We've been nominated for Best Fanfic Website at the Sunnydale Memorial Fanfiction Awards. Thank you whoever did it. (I'll put up the button later, am at a customer's and can't upload the image right now.)

And since we're nominated and all, I should probably let you know that voting is open over there. Vote here.

Due to my being sick, it's been a while since the challenges were last updated, so I thought I'd mention it here - there are quite a few new ones. Check them out, some sound pretty fun.

Btw, remember my rant about the challenges a while back? I just deleted 18 out of 43 challenges because of atrocious spelling, total lack of capital letters, or grammar so bad that I couldn't even understand what they were saying.

Now, don't panic if your challenge isn't up, I left a few in the queue to be validated later (so more people will see them), and some I deleted because they were too similar to already existing stories or because they called for a non-vampire Spike and would have resulted in stories that can't be posted on the BSV.

As for the ones who submitted those 18 challenges though: I no longer accept challenges that contain the type and amount of mistakes that make it obvious that you didn't even try. Either check what you are about to submit or live with it being deleted.

Whenever someone uses the Send email feature in your profile, you now won't just receive an email, but the message can also be found under My Account -> View Messages.

The number next to the View Messages link tells you how many unread messages you have, so just clicking My Account will let you know if anyone tried to contact you.

You can mark messages you've received as read so that you can keep them but not have them show up as new the next time you check. Unread is also available should you need it for some reason.

Delete lets you delete the message, and if the message in question was sent by another member, you can even reply directly without bothering with email.

There has also been a change to the Send email option in the author profiles. If you're logged in while using it, the script will automatically use the name and email address of your account.

Any questions?

Editor for Bio and Forum Signature added. As always: you have a prob, let me know.

Not sure if the other textboxes (aside from the ones on the story submission form, those are on my list anyway) need to be replaced or not. If you could let me know where else you'd like the new editor instead of the old boxes, I'd appreciate it.

Message for letitia: Please read the comments for this announcement!

OK, you know what, I don't care if this is going to make me sounds like an absolute bitch, I'll say it anyway.

Story submissions on this archive are moderated, our rules say things like "proper grammar and spelling", so why is it so hard to figure out that the same rules would apply to the challenges? I get that you don't want to bother someone about proofreading those few lines, that you may not have the option to spell-check the text, or that English may not be your first language, but goddammit, there is no, absolutely no excuse not to capitalize the character names! And chat-speak? You've got to be kidding me!

I proofread and fix up the submitted challenges, but it would be nice if you could at least make some effort.

I've decided that if it is obvious that you didn't even try to spell things correctly and form coherent sentences, I'll not try to fix it up either, I'll just delete it. I'll make sure to add a note about that on the challenge submission form so everyone knows about it before hitting Submit.

Sorry to everyone who does make sure to use proper language and spelling in their submissions, this rant was obviously not directed at you, and your stuff will be in no danger of being rejected. This is for the people who think chat-speak in a challenge is fine, while capital letters and punctuation are optional.

You now have the same editor from the forum for the reviews. (With the options that aren't allowed in the reviews removed of course.) Let me know if you have any problems.

Ditto for the challenges. (Remember: the FF spell-check add-on works with this editor and the editor's own spell-check option only needs a dictionary installed to work with IE. So unless you submit a challenge from a computer at work, where you aren't allowed to install add-ons, there is no reason not to spell-check it.)

I took the old forum editor down and replaced it with the new one you've been testing.

Here are some of the most important changes:

If your browser already has a spell-check plugin, you can actually use it now. Just press the CTRL button while right-clicking the misspelled word, and you'll see the menu you're used to.

You no longer need to add the code for images by hand, the add image button on this editor works like it should. (You still need a working link for the image though, no uploading allowed.)

Flash videos, i.e. from YouTube, can now be included in a forum entry. Either use the editor's Flash button, or switch to source and copy-paste the code YouTube provides.

LJ users and communities can be linked directly (they have their own buttons), and the links will look just like on lj.

You can add as many quotes as you like to your post. (IE users: When adding a new quote it will always appear at the end of your text. If you want it elsewhere, you'll have to move it manually. This is not the case for FF users.)

Problems or questions? Let me know.

Remember the post I made on November the 3rd about our ongoing problems with AOL? I checked the news, it was definitely on the 3rd - remember that, it's important.

Anyway, I made that post after I'd tested several variations to our contact-form in the hope of making it work with AOL email addresses. To do that, I'd also created an AOL account of my own *shudders*. Of course, none of the test-messages reached that account, hence my comment in the news. After posting that comment I emailed AOL in hope of some support *snorts* - not that I ever got a reply.

Just now I was researching something else and stumbled upon another idea I thought might help with the AOL problem, and logged into my otherwise ignored AOL account. And what do I see? Two of my test-messages are sitting in there waiting for me to discover them. Great, right? Well, not so much, since the date of those messages is November the 5th. Two whole days after I sent them. Makes me wonder how I'm supposed to run proper tests when I have to wait several days after a change to see if it had any effect.

Sorry for ranting, needed to vent, I fucking hate AOL!!! *deep breath* Ok, guess that means I'll be running tests over the next few days and try to figure out which settings I used for those two emails that went through. But hey, unless it was just dumb luck, apparently there is a way to get through to AOL accounts from this site.

Since I've heard no complaints concerning the new skin, I made it the new default. If any of those of you who don't have an account have a problem with this skin, let me know.

I'll look into the suggestion of using a slightly darker blue for the text.

Since I'll be leaving for my parents' tomorrow, you're getting your x-mas present a bit early.

The new skin "comic" is finished. Check it out, I quite like how it turned out. The banner was provided by Always_jbj, and she was also my "beta" for the skin itself - thanks again hon.

Depending on the feedback I get, I may make it the default skin, but I'd like to hear your opinions first.

Testing was done on Internet Explorer 6 & 7, Firefox 2, Safari (Windows), Netscape 8 & 9 and Opera. Apart from some minor things, it looks the same on all of those, and everything seems to work without problems.

Yes, I know, I'm getting on everyones nerves with this, sorry.

I tried yet another editor, because once I fixed the problems the other one had with Firefox, I noticed something in it's behavior that I really didn't like.

The next in line can be found here. I already tested it on IE6 & 7, FF 2.0.0.11 and Safari 3.0.4 - windows versions all. On Opera it's just a plain text-box without the RichText feature, but at least it works at all.

RichText and RichText DW do different things to the text. You'll have to try which one handles your paragraphs best.

It's important to use the Paste from Word option if you want to copy edited text from a Wordprocessor or a Website.

The sample-page is an accurate example of how I imagine the editor to be integrated into the site. Upon starting the submission, you will see the text-box, just like you're used to. If you don't want to bother with RichText or prefer to add your HTML-tags by hand, continue as usual. If you prefer the RT editor, hit the RichText link/tab, and it will appear in place of the text-box.

After submitting the text, a preview will appear on top of the page, and the text/code will also reappear in both the RT editor and the text-box. You can edit it in either of those, no matter which one you used previously, you merely have to remember that something you added in one editor will only show up in the other one after you've hit Submit again.

Here is the thread to discuss this latest experiment.

Remember the upgrade I warned you about a while back? They did it last night. All sneaky like without letting me know. There was a problem this morning, but it's fixed now. If you notice anything else that doesn't work, please let me know.

I'm currently working on a new layout, and while I was at it, I just had to do something about the horrible menu on the two older ones. The ones with the overlong, double lined top-menus.

I moved those links that I believe you need less often, to the top of the banner; that way it looks cleaner and the navigation should be easier.

If anyone who uses one of those older layouts has a problem with that, or believes a certain link should really be in a different place, please let me know.

I added a new category BtVS Season 8 (Comic), and changed Post BtVS to Post BtVS (TV Show).

This means that a story that falls into the category Post BtVS (TV Show) does not have to take comic-canon into account. Should the comic-series run out, I'll add Post BtVS (Comic) to distinguish the two.

Since I'm not following the comics, maybe you guys could do me a favor and let me know whether it has "Seasons" like the show, and when I need to add a category for a new one. Thanks.

Oh, question: Should I change Post AtS to Post AtS (TV Show) too, or is it clear that fics in that category don't need to bother with comic-canon?

If you register an account using an AOL email address, chances are you won't receive your activation email. If you have a non-AOL address available, use that; otherwise let me know, and I'll activate your account by hand.

Important announcements are NEVER done on tag. If I put them up somewhere else, I might mention it on tag, but never just there.

There, that should stop any speculations over the comments made by the troll last night.

With the end of the month coming up (and me being around more), we've been debating what to do about the Featured Challenge Response. We really don't have all that many of those, and according to my list, we still can "re-use" two or three authors before we've come a full circle - and just displaying the same stories over and over again wasn't really the idea behind the Featured boxes.

Then, I remember some people asking for a Random Story feature to be added to the site.

So we decided to get rid of our problem and fullfill your request at the same time. The Featured Challenge Response has been replaced by Random Complete Story. A new random fic will show up every time you reload the main-page; of course it is a different one for every visitor - just so there isn't any confusion.

Ohh, lookie, we've been nominated for Best Fanfic Archive, Best Established Site, Best Shipper Site and Best Site Name at the Solemn Graces Awards. Nifty, huh?

Somehow I thought this would be obvious, but I guess expecting people to know what I'm thinking is just as silly when it concerns the site, as in a fic. Anyway, I added a short note in the challenges section now, so you can let your mind-reading powers rest.

We only accept challenges that request a story which can be posted on this site. Not saying the author has to archive it here, but he has to be able to do so should he/she want to. So challenges that call for All Human or non-B/S fics are out; especially the latter. There are quite a few archives out there that accept all pairings, please post those challenges there. In fact, take a quick look at the rules on the Support page and check whether a response to your challenge can follow them, before you submit the challenge if you please.

Oh wow! Check out the Support page. There is a new section called Avatars, and you can find icons there that can be used as avatars in the forum. The link you need to select the icon can be copied from the box below each icon.

The first batch is by The Space Between, and they are all absolutely amazing.

A second collection is up, this one by GoldenBuffy and just as pretty. Thank you.

Even if you already have an avatar, make sure to take a look, because those are very pretty pictures to look at. You guys are awesome, you know that right?

As you probably have noticed by now, we're re-posting the old BSV round robin. I feel like I should clarify something about that, though.

What we're doing is: we're copying it from the original verse, and posting it here. The account we're posting it under is just a normal BSV account, the reviews do not end up with each chapter's author. In fact, we're using one of my email-addys for it, so if review-notification were enabled, I'd be the one to receive them.

I just felt like I should mention that, so you won't think the authors are ignoring you when you don't get a reply. They can of course still see the reviews, like everyone can; and if one of them were to ask me for the login-data for that account because they want to reply to your reviews, that'd be more than fine. But like I said, in this particular case, no replies doesn't mean you're being ignored.

I played with the Categories a bit. The Non-Bitey/*** Categories are gone, instead we have Non-Bitey as a Genre now. Considering the beginnings of the BSV, I think we can cheat a bit and ignore that "Bitey" and "Non-Bitey" are not Genres. ;-)

The fics that used to belong to the removed categories, have been moved to the appropriate "general" categories and list the Genre "Non-Bitey". (e.g. A Non-Bitey/Season 2 fic of the Genre Drama is now a Season 2 fic of the Genres Drama and Non-Bitey.)

The idea is that this will simplify the search for fics you want to read. With the old version, someone who had a hankering for Season 2 fic, would've had to search for Season 2, read the fics, and then go and search for Non-Bitey/Season 2, and read those. That seemed unnecessarily complicated to me. Now they can view all our Season 2 fics at once, and if they are really strict about reading only bitey/non-bitey fic, well, it says which is which in the Genre-listing.

You have to thank Richard for this one. He mentioned that it would be much more helpful, if the page title, when viewing a fic, contained the fic's title instead of just blantly stating "The Bloodshedverse :: Spuffy with Bite".

So a fic page now carries the fic's title and author in its title, and an author's profile carries the author's name.

Thanks to The Space Between's suggestion, we now have a section called Artwork under General in our forum. You can use it for banner-/artwork requests, offers, or if you just want to share your newest pretties. Please make sure to make it clear whether the graphics you post there can be used by anyone, are a present for a specific person, or have been put up simply for our viewing pleasure.

Hey, lookie here: I just got an email that we've been nominated for Best Overall Site & Best Site Content at Insane Buffy Fans.

Thanks to whoever did this.

I tried to run a program earlier that checks a website for broken links. Since I deleted some unneccessary files from our webspace yesterday, I thought it'd be a good idea to make sure they really WERE unneccessary.

Problem is, that program apperantly accesses your cookies, and if they contain login data for a site, it uses that data. (No, that wasn't mentioned anywhere.) So it checked for broken links while logged in as admin. And while deleting fics, accounts, reviews - all that, works via forms and can't be done accidentially, the admin can delete forum-entires via a simple link. The program checked those links, and as a result deleted the entry in question.

I stopped the stupid thing as soon as I noticed that it was logged in, but I wasn't in time to save all the entires. - No reason to cry, right? Dia is sure to have backups, right? I do actually. The new one was being created right after the entires disappeared, and before I got home to stop it. - Still not that bad, knowing a few things about computers, she surely saves some of the older backups as well. Ha. Ha. The licence for my db-backup proggy expired and I'm currently unable to do that. The new key is ordered and all, but it didn't arrive yet.

So yeah, I messed up and the entries are gone. I'm so very sorry this happened. *someone hand me some rope please, there is a nice sturdy tree over there* You can bet I won't run anymore tests, checks, whatever, until the new licence-key for the backup program arrives. *whimpers*

The new skin "default2" is finally finished. Selene was kind enough to make us a banner, and can I say YUM! Dunno about you, but I have a thing for punks... Yup, she did a great job there.

So if anyone wants to use the new skin, or just take a look, go right ahead. I'll probably start using it as the default skin as soon as I know that no one has problems with it. The old default skin is very pretty, but I think with as huge as our menu has gotten, the side-menu makes for easier navigation.

You need to be logged in to change your skin. My Account -> Edit your account -> Skin

And yes, there is also another new skin listed. That one is a WIP though, so if you were to use it, it is possible that: text disapears, links move around, everything suddenly looks completely different. It is even possible that the whole thing might be gone from one moment to the next, not something you'll want to happen to you. Best stay away from "comic" for now.

For most of you this post will seem odd, but those that have seen/can see a certain other post will know what this is about. Everyone else, just forget about it. LOL

I do not, have not, nor will I ever delete a fic or account if it hasn't been requested by the author/member in question. Besides me only BSB has access to those features (because I saw no reason to revoke her rights when she left), and I seriously doubt she did anything like that either. Neither Always_jbj nor Slaymesoftly have the rights to do anything but validate/reject fics and post in the News section.

The only way I will delete an account/fic, is if it was specifically requested. And even then I will verify your email address first to make sure the request didn't come from a third party who wants to harm you. (The last time I deleted something was ComedyOfErrors a few months back, because she wanted all her stories gone form the web for personal reasons.)

If your fic/account suddenly disappears and you don't know what is going on, you contact me and ask! It could be a DB error, in which case I might be able to find the file and fix the DB entry. It could be an error in the code, in which case I absolutely NEED to know about it, because it could happen again if I don't fix it. It could be you accidentally deleted it yourself. It could be that someone hacked into your account (stole your pwd), and deleted things to spite you. The only thing it will never be, is me deleting something without your explicit request.

I added a new link to the menu that leads to the Fanfic Status Network. This is joint effort of some of the fanfic archives you all know. The BSV, the Spuffy Realm, Sweet Temptation, Nocturnal Light and Vampire's Kiss.

The idea is that we all will put up a link to that site, and keep it updated about the online status of the different archives. That way, if one of the sites in not reachable, you'll know you can go to one of the others and find a link there that will let you know what's going on.

In addition, you can subscribe to a mailing list on the Status Network, that will let you know about updates on the status of each archive.

If you visit any other archives that you would like to see added, let the administrator of that archive know about the Status Network and suggest they fill out the Become A Member form. The more archives are involved, the more use you visitors will get out of it.

Ok, a new tip for those of you that have problems recieving emails from the site.

Check your spam-filter (the local AND the online one) and see if you have a so-called whitelist. Add the following address to that list: httpd@web14.websitesource.net

That's the addy the server uses to send the emails. It's NOT the addy that shows up in the FROM: part of the header, so don't let that confuse you.

Dennis now has a place of honor on the BSV. He'll also dress up for the holidays, but since I don't know all the important holidays in the different countries I'd like your input.

There is a post up in the BSV lj that asks for suggestions. Here.

I'm stepping down as owner of the Bloodshedverse and giving it to Dia, who has already done sooo much work on it already, she deserves to get full credit for it! I'll still be around and am in no way 'leaving' the fandom, I just know that it is in my best interest (and the BSV's) to hand it over to someone who can give it the full attention it deserves! Thank you Dia for your willingness to take over!! *hugs you*

Aside from Writercon, is anybody planning on attending any conventions coming up this year? If so, when and where? Hopefully we can get some lists going and get people hooked up to meet. That's the fun part. :)

Yep, it's me again! I just wanted to mention quickly that while reviews are what authors 'work' for, opinions and reviews that border on rude aren't really appreciated. So if you're being an ass? Please stop. Thank you!

Authors, when you post a story that has been beta'd, please don't forget to thank that wonderful person(s) in an author's note! Thank you!

The BSV has a new... uber-affiliate, I guess you could call it. As most of you know, we don't archive all-human AU Spuffy fics. Well, Sweet Temptation doesn't archive canon/vampire spuffy.

Sounds like the perfect match to me...

You can now find the link to Sweet Temptation on the menu for convenience. Welcome Yani and Sweet Temptation!

In light of Buffy/Spike Central not being online right now and Spuffy Realm's space limitations, I just wanted to assure new/returning visitors that you are more than welcome to register and enjoy the site REGARDLESS if you post fic or not. Happy Reading!