Department of the Mysteries Now Open

Thanks to some amazing work by some of FA's fantastic coders & mods, we're thrilled to announce the grand opening of the Department of the Mysteries.

Frustrated by commas? Confused by quotation marks? Can't find a beta editor and really need to understand why your fic keeps getting returned? Welcome to The Department of the Mysteries, the newest forum at FictionAlley Park! Here, learn the deep and not so very dark secrets of grammar and structure - and take advantage of our public beta reading process!

You can find it here.

(no subject)

( I see trouble in Boston over this sitcom episode! )

Want to become a coder/editor for FictionAlley?

Crossposted from loupnoir's LJ:

Fiction Alley is looking for additional Coders - must be willing to work a minimum of five hours/week. Requirements: Basic HTML, email, YM, excellent punctuation, grammar and spelling skills. Must have a good grasp of HP canon vs. fanon. If you are a team player and are able to commit to the minimum hours/week, leave a comment. Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate their editing skills on a sample fic.

The work a coder does is all background. You can request your own title after you've gotten started, but that's really about all the glory you get. It's work that never ends. The submission rate is 120+/day and you will learn to dread three-day weekends when everyone and his ferret are on a sugar high and just *have* to write something and ship it off.

What is the actual work a coder does? Well, what the author sees is actually at least four different jobs. The reviewers (or dingbats) are the first line. They're the ones who send the letters or pass the files onward. The boarders create or update the review boards. The coders are the folks who download the files, check the spelling, set up a review thread if necessary, checks to make sure that the canon facts are correct, checks the grammar and is the essential second pair of eyes to make sure that things haven't gotten too spicy. Occasionally, there are HTML issues that need to be fixed. The coder then passes the coded fic back to the uploader who makes sure the fic gets onto the site.

If you are interested and have both the time and the commitment, then please leave a comment here.

Bluntly speaking, this really is work and it's work that never ends. If you think it would be kinda cool to see what the mods snark about, then this isn't a good slot for you. Our private conversations are really rather boring. This is a great position for people who have that Hufflepuff urge to keep the wheels turning and pay back a little of the joy they've received from reading fics. This isn't a Park moderator position, this is something you would do to keep the fics moving at the standards that Fiction Alley is endeavoring to maintain.

Seriously, coding is a great way to give back to FA and help us in fulfilling our educational mission. You will be appreciated, even if the writers don't actually know exactly who they're appreciating.

You will also be hated by people who submit their fics 13 times without making a change to the text in hopes of having it slip through the cracks.

Can you deal? Then please let us know.

Thanks!

Heidi for FictionAlley