amplificathon

Stupid me! I forgot to mention that page hit counts are back at the Audiofic Archive!

Not as nice as comments for feedback, I grant you, but still great for readers to have access to!

The podfic archiving backlog is slowly but surely dwindling: yay to all my fellow archivers who have been working feverishly toward this end. ❤

For those of you who use the Audiofic Archive, there are a couple of things to be aware of. First, the type-in search window is still not working for entries made after the problems started last June; it does appear to be working for older entries. You can still find what you want by searching the Wayfinding tags, however, so don't despair!

Also, there is no longer a Comment to Entry form on each podfic page. This is a feature, not a bug, due to the fact that it was generating a lot of spam, which in turn caused a lot of extra work and problems for the site and its maintainers. There was also a misunderstanding that listeners could leave feedback for authors/readers there when they could really only be reached via the comment to author/reader links.

The downside of losing the ability to comment is that there is no easy way to let us know if there are problems with links, tags, etc. on any given podfic page. With the rate new pages are being generated, we know many such problems likely exist. :-(

On a personal note, I'm clearly an OCD lying liar who lies, so despite announcing that I was stepping down as SPN and SPN RPF archiver last October, I kept archiving and have pretty much caught up the backlog in those fandoms! Now, though, I really am going to be more of a part time archiver and assistant, which should enable me to get back to my first love, compiling podbooks. I'll always be around as a general resource, too, so let me know if I can be of help.

I think that I have archived all Merlin (BBC) & Merlin (BBC) RPF podfics as well as all other podfics in whichever fandom which were posted with a Merlin podfic**. So if you've posted podfic(s) of this sort that have not yet been archived, please let me know. Also, if I've made any errors, please let me know.

**The two exceptions are [#InformalTwitterPodficExchange 2011 Masterlist] and [The Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology II], which I am currently in the middle of archiving.

Cross-posted to LJ & DW amplificathon.

For those of you who are wondering where the not archived tag went, I've moved it to the top of the tag list by changing it to !not archived. This makes it easier to find and add to your posts, and easier for the archivists to change to archived after they've archived the post.

For those of you cross-posting here and on DW, remember you should only use the !not archived tag on DW. Using it on both comms makes it harder for the archivists to figure out which podfics have been archived and which have not been.

If you are only posting here on LJ, of course, you should continue to use the tag to alert us that your post needs archiving.

Most posters do not bother to use the post:crossover tag, so I'm forever adding it. However, in the Archive there is no crossover tag, and podfics are tagged only with each fandom involved.

How do you guys feel about dropping the crossover tag here as well?

We just realized that our tagging settings were set so that only members could add existing tags to their posts. Realizing this made no sense considering we have open posting, that has now been changed. So, if you've tried unsuccessfully to add existing tags to your posts in the past, you should be able to now.

Note that new tags can still only be created by mods, and tags that have already been added to a post can still only be edited by mods.

Two changes have been made to tagging here on LJ that might confuse you guys, so I wanted to clarify them here.

First, in order to make things easier for the Archivers, if you make a particular post to both this and the DW comm, you should use the 'not archived' tag only on DW. This way archivers won't have to search both comms to see if there are duplicate posts, and there will be less chance of the same podfics accidentally being archived twice.

As always, though, don't fret if you accidentally add the tag in both places. I'll try to come along after and remove the duplicate on LJ.

Also, I've deleted the 'post:podfic' tag as it is pretty redundant considering the focus of the comm. I decided to keep the 'post:podbook' tag, however, at least for now, as I know some of you use it to search out podbook formatted podfics. :-)

As you're probably aware, we're running out of tag slots here on LJ.

It's not a major problem since all the older posts are now backed up on Dreamwidth and can be searched for there the same as always, not to mention that the Audiofic Archive will soon be back up with its marvelous and specific search criteria.

Still, there will be a few changes to tagging here to optimize the 1000 we have available. Nothing too drastic, I think you'll find, though I'm still working on the details.

Here are a few things you will notice very soon. I'll be deleting all the challenge tags since those will be handled on DW now, and, as I mentioned, the posts imported there from here will retain their original tags if you want to search by them.

I'll also be deleting the post:podfic tag as this is fairly redundant considering the nature of the comm.

I expect to be wrapping some tags into more general categories, including some small fandom tags. These will include things like small fandom:literature, small fandom:anime/manga/manhwa, etc. I'm not intimately familiar with all categories of fandom, needless to say, so if you find anything grossly mis-tagged, please forgive me and let me know about them.

We want to keep our tagging system here as useful as possible within the constraints imposed by LJ, and as simple as possible to manage as it begins to differ from the one on DW, where we now have twice as many available tag slots and differing needs due to the various challenges that will be run there.

Comments, questions, suggestions, etc. are most welcome.

Attention podficcers!

It's time to ready your mics! The 2012 Amplificathon starts as soon as March 14th rolls into March 15th in the very first time zone. There's a page here that will show you when that is in your time zone.

Remember, some of the rules have changed this year, so please read the FAQ and all related mod posts (linked at the bottom).

Also, there will not be a GO! post (because 5 am is too early for the mods to get up okay), so don't wait on us to start posting on March 15th! We like waking up to goodies. :)

welcome to the fifth annual (fifthtennial!) amplificathon faq!


( what the heck is this? )

( who is running this thing? why? )

( what are the deadlines? )

( do i need to sign up? )

( do i have to allow archiving of my recording? )

( what about crossposting? )

( what about file format and quality? )

( do i need to prove that i have the author’s permission? )

( is it okay to add sounds other than me reading to my podfic? )

( are there minimum or maximum lengths for recordings? )

( what if i want to create a collaborative podfic with more than one reader? )

( how do i upload files? )

( how do i find stories? )

( what about multipart projects? )

( what about non-english languages? )

( who wins? what are the prizes? )

( what is the end product? )

we're going to make this a sticky post and link all of the other relevant amplificathon 2012 posts from the sidebar on the DW comm. but for anyone viewing the comm in a style that doesn't display link lists, here are those links:

calculating points
fandom/pairing points
table converting length into points

For the past several years this community has been mirrored on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth. As the Amplificathon challenge and the Dreamwidth userbase have both grown, the mods have found running the challenge from two communities to be unmanageable and unsustainable.

We've decided that the 2012 Amplificathon will be run from Dreamwidth only. This means that, while you're free to post your podfics to the LiveJournal comm, only posts made to the Dreamwidth comm will be tallied for points. Even though the Amplificathon challenge is moving to Dreamwidth, posting to the LiveJournal community will remain open.

There are several reasons we've chosen Dreamwidth as the 'thon's home. We're rapidly approaching the LJ community's 1000 tag limit and the only way to increase that limit is by paying for the community. At this point in time we are not comfortable monetarily supporting LiveJournal. Without a tag limit increase we will be unable to continue maintaining the comm on LJ at the level we require to run the 'thon effectively. Moving to Dreamwidth and upgrading the community there allows us to keep the 'thon running and accommodate more and more readers that are creating work in more and more fandoms.

In our decision to move the 'thon to Dreamwidth we also took advantage of Dreamwidth's new community import feature. This was an important step for us to take, not only so that we will have all 'thon entries in one place and won't need to check back and forth between the comms for information, but also so that all of the community's tags import correctly and intact. This has created many duplicate entries but the mods don't consider their clean up to be a priority at this time (though we'll delete duplicates if/when we come across them, and if you have duplicated entries feel free to delete them at will).

Dreamwidth has also recently created the ability to merge your Dreamwidth account with an OpenID account. This means that you can 'claim' your imported posts and comments on Dreamwidth by connecting a Dreamwidth account to the OpenID account that made the posts. More information on that can be found here. Dreamwidth currently has open registration (ie: no invite code needed) so if you'd like to take advantage of this and don't have an account (or have an account but don't want it associated with the OpenID account your Amplificathon posts are attached to) you can create one here.

In the last year we've seen a shift in podfic presence to Dreamwidth and many new fandoms are choosing Dreamwidth as their fannish home. A large migration to Dreamwidth has happened in the last few months, and we hope you'll join us there as well!

Looking forward to the 2012 Amplificathon,
Your mods
general_jinjur, were_duck, and me (aphelant)

ETA: Here is a link to the Amplificathon on Dreamwidth

Jinjurly has reported that now the Archive's direct download links have been hijacked as well as the rest of the site. As she is still traveling, she cannot sort the issue yet, though it will be first on her To Do list when she returns.

Please to not attempt to download any of my podbooks or any older Archive links until we let you know that doing so is safe. Be assured, in the meantime, that all the files themselves are fine; it's only the download links that have been compromised.

so. the audiofic archive (actually, all of my domains, which makes it a more complicated clean up) has been hacked, and is, in fact, full of malware. which i am purging as quickly as possible while being as thorough as possible. it will be closed for at least the next 10 days. direct links to zip files should be fine, and unimpacted by weird redirect nonsense (the actual podfic files are segregated out from the archive code and the rest). this process would be faster if i wasn't leaving the country in a few hours. :/

my apologies for the annoyance and inconvenience.

1

As you may be aware, Megaupload was shut down Thursday and all links to files hosted on the site are no longer viable. Some of you used Megaupload to host podfic, and most of you use some kind of temporary file host.

If anyone has lost their podfic to Megaupload (or through file deletion of any kind) and no longer have a copy of your work, we would like to help you recover it. Please leave a comment here and let us know what you're missing (and where it's been posted) and we will do our best to find someone who downloaded it and still has a copy.

If you see a request in the comments and you have the file someone needs, please help them out! And if your only copy of your podfic exists on a filesharing site, please back it up! We don't want anyone to permanently lose their fanwork. <3


2

After the Archive's temporary downtime last year, it came back up for a bright, shining moment, during which the archivists were able to work for, oh, 48 hours? And then the Archive broke itself once more (at least the front end still works this time? mostly? :D?).

Professionals are now being talked to in order to get the Archive up and running again. We hope to have a resolution soon.


3

Sadly, Podbang 2011 did not grow wings, but we're thinking ahead to Podbang 2012! Sometime soon we'll be querying the comm about changes we're looking at making to the challenge.

This year's 'thon was so so great, we want to thank everyone who participated! There were tons of new fandoms and pairings introduced, and a few non-English languages as well! There were also some brand new podficcers!! This is what Amplificathon is all about, everyone. Thank you for making podfic fandom a bigger, broader place! \o/

We especially want to give a shout out to the volunteers who made graphics and podfics for our winners. Some of them were even winners themselves! THEY ARE THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING I GUESS. :D :D

And we also want to give a huuuuge thank you to the winners who waited so long for their prizes. This mod is totally not going to be in charge of posting ever again! Which is good, because making them gives me the :( and the D:

This mod would also like to thank LJ for not crapping out on her tonight. I can only suffer so much post-blocking from DDoS attacks before I explode! Ta. :)

In short: YOU ARE ALL GREAT! <3 <3 <3

The Grand Prize winner of Amplificathon 2011 is reena_jenkins, who earned an Amazonian 2497 points!

THAT'S A LOT OF POINTS. Amazing job, Reena!

Your prize:



made by bessyboo



made by Carol

Some Victory
written by waldorph
read by cookiemom6067
ST:Reboot; Kirk/Spock
44:07 | mp3 (42.4 MB) | m4b (33.3 MB)

With an awesome 2354 points, our 2nd Place winner is diane_mckay!

Woo-hoo, way to go!!



made by bessyboo



made by bessyboo

Rescue
written by cathalin
read by weimar27
XMFC; Eric/Charles
19:12 | mp3 (18.4 MB) | m4b (14.6 MB)

Amplificathon 2011's third place winner, with 1838 points, is via_ostiense!

Congratulations!!



made by bessyboo



made by cybel

The Rules of Barrayaran Sex
written by philomytha
read by exmanhater
Vorkosigan Saga; Aral Vorkosigan/Cordelia Naismith
32:25 | mp3 (15.6 MB) | m4b (20.8 MB)

Posting your first podfic to the 'thon during the last week of the challenge earns you the Fashionably Late Award! This year our winner is escherzo who popped in, took a look around, and joined us fashionably late!

escherzo declined to provide a list of things he'd like podficced, but we do have a shiny graphic for him!



made by cybel


We also have a second Lindworm Award winner (because this mod fails at copypasta D:)! We are calling laurie_ky and alchemynerd co-winners of the award for the single longest podfic, with Laurie having a slightly longer podfic than our first-posted winner with an amazing 12 hours, 36 minutes and 25 seconds!

Laurie didn't post a podfic request initially so we don't have a podfic for her, but I'm going to link to her request just in case anyone is interested in the stories she requested or has them in their podfic queue already:

http://amplificathon.livejournal.com/1066208.html?thread=6462688

She's been kind and understanding about this mistake. Thanks Laurie! Sorry this took so long to post.

Her graphic!


made by cybel

The Whisky & Lemon Award goes to the person who posted the most cumulative minutes of podfic to the challenge. This year's winner is reena_jenkins, who topped out at a whopping 51 hours, 54 minutes and 48 seconds!!

I bet you're regretting those 5m12s that you could have recorded to make it a nice even 52 hours, right Reena? JOKES. ::ducks tomatoes::

For reena_jenkins!



made by Carol



made by cybel

What The Ducklings Did On Their Summer Vacation
written by roga
read by anatsuno
House/SGA x-over; gen
43:02 | mp3 (31.1 MB) | m4b (16.6 MB)