| (no subject) |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|11:44 pm] |
Yep, we skipped a week. What of it? We can't be making LJ posts *all* the time, you know...
> Some of you may have spotted the latest lawsuit to head JKR's way, via the HP news sites - our featured discussion is our thread for discussing this, and wondering how many authors are left who have have ever written the word 'wizard' and not filed a lawsuit over it...
> We've launched a new poll on the homepage this week, asking everyone what they've been reading since the HP series ended - hopefully, we won't see too many opting for 'Nothing'. ;)
> Any of the regulars to the Basilican Lottery may want to throw some extra Talyns in the pot this week - this week's Village Bonus is double payouts for this week's draw!
> The Book Club is still looking for a choice of book to take on our holiday flights this summer - anybody got any suggestions?
> Our Golden Basilisk Awards are looking a little sparce at the moment, but that just means it could be easier for you to win an award! We'll look to posting a sample awards button by next week, in the hope that it might pique some interest.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| *twiddles thumbs* |
[Jun. 3rd, 2009|10:25 pm] |
Playing the waiting game this week, which is a game we're getting very good at... ;)
> We're still waiting for our first nomination in the Golden Basilisk Awards, so make sure you keep spreading the word around!
> Meanwhile, in our Monthly Challenge, we're looking for people to contribute something to our long-forgotten round robin fic, Harry Potter and the Millennial Ball.
> Our regular bonus for Basilisk Village users is triple Talyns for all posts in the Magical Menagerie forum this week...
> We're still looking for a Book Club selection for Summer 2009 - anyone who has a recommendation please pop by the Book Club Thread to share it!
> Last of all, this week's featured discussion is Dumbledore & Grindelwald, for exploring this strange relationship...
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| And in the beginning... there was Spam. |
[May. 26th, 2009|10:31 pm] |
Oh yes there was, as you'll see in the final bullet point of our list below. But there's some bigger news between here and there. Oh dear me yes.
> First, and most significantly, this week saw the launch of the 2009 season of our HP fansite awards, the Golden Basilisks - anyone who was around for the fun and excitement of the first season back in July 2007 will know what it's all about, and details of the categories for the awards can be found at the link above. Nominations for the awards are open now, and will remain open until the 24th of July - so, if you fancy getting a shiny award button for your site - or think you know someone else that might - better check it out!
> For anyone with questions, queries or quandaries, we do of course have a forum thread open for discussing the awards - this thread can be found here. (You can also email us, of course, or leave a comment here...)
> We'll be looking for a new choice for the TBC Book Club in the next few days - does anyone have any new recommendations, or a real classic to suggest?
> This week's Basilisk Village bonus is Triple Talyns for posts in the 'House of Gaunt' forum - yes, this is the same as last week. What of it? ;)
> Our Featured Discussion for the week is our Britpicking thread, Colour not color, Mum not Mom...
> And finally, any aficionados of the 'Three Word Story' from our WWW forum may be interested to know that the long-lost second chapter is now available in our archives! Go wade through the nonsensical, nostalgic lunacy!
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Whoops! |
[May. 19th, 2009|10:55 pm] |
Yes, yes, we missed last week altogether. Naughty us. :p
> We've changed the post rank system in the last few days, to increase the number of ranks from six to ten, and to give new default titles for each of the new ranks. So, anyone checking their profile might find they have a different set of rank pips than they're used to.
> There's also been a few new member awards given out, so that's two reasons to check your profiles now... ;)
> Bonus Talyns are on offer this week for anyone posting in the House of Gaunt forum!
> To keep this up to date, last week's Featured Discussion was Plot Holes...
> ...while this week's thread will be discussing everyone's plans for the HBP Movie Release.
> Finally, a quick reminder of this month's Fanwork Challenge, which was to create a short (or not-so-short, if you prefer) comic featuring one Tom M. Riddle...
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| And so, we creep even later into the week... |
[May. 6th, 2009|11:49 pm] |
...someone get us a real-life-ectomy, stat! Let's get on with updating this thing, before it's time for *next* week's update...
> Celebrations in our under-loved fanwork archive this week, as we've received our first new piece of fanwork in just under a year... (Seriously - we were like, 48 hours short of a year.) Hopefully, this is a sign of growth to come, but for the meantime, if anyone is able to pop by and give some feedback to vegetasbubble's Your Power Over Me, we're sure it would be appreciated.
> And in the interests of keeping the archives' recovery going, we have this month's Monthly Challenge - this month, we're looking for something a little more fun, as we ask members to put together Tom Riddle: The Comic! Anything vaguely comic-like is fine, so get your crayons out!
> Canon Beyond Book 7? is this week's feature, giving a light-hearted look at what we'd like to see in the unlikely event that further books were to appear...
> Of course, no update would be complete without the Village's bonus for the week, which is Triple Talyns for posts in the Charing Cross Road forum.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Seriously, we'll get this back on time one of these weeks. |
[Apr. 28th, 2009|11:34 pm] |
Another quiet week - so you'd think we'd get this sort of thing done in time, but you've been reading long enough to know better - while we prepare some other changes.
> We're hunting down some new fanfic recommendations in this week's Featured Discussion, the imaginatively-titled HP Fanfic Recommendations.
> Those of a gaming bent may want to know that we've doubled the payouts for the Poker Shack as this week's Village bonus.
> Last call for this month's Monthly Challenge - a new one will appear in the thread on Friday as usual.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Okay, two weeks... |
[Apr. 21st, 2009|10:05 pm] |
...two weeks in the land of the late updates. :p (Come on, you saw this coming a week ago...) Another quiet one for now, but more on the horizon...
> Of course, we're all discussing the recently-released HBP trailer, in common with... oh, just about every other HP community on the Flist you're reading now? ;)
> The featured discussion this week is Worst HP Character, asking which character people think is the most disappointing.
> A quick reminder of this month's fanwork challenge, 'Grindelwald Unrepentant', asking for fic/art/etc, based on the early days of Grindelwald's rise, when he was at the height of both his youth and his powers.
> Tickets are half-price this week in the Basilican Lottery, if anyone fancies a flutter with their Talyns.
> As our regular forum visitors will have noticed, we're running a countdown to our 40,000th post - at the time of writing, we had 2,383 posts to go - so come along and help us on the way!
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Back to the land of the late updates... |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|11:05 pm] |
Hopefully just for this week, though. ;) It's been a quieter week than most of the recent ones, as we continue to bugsquash our way through the upgraded archives and prepare for the next big thing - still, we've a few little updates for you to tide you over...
> One big piece of news is that this week, we've reached our 1,000th forum thread! The thread itself, 'Costuming', was created by Kionon on Saturday...
> ...and of course, we've also made the historic thread our featured discussion for the week.
> We've launched a new poll on the homepage, asking if you think that the HBP movie is going to be worth the extended wait we've all been going through... (Surprisingly, the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive - a stark contrast to the view on the forums...)
> If you have a theory about why you think there's such a difference, then we've enabled the 'Comment' feature of the site polls for the first time - this was a new feature added when we upgraded the poll script, which is now available to use. (You have to leave a vote before you can comment.)
> This week's Basilisk Village bonus is quadruple Talyns for all posts in the 'Witch Weekly' forum - anyone fancy getting their adoration on?
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Splish, splash! |
[Apr. 6th, 2009|11:58 pm] |
That, in the most feeble display of onomatopaeia in recent memory, is our attempt at replicating the deluge of updates that are going on around here at the moment. Let's pour it on...
> The big update for the week is that we've upgraded our long-neglected fanwork archive, installing the latest version of the archive script, which contains a number of bugfixes, security updates and a few new features.
> While adding the new script, we've also added a variety of new skins for the archive, including an all-new default skin, which considerably improves readability and allows more options to customise the style of the archive.
> We hope everyone will want to take the upgraded archive for a spin, but if you spot any problems - as with any upgrade, there's sure to be a couple - then let us know here.
> And, for anyone who does fancy playing with the archives, we've loaded a new Monthly Challenge here, asking for some impressions of the younger, unrepentant Grindlewald...
> Finally on the fanwork front, would Quadruple Talyns in the 'Aragog's Hollow' forum help to drive some fanwork discussion, do you think? Well, we're giving it a shot anyway. ;)
> St Mungo's is our Featured Discussion for the week, for all those who have some thoughts to share on the wizarding world's premier patch-up palace...
> But what other updates, you cry? Well, how does letter #31 from our Supplications column grab you?
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Mmm, fresh lychees! |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|11:57 pm] |
No, we can't explain the title either. But we've been far too busy this week for anything much in the way of title generation...
> The updates on the site continue - we've performed our regular update of the Links Page, taking out the dead links and adding some replacements...
> ...we've updated the Encyclopedia Basilika to add the small pile of new terms that have popped up in the couple of years since we last updated it...
> ...and we've also updated the Clue Crypt to include details of the long-since-abandoned Clue XV, and updated the Killers' roster accordingly.
> Our (belated) Book Club pick is in - calling anyone who has read For One More Day to the Charing Cross Road forum. ;)
> The Featured Discussion for this week The Attic of Abandonment, where we can discuss the unfinished fics that got left behind.
> Last up, this week's Basilisk Village bonus is Triple Talyns for posts in the WWW forum.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Whew! Busy Week! |
[Mar. 23rd, 2009|08:13 pm] |
As any of our regular visitors will already know, of course. Lots to get through this week, so let the updates begin...
> Biggest news of the week is our new paid account service - essentially, offering a small hosting package ideal for hosting a blog, or to serve as a nursery for putting your website together without going to the expense of buying a full domain. More details are at the link above, and if you have any questions ask them here.
> We've also had a site redesign while adding the details of said new service - the site's design has had a refresh, with a new background, tweaking to the look of the pages, and a complete reorganisation of the navigation bar on each page.
> A new poll script has also been added to the homepage, replacing the old one that broke after our server move... The opening question asks what you think about the site's redesign.
> Back on the more regular events, this week's Basilisk Village bonus is triple Golden Talyns for posting in Magical Menagerie.
> Book comparisons are the order of the... well, week... in the featured discussion - HP vs. LotR.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| A More Sensible Title This Week. |
[Mar. 18th, 2009|12:02 am] |
See? There it is. (We never said 'meaningful', or 'informative'. :p) Here we are, updating again...
> As we alluded to last week, we're up to one of our evil plots again, which is why the weekly updates have been a little thin... Details will be coming in the near future, but if anyone cares to play the speculation game, there's a handy thread for that...
> We've still had no interest in the art challenge we set this month - is anyone thinking of putting pencil/ink/paint/jumbo crayon to paper?
> On the other hand, we've had plenty of suggestions for this season's Book Club choice, but so far nobody's come along to cast a deciding vote...
> Writer's Block is the Featured Discussion for the week, helping our writers to find a way past that most dreaded of brainlocks.
> Finally, our Basilisk Village bonus this week is triple Talyns in the 'Charing Cross Road' forum.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Another Week, Another Waffle. |
[Mar. 10th, 2009|11:24 pm] |
NO! Put the maple syrup DOWN. It's not that sort of waffle... :p Hey, nonsensical rambling is our home port - and, while we're busy beavering away behind the scenes, we've got to try and keep you amused somehow. ;)
> Last call for suggestions for the TBC Book Club - a couple of suggestions have been made already, so see what you think...
> Beta-Reading is our Featured Discussion for this week, if anyone wants to find a Beta or offer their services.
> The Basilisk Village bonus this week is half-price tickets in the Basilican Lottery...
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 2nd, 2009|08:45 pm] |
Nope, no funny title this week. :p
> It's the start of a new month, so that means it's time for a new Monthly Challenge - this time, it's an art-based affair, so if your pencils and inks are waiting for an excuse, you might find it at the link above...
> As we mentioned last week, we're in need of a new book to look at in our quarterly Book Club too, so anyone with a suggestion should pop by that thread too.
> Our featured discussion this week asks us all about our Movieverse Pet Peeves, of which we're sure everyone has a couple... ;)
> This week's Basilisk Village bonus is Triple Talyns for all posts in the 'House of Gaunt' forum.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| ^ + 22/02/2009. |
[Feb. 22nd, 2009|01:45 pm] |
See, we're even giving away a free brainteaser in the title this week. Aren't we good to you?
> Voting has now closed in our V-Day contest, and the results are a win for Sly~Nic, by three votes to two - another closely-fought contest, as always. Please don't forget to read and leave comments for the two entries, and for our two entrants your prizes are waiting in your Basilisk Village accounts.
> Speaking of the Village, the weekly bonus this time around is Triple Experience Points for all forum posts - so, if you've been trying to build your basilisk into the killing machine it's always dreamed of being, now is the time!
> Discussion of M.S. Corley's Penguin-inspired HP covers is the topic of our Featured Discussion this week, in Artist redesigns HP covers...
> Sticking with the theme of books, the TBC Book Club will be looking for a book to take us through the springtime over the next few days - make sure you get your recommendations in soon!
> And finally, it's Oscars night tonight, which means our annual Oscars thread has appeared on the forums - discuss your predictions, and come to chat with your fellow GTDEs as the beautiful people trot down the red carpet and trot out with little golden statues!
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands! |
[Feb. 16th, 2009|10:11 pm] |
Go on, clap, we know you want to. ;) Valentine's has been and gone, but we've still got some love for you all...
> The big news this week is, of course, the closing of our Valentine's contest and the opening of the contest voting... We have two contest entrants, and both entries have been posted to this very LJ, so check them out and hit that link! Voting closes on the 21st of February.
> For those who have been too busy getting all loved-up over the weekend, the entries are here - A Valentine's Riddle, by Sly~Nic, and You Must Not Tell Lies!, by Sakura Greenleaf.
> If you missed the contest, our February Drabble Challenge is still open, if you feel you can put together 100 words containing a Slytherin and one of the Deathly Hallows.
> Our Basilisk Village bonus for the week is double Talyns for posts in the Aragog's Hollow forum...
> ...which coincides nicely with our Featured Discussion - Originals or Fanfiction? just happens to be in said forum.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| A Valentine's Riddle |
[Feb. 14th, 2009|07:58 pm] |
Hey, it's Sly~Nic from over on the forums! Well folks, even with a hell of a schedule this week I managed to finish it in time. So here's my Slytherin offering:
( A Valentine's Riddle ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 15th, 2009|01:10 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Tito & Tarantula - Back to the House (that Love built) | ] |
Hey Crew, hey GTDEs, hey folks!
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY ! ! ! *w00t*
Let's skip the whole jabberblablajabber and get straight to the point (especially because it's late already *heee~~*)
Here's my contest-entry (it's HUUUUGE [500x4000px] - BEWARE ! ! ! ! !)
( YOU MUST NOT TELL LIES ! ! ! )
Have a nice Valentine's Day Singles Awareness Day <333
(it's already over in Germany . . . obviously I was getting nervous about the whole contest-dead line-thingy DX°°°) |
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| We Need a Random Title Generator. |
[Feb. 9th, 2009|11:16 pm] |
Anyone fancy designing one for us? ;) Lol!
> We're still waiting on our first Valentine's Contest entry - this year's was a short contest though, so we're sure people will come through with some goodies between now and the deadline.
> We avoided mentioning this last week, as we didn't want to take attention away from the contest, but we also have the usual Monthly Challenge this month - February sees a Drabble Challenge, more details of which can be found here.
> The Crew is still doing some minor clean-up work following our site move, but as before, any problems can be reported here - hopefully, the last few outstanding things can be restored soon, so we can start working on new stuff again...
> An old favourite in this week's Featured Discussion - do you agree that Hogwarts needs a pep band?
> This week's Basilisk Village Bonus sounds impressive - not double, not triple, but quadruple Talyns for any posts in the WWW forum this week.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| We Hate Moving. |
[Feb. 3rd, 2009|10:02 pm] |
And that's official. :p
> As you may already know, courtesy of the mass-PM from the forums yesterday, the site move is, more-or-less, complete. We're all settled in to the the new webhost's space, and things should become more stable in fairly short order. There are still a few lingering bugs, which we're squashing as we spot them, but most of the site's functionality is up and running, including both the fanwork archive and the forums.
> If you do spot any problems though, just give us a yell here.
> You probably also spotted our announcement over the weekend of our Valentine's Day Contest - if not, it's the dirty great post just below this one. (Except for those of you reading this via Flist. Which is probably most of you.) The rules are simple, and can be found here - entries should be posted to either this community or our own archives by the 14th of February.
> Our Basilisk Village bonus this week is triple Talyns for posts in the 'Witch Weekly' forum - it's Valentine's soon, show some love!
> With CC not in HBP... is this week's featured thread.
~ The TBC Crew ~
Who aren't doing this moving lark for at least another 5 years. |
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| My Bloody Valentine... |
[Feb. 1st, 2009|01:56 am] |
And in gloriously unsophisticated Two-Dee, too. Almost a year since the last contest, we return to our most popular - it's time for Valentine's Day related tomfoolery to abound. (Yes, that pun was intentional. Thank you for noticing.) For this year's contest, we're once again looking for some art or fiction to either celebrate this most romantic of non-holidays... or to burn it down completely. Valentine's Day vs. Singles' Awareness Day - live in the Ring of Death! (Or, at least, battling it out for the highest number of contest entries...) The contest is for all fanwork set on or around the 14th of February - those in a romantic mood will have no trouble making a Valentine's entry, while angst and outright mockery should see the rest of us safely home... ;)
We've opened the contest to both the TBC Fanwork Archive or TBC LiveJournal Community this time around - partly to allow more people to enter, and partly because of the ongoing uncertainty with our site move. Other than that, the usual TBC Contest rules apply, and can be found at the bottom of the page if you're a little rusty. The most predictable deadline in recorded history also remains the same - all entries should be submitted by 11.59pm [Central US Time] on the 14th of February, so that they can be added to the usual forum vote to determine the winner. (Anyone not registered on our forums may wish to remedy that small oversight between now and the deadline, so that they get their fair say.)
( CONTEST GUIDELINES )
( CONTEST RULES ) |
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| Downtime Update |
[Jan. 31st, 2009|03:26 pm] |
Since it's now been nearly three days since the forums were closed for the big site move, we thought it was time for an update. ;) The gist of the situation is: we're all packed, surrounded by large numbers of moving boxes... and sitting on our asses waiting for the removal van. (We would *headdesk*, but that would mean unpacking the desk...) In less metaphorical terms, switching from the old webhost to the new one has become more complicated than we expected, which is slowing the process down.
We're sorry that this is taking so long - when we closed the forums on Wednesday, we expected the move to be long since completed by now. We've considered re-opening them, but since we can't predict when the move will actually take place, chances are any posts that would be made would end up being lost in the move anyway.
The forums, and other areas of TBC, will be back up as soon as possible. In the meantime, please feel free to run riot here at the LJ Community, or any of our other sister communities. We'll also be posting our 2009 V-Day Contest to both the site and the LJ Community today, so that everyone can stretch their creative muscles in the forums' absence - hopefully by the time your entry is ready, we'll have the archives moved and ready for action. ;)
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Downtime |
[Jan. 28th, 2009|03:50 pm] |
Hey guys,
TBC and all my hosted sites will be down, I don't know when yet but I'm switching host companies (from Neureal to their parent company EMC) and I have to re-upload everything myself so I'm giving everyone a heads up.
I'll be doing a complete backup of everything today before I change over, so nothing *should* be lost.
Please bear with me during this time, it has been quite a long time since I had to do this.
Thanks,
-Jillian/Sapph |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 26th, 2009|11:43 pm] |
Welcome to our latest update, and a Happy Chinese Year of the Ox! (We were going to research into it and such, but... yeah, we left it too late. ;))
> This week's featured discussion is Title Rumours, talking about the many false titles that came up over the course of the series...
> Last call for this month's Monthly Challenge, which was our challenge to retell a classic tale using the Potterverse characters - by our next update, we'll have an all-new challenge for you to (hopefully) have a crack at...
> This week's Basilisk Village Bonus is double Talyns for any posts in the Charing Cross Road forum.
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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| Updatey time is here again... |
[Jan. 18th, 2009|11:24 pm] |
Anyone know the next line to the song we ripped off in the title? Anyone? Nope, us neither. Let the bullet points commence...
> First and most importantly, we're canvassing opinions on what to do in this year's Valentine's Contest, so if you've been watching intently for news on what it'll involve, that's the place to go, and share any of your own ideas...
> Following the success of last week's Talyn bonuses, this week we're offering triple Experience points for all posts on the forums - that's all posts, anywhere. Should speed the levelling-up process... ;)
> Speaking of the Village, we've also been on a bug-squashing run this week, including a fix for a very annoying bug in Shadow's Dojo. So, if you've tried to train a pet and failed in the past, step in and try again!
> Our discussion of the week is the subtly-titled Unrepentant, wanton SMUT!... It's actually a discussion on what people think of NC-17-level fanwork, rather than anything more salacious. (No, really!)
~ The TBC Crew ~ |
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