News

Submission Rules

Just a quick note to all our new authors who may not be as familiar with the workings of the site as our old hands.

Please make sure you read the submission rules carefully before you even think about submitting your chapter. We have rules about things like chapter word count that some of you are not following. Our other major issue at the moment is category submissions. We are seeing a lot of multi-category submissions and submissions to categories that are master categories rather than actual categories - mainly the Romance category.

For those struggling with romance category selection here's a quick run through(although this is also relevant to other categories, but it's romance we are having the most issues with). Highlight the romance category in the category selection drop down menu. Once you have done that the drop down menu will change and reveal all the romance sub-categories. You then need to click on the drop down menu and select the appropriate sub-category. Only when the sub-category is highlighted in the catgeory selection box do you hit select. There should now be a category in the larger box below the drop down menu. If there is more than one category showing then you have done it incorrectly and you need to clear the form and start again.

Please help us to help you. It takes time to reject stories that are incorrectly submitted, time that could be spent on stories that are where they should be. If we all work together the queue should be a happy place for us all to be. :-)

Open for Business

The queue is now open and we are accepting submissions once again!

You'll notice that you can select two new warnings when submitting stories: Book 7 Disregarded and DH Spoilers. The B7D warning is only is you're disregarding elements of DH. If you're creating a plot that's completely different, where different characters live and die, please submit to AU instead.

For the DH Spoiler warning, please refrain from using it until August 1. We will not be accepting submissions containing DH spoilers until that time. Anything that does not comply will be automatically rejected.

Please remember that the regular submission rules still apply, so in your haste to put up new material, please be sure that you're only submitting one chapter at a time and also that you're submitting your best work.

Happy writing!

Last Words

Deathly Hallows is a few short days away, as is the (temporary) closing of our queue. Therefore, and in light of this being such an intensely emotional time for devout HP fans, we here at MuggleNet Fan Fiction feel rather compelled to say something wise and profound for your comfort. As such, we leave you to embark on this one final ride with Harry armed with the most significant words we, or anyone, could ever utter:

Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!


And may Merlin, like our thoughts and condolences, be with you.



Love,

Albus Dumbledore
&
The MNFF Staff

Forum Spoiler Policy

Hullo folks! (Brace yourselves for another long post!) As promised, I come bearing the DH Release/Spoiler Policy for our Forums. It's very similar to the one for our main site (here), except in the fact that it's completely different. Let me break it down:

1. The Forums will remain open throughout the entirety of the DH Release, including the dates in which the queue is closed.

2. However! Only "Sparkly-Poo" and the Hogwarts forums will remain open, and all others will be closed and invisible. This will take effect the night of FRIDAY JULY 20. Sparkly-Poo will contain DH spoilers, because we wanted to leave something open for authors who wished to discuss the book immediately with fellow MNFFers. As such, DO NOT look in Sparkly-Poo until you have completely finished reading the book. The Hogwarts forums, however, will be strictly devoid of all spoileryness. (Yes, I invented a word, thankyouverymuch.)

3. Even during this time, when DH spoilers are allowed to be discussed in Sparkly-Poo's threads, spoilers of any kind will remain strictly prohibited in "Hogwarts," forum profiles, avatars, signatures, and the like. To be perfectly clear: Sparkly-Poo (and PMs-- see below) = Yay for Spoilers! & Everything Else = Mod Wrath of Doom If You Even Consider It.

4. Speaking of PMs: Yes, you will be allowed to receive and send PMs throughout this time, as usual. However, your PMs may NOT contain DH spoilers in the subject line. Furthermore, if the content of the PM contains a spoiler, the subject line must clearly and boldly read "DH SPOILER INSIDE," even if you 'know' the person to whom you are sending it has already read the book. This will be strictly enforced, and no warnings will be issued prior to a ban.

5. Sparkly-Poo will close and the rest of the forums will return to normal on August 1. Therefore, beginning on August 1, DH Spoilers will be allowed to be discussed only in pre-determined threads that are first approved by a moderator. Additionally, any threads that contain a DH spoiler must NOT state the spoiler in the thread's title, but MUST state that a spoiler is inside. Please be sensible about this. A thread title like, "Shippiness in DH," is fine, whereas, "ZOMG CAN YOU BELIEVE THE REMUS/DRACO IN DH?" is painfully not.

Do NOT post any thread that pertains to DH in any way without first consulting a moderator. Failure to do so will be punished harshly.

6. Spoilers may NOT exist in profiles, signatures, banners, avvies, or anything else except noted threads and PMs until we alert you (via news post/the Announcement thread) that it is okay to do so. Again, do NOT take it upon yourself to decide when enough time has passed, or you will be subject to a permanent ban.

Spoilers on our forums will be treated in the same way as spoilers on the archives: with permanent bans and harsh measures. Therefore, please be very certain that you are clear on these rules, and PM or e-mail a moderator if you even think you might be somewhat confused.

We pray that, for those who finish the book within a day or so, the Sparkly-Poo forum will serve as a familiar, friendly place for you to go rant, discuss, and remember the final book of the series. With emotions sure to be high on this last ride, our hope was that we could provide a comfortable place for you to laugh, cry, and fall together. Though, as we said earlier: while we will be on high guard and doing everything we can to prevent spoilers from leaking, we cannot guarantee that you won't see one before we catch it. Therefore, we strongly advise that no one visit the forums (or any HP site, for that matter) until you have finished the book.

As always, thank you for not falling asleep whilst reading.

New Mods!

As you all know, the release of Deathly Hallows is fast appraoching and as such, we at MNFF know that we will be facing a very busy time. Knowing that, we decided to take on a few new moderators to help us through this busy time. Our staff selected from the talented pool of authors we have here and have hired three new mods:

Ritta- mgle_teacher
Elle- Sly Severus
Gina- Gmariam

Congratulations and good luck ladies!

And for the rest of you, don't fret. We're constantly growing, so look out for a site-wide hiring in the near future!

Deathly Hallows Release Policies

Hello everyone! Well, I'm sure you lot don't need reminding, so as we all very well know, the final installment of the Harry Potter series comes out July 21. *Allows pause for site-wide squee'ing* Naturally, we here at MNFF are hard at work preparing for said release, and we've recently decided precisely how we'll be handling it. Please read carefully, as we cannot stress enough how fundamentally crucial this information is to both authors and readers alike.

1. MuggleNet Fan Fiction will be closed from July 19 thru July 23. To be clear: this means that the queue will be closed and we will not be accepting any submissions, nor will we be readily available to assist users in any capacity, from 12:00 midnight the morning of July 19th thru 11:59 p.m. the night of the 23rd. Therefore, the queue will reopen at midnight, July 24th. Please note that stories already validated and posted on the site will be available to read during this time. Only the queue is closing.
   
   
2. When MNFF reopens the queue for submissions on July 24, it will be with a strict NO SPOILERS policy. This means that expressing and/or writing about anything that transpires in Deathly Hallows will not be permitted in the stories themselves, in author profiles, summaries, banners, "clever" e-mail addresses, or graphics/expressions of any kind. Spoilers include plot twists, characters' deaths, romantic developments-- anything and everything. A user discovered to have posted any spoiler in any part of his/her profile or story will have their account deleted and banned on both MNFF and the main site, MuggleNet.com. Do not even allude to a spoiler, as we will count this as directly stating one. For example: If one part of your profile says "I ship Luna/Neville!" and another part says "My ship finally sailed!" That is a spoiler. We cannot express how seriously we are taking this. ANY breach of this policy and your ability to so much as view any part of MuggleNet will be permanently withdrawn.
   
   
3. Starting on August 1, and no sooner, we will begin to allow spoilers in STORIES ONLY. Expressing a Deathly Hallows spoiler in a banner, profile, story title, or summary will still be prohibitied and punished with a permanent ban. August 1 only means that authors can begin working the events of DH into their stories, and/or writing new fan fictions based off the events of DH. However-- stories that contain any sort of DH spoiler must wear a Deathly Hallows Spoiler Warning. (This warning will become available for use under the "warnings" category beginning August 1, so it will not be viewable/available before then.)
   
   
4. We will alert everyone, via news post, when it is okay to begin expressing spoilers freely: i.e., in profiles, summaries, banners, etc. However, this will not be for a while. Do NOT take it upon yourself to decide when enough time has passed, or you will be subject to a permanent ban. Our enforcement of the above policies will be just as strict and unforgiving a month after the release as a week after the release.
   
   

   A separate but very similar policy for our Beta Forums is still being ironed out, but we feel confident in saying that the forums will remain open (even when the queue is closed between the 19th and 23rd) in some capacity. We'll be reporting the full details on that very shortly, so stay tuned.

   
   
   

   In closing, we urge everyone to exercise caution and compassion throughout and following the upcoming release of Deathly Hallows; not just here at MuggleNet, but wherever you might go, on-line or otherwise. We enjoy a good laugh as much as the next person, but please realize that spoiling the end of a long-lived series such as Harry Potter for fans who've spent years waiting for the end is anything but funny. It is only rude, hurtful, and a terribly pitiful display of immaturity. For those who would not even consider spoiling the book for someone else (because we know the great majority of you never would): we beg that you pay extra close attention in all your communications on MNFF so that you do not unintentionally let a secret slip. Furthermore, while we will do everything in our power to keep the secrets of the last book safe and off our site, it is perfectly possible that something might slip through the cracks before we catch it. As such, we advise that anyone who has not finished the book and is truly worried about being spoiled, simply not visit ours or any other Harry Potter related site until you have, indeed, finished it.

   
   
   

   As always, thank you all for taking the time to read this extensive post. Please do not hesitate to contact one of us with any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Happy writing!

   
   

Exchange of Information Policy

Recently, numerous members of the MuggleNet Fan Fiction community have acted irresponsibly and failed to respect the privacy of personal and sensitive information. These events have inspired new policy to be considered, in regard to how much information we will allow to be exchanged over our medium. A consensus has been reached, and we have decided that the following pieces of information-- and only the following pieces of information-- may be given out freely:

• Your real first name
  
• Your birthday date
  
• General location (nothing more specific than your state/province)
  
• Your e-mail address
  
• Your AIM/Yahoo/MSN screen name
  
• Your personal website URL (not to be confused with linking to your fics on another site, which is not allowed)
  

Needless to say, you can continue to discuss your likes/dislikes, college major(s), musical taste, etc, in your profile. We only mean to ban the overly-personal subjects, such as exact locations, health conditions, last names, et cetera. Our site is not the proper venue for such conversations. That is why we allow the free exchange of e-mail addresses and screen names-- so that you can converse on those matters on your own terms, not ours.


Please note that this applies to both the main site (here) and our Forums. Violation of this policy will result in one warning for the first offense, but a second or third offense is grounds for a permanent ban and/or deletion of your account. Please take this seriously, as we sincerely don't want to have to take disciplinary action, and know that we enforce this only with the best intentions of protecting our beloved authors.


Feel free to contact a moderator if you have any questions. And, as always, thank you guys for your support. This site wouldn't exist without each of you.

Challenge Results!

The New Year Challenges have been judged and we have winners!


Overall Winner: A Hand in the Wolf's Mouth by ProfPosky

The Deathly Hallows - Fallen by StaceyLC
Myth and Magic - A Hand in the Wolf's Mouth by ProfPosky
At the Sign of the Green Dragon - Grim Decisions by Kehribar
Dreams - If You Were Me by the_evenstar
Belief - Clap Your Hands if You Believe in Magic by crazy_purple_hp_freak
Extra Credit - A Portkey to Safety by Gmariam

Well done everyone. A new bi-monthly challenge will be posted next week!


And the February One-Shot Challenge results have been announced:


1st Place - The Wedding Ring by KASK
2nd Place - The Weaker Vessel by Insecurity
Honourable Mention to - Messages of Heart and Mind by megan_lupin, and Priorities by Skipper424

Well done! And don't forget to check out the March One-Shot challenge over at the Beta Help Forums!

Help break a world record!

There is a boy here in my town (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) who is currently battling leukemia at our children's hospital. Shane's 8th birthday is coming up in May and his wish is to break the world record for the number of greeting cards received.

The story has been getting around and he is receiving cards from all over the world. If anyone would like to send Shane a card and help him try to break this record, here is the link with the address to which you can send your cards, as well as more info on Shane himself.

http://www.1053kissfm.com/station_info/cartersandraboyle.jsp

I know he would appreciate it - he's a very sick little boy and he enjoys receiving a new bunch of cards every week. Hopefully he will get his wish!

Important Information

There are a few documents every user of this site should read. First, everyone should read the terms of service. That document tells you core standards that you are held to. Recently we added a review policy that should help clarify some of the confusion on that front.

Everyone should also read the submission guidelines prior to trying to add a story.

A Student/Teacher Romance warning was added today. Any story featuring a romantic relationship between a student who is still at Hogwarts and their teacher should carry this warning. Such stories are considered sensitive subject matter.

Multiple Categories

It is stated quite clearly on the submissions page that we do not allow stories in multiple categories. You are allowed to choose one category for your story and that is where it needs to stay. We usually pick up multiple category stories at the submission stage and reject them.

However, it has become apparent that some of you are editing your stories into multiple categories after validation. This is NOT allowed. Please be aware that editing your story into multiple categories could put it at risk of deletion from the archive. If you have a story straddling categories, please edit it back into one. Thank you.

Winter's Tales Result and New Challenge

The entries into the Winter's Tales challenge were fantastic and varied. It made life incredibly tough judging them, but we do have an overall winner: Oh Little Town of Godric's Hollow by wicked angel. The following were also individual challenge winners:

Christmas by Numbers - FeatherTrader; Conversation With An Angel - Kask; Lord Voldermort... and Bob? - Schmerg_the_Impaler; Christmas Eve With the Snapes - Hermione_Rocks; A Gift of Faith by Gmariam.

All the entries were wonderful and you should all be very proud of yourselves.

We now have a new challenge up that will run for the next two months. The New Year Challenge has a variety of prompts, from creating Deathly Hallows to having characters meet gods and godesses. You can find them in the Great Hall over at the Beta Forums. To see them you need to create an account, if you don't already have one, and then PM Songbook99 to be Sorted. So what are you waiting for - go check them out!

Edit: *giggles* You have no idea how many times I wrote or typed all the winners names out yesterday. I put wicked over on the Beta Boards, I put wicked in my notes... the one place I got it wrong was in the most visible. *slaps self*

New Mods and the Queue

The queue is now open. If you have any trouble submitting please delete your internet cookies and temporary internet files. If the problem persists, please send me (deanine) an email and I will try to help you with your error. I can be contacted through my profile which is linked on the staff page.

In other news, we have completed the selection process and hired our new mods. We went into the search looking for five moderators, and you all sent in such an amazing array of applications that you made our choice very difficult. Thanks to all the applicants, and if you missed the window this time, MNFF hires regularly, so you will get another shot.

The five new mods we are welcoming are:

Hogwartduchess
Lily_Evans34
Myownmuggle
Roxy Black
Whittyleah

Congratulations new mods and happy new year everyone!

Happy Holidays!

The queue is now closed and will not be reopening until January 2nd. Enjoy your vacations, everyone, and we'll see you in 2007!

Note: There are ways to slip into the queue even with the closing, particularly if you have a story in progress. However, please know that any submissions dated 12-23-06 through 01-01-07 will be deleted without moderation. Please hold on to your submissions and have fun swamping us in January.

Happy holidays!

Edit: The winter challenges category (Winter Tales) will remain open so that participants can continue to submit their entries. (If you're a participant and the queue won't let you submit, try deleting your cookies and temporary internet files, and then refresh the page.) Thank you!

Open Applications Closed

It's time for your friendly moderators to shut ourselves in to caucus and read the amazing variety of applications you have all sent us. There will be a news post as soon as our new moderators have been selected.

Thanks everyone for your interest and the part you do to make MNFF an awesome place to share fiction.

The Cost Of Fame

There are good ways to become known.

There are bad ways to become known.

Writing good stories and leaving good reviews are both good ways to become known.

Leaving several thousand reviews in the vein of "thank you i take pride in my mad posting abilities- lets see if i can do it again ready submit submit submit!" is not a good way to become known. It will get your account deleted, it will get the reviews deleted, and it will not make you or the story any more well-liked. Deleting these wastes good modding time that could be spent in the queue.

Do not do this. Authors who do not report such spamming promptly will have the spammed story deleted as well.

Two Week Warning

The holiday season is upon us, and in MNFF tradition, the site will be taking a Christmas vacation. Submissions will be closed from December 23 until January 2. Happy writing everyone!

Winter's Tales

Mugglenet Fanfiction's annual winter challenge is upon us once again. This proved to be the most popular challenge ever last year and I hope we can match it this year. There is still time to enter the challenge if you drop by the Great Hall over on the Beta Help Forums (link in the navigation bar at the side of the page). We now have a good group of the stories validated so if you want to dive into some wintry, Christmassy reading you'll find it under the Winter's Tales subcategory of the challenges. I hope you enjoy what our fantastic authors have for you this year and please do leave them a review, no matter how small, if you enjoyed their festive treats.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Queue is closed until Monday guys. MNFF is taking a Thanksgiving break. Please use this extra time to perfect your stories, and we will see you back in the queue in a couple of days.

EDIT: The queue has reopened. If you are having trouble making the submission page work properly, please take a moment to delete your cookies, your internet files, and clear your history. This should be done while you are logged off the site. If anyone continues to have issues, please contact a moderator for assistance.

Edit Part 2: If you are still having issues, repeat the cookie deletions and file deletions. The error should be under control and the process should now work for you. Thanks for your patience guys!

Birthday Celebrations

As promised, the staff of MuggleNet Fan Fiction have been working to give a little something back to all the authors and reviewers who have made this site what it is today. First up: a plethora of avatars and banners, made especially for this wondrous occasion. See them here at our Beta Forums!

Secondly, many of the moderators are participating in a month-long project in which we write a collection of themed one-shots. Each chapter is a different one-shot by a different mod, and the "story" will be updated about once every 5-7 days. See it here!

We hope you enjoy these tidbits of fun. Thanks again for two fantastic years, everyone! Here's to another two! *Raises Butterbeer*

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