The fics were working...

The build, new fic uploading, everything!

For about two hours. Then they went down again, and we're still not sure why. Techie Paul is going to look into it today and we hope to have it all working again tonight.

And now they are all working again. We think. Please comment here or in Suggestions & Questions in FictionAlley Park if you're still seeing errors, or if you're having issues with the upload process.

ArtisticAlley Update

The good news is, ArtisticAlley is back! Harry Potter fanart can again be uploaded, viewed, reviewed, rated, etc!

However, as we warned yesterday, the server crash resulted in the loss of about 60ish pieces of fanart that were uploaded in late November and early December, so if you were one of those artists, please feel free to re-upload your art. We're trying to get the usernames of those impacted, so we can Owl everyone, but if you know someone who uploaded art in the weeks before the crash please let that artist know about the situation and encourage him or her to re-upload the art.

Thanks to everyone for your patience and let us know if you're finding any glitches!

What did you read/see while we were away?

We've set up a thread in the Park where you can link to the best Harry Potter fics, fanart, fanfilms, or other works of fannish creativity that you read/saw while we were down.

Click here to share your Harry Potter fan-recs! and click here to share links to non-Harry Potter fan creativity.

We missed you, and we know that we missed out on fantastic fan creativity! It doesn't have to be new, it just has to be something that you thought was terrific.

Want to help us redesign the front page of FictionAlley?

We're looking for someone familiar with graphic design and, ideally, also with Blogger. If you're interested, send us links to, or screencaps of, your portfolio - just email us at help @ fictionalley.org (without the spaces) and put Redesign App in the subject.

DNS Issue with ArtisticAlley

We are still having a lingering DNS issue with ArtisticAlley, but we are working with Register.com to fix it, and it should be working later today.

Thanks again for your patience!

Forums and review boards have returned

The forums and review boards have been restored. Visit us in the Park at http://forums.fictionalley.org

The fic management page isn't working yet. Once this error is resolved, we expect to be able to begin processing new content. Also, when we went down, we lost a small amount of Park posts, and a few dozen new pieces of art in ArtisticAlley. We are going to try and recover them, but we're at least a week - possibly three - away from that happening. If you have art that you uploaded before the crash that you can't find on AA now, you can re-upload it.

In better news, over the next month, we're going to have some new projects, contests, challenges, group re-reads and more, in the lead-up to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part Two. Stay tuned as we start to launch those this weekend...

We've set up a thread in Suggestions & Questions for bug reports. You can also email the help desk at help [at] fictionalley.org (without the spaces and with an @ instead of the word "[at]").

Thank you so much for your patience and support through this frustrating and transitional time. We could not have done it without all of you - authors, readers, artists, Parkies, donors and anonymous visitors. We're looking forward to a wonderful 2011 on FictionAlley with you!

We had hoped we'd be back in full this weekend...

But we're having a DNS issue stemming from moving to new servers. We hope to get everything solved by tomorrow, but as it's a national holiday in the US, we may not be able to.

We've been moving to new servers over the last few weeks, and this one issue is the spanner in the Floo Network right now. We're looking forward to coming back strong, busy and magical as soon as possible.

Cons and Events in 2011

We've been asked to pass on a message from the team behind the Lubricus 2011 con committee; FictionAlley, as always, is happy to be a supporter of fan- and fandom-created events, and until the Park gets back online (Soon! We promise!) feel free to send information about upcoming events to the Help Desk at help@fictionalley.org

Greetings from the BF4F ConCom!

As you may or may not have heard, By Fans 4 Fans is hosting a Harry Potter slash con in Seattle June 16-19, 2011. This is going to be a weekend filled with fun, friends, and of course, slash!

Check out the ad on YouTube here!

For more information visit bf4f.org or Lubricus 2011 on LJ.

Happy Slashing

New Year, New Server Fundraiser Update

SQUEE!

Over $1000 has been donated to FictionAlley via Razoo in December, so Razoo has pledged $1000 in matching funds! In other words, our expected server fees for 2011 are now fully funded! Thanks to all of you who helped by donating and spreading the word.

The fundraiser is technically still going on through the end of the month, and any additional donations will be used to fund large-scale fan-driven works of fannish creativity. In 2011, we'll be launching a new fundraiser focused on writing tools, workshops and other educational projects; look for more information once we've moved to our new servers in the new year.

Thanks to all of you who've supported FictionAlley; it won't be long before we're back at 100% capacity.

The Park should be back this week.

We hope; we're working on it. Fics are still accessible, and so is the Harry Potter Wiki, so if you're looking for a place to discuss characters, put in your theories, link to your favorite fics about certain characters, and more, just visit the Harry Potter Wiki, create an account and log in, and start editing!

We have only seven days left to raise the $1000 that will be matched by Razoo in our our New Year, New Server Fundraiser. If $87 is donated via Bel's Page and $130 is donated via Marauder's Page, we will get $1000 in matching funds from Razoo, and given the extra that's been donated to the other three fundraising pages, we will then be covered for server fees for 2011 (and won't have to do another server-fee-fundraiser until at least May).

We are moving to new servers this week to get the Park and ArtisticAlley back online, too!

Thanks for all your support, and we hope you've had a Harry Happy Holiday Season!

Downtime Issues

We've been working with our server host on the Park issue - and we apologize for the downtime. There is a 'kernel' problem with the server but we have a recent backup and hope to get everything working again shortly. If you can make a donation to supportnour new server fundraiser project, we would really appreciate it; just follow the links below. We need about $200 on each "project" by December 31 to get the full $1000 in matching funds from Razoo - we are so close to having our server fees covered for all of 2011, so if you can donate $20 or even $50, we will be all set for site hosting costs for the year.

Fundraiser Update

Thank you so much to those who've donated to our New Year, New Server Fundraiser! In the last three days, over six hundred dollars have been donated by FictionAlley users like you.

In other words, we're more than half-way to our goal, and December is now half over.

If you can donate $13.50, $25, or even $50 this month, you'll help us get the $1000 matching funds that Razoo has pledged.

One of our pledge-pages has already reached the $200-per-page matching funds cap, so please donate to the other four pages. Just click one, and make your pledge. You can donate anonymously, if you prefer, but the next 29 non-anonymous donors will get a vintage "Creativity is Magic" wristband as a thank-you from Team FictionAlley.

Just click, and give, to support FictionAlley:
Marauder's Page
Bel's Page
Zorb's Page
Plu's Page

(And don't forget to shop at Amazon for Harry Potter gifts and more; a portion of your purchase also supports FictionAlley.)

"New Year, New Server" Fundraiser

Back in September, we rolled out a fundraiser to fund FictionAlley's $200-per-month server hosting fees, and we are thrilled that so many of you stepped up to help out. We raised almost nine hundred dollars, which has kept FictionAlley online throughout 2010, and we can't tell you how much we appreciate it!

We've also brought in almost two hundred dollars from the Google ads, purchases you made at Amazon and the 800+ stores affiliated with iGive via our links, and orders from WBShop.com and HotTopic.

So for the month of December, we're trying to raise enough money to cover the $2400 we expect to pay for site hosting fees for 2011, so we can stay ahead of the curve.

From now until December 31, fundraising site Razoo will match every dollar we raise, up to $1000* - since  FA's servers cost almost $200 per month, if we raise $1000 via Razoo by the end of the year, thanks to their matching funds, we'll have ALL of 2011 covered!  Please help us by funding a day, a week or a month for FictionAlley's fics, forums, art and more!  And don't forget... if you are a U.S. taxpayer, your donation of any amount is tax-deductible.

Plus, we recently found a stash of vintage "Creativity Is Magic" wristbands in the cupboard under my stairs, so the next 45 non-anonymous donors via any of our Razoo pages will get a nifty multicoloured wristband (hopefully) in time for the holidays! 

Donate to FictionAlley's New Year, New Server Fundraiser via the widget to the right, or at one of these pages:
Plu's Page
Zorb's Page
Heidi's Page
Bel's Page
One more to come...

* The way their pledge pages are set up, Razoo will match up to $200 donated via our five fundraising pages; just follow the links above, choose one and make your donation!

Everything is back!

Thanks to some technological fixes by our team, our "internal clock" is working again, and everything should be as it was (other than the front page, which we are still working on).

We've had a few questions about where the fics are, and they are at the same URLs they've always been. But since the "search for fics" page has dropped a little further down on this page, you can use these links:

• View the old front page
• Search for fics
• Novel-length fics
• Romance fics
• Humorous fics
• Dramatic, angsty, horror and other fics
• FictionAlley Park Forums, Drabbles, Writing Resources & More
• Fanart

Forum site update

We expect that a reboot of the server hosting the forums will bring them back online. Our provider is working on this request.

FictionAlley Is Kinda Sorta Back!

Well, except for fic submissions/story management. And the front page. But there's good reasons for that; we're still updating some aspects of the site. Fic submissions should be re-opened by Friday, and we're working on a revised front page.

You can get to the rest of the site via these links:

• FictionAlley Park 
• Fic Searches
• Newly uploaded fics & chapters
• ArtisticAlley
• Newly uploaded art
• Read a random fic!
• Help Edit HarryPotterWiki.com

Keep Calm and Carry Wands on etsy

Limited Edition Pin

We have a small stash of pins left over from Infinitus, and they're on sale at our FictionAlley etsy shop through the holidays.

All proceeds from the sale of the "Keep Calm and Carry Wands" pins goes to our "New Year, New Server" Fundraiser; we're trying to raise enough money by the end of December to cover FictionAlley's 2011 hosting fees, which will be about $2300.

Right now, we only have about two dozen pins left, but if they're a big hit, we may do more...

We're updating the site!

No, this isn't another bout of unscheduled downtime - we're updating some aspects of FictionAlley tonight instead!

We should be back up and working on November 30. For updates, visit this blog, which you can also find at http://fictionalley.blogspot.com/ or follow us on Twitter or LiveJournal.

Also, since there's seven months to qo before the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part Two in movie theaters, is anyone interested in helping organize a group re-read of each of the seven Harry Potter books, starting in mid-December with one per month, through mid-July? Comment to this post or email us at help@fictionalley.org if you're interested in helping.

Fansites Interview Composer Alexandre Desplat

SpellCast and FictionAlley were thrilled to participate in a conference call interview with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows composer Alexandre Desplat. Lena Gabrielle, composer of the fan-created musical production The Final Battle was FA's representative during the conference call; read the transcript here. Audio excerpts are coming soon.

Enter Our Deathly Hallows Contest!

Enter our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 contest and you might win a Horcrux with a 1GB flash drive, a Ministry of Magic shirt, tattoos, IMAX tickets or one of the other fantastic prizes! Click here for contest rules, and to enter!