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I am giving up on Crystal Hall.
I have checked, repeatedly, for months, and there has been nothing posted on that site since last Spring.
It's a shame, since I enjoyed the Whateley universe.
Comments
The Forums
There is a problem with the FTP for the site and none of the authors can access it to make changes to the front page. So the authors have been posting their updates to the author's corner of the forums.
While posting has slowed, there is still some, I think the last chapter released was a few months ago. Some of the authors are very busy on non-whately projects and such so posting is very slow.
Though at least one author is declared their being finished with whately, Babs, which makes me sad, Jade was my favorite character
The canon story wiki page has a fairly updated list of the stories.
Access Lost
No, they lost access to that in April.
John B.
I know what you mean.
I was a huge Whateley fan. But unfortunately... All good things...
In all honesty, though...
The fact they got as far as they did is a rather nice achievement.
Perhaps they could get some new authors to start the next year, and just have them not interact much with the non-active characters.
o.o
*whistles innocently and points to Minerva....*
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I think an Early Years story might be more interesting
Telling the tale of the first students to arrive at the school? Imagine a teenage Miss Champion and so on, versus the beginnings of what would morph into the MCO...
The Whateley universe's biggest problem to me is, believe it or not, the OVER reliance on LGBT interests powering it. More stories focusing on non-LGBT mutants would greatly benefit the universe. I mean, sure, there are a few canon stories that fit that profile -- last time I looked Aquerna wasn't LGBT, as far as I remember -- but it's still a largely unexplored area of the universe.
I've considered doing Whateley fanfic a few times, but the limitations of the universe led me to doing my own superhero setup instead. While I'll miss it (if it does, indeed, disappear) it could be the best thing for many of the canon authors if the stories were to just end, allowing them more time to focus on non-Whateley work (I'm looking at you, Bek and Maggie!)
Melanie E.
That still won't help
That still won't help if all they can access are the Forums.
John B.
Still has new stories
Apart from BC authors like Beyogi, Freya, Sleethr and Landing there are some really good authors writing fanfics, such as Insane Hiker,Isodecan, A-Eadie and plenty more (just mentioned my favourites) it may not be all Canon but there are some brilliant stories. Don't give up before at least checking them out.
Updates
Diane's apparently written more Ayla but is waiting for some other authors to catch up before posting; Bek's currently posting "The Inside Man", a non-Whateley tale written by several canon authors; Starwolf's officially left - possibly due to health reasons, Maggie's officially given up on Nikki (due to flurries of negative comments / feedback), Heather's still officially in but having problems getting motivated - again due to flurries of negative comments / feedback, JG's busy studying so may return, EE's still around but posting infrequently, Dr. Bender's still around but writes very slowly so again posts very infrequently, while Warren's usually too busy with work / real life / running the site to write. Drunkfu tends to concentrate more on art (it's been a while since we had an update to Abyss) while Tensai disappeared soon after the first chapter of their story went live.
Perhaps the biggest sign of Whateley-related life from the Canon is Kristin, who's coordinating the search for "2GCC" - the Second Generation Canon Cabal. Once approved, these would write stories starting in the 2014-15 academic year (i.e. after both TK and any students they'd have met during their time at Whateley have graduated, which minimises the amount of the Canon Bible they need to know).
The FTP problem may have been resolved - at least Piper thinks it has been - but Diane's been very quiet since so has probably been too busy to check it out (Diane's unofficially in charge of updating the front end of the website, including reformatting stories so they look OK up there).
Meanwhile, as comments further up this thread indicate, there are several fanfics under way which are regularly updated (some on a relatively consistent schedule, others as/when).
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Keeping my fingers crossed
Since I don't think the forum updates (btw - great job on that, Piper, Warren) have much to do with the problem, I'm keeping my fingers crossed until I hear from Diane that she has usable write access to the directory that the stories are in.
Xaltatun
It always amazes me.......
When an author stops writing a wonderful series, or drops a wonderful character due to negative feedback.
Is it possible that the unwashed and ignorant few simply speak louder than the rest of us? How anyone could provide negative feedback about a character as wonderful as Nikki really disturbs me - nearly as much as it must have disturbed Maggie in order for her to bail on the entire project.
Maggie - Nikki was a wonderful character. You are an outstanding author, and I truly loved where you were taking the story and the entire universe. I was very, very sorry to see that you had stopped writing about Nikki. One can only hope that you will someday (in the not too distant future) decide to pick back up where you left off.
Should you ever decide to do so, rest assured that you have at least one ardent fan who would be hanging on your every word.
Dallas
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
For some of the readers out
For some of the readers out here, it's that we can't get an account to post on the forums at all.
I tried to register over there and only received a rejection of application email, and no explanation when I inquired why.
That puts a damper on showing appreciation for the efforts of the authors whose works of imagination I have enjoyed reading so much.
Yep
I can't register either, kind of hard to support my favorite authors when I can't find a way to do it.
I'll contact Warren at the
I'll contact Warren at the crystal hall and see if I can find a way for you to contact her. (I don't have her email) She is the one that is in charge of that sort of thing. I know she has been having problems with spam bots and other attacks, so she might have done something that accidentally blocks some people.
I'm aware of the troubles...
I'm aware of the troubles that forums can give. I used to be lead administrator on a forum with over 200k users, and not spambot accounts. It can be anything from spam bots abusing the system to sendmail randomly deciding it doesn't want to play well with others. I know how that works so I'm not too upset when stuff like that happens.
Just annoys me that I can't support my favorite authors. Well, that and it seems that most of my favorite characters are dead in the water :/
I wish.
While I'm not an established community author I've always wanted to tackle something in a good universe, sadly by the time I get the courage to try something the universe I like seems to have died.
I know I can write my own material but I keep feeling the constraints of a good universe would give me *more* room to work with, by taking away the need to come up with all the details myself.
There's been more than a few times over the last few years I've wanted to try writing a whately story, but I've never gotten around to it.
As for 2GCC, it'd be smart of all the initial authors worked to try and make 2 characters mininum, one TG and one not TG, fleshing out the other cottages and giving more incentive for others to join the work, without feeling the need to write a TG character.
Guess I can't complain too much, I've been on this site for years and am only now starting to post my first story.
Authors corner & Fanfic's
I check the forums once in a while atm I'm reading bek's space tramps I believe it's called pretty good so far. I love reading insane hiker's fanfic's he provides so much depth to the chars. A-eide is another great one though he hasn't updated in awhile sadly :'(. I sometimes read other fanfic's that catch my eye landings is good an Sleethr's one is awesome an very detail. Freya's is good also.
Has Cristal Hall
Been archived any where else. I have enjoyed the stories but lack the ability to archive such a wealth of information. I have no Idea how many Terabytes of data that would represent with just Text files.
Or would that be legal. Who owns the content or the site and is this one of the sites BC became the custodian of during the fall of the TG empire. It would be a real shame to louse such great writing.
Huggles
Michele.
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
Site hosting
Crystal Hall is hosted on one of the BCTS / Stardust family of servers, as part of the inheritance from Bob. Piper and co maintain the servers, the Canon Cabal (TINCC) maintain the stories and administer / moderate the forum, while fans maintain the Wiki (with occasional help from the CC. While you're free to download the stories for your own personal use, for obvious reasons, republishing them anywhere else is forbidden.
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
I downloaded the web pages
I downloaded the web pages (for my own personal use) for all the stories as html files and then converted them to mobi so I could read them on my kindle, it was only 28.6 MB for all the canon stories. So it's not that big.
There is also a member on the crystal hall forum that has all the fan fic from before the crash (there's a lot), if your looking for more whateley stories.
There are several people who
There are several people who have commented that they want to join the 2nd gen whateley writing group, I think two or three have sent in submissions. (Kristin has required a number of different writing items be submitted in order to be considered, which will hopefully keep those with more ambition than staying power from joining and then dropping out)here is a link to the submission guidelines if anyone is interested.
I myself am considering trying for the 2nd gen, I have even done almost all of the items that are need to be for the submission. I have a story that is about 20k words and only needs the closing scene. (which is why I haven't updated my story here in a while) But I'm not sure if I can still commit to the project with any kind of speed of delivery with everything in my life right now, so we will see what happens with that. If I don't try for the project I'll post the story on here as a fan fic, I think it's pretty good, at least I enjoyed writing it.
Yeah, and it's sad that some people feel the need to abuse authors who give them free entertainment. (there have even been people who have said that since they put in the effort to read it it wasn't free and the author owed them something. Yes, I know, it makes no sense) When I first joined the crystal hall forum there were a number of people who would rip into authors when they didn't like the story. (and they didn't seem to like any of the stories strangely enough) terms like 'merry sue' and 'hack writer' were thrown around freely by these people. Thankfully most of them seem to have left because of this dry spell. We should all give Erin and co a big thank you for keeping that kind of stuff from happening here, I just wish that the canon authors on the crystal hall forum would have used the same proactive approach when people first started being asshats. Maybe authors wouldn't have left if that had happened.
Oh, and thanks guys for mentioning my little story as being nice. :)