Apologies for the influx of spam reviews that have hit the I Need a Parrot site lately. I'm working on deleting them all and banning the offenders.

Unfortunately with a site such as this we are never going to be completely immune to this kind of thing and we can only beat them together. If you have received a spam review on any of your stories - or if you've noticed them on someone else's story while you've been reading - please let me know either by using the 'report a violation of rules' option on the site or by emailing directly to admin@moments-lost.org with a link to the offending review and/or user.

In addition, I am going through the member list and deleting the obvious spam bots and it would help immeasurably if genuine members could edit their profiles with some kind of indication that they are actual people and not spam bots.

Thank you all for your patience!

Shona (aka Mara)

Last entry deleted - found the fic in the midst of the ten gazillion chapters of YAHF in the INAP submissions. Sorry all!

Also want to apologise to those of you subscribed to the INAP RSS feed, I may have just been able to approve all the fics that have been building up for a few months and as such I think 50 odd chapters just went through.

Sorry!

eta also? Just made it a 'featured story' on the site, even though there are a couple of grammar issues. It still rocks. Her by Seth Keegan, he rates it NC-17, I'd rate it somewhere between 15 and 18. It's Xander/Dawn. And it's awesome.

Last entry deleted - found the fic in the midst of the ten gazillion chapters of YAHF in the INAP submissions. Sorry all!

Also want to apologise to those of you subscribed to the INAP RSS feed, I may have just been able to approve all the fics that have been building up for a few months and as such I think 50 odd chapters just went through.

Sorry!

eta also? Just made it a 'featured story' on the site, even though there are a couple of grammar issues. It still rocks. Her by Seth Keegan, he rates it NC-17, I'd rate it somewhere between 15 and 18. It's Xander/Dawn. And it's awesome.

I have to hold my hands up and say that for the past little while I haven't taken as active a role in the running of the site as I should have. I had a bit of a wake-up call this weekend with the plagiarism scandal.

So from now on I am going to be a lot more hands on. The site has been switched back onto moderated submissions which means there will be a delay between posting a new story there and it appearing on the archive. The delay is the time it takes me and/or other admins to approve the content.

Previously we had othercat, liz_marcs and nemo_gravis as admins. I am really hoping these guys will come back on board again.

If you are interested in helping out as well, please let me know.

after posting this, I realised that it's been a long time since I posted the link to the site. It's always there on my sidebar and in my profile, but for those of you seeing this on your friends' page: I Need a Parrot - a Xander Harris fanfiction site

I have to hold my hands up and say that for the past little while I haven't taken as active a role in the running of the site as I should have. I had a bit of a wake-up call this weekend with the plagiarism scandal.

So from now on I am going to be a lot more hands on. The site has been switched back onto moderated submissions which means there will be a delay between posting a new story there and it appearing on the archive. The delay is the time it takes me and/or other admins to approve the content.

Previously we had othercat, liz_marcs and nemo_gravis as admins. I am really hoping these guys will come back on board again.

If you are interested in helping out as well, please let me know.

after posting this, I realised that it's been a long time since I posted the link to the site. It's always there on my sidebar and in my profile, but for those of you seeing this on your friends' page: I Need a Parrot - a Xander Harris fanfiction site

So last night, while I was still in shell-shock from the Being Human finale I got an email notification of liz_marcs's message to me.

Ozmandayus aka Shawn aka Shawn30 has been caught plagiarising again.

I am absolutely spitting mad about this. I gave him a second chance when I probably shouldn't have and he's done it again.

liz_marcs has the whole story on her journal here.

Please note she has my absolute backing in this, I'd like to thank her for doing this for me when I wasn't able to get to a computer (I'd also like to thank nwhepcat for passing on the messages from Twitter from me).

Plagiarism is not welcome on any of my sites.

So last night, while I was still in shell-shock from the Being Human finale I got an email notification of liz_marcs's message to me.

Ozmandayus aka Shawn aka Shawn30 has been caught plagiarising again.

I am absolutely spitting mad about this. I gave him a second chance when I probably shouldn't have and he's done it again.

liz_marcs has the whole story on her journal here.

Please note she has my absolute backing in this, I'd like to thank her for doing this for me when I wasn't able to get to a computer (I'd also like to thank nwhepcat for passing on the messages from Twitter from me).

Plagiarism is not welcome on any of my sites.

... for moments lost! Okay, I'll stop singing now, I promise!

( here's why I'm singing... )

... for moments lost! Okay, I'll stop singing now, I promise!

( here's why I'm singing... )

so hopeless_cynic and I have a theory about Kripke's real inspiration for SPN. We've all heard the horror movies, the X Files and so on. But we can exclusively reveal that ( Dan-dan-dah! )

And now we're watching cheesy TV, before embarking on research for my oft-delayed 'tummy' picspam...

*grins*

So, who's all coming to the cinema on Friday then? Pizza, JDM, Ice Cream... You know you want to...

Oh - there's been a report of some chapters having vanished from multi-chapter stories on INaP - I've found one, but are there any more people have noticed?

so hopeless_cynic and I have a theory about Kripke's real inspiration for SPN. We've all heard the horror movies, the X Files and so on. But we can exclusively reveal that ( Dan-dan-dah! )

And now we're watching cheesy TV, before embarking on research for my oft-delayed 'tummy' picspam...

*grins*

So, who's all coming to the cinema on Friday then? Pizza, JDM, Ice Cream... You know you want to...

Oh - there's been a report of some chapters having vanished from multi-chapter stories on INaP - I've found one, but are there any more people have noticed?

I may be validating/rolling my eyes over at I Need A Parrot right about now, and the thought came up - as it often does - what's with the fascination for YAHFs? (Yet Another Halloween Fics)

(Oh? And the plural of 'Scooby' is not 'Scooby's'. I'm just saying, if I was being a real pain in the ass I could boot it for bad spelling and use that as an example...)

( So I made a poll. *grins* )

I may be validating/rolling my eyes over at I Need A Parrot right about now, and the thought came up - as it often does - what's with the fascination for YAHFs? (Yet Another Halloween Fics)

(Oh? And the plural of 'Scooby' is not 'Scooby's'. I'm just saying, if I was being a real pain in the ass I could boot it for bad spelling and use that as an example...)

( So I made a poll. *grins* )

(I know, I'm posting a lot today - sorry!)

...moments lost... - the main page of my website is now fully up - although two of the links are not quite active yet, they should be tonight.

...pointless nostalgic... (aka Fandom's Bitch) is my own personal archive. This is hosted on the ever-wonderful wenchpixie's domain rather than the ML server.

I have also created new syndicated LJ feeds for most of the archive sites

fandomsbitch - the feed for Pointless Nostalgic
handonheart_bx - the feed for Hand On Heart (Buffy/Xander)
keytotheheart - the feed for Key To The Heart (Dawn/Xander)
effects_feed - the feed for Effects of a Troubled Heart (Faith/Xander)
sineya_updates - the feed for Daughters of Sineya (Slayer-centric site)
saltandburn_rss - the feed for the Salt & Burn fic archive.

and the all important one - ineedaparrotrss - the new feed for INaP

There are still three one more to add so rather than spam you, I'll edit this post during the day once they're done!

(yes, I'm aware that the links up on the INAP one are slightly odd, it's cause I hadn't made a change in the admin pages. It's fixed now and all the links from now on should be the correct ones. Sorry!)

(I know, I'm posting a lot today - sorry!)

...moments lost... - the main page of my website is now fully up - although two of the links are not quite active yet, they should be tonight.

...pointless nostalgic... (aka Fandom's Bitch) is my own personal archive. This is hosted on the ever-wonderful wenchpixie's domain rather than the ML server.

I have also created new syndicated LJ feeds for most of the archive sites

fandomsbitch - the feed for Pointless Nostalgic
handonheart_bx - the feed for Hand On Heart (Buffy/Xander)
keytotheheart - the feed for Key To The Heart (Dawn/Xander)
effects_feed - the feed for Effects of a Troubled Heart (Faith/Xander)
sineya_updates - the feed for Daughters of Sineya (Slayer-centric site)
saltandburn_rss - the feed for the Salt & Burn fic archive.

and the all important one - ineedaparrotrss - the new feed for INaP

There are still three one more to add so rather than spam you, I'll edit this post during the day once they're done!

(yes, I'm aware that the links up on the INAP one are slightly odd, it's cause I hadn't made a change in the admin pages. It's fixed now and all the links from now on should be the correct ones. Sorry!)

Thank you all for your absolute patience and understanding over the past little while whilst I've been transferring files, setting up servers, clearing things up and generally flailing at my FTP client refusing to connect to the interwebs.

But, after far longer than I had really hoped, the sites are back!!!

I Need a Parrot - the general Xander Harris site, which accepts fic of all genres, ratings, pairings and types (with the sole exception of RPF/RPS)

Hand on Heart - the Buffy/Xander and Buffy&Xander site.

Key to the Heart - the Dawn/Xander and Dawn&Xander site.

Effects of a Troubled Heart - the Faith/Xander and Faith&Xander site.

Daughters of Sineya - the Slayer-centric site.

I'm working on tidying things up a little, but they are up and running and raring to go!!

Thank you all for your absolute patience and understanding over the past little while whilst I've been transferring files, setting up servers, clearing things up and generally flailing at my FTP client refusing to connect to the interwebs.

But, after far longer than I had really hoped, the sites are back!!!

I Need a Parrot - the general Xander Harris site, which accepts fic of all genres, ratings, pairings and types (with the sole exception of RPF/RPS)

Hand on Heart - the Buffy/Xander and Buffy&Xander site.

Key to the Heart - the Dawn/Xander and Dawn&Xander site.

Effects of a Troubled Heart - the Faith/Xander and Faith&Xander site.

Daughters of Sineya - the Slayer-centric site.

I'm working on tidying things up a little, but they are up and running and raring to go!!

I Need a Parrot is coming back very soon, I'm just tidying up some things and it'll be ready. In the past, we had four admins to validate stories and ensure the site was running okay and no one was abusing the system.

So here's where I ask for some help. Existing admins? Are you still willing and able to carry on with the task?

Would any one else be willing to be added to admin duty?

You would be required to read all submissions to the site, no matter the category, so that may include pairings you don't particularly like or agree with, genres that cover everything from crack humour, to explicit sex, to extreme violence. Basically anything that someone somewhere has written is accepted on the site (except RPF and RPS). If you feel you could do this, then please comment here - I'll screen comments for the moment - or email me at mara_sho @ livejournal.com

I Need a Parrot is coming back very soon, I'm just tidying up some things and it'll be ready. In the past, we had four admins to validate stories and ensure the site was running okay and no one was abusing the system.

So here's where I ask for some help. Existing admins? Are you still willing and able to carry on with the task?

Would any one else be willing to be added to admin duty?

You would be required to read all submissions to the site, no matter the category, so that may include pairings you don't particularly like or agree with, genres that cover everything from crack humour, to explicit sex, to extreme violence. Basically anything that someone somewhere has written is accepted on the site (except RPF and RPS). If you feel you could do this, then please comment here - I'll screen comments for the moment - or email me at mara_sho @ livejournal.com

Right, to keep people on track with where I'm at right now:

Money donated thus far: $373.02 (after currency conversion and PayPal charges)
Price of hosting package: $382.80* (although I have a referral from an existing user which should mean a discount - even if not I think I can manage the ten dollars)

Now the question - the simplest way to do this would involve a little downtime on the sites. This downtime could be up to two weeks for the registration process of the domain name to go through.

I could on the other hand work out a no/limited downtime schedule using a more complicated system which (since it's me) could be a little more prone to errors which could be corrected quickly.

So - which would you prefer? The sites to go offline completely for up to two weeks (hopefully it would be nowhere near that long in reality) or for the sites to remain online but potentially glitchy?

Either way submissions, reviews and new sign-ups would be switched off for the changeover period so as to ensure that everything is transferred.

*This is for a two-year package