Omniflyer has informed me that there seems to be another influx of potentially dangerous links using the review and comment system. If you have received reviews involving links of any sort, DISREGARD THEM AND DO NOT CLICK THEM. We cannot be held responsible for any damages done to your computer if you do.
In the meantime, I'm going to contact Mid and see if this can't get sorted out.
-Triad
--Triad Orion on 05/11/08 3:28 PM 28 Comments
So, today's supposed to be the day the contest ends, but unfortunately, the archive still isn't working properly. I've tinkered with it some, but I can't quite figure out what's wrong with it. Sometimes uploads work, sometimes they don't.
I don't really know what the next step is here. Those of you who have contest entries all completed are welcome to try and upload them, but keep in mind that it may or may not go through. I'll keep working to try to get to the bottom of this problem; hopefully I'll have another update on the archive's status in a few days. Stay tuned.
--Midnight C on 05/05/07 2:51 AM 27 Comments
ATTENTION: There is something going on with the server and it's making story uploads impossible at the moment. I'll update you when the problem is fixed.
~MC on 3/5/07
I'm still working on those small site tweaks I mentioned, as well as another Skin. It's just all a little slow in coming.
This news post is mostly to assure everyone that I haven't disappeared again. But Triad and I also wanted to make it known that we are holding the GSFFA's first ever Fanfiction Contest! The rules are pretty straight forward, and we're being really generous with the deadline in the hopes that it will inspire lots of people to enter. So please check it out everyone...it should be a great way to expand the archive and have fun with it at the same time. If this experiment goes well, expect us to have more in the future. ^^
--Midnight C on 03/02/07 1:13 AM 28 Comments
As you can all hopefully see, I finished the new layout. I hope you like it; I know it's quite a bit different from all the previous ones. I may still tweak it a little here and there...play around with colors and stuff, but my hope is that this will be the first of several "element-based" layouts here. ^^
Next on the list, updating the Help section, Submission Rules, and the (currently non-existent) Terms of Service.
Oh yeah, and since the biggest and most important tasks are done, submissions are open again. Happy writing!
--Midnight C on 02/11/07 12:14 AM 35 Comments
I know the site looks really wonky at the moment; I had to delete the old skins because they were incompatible with the new version. So my next project will obviously be making this place look more Golden Sun-ish. XD Expect to see changes in the layout and skin selections in the next few days.
At the moment, I'm really drained, so big changes will have to wait until tomorrow night. ^^; In the meantime, feel free to poke around and check things out if you like, but please hold off on submitting new stories for a little while longer. Thanks!
--Midnight C on 02/08/07 3:07 AM 10 Comments
OK, slight change of plans. I'm going to have to delay the 3.0 upgrade for awhile as I'm a bit too busy at the moment to sit down and deal with all that technical mumbo-jumbo involved. Upgrading eFiction is very time consuming, as I not only have to upload and run the program, but I also have to change the skin to be compatible with the new version, which is a gigantic pain in he butt. But hey, we can't have this place looking ugly!
I'm expecting that things will be less chaotic by this weekend, so just hang in there everyone. Patience is a virtue, as they say.
--Midnight C on 01/31/07 1:36 AM 9 Comments
I just sent off the final letter for the stories that were backlogged in the submission queue. All the approved ones should appear in the "Recent" section, so go read them--they're really good! And some have been gathering dust since...*cough*March*cough* ^^; Sorry about that. Again.
With that done, I ask that all non-validated authors please hold their stories until further notice. My next big project is upgrading us to eFiction 3.0, and that's enough of a task without having to worry about new submissions to weed through. Thanks!
--Midnight C on 01/25/07 6:49 PM 1 Comments
Hey everyone! Long time, no see, eh? My humble apologies for disappearing for such a long stretch of time without any explanation. You all deserve better than that and I will make sure not to let it happen again.
So where have I been all this time? Well, there were several factors. First was a series of small family related crises, most of them centered around my niece Colleen. I'm happy to report that she is now a healthy 16 month-old, though she is still very small for her age. Oh, and she has a sibling due in late May or early June. My sister is crazy.
The other thing that happened was that my computer just went *KAPLOOY* one day without warning. I'm still not entirely sure what happened to it, though we did eliminate the possibility of it being 423,827 viruses, thank God. So for the past seven months I've been in internet purgatory, forced to get my access through my mother's computer, which wasn't always easy. However, thanks to Christmas donations from family members and a close-out sale at Best Buy, I am now the proud owner of a sweet new Gateway laptop. My brother-in-law even helped me salvage the files I had lost when my old computer died so...HOORAY! ^^
During the next week, my main project will be cleaning up the site and emptying out the submission queue from its months long backlog. (Ugh...I feel terrible about that.) After that, it will be upgrading us to eFiction version 3.01, just released a few days ago. So stay tuned, everyone--it should be an exciting new year here. And again, my apologies for...everything. ^^;;
--Midnight C on 01/21/07 4:19 PM 21 Comments
At this point, I'm well aware of the queue in the GSFFA line. I'll be blunt. I'm not sure if I'm going to have the time to do it myself. Term papers are looming, and I've got four of them to take care of. As you might imagine, this is quite a bit of work, and considering they all require intensive research, my free time for the GSFFA is looking rather low. I'll do what I can in my free time, but I have other obligations and in all fairness, I don't want to be validating fanfiction when I'm in a bad mood. Because that results in me being tougher than I usually am. (Which, suffice it to say, is pretty bad in itself.) So... we'll see. If I can spare the time, I'll get through the queue.
Nevertheless, I sincerely apologize for the delay. I know this has got to be getting frustrating for you guys. Sorry, but college and various other things have an iron fisted grasp on my time, and Mid's personal things are pretty intense right now, so there's really not much that can be done.
And no, we don't need volunteers for Admin, so don't even try to ask. Volunteers will be shot. With... violence. And maybe the Clown Gun if you really annoy me. *Laughs*
That being said, I'll keep you posted on things as they develop. Sorry again, guys!
--Triad Orion on 03/21/06 1:13 AM 340 Comments
Finally a post! I've been trying to get this message up for a solid week, but something either interrupted me or my internet would go out when I had the chance. >< Stupid winter weather...
Anyway, there's been more fun things going on behind the scenes, my friends. Thankfully, it's nothing catastrophic like a hacker [shudder] but that doesn't mean it isn't annoying for me, Triad and anyone else affected by it.
At some point around the end of January or early February, my webhost apparently went and changed the security settings on me, and in turn, it affected new submissions. This prevented any new story from being uploaded properly--they appeared on the site, but there was no actual story beyond the link. So, it looked an awful lot like what was going on with the glitch I mentioned in the previous post, which is why it took us so long to catch the problem. It was, however, a very different issue. With the glitch, the story files still exist on the server; with the security settings messed up, nothing was being written to the server at all.
To the best of my knowledge, the glitch only affects stories that were in the archive prior to the upgrade to eFiction 2.0. I wanted to put that in writing to clear up any confusion that might remain about it. With the security settings now fixed, there shouldn't be any problems with new additions to the archive, so please don't hesitate to submit out of fear, OK?
I've e-mailed everyone affected by the security problem, so things are more or less normal again for now. We're still working on tweaking a few things with the site, so you're all just going to have to continue to bear with us. Or invent that Raid for technological bugs--anyone who could do that would be my hero. ^^;
--Midnight C on 02/23/06 9:14 PM 45 Comments
Somehow it seems appropriate that we're marking the start of 2006 with a slightly revamped site. The upgrade to eFiction 2.0 is complete and now it's just matter of ironing out a couple of smaller wrinkles, which Triad and I will continue to do on the backend. I expect that many of you may have a story or two that's been waiting in the wings since all the strangeness started happening around here. Well, wait no more, because once again submissions are open. Thank you all so much for being so patient for all this time--it's been rough on me and I've no doubt it was rough on you guys, too.
There are some new features to the site now, and Triad and I will be editing the Help page to cover them during the week. Until then, please don't bombard us with questions if you don't understand the Series or Challenge features just yet: wait until we've written the mini-guides first.
In addition, there are some small bugs with the 2.0 script. Chief among these is that the text to some stories/chapters/reviews have vanished while the links to them remain. The stories are not gone so do not panic. All of that data still exists somewhere on the server, but for whatever reason, the software isn't recalling it correctly. I'm not sure exactly how many pieces are affected by this weird bug, but it appears to be a very small percentage of the archive. Please don't freak out if you click a story link and are presented with a blank page. Resolving this issue is at the top of my priority list, but since it is a complex problem, it will take awhile to fix it.
That's all for now. More updates to come as the fine-tuning takes shape. We now return to your regularly scheduled fanfiction.
--Midnight C on 01/22/06 3:04 PM 60 Comments
As of now, the GSFFA is OK. Apparently someone managed to hack the site and implanted a worm. This has since been removed, so it is safe to visit and read the stories on the site. However, we're advocating that for now, none of you attempt to login to the site and edit or upload stories. While there is nothing wrong with the site's software to prevent any of you from doing so, this week we're going to be upgrading to eFiction version 2.0. Any new submissions or edits made at this point could hinder the upgrading process, so please hold all submissions for now.
The hope is that this upgrade will prevent anything like this from happening again. It will also provide more options and better service for all of your GS fanfiction needs in the future as a bonus!
We'll let you know once the upgrade is complete. This process will likely take a few days at least, but hopefully no longer than that. We thank you all in advance for your patience during this rather tumultuous period. Stay tuned!
--Midnight C on 12/28/05 1:07 AM 6 Comments
The cause of this attack is unknown. Midnight and I are working to solve the problem, but we are afraid that a total failure of they site may be inevitable. This means that in the WORSE-CASE SCENARIO that all stories online at the GSFFA will be purged and all authors will be wiped. As well, this might mean the site may need to be rebuilt from scratch.
Should such a catastrophic system error occur, the site will take time to rebuild.
Therefore, in precaution to that event, ANY AUTHOR INTERESTED in being informed when the GSFFA is rebuilt and restored should SEND AN E-MAIL to either myself or Midnight at GigaSonic42@yahoo.com or Midcatwmn@yahoo.com respectively. Should a total failure occur, you will be notified and kept posted on status. Again, total system failure is the WORST CASE SCENARIO.
Should the site NOT fail, another notice such as this will be sent out as an all-clear.
We sincerely apologize for this serious inconvience and we urge anyone who has accessed the site since Saturday, December 17th 2005 to run Anti-Virus Scans on their computer IMMEDIATELY.
--Triad Orion on 12/22/05 2:17 AM 1 Comments
Hello everyone! It's been awhile since the last post, so I figured an update on the status quo was in order.
Firstly, I just finished clearing out a large backlog of submissions dating back about two weeks. My sincerest apologies for those affected by the delay. Triad and I have both been busy in our own personal lives, and I've been having issues with my internet as well, which didn't help matters much. The submission queue is now completely up to date and, Alchemy willing, should remain so. Please check out the new entries when you can as they are quite good!
Also, with the backlog now clear, the archive has now officially reached triple digits!! Keep up the great work, everyone. It's been a thrill watching this site grow, and I'm sure we'd all like it to continue to do so. ^^
--Midnight C on 08/30/05 4:05 PM 151 Comments
Though it may look quiet around here, I can assure you that there have been plenty of new submissions since summer began, and they've run the gamut from outstanding to...um...not outstanding. And that's actually a good thing, because the wider range indicates that this site is garnering more traffic and more GS fans. Or at least that's my theory.
Triad has departed on some sort of family vacation type thing and will be gone for the next week. Which means I'm the only one in charge. [Cue malevolent laughter] Rest assured that even if you don't see me commenting or reviewing much, I am still here doing my administrative duties. And that does not include playing Sacred Stones.
...Not officially anyway.
--Midnight C on 07/09/05 10:27 PM 110 Comments
There's been an Alpha release of eFiction v1.5. It looks like it's still going to be awhile before the bug testing is finished, but once the Beta release comes out, you can expect an upgrade to the site. The new features to the script sound nice indeed and should make this place run much more smoothly for everyone. We'll keep you posted as things develop. Stay tuned!
--Midnight C on 05/18/05 2:25 AM 150 Comments
A Dark Day For The GSFFA.
--Triad Orion on 04/26/05 4:43 AM 60 Comments
Secondly, I ran across something spiffy when I was combing through the site statistics the other day. Down at the bottom of that page, you'll find a link back to this site, which I think is pretty darn cool. I have no idea who decided to submit the GSFFA to this page but to whoever it was, my deepest thanks! ^^
Lastly, in regards to the...discussion under the previous newspost, I don't ever want to see something like that again. Triad and I both agree that the pairing debates have absolutely no place here. Please do not bring them up ever again. I am personally bored to tears with it and judging from past experience, such debates will only serve to erode the community we have here. (I think it's a nice community and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible!) The previous newspost will be deleted at the end of the day along with all of the comments. May we never speak of it again. I hope that is clear enough for everyone.
--Midnight C on 04/06/05 2:42 PM 61 Comments
As it stands right now, Mid has gone a little crazy (not really, but you know how it goes), and she is unable to read and check the stories that come in at this time because of extenuating circumstances. She said she would provide an explanation here when things cooled down.
Myself, as an up and coming History Major with a Literature Minor, have to do an immense amount of reading this semester. On average I'm reading at least two to three hundred pages a week just to keep up, and that doesn't include book reports, term papers, and other things along those lines. What I'm getting at is not that I don't have time to read the submissions, but more so that I grow rather irritiable if I've read too much in a day.
What this means is I often times feel as though that if I was to review a submission after a full day's worth of reading is that I doubt I could give it a fair judgment. After reading quite a bit and paying attention to the great details in class, I become a massive stickler for perfection in what I'm reading. In other words, I become a drill sargeant. This is not condusive to the environment we try to set up here. I fear I would be way too harsh on up and coming authors and wouldn't give them the proper chance they deserve to do well.
Thus, until some of my course work evens out and I get some of my papers and research done, I'll be reviewing submissions less frequently than usual. I'm sorry if this greatly inconviences all of you. I love the GSFFA, but sadly, my schoolwork must come first.
Regardless of the administrator status at this time, we do not require any additional help. Please do not request your services as a substitute administrator. This only serves to irritate me, and I don't think Midnight appreciates it either. If we call for a new admin, don't worry... don't call us, we'll call you.
Thanks for your time! Now, get to updating, people! When things cool down I want to see some stellar fanfiction by some of my favorite authors in here! If any group of people can do it, you guys can! ^_^
--Triad Orion on 02/04/05 6:19 PM 43 Comments
YAR! I HAVE RETURNED!
*Falls on face, then is beaten up by everyone*
Ow. That... that hurt. Anyway... I'm back in college now and should be here more frequently. Believe it or not, my home internet connection was worse than the one I have here, as it turns out. My computer didn't like this site and didn't like the internet much either. The only thing I had time to do was occasionally go to my SheezyArt account to update my brand spanking new sprite comic known as "Defenders of Alpha." Even then, my computer whined at me and I couldn't be on for very long. I think my home computer (which is different than my college computer) is slowly starting to go.
Well, regardless, I'm back now. And no, I wasn't kidnapped by the RS or absorbed by a movie and turned into a superhero with a brand spanking new V-Watch.
For those of you who are interested, here's my SheezyArt gallery where you can read the cast page and see the first ten episodes of Defenders of Alpha:
Defenders of Alpha at SheezyArt
Now, back to work before Mid decides to go headhunting. *Gulp* See you all around... provided she doesn't kill me in my sleep first.
-Triad Orion
--Triad Orion on 01/09/05 3:27 PM 19 Comments