Updates

This is a update of for the General category.

Hi,

We’d like to take this time to remind you of our upcoming limits. You are only allowed a maximum of 20 fanlistings on upcoming network wide at a time. In addition to this, you may not have more than 6 fanlistings on upcoming in a single category. We all love applying for things that we enjoy, but please remember to keep an eye on your upcoming list and limit your applications accordingly.

If you have fanlistings that have been completed and the finished forms have not been processed yet, please include that information with your applications – including the finished URLs so we can see that they are in fact finished.

This is a update of for the General category.

We are pleased to announce the addition of the TFL Twitter account! All category updates and network news will be posted to Twitter. You’re welcome to follow us @thefanlistings!

This is a update of for the General category.

Due to a small hiccup that occurred while we were moving to a new server, you may need to re-submit any applications you filled out on September 13, 2009. If you’d like to make sure your application was received or not before re-submitting, you can always ask in the appropriate category forum or feel free to ask the applications staffer using the contact form. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

This is a update of for the General category.

On the 11th of September TFL will be moving to a new server. Just to be on the safe side, we are closing down the forms from the 8th to the 13th (US EST), to be sure nothing goes missing while we change over. Sorry for any inconvenience, but best to be safe than sorry!

We are making this move, not due to problems with our current server, but because it is part of a cheaper plan ($50 less!) and will help TFL stay afloat.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding.

This is a update of for the General category.

We would like to inform you of a slight change to our rules, regarding updating your fanlistings. The rules now state the following:

You must post your fanlisting updates on the actual fanlisting. You may keep your updates on a separate page or on a separate site, but not exclusively.

As always, if you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact the Senior Staff using either our contact forms or the forums.

This is a announcement update of rules for the General category.

After a few problems regarding rules that are not actually listed on the rules pages (we announced them, but never updated our own rules page!), we have updated the TFL rules to include these. Nothing listed below is new, it is merely clarification, or additions of already announced changes.

Under the current rule: “Take care of and update your fanlisting”, we have added:

“Owners should respect the wishes of their members, including edits to their information. This includes spam-protecting, or even hiding members e-mail addresses and updating other information such as name, country and URLs.”

Under the current rules about having HTML and graphics experience we have clarified:

“Provide an existing URL that displays your ability with both of these aspects when you apply. This URL must be your own work. You may use pre-made layouts or another persons work on the final fanlisting, but to apply you must present your own work.”

We have added the current rule about the limits for upcoming fanlistings (6 in any one category and 20 across the Network)

We have merged the rules about where subjects go to say:

“- Everything that is related to animation, games or sports entertainment belongs in those categories.
- All anime and manga subjects belong at the Anime Fanlistings Network.
- Audio dramas and novels based on anime/manga related subjects belong in the Album and Literature categories here at TFL”

This is a update of for the General category.

The Senior Staff would like to take the time to remind our visitors that it is every owner’s responsibility to care for their own fanlistings and to be familiar with the rules of the network. You may find it helpful to periodically reread the network rules and policies.

We would also like to remind everyone of our three strikes rule for neglect, which states the following:

After having been on the troubles list twice for either: a) lack of updating; or b) members list neglect, a fanlisting found to be neglected for the third time may be removed from the network if the troubles staffer in charge deems it appropriate and a senior staffer confirms that the removal can go ahead. This does not apply to other troubles issues, such as dead links, incorrect links to TFL, or unfair rules. You will receive a personalised email if your fanlisting is removed for repeated neglect. We do not expect removals of this nature to occur on a regular basis.

In addition, it has always been the policy of the network to never disclose any information from our database. The information stored there is for the benefit of our staffers in performing their job at the network. It is the responsibility of the fanlisting owners to keep track of information pertaining to their own fanlistings, including ownership details and troubles records. To find out what fanlistings you have under various e-mails, you can use the Your FLs form.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please do not hestitate to contact the Senior Staff, either through our contact forms or by using the TFL forums.

This is a update of for the General category.

We hope you’re all having a wonderful 2009 so far!

Starting today, we are running our semi-annual donation drive. Since the network has grown in size, these donation drives have ensured the TFL Network a place on the Internet with our web hosting provider, Beachcomber. We’ve been doing great for a few years, but at the moment we need some help. We have just enough to pay for our server bill for the upcoming month. If you’ve been considering donating to TFL, now is the time to do it! The donation drives is to ensure that the Senior Staff isn’t funding the Network out of our own pockets. We love you guys, we truly do – but we’re not made out of money! We’ve got a few options for those of you that are able to help out, with a few perks to say thanks! wink3.gif

At the moment, we offer a variety of “web goodies” for our donators. The donation package for any amount allows private messaging on the board with fellow donators, staff members and Senior Staff. Along with this really useful privilege, anyone who makes a donation to TFL will receive a zip package of useful web resources – brushes and textures, even wallpapers to decorate your computer and show your support for TFL!

Of course, there are other ways to help out TFL. As many of you know, we also have a banner rotation available for you to advertise your fanlistings, collectives, fansites, etc. We are now offering a discounted rate for our banner rotation – you can now sign up for the price of $5 for 2 months, per site! It’s currently $5 per month, so you’re getting 2 for 1! We’ve also installed a new banner rotation script, which will allow two banners to be shown at a time on the site.

For those of you that can’t donate, but need to buy something from Amazon.com, you can also make Amazon purchases by clicking on the link on the TFL website. By purchasing through the TFL link, you’ll be giving TFL a few extra bucks through our referral program, without costing you any extra money!

And finally, while we’re here, we’d also like to announce our revamp of our awards section! Our site designer, Emma-Jane, has kindly donated new awards that match the TFL website. They are now sized at 150×50, and you will be able to choose from 7 different colors!

As always, we encourage donations both big and small and we appreciate everything that our wonderful visitors have contributed over the years. (However, please keep in mind that Paypal charges us fees, therefore donations LESS than $1 are generally eaten up entirely by those fees.)

We appreciate everything the visitors put into the Network and we are incredibly grateful for your continuing contributions.

This is a update of for the Advertising/TV Channels, Computer Miscellany and Internet, General, Personalities, TV Shows category.

After much discussion, we have decided to break up the Radio category. Because Radio was always a tiny category, it was decided that we could fit the fanlistings in it elsewhere. The changes are as follows:

Personalities into Personalities (Radio Subcat: Personalities)
Podcasts into Computer Miscellany and Internet (Radio Subcat: Podcasts)
Shows/Programmes into TV Shows (Radio Subcat: Radio Shows)
Stations into Advertising/TV Channels (Radio Subcat: Channels)

From now on, please apply for these fanlistings in their new appropriate categories. If you have any questions about this change, please e-mail either the Senior Staff or the appropriate category staffers. :)

This is a announcement update of lots of things! for the General category.

We hope that everyone has had a safe and happy holiday season! Unfortunately, we were all off celebrating ;) so forgot to announce the troubles hiatus over this period…but we’ve been on one! From the 21st of December to the 4th of January no fanlistings were troubled, so all of us could have a more relaxing break. So, this is just a reminder that the hiatus will be over from the 4th of January.

We’d also like to ask for a hand! We’d like to ask fanlisting owners to please use the words “The Fanlistings Network” when using text links to our site, instead of “TFL” or “TFL.org”. By using the words “The Fanlistings Network”, you are helping to boost our rating at Google and various other sites, which means we get more support on our advertising exchange, which helps keep the site running. Of course, this is absolutely not a requirement, nor are we going to implement a rule about this. We’re only asking for your help, if you can spare it. :)

This is a swash-bucklin' update of fun on the seven seas for the General category.

Today’s th’ tide! Th’ 21st booty be posted, an’ ’tis time t’ show us what yer plunderin’ skills be made of! Once ye’ve found all yer bountiful booty, post a reply t’ this thread an’ await yer fate. All replies be screened, so get yer cheatin’ heart elsewhere if that’s th’ way yer goin’ t’ be.

We be takin’ answers until 8pm EST (GMT -5) on 21 September, so dasn’t be dilly-dallyin’ – thar’s treaaye t’ be won!

(No idea what’s going on? Click here!)

This is a swash-bucklin' update of fun on the seven seas for the General category.

Ahoy! buckos! Talk like a Pirate Day be comin’ up and t’ celebrate we’re sendin’ you all on a treaaye hunt!

Peppered around t’ site be 21 hidden treaures and jewels any pirate needs in their piratin’ life and it be your job as a member o’ our great ship t’ find these treaayes for pirate fame and fortune. 20 o’ t’ treaayes be currently on t’ site, and t’ final treaaye will wash up on our shores on t’ final day o’ t’ hunt*. Keep your eaye open. You must find t’ final treaaye t’ get your name in t’ history books as one o’ t’ most fearsome pirates ever on t’ dread ship TFL.

In plain English:
To celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day TheFanlistings.org is hosting a pirate-themed treasure hunt starting 17 September and ending 21 September 2008.

Hidden around the site are 21 “treasures” for you to find. Each treasure is related to the pirate theme of our hunt. You must collect as many treasures as possible over the course of the hunt.

The Prizes
Apart from the bragging rights you earn by being a pirate for a day (or the weekend to be more accurate) every person who participates in the hunt will receive an e-certificate noting their treasure hunting success and an entry into the draw to win 1 month of advertising on our bannerrotation.

Those who find all the 21 treasures will receive an entry into a separate draw with the prize being 6 months of free advertising on the banner rotation.

Sign Me Up!
Singing up is easy because there is no sign up! Search the site, hunt for our treasures and carefully record where you find each. When you are done simply copy and paste your answers into our entry thread (all replies are hidden once posted) along with your TFL email address and that’s it! Easy!

To enter the hunt you must be a member of our message board. To be eligible for entry into the prize draws you must have at least onefanlisting listed in our database.

New requests for membership will be approved promptly and you can still hunt for treasures while your application is being processed. If you wish to sign up to join in the fun we must receive your membership request by no later thanSaturday 20 September. No membership requests will be processed on the final day of competition.

I’ve found me some treasures, now what?
Once you have found a treasure you need to record the following:

1. The address (URL) of the page you found it on
2. What the treasure is.

Example:

Treasure 1
a. http://www.thefanlistings.org/rules.php
b. A link to the Talk Like a Pirate website

An easy way to do this is to use the template above and record your findings in a text editor so you can keep track of them! Then, once the submission thread goes up on 19 September, copy and paste your answers into a new reply! (All new replies will be hidden until after the contest is over – if you want to cheat like the pirate you are, you’re going to have to try harder than that!).

What are the rules?

1. You must be a member of the board to participate.
2. You must have a currently-listed fanlisting to be eligible for the prize draws.
3. Entries must be received by no later than 8.00pm (GMT -5) on Sunday 21 September, 2008.
4. No cheating!
5. Okay, you can cheat a little bit. Who are we kidding? We’re pirates!

Where will the treasures be hidden?
We can’t tell you that! What we can tell you is where the treasures WON’T be. You won’t find any of the first 20 treasures on the message board or the updates blog.

Until Friday, that is. Then all bets are off as the 21st treasure washes ashore.

This is a update of for the General category.

Hi all,
It’s time for a TFL Trouble Checker drive :) If you are interested in becoming a Trouble Checker here are TFL, please go to this page, read the details and fill out the form.

If you have sent in an application before, we still have your application on file. If you need to update your old application, please e-mail Emma-Jane at emma-jane@thefanlistings.org, and I will send you a copy of what we have in the database so you can make changes (including adding categories etc). Please do contact us if you are uncertain if your information is up-to-date, as Emma-Jane will be pruning the list soon and deleting applications with outdated information (this also goes for current TCers!)

This is a update of for the General category.

We would like to make improvements to our current backend and are looking for several people to join our new Development team. We have a range of projects in mind, both small and large, and need an enthusiastic group of people to help us out.

The current backend allows our staffers to input and manage the 30,000+ fanlistings currently listed at TFL. While it does what we need, it is rather clunky and means staffers spend a lot of time doing tedious jobs. Our plan is to improve the backend to make things more efficient for the staff. To do this, we need coders to take parts of the backend and make them better.

We are specifically looking for people with some experience in coding and script management. This can either be professionally or personally. Most of these projects will involve working on your own, but there will be a team of Developers, so there is definitely room for collaboration.

If you are interested, please e-mail the senior staff at seniorstaff@thefanlistings.org and we will send you more information, including details of some of the potential projects so you can decide if you’d like to apply to join the team.

This is a announcement update of troubles e-mails for the General category.

This is a reminder for all fanlisting owners about an issue we have noticed in regards to our troubles e-mails. We have had many owners be put on troubles for not updating member information when they have sent requests via e-mail and not by fanlisting scripts. Problems such as if you use a script and it is broken or does not work properly (such as the reset password function in Enthusiast), members may be unable to update their information, and therefore must contact owners directly through email. Please remember to check any e-mails you may have that may be members requesting their information changed.

We also want to remind fanlisting owners to make sure your e-mail address listed here at TFL is up-to-date. We deal with this issue often, as owners want to know why their fanlisting is on troubles, and have never received troubles emails. We always send two troubles warnings to owners and do our best to help owners keep their fanlistings listed here at TFL. However, it is an owners responsibility to keep their information current. Please make sure your information is up-to-date and listed correctly.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact the senior staff.

This is a update of for the General category.

Just a warning that TFL may have errors or be inaccessible for the next hour or so. We are making some slight changes which will cause some problems. These should be resolved quickly, so don’t worry :)

This is a announcement update of security issues for the General category.

We are issuing a general announcement/warning to our visitors about a former staff and community member. This is a follow-up from a previous announcement we made in November 2006. We are posting this as a reminder to our visitors, and also to inform those that may be new to the Network.

Since that announcement, Kim (Kimberly) has continued to try and re-access the Network by imitating other community members and creating fake accounts. Some of the false names she has used have been: Adie, Aella, Adele, C.Shelly, Desta, Ella, Jaide and Juliet.

As we said in the previous announcement, we get no pleasure in needing to do this. However, Kimberly has continued to use sneaky tactics to try and get around her ban. She has approached several community members and tried to use them, thus we feel we need to warn you. If you find any newer members to the community to be suspicious, please contact us immediately so we can investigate. We will, of course, keep your suspicions between the Senior Staff only so it is essentially a “secret witness” report.

Please do not share your passwords, please make sure that they are secure (use varying numbers, symbols and varying caps) and hard to guess. Change them regularly. And please, if you are approached by anyone asking for your password information, or for unusual favors regarding the network, please contact the senior staff immediately.

If you have any concerns or questions regarding this announcement, please e-mail the senior staff, or any individual member of the senior staff :)

This is a announcement update of staffing drive for the General category.

It’s time for a TFL Volunteer Staffer Drive :) If you are interested in becoming part of TFL’s category staff team, then please fill out the staff volunteer form located here.

We are especially on the look out for new staffers for the Objects and Toys/Collectibles categories, if you are interested in either of these, please submit a volunteer form, or if you are already on our database, update your application by contacting Adia and I will send you a copy of what we have in the database so you can make changes (including adding categories etc).

So, if you’re interested in joining the category staff, please consider filling out the volunteer form over here Feel free to list as many categories or positions as you are interested in staffing :)

This is a update of for the General category.

Another fanlistings-filled year is coming to a close, and we’d like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy holiday and wonderful new year from the TFL staff! 2007 has, as always, been very busy and we appreciate your continued support – especially with the e-mail client problems we had in the middle of this year.

We hope 2008 will be a good year for all of you, and we’ll continue seeing you on our boards, applying for and building awesome fanlistings. Have a festive holiday season and a good new year! :)

This is a announcement update of rules edit for the General category.

We have made a slight edit to our rules pages to clarify that members joining a fanlisting are allowed to request that their e-mail address be hidden from public view. Our rules already do state that an owner must edit a person’s required information (e-mail, country) when requested, and we feel this covers the process of hiding e-mail addresses where requested as well, which was not clear in the previous rule. Most fanlisting management scripts have this option, so this shouldn’t be a problem. Manually-run fanlistings should comply if members do request their address hidden.

The section of our requirements for fanlisting owners now reads:

Updates should include any pending members or updating a members information if requested. Members may request that their name; e-mail address (including hiding an e-mail address from public view) and/or country is changed and this should be done within two months of being requested.

If you have any questions, please contact the senior staff or ask on our forums :)