You all must know by now that we've been having some serious problems with the archive due to both the hacker situation and the sheer size of the archive. Our priority these past few days have been limiting the glitches, but they are beginning to mount to the point where we may need to initiate a temporary queue shutdown. Over the course of the next few days, we will be trying to do a site upgrade, which will hopefully fix the problems we're having. The number and frequency of glitches may escalate over this period, but we ask you to bear with us.
There are several ways you members can help us:
+ Do not submit any new chapters or stories to the queue starting from now. Doing so will add unnecessary strain to our already wobbly system and may threaten the existence of every single story and author stored on the database.
+ Back up your stories and/or reviews just in case the worst happens. We will try not to cause an MNFF apocalypse, but no promises can be made.
+ If you have a fic you've wanted to get rid of or an abandoned fic you aren't going to continue, now is the time: just go in and delete it from the archive yourself.
+ Queue wait time is much, much longer at the moment due to, again, our focus on stabilizing the database. We will try to mod stories as often as we can, but complaining about your wait time will only serve to deter us from our main goal which is to make sure this site continues to exist.
Here are a few glitches that have already been noted and that we will try to correct over the next few weeks.
+ Edit bio information - Reported error is "Method Not Implemented: POST to /user.php not supported."
+ Switch categories and Add stories/chapters - Reported error is "That category is locked. Please select a sub-category."
Several people had reported errors when contacting users via the "Contact" button on user profiles; that error has now been fixed.
Finally, as we are updating behind-the-scenes codes, we will, as humans, make mistakes. Therefore you will see some pages/functions glitching. Please do not report it until 24 hours after first experiencing the particular glitch. That way, you do not waste your time reporting a glitch we know about and will have already fixed; if it is not fixed within 24 hours, most likely we don't know about it and would like you to contact us.
We will keep you updated on glitches and fixes. We will also notify you when you can begin submitting stories in a (nearly) error-free environment.
If you have any questions about this don't hesitate to post them here, but please don't waste our time with off-topic ones that should go elsewhere. As you can see, we have more than enough to do at the moment.
Thank you ever so much for your patience and cooperation.
EDIT: If your story suddenly disappeared from the queue, please don't be afraid. It is not a glitch. Your email provider merely weeds MuggleNet Fan Fiction emails out and refuses to send your rejection letter. Instead of posting in the comments, please post here at the Beta Forums.
UPDATE: We do NOT have an estimated time for when the queue will be "reopened" or when the update will be done because we're running into some difficulties with a third party. Now that that has been answered, please stop asking the same questions in the comments section. Please take the time to at least skim the already existing comments.
how can we save our reviews?
cassie123: If you're referring to The Last Black With Her Sanity Intact, it's already been validated so don't worry about it.
fg_weasley: I don't know if there is a way to download them into a file, but you can copy and paste them into a word document and save it on your computer.
For everyone else - although we have asked you to hold off on submissions, this does not mean we will be formally locking the queue down at this time, nor do we have an exact date and time as to when the inital upgrade and maintenance will be completed.
If you have something waiting in the queue and you want to delete it, go for it. The less strain we have on the database while maintenance is being performed, the better. Deleting a story now won't prevent you from resubmitting it later on.
And before anyone asks, the next Great Hall challenge from the MNFF Beta Forums (The Colours of the Spectrum Series Part II - The Four Elements Challenge) will be delayed indefinitely until we have the site glitches fixed. Keep working on those stories and keep an eye out on the forums for other challenges to help you along until this one opens!
Thanks for all of your support and patience in this exceedingly difficult time.
Please let me reiterate something that's been stated before:
If you have a story on the archive that you do not plan on completing or you are otherwise not fond of, PLEASE go ahead and delete it. We are in the process of contacting authors regarding the deletion of abandoned fics, but it will save us time if you are proactive in doing so yourselves.
Hey guys, thanks so much for all the work you are doing and trying to fix the problems you all have been facing lately. This is still the best HPFF site on the net so we are behind you all the way with the fixes. Thanks
Would it be possible to 'employ' temporary reader mods? The current mods could each choose two very trusted, very good betas, and ask them to read through submitted stories. This would free up the mods to work on the glitches and still allow the stories in the que to get "looked through". The temps could then let the mod know what is wrong with the story or if it is acceptable.The ones that need work or are questionable, the Mods could wait and read through themselves and the ones that were good, the Mods could then send out accept letters.
I for one do not have a problem with shutting down the que for at least a week or more, I'm sure all theother authors would agree that we would rather wait for our stories to be accepted rather than see everything disappear due to overload.
~Kristy
Thank you so much for what your doing to help this sight. I will hold of on all my updates. Are you done deleting authors and members? I'll do my best to help. Thanks again!
Kudos to our mods...you are appreciated!!
Kristy:That's actually one of the possibilities we considered, getting non-mods to help temporarily, but I think, at least for now, we've decided we can handle it. It might be a fall-back plan if things get much worse, though. Anyways, thanks for the suggestion!
CloewithLOVE: We're not done yet, actually. We've been sending out e-mails and giving the authors a few days to respond. As we've already mentioned, it would really help if you guys went in and saved all your stuff and deleted whatever you don't want yourselves so that we could get that over with faster!
And thanks all for being patient while we deal with this!
Thank you so much Mods! I know I really appreciate your hard hard work. I have just deleted a story I wasn't pleased with from a while back so I hope it helps!
Thanks again! *leaves coffee and cookies*
Just to clarify, no submitting means that we're not allowed to switch categories, right? I really want to get my story switched from the Winter Tales to help Julie out, but I've been unable to, because of the glitches. But we've had the glitches before, and managed to get past them. Should I keep trying to switch the categories, or just wait until this is all over.
And thanks so much, Mods. I know you are really working hard, and I'll help in any way you need the members to. Good luck!
Chanté
I thank all of you lovely MNFF staff and hope that it can all be resolved - I guess it means a lot of hard work for you, but I have one question. I submitted a fic, not more than a week ago and it has disappeared from my 'manage stories' part. Has it been rejected (I didn't get an email) or should I wait and submit it again after the issues are sorted?
Thanks and good luck!
Thank you so much for taking care of MNFF!!! I love this website so much, I think I would die if there was an apocolys or however you spell it... lol keep up the good work mods!! thank you thank you *says thanks a few more times* *cybercookies*
So I have a question. I was contacted about one of my fics that I haven't updated in like six months. I had submitted a chapter of it but it was rejected and I am still working on the second chapter of the fic. I don't expect to have it up for at least another month or so. Would it be helpful if I saved a copy of the already validated chapter one and then deleted it since I won't be updating it for quite some time?
**Emma
Oh gosh, what a hassle. Good luck, mods. Our fingers are crossed for you!
C_A_Campbell: Just leave the fic where it is for now. We’ll worry about switching categories once the glitches are fixed.
Angel Feathers: It’s likely the chapter was rejected but you didn’t receive the email. I recommend waiting to resubmit until we’ve fixed the glitches.
hermione_granger4life: If you think you’ll be seeing significant plot changes in chapter two, you can certainly delete chapter one and resubmit it later on.
As a word to the wise: when in doubt, save a copy of whatever you’re working on. Don’t submit until we announce the completion of repairs. Don’t try to change categories. If your fic has disappeared from the Manage Stories section of your profile and you didn’t get an email, it was rejected. Don’t resubmit until we fix the glitches. The least amount of activity you have on the archive right now, the better.
Ouch,
I just submitted my first story last night, and it appears to be gone. Not a big problem as I have soft copy (I'm a software engineer - and you only really have to have one cataclysm to learn that backups are good).
I will wait to resubmit.
I have one question. Is this going to effect the gauntlet submissions, since it was getting about that time where we would submit to the archives? I assume we will be told to wait until the glitches are fixed, but you never know. Thanks so much, mods! Good luck!
thanks for the hard work. you make seven classes seem easy.note: not being sarcasm
R_Ravenclaw: I would contact MithrilQuill over on the forms or check the Gauntlet related threads for that info.
I've just submitted a one-shot before reading this.
Would you rather I deleted it from the queue or is it fine to leave it?