heidi | (no subject) (Reply)

As I just said on

isolde9's LJ, I really do need to write a massive history of FictionAlley.

But for historical purposes (and this will be crossposted to Fandom History) I wanted to share these three right now:

From: "Tandy, Heidi" <heidit@netbox.com>
Date: Sun Jun 24, 2001 10:09 pm

Ebony and Carole & I were chatting today, and decided that limiting
the site to certain pairings wouldn't work.
ASA is H/G. Rhysenn's fics are primarily D/H (slash version), and my
SoC is romance-free.
HOWEVER, we don't want to host every single fic. Flourish has already
offered to do that and she's setting up her site to do that, even as
we speak.
SO what kind of guideline to we need?
Here's the elements for one possible way to do it:
1. Only novel-length fics will be allowed.
2. Works in Progress will be allowed.
3. All fics on PoU and HP_Paradise, other than Sarah Rettinger's (and
that's only because she is MIA) will be invited to post
4. For new submissions EITHER the first chapter must be 20k OR the
prologue AND first chapter must be 25k total.
5. No subsequent chapter of under 11k will be accepted
6. At least one chapter of a WIP must be uploaded every 4 months, or
we have the right to move the fic to the "archived WIPs" file.
7. Any completed fic will keep it's URL as long as the site is up.

(all k's above are "text" size)
Emphasis above added just now, by me

From: "Tandy, Heidi" <heidit@netbox.com>
Date: Mon Jun 25, 2001 3:12 pm
Subject: RE: [SchnoogleMods] ::pokes around new list::

I am messing around with colors, but this seems to be an efficiant way to
have reviews - plus, they'll notify you via email when there's a reply to
one of your posts, so it's like reviewalert (ish)

If we sign up with one of the Site Hosts, each author can have an INDEX PAGE
on which to post his/her table of contents, and each chapter will link to
the chapter itself, which will be posted on another page of the site.
Then, at the bottom of each chapter, the writer can add in a link to the
page on which their REVIEWS category is listed - in other words, Jana would
put a link to
http://pub79.ezboard.com/fschnooglethebestofharrypotterfanfictionfrm9
<http://pub79.ezboard.com/fschnooglethebestofharrypotterfanfictionfrm9> on
the bottom of her page, with the text saying something like "Read? Review!"

I want to incorporate Jana's EZBoard as the schnoogle general discussion
page - what's the URL, Jana? - but since I've already paid for all the
boards on the schnoogle ezboard to be covered under my GOLD ezboard
membership (it was pretty cheap) it might make sense to just migrate the
topics over - jana, can you do that? Is it possible at all?

Here's what I'm thinking:
If Starling can make us a logo, we can do a front page with the logo in the
middle and a few things in smaller type underneath - the links to the
sections - it could look like this:

LOGO
GOES
HERE

fanfiction | HP discussion boards | shipper buttons |
fanart | links
terms of use | copyright notice |
privacy policy

simple, no scrolling, no java.
Then each subsequent page will have those 8 bottom-links, plus a HELP page,
along the left hand side

btw - we all will get our own schnoogle.com email addresses which will
forward to whatever account we want :)

Wednesday, June 27:

Cassie & I were talking last night about Maddy/Flourish's idea
that there should be separate "sites" to handle the different HP
fanfictions, especially since, for reasons of organization, we're
only going to be hosting novel-length fanfics by those over 17, with
a few "mature teens" "grandfathered" in (I know - bad word choice).
So what better way to divide the fics than into *four houses*? Not
that each archive will be given a house name, but we can be given
house colors - in other words, schnoogle.com will be green & grey,
because all our fics are "ambitious" and full of plots, just like
Slytherin. Now, the rest of these are just thoughts - feel free to
suggest your own division:
- The "blue" archive can house the general mysteries, dramas and
horror fics, because they require "booksmarts".
- The "yellow" archive could host humor and parodies - the good-
natured fics.
- The "red" archive can host the romances, because, well, what
romance doesn't involve at least one Gryffindor?
Feel free to play with the categories, but I do like the color
schemes.

And there could be one main page at a domain name like HP-
FANFICTION.ORG (yes, org. trust me) which will have a splash screen
with the 4 "houses" on it, organized like they are on the school
crest - mouseover tells you which types of fics are in that section -
and from that, you can click on the section you want to go to.
That way, we have unity of purpose, and some unity of style, but no
burden on one group to archive every type of fic.
Any thoughts?

So, that's how everything started. We were just going to do one house, novel length fics only - and within 48 hours, things were ballooning, but as the fandom was still pretty small, compared to now, it seemed viable.

And now, things have grown far beyond anything we could've imagined then. That's why our tech team is currently working on - and has been for the past few months - a personalized-to-FA database system which will include all the information people have been entering on the submission form page since we started using it, and which will be searchable among all four houses, so the "house" designations will, at that point, be nothing more than a predetermined search query.

It'll be swell! It'll be great! It'll be here eventually!