Registrations are open! ^_^

Thanks to everyone who sent in e-mails and test reviews. Stay tuned over the rest of the weekend for more updates.

Avatars for Everyone!
I just installed Gravatar support for the site. This is a service that associates your e-mail address with an avatar of your choice. This means avatars are now open to EVERYONE, not just validated members.

This way, you can have the pretty avatar next to your name and I have peace of mind knowing I can remove the old, hack-prone script from the site. ^_^

I'll work on adding other avatar services later. To enable Gravatars, go to your profile and look for "Avatar" under your bio.

Edit: Okay, by popular request I added in a place for you just to link to a remote avatar from PhotoBucket or some other site. Just go into your options to choose the avatar type that works for you. I also located these really cool, randomly generated avatars that I'll work on installing tomorrow.

Log In With Penname or E-mail
You can now log into the site with either your penname OR with the e-mail you signed up with. ^_^ Thanks to Jasson for helping me get that figured out!

All site e-mails have been disabled. Look, if you don't want to receive any e-mail from us:

TURN IT OFF IN YOUR SETTINGS.

Because someone couldn't just turn them off, I am now having to convince my host we are not spammers. Thanks!

Edit (Oct 07): No one broke anything but me more than likely. ^_^; Favorite alerts and review alerts should be disabled, but it looks like it did nothing but force everyone to redo their e-mail settings. Which means I probably did something.

Yes, it was a member who complained which is why I said "Change your settings." I've banned them and will be removing all reason for them to receive future e-mails.

EDIT #2: Mods, please check the message board. I need a little info, por favor. ^_^

I hope our American and Canadian readers had a safe and fun first week of July.

I think I've located an advertiser that I'd be willing to try. They basically auction off ad space for that day to the highest bidder. I get to chose the ads I allow should they win the bid. This advertiser seems to service many of the web comics I read and nothing I've seen is truly questionable. So... survey time!

What I need:
1.) Where DON'T you want to see an ad? (e.g. The story pages, your profiles)
2.) What types of ads would you like to see? (I see lots of ads for Web comics, anime stores, and fantasy/roleplaying stores.)
3.) What sorts of ads would you be dropping me a nasty-gram over? (No, I don't intend to allow porn or gambling... but what about an ad for someone's lemon, YAOI, or slash web comic?)

Any other concerns?

Donations received: $186.60 USD

All of you have truly made me eat my words. Enough has been donated to keep Lunaescence running for the next year. O_o I'm speechless and touched by your generosity. You guys ROCK!

Thank you to everyone who donated from the bottom of my heart! You have no idea how relieved this makes me feel! Much love to all of you!

*deep breath* Okay. What follows now is kind of a restructuring, to make sure this site can keep running even while I'm out looking for work and for The Move later this year. Mods will be given new powers to make this happen, including being able to bring in new mods and more.

Again, thank you so much everyone! You're the best!

First of all, I'm very flattered by your response. I had no idea that my site was this much loved. ^_^

Secondly: I'm not selling my site. Pure and simple. It's named after my dog and my professional portfolio is hosted here as well.

So: I'll compromise. I'll try keeping the archive going for 3 more months as a trial. But I need help.

This site costs roughly $175 per year to keep going, excluding my coding. I pay roughly $40 - $45 (USD) every 3 months and it was the bill on the 19th that shell shocked me. Doesn't sound like much until you have to live on public assistance and have to worry about far much more important bills. (Cause seriously? Being homeless? Not high on my to-do list.) The Paypal banner has sat at the bottom of most of this site's layouts for a few years now. Aside from one donation attempt that got lost among the spam, it hasn't seen any use. Tomorrow, I'll edit this post with a big, shiny button here with an e-mail address all its own so e-mails don't get lost. If there's enough interest, I'll check into a PO box for postal donations.

Please don't say you'll donate if you don't actually intend to.

Next: Mods... please get with each other. For this 3 month trial, I'm just the owner. One of you will need to step up, please decide who that will be.

I'm sorry if I sound a little hostile, but the hateful, awful e-mails some of you have been sending me actually hasn't helped my outlook any better. You know who you are.

I'm sorry to do this, but due to continuing circumstances... I'm going to be closing Lunaescence at the end of July.

I just don't have the time or money to keep this up anymore. As you've noticed, I've been away more than I've been here. I'm looking at an interstate move very soon if I expect to do anything with my career. I've been unemployed for over 8 months now with no job prospects whatsoever.

Please back up your stories and pass the message onward to anyone who might not check the news frequently. I'll be deleting the archive entirely the first week of August. This will be permanent.

I'm sorry, everyone... I'm truly sorry. Thank you so much for your support over the years and for being so awesome.

I wish you all the best.

Sorry, I've been busy and not busy at the same time. I was laid off from my job and I've been trying to find a new job before anything worse happens. Since I've been worrying about how the bills are going to be paid and whether I'll have a roof over my head, I really have had zero interest in the site. And for that, I do apologize.

Downtime: We're being moved to a new server to improve performance, which means you should expect some downtime in the near future. Please don't panic, please don't e-mail me -- I know all about it.

Notice #1: Please do not send Forwards, chain letters, or invites to places like Gaia Online, MySpace, Facebook, etc. I get more than enough spam and I have no time to dedicate to yet another site. Ones sent before I posted this message are forgiven, but from now on realize this is a quick way to banning.

Notice #2: Complaining to me that your story hasn't been validated yet really won't do you any good. Nor will complaining that you have to fix a mistake. I will side with my moderators (if I actually have any left after all this) every time. If you want to have your story posted instantly without any checks or balances, I would suggest you go to Fanfiction.net or one of the other archives.

Notice #3: Yes, new registrations are down due to obscene amounts of spam. I have no idea when I'll be bringing them back up. There was over 1500 robotic registrations in just one weekend. That takes a huge toll on the database and leaves me with at least double that number in "Return to Sender" e-mails coming into my e-mail. There's also the people who register with bad e-mail addresses and others who join thinking this is another FF.net rehash. I need to find a way to address all of this before I will feel okay opening them up, especially with me not being around.

Thanks everyone.

I'm sure everyone knows that submissions are often really slow here. I mean really slow. It takes a long time right now for stories to show up on the site simply because there's no way anyone can read that many stories in one night. The site has also been seriously neglected in other ways too. Basically, I've been busy with college, work, internships, and life in general and just haven't had the time to care for my own site.

I have several positions I need filled:

1. Moderators – Read over submissions to the archive and approve them if they meet our rules.
2. Site Editor (1) – Help us upgrade our informational pages.
3. Event Coordinator (1) – Your job: Plan and oversee fun things and events for the site!
4. Newsletter Editor (1) – Bring back our newsletter!

Thanks! ^_^

LAST CALL! I'll be closing the application addresses tomorrow night (October 3rd) at midnight eastern standard time.

I believe I have the favorite alert e-mails working correctly now. Since some alerts may have already sent and are working their way through the system, you may get a few more of the strange alerts. Let me know if the problems continue and I'll have to take another look at the code.

Also thanks for letting me know about the spam reviews, I'll take care of them after dinner.

Sorry about that!

EDIT: Okay, I've set a trap for the spammers. Lets see if this doesn't spike their guns!

EDIT 2: Since I've put so much more code into the review checks, all error messages associated with reviews will now give you an error code. When writing to tell me about a bug or glitch, please be sure to supply the code that appears. (For example, the newest spam check will now return "Error Code: 0003-review" in small letters below the message.) This way, I'll hopefully be able to better pinpoint where the error occured in the code. ^_^

Since I didn't get much of a response in the forums, I thought I might as well put it in the news.

Right now, we use warning pop-ups for guiding people about the ratings on stories. Frankly, this way sucks.

A.) I can't really set it up so you can turn it off.
B.) It stumps most browsers blind people can use.
C.) It prevents Google and most other search engines from accessing stories rated 13+ and above.

What I can do is move away from the pop-ups to an actual page that appears before the story.

I could make it so you could opt out of them (they'd still be manditory for people not-logged in trying to view stories 17+ and above). Authors could also use them to post a table of contents, possibly a longer summary, a disclaimer, brief character guide, etc.

What do you think?

All authors who use Japanese characters in the titles of their stories are advised to close or disallow anonymous reviews. I just had to clean 375 spam reviews from just one story, and several others had 10 - 20 spam reviews on them.

The one common factor is the presence of Japanese characters in their titles.

Until they decide to leave us alone again, it looks like it's something we'll have to put up with.

Also, Favorite Alert e-mails are currently BROKEN. I already know about this, there's no need to e-mail me. I'm trying to add ratings and perhaps other content warnings to the alerts.

EDIT: Favorite alert e-mails are back working again. If an author on your favorites list submits a new story, you'll now see the rating for that story following the summary.

EDIT 2: Favorite Alert e-mails for updated / new chapters now also include a rating too. ^_^

I've gotten several complaints while I was at work about people getting multiple e-mails titled "Your writing" or "Your fanfic" advertising a new fanfiction script or site.

I've already e-mailed the person asking them to stop, but I'd like to know right now how many members have actually gotten this spam. -_-;; If you've gotten it, please post a comment and let me know.

EDIT: Would those of you who have one of these spam e-mails dated today (July 01, 2008) please forward them to me at archive[at]lunaescence.com? I asked them to stop last night, if they're still sending them today, then I'm going to pursue further action.

EDIT 2: First order of business: All e-mail forms now check for common spam keywords as well as the recent spammer. Hopefully I have it set up so it doesn't catch normal e-mail. (Unlike my quickie, knee-jerk checks I wrote yesterday, which kept catching nearly everyone. ^^;; Sorry!)

Secondly, I shot a spam complaint off to the offender's ISP and the sites they're advertising. I also did a bit of research and apparently this person has been doing this sort of thing for at least a year.

Okay, first item: Yes, submissions are open. ^^;; Sorry!

Second item: Due to an overwhelming number of e-mails, I've renamed "Tennis no Oujisama" to its more common, English name: "Prince of Tennis."

As for category additions; hang in there! I'm working on a way to hopefully make it easier for everyone. Just bear with me a couple more weeks!

Also, I'll be putting out the S.O.S for more moderators at that point too.

Thanks for putting up with me, everyone! Hopefully I'll have this internship thing dealt with soon and we can all get back to being creative.

Thanks!

In a nutshell: I don't have time to deal with this right now.

At length, I am extremely busy in real life with work, college, family issues, et cetera and I've gotten one flame too many, one question I've already answered in the FAQ too many, and one too many e-mails demanding a chapter/story be posted.

Frankly, I don't have the time to deal with this right now.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

If you're not a validated author, please only upload one chapter at a time for your multi-chapter stories!

If there's something wrong with one chapter, there might be something wrong with the others. If we decline your chapter, we delete it!

Secondly, it takes time to read a whole multichapter fic before we post it. You'll get your story up faster if you submit a chapter at a time.

Thanks, everyone!

Hi everyone! I'd like to announce the first wave of new moderators! ^_^

• shadowsirenv
• Sharp Shiny Pickle
• Tokyo the Glaive
• chibi neko alchemist
• Jesanae Tekani
• TimeErase
• moonbeam9992

Thanks so much! Everyone, please be nice to them (not that all of you aren't already) as they get used to things.

Expect another announcement or two in the coming weeks as I finish going through the rest of the applications. ^_^

EDIT: Sorry, everyone! This week has been one drama after the other.

I'll e-mail the next wave of moderators tomorrow (Friday).

Thanks again for being so patient and sorry for the wait!

I'd like to thank everyone who applied for the moderator position. ^_^ I wasn't expecting to get a huge response like we did! 22 people applied for the position. I'll try to start getting back with everyone this evening after I finish my homework.

Thanks!

Hi everyone!
This is the SOS I promised a couple weeks ago; we need more moderators to help read over incoming stories and chapters. (Sorry for the wait. It's been a hectic week.)

Moderators

The Job: Moderators read over incoming chapters and stories for problems with spelling, punctuation, and/or grammar. If the submission is okay, they validate the story or chapter so it appears on the site. If there is problems, they send the author an e-mail explaining what was wrong and then deletes the chapter or story. You can choose to maintain only certain areas of the archive or you can choose to handle anything that comes in.

Moderators can also post News and Announcements on the front page.

Once you're comfortable with the job and I'm comfortable with your knowledge of the archive, I'll expand your abilities so you can add categories and characters.

Limitations: I'm asking that only people who have been on Lunaescence 6 months or longer please apply.

Hours/Time/Quota: Anything you can give me or feel like giving me. Real life always comes first.

To apply: You have two options for applying:

Applications Closed!

I'll be accepting applications until January 10th and will e-mail everyone back on January 13th.

Thanks! Happy Holidays, everyone! Take care and be safe.

Have you submitted a story and it's not up yet? That's probably because we haven't gotten to you yet. ^_^; We are overflowing with submissions and have not been able to get to all of them yet.

We're trying our best to read through all of them, but it takes time. Sometime next week, I'll be putting out the SOS for more mods, but I need to get my final exams done first before I start the process.

Thank you for your continued patience. (You guys are saints! Thank you!)

DJ_Man has been published!

Heart of Souls is "...A story set in a brand new fantasy world. Two countries are ready to go to war while a man, scorned by hate, manipulates the world to heal the wounds he has suffered." ~ From Lulu.com

You can offer your congratulations here.

Or better yet, you can buy his book here and show your support.

Congratulations! You deserve it!

No, it is not your imagination -- many of you are getting a ton of reviews in the past few days. Nope, they have nothing to say about your story. It's porn, cellphones, ringtones, viagra, and more porn.

This time, it looks our lovely crop of spammers are using what is called a "relay", so I can't ban their butts. I'm deleting the spam at least twice a day, but they keep coming. They're anonymous, so you should be able to delete their reviews yourself. You can also switch your reviews to "Members Only" in your profile area, which should stop them too.

Really sorry about this, everyone.

Okay, I'm done for the day. Hit counters have been fixed yet again.

Now they're counting your average hits based on the number of chapters you have in each story. You can hit "View Chapters" to see your exact count for each chapter. I can't say you'll won't get some wierd numbers, since it just counts how many times a page is viewed -- not by who views it.

Next order of business, you can now manually reset your hit counters. Just go to "Manage Stories" and it will be towards the bottom.

I will now leave you to your regularly scheduled program so I can do my homework. ^^;

Enjoy!

Well, ladies and gentlemen. It's time for sweeps again!

Here at Lunaescence, "Sweeps" is a mass cleaning of stories with issues that have somehow made it in, despite our rules for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Unfortunately, I don't have time to do it myself this year.

I'm seeking a team of individuals with good skills in spelling and grammar and are willing to spend a weekend or two helping me clean. You will basically be moderators, but the only job I'm asking you to do will be cleaning.

I do ask that only those who have been on Luna 6 months or longer apply.

If you're interested, please e-mail me at [*snip* removed *snip*]

Thanks!

EDIT: In light of what's happening on other archives, Sweeps have been postponed for now. Thank you to everyone who expressed interest.

Don't quote me on this, but I think I have the reviews fixed. They had been displaying an error message when you tried to view reviews for each chapter. I think I have it fixed, but I can't be sure until I test it further.

Sorry I took so long to fix it.

Thanks, Kremlin_Dusk, for pointing this out to me!

EDIT: Okay, now reviews for series have been fixed too. I don't know how long that's been broken, probably a long time the way I go. ^^;;;

People using @comcast.net e-mail addresses will no longer be able to receive our e-mails. Comcast has decided that all e-mail from our host is spam and is no longer allowed.

We're talking with our hosts right now to see if they can fix this, but there's not too much that can be done in the meantime on our end.

In the meantime, existing authors who use an @comcast.net e-mail address should change their e-mail address if they wish to receive e-mails from us. Recent members who registered, but didn't get their signup e-mails can contact us and we'll get a new password set up for you. (Be sure to include your comcast address and your new address.)

I'm really sorry about this.

It's that time of month again! We need things for our September newsletter.

We already have our Author of the Month and our Featured Theme, but we still need our Story of the Month and our other featured stories!

How do you nominate/suggest someone? Reply to this news post, post to the forums, or e-mail us! It's that easy! =)

Thanks!

Guys... please, please, PLEASE check your spelling and grammar. I can't believe how many fics and chapters I deleted tonight for really silly spelling and grammar mistakes.

Even if your word processing program doesn't have spell-check, the internet is full of online dictionaries and spell-checkers.

So many of these stories had a LOT of great potential; I really hated having to delete them. Q_Q

EDIT: Kremlin_Dusk reminded me... (Thanks!)

Remember, we also have a whole list of friendly, ever-helpful betas! No matter if you can or can't use a spell-checker or online dictionary; a beta is always a really great idea for any type of writing. They can often catch errors that you can't!

I'm having a bit of insomnia, so I spent the day working on getting a hit counter for stories installed. Right now, it's counting per chapter, but I hope to have the rest of it installed tomorrow afternoon. (Mmm, coffee.)

Since popularity contests annoy Sally and I, these statistics are only available to the author.

To see how many times your story has been viewed, please go to your "Manage Stories" page in your user menu and select "View Chapters."

Have fun! =)

Hey guys! Gotta go get ready for work, but wanted to let you know that I've added a Musicals category to the archive as requested. For now, it has Hairspray, RENT, and Wicked. Look for it under the new (kind of new) Miscellaneous category.

I'm not familiar with these musicals, so if someone could shoot me a list of characters, I would appreciate it. =)

Thanks!

Sorry for the lateness. Work has been killing us lately.

This month's newsletter includes:
- New! and Updated!
- Story help: Summaries
- Story Submissions
- 5 new categories




- Featured Story: Turkish Delights by Renovincenthotness
- Featured Author: DT Stickybuns
- Featured Theme/Fandom: Full Metal Alchemist

You can read the full newsletter on our forums or on our LiveJournal.

Ugh, the spammers have their sights on the reviews again. I deleted 43 spam reviews tonight from just ONE story.

Everyone please be on the lookout for this crap. It's pretty easy to recognize; theres almost no spaces in the comments, lots of links, and stuff about ringtones, porn, and crap.

The good news is that they're anonymous, so you should be able to delete them. This weekend, I'm going to take a look at the code and see how they're getting by everything.

Thanks!

It's that time of month again! ^_^ Time for nominations for Author of the Month, Story of the Month, Featured Theme, Featured Fandom, and featured stories that demonstrate the featured theme or fandom. If you're feeling creative, you can also suggest a new poll! (I'm out of ideas, personally. ^^;)

Remember, with the Author of the Month and featured Fandom, we need a short blurb to go with it. (You can see an example of the blurb on the Front Desk.)

How do you nominate someone, you ask? Reply to this news post, post on our LiveJournal, post on the forums, or even drop us an e-mail. This is on a first-come, first-feature basis, so if we receive more than one nomination, then they'll just be used next month.

Our newsletter e-mailer took an unexpected dirt nap for July, but I think we have it fixed for August's. *crosses fingers*

Thanks! Take care and be safe! ^_^

Hope everyone's summer is going well. We've a little busy, but otherwise we're doing great. ^_^

This month's newsletter includes:
- New! and Updated!
- Story help: Summaries
- Story Submissions
- 21 new categories




- Featured Story: Make a wish... by Alky
- Featured Author: DT Stickybuns
- Featured Theme: Love for the Unloved

You can read the full newsletter on our forums or on our LiveJournal.

Just to prove to everyone that I'm still alive, I've gone and played with the archive again. (And managed not to break it - wow! =]P )

Next to all new and updated stories, you'll now see "New!" or "Updated!" depending on which it is. Right now, they're rather plain but I'll leave it up to Sally to make some pretty ones that pop. =)

Also, to make it clearer, I've changed some of the wording on the story sorter on our category pages. You've always been able to change the sort order so new fics are on top, now it just says it clearer.

So as Sally says: Enjoy!

EDIT: Changed some more things around. Adding chapters should now record dates, though I haven't finished the display for them. Let me know if you run into anything.

It's that time of month again! ^_^ Time for nominations for Author of the Month, Story of the Month, Featured Theme, Featured Fandom, and featured stories that demonstrate the featured theme or fandom. If you're creative, you can also suggest a new poll!

Remember, with the Author of the Month and featured Fandom, we need a short blurb to go with it. (You can see an example of the blurb on the Front Desk.)

How do you nominate someone, you ask? Reply to this news post, post on our LiveJournal, post on the forums, or even drop us an e-mail. This is on a first-come, first-feature basis, so if we receive more than one nomination, then they'll just be used next month.

Now, for a plea. Guys: Please, please, please! Please check your spelling and grammar! I really hate having to turn stories away for having relatively minor spelling and grammar problems.

Thanks! Take care and be safe! ^_^

Don't quote me on this, but I think I have the reviews fixed. ^_^ I'm going to continue testing, just to be sure.

If you run into any further glitches, I'll likely be online and logged in for the rest of the day. If Jasson has trouble sleeping like he did last night, he might be on for most of the night too.

Thanks so much!

I have some good news or bad news depending on how you look at it. Both Jasson and I have located jobs, which means we'll have more money to spend on the site and related things. The bad news is that we're going to be juggling a lot of things, including this site because we're working the night shift.

This month's newsletter includes:
- New Options
- Story help: Summaries
- Category Formats
- 16 new categories




- Featured Story: "Nightshade" by ShadTig
- Featured Author: DarkNinja246
- Featured Theme: Angst

You can read the full newsletter on our forums or on our LiveJournal.

We're in the process of adding a new option for our members: Disallowing Reviews.

School hasn't been out for the summer that long and already we're having a problem with flamers. The new option will allow you to disallow all reviews or just anonymous ones. We have it added to your user options page, but it will be the weekend before we will have the chance to add it to the reviews.

Until then, now is your chance to pick your new settings. ^^

Enjoy!

EDIT: It's all installed. Let me know if you find any bugs and I'll squish them for you. ^_~

EDIT #2: I've added privacy controls for the author contact form too. Beta readers should note they need to provide an alternative way for authors to contact them if they turn the form off.

I'm really sorry for vanishing on everyone for April and now most of May. College and serious real-life issues made April a very difficult month for us. I can't promise that we're back 100%, but we will give it our all.

This month's newsletter includes:
- Plagiarism
- Ria Published!
- Author Forums




- Featured Story: "Existence" by Hikari_no_Kage
- Featured Author: Tsula
- Featured Theme: April Fools' Sheep Shearing Essays

You can read the full newsletter on our forums or on our LiveJournal.

I guess I have to say this again: Plagiarism is a Zero-Tolerance offense.

Plagiarism is defined as taking someone else's story, poem, or other writing and claiming it as your own. Taking what doesn't belong to you is called "stealing."

Thank you to everyone who reported the latest theft; you know who you are.

FAQ: How do I report plagiarism?

It's time to begin writing the April newsletter.

We need:
- Author of the Month
- Story of the Month
- Theme of the Month
- Featured Fandom
- 2 Poll topics
- And more.

Please have all submissions for the newsletter or monthly features in by April 3rd.

You can see our previous stories and authors of the month here. Remember, you can nominate something by replying to this news post, our news thread, our LiveJournal, our Gaia Online Guild, or by e-mail.

Sorry, everyone! Hopefully you should be able to post reviews again. I updated the spam filters last night and something got messed up.

Also star ratings are back for the Challenge Series. Just keep in mind that I don't go by the stars, but by a report I print up directly from database. I can see who votes repeatedly.

You have ONE vote and one vote ONLY.

Also something to keep in mind: Star ratings are determined by figuring your average score, then dividing it by 2. If someone reviewed your story before I turned voting on, your score will be averaged including those non-scoring reviews. So if your score looks low, consider the reviews you already have.

Alrighty then, let me know if you have any more troubles.

Just so everyone knows, once voting is over, I'll be adding up the points manually. Bonus points will be awarded for stories that included any of the bonus items I listed in each challenge.

Also, the process will involve completely disregarding any stuffed votes. So that means that if you spammed a story to raise or lower it's star rating, ALL of your votes will be completely disregarded.

To discourage further spamming/stuffing, the star ratings have all been hidden.

Hey everyone! I get insomnia, we get categories and characters. XD

The following categories have had their characters list massively updated:
- Power Rangers
- Death Note
- Teen Titans
- Xaiolin Showdown
- Utena
- Gargoyles
- Stargate

Also, we've changed the Movies & TV section around a little as an experiment. Movie and TV franchises have been grouped together. This includes:
- Star Wars
- Pitch Black/Riddick
- CSI
- Firefly
- Stargate

Also, we've added a load of new categories. If you're interested in seeing what was added, click here. Thanks!

It's time to begin writing the March newsletter.

We need:
- Author of the Month
- Story of the Month
- Theme of the Month
- Featured Fandom
- 2 Poll topics
- And more.

We would also like to have another challenge series for March. We're looking for 3 - 6 challenges with a March, White's Day, or other seasonal theme.

Please have all submissions for the newsletter or monthly features in by March 3rd.

You can see our previous stories and authors of the month here. Remember, you can nominate something by replying to this news post, our news thread, our LJ post, our Gaia Online Guild, or by e-mail.

Lately, we've been noticing more people are flaming stories because they're "boring", "disgusting", "stupid", "dumb", "gross," or for whatever other stupid reason.

Three people have been banned so far, others have been suspended, and a few more are pushing it. We will not bother to send warnings out before we ban, so be forewarned. We don't have time or interest in babysitting.

Everyone's beta reader profiles have been reset.

Based on everyone's feedback, I've added in a space to fully explain what you absolutely will not read. This is still a work in progress, so I would appreciate any and all feedback.

Also, you'll notice there's a new menu called "Improve." No more hunting for the beta reader listing!

EDIT: I have hooked the beta readers up to the categories. =) So when you click on "# Beta Readers", you'll now be taken to a list of betas for that category. It's still buggy, so bear with me until I can figure out what I've done wrong.

It's been an interesting past couple months. With the site going down shortly after Christmas and not getting back up until mid-January really threw us all off. Hopefully that won't happen again. *crosses fingers*

This month's newsletter includes:
- A warning about flaming
- Author Forums
- Seasonal and Holiday Stories
- Challenge: February Challenge Series
- Beta Reader Profile
- 16 New Categories!




- Featured Fandom: Saiyuki
- Featured Story: "Life is Just a Game" by KawaiiTenshi110
- Featured Author: Nashi

You can read the full newsletter on our forums or on our LiveJournal.

I just laid down a few bans for flaming.

Remember, we have ratings and warnings for a reason. Scan those lists before you read. If words like "yaoi" or "sex" causes you to develop an acute case of rabies, I strongly suggest you stick to things more your speed.

Sincerely,
- Jasson

Some of you have requested your own guestbook or shoutbox on your profile. Well, I'm not quite up to that level yet. ^^;

But what I can offer validated authors is their own forum on the message board. We'll make you admin of your forums, so you can have the total control you need.

Interested? Head on over to The Coffee House

Thanks!

Thanks everyone! We're glad to be back. For a while, we were scared we weren't coming back too. ^^;

Since we missed the January newsletter, we're accepting submissions for the February newsletter and monthly features a little early.

We need:
- Author of the Month
- Story of the Month
- Theme of the Month
- Featured Fandom
- 2 Poll topics
- And more.

We would also like to have a challenge series for February. We're looking for 3 - 6 challenges with a February, Valentine's, romance, or seasonal theme. (We'll also accept White's day, even though it's in March.)

Please have all submissions for the newsletter or monthly features in by February 3rd.

You can see our previous stories and authors of the month here. Remember, you can nominate something by replying to this news post, our news thread, our LJ post, our Gaia Online Guild, or by e-mail.

Welcome back, everyone! It's been too long. ^^;

If you're wondering about why this happened, here's the long story:

Sometime in either November or December, the bank decided to freeze / cancel our credit card because at some point our credit card information was lost or stolen from a gas station we visited at some point. (We don't even remember using a Wesco station, but apparently we did.) As a precation, Mastercard and our bank froze / canceled our credit card.

Since we pay for our domain every three months, December was the month we had to pay.

So, our domain has been down this whole time while we waited for the bank to send us a new card.

So far, all stories, reviews, etc. appear to be completely intact. Please let me know if anything is missing. Also, since the domain was down, my mail was also down. That means that it will take me a bit to sort through the several week backlog

Thanks for being so patient, everyone.

The beta reader profile is now open to all members for testing.

To use:
1.) Go to your User Account Menu and edit your account information.
2.) Select "I would like to volunteer to be a beta-reader for others."
3.) Return to your account menu. You should now see "Beta Reader Profile" in your options.

Please note that the profile is still in the testing stage and is incomplete. If you encounter any errors please either e-mail us or post to the forums.

Reviews have been fixed so you can now reply to them again. We made a bit of a typo while making some changes to that part of the code.

Sorry, everyone!

Sorry, everyone. There was a problem with Shuriken that was causing the Submit Story page to mess up in certain browsers. I've located the error and fixed it.

Please let me know if there are any further problems.

Thank you.

Happy December, minna! ^_^

This month's newsletter includes:
- National Novel Writing Month 2006 Wrapup
- Seasonal and Holiday Stories
- Challenge: "6 Beverage Drabble challenge!" by Tikatu
- Beta Reader Profile
- 29 New Categories!




- Featured Fandom: Yu Yu Hakusho
- Featured Story: "Broken Lives, Broken Dreams, Broken Hearts" by Priestess of Camazotz
- Featured Author: Nomadic Spirit

You can read the full newsletter on our forums or on our LiveJournal.

Just finished fixing a few possible bugs in the story upload feature. Not sure if it is solved, since my test stories all posted without a problem.

As a reminder, the archive can ONLY handle Plain Text (.txt) and Web Page (.html, .htm) files. The archive can not handle Microsoft Word documents.

Also, this morning I installed a primitive spam check on new user registrations. It seems to be working properly, but I'll test it further once I recover a bit from my almost-all-nighter. =)

Zzzzz... *

Sorry to anyone who may be using Shinigami Blue or Shuriken skins for your personal fan fiction sites. I found out there's some problems I didn't find when I tested both of them.

I've updated the .zip file for Shinigami Blue with the right CSS so the links in the header should show up.

I'm still trying to track down what's happening to the news comments in the Shuriken skin, since it's working right on all my sites.

I'm so sorry about that!

I finished my English 321 homework early, so a new skin called "Shuriken" is now available. ^_^ Registered users may select this new skin from your author bio.

As usual, it is still technically incomplete, but safe to use. Please let us know if you find anything strange or have any suggestions for its improvement.

For those of you who may be running your own copy of eFiction, the standard version of this skin is available for download on our forums.

Ack, I'm really sorry everyone!!

I made the site hiccup somehow, though I'm not sure what I did.

Would NightGrace please re-register and resubmit your stories? Anyone who submitted a story, review, challenge, or series between 8pm and 8:30pm (eastern) on November 10th might want to check to make sure I didn't lose those too.

Again, I'm really sorry about that!

I hope eveyone had a safe and happy Halloween! For those of you living in the US, I bet you're as thankful as we are that those stupid political commericals commercials are done now. Not much news came in during October and November, so this is going to be a very short newsletter.

This month's newsletter includes:
- Real Names in Reviews
- Challenge: "6 Beverage Drabble challenge!" by Tikatu
- Seasonal Stories




- Featured Fandom: Legend of Zelda
- Featured Story: "The Bond" by cmar
- Featured Author: Crimson

You can read the full newsletter on our forums or on our LiveJournal.

This really should be common sense, but I guess I have to say it anyway:

DO NOT POST PEOPLE'S REAL NAMES IN REVIEWS FOR ANY REASON!

This is not cool. This is dangerous. Anyone -- and I do mean anyone -- can read reviews.

I've already had to ban someone calling themselves "KITTY" and Sally and I will not hesitate to ban anyone else.

Got it?

Until further notice, you're going to have to have to have an account and be logged in to use the "Contact Author" links in everyone's user profiles.

It seems that some spammers have discovered the "contact author" links and have sent some people spam for perscription meds (among other things).

Hopefully I can get something set up over the weekend and the links will return. In the meantime, you can still review or contact Sally or I no matter if you're logged in or not.

Sorry for any inconveniences this may cause. =(

EDIT: Okay, the links are back. It won't stop the spammers from bothering anyone, but if you send me a copy of the e-mail they send you I'll be able to ban them.

Don't you love it when life suddenly takes away every second of your free time? Sally and I are back in class and busier than ever, so things haven't been getting done around the site. ^^;; Sorry in advance.

Has fall caught anyone else by surprise? It seems only yesterday I was setting out some pots with tomatoes and stuff, now I'm planning on disposing of the plants and putting the pots into storage for the winter. Time flies?

Beta Readers are your friend....find them and use them!

Alright I've noticed a huge influx of fics that have simple spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Authors please please PLEASE find yourself a beta reader, there are many around the forums as well as on the website. Email them, message them, find them and use them.

Most of the mistakes are easily made, and even easier to fix. Nothing makes me sadder then turning away a fic with an amazing concept that has too many spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Where the heck did the summer go? It barely seems like summer started and now the leaves are starting to turn up by us. ^^;

Hey folks. This is just a quick note to let you know that a new skin called "Pink" is now available.

There are still a few bugs I need to work out, so things may look a little strange. However, it's working well enough that it can be used. Please let me know if you find anything weird.

I've made a topic on the forums if anyone wants to toss me any feedback. I can still change anything anyone doesn't like. (Seriously, I won't bite if you do.)

Okay, now to get that newsletter out... *blush*

The list of current nominees for the 2006 Readers Choice Awards has been updated!

Thanks and congratulations to our current nominees.

Today is your last chance to nominate someone for the 2006 Readers Choice Awards!

We still have plenty of award categories and nominees to choose from. So nominate your favorite story or author today!

Eh - sorry about that, folks. ^^; I kind of messed something up. You should be able to log in now.

Sorry again!

I just finished installing some more security modifications. (Yeah, I'm paranoid. =]P) Since these only affect the admin end of things, they should be transparent to most of you.

As usual, if you notice any weirdness, give me a holler.

Edit: Fixed my spelling. =]P Thanks, BlackMystique.

In light of the recent hackings on other fan fiction sites, I just installed the latest update. It adds a few more security checks to the site as a whole.

As usual, let me know if you encounter any weirdness.

Tonight we might experience a little downtime. Our host is upgrading our server to make us possibly run a little faster. They assure us it shouldn't be down for more than a few minutes.

Also, some of you have reported the hacking over at Fictionzone.org. Since they use the same program we do, we're keeping a close watch on the server for any malicious activity and have downloaded full backups to make sure nothing is lost.

Thanks! =)

I thought a note about this on the registration page would be enough. But obviously anything I put on that page is going to be ignored...

For the past 3 - 4 months anyone using hotmail.com has been having trouble getting their registration e-mails. It looks like our e-mail has been labeled as spam for some reason, and we don't know why.

If you are a hotmail user, you will either need to make sure archive{at}lunaescence.com is in your whitelist OR get a new e-mail address.

Edit: After testing, it doesn't matter what you do: white list, safe list, address book... hotmail.com users WILL NOT get their welcome messages.

*sigh* I'm really sorry for being so snippy. Until further notice, new users should avoid using a hotmail.com e-mail address to sign up with.

I'm organizing a Naruto RPG!

Come join in the fun! It was made just today, so you havn't missed a THING, Characters are still open, and OC's are welcome!

NightLife_Ninja on Yahoo Groups

Naruto was one of the early categories on this site and after looking at the character list, I realized how many mistakes either the original request contained or one of us made.

Those authors publishing Naruto fan fiction here may wish to check their main characters and update accordingly.

If any of our other categories have mistakes in the character list, please let us know.

Yikes, it's been hot lately! I hope everyone is doing okay with all the heat that's been hanging around lately.

Until further notice star ratings have been removed from this site. Lately, it seems people have had way too much time on their hands and have either been repeatedly rating their own or their friends stories to inflate their rating OR to lower someone else's.

I realize you want your story to appear in the best way possible, but this is absolutely ridiculous.

I may bring them back eventually. If I feel like it.

Hello everyone!
I've updated the forums as well as the Readers Choice Awards page with the current nominees. The nominees have also been contacted to let them know and I will be marking their accounts with an icon of some sort sometime during the next week.

Also, I need a few people to contact me back regarding their nominations. If you submitted your nomination anonymously and do not see your nominee on the list, please contact me back ASAP.

Thanks and congratulations to our current nominees.

Hey everyone, just so you know our reviews are being hit by spammers right now. What they're doing is trying to post a few hundred links into their review in an attempt to raise their ranking with Google.

We're trying to make the review form more secure, but it may take a while. In the meantime, feel free to report a review that you think is spam. If the review is on one of your stories, you should be able to delete it.

Sorry about this!

EDIT: I meant on your story, not you spamming. *blush*

Due to a lack of nominations, we're giving everyone until next month to nominate authors and stories for the first annual Reader's Choice Awards.

I'll be announcing the current nominees tomorrow night on the Forums.

Thanks! =)

Hello everyone,

Sometime before the end of summer we're going to conduct a random sweep of the archive for stories that violate our rules.

We will be looking for:

• Spelling
• Grammar
• Proper use of paragraphs
• Excessive formatting
• Proper capitalization
• Chat Shorthand in stories
• Problems with words like there, they're, and their
• Story tense
• Stories posted to wrong location
• Plagiarism, theft, and abuse
• And more...

Please note that validated authors may also be included in this. Now is a good time to find yourself a beta reader to make sure your stories won't be caught up in this sweep.

Also, I have to remind everyone that we have a strict Zero Tolerance policy for plagiarism. Any accounts found violating this rule will be instantly banned from this web site forever.

Seriously folks, this isn't a difficult concept. If you can't comprehend that copying someone's work and claiming it for your own is theft -- you seriously need to go somewhere else.

Unless there is a very good reason for doing so, fan fiction DOES NOT belong in the Original Stories section. Why? You didn't create the fandom you're writing for. If your story contains characters from a TV show, anime, manga, movie, book, or game -- it belongs in one of the fan fiction categories.

If I don't have the category you need, contact me and ask for it! Do not stuff it in another category. That includes the Miscellaneous section.

You have until this time next weekend to move your stories or they will be deleted.

I hope everyone had a happy holiday over the first week. ^_^ I think I ate my weight in bratwurst, burgers, and hotdogs.

In this month's newsletter, we bring up the update to the possible rule upgrades, two new additions to our convention schedule, and the Reader's Choice Awards.

Hi everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that nominations for the 2006 Readers Choice Awards are now open.

Awards categories are posted on our forums but we'll try to have a link to a more permanent list up by tomorrow. You can submit your nominations either by e-mail, on the message board, or as a comment on our LiveJournal.

Please be sure to include your name, the name of the person you're nominating, and the title of the story in your nomination.

Please remember that this contest is ONLY for stories hosted on this web site.

Thanks! Have fun! ^_^

By request, we've created a lighter-weight version of our "Shinigami_Blues" skin, called "Shingami_HPB." Registered users can select this from your author bio.

Hopefully with the toned-down graphics, it should load faster for those of you on slower connections. Sally and I are still working out some of the kinks, but it works pretty well. In fact (unless she opts to kill me) I think I'll make this the default layout so we can get rid of the old Autumn_Red skin.

More skins to come!

Thanks!

Hey folks, =)

Sally and I are now preparing to write the July 2006 Newsletter.

We're accepting nominations for:

• Author of the Month
• Story or Story Theme of the Month
• Challenge of the Month
• July Poll or Polls
• Featured Anime and Manga

We also accept con reports and attendence notifications, announcements, upcoming events, articles on writing, and more.

If you're interested in contributing to the newsletter, please have it in to us no later than 11:59pm Eastern on July 1st.

Thanks!

I'm almost done with my next layout. ^_^

I'm releasing the default version for download for archives running eFiction 2.0 and 3.0 and will have a picture of a kiwi fruit at the top. However, since I still have my raw files, I can easily alter our version with seriously causing any other major changes.

Do we want to keep the kiwi, or would you like to see something a little different?

The final choice is still mine based on availability of images and how much work it'll take me to edit. But I would really appreciate your opinion.

Thanks!

Tomorrow morning, starting at 8am, the forums will be down for at least a couple hours for a much-needed upgrade.

During this time, I'll have it in maintenance mode so nothing gets changed while I'm applying the updates.

Thanks!

EDIT: All done, and I'm ahead of schedule too. =)

Hi everyone! This is just a quick note to let you know that a new skin called "Shinigami Blue" is now available.

There are still a few bugs I need to work out, so things may look a little "off." However, it's working well enough that it can be used. Please let me know if you find anything weird.

We have three more skins in the works, so we can give Autumn Red and Maruaders a break, at least for a little while. ^^;;

Thanks!

Edit: Positions Filled! Thank you so much to everyone who applied! I'm waiting on responses from everyone and then I'll announce the new moderators.

We're looking for moderators again! As a moderator, you'll screen incoming stories and chapters for technical issues such as spelling and grammar.

Knowledge of basic spelling and grammar is required, as is knowledge of at least a few anime, manga, or game titles. We ask that that only authors who have been a member of the site for at least 3 - 4 months and have at least one story posted apply.

We will accept applications to oversee specific categories, but we ask that you choose a minimum of three to oversee.

We need the most help in the following categories:

• Final Fantasy 7
• Fruits Basket
• Full Metal Alchemist
• Inuyasha
• Kingdom Hearts (All)
• Naruto
• Yu-Gi-Oh
• Yu-Gi-Oh GX
• Yu Yu Hakusho

It's completely up to you on how much you want to help. We'd even take help overhauling the FAQ and creating a better help page.

If you're interested in becoming a Moderator, please contact me.

New Features
Lunaescence Archives Community Center

Our new forums are now open! Talk with friends, gossip, discuss the ins and outs of fan fiction, spam -- it's all good.

Upcoming Features

Now that finals are over, we're getting back to improving the site and the upcoming "Shinigami Blues" layout.

We also need help in deciding what series is going to top the upcoming Spring 2006 layout. Spring 2005 featured Martian Successor Nadesico, Fall 2005 Ed and Winry from Full Metal Alchemist took the stage.

Please speak up, let us know who you want!


Thanks! ^_^

Jasson and I will be graduating from college within the next 6 to 9 months and will be starting our internships well before that. I've come to the conclusion that it's time to see about making some moderators.As a moderator, you'll screen submitted stories and chapters for quality based on our submissions policy and rules. You'll also receive admin e-mails such as category requests, questions, new story alerts, etc.

Knowledge of proper spelling and grammar is required. We'd also prefer that at least one Moderator be familair with the CYOA and Reader Insert story types.

Global Moderators (the whole archive) are preferred, though we'll also accept Category Moderators.

Global Moderators should have knowledge of multiple anime and manga titles along with at least some knowledge of popular game titles. In addition to screening stories, you'll also have the ability to add categories, characters, site news, edit existing stories, add stories from other authors, and edit some of the minor archive settings such as genres, warnings, story types, etc.

Category Moderators are only responsible will be to their assigned categories. They can add edit existing stories, add stories from other authors, and screen submitted stories, but not much else.

As of right now, we'll only accept Category Mods for these categories: (You must be able to at least watch 3)

Fruits Basket
Fullmetal Alchemist
Gundam (Seed / Seed Destiny / Wing)
Inuyasha
Ronin Warriors
Yoroiden: Samurai Troopers
Yu-Gi-Oh
Yu Yu Hakusho

I'd prefer to only accept applicants who have been here since at least September or October of this year and have at least two stories published.

If you're interested in becoming a Moderator, please contact me at sally[AT]lunaescence[DOT]com.