After considerable discussion by the moderators over the last two months, we've changed one rule and added two new ones to the site's Rules page.

Revised:
Given that both rules dealt with the content of stories posted on this site, Rules #4 and #5 have been merged down into just one rule, now Rule #4.

New:
5. Users are not permitted to open multiple accounts. All stories and reviews must be posted under the same pen name.

18. While we recognize that not everyone will like every story written on this site, please conduct yourself with some degree of decorum if you choose to review a story that you do not like. While constructive criticism is welcome and even encouraged, ad hominem attacks and other unconstructive negativity are not permitted.

While I imagine most of you will find it rather ironic that I'm posting the addition of Rule #18, I'd like to point out that until now there's been no actual rule against it. At one point, Jinni mentioned a distaste for it and we've tried to keep things to a dull roar here just for site unity, but it's never actually been against the rules to leave a flame for any given story. We've only acted when a continuous pattern of abusive behavior have made it clear that a reader (or author) needs to rethink how they act if they wish to continue being a part of this community. Now it's a rule. And we'll be enforcing it.

If you currently do violate #5 for any reason (and we've been given several by different authors in the last two months as we uncover them), please contact us to have your multiple accounts merged.

The Wishlist 2011
A multi-fandom Christmas Fanfiction Fest.
Now open for sign-ups!

What is the Wishlist?

The Wishlist is something that started very small and simple three years ago. The premise was simply to write twenty-four ficlets in response to twenty-four prompts, posted between 1 Dec and 24 Dec. Fandom gifts, if you will. Since then it's grown and changed a bit.

How does it work? (In less than ten sentences.)

If you're a writer or artist who wants to have some fun before Christmas, you can sign up for a full Wishlist (24 prompts), or half a Wishlist (12 prompts), or even a quarter Wishlist (6 prompts). By signing up, you agree to accept a number of prompts for fanfiction or fanart from your fans and try and fill them all through December, one small gift a day.

The community was more or less started accidentally and it's meant to be fun. So we'd appreciate it if you'd take a look and even if you don't sign up, stick around because an author you like might play and ask for prompts. Also, pimping greatly appreciated.

This is where you can find details of how it works and what you're signing up for.

And this way to the Sign Up Post.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me.

Whatever you do, have fun!

Many email providers are bouncing our notification messages at the moment due to a DNS server crash at our ISP. Email messages sent from the site / forums may be delayed or not delivered at all.

UPDATE: This issue is now resolved and mail should be delivered normally.

Once again it's almost that time.

The annual August Fic-A-Day Challenge over at Twisted Shorts is about to start.

The Rules:

1. Write one fic per day during August. Stories should be BtVS/Angel Crossovers of any rating with any fandom, minimum 300 words, maximum 3000 words.
2. Entries must be posted in the Twisted Shorts Livejournal to be counted.
3. Post more than one a day if you want, but only one fic per 24 hours counts toward the challenge. Backdating fics are not allowed for getting a fic to count within a 24 hour period.
4. There's no 'miss a day and you're out'. If you can't post one day that doesn't mean you're out of the running. Keep posting when you get a chance.
5. Winners will be decided by who has posted on the most days during the month. I.E. If Author A posts 28 fics on 28 days, Author B posts 31 fics on 31 days, and Author C posts 35 fics on 25 days, then Author B wins.
6. Regular posting rules apply: proper header, fic behind cut, adult rated fic comm-locked, disclaimer, etc.
7. Have fun :)

7/27/11 Update: Due to the recent/ongoing attacks on Livejournal, the ability to access Twisted Shorts is intermittent at best, and therefore we're amending the rules to allow for fics posted directly to TtH to be counted. All fics posted to TtH directly must be listed as responses to the official challenge here so they can be tracked. Private reviews will be left on participating stories at TtH to acknowledge their count in the daily challenge. Note: you can post each story as one chapter of a ficlet collection 'story' or post stories separately as you feel is most appropriate.

8/1/11 Update: Quick clarification since there has been some confusion. The challenge is being run out of the Twisted Shorts Livejournal community. Posting to Twisting the Hellmouth is for backup only when Livejournal is down. Please make sure you post to Twisted Shorts to have your entries count toward the challenge. Sorry for any confusion.

I've made an enhancement to the Top-Fan-Fic page. You can now choose to filter the stories to only show those where one of the 10 most popular BtVS characters takes a leading role.

Also, I've removed several challenges that do not meet the site rules - please read them before posting challenges. In particular, we do not allow non-crossover challenges or challenges that just specify a Halloween costume.

It has recently come to our attention that an author posting to Twisting the Hellmouth has been involved in multiple acts of plagiarism. Since this was a repeat offense, all of the stories posted to their account have been deleted, and the author has been banned from posting further works. We have attempted to contact the original authors of the plagiarized stories, and since many of the stories had been posted for some time, we allowed them a short time to read any reviews left before removing the stories today. In those cases where the original story was also a Buffy crossover fic, we have invited the original author to post their story here.

We’d like to reiterate that we do not tolerate plagiarism on Twisting the Hellmouth.

Find a fic, without delay,
"Add Review", and have your say,
Construct a rhyme that does convey,
the joy you found; it's Rhyming reivew day!