Love and Smooches,

Mynuet the Miffed

Contest!

We're still in the planning stages of our own contest - any suggestions on prizes are welcome, but in the meantime, all y'all should enter SugarBear's contest! She's celebrating her birthday by giving away presents to those who present her with good fic, and since I get to read all the fic, I'm whole-heartedly in favor of this! Go here for details, and get to writing!