Secret Slash for the Summer is up! Don't forget you can discuss in the forums! Huge thanks to TSB for all organizing and coding. ♥

--B on 07.04.2010 - 07:12PM 0 Comments

You aren't imagining it: the forums are down. This is hopefully, but not 100% definitely, a temporary problem. We'll keep you updated as there's news.

--B on 06.03.2010 - 08:42PM 0 Comments

The Lazy Days of Summer Secret Slash exchange fics are posted! Read and discuss in the forum!

--B on 08.01.2009 - 11:39AM 0 Comments

As always, we are bringing you Secret Slash for the Holidays. Sign ups are going on now!

--B on 11.16.2008 - 08:02PM 0 Comments

I actually managed to fix a problem around here without further breaking the place! Two known bugs -- the error when you try and delete reviews, and the error when you try and respond to reviews -- seem to be fixed. If they still give you trouble or you discover any further strangeness, please let me know!


ETA: Seems I may have spoken too soon -- as a mod, I can delete reviews but it doesn't seem to be working for other users. So if you've acquired any you'd like me to get rid of, let me know; and unfortunately, this necessitates turning anon reviews back off. Luckily, accounts are free and easy to create!

--B on 05.10.2008 - 10:52AM 0 Comments

Due to a completely random influx of review spam on one of our accounts here, I've had to turn off anonymous reviews. I know it's a pain, but it's better than getting 60 spam reviews in your inbox!

ETA: This problem seems to be resolved as of 5/10, so I'm re-enabling anonymous reviews.

--B on 05.03.2008 - 07:09PM 0 Comments

First, some tweaking: I fiddled with the main page layout organization. I moved the old slash exchanges to the main page, so people can actually find them (hooray!).

Additionally, I tweaked the submissions guidelines. There are no changes, I just edited for clarity on multiple chapter-submission rules. If you've got any questions, as always, feel free to email me.

As for the bug, I'm sure most of you have noticed, but I figure a reminder is always a good thing. There are some bugs around this place that are a bit beyond my technical ability to fix. (Any volunteers who happen to know PHP and mySQL?) I know it's annoying, but the biggest one is the special characters issue. Basically what happens is that any special characters (curly quotation marks/apostrophes, em- and en-dashes, ellipses, and so on) don't work properly in our system, and show up as other, completely random symbols in most browsers. If you're reading a fic that's got question marks where they don't seem to belong, that's why.

Unfortunately, since I don't know how to fix it, we're stuck with living with it. I know it's a pain in the tuchas, believe me, but I'd like to ask authors to please check their fics as they submit them to try and catch these characters. Basically, anything that auto-corrects in Word is likely to be a problem in the archive. But if you're stuck on having the special characters, the archive does accept most HTML tags, so those are always an option. You can google or email me to find out how those work.

We won't be rejecting fics that have special character issues, since that's a technical problem and not a writing one, but I would urge people to please, please check their fics for quirks as you submit, and may remind people about this even as they're accepted.

--B on 03.14.2008 - 10:02PM 0 Comments

After, oh, a couple of years (or something like that) I finally updated the featured fics area! Certainly not because I only just remembered how. Anyway, check 'em out; they're some of my favorites.

--B on 03.05.2008 - 05:45PM 0 Comments

Sorry about the delays, but the Secret Slash fics will be up soon! Thanks for your patience.

--Gwen on 01.04.2008 - 11:13PM 0 Comments

They're up! Now go talk about them in the forums!


(We are missing one fic - it will be posted as soon as it comes in. We're really sorry about that, but were already late with getting these up. Sorry sorry sorry.)

--B on 07.05.2007 - 06:29PM 0 Comments

We took down the "Challenges" option for the Refuge, as it was basically never used and nothing but a big ol' spam magnet. Instead, you're all welcome to issue challenges for fics in the forums.

--B on 02.18.2007 - 11:38AM 0 Comments

Signups for this year's Secret Holiday Slash Exchange are now officially open! Go to the forums to apply.

--Gwen on 11.23.2006 - 11:17AM 0 Comments

We just wanted to let everyone know we're sorry it's taking us so long to get fics read and approved; some of you have been waiting for upwards of a month (and very patiently, for which we thank you). Life for all three of us is exceptionally busy and stressful right now; we really will get to fics as soon as we can. Hang on tight, and feel free to play in the forums while you wait.

--B on 10.13.2006 - 05:26PM 0 Comments

Something odd is going on in these parts; it's possible we've been hacked. We're preparing for the worst and hoping for the best, but y'all should, as always, back up your files. In the mean time, in case you're curious, nope... no one's been arrested.

--B on 05.14.2006 - 02:46PM 1 Comments

Thanks largely to TSB being willing to put a whooooole lot of time into this, spring slash fics are up! Don't forget to check out the praise thread on the forum and give your thanks!

--B on 04.13.2006 - 05:26PM 0 Comments

First, I am almost entirely sure the forum is fixed for real this time. Seriously. However, all posts and new users since January 13th-ish have been lost. Alas. But so far, no errors!

Second, State of the Refuge #4 is up. This one discusses a handful of the new features we've got around here, so it's worth checking out.

Third, the State of the Refuge mentions the new category we've created (Short Fiction), as something which has technical issues and isn't open to the public yet. Well, I am pleased to announce that the technical issues are resolved, and it's open for business. (And if you already have posted drabbles/ficlets, you are not required to change the category they're placed in, though you may if you so choose.)

Please note the submission rules for drabbles. And enjoy!

Whew. Hopefully, as much as I love writing these, that's all the news for awhile.

--B on 02.09.2006 - 01:46PM 0 Comments

Well, looking at the main page is a little odd -- all those nice, lovely, lengthy updates on the status of the upgrade, site crash, and subsequent recovery are gone. This is a good thing. Why?

Because the recovery is complete. HA!

I yelled that triumphant "ha!" as though I had something to do with it. I didn't, really. I tried everything I could think of, got frustrated, cried, whined, and drafted a friend who is much more computer savvy than I (read: actually understands this stuff). The end result?

If you love the Refuge, you now love Matt. He spent eight hours -- seriously, eight hours -- fixing the database and rewriting the script for this place, so we have all of our stories and reviews back. Eight hours!

There are a few things that are wonky. As a side effect of all of this, all chaptered fics have lost chapter titles. If this really bothers you, you can log in to your account and change it manually. It also means that, since we had to revert to an old version of the database, anyone who has registered an account since the upgrade (the last three weeks or so) must re-register. Sorry about that.

The forums are still down. We'll let you know as soon as that's been resolved.

However, you can now play with all the new features! We're open for submissions again, and you can now issue challenges, create series...es... and generally resume having a grand old, gay-newsboy-filled time.

And leave comments here about how much you love Matt, damn it.

ETA: Matt just fixed the chapter name problem, too!

--B on 02.07.2006 - 09:29PM 5 Comments

Secret Slash signups have begun!

--B on 12.01.2005 - 09:17PM 0 Comments

Hey, did y'all know we have a word limit for chapters? I didn't, but it turns out we do. I'm not quite sure where it is, but it's somewhere less than 25 pages...

In other news, my birthday is in next week! That means two things:

1) My hosting service has been paid up for another year (thanks, Mom and Dad); and,
2) Blink Week starts the 15th. So get writing!

--B on 07.09.2005 - 07:09PM 0 Comments

The two new featured fics are, well, featured. Check them out if you haven't yet; both are worth your time, I promise.

--B on 05.04.2005 - 11:13AM 0 Comments

The Secret Spring Slash fics are posted! Check 'em out!

--B on 04.16.2005 - 04:04PM 0 Comments

In honor of my 21st birthday, Racetrack week will be held from April 7-14th.

In honor of the birthday of the insane David fangirls, David week will be the 22-29th.

Both Racetrack and David weeks will be having prizes.

--TSB on 03.29.2005 - 09:19PM 0 Comments

There seems to be a slight issue with uploading fics the last couple of days; for some reason the site has been erasing formatting (specifically, paragraph breaks). If this happened to your fic, please try to login to your account and fix it, and if you see that it's happened to another author, try to let them know if you can.


Thanks, guys, and sorry for the inconvenience.

--signpost on 02.26.2005 - 11:39PM 0 Comments

Happy New Year, y'all. Now that I've had a few hours to sober up, the Secret Slash fics are all posted. Enjoy!

--B on 01.01.2005 - 12:41AM 0 Comments

Well, we're still alive, really. We're working on the waiting fics and applications to the RPG; thanks for your patience. Also, we're now listed at Carrying The Banner and hopefully this link will suffice until I find a place to put a permanent one in this layout.

--B on 10.18.2004 - 01:26PM 0 Comments

Check out details in the forum. ;)

--B on 09.04.2004 - 07:48PM 0 Comments

Just so everyone knows, the three of us all have summer jobs and not as much free time as we'd like. Signpost and I are both relegated to dial-up, and my computer is busted and I'm a bit hesitant about reading slash on my family's PC.

So, in short, it might take a bit longer to get things validated than we'd like. Sorry, but we'll do what we can.

--B on 06.13.2004 - 02:59PM 0 Comments

Hey guys, from now on, when submitting multiple chapters of the same fic, wait until the first chapter has gone up before submitting the next one.

--TSB on 05.13.2004 - 12:05PM 2 Comments

And we're open for business. Thanks very much to the lovely PoisonIvory and Shimmerwings for beta testing this place, as well as to Carissa for helping set it up.


So come join! Play with us!

--B on 05.06.2004 - 07:12PM 0 Comments

Y'all can now assign genres to your stories. I suggest that if you've already uploaded a few, you edit them to add it in.

To do: help page, rules. And then we're opening!

--B on 05.05.2004 - 09:08PM 0 Comments

For the login, Carissa says to check the URL on the settings page, and make sure the http is before the domain address.
Also, Carissa suggests putting a "site powered by efiction" with a link, since we got the script for free and all.
And, you rule.

--TSB on 05.04.2004 - 08:28PM 2 Comments

Find out what the mysql error on the main page is, why the skin won't stay as a preference, figure out a slogan, finish the skin, figure out why the main page won't load at all in the skin, try and find that bizarro login error and fix it, get skin running, make it defaul t & delete all others, fix dumbass thing you did with character list, figure out genres and warnings, write help page, edit page information and whatnot, try and get someone who actually has graphics ability to, you know, use it on our behalf, make TSB an admin.

Oh yeah, and study for finals.

--B on 05.04.2004 - 12:25AM 0 Comments