Updates

This is a update of for the General category.

DECEMBER HIATUS

During the month of December, some categories will be going on hiatus. While no categories will be closed, the proccessing of some or all forms will cease during the category’s hiatus.

It is important during this time to check the Category Status page to see which categories are on hiatus and when.

This is a update of for the General category.

We have spent the past few days trying to find a staffer for Webmasters applications/troubles as our current staffer is unable to run it anymore, but unfortunately, for various reasons, we have been unsuccessful. I am therefore asking if anyone who is interested in the position could email me at bonnie@thefanlistings.org with the subject line Webmasters staffer before the end of the month, which gives you four days. I’ll be processing applications on December 1st, so please get your applications in before then. I will need the following information:

Name:
Board Username (if you have one):
Email:
URL(s):
Age:
Why you think you would be a good staffer for Webmasters:
Why you want to be a staffer for Webmasters:
Where did you see this announcement first? (LJ, board, mailing list or main site):
Anything else you think might help:

Thanks! :)

- Bonnie

This is a update of for the General category.

As you can see, The Fanlistings Network is back online! This means that we were allowed access to our data on the old server and it has now been transferred to a brand new server. We were sceptical and didn’t know for sure whether we would regain access but thankfully we did, and everything is back to normal, so feel free to do everything you would usually do.

The big “thank yous” should be directed towards Abby who has been an absolute star by making all the necessary phonecalls and sending all the important emails over the past two weeks, so big kisses go to her. Also thank you to all of the staffers and some of the visitors for helping out with donations – it would’ve been impossible without your help.

It’s good to be back, come and celebrate at the message board!

- The TFL Staff

This is a update of for the General category.

Yesterday, a LiveJournal RSS Feed of TheFanlistings Updates Blog was set up. From now on, all updates will appear there instead of in the LJ community, so be sure to add it to your LiveJournal Friends List if you want to continue to see the Updates on your Friends page. :)

This is a update of for the General category.

We have revamped the rules concerning updating your fanlisting. The new rules read as follows:

• Your fanlisting should be updated at least once every two months. We understand that there are fanlistings that may not get a menber once every two months; however, some kind of life needs to be evident at your fanlisting or people may not join. A little dated note on your site saying that no members have joined is sufficient. If you have to go on an extended hiatus due to illness, family emergencies, or some other unforeseen circumstance, then please alert the staffer of the category your fanlisting is listed under in order to not risk losing your fanlisting.
• It is up to you whether you update your list manually, use a specific program that allows people to join and you approve from an admin panel (like phpFanBase or phpClique), or people are added as soon as they submit their information (Megabook and other guestbook programs). But if you choose to use an auto-add script, you will still be required to perform regular maintenance on your members list. If using an auto-add script, you are required to tidy up your members list at least once every two months. This should include the deletion of duplicate submissions, SPAM or anything offensive and if any members need their information updating, you should do that too. You must then make a note on your main page with the date of the check (including what you did in your check never hurts either).
• Javascript dates are no longer accepted. If you aren’t going to put effort into maintaining your site, is it really showing your “fan-ness”? Javascript dates are dates that pull the date from the viewers computer clock rather than a date that is pulled from your update script or put in manually — these dates only show today’s date according to your computer, and that’s not always the last updated date.

This is a update of for the General category.

We are now looking for volunteers to be permanent trouble checkers! By ‘permanent’ I mean that if selected, you will come on board as a trouble checker for a particular category. Everyone who is chosen will have their contact details stored in an online database. This means that if a category staffer can’t get in touch with their allocated trouble checker for some reason, you may be contacted instead. You can, however, specify categories that don’t interest you so that staffer won’t contact you.

I’m currently gathering information from the staff as to how many trouble checkers will be needed for each category… and it looks like we’re going to need quite a few, so we need your help! Volunteering as a permanent trouble checker will not harm your chances of becoming a category staffer in the future – in fact, it may even prove to be beneficial as you’ll be able to prove how hardworking you are and build up a closer friendship with the rest of the staff.

So without further ado, please visit the regular volunteers page at http://www.thefanlistings.org/volunteers.php for more details. If you’re interested in becoming a permanent trouble checker, you should fill out the Trouble Checkers application form. Please remember to read the requirements carefully and if you have any questions, just let me know. :)

Thanks!

This is a update of for the Adult, General category.

As some of you may know, Amanda recently left the staff. She was a great staffer and we all missed her a lot, but she wasn’t currently running any categories and had just started back at college, so she decided to leave. I spoke to her on AIM and she mentioned that she missed us and that she’d come back on board if there was a job for her.

Later on, I spoke to Dustin and he told me he’d decided to give up the Adult category. I didn’t put two and two together at the time and I immediately put up an announcement for the Adult category without thinking of Amanda and the fact that she might like to run this category as it’s quite small…

I’ve just been speaking to Amanda and she’d really like to come back on the staff and take on this category, so I think it would be fair to let her. She’s always been a fantastic staffer and we never wanted her to leave, so it’ll be great to have her back on board.

I know this must be really disappointing to those of you who applied for the position, but I hope you’ll understand that it makes sense to take on an ex-staffer who is familiar with our way of working. I hope that those of you who applied will add your information to our volunteers database at http://www.thefanlistings.org/volunteers.php and that you’ll be able to become staffers at some point in the future. As I’m sure you’ve aware by now, new staff positions are opening up all the time. :)

Thanks for your understanding, please don’t hate me or Amanda. :/

This is a update of for the General, Relationships: Book/Movie, Relationships: Real Life, Relationships: TV category.

As most of you are aware, the Relationships category had been closed for a long time and our Relationships staffer Anna (known as Anna1) was having a lot of trouble keeping up with it. I can’t blame her, it was huge. :) Well, hopefully you guys will be pleased to know that the category has now been split into three smaller categories.

- Book & Movie Relationships, which will be run by Annah and Holly
- Real Life Relationships, which will be run by DJ
- TV Relationships, which will be run by Brianne and Noelle

We’re hoping that this change will mean that the category is much easier to maintain and that applications can re-open soon for each of the individual categories. We now have five staffers running what used to be the Relationships category – this will hopefully be a big improvement. :)

As the category was so huge to start off with, it was quite a monster to separate all of the fanlistings into the new categories. Real life was easy because they were already separated, but the TV and book & movie ones are difficult. What I did was duplicate the Relationships category (minus the real life fanlistings) and then some of the other staffers and myself went through and deleted the TV relationships from Book & Movie Relationships, and vice versa. I doubt we caught them all though, so there may be some fanlistings still cross-listed which shouldn’t be. If you happen to spot any, please post a reply to this thread on the message board and we’ll remove them!

For future reference, the updates archive for the old Relationships category is now located in the new Book & Movie Relationships updates archive.

I really hope that this will make an improvement to the way the network is run. :) Thank you all for your co-operation!

This is a update of for the Actresses, General category.

We have a new opening on the staff for the Actresses category and I am accepting applications from interested volunteers for the next 48 hours, ie. until 10am GMT on Monday September 8.

If interested, please read through the general requirements for becoming a staffer and then send your application to bonnie@thefanlistings.org (with the subject line ‘Actresses staffer’ please or it will miss my mail filter!) before the date and time shown above. You should include the following:

- Your name
- Your age
- Your URL
- An explanation as to why you would like to be a staffer
- An explanation as to why you think you would make a good staffer
- Any additional information you think may be beneficial to your application

I should probably explain that most of the time, when I’m looking for a new staffer for a particular category, I go through the volunteers list looking for suitable people. When I don’t find anyone who’s interested in a particular category, I tend to put out an announcement like this. A few people on the volunteers list mentioned this catgeory as being a preferred category but I found myself wanting people to apply directly to me so I can see who’s really interested. When I did that for Webmasters and Franchises recently, I received a much wider range of quality applications so I could seek out (with the help of the other staffers) the very best people for the job.

If you’re not interested in the Actresses category but would like to be added to our volunteers database, please fill out the application form and remember to specify which categories you’re interested in!

This is a update of for the General category.

I added a new RSS feed to the site. If you use Newsreaders like Bloglines to stay up to date with your favorite websites, be sure to add http://thefanlistings.org/index.xml to your subscriptions!
Also, Bloglet seems to be working okay again. Apologies for not receiving any updates lately, but things should be working as normal again now! :)

This is a update of for the General category.

I am currently on the lookout for two new staffers to add to our team at The Fanlistings Network, after trying (unsuccessfully) to contact interested applicants from our volunteers database. The categories don’t seem to be very popular with most volunteers so I thought it would make sense to advertise them here, so someone who is genuinely interested in the category subject can have a chance.

One would be taking care of the Franchises category, and would need to be very vigilant as most fanlistings in the category need to be cross-listed with other categories, therefore double approvals can happen if you’re not careful. It’s a relatively small category, currently with just 59 fanlistings.

The second new staffer would be in charge of the Webmasters category, which is quite a bit larger with 653 fanlistings. If you want to take on this challenge you will also need to be vigilant, as there is a fine line between the Websites and the Webmasters category. Great care is needed to make sure nothing is double-approved.

If you are interested in becoming a staffer for one of these categories, please read the general requirements on the volunteers form and then email me (with the subject line ‘Staff Application’) at bonnie@thefanlistings.org stating the category you wish to staff, and exactly why you think you would be a good staffer for that category. Please remember to include your name, your age, your email address and your URL, plus any other information you think may be relevant.

I will process applications on Saturday, August 30th, so please try to get your applications in on or before Friday. Thanks!

This is a update of for the General category.

At request from the visitors and our staffers, I made some slight changes to the Browse Pages.

- The default view for all pages is now to View Current & Upcoming. This is because a lot of people forgot to check Upcoming when looking to apply for a fanlisting, and all staffers had noticed a significant increase in applications for things already on Upcoming. Hopefully this new default view will get rid of this problem.

- An option has been added to View All Fanlistings in one category for most of the browse pages. Implemented this after like, 200 visitors emailed us asking us to please offer this function. Please use it responsibly, as some of these pages might take a very long time to load, and cost us a lot of bandwidth! Also note that this feature is not yet available for categories using browse3.php, which includes categories such as TV Shows and Adult. I am still working on developing this for these categories.

As usual, please let me know if you discover any problems with the new changes!

This is a update of for the General category.

If you’ve sent a message using this form during the past two weeks and have not yet received a response, please re-send it. Something, I don’t know what, has managed to corrupt my Outlook Express, taking all my downloaded email with it. :( I’m very annoyed as I’ve realised there’s no way to restore it, so please, if you haven’t received a response to your GENERAL question/suggestion/comment, please resent it here – however if your questions/suggestion/comment is for an individual staff member, please email them at one of the addresses found on the category status page – thank you.

This is a update of for the Authors/Writers, Directors/Producers, General category.

Just to let everyone know, I will be on holiday until August 11 from tomorrow on. This means no updates for Authors & Writers or Directors & Producers until then, as well as no replies to any emails you send me. :) See you all in 2 weeks!

This is a update of for the General category.

The same system that provided new Browse pages for the simple categories, has now also been implemented for the categories that have subcategories.
I have modified my original script so that there are two versions for the categories with subcategories, to cater for the difference in structure in some categories.
For example, in Albums, all fanlistings are categorized by the Musician, by alphabet. For a category like that, the list of letters and numbers works fine.
But for a category like Anime/Manga, the subcategories work in a different way, so those browse pages have a different set up. Explanations on how to use them properly are provided on all browse pages. For an example of what I mean with the difference in structure, click the category names to go directly to those browse pages. :)

I’ve received a lot of questions as to why we decided to take away the option to view all fanlistings in one category on the same page. The reason for this is that we are trying to lessen our bandwidth and server load. Every time a page with all fanlistings on it loads, several MySQL queries and PHP scripting have to be processed,. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, but with the large amount of visitors we get daily, this takes up a lot of server resources.
The smaller pages (with just the fanlistings starting with the letter you picked) load faster, take up less bandwidth, and are better for our server. This means that the server has more memory available to make the rest of the site load quicker, send out the emails faster, etc.
However, the staff still discussing this point, so we might bring back this option in the future.

This is a update of for the General category.

Recently the Staff has run into the problem of some categories becoming simply too big to handle for one person.
We have been looking into solutions to that for a while, and in the end decided to try a new system where there will be 2 staff members working on some of the larger categories.
This means that one staff member will be dealing with all Applications, Reports and Troubles, and a second staff member will process all Finished, Moved and Closed forms for that category. If you have fanlistings in any of the categories being split up, you may receive emails from the 2 different staffers for it.
Since this is a totally new system, please bear with us as we get used to it. There might be a slight delay in communications for these categories while the staffers confer with each other on certain issues and forward emails to each other. We hope you will understand this, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused. The categories affected by this, along with their new staff members, are:

Movies : Katie and Anna2
Book & Movie Characters : Cathrine and Jo
Musicians : Abby and Summer
Songs : Caroline and Steph

More categories may be switched over to this system in the future. If this is the case, it shall be announced here.
Otherwise, there are no other visible changes for you the visitor, besides possibly receiving emails from 2 staffers instead of 1. The Forms still work the same, as do the Browse pages.
Hopefully, this will ensure speedier approval and processing of forms. :)

This is a update of for the General category.

Did some minor script updates. I optimized the coding on the Troubles and Apply pages, although there is no difference visible for you, except maybe faster-loading pages.

I also finally got around finishing a script I have been working on for months: new Browse pages. The Browse pages will ultimately replace the Upcoming and Current sections. For now, the script only works for categories without subcategories, but I am working on getting it to work with those as well. Here’s how the new Browse pages work:
When you click on a category to see the fanlistings in it, like for example, Movies, you get a start page with some stats on the category, and the usual list of Letters and Numbers. When you click on a letter or number, all Current Fanlistings for that letter or number will be displayed. You then also have the option to switch your view to either Upcoming Fanlistings for that letter, or both Upcoming and Current for that letter. This means that you don’t have to keep switching between Current and Upcoming if you’re trying to find out whether or not a fanlisting is already taken.
However, it also means that you have to click an extra link to view Upcoming fanlistings. So please don’t forget to choose View Upcoming or View Both to really see all fanlistings for a letter or number before applying.
Hope you enjoy the functionality of the new script, and please contact me should you encounter any problems or errors with it!

This is a update of for the General category.

The new TheFanlistings Message Board is now open at http://board.thefanlistings.org/ !!!

As some of you are aware, we’ve had a set of forums over at the lovely Gertie’s domain for some time now, but with the expansion of the network and the move to a new server, we have a bit of extra space and are now able to host our own board, which is now open to the public. :-)

The new board has a dedicated forum for every TFL category, each moderated by the current staffer for that category. Visitors can use the individual category forums to post questions, suggestions, comments and discussion about that particular category. There are also several other forums, namely a suggestions box, a forum for technical support, several forums on fanlistings management and a relatively off-topic forum, for discussing whatever takes your fancy.

All staffers are identified by their ‘official’ fanlistings name, ie. the names you will see over at the main site. All ‘active’ users are listed at the bottom of the main board index page and staffers’ names will be underlined. All staffers are asked to take an active part in the running of the forums and the maintenance of their individual categories.

Enjoy the new message board!

- Bonnie

This is a update of for the General category.

As you can see, the site is back up and running! The DNS servers resolved within 15 hours, so we got the site back up again much sooner than I’d expected. The email forms are all open again, so feel free to start applying and such again as usual. Updates to categories will be made as usual from now on again too.

Because we are now running with new email servers, we do not expect any more problems with our email. If in the past month or so, you applied for a fanlisting, saw updates for that category, but never heard anything back, feel free to email the staff member in question to ask them about it. You might not have received the email we sent out to you. All staff email addresses are listed here.

Thanks to everyone who wished us luck with the move and supported us, we apologize for any inconvenience caused by the downtime. :)

This is a update of for the General category.

An update on our current server troubles:
The problems were caused by us sending and receiving too many emails, which made us hog the mail server (without our knowing). Our current host has asked us to leave, because the site has grown too big for a Shared Hosting Package. We have gotten several offers from our visitors for new hosting, thank you all so much for them, but we have decided to go with Brianne‘s dedicated server. We will be moving the site over later this week. The downtime should be minimum, but the site will not be accesible for several days, just like last time we moved servers. We apologize sincerely for any inconvenience caused, and we aim to have the site back up and running by Sunday.