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Harrypotterfanfiction.com News.

The latest updates about the site will be posted here. Please check this page if you are having problems with the site. Also any site related news will be posted here.

The Tos of HPFF have just been updated. The addition is below:

[quote]5c: Multiple accounts used for self promotion/reviews. Any archive member who registers multiple accounts for the purpose of self promotion or to review their own stories will have their account/s removed.[/quote]

It has come to our attention that some members have been registering multiple accounts to give themselves reviews. Please be aware that as we discover these accounts, they will be deleted. This includes the main account and all stories and reviews.

To celebrate HPFF's 9th Anniversary (Nine years, can you believe it???) we are holding an essay contest. Rules and participation are simple.

[b]Rules:[/b]

1. You must be a member of the HPFF forums as of February 1, 2010.
2. All essay content must conform to forum content rules.
3. All essays must be posted to your HPFF forum blog no later than February 25, 2010.
4. You must post a link to your blog entry in the 9th Anniversary Contest Registration Thread so that we may review the entries.

[b]Participation:[/b]

1. Only one entry per person.
2. Any length is acceptable.
3. The topic of the essay may be either "What HPFF Means to Me" -or- "What I Have Learned from HPFF". Make sure to title your blog entry one of these topics so we know which category you are entering in.

[b]Winning:[/b]

Winners will be chosen by HPFF staff based on content, appeal and writing style. Points will not be deducted for grammar errors unless it detracts from the reading of the essay. Winners will be announced by the last day of February 2010. We will chose one winner in each of the essay topics (2 winners total). Each winner will receive a brand new, never seen before HPFF wristbands. The ONLY way to get one of these wristbands will be to win this contest or attend Infinitus 2010 so write your best and try and get one early!

Due to continuing space issues, we are adding 2 new drives to our server. This will cause some downtime and maybe a few (hopefully small) site issues.

The work is being done over the next 48hrs or so. I can't be more specific with times than below. (Our servers are based in Michigan USA)

The downtime to put the drive in will be about 10 minutes later tonight. And then there would be one more piece of downtime for maybe an hour either real late tonight if the first copy is done by then, or maybe tomorrow night real late.

Over the next twelve hours or so I will be doing a little clean up of our server and removing/updating files as well as reorganising a few things. This will have no noticeable effect on the site. It is not an update. Merely a little 'spring clean' to keep things in order.

If you notice a few minutes of downtime along the way or error reports that you do not usually get, this is the reason.

The team at HPFF is happy to announce an HPFF giveaway - this time, partnered with Big Honcho Media, we're giving away a copy of the new Blue-Ray releases of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Ultimate Edition and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Ultimate Edition to one lucky winner.

To enter, you need only to be a member of HPFF - check out the [url=http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/getinfo.php?page=contest]contest page[/url] for more details.

Each year we take a staff vacation (we'll post pics and stories from our trip so make sure to watch for those!). The important thing to most right now is that the queue will be closed from December 20 until January 5th. As of now, we intend to keep it open for trusted authors but will inform you of any changes if they occur.

Also, a reminder: Staff Challenge 5 - The deadline for this challenge is being extended to December 10th to give more leeway. I know a lot of people mentioned not taking up the challenge because of NaNo committments, so we are throwing in some extra time so that you can join.

When I joined HPFF, we were just a tiny archive with [i]maybe[/i] 10,000 users. Today, we can boast almost 100,000 registered members on the archive, and an immeasurable amount of guests. The forums alone have over 20,000 members.

Clearly, we've grown.

Unfortunately, all of this growth has caused a bit of a strain on our server resources and, recently, users have been reporting issues with uploading icons and personal photos here on the forums. When we looked into the issue today, we discovered the problem is that the server is FULL!! I can't tell you all the ways in which that is sort of the coolest thing ever - but I can tell you the ways in which it's awful.

To help combat our little growing pains problem, Jay will be purging [b]all[/b] of the user uploaded documents at the forum. This will, of course, include icons and personal photos. This is being done to remove the files that are tied to disused accounts. While it should not impact users who have hosted these files externally and inserted the link into the avatar change page, [b]if your icon/personal photo has gone missing, please re-upload it/re-host it and re-insert it through your settings panel.[/b]

Thanks for working with us on this one

[b][UPDATE - you will also notice that all previous avatars from the base gallery have been removed and replaced with icons made by the WONDERFUL people at TDA. Seriously, a huge congratulations should go out to them for making all of the lovely. If you are not yet a TDA artist, please feel free to visit [url=http://the-dark-arts.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=59186]this thread[/url] at the TDA forums to read the submission guidelines for entering icons into the HPFF base gallery. It won't be updated often but putting your icons there will be a sure fire way to get them in front of my face when I do make the upload

][/b]

In an effort to further help authors correctly rate and add warnings to their stories so they comply with our current [url="http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/getinfo.php?page=tos"]Terms of Service[/url] and [url="http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/getinfo.php?page=siterules"]Site Rules[/url], the staff are working on updating and adding additional archive tutorials.

As of October 3, 2009, the language tutorials for all ratings have been updated.

Please read over them carefully. **Remember, all stories, NO MATTER THEIR DATE OF SUBMISSION, are required to comply with the current version of the ToS and Site Rules** Please make any needed adjustments to story warnings or ratings on previously posted submissions as quickly as possible.

All staff tutorials can be found [url="http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewuser.php?showuid=25357"]here[/url]. Keep an eye out for more updates and additions soon!

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Each year, HPFF celebrates your freedom to read by opening discussion on the issue of banned books. Coinciding with the official American Library Association's Banned Books Week, it is your opportunity to have your say.

[size="5"][color="#800080"]The Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2009[/color][/size]

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group

2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence

3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence

5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence

6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group

7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

8. Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group

9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

Also, this year the ALA in conjunction with the "Kids Right to Read Project" introduced a new Google Map function that shows where books are most frequently challenged. You can view the map [url="http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html"]here (12+)[/url] How does your home state fair?

For more information on Banned Books Week, please visit the [url="http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html"]American Library Association.[/url] (12+)

To join in the discussion, visit the main thread located [url="http://www.fictioncentral.net/hpforum/index.php?showtopic=57100"]here[/url]

Several members have pointed out that the new archive skin does not have the dictionary feature. As of this post this feature is now working.

As with the old skins, simply double click on any word on the archive to get a dictionary definition.