October 3, 2004: Very tired, so I'll keep things short today. Thirty-nine new sites:
As usual, check the master list for full details. No new recommendations this week; however, there is a slight modification to the FAQ.
Plans for the next update include expanding the Clearinghouse. There will be at least two new categories, and perhaps more if warranted. One should be obvious from the sites I added this update; the other will require a slight bending of the Clearinghouse guidelines...which again probably makes its identity blatant.
September 1, 2004: Ugh. It's not uncommon for a site that I had slated for addition to the Clearinghouse to be dumped at the last minute, for one reason or another. But five sites in one update?! I have a headache...
Anyway. Two new recommendations, and...*counts* twenty sites:
As always, check the master list for details.
And now, I have a favor to ask. The homepage of Steven Theksen, author of the Clearinghouse recommendation "Quantum Destinies," has been deleted, and his Earthlink account closed. As far as I know, 21 chapters of the story have been written; unfortunately, I have been unable to find an archive that has anything beyond chapter 16. The link on the recommendations page now points to the copy of the story (though chapter 16) archived at Blood Blade's (reactivated) archive; however, I'm hoping that this will be only a temporary solution. If you know where a complete copy of this story is archived, please e-mail me and let me know.
Thank you in advance for any help you might provide.
August 11, 2004: Well, so much for that promise. :P This is a bit earlier in the day than I usually update, but I'm not sure if I'll be awake to do it this evening. Anyway. Three new recommendations and 27 new sites:
As always, check the master list for details.
Next update is scheduled for the 22nd. See you then!
July 21, 2004: The update was scheduled for July 20, and I began the update on July 20. Unfortunately, I didn't budget enough time to get the job done, because when I went site-hunting, I kind of lost my head.
Say hello to the fifty newest members of the Clearinghouse listings:
In addition to two new recommendations, I've finally put the old updates back online. Everything is there except for the "I'm still alive" message I posted in early 2003; sadly, I don't seem to have saved a copy of that. Anyway, they're all there; keep in mind, though, that for most of them the links will be broken, as the Clearinghouse's structure changed a great deal in the overhaul.
And that, as they say, is that. Next update is two and a half weeks from now; it WILL NOT be delayed. :)
Until then,
June 21, 2004: Ugh. When I pushed this update back one week to June 13, it was with the assumption that the people to whom I had entrusted my computer were remotely competent. Sadly, this turned out to be an unwise assumption on my part; the...individuals sat on the machine for one week and did absolutely nothing. My invoice indicates a half-hour of labor, during which they allegedly verified that a disk drive worked--without ever hooking it up--and could find nothing whatsoever wrong with my machine. (Within an hour of getting it home and hooked back up, I had three system crashes and one spontaneous reboot. :P)
The second place I took the machine also sat on it for a week (hence the extra week's delay in this update). Thankfully, though, they actually did their job, diagnosing the problem and replacing the bad parts (including the drive that the other shop blithely assured me was fine). I swear, if the bill weren't so small, I'd take that first shop to court for fraud...
Anyway. I've been very aggravated these past few weeks, so just a small update this time, with one recommendation and ten sites:
As always, check the master list for details.
The next update's scheduled for Independence Day. Until then,
May 23, 2004: One new recommendation and nineteen new sites this update:
Geocities is starting to deactivate sites that have not been updated for some time. Blood Blade's archive is the first such site I've run across as I maintain the Clearinghouse entries; however, I am given to understand that other sites in the listings have suffered the same fate, and will get to them in due time.
My computer is going in the shop tomorrow, so the next update has been pushed back a week, to June 13.
See you then!
May 11, 2004: Two recommendations and fourteen new sites this update:
As always, details are in the master list.
March 8, 2004: I did something this update that I have not done for quite some time: I removed a site from the Clearinghouse listings for a violation of guideline #4. This webmaster, in a misguided attempt to control the content on his/her page, added code which required a specific plug-in from Netscape. As the box notifying me of this plugin appeared, the page opened a new window and reloaded. Again, this new page required the plug-in I didn't have, and came up with a box to that effect...and reloaded the same page in a new window. That third page also required the plug-in and opened a new window, ad infinitum. Normally, you can blame a web host for coding that idiotic--but this was a Geocities-hosted site.
My point: PEOPLE, USE COMMON SENSE. I don't give a flying @#$% what kind of newfangled garbage the Silicon Valley professional designers are coming up with, and neither should you. THIS IS FAN FICTION. It's a non-paying field (at least, it should be, if you want to avoid the lawyers). The principal thing surfers want out of you is a functional site that lets them get to the fanfic quickly and easily. ANYTHING THAT INTERFERES WITH THAT IS BAD.
Having a slow-loading applet on your front page is BAD. Putting your links solely in Javascript that doesn't even work with a major browser is BAD. Clogging the lines with pages so graphics-heavy that the index page alone takes half an hour to load is BAD. It drives me up a wall, and half the time all I'm trying to do is get an accurate story count for the listings! What do you think it does to people actually interested in reading what you have?
Please, people--you were surfers once, too. Is that too much to ask that you remember that?
Sixteen new sites this week:
See you in two weeks!
February 22, 2004: Twenty-four new sites today:
Official "Sailor Moon V" Web Page
Also, five new recommendations--one for every two weeks I was late with this update.
Next update in two weeks. Be there.
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