Wraithbait

We've added Kate Heightmeyer, Richard Woolsey and Acastus Kolya as characters, and Mitchell/Sheppard and Sheppard/Woolsey, Woolsey/Other, Kolya/Other, Kolya/Sheppard and Kolya/McKay as pairings within the slash category, and Woolsey/Other and Kolya/Other in the Ship category. These can now be used in any story. Where possible, we've changed relevant stories to have the correct tags, but please do check as we've been going by the summaries, and if the pairing was not indicated there, we didn't edit the pairing. If you want to edit your story to include the new character names or pairings, you can do so from 'account info', 'Manage Stories', and 'Edit'.



Have fun!

It's come to our attention that since the site went down there are problems with admins receiving e-mail sent via the site, including notifications of stories added to the submission queue. We've flagged the issue up to our web host, but in the meantime if you do need to contact us, please use temaris at this vague place I've heard of called gmail with a possible com after. Please put 'Wraithbait' somewhere in the subject line so that it doesn't get spamtrapped.

Thank you.

As you can see the site is back up -- we're sorry about the downtime, which was due to a serverside problem, requiring the action of our webhost, who fixed it as soon as they could. We're talking to them to identify ways to ensure this doesn't happen again!



Temaris

We now have a Twitter feed for Wraithbait: http://www.twitter.com/wraithbait, if you have a twitter account and are desperate for WB updates :)

To the member who just contacted me about not being able to log in to her account: your email bounced my reply back, so if you could let me another email address at which I could contact you, I've found your info. :) Thanks!

But definitely not a cancellation! While Claire, Alyse and I are away at the Pegasus 4 SGA convention this weekend we will (probably!) not be validating stories, but enjoying the er ... scenery.



Normal service will resume sometime after the haze clears -- probably the middle of next week. In the meantime, try not to break anything ;-)



Temaris

Added some information to the help page about how to arrange for the renaming or deletion of your account.

It's been a while since we mentioned it, and I've had a recent query, so here's a refresher. I'm also going to put it in the help file for future reference. My apologies for the oversight - I thought it was in there already but could only find it in the news archive. So if there's now two copies, you know it's because of me ::g::

---

New pairing categories are added if there are a certain number of stories in the archive containing that pairing - at the moment, it's around 10 but changes depending on how big the archive gets. In addition, pairing categories are only added if one (in the case of Character/other) or both (Character A/Character B) characters are included in the list of characters on the site.

A new character is added to the list if they meet the following criteria:

--The character is in several episodes (as in, at least five) of Stargate: Atlantis, where they make some kind of significant contribution, rather than just being the same face in the background or with the occasional line.

--The character must have both a first and last name in canon. (An exception was made in the case of Major Lorne, because he has been in several episodes of Stargate: SG1 as well as SGA, and has made significant contributions, despite never being given a first name in canon. Yet. We're waiting ::g::)

--The character must have had a number of stories submitted to the archive that feature him or her in a significant role.

I hope that explains the process. As usual, if you have any questions about this or anything else to do with the archive, please don't hesitate to contact the archivists. :)

Dear Person using Comcast from the Bay Area:



There is a rule against flaming. This rule is enforced, even if you flame anonymously. Not that you will see this message, as I've just banned your IP address.



If you do manage to log on with another IP address and try to flame again, I'll simply ban that one too.



Dear Everyone Else:



Ceiling cat is watching you.

Rule number seven of the archive reads thus:

No character bashing stories. Character bashing includes, but is not limited to, making characters look bad because you think that they are a threat to your OTP or your favourite character; making characters look bad because you think it makes your favourite character look good in comparison; characters acting severely out of character - plotting murder, committing rape, beating the hell out of people - for no good reason that is explained in the story when there is no indication in canon that they would behave in such a way. Please note that this does not mean that we don't accept dark stories, but if your canon character reads as though they are cackling wildly and swirling a black mustache, or weeps, wails and has a streak of yellow ten foot wide while someone else saves the day, you've probably crossed the line into character bashing.

I'm putting it here because we've had a very small run of character-bashing stories lately, but a run nonetheless, and it therefore seemed time to remind everyone that it is not something this archive can accept.

Given the above, if you are going to post a story where you feel you need to warn the audience that you are bashing a character, you are breaking the archive rules. Please don't do it. :)

Edited to Add: We are not planning on removing any stories already in the archive--if they are here, it's because we've already gone over them and found them compliant with the archive rules. This was a reminder for anyone considering posting a new story.

Claire, Temaris and I are all away at the Peg3 con this weekend, so there may be some delays in validating.

Act One, Scene One

A solitary figure slumps desolately over a keyboard, lit with a single spotlight to enhance the ambiance of isolation. The only sound to be heard is an eerie 'tap tap tap'

Author: Please R&R!
Archivist: *sighs*
Archivist: *sends a nicely worded 'please read the rules' mail*
Archivist: *edits story to remove rule breaking and validates*

Act One, Scene Two

Author: Give me feedback or I won't write more!
Archivist: O.o
Archivist: *sends politely worded 'no' letter pointing to the rules and possibly pointing out that this is why we have the rule in the first place*
Archivist: *deletes* *deletes* *deletes*

*clash of dramatic cymbals*

*fade to black...*

The moral of the story: Don't make us into Cybermen, boys and girls.

Authors: It's been brought to my attention that at least one of the older stories on the site has lost its paragraph breaks for some reason. I'm not clear why this is - because when I reviewed the story content box in the edit function, all of the necessary breaks were still there even though the story was displaying as a large block of text on the story page - but copying and pasting the text back into the box again from your original file and then saving it fixes the issue.



I'm really sorry this has happened, but please check your stories to make sure that this is an isolated error. As I said, I'm not sure why this has happened so I can't say that it won't happen again. I'm assuming that it's something that happened during the upgrade and just hasn't been spotted until now, but don't quote me on that.



Readers: This is an issue with the site, not the author. I would therefore appreciate it if you could stay polite when pointing out the issue to the author rather than accusing her of being ignorant. The site does have some minimum quality standards in place, and if the author really hadn't known that you needed to both break up chunks of text to make them readable online and that you had to start a new paragraph whenever someone new speaks, the story wouldn't have been added to the archive in the first place.



Thank you.

Thing-a-thons!



The SGA Santa is now open for sign-ups. It's a fic only exchange, open to writers of all genres (het, slash, gen, threesomes and moresomes, bitextual - you name it, someone will request it ::g::).



You don't have to have a livejournal to participate, and you can sign up without an LJ here.



And if that's not enough, there's also the Czech is in the Male Zelenka Slash Thing-a-thon. Because I am shameless. Open to writers and fan artists, it's a Zelenka slash only challenge (as the name suggests), but it will be running for a little longer than the Santa, just so you can get that out of the way first.



Like I said, shameless ::g::

The mutiny has been averted and now the only shipping going on doesn't have sails.



We hope you had fun and thank you for playing along. And remember, if you're still feeling piratically inclined we have two new skins for you to enjoy.

It be talk like a pirate day t'morrow, an' I be wishin' ye all the best of plunderin' and lootin'. In honour o' the occasion, I'll be drawin' yer attention to a few new licks o' paint we be givin' this ol' ship o' ours. Ye may ha'e seen 'em already, on account of me changin' the default style o' the site to 'surprise me!' in true Pirate stealthy fashion (or be that the accursed Ninjas?). There be a Teyla one - an' a fine pirate she makes too, hidin' stealthily amongst the other skins to catch ye by surprise - an' a couple o' lighter ones for ye not so inclined to heavy seas - minimalist and elegance2.



We tried our hand at pressgangin' those landlubbers McKay and Sheppard into joinin' our fine piratical crew, but they turned out to be not so nautical in nature - or p'rhaps that was me piloting skills being lackin'. Ne'er fear, though. They'll be back shortly, wi' the other skins that be sailing back into port on the 20th of this fair month. We will also be keepin' the two pirate skins - Teyla and Ronon - around for a bit, so if ye still feel like sailin' wi' those skins, ye'll be able to.



I be headed to me hammock shortly, ready to steer me ship into treacherous waters on the morrow an' doin' me own plunderin' - or bein' plundered, dependin' on how ye view the world o' work - so I'll no be checkin' the site until t'morrow eve, but ha'e fun and remember to be takin' what you can and givin' somethin' back!

We be stagin' a mutiny, me hearties, an' takin' o'er the good ship Wraithbait, in order to plunder, pillage and raise a glass o' grog or two t'wards International Talk Like A Pirate Day on 19th September.



If'n ye not be piratical inclined, we be sailin' back into friendly waters in se'endays or so, so make sure yer powder is dry and yer rum is wet, and ride out the storm 'til then.



Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!

We now have enough stories with that pairing to justify it having a category all to itself.



So I made one.



I've also moved the stories I could find with that pairing, i.e. those that were obvious, but if I've missed yours, please feel free to move it from the Lorne/other or McKay/other categories across to the new category.

Will the near airing of Season 4 and surrounding hot tempers, I think it's a good opportunity to remind people that the site actually has a 'no character bashing' rule (Rule number 7 in The Rules).



We intend the site to be a safe place for all fans, regardless of their favourite character. We enforce this rule for all characters, from Sheppard through to Caldwell, from Weir through to Kavanagh.



This doesn't mean that you can't write stories where characters do suspect things - that's happened in canon after all. All that we ask is that you stick to characterisation as shown on the show, and that if characters act out of character, then you explain this in the context of your story. An example of this would be Season 2, (Critical Mass or Conversion). See what they did there? The whole 'there is a reason' thing? *is deliberately non-spoilery*



This also doesn't mean that stories written for certain communities won't be accepted. We look at stories, not any surrounding controversy. For example, in the past we have accepted stories that were written for 'kill a certain character' communities because in our opinion the story didn't character bash, regardless of the community for which it was written or which character was killed off.



Our rules are not in any way, shape or form intended to stifle your creativity as authors. You are perfectly entitled to write whatever stories you wish to write, whether they are character bashing or not.



And we're perfectly entitled not to archive them.

We have mentioned several times that, following the upgrade of the site, challenges were going to be handled differently. Rather than being a rather cobbled together solution involving posting challenges as stories, there is now a dedicated challenges module. This means that challenges don't show up in the rss feed any longer and you can now link stories written in response to the challenge to the challenge itself.



We also said that after a little while to give people time to repost their old challenges to the new area, we'd delete the old challenges category. That day has come today.



If you hadn't got around to reposting your old challenges, they're gone, I'm afraid, but you can still post them - or any new challenges - under challenges.