Saturday, August 28, 2010

HASA news - Challenges

In this week’s news: funding; current and prospective Challenges, and the Nuzgûl of the Month .

Funding
HASA is an ad-free, fee-free Web site, run for the enjoyment of quality JRRT fanfiction.

Currently, we still need $48 for our August site hosting. Please consider donating a small amount, if you haven’t already done so. Every bit helps! And if you can’t afford to donate money, why not donate time? Review or comment on a story, start a Forum discussion, enter a Challenge...


Birthday Challenges

The August Birthday Challenge is still going on, so there is still a bit of time left to make a request or write a birthday drabble.

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at the stories already written this year.


Current and closing Challenges

August 2010 Birthday Cards - closes August 31

Prospective Challenges

Challenges are born from Prospective Challenges, and the Prospective Challenges Forum is where you’ll find out what other people would like to spring on unsuspecting authors... If you have any ideas you want to share, head over to the Challenges Forum or be inspired by what is already there and pick up an older idea instead?


Nuzgûl of the Month

Just as Challenges come from Prospective Challenges, Prospective Challenges come from Nuzgûl, and Nuzgûl need attention to grow from tiny ideas into big stories. Step into the Nuzgûl hutch. The bunnies don’t bite (much). And who knows what ideas you may come out with?

And to make that dive into the hutch that little bit(e) more attractive, have a taster of what is in there:

The Nuzgûl of the Month!
This month’s bunny is Elven Divorce.

Think you want to write it? Come on over to the Nuzgûl of the Month Workshop, be inspired, see how many others you can inflict this idea on, and perhaps even turn it into a Challenge.

There are still a few days left on the August bunny Royally Screwed, so feel free to join in the fun, even if it’s with no more than a drabble...


Thank you for reading at HASA. Have fun!

~*~
Nath

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Please Read (August & September site hosting)

HASA is an ad-free, fee-free Web site, run for the enjoyment of quality JRRT fanfiction. Currently, the balance of our site hosting fund is negative. We need $103 US for August and it would be good if we could start on the $150 needed for September's hosting. The hosting fee pays for the dedicated server HASA needs to provide the features and fun visitors love - stories, comments, forums, alerts, challenges and more.

If you haven't donated yet to help support HASA, please consider doing so; any support will be greatly appreciated. If you're a little short on spare change at the moment, donate some time. There's an archive full of stories just waiting for comments, authors who would dearly love an email complimenting them on their work, challenges that need entries, playlists that need to be created, and forums begging for discussions. If you are a reviewer, check out a story today. If you aren't a reviewr, no better time than now to sign up.

And if you are an author, please consider donating a new story!

Thanks for enjoying HASA!

Julie

Sunday, August 15, 2010

HASA Reviewed Stories Augusy 2010

Since the previous Bulletin, 6 stories have been reviewed and there are currently also 6 stories in review. Reviews couldn’t exist without authors and reviewers. So Thank You all for your work. BUT... we still need more reviewers!

As I type this, there are 6 stories waiting for reviewers (remember to log in before you follow the link).

Member participation is crucial for reviews. The more people are involved in reviewing, the more opinions are represented. Just as importantly, having more people involved means that stories pass through review more quickly - which is good for everyone. If you are an active reviewer, why not go and check out a story?

Or, if you are a writer, take the plunge and submit a story for review (and when you do, remember: Put one in, take one out.

By submitting a story for review, you are asking nine other members to read and evaluate it. So why not do for the other authors who have a story in review what you'd like other reviewers to do for you: check out one of the stories already in review and give it a read.

Becoming a reviewer
If you're not an active reviewer, but think you can spare a bit of time... – even if you just review one or two stories in a month, every review is welcome. If you are logged in, you can sign up here if you've been a member of HASA for thirty days or more.

Daunted by the idea of reviewing? Don’t worry, reviewing at its simplest comes down to asking yourself: “Would I recommend this story to someone?” Then, whether the answer is 'yes' or 'no', you can make a choice from the capsule reasons to clarify your decision. If you want to, you can add a few more words to convey what you (dis)liked about the story, but just the capsule reason is perfectly fine as well.

Forum discussion
And for all (potential) reviewers, there is a forum thread about reviewing. Feel free to drop in and have your say if there’s anything you want to say or ask about being a reviewer.

And remember: even if you think you're too critical or not critical enough: your review is only one of nine, and all points of view are welcome. Not every reviewer has to review every story and in the end it does all level out to a balanced judgement.

Reviewed story spotlight
These stories have passed through review since the previous bulletin. Congratulations to all authors; well done!


The Temptation of Hope by Raksha
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Captain Thorongil must make a choice that could alter the path of two realms as well as his own destiny and the fates of Denethor, Finduilas and Arwen.

The Queen's Fool by Aruthir
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 2nd Age - Pre-Rings
Summary: Tar-Ancalimë was Númenor's first ruling queen- daughter of a love sundered by pride. Here is a tale from the dying days of her long, long reign- seen through the eyes of her Fool.

A Mother's Hope by lindahoyland
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: Gilraen receives news that will change her life for ever.

A Race, To Be Like Me by Imhiriel
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: Time of the Trees
Summary: Fëanor contemplates the reactions to his Oath. Drabble. MEFAwards 2008: Honorable Mention - Races: Elves: Drabbles

Worse Than The Witch King by Virtuella
Rating: General
Genre: Humor
Era: 3rd Age - Post-Ring War
Summary: As her wedding day approaches, Eowyn finds some old Gondorian customs not at all to her liking.

Choice of Heirs by Larner
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: The rumor is that Bilbo has brought his young cousin Frodo to Hobbiton to become his heir. Not everyone in the village is pleased with that idea, however.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

HASA How-tos - August 2010

Every site will experience technical problems and downtime, and alas! HASA is no exception... Read on to find out how to report any problems you may run into.

How do I...
...report a site problem or outage?


For readers, problems with the site that are caused by technical problems fall into two broad categories: either you find you cannot reach one or more specific pages, or the whole site is inaccessible. Below, you can find what you as a reader can do in each situation.

First to remember: if we don’t know about it, it can’t be fixed!

So please, if you experience any of the following errors:
-A white page with a few characters
-An error message that has lots of technical code
notify Tech Support. It may be just a glitch, but it may also be something that we need to know about so it can be found and (hopefully) fixed.

When the site is unreachable and you can't see anything like a normal HASA page, that usually means there is something wrong on the server. That affects everyone, so it's better to be safe than sorry and just send in a warning that something significant seems wrong on the site. If you're not sure how big the problem is, try going to a few other places on the site. If you can browse the site normally except for one page or one form, then there probably is a smaller problem. You should still report it so that small problems don't become larger ones!

No matter how big or small the problem, if you get an error message of some kind, please either copy the text or make a screenshot of the page (Ctrl-Prt Scr) and send those along when you send in a report to Tech Support.

You can't go wrong sending in a message that something isn't quite right. To be able to do that, you can make note of the Tech Support email address. Also be sure to bookmark the HASA LJ, the HASA News Yahoo Group, or our Blogspot blog. If we already know about a longer outage, those are the places we will use to post about it. You can also post a message or leave a comment at any of those locations if you can't remember the email address for Tech Support.

HASA has visitors around the clock. Chances are someone will see a site error before Anglachel does. Don't be shy about sending an email that something may be misbehaving.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

HASA news - Birthdays and stories

August birthdays and links to the stories written or updated in July.

August Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in August, and would you like a drabble about your favourite character or topic? You can request it here.

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at stories written for previous requests.

July Stories

All of us writers love feedback. It is the lembas and miruvor that sustains us as we write our story, and leaving a few words about a story you read is always a nice thing to do, whether the story is new or old.

Every fifteen minutes HASA highlights a story chosen at random from the Reviewed and General stories in the archive. Read the currently featured story on our front page.

Many talented writers are publishing every day. In July:

--- 11 Reviewed Stories were published or updated.
--- 66 General Stories were published or updated.
--- no Beta Stories were updated.
(Please note, you need to be logged in to view beta stories.)

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!

~Nath ~