Guest Jaxxy Posted August 6, 2008 Report Posted August 6, 2008 We hope this springtime is finding everyone well. Howsoever, upon reposing in the season's greening fields (at least those of the northern hemisphere -- and, presumably, those carrying wireless Internet service), keep those eyes peeled! We are most intently entrenched in the process of cleaning house, and, like anything one cleans, it might seem even less tidy in the meantime. Money Makes the World Wide Web Go 'Round Certain idiosyncrasies in AdultFanFiction.net's coding have actually been costing us veritable megabucks in server fees for oh, so long. What's more, to an extent, we've finally discovered where some of our bigger resource-gluttons have been hiding. Lest our bandwidth costs begin to regularly hit the $700.00-USD-per-month mark (for that they did in January!), our very observant and diligent technical administration is implementing some majorly cheapifying refurbishings even as I type. We're confident that these will vastly improve everyone's AFF experience, and, hopefully, keep it as cheap as the smut we strive to perpetuate. You can do your part by chipping in! The Great Shuffle It's hard to miss the signs of those burgeoning renovations I mentioned -- right about now, it can be best seen in the re-arranging of our Sub-Categories. Organizing our coding a little differently (this means re-defining how Categories and Sub-Categories "speak to" one another, amongst other things) will reduce the number of queries our program uses to obey any given command (that's you, clicking away on AFF, having faith our program can take you to where you want to be). Ultimately, this will allow the site run more efficiently, which will be a relief to our wallets as well as our nervous systems. As we get further along in our work, it will become clearer to you why we're doing what we're doing. While things are a bit strange on the eyes at the moment, we anticipate your being happy with the end results. More Mind Morsels for Members Areas in the Archive such as "Searching for Fics", "Resources", "Challenges", and "Rants/Journals" must also soon go the way of the dodo. Turns out, they're heinous resource hogs! These little gems are the culprits behind some of our programing's biggest hurdles, and so, they will soon part company with the Archive. It won't happen this second, but please be prepared to see them vanish within a week or two. A Place for Everything, and Everything in its Place Don't panic (unless you enjoy that sort of thing, in which case, don't let me stand in your way)! As long as I've got anything to say about this little plot of cyber-land, AFF will always have room for you to do your thing. It's just being shifted a bit to the right (or left, if you are in the southern hemisphere... and a happy Autumn to you, there). If you're familiar with our Forum, you might have already seen that it's already waiting to to fill all these roles (and much more, bless its heart). We're quite excited that there will soon be relief for the large number of Members who write in with complaints of "non-stories" pushing back the "real stuff". The Forum's existence, amongst other things, ensures that there will always be a place where Members discuss Stories, make challenges, or share their knowledge about Feudal Japan (if they've got some of that) without infringing upon their neighbors. The Philosophy of All This A forum setting is actually intended for social interaction, whereas an archive is not. It's best to think of the Archive as a library. We go there to read or write -- activities that are generally more pleasurable in a quiet environment. Now, the Archive is reserved for Stories and Reviews, as it always should have been. On the other hand, if one wanted to partake of some old-school rabble-rousing (or, on an odd day, constructive conversation), we've still got you covered. Registering for the Forum will get you more than not, though there will always be many helpful areas to which unregistered Members will have access. We're finally setting up things the way they should have originally been done, and we think everything's gonna look mighty fine in the end. We only ask that you respect your fellow Members and take the non-literature to the allotted areas in the Forum. Help Me, Superfan! Yet another delicious morsel for your wondrous minds to savor! AFF has suffered a healthy rash (do they have those?) of orphaned Stories (those without Authors), Stories with missing Chapters, "un"-Stories (such as role-playing requests), misplaced Stories, and, well, many variations upon these things, most notably since we split our site into several Sub-Domains. It's a pleasure to announce that we've finally got the tools to re-marry the lost and sweep up the remains -- this is where you come in! We'd be grateful to anyone willing to volunteer some time in searching out and reporting any such things they may come across. Luckily, this is something you can do as you browse through the site, as you usually might (aw, more rhyming). The more eyes we've got out there, the quicker we can clean up! If you're interested in helping out, please Contact Us through the Forum's "Contact" link (you can find that atop every page of the Forum; you need not be registered or logged in to do this), or, alternatively, write to us, entitling your letters "Archive Cleanup". "Are you done yet?!" In sum-uppance of what might have been a tiresome report, let me say that we know some of these things will take a bit of getting used to. We're sorry for that -- change is not something many people willingly welcome. But, we are many thousands of percents sure that you'll be glad we did what we're doing when we're done. Almost as sure as I am that you're glad I'm done with this post! May you feel the Spring breeze with nary a sneeze -- or, in the southern hemisphere, that Autumn chill with a skip and a thrill. -- Jaxxy
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