Completed Stories Only

[Syrenslure]

I really miss the way the forum/archive worked before. I liked the way I could interact with the authors who were writing WIPs, and the way the sense of community helped to encourage each other to produce new stories.

Now, PA seems a bit of an afterthought, with a mostly abandoned forum, and only a few WIP in the archive, when I am used to only reading completed stories there.

I realize that this was partly a financial issue, in allocating server resources, and is unlikely to be changed (though I do have a VPS, if you would like to discuss hosting issues).

That being said, would you be willing to add a mod to eFiction that similar to "Recent Stories" Only searches for "Completed Stories".

Also, maybe some small one shot challenges or authors threads on the board to encourage participation (ie. Eaqch author could have a thread that anyone can post to about their current WIP's or feedback in general that the author could subscribe to to actually intereact with other polar fans)

*shrugs* I don't know, I just miss you guys, and the polar inspiration of this place.

[ladygloria]

Lyssa, we encouraged our authors to create their own threads and left them open for people to interact with. I'll check to see if that mod exists and try and add it. The move was made for multiple reasons none of which have to do with server space. Phpbb is very much a pain in our collective butts and when authors post here and don't move their stories its even a bigger pain, particularly as there are very few of us with time to manage such activities. Efic, as you know, takes up less space for backing up purposes and that makes it more convenient for me to create backups. When stories were here, our phpbb tables were too large and when they were lost the old backups were too huge for the server to let us restore and even with help from our server company they were corrupted. I know there are ways to manage the tables better, but honestly efic's way of cataloging and storing information is far more efficient.

As for interaction, there are many stories with interaction and options to leave author responses to feedback on efiction and here. I do encourage you to create a thread here for you and any author to do one for themselves. Most people go to efic to interact and rarely come here (we have nearly a thousand people who've joined efic most since the switch as opposed to a few hundred here), but that doesn't mean the ones here aren't active and wanting to react.

Hmmm, thought we had added the challenges area back, but as always anyone is free to post inspirational challenges. Our drabble threads and sentences thread are quite popular, maybe one shots and other challenges would also garner some participation. We've struggled for years in getting participation and know that a great deal of our folks have left the fandom, left the writing, or just don't have time to interact but we want to do things to encourage people who do. In fact, it's part of why we brought back this part of our board for interaction. It's been far more active than I thought it would be and fb and activity on efic has really picked up as well.

So that being said, yes, I'll look for such a mod. Sorry I rambled...

[Syrenslure]

I get it, thanks. I think it really is a frustration born of time, and the fact that many people have moved on and no longer share my obsession

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me... if you need any help around here, just let me know.

[ladygloria]

well, i always appreciate active members, artists who can make pretty skins and fanart, and most of all WRITERS with stories to tell.

[Cinder]

I agree. I love to see as much board participation as possible. And I am glad to see you picking up that story, Syren.