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.
Okay. I skimmed most the comments left here and I reread the original post, so hopefully this is the right question and one not asked before.
Yesterday morning I received an email saying the latest chapter to my fic has just been approved. However, upon coming here, the chapter in question is still not up and available for people to read.
So I'm just kind of wondering what's going on? Not upset, not complaining, most my readers have gotten used to having to wait a couple months between chapters so if they've waited this long, they'll wait a little longer, it's just something that strikes me as rather unusual.
Grimmrook, your chapter is probablly "stuck" in the queue. This happens sometimes with stories, and the mod who read it can't get it to post properly. The only way to get these stories pushed through is for an admin to do it, and as there are only three of them, it might take a few days for that to happen.
Indeed, Grimmrook, your chapter got firmly stuck despite my efforts to kick it through. The admins are aware and will get to it as soon as their schedule allows.
No problem, and thank you so much for the response, I really appreciate it. It's like being in a traffic jam. you could be stuck for hours and if you don't know why you get angry, but the moment you hear about the twenty car pile up ahead of you, it doesn't matter if you wait for hours more, you still feel better for some reason.
Gross hyperbole, but you get the idea.
Thanks again.
Well, this time I really can't understand you, people. I've submitted a few stories here and some of them have been approved and others not. I've always seen your reasons to reject the stories that you did, but this time you are just contradicting your own rules. When I posted a story last month, it got rejected because of the ratings, although I remember that I reas about moderators having the right to change the ratings. Okay, I changed the warnings. Today, I received an email by another moderator, who decided that two missed comas and three missed new paragraphs - by the way, I've seen a few fics without such new paragraphs, including my own, which are currently on this site - are serious enough for the chapter to get rejected, instead of simply correcting them, although I read that mods are allowed to correct the small mistakes. So, it seems that moderators have different ideas about what sort of mistakes are serious enough to prevent validating. Maybe you should create a rule that people, whose native language isn't English, will never be able to post here without a beta? If so, just say it and I'll stop trying. I have to deal with enough editors in my real life, so I am simply not able to deal with another one in my free time and I know that I'll never learn the correct punctuation, because my everyday work is translating books from different authors and each of those authors has his own idea of new paragraphs and English punctuation at all.
anath, most of us have not been able to correct ANYTHING on your stories for you in a year. Thus the upgrade. Formatting errors, spelling errors, etc. have all been grounds for rejection all along, but if there is a larger problem, such as a scene that we simply cannot accept regardless of the revisions, we're not going to bother nitpicking the typos. My own rule for punctuation is that it should be reasonably standard and prevent ambiguities.
This is really not the place for this discussion, however. Next time, PM or email the moderator who is giviing you difficulty. I'm only answering here because I know perfectly well I'm one of them, and apparently you were willing to go public. Too, this is something everyone needs to understand.
I admit that when I wrote my last post, I was furious, but I'd like to see a discussion the topic of what is acceptable and what is just a personal opinion about grammar somewhere in the site, because I suppose that many of your readers are people like me, with native language other than English, and with the same problems. I'd like to know what they think about the difference between acceptable and being proclaimed wrong by the moderator, although some English writers use just the same grammar structure.
anath, there is information about both grammar and punctuation in the Help pages. However, the acceptance and/or rejection based on grammar errors, as well as any other errors, depends on the kinds and number of them found in the chapter. If there is a number of a variety of errors found in a submission, it will be rejected. If the same error is found a number of times in a submission, it will be rejected.
Also, there are two threads that have discussion about reasons for rejection in the General Fanfiction Discussion forum on the Beta Board forums. You can ask specific questions about grammar or anything else there that will be answered by the moderators.
anath, feel free to contact me via email since I was the Mod who rejected your submission. I am always open to discussing problems and reasons for rejections, provided you are willing to be calm and understanding.
Good luck, mods, this site is strong and should be able to get through this rocky patch okay. :)
**waves banner in support**
~Evie
Ok, i'm not sure if this is the place to ask, but i don't know where to, so - I'm seeing some people saying they will delete a story they have posted, even if it hasn't been validated ...? I'd do this, but how DO you?
Thank you so much for dealing with this crisis so effectively! it would be so sad if MNFF had to shut down, which it would have to do without our awesome mods!! Thank you!
So has progress been made on fixing the server? Has there been any luck?
nargle_infested_wand, you can delete your own story by going to your Account Info and clicking on 'Manage Stories.' On that screen, you click on the 'Delete' option to delete your story from the queue.
Angel of Dreams, we are still working on the preparations for the upgrade. We will make an announcement when we have made sufficient progress.
songbook99, I don't mind my fics being rejected because of grammar mistakes. I just think that the moderators need to standardize the grounds for rejection, because that's what happened to my fic: one of the mods rejected it only because of the ratings, there weren't any rebukes for the text, while the other, after I had resubmitted the story with the correct rating, decided that it should be rejected because of things like a few comas and new paragraphs that the first mod had not even mentioned. I think it would be better for everyone if the moderators just decide how many grammar and spelling errors are acceptable, instead of rejecting one and the same fic for different reasons. Of course, that is impossible right now, when they have far more serious problems to deal with, but maybe later they will consider such an idea. I work with texts and I know how hard it is to make a judgement about the qualities of a story, but why shouldn't we equilize the criteria of universal things like grammar and spelling mistakes? It will make everything easier.
I have a question not directly related to this, but it is relative. I used to have a story up, about four chapters, but then it disappeared completely. I decided to fix it up and make the most of the deletion, but I'd like to know why my story might of been, at least. This news story made me think it was a past glitch, but I'm not positive.
anath - Again, the guide we follow is the same guide available to you in the help section. If you feel that this is an issue, talk to Snapes_secret who has noted that she is open to discussion. Also, you are free to request for one specific moderator every time to make sure that the "standards" are the same. However, we follow a laissez-faire policy with moderators; we trust every moderator's judgment when it comes to moderating. We have stressed before that each moderator upholds his/her own standards, and we are not soon to change that, especially if we welcome discussion on your rejection and if we are open to hearing your reasoning behind why your story should've been accepted.
Luna_Lovegood11 - It may have been a glitch but more likely it was a moderator mistake; someone may have accidentally pressed "Delete Story" instead of "Delete Chapter." Whatever the reason, contact a moderator who has worked with you on your story and let him/her know what has happened. The moderator will then probably instruct you to submit again and will promptly validate your chapters. Sorry for the inconvenience!
I thought I'd ask, do you know whether this "Bad Request - Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand." is something to do with the glitches? I know I asked a while back but I cannot get onto MNFF and the forums full stop anymore (I've somehow only just gotten on but I don't know how long it will last).
I've tried everything everyone has suggested and it hasn't helped and I know of a number of people having the same problem.
Thanks!
*huggles wonderful mods*
Abbi :)
Hey, thanks again for your hard work. In the Navigation if you choose search depending on what you chose to search you don't always the full results (they cut the choices after "o") Is this a problem because of the glitches? Thanks so much all Mods! You’re wonderful and we all love you! -Chloe*
I noticed the quene had been taking quite a bit longer, but that's completely understandable. I agree with the possible decision on a queue shut down - you definitely should. As much as people would like posting their stories, having a working site to post them on would be much more prudent to work for. It would take all of the burden off the shoulder's of the site so you mods can do your nifty coding!
I won't post any more until things return to normalcy. Keep us informed! I'm so glad you aren't cold-shouldering us and keeping us in the know. Good luck!