Where do we go from here?
Jul. 4th, 2002 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heidiToday marks one year since I got the domain name registration for FictionAlley.org. I spent part of today looking over YMs from last July, emails, the posts I and others made on FictionAlley's mods list.
The email Amber sent to me when she offered to work with us on creating a database for fics.
The emails I sent to Jinx, B Bennett, Anna Milton, Lori, Rebecca - a dozen other authors - asking if we could archive their fics, so we'd have a way to test our upload system and fics up there when we launched (that anniversary is still about 2 weeks away). I found this,
And I really recommend going back and reading the intros everyone posted in that first week. A year ago this week.
A year ago...
We thought that if we had a thousand fics at a year in, we'd be lucky. We've got a multiplier of that - but there are still a lot of fics that we don't have. Some people actually think that if their fics are on FA, they can't have them on any other site. Not true. Others are still daunted by our submission process, which makes me sad - I don't want the submission form to be a bar to anyone (although I'm perfectly happy with the grammar & spelling issues serving as a bar. If you aren't sure how to end your quotations properly, you can learn by copying the style from the HP books themselves first).
A year ago...
We didn't even have a message board component, although we were already working to change the ezboard that Jana had set up early in the Spring into something that FA could use. We certainly didn't think that SCUSA would become a ship centre, the way that it has, or that Scribbulus would become a hangout for so many teenagers. Nor did we predict the usefulness of the Sorting Hat boards, as a virtual fic database. We're glad, though, that we realised the need for the Cookie Jar when we did. It's a great resource and a wonderful place to read snips from excellent fics that might've passed you by.
A year ago...
I think we had about 14 people on the FA team. Now, we've got about 35 mods in the Park, over a dozen coders, almost a dozen people making boards, our team of talented artists, three brilliant software developers, half a dozen amazing and dedicated uploaders and LINKSers (they're the ones who make it so that you can actually *see* the fics), and of course, we have Simon, who doesn't do anything but evangelize about the wonders of the Harry/Hedwig SHIP, but we like him anyway. He has the compass.
We've also got 30 new e-mentors to welcome newbies, half a dozen Nifflers who find shiny fics to share with the Fandom, and a bunch of spinoff Yahoogroups. And we've all made new friends - most of us have found new beta readers or offered to be one, found new fics that we love, and at a minimum, found a place to read and submit good HP fanfic.
Where do we go from here?
We've got the Summertime Challenges, which we're going to start announcing this weekend.
We've got a Writers In Residence program (more details to be announced later) which will feature chats and message boards where your questions about writing will be answered by a selection of brilliant published authors, including![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pegkerr and Lois McMaster Bujold.
We're hoping to become a 501(c)(3) organization - that's US-speak for a non-profit. That way, those wonderfully generous donations that so many of you have made will be tax deductible (if you pay US taxes, that is). They're not now, but we'll let you know when (if?) they are.
And there's going to be a conference. An event. We may not host it, but we're certainly going to be a sponsor for it! An all-fandom *thing* that we want all of you (well, all of you who are over 18!) to come to. More details coming soon!
And we're going to keep growing - all through the work of our users. It sounds, in a way, obnoxious to say that FA has been more successful than we ever dreamed. I feel like I'm tooting my own horn, and I don't really like to do things like that. But in another way, to say that we're more successful than we ever dreamed means that all of you - all of you who wrote fics, or read and reviewed fics, or beta read, or posted on a message board, or sent an offlist comment to an author, or just enjoy being a part of the Harry Potter fandom - all of you are more successful at your reading and your writing than you were when we started. And if we have to wait another year for Book 5 to come out, I'm glad that we'll all be waiting for it together.
Now, I'm heading back to the Park. C'mon and join me. We'll set off some fireworks.
The email Amber sent to me when she offered to work with us on creating a database for fics.
The emails I sent to Jinx, B Bennett, Anna Milton, Lori, Rebecca - a dozen other authors - asking if we could archive their fics, so we'd have a way to test our upload system and fics up there when we launched (that anniversary is still about 2 weeks away). I found this,
Well, here's the situation. FictionAlley is going to be the OverSight
for the archive - and there are going to be 4 houses - one for novel-
length fics (Schnoogle.com), and (most probably) one for romance, one
for humor and one for darkfics (mystery, romance, etc.) - the other 3
houses will not be "novel-length fics", though.
We've looked over sites from other fandoms, like the Star Wars site
at www.fanfix.com, for organizational inspiration, we're perfecting
our HTML and database skills and we're putting together a menu of
excellent resources and treats for the readers and writers.
Schnoogle is going to be the first of the FictionAlley sites to go
up - we have an ideal soft launch date in the next week or so (:
crosses fingers) and the other houses should launch shortly
thereafter. If everything goes as we hope, at least a skeletal
version of FictionAlley should be ready to go up on Harry's 21st
Birthday.
At the moment, we're trying to keep the number of authors low, so we
can get everything up & working with a limited number of fics - and
we are going to have technical standards (minimum length of chapters,
minimum length of completed fics, requested spell-checking and
Lexicon-checking (in other words, spell the words the way they are in
the book wherever possible)) since at least in the immediate future,
all the fic-uploading we do will be by hand.
We're still working on the exact policies, and will post them here
shortly.
FictionAlley should be at least 83% fun - yes, everyone will likely
get the occasional UnFun flame, but on any given day, visiting
FictionAlley should not be something that stresses you out :)
And I really recommend going back and reading the intros everyone posted in that first week. A year ago this week.
A year ago...
We thought that if we had a thousand fics at a year in, we'd be lucky. We've got a multiplier of that - but there are still a lot of fics that we don't have. Some people actually think that if their fics are on FA, they can't have them on any other site. Not true. Others are still daunted by our submission process, which makes me sad - I don't want the submission form to be a bar to anyone (although I'm perfectly happy with the grammar & spelling issues serving as a bar. If you aren't sure how to end your quotations properly, you can learn by copying the style from the HP books themselves first).
A year ago...
We didn't even have a message board component, although we were already working to change the ezboard that Jana had set up early in the Spring into something that FA could use. We certainly didn't think that SCUSA would become a ship centre, the way that it has, or that Scribbulus would become a hangout for so many teenagers. Nor did we predict the usefulness of the Sorting Hat boards, as a virtual fic database. We're glad, though, that we realised the need for the Cookie Jar when we did. It's a great resource and a wonderful place to read snips from excellent fics that might've passed you by.
A year ago...
I think we had about 14 people on the FA team. Now, we've got about 35 mods in the Park, over a dozen coders, almost a dozen people making boards, our team of talented artists, three brilliant software developers, half a dozen amazing and dedicated uploaders and LINKSers (they're the ones who make it so that you can actually *see* the fics), and of course, we have Simon, who doesn't do anything but evangelize about the wonders of the Harry/Hedwig SHIP, but we like him anyway. He has the compass.
We've also got 30 new e-mentors to welcome newbies, half a dozen Nifflers who find shiny fics to share with the Fandom, and a bunch of spinoff Yahoogroups. And we've all made new friends - most of us have found new beta readers or offered to be one, found new fics that we love, and at a minimum, found a place to read and submit good HP fanfic.
Where do we go from here?
We've got the Summertime Challenges, which we're going to start announcing this weekend.
We've got a Writers In Residence program (more details to be announced later) which will feature chats and message boards where your questions about writing will be answered by a selection of brilliant published authors, including
pegkerr and Lois McMaster Bujold.We're hoping to become a 501(c)(3) organization - that's US-speak for a non-profit. That way, those wonderfully generous donations that so many of you have made will be tax deductible (if you pay US taxes, that is). They're not now, but we'll let you know when (if?) they are.
And there's going to be a conference. An event. We may not host it, but we're certainly going to be a sponsor for it! An all-fandom *thing* that we want all of you (well, all of you who are over 18!) to come to. More details coming soon!
And we're going to keep growing - all through the work of our users. It sounds, in a way, obnoxious to say that FA has been more successful than we ever dreamed. I feel like I'm tooting my own horn, and I don't really like to do things like that. But in another way, to say that we're more successful than we ever dreamed means that all of you - all of you who wrote fics, or read and reviewed fics, or beta read, or posted on a message board, or sent an offlist comment to an author, or just enjoy being a part of the Harry Potter fandom - all of you are more successful at your reading and your writing than you were when we started. And if we have to wait another year for Book 5 to come out, I'm glad that we'll all be waiting for it together.
Now, I'm heading back to the Park. C'mon and join me. We'll set off some fireworks.
