As the subject header suggests, it's about that time. We've been down officially for a month now, without forums for the community to meet and discuss. While we never lost our ability to present stories and only took one week off without posting new content; it's clear that the absence of the forums has had an impact on things. On the bright side, we've released some really great stories lately and even with the nuisance value of having to post on BCTS instead of locally, a great many readers have seen those stories and commented on them enthusiastically. So enough with the down time; let's get back to being a viable, active community.

More than a few people have already 'jumped the gun' so to speak, having registered during the building phase of the site. We will go ahead and approve those accounts (mostly) despite the impatience... but for those of you who DID wait patiently and didn't bombard us with account requests or pressure us to open before we were ready, thank you. To those few who tried to register with account names that most sites blacklist... don't expect to actually get those account names here. In fact, Warren and I will talk and if we think you filed those registrations intentionally hoping it would break something or sneak you in somewhere.. you may not be getting an account here at all.

At the moment, we have a forums and PM capabilities and will allow all registered members the ability to post to Public blogs. These blogs DO have to be approved for publication before they will be visible and the privilege will be taken away from those who use it... unwisely. There are official site and forums policies posted in the FAQ/Help section, accessible via the main top menu. I will be adding some basic 'how to' articles on how to use the site appropriately as the week progresses (and we will be converting and adding the rest of the story archive as we have time (its going to take several weeks to do it, even with a bunch of people doing it).

If you are a Fan Fic author looking for access to post in the dedicated forums sections or to publish in the Fan Fiction section of the main site, send me a PM requesting promotion to Fan Fiction author. 

Everyone should take a look at the Site and Forums / Moderation articles now. They won't sound outrageous to anyone who has been a part of the community for any length of time. We don't intend to change our general outlook on policing the forums (we mostly expect people to treat everyone with respect so we don't have to police anyone). As long as our community stays as mature as it usually is, I don't think anyone will experience anything different. But now its in clearly worded writing and we can point at it when we stick our steel toed boots up your misbehaving rear. :)

NOTE: I don't get an email telling me that you registered for the site until AFTER you validate your email. Don't register and then complain that you haven't been approved. If your email isn't taking mail from us, you should investigate that. Now that we have cool stuff like email validation and other working admin tools, subscriptions, RSS feeds, and so on... you need to make sure your side of things is working too. If for some reason you are having problems and can't solve the email validation thing... send me an email from the address that you are trying to register with to  KristinDarken (no space) at this site's domain (whateleyacademy.net).

Also, another note for those of you who have watched the whateleystatus page at wisdomsprice.com ... if you want to change your bookmark, you can. You can also access that status page via http://status.whateleyacademy.net

And: As Announced earlier in the day, we have a couple Vignette offerings for you today. From Morpheus: A Touch of Mischief.   And from Elrod: The Penance Factor.  Enjoy!