squidgestatus

It's not only summertime up here in the Northern Hemisphere, but it's also time for Squidge.org's annual fundraiser!  This year, we're going for the theme of Summer of Ships!  It's Summer, and fandom is almost always about ships - whether it be the popular Jack/Daniel or Sheppard/McKay from the Stargate series to the not-so-subtle Myka Bering/Helena "HG" Wells from Warehouse 13, to the more obscure Hooty [The Owl House]/Duolingo Owl pairing.  Whatever your ship is, we're celebrating here at Squidge.org and SquidgeWorld!

We have a goal of raising $2,000 which should cover all of Squidge.org's expenses for the next year - and you can help!  Simply click here, and you'll be taken to PayPal to make your donation.  Or if you're already at PayPal, simply send a donation to donations@squidge.org

Later, we'll have a graphic available to show your Summer of Ships Squidge Donation Drive support. For those who give a larger amount, you'll have the option of receiving a Summer of Ships sticker, coffee cup, or even a tee shirt! More details on that to come.

We're in an unplanned downtime due to power issues. ETA is 11am Pacific, about 2.5 hours from the time of this post. Though generally they resolve power issues quicker than the estimate. Usually. 

Everyone should be aware that if you create an account on SquidgeWorld, or if you are an anonymous/logged out user that reads on SquidgeWorld, that the Terms of Service have been updated.  Long story short - First of all, we are not gatekeepers of what types of fic gets posted.  Second, because we had an issue with plagiarism, it gets a specific callout now.

Here are the three updated/new sections (points 1, 3, and 9).  For points 1 and 3, the new sections are bolded:

Point 1:

Our goal is simple: You own your data. SquidgeWorld Archive, along with Squidge.org, just hosts it. Additionally, SquidgeWorld Archive is not a gatekeeper of an author's words. You can write what you wish and put it on the archive as long as you abide by the posting guidelines. Additionally, readers are in charge of their own experience. Don't like it? Don't read it. But don't make demands about what others can and cannot post unless you have been elected to the position of Supreme Being of Fanworks, which - spoiler alert - no one will ever be. So just don't. No gatekeeping of others.

Point 3:

In the immortal words of Wil Wheaton, "Don't Be A Dick". This means, but is not exclusive of, spamming the Archive or its users, using the Archive for personal financial gain outside of what is allowed (see point 6 below), or being abusive to the Archive or its users. That's it. That's what Don't Be A Dick means - dont be rude to others. Don't disrespect others. Don't gatekeep others. Don't demand someone write what you want to read. Don't belittle or abuse someone for writing what they want. If you do not like this, or you are given a warning because you're being a dick to someone, either take the hint and stop being abusive or move on. Because if you continue being abusive after being warned, you will be banned.

Point 9:

Added April 27th, 2024: Plagiarism is not allowed, nor tolerated. If you are caught plagiarizing another person's works, you will be banned without warning. Yes, this falls under the Don't Be A Dick rule, but it's explicitly called out here after we had a plagiarism instance earlier this month.

Questions?  Ask away.

This page is to let you, the end-user, know the privacy practices of Squidge.org.  In a nutshell, we are here to serve fandom.  There's very little data that we collect.  Here's a bit of a rundown:

• For all sites presented to end-users via a webserver (Apache Foundation's httpd and F5's nginx):  As is standard with webservers, your IP address (either real or proxied if you use a proxy service) and client type information (browser, operating system, etc.) is logged, along with what webpage you went to and the status of that request (200 for "Success", 404 for "Not Found" and such).  This information is collated into statistics at the end of the day, collated into statistics, and then deleted.


• For any website that uses Wordpress frontend: No additional information is collected unless you register for an account or comment on a blog post.  Whatever minimal information (named entered - which is not necessarily your legal name, along with username, email, and a password) is collected and stored securely in a database specific to that Wordpress instance.  Any cookies set are specific to that Wordpress instance.


• For any website that uses eFiction frontend:  Anonymous commenting would require a name of your choosing, an email address of your choosing, and your comment.  Registered users can register those plus additional information such as Dreamwidth account, instant messaging communication identifier, etc..  For authors, the additional information about your work (fandom, pairing, etc.) is collected and stored.  All of that information is kept within a database entry specific to that eFiction installation.


• For Squidge Images hosting, using the frontend "Chevereto":  Registering for an account takes several bits of your information, including chosen name, email address, account name, etc. and stores it in the Chevereto database.  The images that you choose to upload are also tied to your account.  All that information is stored within the Chevereto database.


• For SquidgeWorld Archive: Anonymous commenters must input an email address, chosen name, and their comment.  Their IP address is also logged as part of that information.  Registered users that comment will have that same information logged into the database.  For registered users, there is additional information that is logged into the system when you register for an account if you choose to input that information, including a freetext section where you can type in your own biography.

As for what is done with all this data?  Nothing.  Nothing beyond whatever statistics are collected with visit information.  Your data is your own.  We do not share this data with anyone - and never would.  The only exception would be if you owned a website on Squidge.org and choose to move it to another server; we would have to share your data with your new host.  However, we do nothing with your data because it's frankly none of our business.  You are entitled to your privacy and we respect that.

This was previously posted on SquidgeWorld.org, and applies solely to SquidgeWorld. Please know that people should continue to tag the way that they wish; however the following is what taggers will be using as part of guidelines.

Original post from here: https://www.squidgeworld.org/admin_posts/95/

First off, if you've created new tags in the Archive - THANK YOU! And secondly, please note that this is a guide/suggestion only. People can, will, and should continue to use the Archive the way that they want to without undue burden.

I wanted to do a small post about relationship tags. As many people know, relationship tags are pretty much just the characters involved plus the fandom(s) attached to. However, we're taking a different tack with how relationship tags work within SquidgeWorld Archive, and you're part of that journey.

Everyone knows that a tag that's "Steve Rogers/James 'Bucky' Barnes" is going to be a romantic tag for those two characters. This is usually fine, but when you're wanting to read a fic that's primarily for those two characters, sometimes you have to wade through other stories because your favorite relationship tag has been thrown in as a background character or such. Or maybe you're expecting a relationship, when the story ends with them figuring out they like each other - more of a "Pre" type relationship. Well that's where SquidgeWorld's relationship tags are different. And, with your help, will continue to grow.

There will be four different types of relationships, all dealt with in the Relationship-type tag.

• The main relationship - e.g. a primary relationship like the example, "Steve Rogers/James 'Bucky' Barnes"


• A "pre" relationship. This is where someone tags a story where Steve and Bucky are going to get together, but it's just not in this story


• A "background" relationship. This is where Steve and Bucky are in a relationship, but it's secondary to another pairing. Or maybe it's a Gen story, but Steve and Bucky are an item - just not the focus of the story.


• A "past" relationship. This is where Steve and Bucky were in a relationship at one time, but have since broken up

If you click on the main "Steve Rogers/James 'Bucky' Barnes" tag, you'll be able to see all of the stories - main, pre, background, and past. But if you only wanted to read a story where they're in the background, you would click on the "background Steve Rogers/James 'Bucky' Barnes" and be presented only with those particular stories. Doing this will enable people to search for and find the stories they truly want to read, and sort out the ones that they otherwise might not read.

In order to do this, we'll need your help if you choose to do so; otherwise, please disregard.

• First off, stop using the "Freeform" tags to indicate pre, background, or past type relationships. Any "Freeform" tags that currently exist will be converted to relationship tags and stacked underneath the main relationship tag.


• To indicate a pre relationship, please use the prefix "pre" - all lower case, no punctuation, e.g. "pre Steve Rogers/James 'Bucky' Barnes"


• To indicate a background relationship, please use the prefix "background" - not "bkgd" or such. Just "background", e.g. "background Steve Rogers/James 'Bucky' Barnes".  Additionally, please use "background" instead of using "minor" or similar terms.


• To indicate a past relationship, please use the prefix "past" - all lower case, no punctuation, e.g. "past Steve Rogers/James 'Bucky' Barnes"


• While these types of relationships don't lend themselves as well to QPR ( ~ ) or Friendship ( & ) relationships, they can still be used as such. So maybe The Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness were formerly in a QPR, you could use "past The Doctor ~ Jack Harkness". Or maybe you're writing a "Friends to enemies" stories, you could use the tag "past Blair Sandburg & Simon Banks".

And above all, if you have questions, please let us know!

There's a lot going on with the world these days, and Squidge.org is no exception. We are in need of some volunteers, so if you have some time to donate to an awesome non-profit please consider applying for one of these.

Gundam Wing Archivist

The Gundam Wing Addition archive will be coming to SquidgeWorld.org! The current archive is being maintained, though because we believe we lost the owner, the stories need to be salvaged. While this can typically be done by anyone, it would be best if someone who was familiar with the Gundam Wing fandom head up this project. This is so characters, situations, etc. that are known to GW fen, someone without knowledge of the fandom might miss these details. The process will be similar to importing works into the SquidgeWorld from other archives (AO3, AdAstra, Dreamwidth, etc.) with the archivist importing stories for other users. While the complete number of stories is unknown, it appears there are about 110 individual users with stories archived at Gundam Wing Addition, with an estimated 2,500 stories.

In order to volunteer, we only need your username and email address. If you do not have a SquidgeWorld account, we will provide you with one, but also provide you with an account to import GW Fanfiction so that it doesn't get tied to your original account.

 

Squidge.org Treasurer

Are you good with numbers? While Squidge.org is pretty well run, we do need officers to head up our non-profit. It appears that we are in need of a new treasurer. Duties for the treasurer include being part of discussions of fundraising, being a part of our financial software (QuickBooks), and in certain cases, paying the bills that come our way.

In order to volunteer, you must be in the United States, and we do need to list your legal name on our incorporation and legal documentation including yearly taxes and business license filings. If desired, we can completely keep your fandom and real-life names completely separate. You'll receive an email address at our non-profit (SquidgeLLC.org) and we have Board meetings about once a year or so.

 

Abuse Committee

While we've not had much abuse, recently we've had a few hacking attempts and one person who was banned for disrespecting others. The Squidge.org Board was used as a defacto Abuse Committee, but we would like to put together an official group. This would take very little time, and would constitute discussing abuse issues as they come up. In the last 29 years, we have had 3 different user issues (one person who gave their username & password to a group pf people, one person who shared CSEM, and one person who continually abused others through horrific comments) so it is quite rare. However, we would like to "get ahead of the game" and put together an abuse committee just in case.

Duties will be as listed above; be on the lookout from email and weigh in with your opinion on if someone's actions constitute abuse and if suspensions should be permanent or temporary.

 

That's currently it! We will also be announcing the importation of both the NCISFiction.com archive and the Multi-Fandom MPreg Archive into SquidgeWorld Archive pretty soon, though those are a technical need as they will be imported to the archive via scripting, not a manual process.

If you are interested in either of these opportunities, please respond to this post, or you can contact me at either boardwalter@squidgellc.org or walterh@squidge.org

So in terms of power outages, this one was relatively damned short.  Probably because it was a huge outage - thousands of people affected rather than just my small neighborhood.  But we're back now!  All services are up, but please note that SquidgeWorld takes about 45 minutes to bring up once power is restored.  So SquidgeWorld.org should be up about 6:30 PM Pacific Time.

It came as a surprise that our 10pm estimate for power being back on turned out to be 8:30am.  Everything in the system should be up with the exception of SquidgeWorld Archive.  The server took a hit, and I'm resurrecting it.  Hopefully not more than a few more hours.

edit: SquidgeWorld.org is now back up as well!  See the caveat here.

Please be aware that those of us in the Pacific Northwest are experiencing sub-freezing temps and sleet/freezing rain.  This can lead to power outages.  And if so, would mean that Squidge.org properties (Mailserver, Image hosting, SquidgeWorld, etc.) could go down without notice.

I have to say that this is probably my favorite thing about being a part of Squidge.org and all the various entities. Sure, you can see the growth of fandom spaces and how people are using them - but when it comes to the year in review, this is where you can see the real, tangible evidence of what's been going on for the last year. So without further ado, I present SquidgeWorld's Year in Review based on what's been read! Please note this is graphics-heavy so I'll attempt to hide behind a cut.

( Read more... )

So that's how 2023 went. We shall see how this year shakes out to be! Thanks to everyone who was part of SquidgeWorld.org and helped make these statistics come about, and thanks to everyone for being a part of Squidge.org!