News
new warnings Hope you're all adjusting to the new layout... :)
A small announcement. We've modified a couple of the warnings. Now, instead just of Character Death, we have changed it to Major Character Death, and we have added Minor Character Death. :)
Please change your stories accordingly!
- undrock'n'roll on 03/03/09 03:24 pm
21 Comments
News Archive
New Layout and Fic Tracking As you may have noticed, we have a new default layout. We want to thank Lynn (buyyouadrank) for designing the beautiful graphic, and we hope that you all will like this change. If you liked the old layout (jelly) better, you can change jelly to your default skin by going into Account Info and then Edit Preferences. :)
Also, you can switch between our burnt, jelly, and work layouts by using the drop down menu on the left side of the main page, under the log-in information.
On a different note, we
As an additional bonus, there is now a Most Tracked Story in the Top Tens. At the moment, we do not think that you can see how is tracking your stories, but we are working on figuring out how to put this into your account info. :)
Please continue to favorite stories and authors that you consider to be your personal favorites. If you have stories in your favorites right now that are only in there for means of being notified when it updates, please consider removing it from your favorites and tracking it instead.
This does not mean that you'll stop receiving email alerts when you get new reviews or review responses. :)
Please let us know any problems you have with this system, and if you are enjoying the new layout and fic tracking system, please let us know! It's always good to hear positive feedback for what we're doing. :)
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
EDIT: We realized, after turning email notifications off, that while you can track stories with our new system, you can't track authors. We, personally, love being notified when our favorite authors update but by turning notifications off, we will no longer have this option. We turned email updates back on for the time being until we can figure out how to make it so you only get notified when your favorite authors update.
PLEASE DO NOT favorite something if you only mean to track it, and remove favorites that are not really your favorites, but you meant to track. If you do this, it will lighten our server load, and we can keep email updates.
Thank you!
- cynical_terror & undrockroll on 03/01/09 10:01 pm
42 Comments
News Archive
Favorites and Tracking - PLEASE READ We're having some problems with the favorites email notifications. When you favorite something on your account, you have the option to receive an email notification when the story updates. However, over the past few weeks people haven't been receiving their notifications.
We've looked into it, and the problem is with the website attempting to send out too many emails at once. Efiction, the program the fiction site runs on, is a bit basic in this area. When a popular fan fic with a lot of favorites updates, the program send all of the emails at once. Our site cannot handle sending all of the emails at once, so a lot of people don't receive their notifications and the site lags from the stress.
We are attempting to come up with an alternative for the notifications, and we've found something called "fan fiction tracker".
It's a mod on the site that will allow members to track stories they are watching. It is an alternative to favoriting fanfics. When you track something it will make a list of the fan fics you're reading and let you know when they update and if you've read them yet. You will be able to check this list to see if the stories you're tracking or watching have updated.
You won't have to favorite everything if we install this mod. You can still favorite the stories that are your "favorites" but if you're only watching something to see if it updates, you'll be able to "track it".
We know this might be less convenient than receiving email alerts, but the email alert system is straining under our high member count. Also, we have so many abandoned and duplicate accounts that are sending notifications to dead or old emails.
We haven't installed the tracking system yet, and we actually have no idea how well it will work, but we hope this will take some strain off our server and allow everyone to see what's updating.
Please take our newest poll and let us know what you think about this!
- cynical_terror on 02/28/09 04:51 pm
26 Comments
News Archive
General Reminders! #1 Valentines Day is coming up super fast now, and so I thought it'd be a good time to talk to you all about hearts. No, not the meaty organ in your chest, but:
As you may or may now know, these sort of text hearts do not mesh well with Efiction. We've been getting a lot of complaints and confusion lately over why reviews and stories randomly cut off and have missing text. Well, the hearts are to blame.
If you use the text hearts in your reviews or stories, everything after it will be deleted. We have no idea why this happens, but it does.
#2 This leads me to my next point. I know I've talked about this in news posts before, but it bears repeating. Efiction has a co-author bug. If you are writing a story with two or more authors, you may not be able to respond to reviews. We have no fix for this bug. You may be able to respond to certain chapter reviews and not others, it's completely random. We suggest thanking your reviewers in your author's/end notes and perhaps explaining to them about the bug so there will be no hard feelings.
#3 Also! If you use our Live Help function, please send your question in with your site username so that the online operator will know who you are. This will make it easier for the operator to aid you in account or site problems.
#4 One last notice: we'll be changing the site banner and colors soon, so if you see anything wacky going on around the site, don't fret!
[edit] please take our new poll regarding the site layout! let your voice be heard.
That's it for now! Everyone have a lovely Valentines Day... if you're into that sort of thing.
- cynical_terror on 02/11/09 09:05 pm
22 Comments
News Archive
THF Mascots! 
click us!
All of the ponies are Tokio Hotel themed and you can support them by clicking the graphics. They're all growing boys and they need your help!
If you want to make your own ponies, visit the Ponystars website, and leave your username in this news post so we can invite you to the Official THF Stables! Also, if the ponies catch on, we might make a tiny little section on the site where people can post their account links for clicks, that way we can all support each other. :D
This is all meant in good fun, so leave the pony hating at the door! ;)
- cynical_terror on 02/06/09 04:06 am
70 Comments
News Archive
Validated Authors Recently we've had a few good people asking a very good question: How do you become a validated author?
A validated author is someone who we trust enough to give them the opportunity to post their fanfic without having it go through the submissions queue. Basically, if you're a validated author, your story will go up on the site right away.
We make authors validated from time to time when we see consistently acceptable work by them. For example, if a person always has good grammar, spelling, formatting, and never posts submissions under 500 words, we'll validate them. :)
If you aren't validated, and you think you should be, we're inviting you to email thfiction@gmail.com to be considered. Sometimes the volume of fanfic is very large and it's very useful to be validated. We'll look over your work and then contact you back with our decision. Our standards aren't ridiculous and the way we see it, the more validated authors we have, the less fanfic there will be in the queue - quicker updates.
Lastly, to be validated, you must be trustworthy. If we validate you and you prove to be untrustworthy, we'll take away your validation right away.
Thanks for your time!
- undrockroll on 01/24/09 11:33 pm
35 Comments
News Archive
Respect and Stuff Lately, we have been getting a large volume of complaints that some of the story reviews are getting too harsh. This is a difficult subject to deal with, since there’s such a broad grey area between an acceptable review, and an outright flame.
We do not want to stop someone from saying what they think about a story, and giving criticism. It’s only when this criticism becomes personal, and not constructive, do we have a problem with it. Here’s an example of what is appropriate, and what is not.
Appropriate: I think this story has potential, however, you have some spelling and grammatical errors. A beta reader would probably help you a bit. Keep writing!
Inappropriate: Your spelling errors make me sick, I can barely read this. Stop writing.
Appropriate: Stories about molestation make me uncomfortable, and I must admit I feel a little offended by the way you handled the content.
Inappropriate: You are a bad person. How dare you write about this? Go to hell, you bitch.
Do you see the difference between these reviews? Sometimes a little politeness goes a long way. You don’t need to yell at someone to get your point across.
There’s been a fair amount of bullying lately. I’d like to address something: We are a privately owned website/organization. Yes, we’re based in the United States, but the right to have freedom of speech does not apply here. We’re not interested in censoring anyone, that’s probably the last thing we want to do. However, I am more than a little disgusted at some of the behavior I’ve seen.
Not everyone is going to be happy about the content/subject of some stories. In 99% of the cases, the author isn’t trying to be offensive and this never means it is acceptable to attack the author. If you have a problem with content or members on the site, contact the founders/administrators at thfiction@gmail.com and we will discuss it and try to find a solution. I want to make it very clear that your email will be confidential; the only people who will see it will be cynical terror and undrockroll.
If you feel like you're being attacked or bullied, please email us! We don't have eyes everywhere, we won't know if something has happened unless we are notified.
I’m not pointing fingers at anyone, in fact, it’s been a site wide problem and we’ve had more than a few people tell us that they’re put off fan fiction completely because of it. I know a lot of you are probably thinking, so what? It’s just fan fiction. But this site is supposed to be a safe haven where people can come and have fun, it’s a place for their hobby. I don’t appreciate anyone denying someone their right to enjoy something.
I’m not very happy right now with the way things are going, but I think we can turn this thing around and just RESPECT each other. You don’t all have to be friends, but least just learn to exist civilly together, please.
- undrockroll on 01/18/09 07:41 pm
50 Comments
News Archive
Series and Coauthors I've just spent a long time deleting empty series. Empty series are, for whatever reason, series that have been made but do not have any actual stories in them. This is very., very bad, because all it does it take up a lot of dead space on our server. So here's my request:
Do not make a series unless you have already written a story first. If you make an empty series, it will be deleted.
Also, I saw a LOT of series that only had one story in them. By definition a series is a collection of stories from the same universe. You can't just have a series with ONE story.
I'm not trying to be a jerk, really, it just makes it cluttered and hard to search for things.
ADDITIONALLY, Arianne has an announcement she'd like to... announce. :)
Many of you have been wondering why you can't respond to reviews in your coauthored fics. We've even seen a few of you saying that it must be punishment, that we must be preventing you from replying to reviews for some reason. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
It is a bug with the software, eFiction. For some reason, and this affects nearly everyone, coauthors cannot respond to reviews. We have tried to fix this problem, we've hounded the eFiction developers about it, but nothing doing. It's just a bug in the software and until they actually fix it in the program, we're going to have to stick it out. We suggest thanking your reviewers in your author's notes... This is the only way. :(
ALSO, one more thing - some of you have asked why series cannot be coauthored. The simple version: we don't know. It's another eFiction thing.
Bleh.
Anyways, have a good weekend and don't bite the mailman.
- undrockroll and cynical terror on 01/11/09 01:44 am
17 Comments
News Archive
Characters, Warnings, Genres, etc! I am coming at you today to talk about selecting multiple characters, pairings, genres, and warnings. We've received a big volume of emails lately asking how to do this. I will give you a simple tutorial right now. :)
1) Make sure you know which characters, pairings, genres and warnings you'd like to include.
2)Hold down the CTRL button. This button is located at the lower left side of the keyboard, usually next to ALT. So, hold this key down.
3) Select the items while still holding down the CTRL button. If you don't keep holding it down, you'll lose your multiple selections.
4) Review your selections - do they correspond to your story? If not... hold down the CTRL button again and while keeping it pressed, select the items you do not want and they should de-select.
Failure to do this may result in one of our staff editing your story to make the categories more appropriate. It's nothing against you - we just want to keep everything nice and easily searchable. :)
So, that's all I have to flap about today. I hope everyone's new year is going well!
- undrockroll on 01/06/09 09:34 pm
18 Comments
News Archive
Flash Banners, Locked Accounts, Lost Passwords/Usernames, oh my! Flash Banners
Flash banners are not allowed on this website. They take a very long time to load and will sometimes freeze the site. If you have a flash banner in your fic summary, it will have to load every time someone opens "Recent" to view the new fics.
If you post flash banners they will immediately be deleted, or your fan fic will not be validated and accepted on the site.
If you post flash banners excessively, your account will be locked.
Locked Accounts
We lock accounts on THF for a variety of reasons. Usually if you're flooding the queue with fan fic, harassing other members, or posting banners that do not meet our requirements, we will lock your account.
Locked accounts are rarely permanent. Normally, we lock accounts to stop harmful activity and leave them locked until we can contact the member and resolve the conflict. If we can come to a resolution, the account is unlocked and the member can use the site again.
If your account is locked and you create a new account to continue the activity that got your account locked in the first place, you are defeating the entire purpose of locking your account.
If your account is locked PLEASE check your email, because we will be emailing you about why we locked your account. We normally email members BEFORE locking their accounts, so you will most likely be notified of any problems we may be having with you. If you do not receive an email from us and your account is locked, then please contact us.
Those who create multiple accounts will be banned.
If you are banned from the site you will be unable to view the web page and most bannings are permanent.
Most issues are easily resolved, so please contact us before making the issue larger.
Lost Passwords/Usernames
Many people lose their password or their username to the site. Many people also have a difficult time receiving a new password through our automated services.
If you lose your password or username please email us for assistance. Do not create a new account. We can get you a new password or locate your account name very easily and usually within a day or so of you emailing us.
We hope everyone has a happy New Year! 2009 will be bigger and better than ever for THF!
Also... look out for the 2009 THF Games! :)
- cynical_terror on 12/31/08 09:47 pm
24 Comments
News Archive
Happy Holidays! Keep writing, reading, and loving TH. We will see you in 2009!
- cynical_terror, undrockroll, and the THF Staff on 12/19/08 02:19 pm
37 Comments
News Archive
Banners and Member Conduct Now that we're all viewing stories by "Recent," that means that everyone on the site will be able to view the banners on fan fics.
Do you know what that means?
It means that people need to be more careful when posting banners. The recommended size for banners is 600pixels wide and 300pixels tall. The width MUST NOT BE more than 600pixels, otherwise it will not fit the layout. If your graphic is a little taller than this, it's okay, but do not make your banner much taller than 300pixels.
Here is an example of the largest your banner should be:
CLICK HERE
Why are we enforcing this rule? Because not everyone's computers can handle loading insanely large files. Also, because we've had multiple banners posted that are too large for the layout. When a banner is too wide it will post over things such as the menu, the ads, and the guides.
I think we can all agree that the banners should not be larger than the layout.
This is good time to also remind you that posting songs and videos that auto play in your summaries is also NOT A GOOD THING.
Fan fics with banners that do not fit the size requirements will be either resized or removed from the site. If you post music or videos that play automatically, they will be removed.
Member Conduct...
This is something we shouldn't have to even talk about, but sadly, we do.
When dealing with other members on the site and when dealing with the admins/mods, you must be polite. This isn't suggested, this is required. There is no reason for anyone to be rude, insulting, or all around bitchy to someone else on the site. If you're going to be a jerk, do it off the site. We are not tolerating it here anymore.
This carries over into emailing the site staff. If you email one of the staff asking for help or if you have a complaint, do not be rude about it. Please and Thank Yous will get you very far in life.
The lack of respect shown for the site staff boggles my mind, since we are all here WORKING FOR YOU, FOR FREE. We get upwards of 80 fan fic submissions a day in the queue, and as you can imagine, reading them all over and validating them is a real chore.
It takes time and energy, so a little gratitude goes a long way. No one is asking for you to kiss anyone's ass on the staff, but we are asking for a little patience and a little less lip.
Do not email the site staff demanding they fix an issue. Email them and ask if they can. You may find they will respond to your problem quicker if you aren't an insane psycho bitch.
Just a little heads up for you there.
Thank you, and goodnight.
- cynical_terror on 12/14/08 09:34 pm
53 Comments
News Archive
Hello... world. We hope this is a positive change. Please let us know what you think.
Have a good weekend!
- undrockroll on 12/12/08 01:19 am
124 Comments
News Archive
Happy Birthday Beren! We have another admin birthday here at THF! These birthday wishes go out to the lovely Beren, an amazing writer, friend, and admin for the site.
Please wish her a happy birthday and check out her featured fics!
- Undrockroll & cynical_terror on 12/11/08 12:44 am
35 Comments
News Archive
Happy Birthday, Majestrix!!! It's Majestrix's birthday!!
If you don't know who Majestrix is (are you living under a rock??), she is a site admin, and one of our most celebrated authors on the site. Without her help, all of your lovely fanfic would not be posted!
Thank you so much for all of your support over the past year. We can never truly thank you enough for all of your help, kindness, and lovely slash. ;) All we can do is thank you on this special day.
Have a lovely birthday - and everyone, please check out the three featured fics by Majestrix! They'll only be up for a day, and please wish her a Happy Birthday!
- cynical terror & undrockroll on 12/08/08 02:31 am
62 Comments
News Archive
New Label -Twincest Not Related We've just added a new genre titled "Twincest Not Related". This genre is for AU fan fics where Bill and Tom are featured as a romantic couple, but they are not related in the story.
Some people need to see this genre because they are not comfortable with reading about Tom and Bill in sexual/romantic situations, even if they are not related in the story.
So, if you are writing a fan fic where Bill and Tom are not related and in a sexual relationship, please use this new genre. Also, it may be wise to go back and change old fan fics to this new genre.
Thank you!
- cynical_terror on 11/29/08 06:09 pm
45 Comments
News Archive
NO PREVIEWS I just wanted to instate a new rule to everyone, a rule I thought was always pretty obvious, but I suppose it's not.
Do not post story previews. They will be deleted without warning. If you wrote an entire story and then want to see if there is interest in a sequel, do not post a short story titled "Preview of _________". If you are going to write a story, write a story. Do it for sure, and wait until you have something substantial to post.
Additionally, this isn't a rule so much as a heads up - when you are posting a story, do not use the preview function. It doesn't work and we don't know how to fix it at this point.
That's all, and I hope everyone's having a good weekend. :)
- undrockroll on 11/29/08 04:08 pm
15 Comments
News Archive
We're back... ! We're back after a short hiatus. We had to shut down for a while due to a VERY high increase in traffic to the site. Thank you for being patient with us. Please extend your patience for a bit longer as we settle back into things.
Our server was hit by a group of Rick Astley "fans" who also attacked other TH sites today. The link to this group's "attack plan" is HERE.
We're sorry about the inconvenience... We're trying our best to keep things afloat. We're asking, again, for your patience and trust. We've backed up the site in full.
Here's something YOU can do to help us. It's easy, free, and MANDATORY. SIGN UP FOR OUR SITE MAILING LIST. We cannot stress this enough - we get bombarded by individual emails whenever stuff like this happens, too much to even deal with. If you all JOINED THE MAILING LIST, then we could spread the word with one simple email!
In the recently controversial words of Mr. Astley, we're never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down. :)
- undrockroll on 11/07/08 07:46 pm
97 Comments
News Archive
New layout! Work safe! We've just put up a new work safe layout of the site. It's still in construction, but at the moment it is adless and does not have any graphics on it. This will work well for those of you on slower internet connections or if you browse the site at work.
Also, if you are prone to seizures, this is the layout for you! No crazy blinking ads!
To use this layout, just select "work" on the drop down menu under "site info".
Enjoy!
- THFiction Admin on 10/21/08 11:20 pm
36 Comments
News Archive
No news is good news... There's no real news, but I just want to announce to everyone that nominations for the second round of the Tokio Hotel Fan Fiction Awards are open, and we should all head over there and nominate our favorite fics. :) Click here to nominate!
Another gentle reminder - have you thanked your Beta Reader today? They work so hard to make your stories great - maybe tell them how much you appreciate them. And if you don't have a beta reader, be sure to GET ONE! :)
- undrockroll on 10/04/08 01:44 pm
136 Comments
News Archive