.moon blog

Database Unavailable

2009-01-06T22:48:28Z

You may have noticed the site is down due to database errors. I've submitted a support ticket to the host.

ETA: Looks like we're back. Hopefully we'll stay that way.

UFO Awards - 2007 Best Overall results!

2009-01-01T04:04:04Z

At long last, the 2007 UFO Awards are complete! I am pleased to announce the results for Best Overall fanfiction of the year:

First Place: "Only In The World of Dragons" by atruwriter
Second Place: "Of Course" by insidiae
Third Place: "Only in Hyrule" by CrazygurlMadness

The award badges for the Best Overall round can be seen here. Congratulations to the winners!

This concludes the 2007 UFOs. Nominations for the 2008 awards will run through January 31st.

Updates for 10/19/08

2008-10-20T12:37:03Z

The weekly update for October 19, 2008 has been run.

New material has been added to the library for the following fandoms: Harry Potter, Rurouni Kenshin, Sailormoon, and Yu-Gi-Oh.

The following fandoms are currently under discussion in the forums: Harry Potter, football, baseball, Red Alert 3, and Indiana Jones.

Also in the forums: NaNoWriMo, politics, the dating game, and movie/lyrics guessing games.

Website news: A child board has been added to the Writer's Block for discussion of NaNoWriMo. If you're doing NaNo this year, come join us! The entry period for the Autumn Challenges is ending soon, be sure to get your entries in!

Catch up on it all at dotmoon.net.

Updates for 10/5/08

2008-10-06T01:59:40Z

The weekly update for October 5, 2008 has been run.

New material has been added to the library for the following fandoms: Harry Potter, Sailormoon, and Yu-Gi-Oh (as well as some original work).

New artwork has been added to the gallery for the following fandoms: Harry Potter.

The following fandoms are currently under discussion in the forums: Harry Potter, the NFL, House M.D., GREEK, and general manga.

Also in the forums: NaNoWriMo, politics, the dating game, riddles and movie/lyrics guessing games.

Website news: dotmoon.net is now officially three years old. In celebration of the community's birthday, a new default theme and look has been applied to the entire site. In addition, the Library now contains a poetry section for all your poetic needs. :)

Catch up on it all at dotmoon.net.

Updates for 9/28/08

2008-09-30T11:05:32Z

The weekly update for September 28, 2008 has been run.

New stories or chapters have been added to the library for the following fandoms: Firefly, Harry Potter, Sailormoon, and Ah! My Goddess/Bubblegum Crisis/Ranma 1/2 (crossover).

New artwork has been added to the gallery for the following fandoms: Harry Potter.

The following fandoms are currently under discussion in the forums: Harry Potter, Sailormoon, and Max.

Also under discussion: Football, unusual music, general manga, plot bunnies, the outlining process, and politics.

Website news: The site will be going down for maintenance this Thursday night, starting at 11 PM CST. Maintenance downtime will probably last several hours. Be sure to check in on Friday for .moon's third birthday celebration!

Catch up on it all at dotmoon.net.

Updates for 9/21/08

2008-09-22T15:34:54Z

Lots of new members and fresh activity lately! :D

The weekly update for September 21, 2008 has been run.

New stories or chapters have been added to the library for the following fandoms: Avatar, Harry Potter, Sailormoon, and Star Trek: Enterprise.

The following fandoms are currently under discussion in the forums: Harry Potter, Delerium, and Red Alert 3.

Also under discussion: Football, the legal system, political candidates, and the ongoing Dating Game. Also, congrats to our moderator Storm on the birth of his son. :)

Website news: Best Overall voting for the 2007 UFO Awards is in progress. The Autumn Challenges for writing and artwork have begun; entries are due by the end of October.

Catch up on it all at dotmoon.net.

UFO Awards - Best of Fandom winners and Best Overall voting!

2008-09-03T09:32:43Z

The "Best of Fandom" winners have been announced!

The UFO Awards website has been updated to include labels for all the winners on the Archives page. Click here to go there.

If you would like to see all the pretty badges I made for the winners, click here. (Heavy graphics warning.)

There is a plain-text listing of the winners in the discussion thread on the .moon forum, click here to join us there.

Congrats to all the winners! :)

In addition, the second round of voting is now open! The "Best Overall" ballot is made up of the First Place winners of the Best of Fandom round. Voters are required to read all of the eligible stories before voting. More details are available in the discussion thread or on the UFO Awards website.

Happy reading and voting!

Updates for 8/31/08

2008-08-31T23:33:09Z

Taking another stab at being regular with these things...

The weekly update for August 31, 2008 has now been run.

New stories or chapters have been added to the library for the following fandoms: Harry Potter, Instant Star, Sailormoon, and Princess Tutu (as well as some original work).

The following fandoms are currently under discussion in the forums: Harry Potter and Twilight.

Website news: The UFO Awards are a bit behind schedule, but things are moving forward. All the 2007 nominees have been notified of the Best of Fandom winners, and the Best Overall voting round will begin before the week is out. The winners list for the first round will also be made public at that time.

Catch up on it all at dotmoon.net.

Updates for 7/13/08

2008-07-17T09:34:33Z

The weekly update for July 13, 2008 has now been run.

New stories or chapters have been added to the library for the following fandoms: Chronicles of Narnia, Princess Tutu, Ronin Warriors, Sailormoon, and The Naked Brothers Band (as well as some original work).

New artwork has been added to the gallery for the following fandoms: Ai Yori Aoshi and Sailormoon (as well as some original work).

The following fandoms are currently under discussion in the forums: Avatar, Evangelion, Bokurano, Vampire Knights, So You Think You Can Dance? and Batman (The Dark Knight).

Also under discussion: Baseball, Funimation's takeover of several anime titles, and fanfic vs. original fic.

Website news: The submission period for the Summer Challenge is ending soon; be sure to get your entries in.

Catch up on it all at dotmoon.net.

Downtime

2008-07-07T10:58:04Z

The site is currently down. I've submitted a support ticket to the host. Hopefully we will be up and running again soon.

While I was there, I noticed our host has scheduled some maintenance for this Friday night, the 11th, at midnight CST. (Friday night/Saturday morning.) The maintenance window is scheduled for midnight until 2 AM. dotmoon.net will most likely be down during that time.

ETA: We're back up.

Updates for 7/6/08

2008-07-06T23:48:51Z

The weekly update for July 6, 2008 has now been run.

New stories have been added to the library for the following fandoms: Avatar, Harry Potter, Sailormoon, and the Matrix.

The following fandoms are currently under discussion in the forums: Heroes, House, Evangelion, Doctor Who, and RahXephon.

Also under discussion: Baseball, the Tokyopop situation, Funimation's takeover of several anime titles, Anime Expo, and the Obama campaign.

Website news: Best of Fandom voting for the 2007 UFO Awards has finished, but winners have yet to be announced. The summer writing and artwork challenges are open and accepting entries. A new flag has been added to the story/art submission process to identify seasonal challenge entries.

Catch up on it all at dotmoon.net.

UFO Awards - Round One voting for 2007 now open!

2008-05-02T13:36:19Z

A day late, but thus far NOT a dollar short, voting for the 2007 UFO Awards is now open!

For 2007 we had a total of 190 entries, of which 158 were seconded and accepted and became official contest entries. Categories have to have at least three entries to be voted on, which gives us 17 categories on the ballot (a 100% increase over last year!):

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Batman Beyond

Card Captor Sakura

Fruits Basket

Fullmetal Alchemist

Harry Potter

Kaleido Star

Kim Possible

Legend of Zelda

Life With Derek

Ouran High School Host Club

Princess Tutu

Rurouni Kenshin

Sailormoon

Veronica Mars

Witch Hunter Robin

Works in Progress

Things are really taking off! We have a wide variety of categories this year, some new, some old. Big thanks to everyone who nominated and seconded stories! Now get over there and vote! :D

You can jump directly to the voting page via this URL:
http://www.dotmoon.net/awards/awards_vote.php

*Be aware that there is a Members' Choice tally running in addition to the regular tally. Members of .moon should make sure to login to the site before voting.*

The ballot will allow you to vote in as many or as few categories as you want, so don't worry if you're not familiar with them all. You can even go back later to vote in any category you didn't vote in the first time. You can only vote in a category one time, though, so make sure you're really set on your choices before submitting your ballots!

This is the first round of voting, to determine the top three stories of each fandom and the top ten stories of the WIPs. This voting stage will run through June 30th. (Still a couple of months behind where I'd like the timetable to be, but we're two months ahead of last year, so it's a start.) After that, the first place stories will face off for best fanfic of the year!

Don't forget, nominations for the 2008 UFOs are open as well. ^^

More downtime -_-

2008-03-24T21:23:16Z

We were back up for a while, but now it appears we're experiencing more downtime. -_-

I've submitted a support ticket to the host.

Downtime

2008-03-22T04:07:28Z

So I plugged .moon to a full fanfiction panel at Anime Boston today, and now I get back to my hotel room and discover the site is down due to some maintenance on the host's end. -_-

Apparently it might be down for up to 12 hours. -_______-

Lovely timing, there.

Oh, also, Orion (preshrunken) has stepped down as a Super Moderator on the forum. Jason has been chosen to fill the role. Orion will remain on the beta-testing team.

Staff Additions

2008-02-28T10:20:06Z

The new shoutbox is finally ready for testing! Now that there's something new to test, I finally added some new members to the team of Beta-Testers. They are:

olesia
Vayleen
JP
Shel

That brings us to a total of fourteen betas, with one potential invite I need to check on.

In addition, I've passed on the administration of the seasonal challenges to Yumeko, who will be handling the writing challenges, and Araya, who will be handling the artwork challenges.

Welcome to the .moon staff, all of you, and thank you for your help with the site! :)

The Kitchen

2008-01-31T03:48:19Z

The shoutbox has been taken offline due to a hacking attempt. I will most likely be programming a replacement from scratch, so it may be a while before we have a chat client again.

!!! Someone loves us! o_o

2008-01-22T02:03:08Z

O_O

I checked my email this evening to discover someone anonymously bought this journal two months of paid time! Thank you, wonderful mystery person! I wish I knew who you were... *hugs the generous mousie*

So that solves the UFO messaging problem! It'll be so nice to be able to send private messages to these people instead of spamming them with public comments. Whoever you are, anonymous donating person, you've saved me a heap of trouble. ^_____^

I've also taken advantage of the paid theme options and chosen a fun new theme for this blog. It's dark, but I think it's fitting. :)

UFO Awards - 2006 Best Overall results!

2008-01-21T07:33:43Z

At long last, the 2006 UFO Awards are complete! I am pleased to announce the results for Best Overall fanfiction of the year:

First Place: "If You've A Ready Mind" by mistful
Second Place: "The Burning Time" by Misora
Third Place: "Faith" by The Noble French Fry

The award badges for the Best Overall round can be seen here.

Now that that's all taken care of, I've gone ahead and sent out the first wave of notification emails for the 2007 UFOs. All of the seconded nominees whose categories are likely to go to vote have been sent a notice asking them to accept their nominations. That's as far as I was able to get before my eyes started to cross. ^^;; Responses are already rolling in, and the 2007 awards are off to a great start! This year, I plan to send warning notices to the unseconded nominees and those in categories that need more entries, so the smaller fandoms have a fair chance to get in the game. I'll be doing that within the next few days.

In not-so-happy news, I was very excited about using the new private messaging system to notify LiveJournal users of their UFO nominations... until I discovered that free accounts have a limit on the number of messages you can send. Isn't that just like LJ, to do something so mean? -_- A lot of people don't include their email addresses in their profiles, so my only other option is to post comments in their journals, which I really hate to do. Now I have messages waiting that I can't answer, and I can't afford to upgrade the dotmoon LJ account right now because Dreamhost's recent accidental overcharge fiasco emptied my bank account. ;_; Sigh.

Weekly Update 12/02/07

2007-12-05T02:46:29Z

This week 9 stories and 20 chapters were added to the Library. 3 pieces were added to the Gallery.

Stories

"Study Date" by Heavenly Pearl (Fruits Basket)
"Absolution" by regie (Madlax)
"Seven Days in the Life of My Family by Hotaru Tomoe" by LokiLeysmith (Sailormoon)
"Parent-Teacher Day" by LokiLeysmith (Sailormoon)
"Fourteen Days With my Family by Hotaru Tomoe" by LokiLeysmith (Sailormoon)
"One Last Night" by Heavenly Pearl (Sailormoon)
"Now We Are Young" by His lordship Chaos (Sailormoon)
"The Hardest Part" by DaBlackRose (Sailormoon)
"Isle of Serenity" by lilcatfish96 (Sailormoon)

Chapters

"Unspoken Oblivion" by TheSkyIsCalling, Chapters 8-15 (Original Fiction)
"Roll the Bones" by JuJube, Part 6 (Crossover)
"Sight the King" by olesia, Chapters 6-15 (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
"My Love, My Soldier" by Rain Child, Part 5 (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Artwork

"Riku" by yog_live (Kingdom Hearts)
"The Motivations of Kyoshiro" by yog_live (Samurai Deeper Kyo)
"Bontenmaru" by yog_live (Samurai Deeper Kyo)

Find them all at http://www.dotmoon.net/library_new.php and http://www.dotmoon.net/gallery_new.php!

Weekly Update 11/25/07

2007-11-26T11:45:56Z

Making another attempt at posting these regularly...

While I'm here, voting in the second round of the 2006 UFO Awards ends this Friday. And we need votes like vampires need blood. I am not even kidding. Please, if you have any free time this week, do some reading and voting. Thanks.

This week 7 stories were added to the Library. There were no additions to the Gallery.

Stories

"Conversations in the Rain" by LokiLeysmith (Ah! My Goddess)
"Intervention" by LokiLeysmith (Ah! My Goddess)
"When the Knight is Done" by December (Batman Beyond)
"Ghost of a Chance" by Nephthys Moon PG13 (Harry Potter)
"Hope Like Smoke" by Nephthys Moon PG (Harry Potter)
"Family Ties" by LokiLeysmith PG13 (Sailormoon)
"Kitchen Chaos: A Day in the Life of the Outer Senshi" by LokiLeysmith (Sailormoon)

Find them all at http://www.dotmoon.net/library_new.php!

Marketplace update!

2007-11-16T21:29:38Z

Hello again. :)

I've set up the functions for requesting private (watermarked) images. I still need to create the other half of the process, i.e., the functions for granting or denying those requests. Once I've finished that, I'll only have a few tasks left before the Marketplace will be ready for testing:

Multi-page rollover for large collections
Functions for reporting rule violations
A general request bin
A mass-upload function
Age restrictions on adult images
Various cosmetic things such as directory pages, rules and instructions, buttons and menus, etc.

I should be able to make a lot of progress on this list this weekend. ^^

Marketplace progress

2007-11-09T06:54:28Z

Just a quick update to show that I am, in fact, working on the site...

Last night I made a lot of progress on the future Marketplace (graphics exchange area). I've added functions for editing each graphic's data, a page for viewing individual images, and a function to add a watermark to images marked "Private." With this in use, by marking a graphic "Private" it will be displayed with a watermark marring the image. To get the watermark removed, viewers can send the creator a message requesting to use the graphic. The aim here is to allow for a "sales" of "private" icons etc similar to what was done on ASMR. Using the "Private" option, you can decide who and how many people can download your graphics.

With those features completed, most of the complicated tasks are finished. With luck, we'll be able to start beta-testing of the Marketplace next week. :)

Also, a reminder, voting in the second round of the 2006 UFOs ends at the end of this month. If you have some time, please read the eligible stories and cast your vote. Turnout so far has been tragically low, I hope we'll get some more participation before the round ends!

UFO Awards - Best Overall voting open!

2007-10-03T06:23:21Z

The second round of voting for the 2006 UFOs has started! This year, the stories on the Best Overall ballot are:

"Faith" by The Noble French Fry
"How Things Were" by Fading Grace
"If You've A Ready Mind" by mistful
"Witchy Woman" by Vathara
"Oak Evolution" by Dejana Talis
"When I Was A Child" by Sarah P
"The Burning Time" by Misora

Voting will run through November 30th, and the winners will be announced in December. You can vote at any time by visiting the UFO Awards website: http://www.dotmoon.net/awards/

Be aware, however, that I have extra measures in place to make sure everyone voting in the second round has read all seven of the eligible stories. Please don't attempt to vote unless you have done so.

In other news, today is dotmoon.net's Primary Birthday. The site is officially two years old, at least as far as its first members are concerned. :)

UFO Awards - Best of Fandom Winners!

2007-09-24T21:27:16Z

The "Best of Fandom" winners have been announced!

The UFO Awards website has been updated to include labels for all the winners on the Archives page. Click here to go there.

If you would like to see all the pretty badges I made for the winners, click here. (Heavy graphics warning.)

There is a plain-text listing of the winners in the discussion thread on the .moon forum, click here to join us there.

I am also looking for feedback on the overall structure and process of the awards. The feedback thread is located here.

Congrats to all the winners! :)

The First Place winner of each fandom category will be included on the "Best Overall" ballot. Best Overall voting will begin on October 1st.

Site issues

2007-09-21T21:08:23Z

Yup, we're down, as you might have noticed. I've submitted a support ticket. Hopefully we'll be back up soon.

EDIT: We're back :)