I'd like to wish a happy birthday to everyone who has one this month. I don't know most of you on this site and I may never, but that doesn't make me hope you have a wonderful and special day, whether by yourself, with close friends and family, or with your dozens of friends and well-wishers -- however you choose to celebrate your existence.

If you typically do not have the time to do anything for yourself, do so this day. Everyone deserves a present and some time to yourself.

And because I have your names, a special, more personal happy birthday to these forumers, current and old, wherever you are. Even if you never read this.

Rokan
MooncheeseSundae
Ember
Lorddane
Star
forchukukee
MangaMaster
Juggy
Flame0f_Ice
BakaBokken

I didn't even realize that I wasn't posting here. Honestly. I remember typing posts in Microsoft Word (product placement) a couple of times but now that I look here, I never posted them. How did I manage that? I have no idea. Worse yet, I can't find those posts, either. Too, I just realized that there were some comments on the previous entry that needed to be approved because I accidentally made them require moderation. Unfortunately, all but one were spammy. Thank you to that poster! It's good to know someone cares. <3

There is, incidentally, quite little news and no true topic to this post. I did, however, feel the need to say something.

I'd like to wish belated birthdays to every member of this site we've missed over the months we've neglected to post birthday wishes. I will start that again soon, at the end of this month. In the meantime, happy birthday to all members, old and new, whether they are still here or not.

-- The News Source

For More Information: Nothing!

It's a new year, and a new year always means change. With the economy in trouble, people try to save money and industries ask for bail outs -- perhaps this should be the same with fandom? It appears that fandom activity has been slowly decreasing, not just here at MM.o but all over these great interwebs. To my loyal readers-but-not-commenters, I ask you to take action! Give us all the bail-out we need! Follow our google ads, upload your fiction and art, read the fantastic work of your peers, and visit our forums. Those folks on the forums are nice and welcoming -- we have RP forums that are always ready for new players and new games.

I'm sure I speak for the site as a whole when I extend as many thanks as possible to those who make archives like these such entertaining places, those who have the confidence to upload their fanworks, and those who leave reviews whether to simply encourage or to help their peers improve.

On a true news note, I have been informed by the administration that there will be some sweeping of the archives for rules violators. Make sure you read and follow our upload guidelines!

Until next time, I am as always your loyal source.

The News Source

Forgetting to use his own stylized format since November, 2008

Yes, it is that time. What time, you may ask? The time for this source to return from obscurity to ... lesser obscurity. Yes. For this source's glorious return to the newswire, perhaps you may expect some knd of grand update? Some great news that will grip you and show no mercy?

Not really, no. This source is, however, proud to announce that we should, theoretically speaking, have two bloggers to blog about site happens, real life relevancies, and other thoughts that strike us about Mediaminer instead of the one we had previously with both this source and my correspondent. We hope this goes well. We also hope to inject more vitality into the site.

So ends this nonupdate; this source bids you all adieu. Another entry shall come in the near future, so look for it!

To follow up on our esteemed Lady Macbeth's post.

When you see a rule violation, instead of reviewing the piece and simply informing the violator of the problem, hit that "Alert Webmaster" button. This should especially be done in major cases such as plagiarism. Please don't review them and tell them they have plagiarized. They know this already! Well, I suppose you could leave an informative review for other readers but certainly do not bash these poor people. They deserve our pity and the moderators' iron fists, not shameless flames. Certainly do not sick the poodles on them; seriously, don't do this. I have witnessed poodles being banned along with the plagiarists because turning review boards into flame wars is also a major rule violation.

Next time, when you see a violation, please just hit "Alert Webmaster." The site can take care of the offending piece much sooner and more easily that way. While the moderators do patrol new uploads, it is time consuming and sometimes they may not always be available to catch everything. Help the moderators!

I assure you they'll do everything they can to take down plagiarized material and ban the offender. Alert Webmaster will put it in a queue for their review and eventual removal, so it makes sure that the moderators are aware of the problem and can tackle it as soon as possible. It's win-win for that 5 seconds of time it takes for you, our fiction readers and art appreciators.

Thank you all in advance.

Hi, everyone!

I'm just popping in with some information about e-mailing the administrator or moderators with questions or concerns you have. Most people have noticed when you receive a notification from the site, such as for an updated fic, a favorite author, or that one of your works has been disabled or deleted, that the bottom of the e-mail says, "PS. Please do not reply to this message."

This is because those e-mails are automatically generated by the site in response to either upload activity or moderator activity. The "webmaster@mediaminer.org" account is not regularly monitored because it receives literally tens of thousands of spam messages each month. This means hundreds of messages per day, most of which are junk. Sometimes the administrator who cleans out that box will notice genuine messages from members right away, but often the messages can be mistaken for junk and missed entirely, or they may go for weeks before they are noticed.

If you have a question or concern about something on the site, there are a few ways to contact the staff. The first way is to pay attention to any e-mails you do receive, even if they are automatically generated. The moderators are required to enter a reason for any disables, deletions or bans that take place - these reasons show up in the automatically generated e-mail, and should answer many of your questions about why something took place.

If you want to respond to an author for a new upload or a reviewer for a new review, please go to that person's account and use the e-mail link provided in their profile. This will allow you to send an e-mail directly to the author; they will not receive any messages that are sent in reply to the automatically generated e-mail.

If you have been e-mailed personally by one of the moderators (in such cases, the moderator or moderators involved will sign their name on the bottom of the e-mail), please reply directly to that moderator. Such e-mails are usually sent directly from the moderator's own account, and thus have their e-mail address in the header. If not, you can look them up on the forum and use the e-mail link provided there. NOTE: E-mailing whichever moderator has last posted news to the front page is not always the most ideal option. Sometimes, for general questions, that moderator may be able to help. However, if it is in reference to a specific situation, that moderator may not have been the one involved in handling your case, and it could take them up to a few days to contact the others and find out who to pass the message on to.

If you are completely uncertain who to contact, you can always post in the Website Feedback forum to ask for help. All of the site and forum moderators are able to see that forum, and anyone who is available and able to help you with your questions will be able to help you there.

I hope this helped some of you out! Thanks for reading!

Mediaminer will be making another appearance at Anime Iowa this year. Several of our more prominent forum members are going and if last year's con was any indication, there will be many more readers and authors from this site present. I will be doing my best to make it this year and I also encourage everyone else to look into the possibility. Even if you're not from the United States! Of course, I know how expensive that would be, but isn't this site, your family, worth it? Maybe not but still; if you can make it, please do! Fanilia, our beloved admin, will be there again, certainly, and she alone is worth the trip, I promise.

Though I lack solid information currently, there may be a table or two up in Artist's Alley. If I'm not mistaken, one for a site member and another for the site itself, hopefully.

So, get a table! Submit a panel! Cosplay! Or just come for the fun and friends.

Check out the thread for AI on our forums, as well. Post ideas, find out who's going, and stay updated. The AI forums are also a good choice to find others who are going and may arrange a carpool in your area. Neat! Too bad I'm too far away for driving there.

That's right, the deadline for the contest has finally passed. I hear there are many last minute entries and several of the categories filled rather quickly in the last 48 hours. I entered myself, though I have little confidence in my ability to win. I know for a fact who some of the entrants are and I know some of them, who are far better writers than I, are in the same categories as me. Hopefully the judges think better of my writing than I apparently do.

Good luck to all the entrants, and to the judges who have to sift through good and bad fiction alike to find the best three. Having judged before, I know how hard it can be to fit your top five picks into three places. There are just always so many good entries!

Being rather anonymous, I feel that I can tell you I am a judge this year, though for what categories I will not say in case someone can, in fact, guess my identity. (plus, you'd know for a fact who I am once the contest is over.) One of mine is already judged and was rather easy, being small, but my second is rather large and will take some time. I know already that there are at least a half dozen fantastic entries and I don't look forward to deciding which of them just aren't good enough when they actually are. It's a tough job.

Also, it nearing the end of the year for many university students here in US (and, I imagine, many other countries), so I wish to say congratulations on the end of another semester/quarter/etc.; and to all those who are graduating, I wish you the best in your lives.

It has just been filled! By me, of course. Unfortunately, The News Source is without the ability to enjoy the internet, so he or she wanted to get another person on the news team and here I am, the News Correspondent.

Unfortunately, even with the long news absence, there haven't been many developments. The Max Challenge contest is almost over; you have another week to enter and then that's it! The organizers of the contest have been posting entry totals in the contest discussion thread and they're fairly low, so if you were planning not to enter because you don't think you have a chance, do so anyway! Statistically speaking, you have a good chance of placing in many of the categories. I don't have the same sources TNS does, so I couldn't tell you which categories lack quality entries, so I'll just assume they're all about B quality. If you can get B-quality, submit! Hell, if you have C quality, you should; I might be very wrong.

Remember, you only have until the fifteenth of this month to enter, so time is quickly running out. Submission doesn't take long, just five or ten minutes, tops. You can enter any finished fic on your account, no matter when it was finished, or you can enter any work in progress over 10,000 words and has been worked on in the past year. So hop to it! Have some confidence in your art; the best entries frequently come from people who are hesitant to find their fics good enough for the contest.

That's all for me, your News Correspondent.

Now, most people in the collective of tubes that is the interweb would post some kind of prank to make you into a fool, an April Fool, to coin a phrase. In the interest of serious, professional, and unbiased journalism, this source will do no such thing to his loyal readers.

Events happening on MM.o this month include the end of another mini writing contest and the voting therefor. Another contest is coming up, as well, and the Max Challenge contest is entering its third month. I'm stoked, honestly. The new contest is one that I will actually be entering and I hope you see you all there. Also, vote for the winner of March's vignette contest.

Along with the new contest, a new rule has been instituted here on the site. I've been informed by the administration that we are closing the Inuyasha section temporarily. Unfortunately, the 16,000+ fictions are too much of a strain on the servers and no more will be accepted for it until we purge 8,000 stories from the collection. You will find a better explanation by our very own Chibi Halo here on the forums.

- The News Source

For more information: March Voting, April Contest, Max Challenge, Unfortunate Circumstances

Oh, yes, the first drabble contest has come to a close for entries and voting is this week. This is good times. I, myself, have already cast my vote on a lovely little piece entitled [This Title Was Never Inserted For Fairness] and it is going to win, I just know it.

On a similar note, the second drabble contest is now up and running. It's a delightful theme with many possibilities and the word count has risen to a good vignette size.

-- The News Source

For more information: The Judging Poll for February, and The Contest for March.

Never let it be said that this source is not a journalist of some varying caliber.

The president of the CCG, Canon Characters' Guild, Ranma Saotome released a statement today that he has heard disturbing rumors that authors are not recognizing the brilliant performances their characters are giving. "We give our very heart and souls to these performances and we deserve a little credit. I mean, I'm a guy and I think I do a damn good job of playing a girl when the script calls for it."

Another spokesperson for the CCG had this to say. "I know Naruto can be a doofus and a moron but he's a pretty good actor. But no one can beat my Sasuke-kun! So it's really not fair that no one is recognizing the hard [work] we do!" said CCG Vice-President Sakura Haruno.

We attempted to reach our sources inside the Max Challenge committee who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity. "It's true that the character driven categories haven't been getting as many entries as we would like to see. But it isn't the fault of the administration. The authors have to nominate their characters for this prestigious award."

When asked to theorize why authors aren't nominating their characters, my source had this to say: "I think it's because they are relatively new categories and I don't think they realize that the winner of Best Character overall gets a pretty nifty prize."

Best Character is, in this source's (not that source's) opinion, the second best thing to winning Best of the Best. There are six character driven categories and I, personally, am looking forward to reading the winners (and runners-up) to The Big Bad, Quotable Quotes, and My Buddy and Me.

- The News Source

For More Information: The Most Popular Link to the Most Popular Max Challenge Contest on the Internet.

The Max Challenge contest has been going for quite some time now. Entries are coming in and the time between now and judging has been filled in with drabble contests. It is my suggestion that everyone on the site enters this contest. The judging is to be done democratically, so unfortunately, there are no judges to overwhelm with entries. Yes, this source is easily amused. This month's contest has already has several entries and I have read them. There are some excellent examples and I encourage everyone to write for it!

Now, I suppose I should take this time to apologize for yet another absence. I have excuses. Many excuses! Rest assured that this source is doing everything within his power to update you on the latest, hottest, sexiest happenings on the site and forums. The drabble contest is one such happening that has grabbed me in its powerful arms and has left me enthralled. I should be entering (or have I already?!) and I wish the best of luck to everyone else!

Well, that's all for me. This is your news source signing out.

- The News Source

For more information: The Max Challenge February Drabble Contest

Well, it certainly has been awhile since I've posted anything. Reason being, I've been sick. From the flu to consuming raw chicken, I've faced a lot. As for news? Yes, you better believe I have some. I have lots. It's just that none of it is relevant. The site is doing wonderfully, says the administration. They would never lie to me, not their beloved News Pet. Or maybe they wouldn't lie to you, the loyal users. We love our users. Yes, we do!

The Max Challenge contest has begun, much to my excitement. I hear entries are already coming in. I would so dearly love to enter but alas, my fiction fails to reach contest standards (and by that, I mean being finished OR being above 10,000 words). All the same, the newsroom is abuzz with internal speculation. I would know, being the only member of the news team.

Good luck to all entrants, though! I anticipate further updates on the contest should the judges allow me the pleasure of an interview. And then I shall pass the learnings on to you, my loyal readers--you do exist, I know you do!

- The News Source

For more information: The same links as before!

THIS JUST IN!

We have received reports that the Contest Fielding Team has been having to turn away too many entries for lacking a proper disclaimer! Disclaimers are necessary according to archive guidelines and contest rules, so I beseech you all: include a disclaimer that credits the creator of your fandom!

With the coming of this site's third Max Challenge Fiction Contest, this source is most pleased. The contest categories appear to have improved, having the addition of character categories which do add a somewhat new dimension to what we've had the past two years (and the previous ones with the old BAFC). Now, this source's main hope is that users will embrace the Unsung Titles category. This site has far too many "hidden" fandoms; you know, the ones that you know exist but somehow haven't come out of the shadows on this site. Come on, guys, this source has seen you on a variety of other sites! Come here, now. We love you. We miss you.

Of course, I'm also of the opinion that the Romance category needs to have fewer entries than normal. I think the creators of the contest foresaw this opinion, adding in category The Ones Left Behind. Kudos from this source to them. My supernatural, psychic influence seems to have done its job well.

- The News Source

For more information: The main contest thread on the Forums and the contest timeline