BronxWench

Smint isn't a troll, but she did take a very disapproving tone over CL standing up to the troll. I was surprised myself, since Smint has always been a very respectful reviewer. I will say that I'll be much less likely to leave a review board warning in my capacity as a moderator. I'll limit myself to communicating with the affected author via email so as to not fan the flames, and disappoint people by standing up to a bully publicly.

I'm going to step in for a moment, and just leave a few thoughts. My initial thought is that this is giving our original flamer/troll exactly what they were seeking. A great deal of upset and recriminations against writers for reasons that are, or should be, irrelevant. To explain, this notion that because some of us are moderators, we should be held to a different standard is unfair, and unfortunate. It's hardly going to encourage people to offer their time when it means opening themselves to vilification every time they write an author's note, or review a story. Most of us, as I've said, began here as members, writers with stories to tell. We believe in the freedom from censorship that AFF represents, and we're donating our time to support that mission. And yes, while in "uniform" and posting as "AFF Moderator" we are expected to let insults and abuse roll off our backs. We warn people for infractions of the Terms of Service and it upsets them. Sometimes, we field a report of something a person believes is an infraction, and we find that it is not actually an infraction. That's often not taken well, either. I've been threatened with pretty much everything including death. I do not and will not respond to those threats, other than to report them to my admins. I do not feel that I need to have the same restraint when I am being harassed on a personal level. My stories are not published by "AFF Moderator." Reviews that are not germane to my stories, and which contain personal attacks are not something I'm required to endure or accept, and I have as much right as any other author on this site to respond on my review reply thread. But, like any other author on this site, I can't reply on my review board, and having those personal attacks out there sets an even worse example for this site. It says we tolerate bullying, and abuse. It says we're no better than the flash mobs on Tumblr, or the Facebook and Twitter attacks that we read about online and in the news. The only one truly being hurt here is the author who was originally subjected to a review board campaign by someone who assumed they knew the site's rules better than the staff, and who has admitted to remaining anonymous because they know it limits our options in how we can respond to the campaign they are waging, against an author who is afraid to write anything, and against staff members who are not willing to be cowed by their tactics. This person has also admitted that they are not done with their harassment. To be very frank, if you have a better suggestion for how to handle the situation with the flamer/troll, I would love to hear it. As a parent who has taught my children that bullying is never, ever right, and to speak out if they see bullying, how can I do less myself? We are all entitled to have an opinion. It is the hallmark of maturity to know when and how to express such opinions. It is also the hallmark of maturity to know when it's time to take a step backward, and let things cool down. I'm suggesting that we all take that step back. If nothing else, it stops feeding the flames.

The Potions Master's Baby by Snapes_Goddess

Cherry Starburst

Latham02, you can post here as a guest. It's fine.

From the How to Use This Forum post: Please include the following information in all posts: In the Topic Title, put the fandom and story name. (Example: Twilight: Inferno in the Snow) In the Topic Description, put that the fiction is up for adoption.; If the story is adopted, moderators will edit to reflect that it is no longer up. In the actual post: Pen Name in Archive Story Title Genre Pairing Summary How many chapters posted/written Link to story if posted already Basic plot along with any additional details you are interested in including, keeping in mind that if you include possible spoilers this is an open forum How you would like to be contacted, email, PM etc When a story is adopted, please respond to the topic with the following information: Pen name and link of the person taking over. Each author must also reply that they have both agreed to the story being taken over. At this point, DG will move the story over to the new author's profile, while maintaining the original author's information connected to previously written chapters. We will then close the topic and change the description to adopted. Even if someone has agreed to adopt the story, we need the original author to post so we know permission to adopt has been given. Thanks!

Mine as well, since the troll never read my review reply. Oh, well.

Indeed! I thrive on challenging myself, and I think it helps me in my longer pieces. Yes, the tradition of the Elysian Fields in the subterranean version was to earn your way to the proper, sunlight fields of eternal bliss. It required three incarnations in which one was supposed to do something heroic. For my narrator's sake, I do hope that death counted.

For Hunting Elysium: Wow! Thank you! That is seriously a completely wonderful compliment, and made all the better because it comes from someone whose writing is always of the highest caliber. Thank you, so much! Writing flash fiction is a challenge for me because I tend to be wordy, but it's invaluable in learning how to hone prose to the essentials. I always have mixed feeling about how well I do, but I'm also happy to know when I've managed to do what I set out to do: to entertain, even for a few short minutes. For Punch Line: Thank you again! My poor nameless narrator... I wasn't terribly nice to him, was I? One of the traditional myths surrounding lamiae was their habit of seducing and devouring young men. My narrator might not be young, but in the version of the Elysian Fields where he woke, beggars, including his ex-wife and a certain lamia, can't be choosers. It's hardly a heroic death, but perhaps Cronus will be kinder than Hera, who definitely knows how to hold a grudge. Thank you again! I'm glad his gallows humor worked. He's a wry sort, my poor bastard.

I can see your stories in your profile listing, so they're there, and not hidden or otherwise amended. Are you getting any particular error message, or there's just nothing in the Story dropdown?

Happy anniversary!

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Hi, Calanthee! In the Rich Text Editor, you should be able to go all the way down to the very bottom (the blank part) and backspace away all those extra lines. I have no idea why the RTE does that, but I know if I use the Paste from Word option (even for OpenOffice or LibreOffice), it keeps my formatting a little better. Except for centering. I have no idea why, but I have to edit to make things centered again. Do you copy and paste into the text box? That's usually the best way, I've found. And I use either Word or LibreOffice, depending on my mood. (And I'm really enjoying the new story, too!)

I feel obliged to chime in here about the edited comment in the story, and Smint45's review. I'm a moderator, and when I'm working as a moderator, I only review stories to leave a warning about an issue. The reviews are left from the AFF Moderator pen name, and although we all sign our own pen names, so as not to be anonymous, there is a reason for that separate account. It's to separate the writer from the moderator for those of us who are both. The person leaving the nastygrams on CL's board started on another author's board, and I warned them to stop, as AFF Moderator, because I was working. The troll responded by attacking me on a personal level, both on this hapless author's board and on one of my stories. CL happened to also stand up for this author, in her personal pen name, and has been harassed as a result. The reviews are not about the story. They're loathsome personal attacks and the troll leaving them is a bully and a coward. I don't feel particularly obligated to tolerate that sort of abuse, nor should anyone. But the point is that what we do or say from our personal pen names has nothing to do with our moderator duties. If someone has an issue with us as moderators, they can email DemonGoddess061, our admin, and bitch about us to their heart's content. To expect CL to have to be "on duty" even in her personal pen name takes things too far, in my opinion. We volunteer our time to moderate, but the truth is, we all wandered here first because we're writers. Let us continue to be writers, and to have opinions, and express them like every other writer on this site.

Tahn, click the "Follow this topic" button, and then in your forum profile settings, make sure you get notifications via email.

::waves to JayDee who obviously has custody of the brain this week::

Can you give me a link for some of the stories you can't read? There's no block I'm aware of on our end.

I'd have to see the url you're being sent to to be sure, but if the story was on AFF before our domain change, that might be the issue.

Huh! Teaches me to try typing html code when I'm dead tired. I'll re-review without the screwup.

Excellent! Our lovely DemonGoddess 061 is a bit snowed under with work, but I know she'll get to it as quickly as she can, so please be patient with us.

Exactly. He can make a new topic under this forum heading, and that will do it.

He can just post it here, and that would work.

We do have a thread for story adoption, and the process is stepped out as to how we need to proceed. And as long as the series is here on AFF, you can promote it here using the format for a story promotion. I'm going to assume that by various media, you mean various fandoms as well, so each story would have to be published in that fandom's appropriate subdomain, or category within a subdomain. That would mean each story would have a unique url, so you'd need to make a promo post for each story, but you can reference the larger series, and perhaps suggest readers check out your profile to see the stories you've written.