Elfwood

What happened to Elfwood?

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:51:51 GMT

I joined elfwood a looooong time ago, within the first year or two that it was created (I'm in gallery 100). Back then it was literally the only site of it's kind. Remember back when all the dot coms were blooming? Ah memories, well Elfwood was right up there blooming with the best of them. What happened?

Just look at this journal, I remember when there used to be a new post every day on this journal. There were so many posts that the creation of sub journals was necessary. Now look at this place, lucky to see a new journal every few months. People have given up on this place, moved on.

Thomas had this amazing thing in his hands, he was holding the biggest and brightest online art site in existence! And then he let it all turn to dust. Imagine creating yahoo back in the day, Elfwood was just like that, it had the potential to be the premiere web site of it's kind. And now, well it's just depressing to think about.

It seems like elfwood wants to change, I see ads now, and some of the new features and functions that made DA popular (although I don't like that your bio is no longer displayed next to your art on your main page). But it seems the old growing pains still hold true. The mod system is still flawed, the rules are way too subjective, and the users are still unhappy. And without the users you have no site.

For awhile there when people were near riotous, I thought maybe this is a good thing, maybe elfwood needs to burn to the ground to be reborn new and grand again. But visiting these forums and the site again today, that doesn't seem to be the case. It's a huge dissapointment.

Many people would love to see Elfwood revive itself. But so long as the old issues that made people leave in droves years ago, remain in place, I see no chance of that happening.

The solution is so simple it's heartbreaking, it's just like the american auto industry who, while gas was 3+ dollars per gallon and consumers were begging for alternative fuel and fuel efficient vehicals, continued to build gas guzzling SUVs. Listen to your users! You are nothing without them.

2009 collection first dress

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:00:06 GMT

More pictures of this dress available here

Spec the Halls Contest Opens Nov 1st

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:41:00 GMT

Spec the Halls is a winter holiday-themed contest for speculative creations.

This means:
* Christmas, New Years, Yule, Winter Solstice, or another winter holiday that you make up.
* science fiction, fantasy, or horror
* stories, poems, artwork, or anything else you can think of

Basics:
* No entry fee
* Reprints encouraged
* $42 first prize, $5 honorable mention--and the joy of spreading the spirit of Christmas and twisting it to your own ends.

Details here.

x-posted a little, for obvious reasons.

Needle in a haystack...

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:56:02 GMT

I was hoping all you nice folks could help me find some Harry Potter fan art I was looking at a few weeks ago. I can't remember anything about the artist's name. I know there are thousands of HP fanarts out there... but I really would like to try to find this gallery again. I remember the artist is female. She has a series of several simple pictures in her gallery that are based off of Snape's memories in the last book. She illustrated the whole sequence but only some are in her gallery. She also has illustrations of Dobby's funeral, "old" Harry and Hermione at the graveyard, Harry and Ginny at the Griffindor victory party, among others.

Any help would be appreciated!

Video: Your Images for Sale - important information for artists

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:59:08 GMT

Photobucket round two, more information:
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2008/07/24/video-your-images-for-sale/

Charity auction for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Seattle.

Thu, 29 May 2008 19:15:52 GMT

With the encouragement of Peter Retzlaff from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Puget Sound (Seattle), Jeremy Kayes, creator of The Elves of Iax is holding an auction for an original poster of the cover and first page of his self-published comic. Jeremy is personally covering the printing, framing, shipping and auction fees, so your full final bid will go directly to BBBS of Puget Sound. As an added bonus, if the final bid is greater than $100, Jeremy will donate an additional $100 of his own to BBBS. Thank you, and happy bidding.

Visit the Auction Page on eBay. The Auction will close Tuesday, June 3rd at 8:00pm Easter Time.

Artist wanted for fantasy webcomic

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:09:50 GMT

I would have posted this in the EW forums, but the CAPTCHA seems to be broken.
I'm the writer and creator of the webcomic http://elvenlacryment.com. My previous artist no longer has time for the project and I'm looking for a new artist. The old artist left mid-issue, so I would ask the new artist to re-draw issue 2, but we would leave issue 1 as is.

Plot summary
In the middle of the day, a tribe of Orcs attack the village of Lacuna, a town of peace. They slaughter everyone, except a young girl elf named ShadowWolf. Suffering from he trauma of that night, ShadowWolf, now filly grown, hunts and is hunted by orcs. Along the way she picks up allies just as morally questionable as she is.

Writing sample
(SCENE: SHADOWWOLF walks with her full grown, black wolf XANTHER, into a village. It's busy and bustling, fairly advanced technology wise. SHADOWWOLF makes her way through the crowds, ignoring panhandlers and grifters. In the center of the marketplace their is a towering fountain, around which children play. Some sword fight with sticks, some have hula hoops that they chase, and some play kickball. There's even a game of Tug-o-war going on.)

(XANTHER by the way, has some saddle packs and a soft saddle.)

(SHADOWWOLF heads to a fruit stand that's covered with an awning. She inspects the goods, and selects a small melon and some apples. She then grabs up a jar of preserves, and a sack of dried fruits. SHADOWWOLF pays the tender, puts the goods in XANTHER's packs and heads off into the streets. She passes a tavern.)

SHADOWWOLF: (Thinking as she walks past the tavern, down the road and out of town.) I should sleep.

XANTHER: Rest.

SHADOWWOLF: No. I should keep moving. I'm going to keep moving. I can move slow. Steady. Just don't stop. Whatever you do, don't stop.

XANTHER: You're being redundant. You're losing focus.

SHADOWWOLF: The next town will have a bed, and a nice cool drink.

(They exit the town, in the distance are several shadowy, mounted figures. ORCs.)

CAPTION: Time passes.

Artists duties
The artist will be required to read the script, which is on a friends locked Livejournal for convinces sake. Then they would sketch out the page, with the panels and a space for the word bubbles and send it to me. If I have some suggestions, I will tell you and maybe they could be implemented. Once the page is OK'd, then you can draw and ink it. Please scan it at 300DPI, then send it to me for word bubbling, and polishing.

Also, you may put the unlettered pages in your art gallery/DevArt/personal portfolio.

If you happen to be going to a con, I also ask that you advertise the comic.

Drawing Style
The firs issue and a half can be found at http://elvenlacryment.com. if you wish to try to emulate the style, you may. Or you can use your own style. I'd rather have a more western comic book feel, no anime. Generally I'd like it be black and white with pencil and ink for tones and shadows.

Long Term Goals
I do have a mind to publish EL eventually, but not for a while. If that time comes, the artist and I will work out a fair deal.

Contact Info
If you're interested, please send me a sample of your work to elvenlacryment AT gmail DOT com. You can also aim me at AnarchicQ or MSN at Q_Slash at hotmail dot com

Putting the 'moderate' back in 'moderator'

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:43:39 GMT

I have been a member of Elfwood since before there were moderators. I not only understood why moderators were added to the process, I wholeheartedly approved of the move. I still do.

I have supported Elfwood through some rough times and always remained loyal to the project, even when I didn't agree with what was done or how it was accomplished. That hasn't changed.

I was an original member of the ERB, back before we had any actual removal tools; our job was to catch copycats, verify the sources, and report them to Thomas to manually remove. I totally get why the ERB exists, and how it is separate from the moderator process. I approve of them so entirely I helped start the group.

But there is moderation and then there is ridiculous, nit-picky, over-zealous, power-tripping rules mongering.

Allow me to illustrate.

A week ago, I submitted a story. The bulk of this story occurs in a dream, as does all the active magic, but it's pretty clear that 'the curse' I mention is something outside of the dream. Indeed, after the dream sequence, I specifically mention '...a dream he'd had before his curse.' Do people in real life have curses? I thought it was pretty clearly a fantasy story. (This particular story is part of a modern-set series where the whole point is the lead trying to figure out his [magical] curse and break it... you can read the story here if you wish.)

As I was submitting my ticket, an error sprang up with an illustration in an older story. It was a few pixels too big for the new system. I resized it. Resubmitted. Fine.

Rejected! The story was non-fantasy, because everything magic occurred in the dream. What's more, my illustration was rejected because I didn't appropriately credit it. Ugh. Whatever. I didn't have time to figure out how to appropriately credit it – oh well if it goes off line. It is in my gallery, after all. We'll come back to this.

This piece was rejected by Elfwood when I originally submitted it several months ago. I added the word 'fantasy' to the description, because apparently, it wasn't obvious that this was a high fantasy epic illustration, despite the very non-historical, fantasy clothing, the broken fantasy sword, and the enchanted flowering forest and the impossible fantasy hair. No elf ears, sorry. (back up image, since the Elfwood version will be removed at the end of the month.)

It was accepted with the word 'fantasy' added. Fine. A hassle, and it left a bad taste in my mouth, but fine.

But no! Yesterday, the ERB sent me three emails, announcing that the work in my galleries and in my library would be removed by the end of the month unless I fixed the following grievous errors. The above piece? Was to be removed because it was non-genre.

This piece: http://www.elfwood.com/libr//m/i/million3/mushrooms.htm.html “has a broken
illustration and it needs to be reuploaded.” - this is the piece mentioned above. Also, the illustration is set to be removed from my gallery as well.

Some of the other gems?

http://www.elfwood.com/art//m/i/million/crystalgatherer74.jpg.html

(non-genre. Because crystals grow on trees all the time.)

http://www.elfwood.com/libr/m/i/million3/dancingintherain.htm.html

(Too much white space at the end of the document.)

http://www.elfwood.com/art//m/i/million/cuddly.jpeg.html

(They disapprove of the cropping and think there's too much white space to the left.)

http://www.elfwood.com/art//m/i/million/millionaurorabluegreen.jpg.html

(Go ahead, guess.)

It goes on like this for another 20 or so pieces.

Any one of these things is a simple irritation. An extra hassle I'm willing to put up with for the sheer nostalgia that Elfwood has for me. I like the people involved with Elfwood and I respect that it's Thomas' site and maybe he has certain rules in mind. Something was borderline, okay, fine.

But when I trot over to our fearless leader's own gallery and find work much more questionable than mine? When I get work pulled down because they don't agree with my cropping decisions? When the ERB is more interested in taking down questionable work than reading the descriptions or noting that there are crystals hanging out of a tree? I gotta wonder – is this what he had in mind? Is this level of pickiness going to do anything but turn away otherwise active, loyal members of Elfwood and make them feel unwelcome, hassled and alienated?

I, myself, have no wish to submit anything else to Elfwood under this kind of mindless finickiness. I am not, however, deleting my gallery or 'taking my toys and going home.' I'm making a request:

Could we please, please, please put the moderate back into the moderating process? Can we take a long look at the direction we're heading and reconsider? Elfwood used to be a place that was inclusive – if a piece could be considered favorably, it was. Now, it's become painfully exclusive – if a piece can be cut out for any tiny little reason, it is. This is horrendously off-putting to any user and really takes the joy out of a place that used to be friendly and accessible. I'm not saying that we should revert to anarchy or waive the rules just for ME (or anyone). But there is a huge difference between following rules and trying to find letter-of-the-law reasons to reject anything you can.

We had issues like this back when Zone 47 was the only place for any piece with modern elements (remember that?), and the problem was addressed and a neat solution devised. I hold out hope that the same can be achieved here, as well.

Cross-posted to the Elfwood forums and emailed to Thomas.

Please note that I have not once resorted to calling anyone a Nazi. Please use the same restraint in replies. Also note that most of those links will be gone by the end of the month, as I have very limited time to maintain my gallery and thought it would be more productive to spend that time writing this and working for change than fixing a lot of things that I really don't believe need fixing.

Looking for fantasy artists to interview

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:03:44 GMT

Interview with Margeaux Walter

www.myartspace.com

Art "Contest"

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:09:57 GMT

I am holding a contest to see who can create my next tattoo. Thing is, I have an idea of what I want but I am somewhat flexible and the tattoo has some logistic problems. Number one, I..d like it to have a map of the world on some sort of antiquated medium, like a bamboo scroll or weathered parchment. The map can be outdated or inaccurate, I leave it to your design. Other elements I..d like to incorporate are a dragon or dragonoid character (symbolizing myself,holding the map maybe?) and a compass rose w/ the points left blank (I have 8 brothers and sisters, and will add symbols for them at the points later). I am very into travelling, ships/water/(perhaps the dragon would be an elemental water dragon?). mermaids or other interesting things could be added to the map. The tattoo will cover the right half of my backside, from the bottom of the ribcage to the bottom of the thigh. I might move it up to just cover half my back, but I have a small tattoo on the upper right shoulder that would have to become incorporated or covered... it..s of a bouncing Tigger(symbolizing a playful nature). Visit my website for more info. The winner will also get a picture of their artwork on my body once the tattoo is complete! If you have another idea, submit it as I am open to new ideas. Submit via snail mail or email, I will return oiginal art if you provide postage and a return envelope/container. bpmsea@yahoo.com or write for for an address.

For elfwood writers on lj

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 14:56:28 GMT

Hi. We're a minority, and this probably will not change. However, since I know we're the most active individual members (see the elfwood comment counter) and the recent changes have rendered wyvern's very hard to use, as a community or as a workshop, I've set up a temporary touch-base for livejournal users not comfortable with chatroom-style interaction.

I would like to stress that this is not an attack on the elfwood 'site, merely a provision for those, like myself, as yet too unnerved to try and adapt, to keep communities that have sprung from elfwood together.

Battles and Combats of the I Age - JRRT works inspired Art Contest

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:55:41 GMT

4th International Art Competition, with a special prize from John Howe.
Details: http://news.deviantart.com/article/40189/
Help to spread the word and fav the news at dA :)

Taking in new moderators

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:55:46 GMT

Hello all,
For those of you who don't know I am an Elfwood Moderator, and on January 1st Monica put out a memo on the site news that we were in need of new moderators. Unfortunately it no longer shows up on the main page, so a lot of people wont notice. If you are interested please read the message below.

"Wanted: moderators!
We are in need of more moderators, since Elfwood is in constant growth.

We're currently looking for moderators for FanQuarter and SF&F art only.

Requirements:

You must be at least 18 years old.

You must be able to chat online through an IRC channel. You're welcome to download a program to use it, but otherwise we have a webbased client, which means all you need is an open browser window.

You must be an Elfwood member.

You must have a published account that have been published for at least 4 months in the area or areas you are volunteering for. For FanQuarter we prefer that you have an account in that area but it's not necessary, but we do require that you at least have an account in SF&F art.

You must have a good record, meaning no major rejections in the past year, for example for copying or repeated rejections.

You must be willing to give at least 1-2 hours a week to moderating.

You must have a good understanding of the rules.

If you have the requirements, then please proceed in reading the rest and volunteer.

You're welcome to volunteer for more than 1 area. We will put up a note when we have enough volunteers, and all that have volunteered will hear back from us, but it might take a little while, so please be patient.

For FanQuarter: We prefer volunteers that are familiar with a number of anime and/or American comics. We are currently looking for volunteers who know their American comics like Marvel and others, but we also need people who know their Dragon Ball, Inuyasha, Yu-Gi-Oh, Fushigi Yuugi, Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, Naruto, Gundam, Hellsing, Sailor Moon and others.

To contacts us please go to the Contact page and choose "Volunteering" from the drop-down box and make sure you put which area or areas you are volunteering for in the subject line, like "FanQuarter mod", "Wyvern mod" or "SF&F mod". If you want to volunteer for more than 1 area, just list them both like "FanQuarter and SF&F mod"."

Okay, me again. I didn't know before that she didn't want Wyverns moderators, but I think that's just because we are short of people who can train in that area. If you really really want to, I think you could go ahead and tell her and she just might say ok... or keep you waiting until we have room.

The process of getting accepted as a moderator consist of a sort of internet background check, just looking at your activity on Elfwood, and asking the other moderators if they know anything bad about you. Then she will say yes or no for you and then give you a test of images for you to look at and tell whether they should be accepted or not. The test is a bit long and you may have to retake it, which is fine by her. It puts to the test your memory of all of the SFF(or FQ) rules as well as the general rules. After that you will train with another moderator by doing the same as the test, telling them how you would process a ticket. Then they will tell you whether you are right or not and correct you if your not. You will do that until the trainer believes you are ready to moderate on your own.

If anyone has any more questions, feel free to ask.

Art Book

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:48:13 GMT

What it is: An art compilation of works based on the theme "sci-fi".

The details:
I am going to be taking submissions for a full-color 9"x7" (landscape style) art book that will be published through Lulu.com. The book will be sold at the base cost and no profit will be made from it. All submissions must be 2775 x 2175 pixels (300 dpi) minimum. Higher resolution is preferred for better print quality. You do not need to conform to the exact shape of the page, just make sure that either the height or the width is at least 2775 or 2175 pixels. You may submit more than one image, but not all of them may be accepted. All media are welcome, but submissions must be made electronically.

The challenge:
The theme of the book is "sci-fi". How you choose to interpret this theme is up to you. Your inspiration can come in the form of a character, planet, alien creature, etc. Whatever. It is preferred that your image tell a story. Additionally, for copyright reasons, no fanart is allowed.

Who should submit?:
Illustrators who are trying to make a career of their art, or hobbyists who enjoy and appreciate this area.The book must be of such a quality that truly shows the talent of all involved.

Why should I submit?:
Because you enjoy either the theme, or the feelings your art inspires. And would like to share it with the world and other artist on the same wave length.

How to submit:

Send an e-mail to kanamimi @ gmail . com with the image(s) you're submitting (in .jpg, or .png, format).

On the subject line, put the word The Art Book.

In the body, include the following:
Your Name: (as you want it to appear in the book)
Your E-Mail Address: (required; you want companies to be able to contact you)
Your Website: (if you have one.)
Your Location: (city, state, country)
The Title of Your Piece: (if you just name it "art", I'll slap you)

Medium: (digital, watercolor, mixed...)

For more information click here.

writing/ rewriting picture descriptions

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 12:34:38 GMT

Recently, I uploaded a new picture butI was not able to write a description to it, since the description frame was all black. I also tried to rewrite some old descriptions to see, whether the problen only occured on the new upload, but I was not able to do so either.

When I tried to get back to my extranet main page I wasn't able to (it seems the description-form rebuild several times)

Is anyone else having the same problem? Any suggestions how to solve it?

Spec the Halls Contest

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 03:48:36 GMT

Spec the Halls is a contest for speculative winter holiday-themed fiction, artwork, and poetry. The holiday may be fictional or real; it may be Christmas as we know and love it, or it may be something much stranger. This is its 2nd year.

This year, there will be two versions.
Free Entry Version - This is the same as last year's contest. Requires posting entry online in a publicly viewable space, to spread the spirit of Christmas...and twist it to your own ends. Reprints warmly encouraged--and yes, a warning that this is counted in most places as publication is posted on my guidelines page. Small cash prizes.
Paid Entry Version - This is new! Email submission, no requirement to post online, and a small entry fee. Prize is 70% of entry fees collected.

Full guidelines here.

The contest runs from Thanksgiving through Christmas, but submitting earlier is better!

P.S. Does anybody have suggestions for art (preferably spec art) market listings?

x-posted a little

A hello and an announcement :)

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:12:14 GMT

Hello!

I'm finally back out of lurking and being swamped with work, and I thought I'd finally make use of all the brilliant innovations that have been made. I was really surprised when about a week ago I visited my page and saw it all revamped and looking extra cool!

So, let's get acquainted! This is Tantz Aerine. I've been with Elfwood for at least four years, maybe more, and my artistic endeavours (where the visual arts are concerned) and experimentation has been thoroughly documented in my personal little niche in the wood ;) I really should update the page, but since I have more comics made than single pictures, I am not sure it would qualify anymore...

ANYWAY, HERE IS AN ART CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT!

(I am not sure if it is legitimate to post here, but I couldn't think of any other place to do it)

My publishing house is launching an art contest based on my book (yay!) by putting up online two scenes from it for artists to illustrate either one. There are four categories each with a first prize to be won!

The first prize is 300 euro (or equivalent in the winner's country's currency) and there are prizes for second and third place, too.

Here is the link to it:

http://www.theartofveiling.gr/forum/viewforum.php?f=13

Anyway, I'd love it if anyone decided to take part, and I thought you might like the chance to look at it

New bookmarking function

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:49:00 GMT

Any comments/feedback on the new bookmarking function?

Affiliate shop

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:14:30 GMT

I just had a brilliant idea... Well. I think so, anyway. Figured I'd run it past people here before I submitted it 'officially' (though I see Thomas reads this journal, but anyway...)

Okay. with the addition of banners, it's clear EW wants to make some cash to cover operating costs and the like, which is fine. Though I think I thought of a way that's less annoying to look at, and beneficial to gallery owners, as well as to Elfwood as a whole. An affiliate shop.

Here's how it works. I have a Cafepress shop, and so does Elfwood, (though it is a bit hard to find, hasn't been updated in quite some time, and is just a Basic, but that's enough to get them into the program) and I'm sure lots of other gallery owners have shops of some kind as well. So since they are using CP, they sign up for an affiliate account at Commission Junction Then they create an affiliate shop within Elfwood, and ask Elfwood members to submit their shops. Since CP has moved to an outside provider for their affiliate program, they don't necessarily have to be with Cafepress, but it does make things considerably easier. But they can use Zazzle, 99dogs, or whatever. Elfwood adds the shops of gallery owners. Hopefully we can work out a system to have them sorted by artist as well as by subject, but most affiliate shops are highly customizable, so I don't think it should be a problem. I can ask at the Capfepress affiliate program forum what would suit our needs the best.

anyway, once it's set up and has the artist shops added, it provides exposure for those shops, the gallery/shop owners therefore make more sales, and for every sale generated by the affiliate shop, Elfwood gets 15% of the profit, everybody wins! for reference, I mark my shirts up by $4.00, Large posters and calendars by $5.00, etc. though every shopkeeper is free to set their own markup. So for every t-shirt sold, EW would get 15% of that markup. not a ton, but if EW puts a link prominently in the side bar, or a section in the extranet to add a shop that appears under the artists info, they have enough visitors that could easily add to a lot over time.

Some other sites offer a print program, but while it can be nice, it's also a bit frustrating if you already have a shop, because you want people to buy your stuff AT YOUR SHOP, not their program. I'd imagine it also requires a fair bit of investment on the site's part, and also a lot of effort to maintain, send the prints out, etc. This is free to set up, minimal effort to maintain once the initial setup is complete, and allows artists to sell their work the way they want (within some limits, it has to be with one of the established print on demand places, or get them to sign up at CJ to take part in the program)

I'd even be willing to write up a tutorial for FARP on how to set up a shop and create shirt designs that work with the CP printing process (there are certain rules you need to follow to get things to print nicely on dark shirts, and an overview of the usual limitations of the CMYK colour spectrum and how dpi works that newbies to printing may not be aware of)

ps. if you'd like to sign up for a shop, here's the signup page for Capfepress. I'm with them moslty because I've been there since forever, and when i signed up they were the only game in town, but I'm still quite happy with the degree of customizability they offer for premium shopkeepers and the variety of merchandise (even though they're lagging behind on T-Shirt colours) Also, if EW does end up doing this, CP is guaranteed to work, others might work, might not. Also, unlike most other places, Cafepress prints books on demand, perfect bound, spiral bound, etc. your choice, for the Wyvern folks.

*EDIT: just out of curiosity, I did a search for 'Cafepress' with the EW search, and it came back with over 200 matches, some were repeats (I was listed a few times since i list my shop in my bio as well as with each design that's been slapped on a shirt) but still, fairly sizeable number. http://search.elfwood.com/search.jsp?query=cafepress

Anime Art Contest

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:11:51 GMT

Turn real people into Anime/Fantasy/SF characters. The best submission wins $150. For details, go to
http://www.gunnchristie.com/myfiles/Contest.htm

Good luck, and have fun!

A Few Minor Glitches

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:25:21 GMT

The new Elfwood has been a fun and enjoyable experience, but I've had a few small problems. Please tell me if it's just me or if any of you have seen similiar glitches.

1.) Whenever I get to a piece with a 2-4 rating, my browser won't let me view it when I click the button. Refresh doesn't work. I have to go out of my browser and go back in.

2.) Oftentimes when I go into the recent additions section, it will have me either log back in or will have me logged in as someone else! This morning I kept showing up (in the left hand corner where username and smiley are shown) as some guy from Finland. It would take me to my own extranet when I'd hit 'profile' however....

Also, the counter at the bottom reset. Anyone notice that?

Cheers!

Eeeerrrrmmmm....

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:35:14 GMT

I don't think that new feature of putting the keywords by stories on Wyverns is a good idea, especially in my case. What if folks decide to put a whooooooole lot of obscene stuff in their description, to show up on the search engine for gags?!

The Emperor’s new clothes

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:58:31 GMT

So what does everybody think about Elfwoods new look and features? I for one am very pleased with how it looks and works now. It was a long time ago it was so much fun wandering in the woods! Sure the are some minor bugs here and there but nothing that’s a cause of irritation.

So what’s everybody’s favourite new feature?

For me it’s adding favourites, now I don’t need to keep managing so many bookmarks in my browser anymore.

And finally a big thanks to Thomas for all his work!

Least favorite sf/f novels

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:29:59 GMT

This journal's been a little slow lately, so I'm hoping to get some sort of discussion going on.

What are the worst sci-fi/fantasy books you've ever read? Why? What was so bad about it--the characters, plot, writing, inconsistencies, or was the whole thing bad?

Any books you've read recently that you didn't care much for?

As for me, my least favorite sci-fi book (and probably my least favorite book ever) is Larry Niven's Ringworld. A few things were neat about it, like the Ringworld itself and some of the technologies. The characters, however, were crap (except the puppeteer, he was pretty cool). Niven rarely explains any of the technology used; he just expects us to believe they work. The way he treated his female characters pissed me off to no end. Of the two with noteable screen time (one who is barely legal and the other who is a whore) both have sex with the main character (who is a 200 year old man with the body of someone in their prime). Of the two main alien races, females are not intelligent and exist solely as baby making machines. I couldn't help but wonder if Niven was projecting something.
Also, 'tanj' is the stupidest swear word ever.

My least favorite fantasy book is Christopher Paolini's Eragon. It was like Paolini threw LotR, Star Wars and Pern into a blender, strained out any and all awesomeness and pasted the remaining muck into his book. I found his writing really generic and bland. It seems like he uses Big Words to impress us and not because the sentence calls for it.

Of the books I've read recently, Dean Koontz's Fear Nothing and Douglas Niles' Circle at Center irritated me.
I normally like Koontz, and Fear Nothing could have been a pretty good book, except he destroys it by stuffing it with endless inane details and metaphors (which is tries really hard to be witty at). I could also find no genuine personality flaws with the main character. The guy screamed Mary Sue.

Circle at Center was just annoying all around. There were no characters I really felt attached to and parts of the plot felt really forced. The only chapter I honestly enjoyed was the prologue (okay, technically not a chapter). Meh.

Okay, let's hear everyone else's!