I know this is a little unusual, but I need a beta reader to go through my story once I get it finished in a couple of weeks and after it's posted on the Whofic website.   I know it should normally be beta-d first before publishing but I feel more comfortable doing this.

The catch:  it's pretty long (about 20 Chapters worth), fluffy and angsty.  If you can deal with that, and don't mind all the 80's references (you don't even have to understand them, but it helps), I just essentially need someone to confirm to me that it makes sense. 

Don't worry...you do not have to be concerned about proper spelling and grammar with me (but if I've missed something, please do let me know, of course).  Need continuity help, pretty much!

More questions as a new writer and visitor to Whofic is, when we submit
stories to the site, and if they are rejected, do we get an e-mail
stating what the problems are with the story and how they can be
corrected?  How do we know if they are rejected?  I keep seeing "not validated" next
to mine.

What is a "beta-reader?"  Is this someone who assists with the first
read-through?  I've got this 14 chapter thing started so far...

Thanks,
Michelle
 

Hello everyone! As a new user to Whofic (and just beginning to write fan fiction again after 10 years...I feel old), I need definitions of the following categories. (I don't think my story fits any of them, but I would like to know for future reference.)

Drabble, femslash, het, PWP, and slash.

Thank you for not keeping me in the dark. :D

Hello everyone - first of all: I love the Teaspoon! This website is one of my absolute favorites - thanks a lot, great job!

Maybe it's a stupid question, but I'm wondering what "featured stories" mean and how a story gets there...?

I don't remember each chapter having to validate separately last time I posted a multi-chapter story. But now I've got chapter 1 "yes" and chapter 2 "no." Thoughts?

Could K-9 be requested to trundle into the Tenth Doctor character list, please?
Thank you!

Can someone please contact me from the mods. Thanks

warinbabylon@yahoo.com

You may have noticed recently that the story counts listed against each category on Teaspoon have been changing drastically. This is due to a bug in the software misreporting the number of stories.

To avoid having to count the number of stories each time someone loads the main page, the software stores the numbers in a cache, and the cache numbers are added to and subtracted from whenever a story is approved, edited, deleted, etc. If this was perfect, then the numbers would always perfectly reflect the actual number of stories in each category, but...

Earlier tonight I ran an admin function which synchronises the cache figures with reality, so now the numbers in the cache more accurately reflect the number of actual stories there are on the site. I'm going to take a look at the software and see if there's some changes I can make to avoid the problem in future.

( Journey's End spoilers )

It's been suggested that a certain character from Journey's End be added to the characters list:

( Spoilers for the season 4 finale )

( Cut for 4.13 spoilers... )

A couple of changes have been made to the software running on the site in the last couple of days.

The first is the addition of a "human" test to the Contact Author form to screen out spam bots. Please let us know at the help email address if you get any spam emails which have come through our site.

The other change is purely cosmetic: the series and reviews pages now have better titles so they won't appear in browser tabs with just the site name.

As always, if you encounter any bugs, please let us know at the help email address.

Davros seems to have rolled out of the Fifth Doctor characters list - could he be added, please?

Thanks!

Although it's possible to search for beta readers on the archive, or put yourself down as a beta by ticking 'I would like to volunteer to be a beta-reader for others' in the Edit Profile page, it can be difficult for people to find someone to read for a specific pairing or area of canon: so, in hopes that it'll help narrow it down, this post is for people to sign up as betas with some information about themselves.

Name:
Email:
Other contact: eg if you'd prefer to be contacted by MSN or AIM
Canon familiarity: which bits of Doctor Who do you know about - just new series, certain Doctors, the novels, the audios? What about Torchwood and SJA?
Highest rating: the highest fic rating you're willing to beta, and any content - non-con, BDSM, etc - you don't want to work with
Beta preferences: do you have a particular preference for betaing in one genre, era, or pairing?
Beta areas: do you mostly read for spelling, punctuation and grammar, canon compliance, flow, plot, etc?
Likely turnaround time:
Anything else:

Copy and paste sign-up:
<b>Name:</b> <b>Email:</b> <b>Other contact:</b> <b>Canon familiarity:</b> <b>Highest rating:</b> <b>Beta preferences:</b> <b>Beta areas:</b> <b>Likely turnaround time:</b> <b>Anything else:</b>

If you're planning on getting in touch with one of the generous volunteers, email first to make sure they have time to help you - emailing your 60-chapter epic without any contact isn't the way to make for a happy beta - and let them know if your story has spoilers, especially if your fic's based around an episode that hasn't aired everywhere yet.

To everyone willing to sign up for this; huge thanks from the mod team in advance.

Might I suggest a slight change on how one searches for a beta reader on teaspoon.

Why not when one volunteers to be a beta reader, have a radio button where one can select the era (not the ship. That shouldn't be an issue at all) that one possesses a strong understanding of? 

And when someone searches for a beta reader again we can select what era we're needing a beta reader for and have those displayed instead of getting everyone who has volunteered to be a beta reader. 

I know this may not possible but I am seeking a beta reader for a rare pairing and I really don't have the time to wade through every author's bio to see what preference they have, and yes some do.

(Me grammar in this post is such because I have Captain Jack Sparrow on me brain.) 

Current Mood: crazy

 I just started posting my fics in Teaspoon and I don't know who to get some of the words in my fics to come up italizesed in the posts. Can someone tell me how to do this, please?

The bug from last night should now be fixed: I've tested the uploads both from files and from copy-pasting into the text box, and both seem to be working.

These stories were uploaded during the technical problem and will need to be resubmitted:

Forbidden...: Truth (TorchwoodDoctor)
Going to Hades: Chapter 1 (ninewood)
Heir of Krontep: Chapter 1 (finmagik)
In Remembrance: Chapter 1 (lostwolf)
Picturing: Owen (Lady Harkness)
Quadrophobia: Part Two (Howlcastle)
Tangled Web: The Sixth Doctor - Interlude 1 (DrVonWer)
The Eye of the Storm: Ghost Town (Timelord Kay)
The Impact of Silly Games: Charades (sonicthecat7)
The Other Side of Grace: No (Lady Harkness)

Thanks for your patience.

The Teaspoon is experiencing some technical problems. We're having issues with recently submitted fics appearing to have no text. We're working to fix this - until it's resolved, please hold off on submitting new stories or chapters as they'll probably have to be rejected and resubmitted. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Somehow I seem unable to respond to reviews anymore. What's going on there?

In the last couple of weeks, I have been getting a lot of spam emails stating--> "This message was sent to you from A Teaspoon And An Open Mind located at http://www.whofic.com"

Did we have another malicious attack?

Could the character of 'The TARDIS' be added to the Multi-Era category of the Teaspoon, please? She seems to have vanished away.

For Teaspoon account holders who have Hotmail or MSN mail accounts (this notice will also be posted at the Teaspoon site):

There is an ongoing, known issue with Hotmail account users in particular not being able to receive e-mails from the Teaspoon mail account--apparently the e-mails don't just get sent to spam folders, but Hotmail fails to deliver them at all. If you have a Hotmail/MSN account, and you are waiting to hear about a lost password, fic validation or other communication, it's quite possible that our replies to you have thus been "eaten" in transit (this has now happened to at least a dozen Hotmail users in the past few weeks alone).

We don't know the origins of this problem--it may be a bug in the eFiction site software itself--but we strongly advise anyone with a Hotmail or MSN mail account to switch their Teaspoon mail to another provider. Yahoo Mail and Gmail also provide free mail accounts and we haven't had any similar issues with them (or any other non-Hotmail providers that we know of). Apologies for the inconvenience.

Do you guys update the front page on a set schedule or anything?  The reason I ask is that it's been the same since at least 11 am, but in the 9 hours since then, I've definitely posted fic that's been moderator-approved.  It just hasn't seen the front page.

Thanks for your time!

Current Mood: curious

I just read the new rules, and it seems to say songfic aren't allowed.  Is this a change of the old rules (where fic that was less than 15% lyrics was allowed), or have I misunderstood?

If it's a blanket ban on songfic, I'd like to know so I can take down fic that doesn't fit the new rules as quickly as possible.

For those who didn't see the posting about this on Teaspoon's news page:

There was some confusion over the classifications gen, het, slash, femslash and mixed being included under "Warnings," so they have now been moved to "Genres" and are searchable under this category. All stories already on the archive have had their information updated. Several people have expressed concern about wanting to continue to be able to filter their searches to include only slash stories, gen stories, etc.--you can now do so using these genre categories, under the "Advanced Search" function.

Please use these genres when uploading fic as it makes it easier for people to find the kind of stories they want to read; if your story has no romance, then it falls under gen. "Series" and "standalone" story classifications have also been added to the genre list.