Snowflake Challenge: 5

[keiliss]

Day 5
In your own space, talk about a creator. Show us why you think they are amazing. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I chose the creators of two of the smaller Tolkien archives.

alexcat: Alex created Of Elves and Men back in the days when many archives were less open or welcoming to slash fiction. Since those days, OEAM has branched out to accept stories from a long list of fandoms, but it still remains a secure, reliable place where help and advice are just an email away. Going through the list of authors is like looking at a who's who of the early days of LotR slash and a reminder of how much Alex did to help create a sense of community amongst that corner of fandom.

esteliel: Many people see a problem and wring their hands, but when lotrfanfiction.com became an untennable space for many writers, Esteliel went out and did something pretty amazing about it. Almost overnight she created an alternative for those who wanted to migrate but had nowhere they felt comfortable going. She and spiced_wine have made Faerie into a welcoming place for everything Tolkien, all genres, all ratings, with a shoutbox on the home page that adds to the archive's warm, friendly feel.

Day 6

Comments

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

You seem to have problems with eFiction sites, dear.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

It's the type of software used by many sites.

I think it highly unlikely that the people at Faerie would ignore a question if they actually received it, which is why I follow up when I don't get a reply somewhere.

[hhimring]

Is it possible that you somehow mailed Esteliel directly? I believe day-to-day running of Faerie is currently being done by Spiced Wine; she is usually the one who responds.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

I am - but if you use the 'contact us' button on the site it'll go to Esteliel, not me. People usually email me, contact me via the site from my bio page, or post something on the shout-box, and that's how I know anything is wrong. However people new to the site wouldn't know to contact me, I'm afraid :(

[hhimring]

Ah, thank you for letting me know. I never had a problem with the site myself and no reason to ask for help--thank you very much for running it so smoothly!--so I hadn't figured out that part about the "contact us" button.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have to do very much :) - and I actually cannot do anything with the technical side of the site; I am only a mod, (there were two, I think, but the other has left the fandom) - but sometimes people can't post, or they want to add images and don't know how, or their HTML or formatting is wrong, etc, and one thing I can do is go into members accounts to see what might be wrong, and do it for them, if possible. It is usually something that can be sorted out. :)

[silver-trails.livejournal.com]

Probably, but it was long ago. I was just pointing this out here in case someone else has the same problem, so it doesn't happen to them too. I might have emailed Esteliel... I didn't know only Spiced One answered.

I asked if my stories were okay for the site because I am not a native english speaker, and though I'm not terrible at gramar, I don't always have a beta. Anyway, it's good to know why I didn't get an answer. :)

Reading Spiced Wine post, I might have used the contact button.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

Silver Trails - if you wanted a question answered you probably did use the Contact Us. But the answer would have been : 'Of course your stories are okay for the site.'
I should think about half the people who post use betas and half don't.

If you ever wanted to use the archive, you're most welcome. Every-one I have interacted with on their privately or publicly via the shout box has been very friendly. Esteliel wanted Faerie to be all-encompassing and welcoming from the beginning, and though she has moved on to the LOTRO part of the fandom, and we don't see her around, it still is :)

[silver-trails.livejournal.com]

Thank you, dear. I was just trying to point out that some people had problems in some archives. Might be a problem on my side, because Dawn and Rhapsody worked a lot to fix it in MPTT. I didn't know you or Esteliel, and I am a bit shy when I don't know people. I know Dawn, which is why I talked to her and fixed the problem.

I didn't mean to say it was the admins' fault. In fact, I believed it was a problem on my side until I saw your post. I was trying to be helpful in case other people had problems. As the discussion continued, I just explained, because I didn't think that speaking about this openly was a bad thing. As Kei has sent me a message saying that my comments are negative, I will erase all of them save for this thread so you can read it. I didn't mean offense. I apologize to you if my post offended you.

I won't post more here. I just wanted to apologize to you.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it.

To be honest, if it were a case of doing something technical with the website, I can't access it, only Esteliel can.

[ysilme]

For me as a newcomer to this fandom it's so interesting to see who is behind what, and go get to know a bit of the fandom's history.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

It's a deceptively large fandom, it seems quite small and centralised but in fact it's wide spread and there is so much history involved :)

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Esteliel did an amazing and wonderful thing when she created Fairie, practically overnight when we needed a new archive. I have recommended it highly since that time and continue to recommend it whenever I am asked about a good and welcoming archive. Praise her with great praise.

- Erulisse (one L)

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

She did a great job, I'm just lazy about archiving and need to put a few more fics up there.

I'm really enjoying this challenge and the chance it's giving everyone to praise and make much of fandom people. I wasn't sure what to do about today, I wasn't comfortable talking abut one writer or fan artist, but then I realised how different it would be without the people who create and look after our archives.

[scarlet1061.livejournal.com]

Both are excellent places.

I'll probably forever remember the amazing speed and high quality result of the birth of Faerie.
I think esteliel mentioned at the time how she sat long into the nights during a weekend to complete this site, as fast as she could.

Spiced_wine probably remembers the details best.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

I think Esteliel worked nights and days to get Faerie up; I believe it was in beta in two days flat, because I tested it for her - and there were no glitches.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

That archive went up at an amazing speed. I remember what I was most impressed with was she didn't just talk about it, she got down and did it.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

Yes, she did. She was amazing. She is very much missed!

[ilye-elf.livejournal.com]

Yet another reason why this is a great challenge. So much has happened since I fell out of fandom that I don't know where everything is now I'm back. Great recs - New places to explore :)

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

You know OEAM but Faerie'd be new. Lots of varied reading over there. The Slashy Santa archives are good too, as is the SWG.

[ysilme]

Back here again... *g* Both archives have become regular hunting grounds for me now, and I'm really glad about the work the maintainers and mods are putting into them. I consider Faerie to be my main Tolkien home, too. As much as I love the SWG and enjoy MPTT, it's a place where I can post all my stuff, and since I write second and third age, the SWG often doesn't apply. I must also say that the interaction with anybody I'm not already socialising with online happens much more for me on Faerie than anywhere else except on my LJ.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

Faerie's a very friendly place and I like that literally anything goes there. I'd love to put most of my work up there but it's so hard to decide what and several I'd like to post are multi chaptered and that's work, lol!

I'm terrible at remembering to post on MPTT and even take time to update the SWG these days. Maybe I need to make that a new approach for the year. As for fandom home - mine is really still livejournal.