Message Board

Finally, TPP has an SSHG_Exchange Category!

I went *headdesk* when a fellow admin pointed out that there doesn't appear to be a category for the most popular exchange in the fandom, but that's now remedied. We would love to host your exchange fics here, and now searching for them has become a lot easier. Authors of previous exchange fics, please feel free to add this category to your fics!

Announcing a New Challenge!

Announcing The Petulant Poetess' Last Drabble Writer Standing (Petulant LDWS) Challenge Fall 2011. Participants write drabbles and compete against one another in a round. There will be a different prompt every week, and each week readers vote on which responses they liked the most. One or two writers are eliminated each week, and one person is declared the winner of the week.  Eliminations continue until the grand finale when the finalists compete for top honors.

Rules:
This round will have x number of writers, depending on how many respond to the sign-up post. This  round will last approximately nine weeks, so participants should be sure they will be able to commit to that time frame before they sign up.

Prompts will be posted on TPP and LJ on Monday, and drabbles are due by Midnight (GMT) Thursday.  Anyone who fails to turn in a drabble is eliminated.

Voting will begin as soon as all entries have been posted and will last until Midnight (GMT) Sunday.

Winners will be announced when voting is complete.

ANONYMITY IS IMPORTANT TO A FAIR COMPETITION. Drabbles are anonymous and should not be shown to anyone (not counting beta readers) until voting has concluded. If any of the competitors or community members are found directly posting about a specify entry, they will be eliminated and/or blocked from the challenge. 

Please do not post your drabble anywhere else until voting has been completed and the winners are announced.

All drabbles will be between 100 and 499 words. Please use a beta before submitting your entry to the archive.

Drabbles  should be written and submitted only for the current challenge. Do not write drabbles that are continuations of previous challenges.

The deadline for drabble submission each week is Midnight (GMT) Thursday. Drabble format and further submission details will follow in the sign-up post.

Please make sure to review our submission rules before posting.

Keep in mind that we have readers of all ages. Rate your story accordingly and include warnings. All characters engaging in sexual activity must be  at least 18 years old.

Ratings:
 
K= suitable for everyone
K+= may contain material inappropriate for younger and more sensitive readers.
T= may contain material inappropriate for readers under the age of 13.  This may include some mild language and violence.
M= not appropriate for younger audiences; mature themes, including language, violence, sex, and other dark  things.
MA= definitely not appropriate for the young or sensitive; very mature themes, especially the sexual sort.

We encourage participants and readers alike to have an open mind to all ships, het and slash. Please do not discriminate based upon pairing—instead focus on quality of writing. We welcome all ships and gen fic. Because the SS/HG Exchange will be posting at the same time as this challenge, we insist the pairings be non-SS/HG.

We encourage competitors to vote, but any votes cast for themselves will be disqualified. Remember reviews are love.

Readers should vote for one favorite drabble using the screened poll on TPP (www.thepetulantpoetess.com/voting.php).  Each week the drabble(s) with the least amount of points will be eliminated.

As  an example, for the first six weeks of a 16 participant round, the two authors who receive the lowest scores will be eliminated; for the remainder of the round, the single contestant with the lowest score will be eliminated until there is a winner. For a 10 participant round, the author with the lowest score will be eliminated each week.

Everymember of TPP is invited to submit a drabble in response to a challenge whether they are competing or not. Only those writers still in Petulant LDWS are eligible to win each week.

The “Real Life” Clause:
Occasionally allowances will be made  in cases of disaster (hurricane, flood, fire, etc.), illness (bad flu – sudden onset) or computer failure (hard drive dies). Please let the moderators know as soon as possible that you intend to continue competing. To be fair to the other participants, the RL clause cannot be invoked after 6 participants remain.

Tie Breakers:
In the event of a tie for Most Favorite, all writers selected as most favorite will win for that week.

This post is for comments or questions about the Petulant LDWS. Any questions or comments should
be submitted here. Sign-ups will be in a following post.

Editing Before Posting

Here is a little warning for all you reviewers and authors out there.

A while ago, I made it possible for reviewers to look over their review after submitting and edit it if they needed to. Recently, I had an e-mail from an author and beta, asking if it would be possible to edit responses to reviews and authors' responses as well before posting it permanently.

So, now when you respond to a review (authors) or you are a reviewer responding to an author's response, you will notice a change. Instead of submitting, you will be previewing. Look over your response, and make changes, if you wish, and then click submit. Please note: If you do not click submit, your response will not be appended! So you MUST take that extra step and click submit.

If there are any problems: Click here to report any problems.

Note: I am aware that emoticons do not transfer to the preview page. Simply re-insert the emoticon in the preview area, and it WILL show up in the review response upon submitting.

Little Updates

Has something changed? Yes, lots of little things. Not that you are at a loss for anything to read; there are just so many good stories constantly being updated. But, if you need to take a little break, hop on over to the forum and read the latest in "The Headmistress Speaks" section.

August Stats

Another great month has passed, and here is some statistical info for you!

Story Information

There were 120 new stories posted.
There were 83 updated stories!

103 of those are complete and ready for your reading pleasure--no waiting!

We now have a total of 2549 completed stories on the site.

Member and New Author Information

We've gained 409 new members! Wooohooo!! Welcome, everyone! Let us know if you need any help with anything.

We also have several new authors to be welcomed to the site! Either they've had stories posted or have something in queue.

dmf1984
dressagegrrrl
etherealizabeth
luvsev
Moonstar
mrs_nott
nocturnus
sbrande
sevra28
that_bat_snape
thefrylord
yumalanhans

Thanks for joining us!

Review Information

A whooping 4908 reviews were posted for stories here last month, likely spurred by fierce competing between our top two reviewers in August!! That is almost too awesome for words!

Of these reviews, authors responded to 3697 of them! The reviewers appreciate responses.

The Top 20 Reviewers at TPP for the month of August are:

Arabella Bloodgood (383 reviews posted)
sunny33 (299 reviews posted)
braye27 (195 reviews posted)
snitchette (153 reviews posted)
blue artemis (139 reviews posted)
beaweasley2 (134 reviews posted)
kimjo2 (126 reviews posted)
morgaine_dulac (123 reviews posted)
MollysSister (103 reviews posted)
sinbad (92 reviews posted)
severuslover (81 reviews posted)
debjunk (80 reviews posted)
irishredlass (69 reviews posted)
teshara (65 reviews posted)
decmeadow (60 reviews posted)
Sampdoria (58 reviews posted)
kittylefish (57 reviews posted)
notsosaintly (48 reviews posted)
elsolel (47 reviews posted)
Isode (44 reviews posted)

Good work, everyone! SW69 will be sending you banner information soon, depending when the hurricane departs.

Now, let's give kudos to the authors who do take the time to respond to their reviews. Whatever reviews were left for them during the month and responded to by them figures into the following top 20 best review responders.

Lariope (234 reviews answered)
livvy6 (176 reviews answered)
melusin (152 reviews answered)
beaweasley2 (143 reviews answered)
lady_rhian (128 reviews answered)
lulabelle72 (115 reviews answered)
little beloved (96 reviews answered)
tonksinger (91 reviews answered)
Melenka (85 reviews answered)
notsosaintly (72 reviews answered)
debjunk (72 reviews answered)
mia madwyn (71 reviews answered)
Angel Mischa (64 reviews answered)
HogwartsClassof91 (61 reviews answered)
rdholmantx (59 reviews answered)
Southern_Witch_69 (57 reviews answered)
shellsnapeluver (53 reviews answered)
morgaine_dulac (50 reviews answered)
irishredlass (49 reviews answered)

The Hidden Before Voting authors have answered an amazing 561 reviews between them. Way to go, folks!

Great work, everyone! Authors, as you know, responding to reviewers is a great way to make new friends and begin discourse!

Looking forward to another wonderful month!

ladyinthecloak and the gang at TPP

Thank you, Reviewers!

In case you've missed our shout-outs elsewhere, here is a recap of our top reviewers for the last few months:
HBAR, mimmom, HogwartsDuo, Owlbait, pearl city princess (March)
Owlbait, pearl city princess, Jinxie, blue artemis, debjunk (April)
HBAR, pearl city princess, mimmom, snitchette, blue artemis (May)
mimmom, MollysSister, HBAR, Owlbait, tenoh27 (June)

The mod team offers squishes and thanks to all all of them for being such vital and supportive members of the TPP community – additionally, each will have the opportunity to recommend one of  their  favorite stories for inclusion in our Grab-Bag Thursday recommendations on Facebook and Buzz, joining Pay It Forward recs from previously recommended authors.

(Note: If you are an author who has been recommended or a past top reviewer, and you have misplaced the email giving you instructions for PIF recs, let me – juniperus – know!)

New Admin - Welcome!

Everyone give a big welcome to southern_witch_69, who has become an admin on The Petulant Poetess. She is an excellent author and beta and will be helping me validate stories from now on. Sun and I share the same ideas about the importance of encouraging writers and I know we will work together well. I am so happy to have her join me in the Headmistress's office.

SITE IS STABILIZED

As of now, you do not have to login to read M(R) or MA(NC17) fics. I will be looking more closely at that modification before I try it again. It was not working properly and conflicted with the database. There are proper warnings set in place, and I expect all minors to adhere to them.

The login feature is back up on the main page and we are once again back in service. I want to thank the owner of OWL.TAURI.ORG for advising me and helping me. She is an affiliate of this site, as I am of hers, and she is a wonderful person.

Site Access Issues (part 2)

NOTICE:  Beginning at 6:00 pm (PST) 11 Aug 2006, my host will be taking each server offline for a few minutes to upgrade the power supply to the servers.  If you notice any "down" time tonight, this is why.  It's a good thing.  Every time we have these heatwaves in Southern California, the good old electric company decides to have "rolling blackouts" (basically they give everyone a turn to have no power for a while, and they generally don't warn you first).  It is not fun when all of a sudden a whole building full of servers is shut down simultaneoulsy, I'm sure.  Except that it probably gives everyone a good excuse to go sit outside and socialize on the company's time.  *smirk*

Regarding site access problems:  

I just got off the phone with a very nice tech support guy, who put my mind at ease a bit about the occasional database malfunctions.  I at least have a plan for when (oh, I should be more positive and say if) it happens again.  Plus an idea of what could possibly be causing it ... though he of course cannot be sure unless he can see one of these malfunctions "in action."  So, please be prepared that the next time this happens, I cannot bring the site back up until a tech can have a look at the server while it's happening. Just keep checking back if you notice all those weird errors.

Site Access Problems

I need to extend apologies to those who were trying to access the site between midnight and 5 AM PST, 11 Aug 2006.  Apparently, the DB was waiting until I fell asleep to play hooky.

There've been spotty problems in the past couple weeks ever since the power went out, taking down all the host servers in Los Angeles.  I had to ask them to fix something directly afterward, but it seems like a little more work is in order.  I have contacted the tech support team with a plea for help.  In the meantime, I will keep on top of things when I am awake.

Feel free to e-mail me if you notice anything strange going on.  If it is a DB access problem, you will notice a list of strange errors at the top of your page.  Be assured that it is nothing to do with your computer.