Yes, it's back for all of January! Authors of TDM are invited to post as many chapters to as many stories as they want to take full advantage of the month long OPEN Queue, which will end on January 31, Australian EST.
So long as your stories are in compliance with the rules and ToS, you're most welcome to post them and enjoy the super fast validation time, the flurry of reviews and all the other wonderful benefits of posting your stories on TDM right now! :)
In addition to this, you might be interested in the Simply Severus challenge, currently running on the forums, which does include various 'reading/writing' aspects of it. If you're curious and want to know how you can help wish everyone's favourite potions master a very happy 50th birthday, look no further than the following link: http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/viewthread.php?tid=6512
There is currently one vacant validator position up for grabs as well (and one forum moderator position). If you are interested in taking advantage of this, or seeking further information, please contact either Bobby Dazzler or Elysium for more information, cuz we'd love to have you! Validator applications do have a deadline (the forum one does not), that being January 31, so please get your applications in early if you're interested.
And of course, for all the wrap ups on what was 2009, please take a visit to the forums, where you can find the results for the Howlers, Xmas challenges, monthly awards, NaNoShip09 Competition and the Tri Wizard Tournament for 2009, and the grand prize as well!
We're very sorry this notice was not sent out to you all sooner and indeed that we missed wishing you all a very happy New Year on time, but we hope you all did enjoy it regardless, wherever you are in the world! :)
-TDM Validators. xx
P.S. To stay in touch with the goings on on TDM, it's strongly recommended you join the forum for the full interactive experience, cuz there's a lot of archive updates on there as well you might otherwise be missing out on... ;)
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 08 Jan 2010 7:17 am 0 Comments
It's December, which means big things for The Dark Mark as we're sure you would have guessed.
First it means that NaNoShip09 is officially over! The validators would like to congratulate everyone who got involved this year and rocked the boat! We had an awesome amount of participation! Whether you were an author, artist or simply just a reader and reviewer, your activity made this years NaNoShip the best one we have had so far and you all deserve a huge pat on the back!!! For the full NaNoShip09 wrap up for Part 1 of the competition and the information about Part 2 that will be running alongside all our Christmas stuff for December, please be sure to visit the News Desk on the Forums!
Although, whilst we are sad that November has come to an end, we are also really excited about all the good tidings that December brings with it!
In keeping with the Christmas spirit, the validators have come up with a few little gifts and games of their own for all our wonderful members, including a little visit from a certain house elf we all know and love, so be sure to keep an eye out for him... ;)
The first game the Validators have brought to you is one to help kick-start our latest addition to the archive, and not overwork tired minds brought about by NaNoShip09. Get ready for it guys, because The Christmas Drabble Challenge has hit TDM for 2009! For all the rules and information, please check the XMAS area on the Forum, located via the pretty banner featuring Professor Flitwick above, wishing you all a Merry Christmas.
The second of course was designed for all members of the archive who love fanfic, called the "Pay It Forward" Reviewing Challenge, designed to spread the love throughout Christmas from one member to many, and to keep it going. For the information about this, please refer to the article below this news blog for all the information.
And finally, while the Christmas Spirit is floating freely around The Dark Mark (and some of the staff are getting a little bit tipsy on Elderberry Wine...), we would just like to remind you all that our queue will not be closing over Christmas; we take our break later on in the year. For this reason, you can submit your stories right across December and into January when we will be running our customary OPEN Queue for the entire month. All site rules still apply to new submissions, and no amounts of Firewhisky or bribes of rare Wizarding artefacts will change the staffs mind (though you can still give them to us if you want...? :P)
Oh, and before we wrap this up, we would like to inform you all that running on the Forums, for the first time in TDM History, are the official end of year Howler Awards, to determine the best of the best during the 2009 year! For all the information on this and for how you can cast your nominations and/or vote, please click on the banner up top featuring a rather scared looking Ron that says 'Howlers' :)
From all the validating staff, we wish you a safe and Happy Christmas and a wonderful and prosperous New Year, and please don't forget to keep your wonderful stories coming in over the silly season! :)
- Kate, Kylie, Leigh, Cort, Carla.
The Dark Mark Validators. xx
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 01 Dec 2009 3:30 am 0 Comments
Today's newsletter is brought to you by the Number 5. It is the 5th NaNoShip newsletter to be posted on the archive, and it marks only five days remaining for your epic nanoship journeys before it all comes to an end!
In case you have forgotten, the contest closes Australian EST at midnight, Nov 30. We will be rejecting all chapters for the nanoship stories that come in after this point in time (if your chapter was submitted prior to midnight but was not validated, it will be processed as per normal). The reason we will be doing this is because come midnight, that's it. No more. Bye bye. The end.
Authors cannot submit more to their nanoship stories (no matter how much we all want you to), or make any changes to their stories already posted until January 1st, 2009 at the very earliest. The reason for this is simple; the panel needs to judge your stories, and if there are any changes, you'll have disqualified yourself from the rest of the competition and all the prizes you were in the running to get will be lost to you too... Do the right thing; avoid temptation and the squiggly red and green lines of doom and wait until the new year to edit and update your nanoship stories.
Total Word Count: 158,000 words (approx.)
Days Left: 5
Stories Posted: 16
Review Total: 181
For some of you, the mythical 50K mark is now well and truly out of reach, but for others it is still within your grasp; regardless of whether you're going to cross the 50K margin or not, don't give up! Keep on writing and updating because there are other prizes to be won, and the satisfaction of getting as much as you have written posted in a month is worth more than any Tri Wizard Point ever could be. :)
The contest is nearly over now, but that shouldn't give anyone an excuse to stop working their butts off! Five days remain, so do all you can to rock the boat! :D--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 24 Nov 2009 9:05 am 0 Comments
If any of you are having difficulty with motivation, be sure to check out the dedicated area for NaNoShip09 over at the TDM forums for tips and tricks to get you moving. More information can also be found by clicking the banner above which links directly to the NaNoShip09 website, which will answer any questions you may have.
There is still a long way to go for those actively participating and they really need all of your support and encouragement. So please take a look at their stories (see the NaNoShip09 Series here on the archive) and give our tireless writers some much needed feedback. For those of you needing further encouragement to review, see the forums for information about how reviewing NaNoShip09 stories can earn your school some much needed Tri-Wizard Points in the Review for Rewards Challenge!
Current Stats! (As at today)
Total Word Count: 102,000 words approx
Days Left: 10
Stories Posted: 16
Review Total: 133
Remember guys, it’s never too late to rock the boat!
--anomoleigh on 20 Nov 2009 5:14 am 0 Comments
Hail NaNoShippers! We are officially a third of the way through the writing phase of NaNoShip09, which should mean that all of you participating are deep in writing and/or reading mode. As you are all aware, chapters must be submitted by midnight November 30 Australian EST (GMT+10) in order to qualify. Even though that deadline is creeping ever closer, it is not too late for some of you to get involved and start writing and posting your stories!
If any of you are having difficulty with motivation, be sure to check out the dedicated area for NaNoShip09 over at the TDM forums for tips and tricks to get you moving. More information can also be found by clicking the banner above which links directly to the NaNoShip09 website, which will answer any questions you may have.
It’s going to be a long ride for those actively participating and they really need all of your support and encouragement. So please take a look at their stories (see the NaNoShip09 Series here on the archive) and give our tireless writers some much needed feedback. For those of you needing further encouragement to review, see the forums for information about how reviewing NaNoShip09 stories can earn your school some much needed Tri-Wizard Points in the Review for Rewards Challenge!
Current Stats! (As at today)
Total Word Count: 67,000 words approx
Days Left: 19
Stories Posted: 15
Review Total: 81
Remember guys, it’s never too late to rock the boat!
--Elysium on 10 Nov 2009 8:05 pm 0 Comments
For all the information, you can click the banner above this post to be taken to the NaNoShips very own website with all the information – you can sign up today, tomorrow, or any day between now and November 30 to partake in the fun of this challenge! Not only is there all the information you could possibly want about the writing competition, but you can also find fun stuff for everyone else, including an art challenge, widgets to track your progress, and an award naming competition too among other things!
Just to recap, the ships for this year are as follows! Helena Ravenclaw (The Grey Lady) / The Bloody Baron; Tom Riddle (Lord Voldemort) / Minerva McGonagall; Andromeda Tonks (nee. Black) / Ted Tonks; Molly Weasley (nee. Prewitt) / Arthur Weasley; Sirius Black / Lily Evans; Harry Potter / Pansy Parkinson; George Weasley / Angelina Johnson; Draco Malfoy / Astoria Greengrass; Neville Longbottom / Luna Lovegood; Hermione Granger / Viktor Krum; Rose Weasley / Scorpius Malfoy and OC/OC (for original fiction only).
It's never too late to sign up, so be sure to read all the rules, get writing, and don't forget to rock the boat!
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 31 Oct 2009 9:00 am 0 Comments
Hello everyone! :D
As so many of you are in fact writers out there (whether or not you've had the chance to submit stories to our archive yet), we feel it is our duty to inform you all of a wonderfully complex, fun and competitive challenge about to set sail on TDM. We are, of course, referring to the NaNoShip09 writing competition, setting sail at 12AM, November 1st Australian EST (GMT+10).
This challenge is a TDM tradition, open to all authors, writers, newbies, oldies, occasional lurkers or the ones who are so obsessed with TDM they've had the dark mark branded somewhere on their bodies. Everyone is invited to 'ROCK THE BOAT' with style this year, and read the wonderful stories on offer as the challenge unfolds! Good luck to everyone, and have fun!
In addition to the wonderful challenge, all the archives terms of service, submission rules, useful links and help pages have all been updated, and feature some new content, rules, definitions and changes to the location of where certain rules can be found to make it easier for you to navigate through all the pages. It's important that you read through all of these pages to make sure you know the site rules before posting anything to TDM, and to make your stories time stuck in the queue drop dramatically because you'll have made it a lot easier for our hard working validators to get through everything even faster.
Because there were some considerable changes to pre-existing rules, particularly those found on the Black List, it is advised that you update all your previously validated stories to make sure their in compliance with the new rules and ratings that have been provided for you.
Such new additions include the Black List items 'adultery' and 'cannibalism' while the definitions for 'adult/minor relationships', 'student/teacher relationships', 'slavery', 'prostitution' and 'paedophilia' have been upgraded, and the story definition of 'drabble' has also been added to the archive, so if you wish to post your drabble entries, be sure to look under Story Definitions in the submission rules to find out how! Also, please be advised that both 'poetry' and 'necrophilia' have been added to the recently updated Banned Material page, so please be sure to read through everything on here to ensure you're not trying to submit stories with forbidden content.
Also, some of you may be wondering where the layout 'Skulls' has disappeared to – rest assured, it still exists! It's just getting some upgrades, so in the meantime the only public layout is 'Murder' that has recently had significant upgrades too; your multiple layout selections will be back shortly.
And just before we wrap this up, The Dark Mark would like to congratulate Cort (Soliloquy) for passing all of her validating training with speed and ease to become an official validator! Congratulations Cort, it's a hell of an achievement and I'm sure all of our authors are very grateful for your hard work in helping to bring their stories to TDM too! :)
So, with all the joys of NaNoShip09 just around the corner, why not take a look at this enormous challenge about to hit TDM and give it a go? Everyone's invited to partake in any aspect of it that interests you, and be sure to keep an eye out for all the wonderful stories about to hit the archive!
Hope you're all well,
- TDM Validators. xx
---
IMPORTANT LINKS:
NaNoShip09: http://the-dark-mark.com/nanoship/
NaNoShip09 Forum: http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=76
The Archive: http://the-dark-mark.com/!/
Terms of Service (ToS): http://the-dark-mark.com/!/viewpage.php?page=tos
Submission Rules: http://the-dark-mark.com/!/viewpage.php?page=rules
Help/FAQ: http://the-dark-mark.com/!/viewpage.php?page=help
Useful Links: http://the-dark-mark.com/!/viewpage.php?page=useful
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 26 Oct 2009 10:01 am 0 Comments
It's that time of year again when the staff ask the damn near impossible from you. Where legends are made and records can be broken. Where long hours are spent grinding fingers to the bone for the glory of being made a champion. To put it simply, ladies and gents, it's NaNoShip time!
Not only has all the information pertaining to this TDM exclusive challenge been completely revamped, but it's become so massive that it needs its very own website to organise and run all the content surrounding it!
If that ain't the most epic challenge to be brought to you by the staff so far, I dunno what will be! Simply follow the above link for all your NaNoShip09 information!
Please note that some of the content is still being updated, and will be done so every day until the NaNoShip officially sets sail. If you are interested in partaking in this event but don't think you'll have enough time to write, contact Bobby Dazzler or Elysium to find out how you could still play a part in this mammoth challenge without lifting a single pen! :)
Only 15 days until NaNoShip09 sets sail... Do all you can to promote it and make this the biggest, best and most wonderful challenge ever to hit TDM's shores, and clean up with all the amazing prizes on offer ;) Good luck!
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 16 Oct 2009 9:54 pm 0 Comments
Hello everybody!
Wow, look at how quickly October has arrived!
As many of you know, October is the month where many cultures around the world celebrate Halloween, and, in keeping with the spirit of things, we are also celebrating Halloween – TDM style, of course!
Both the forum and archive staff have worked together to create a special Halloween Writing Challenge in celebration of Halloween to take place throughout October, where it is your duty to write the most chilling ghost story based on all the challenge information linked below. Good luck to all who enter, and be sure to write with the lights on!
September, sadly, was a slow month for the queue, but we have high hopes that with our wonderful new writing challenge, and the infamous TDM exclusive NaNoShip Writing Challenge is just around the corner that things will pick up very shortly. Whether you are an author, reviewer or harmless lurker, please be aware that you all play an enormous role on our site - it would cease to exist without you - but it would also cease to exist without the hard working staff behind the scenes validating stories and encouraging reviewing! We hope to see far more of you following our example and leaving some lovely feedback on our hundreds of amazing and diverse stories on TDM, because there is so much talent there to be recognised, friends to be made and if nothing else, prizes to be won that you're seriously missing out if you don't pitch in ;)
And finally, two important things to note before we end our update.
1: Validator internships are being held again. This is not an invitation only event - you can submit your own name for consideration this time around! :) If you are interested, please read the information found on the page linked below.
2: There will be considerable work done to the archive, both in design upgrades and coding upgrades by Bobby Dazzler and Insomniac in the coming weeks. If you run into any errors, or wish to give helpful feedback, please do so at admin@the-dark-mark.com :)
Now that you all know what's going on in October, we hope to see you around taking advantage of it all! Happy Halloween! :)
- TDM Validators. xx
Halloween Writing Challenge: http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/viewthread.php?tid=5599
NaNoShip09: http://the-dark-mark.com/nanoship/index2.php
Staff Applications: http://the-dark-mark.com/staff-apply.php
--anomoleigh on 01 Oct 2009 5:38 am 0 Comments
What does this mean? An OPEN Queue is the only time when the normal validation procedures with regards to submission rules are lifted! This means authors can post as many chapters to as many stories as they wish and validators will validate as quickly as they can so they can appear on the archive faster than normal! Think of it like an open call for all authors!
What's great is that each chapter submitted to the queue earns your school five points! You will of course need to be a registered member of the forums for this rule to apply :)
So, what are you waiting for! Read up on the OPEN Queue rules (via the Submission Rules) and find out all you need to know to be able to take advantage of this rare and fun time! Have fun celebrating TDM's second birthday with us by posting lots of amazing stories!
--Bobby Dazzler ((Kate)) on 01 Aug 2009 2:17 am 0 Comments
Exactly one year ago today, the administrators of TDM stayed up into the very early hours of the morning putting the last of this wonderful archive together and released it publicly to the world!
One year down the track, this archive has blown the minds of so many people, and not just for the amazing and diverse stories found upon it! When we first launched TDM, the staff had no idea just how popular it would become in the months to follow, and we have only you guys to thank for making this wonderful site survive and become the amazing archive it is today!
Twelve months is a long time for an archive to be running, and we're going to keep this one going for a much longer time of that! Right now our current validators Britt & Leigh are undergoing retraining to help keep the standard of the archive up even higher, and a few new people are undergoing validator training as well - you may or may not see them validating your stories one day down the line, only time will tell!
There's a lot of news to be found on the Forums right now because it has undergone an extensive revamp, so please read up on all the current and important TDM news that applies to the entire site right here: http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/viewthread.php?tid=4320
Thank you to everyone who has helped keep this site online, active and amazing! You're all wonderful and Happy 1st Birthday TDM's Archive! :)
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 01 Jun 2009 10:27 am 0 Comments
Hey everyone, I just found something rather upsetting, and I'm hoping that we can make a change to this shocking situation!
If you'd all be so kind as to check out the MOST RECENT list on here, you'll notice that a lot of the stories that have recently been validated only have a few scattered reviews, mostly from validators. It's a part of the validators jobs to review the stories they validate (and we would either way to be honest), so take out that from the equation and these poor authors would have next to nothing! That is shocking!!!
We have so many amazing members on this site who can put a stop to this! I'm not saying you need to read everything on the archive, but it would be very, very nice if you could take the time out of your day to even read one or two new stories and give some honest and helpful CC to our authors, especially the new ones to the site who we'd like to see stick around rather than go elsewhere for lack of reviews :(
I know you can all do it, so please, let's turn this around!
Please, please, please review some new stories and give the amazing authors TDM has some love, because there's so much talent on here that it'd be a downright shame for it to go unnoticed by nearly everyone! :(
Please remember that the more you review, the higher your chances are of winning your school the monthly Quidditch Team Award and the points that come with it, and the title of the best reviewer for the month! If you haven't joined the forum yet, you're not actually in a school and able to partake in this award, so why not join and stand a chance of winning some cool prizes as well as partaking in all the fun and games on offer over there?
Don't let our wonderful authors down! Give them some love and they will return the favour! I hope to see you all reviewing a little more very shortly! :)
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 05 May 2009 8:04 pm 0 Comments
That's right, we managed to weasel out their birthday wishes and everyone's favourite pair of red-haired, trouble-making twins have asked for an Open Queue for their birthday!
We decided to grant this to them, but not before accentuating it with the Gred & Forge Writing Prompt Challenge, as a part of the forums Gaming Month that will last the entire course of April!
What is this writing challenge, and what does it entail, you ask? Well, the boys have been having a little trouble lately, it seems. From a lack of inspiration, they've sunk into a not-so-happy mood and are looking to others to cheer them up in regards to their magnificent products.
For more information as to how you can help, see here: http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/viewthread.php?tid=3497
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 31 Mar 2009 8:55 am 0 Comments
Hello everyone!
As we all know, TDM's forums recently underwent a major change by getting rid of the site houses and reviewing teams. Because of this, we have removed the house and reviewing team allegiance option as an option on your archive profile. Unfortunate, we know, but don't worry as we have replaced these with a new option!
You are now able to select you new school allegiance in the profile options, being either Hogwarts, Beauxbatons or Durmstrang. You will only be able to choose one of these schools for yourself if you have been sorted into them via the forums. If you are only a member of our archive, we strongly recommend you head on over to the forums and join the fun that our new schools have to bring!
Also, in celebration of our new schools and the introduction of Tri-Wizard Points, validators will be awarding 5 points for each and every chapter (including one shots etc) that are submitted onto the archive to your school at the end of each month. In order to claim your reward, be sure to join the forums, get assigned a school and keep on writing!
Before we leave you all, the validators would also like to bring your attention to two important things.
1) The story donation thread: http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/viewthread.php?tid=3475
If you've ever come across a ship you want to read and find it's not here, or there are not many of them written on the archive, feel free to ask for someone to donate a story featuring the ship you'd like to read at the link above!
2) The validators have been run out of a job lately as there's a lack of stuff going through into the queue - Please keep us employed and submit stories! We love our work and hate it when we have to fight over what comes into it! :(
Have fun exploring all the benefits the new schools have to offer, and keep an eye out on the archive over the coming weeks, as the validators are working on a lot of changes around here for you all :)
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 24 Mar 2009 5:32 am 0 Comments
Goodbye to the Houses!
As of March 1, 2009, TDM will no longer have four houses, but rather three schools (Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang.) These schools have also taken the place of the two reviewing teams (the Appleby Arrows and the Wimbourne Wasps.)
In addition, TDM sadly must say goodbye to a few of its staff members on the forums. Julie (Juliet), Ty (tycoon34), Rhi (Lady-of-Dusk), Britt (brittanystacey), Hong (Hongily), and Cassy (cassyface) have all dedicated a lot of time and effort towards TDM, and we all appreciate everything that they have done. Cassy is staying on as a validator, but we still hope to see the others around the site.
But the silver-lining on all of this is that Leigh (anomoleigh), who you all probably know as a talented and friendly validator, has happily agreed to join the moderating team on the forums as a co-staffer to the Beauxbatons school.
Have you ever gotten a really good review that made you want to jump up and down with glee? Well, now you have the chance to thank the outstanding reviewers of TDM. The Reviewer Appreciation thread has been set up so that authors can give a shout-out whenever they receive a particularly wonderful review. Be sure to keep an eye out in case your name is shouted.
http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/viewthread.php?tid=3168
For more information on the changes at TDM this month, please visit this thread on the forums: http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/viewthread.php?tid=3156
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 01 Mar 2009 2:05 am 0 Comments
This means that you are allowed a maximum of seven (7) chapters/one-shots submitted to queue every 24 hours, with no more than three (3) of those chapters belonging to the same story. Remember, like always, to be patient with the validators because they are working as quickly and efficiently as they can.
We hope that you enjoyed the open queue and we look forward to reading your submissions for the Ultimate Shipping Challenge! (Information located on the forums at the following link: http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=202)
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 31 Jan 2009 7:42 am 0 Comments
Happy 6th month anniversary TDM's archive! :D
On the 1st of January, 2009, this archive celebrated it's 6 month anniversary of being born. To celebrate that fact, the admin have decided that it was time to add a new layout to the selection available for your useage :) This new layout was designed by myself with the help of Sara (who absolutely rocks!), but if you find it too dark, you can easily change it back to the other design by selecting the skin "MURDER" from the drop down menu on the skin changer :)
We hope you like TDM's new look, and who knows, there might be a few more put up soon if you're lucky... :D
Before I go, please be sure to enter the Out of the Old Writing Challenge (http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/viewthread.php?tid=2147). It'd be a real shame if you missed out on it!
So... What do you think about the new look for the archive? Like it? Loathe it? Think some changes should be made? Feel free to reply to this news blog and tell us all what you think! :D
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 05 Jan 2009 8:22 am 1 Comments
Happy New Year everybody!
From all the staff here at TDM, we wish you all the best for the new year :)
There's a new writing challenge out at the moment called the Out of the Old Writing Challenge (http://forums.the-dark-mark.com/viewthread.php?tid=2147) - feel free to enter this and win house points during our month long OPEN QUEUE!!! Yes, the validators are refreshed and rearing to go, so feel free to fill that queue up with as much as you want to, and we'll validate it all! :D
Hope you're all enjoying the silly season (or what's left of it!) and we hope to see you around here a lot more during the Open Queue! See you around! :D
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 02 Jan 2009 8:10 pm 0 Comments
Remember, these changes will not start immediately!!! Wait for Midnight, Dec 1st Australian EST before starting to follow these rules. From now until they appear on the archive the old rules are to be followed and anyone caught breaking those submission rules will get into trouble!
NEW SUBMISSION RULES!!!
(Effective immediately, midnight, December 1st, 2008, Australian EST)
On TDM, we now boast a virtually open Queue, with only a few, small restrictions to help alleviate some of the stress that may come to our validators from your collective creativity. The new Queue standards are an opportunity for our busier authors to upload a larger number of chapters/stories to be validated. You will be allowed to upload a maximum of seven (7) chapters/one-shots per day, with no more than three (3) of those uploads belonging to the same story.
There is no guarantee that the chapters you have submitted will be available on the Archive within the 24 hour mark. Please have patience, for our validators will get to them as fast as they possibly can, and please restrain from posting more chapters the following day if your previous uploads have not yet been relieved from the Queue.
OPEN Queues (those without the restrictions) are held to celebrate special occasions, whenever the validators have enough time on their hands to handle it, or during staff issued writing competitions that are held quite frequently on our archive.
Whenever the Queue is marked as 'OPEN', a notice will go up on the main index page stating that TDM is currently running an OPEN queue for story submissions. It is only during this time when the standard rules (7 chapters/one-shots uploaded within a 24 hour time frame; no more than 3 to one story) are lifted, and an author can instead post as many chapters to as many stories as they wish to, and the validators will validate as quickly as they can so they can appear on the archive faster than normally.
Anyone found abusing normal validation procedure by running their own private OPEN Queue (eg, they ignore standard submission rules and validation procedure for whatever reason and upload multiple chapters into the queue at once without it being an OPEN Queue) will get into trouble and if done more than once, the author could face suspension.
If you have any questions at all about the Queue, please contact a validator for assistance.
There are sometimes minor issues from the author's side of things that need clearing up before the validators can approve the chapter. Such occurrences usually relate to story set up issues. Validators will send out emails to authors asking for changes to be made, and will leave the chapter needing changes within the queue for a maximum of seven (7) days before the chapter will be finally rejected from the queue. Authors are strongly urged to act quickly upon receiving one of these emails to prevent their chapter being rejected, and so it gets validated faster.
Thanks once more to our wonderful interns Britt (HappySmilesVarietyHour), Cassy (cassyface), Deb (frappaholic) and new addition Leigh (anomoleigh) for all their hard work they have done to make those rules come to life, particularly Britt who compiled all the ideas to give us those wonderful rules above.
That's about it :D Any questions, feel free to leave a comment here and a validator will get back to you!!!
--Kate ((Bobby Dazzler)) on 24 Nov 2008 11:31 pm 0 Comments
NANOSHIP 08 HAS FINALLY BEGUN!!
Yes, it is now exactly midnight, Australian EST so for exactly 30 days from this point onwards, you can now start writing your entries for this years NaNoShip 08 competition and you will become a part of TDM history!
Please be sure to offer plenty of support and encouragement to our wonderful entrants, and to follow their progress you will need to know who's successfully entered on time, so please be sure to congratulate the following people and support them over the following month!
Elysium, Insomniac, Bobby Dazzler, wicKeDwitch1316, Tycoon34, thelovinspoonful, Demonata, MirrorMask, Juliet, evanescodarknes, Bellatrix, SBSL, ilovdm, Hongily (Kuraquis on archive), Dukey-Boy, TheBrokenDoll and Fluorescent Adolescent!
Good luck to all our entrants! You can check their progress in the NaNoShip 08 Forum or by visiting the users authors page on the archive.
50,000 words, 30 days, 12 ships, 1 winner.
Let the NaNoShip 08 begin!
--Bobby Dazzler ((Kate)) on 31 Oct 2008 8:59 am 0 Comments
Hi guys! I hope you're all getting your pens and paper ready, for the much anticipated NaNoShip 08 held right here on TDM is about to begin! At midnight tonight (Australian EST), the floodgates will open to the NaNoShip competition and from that point on you have exactly 30 days, no matter which time zone you're in, to try and be the first person to write 50,000 words using one of our 12 ships on offer to make your entry a valid one for this competition.
Just recapping, those ships are as follows: Draco/Hermione, Blaise/Ginny, Seamus/Pansy, Lily/Sirius, Remus/Tonks, Teddy/Victorie, Scorpius/Lily Potter II, Dumbledore/Grindlewald, Voldemort/McGonagall, Salazar/Helga, Godric/Rowena and OC/OC (for original fiction only!)
Why not jump on board the writing bandwagon and SIGN UP today to be a part of TDM history by entering the first EVER NaNoShip competition! There are plenty of prizes to be won, and much fun to be had so please sign up right away so you don't miss out on it all! For more information about this wonderful writing competition, please go to the forums and there you will find a whole area dedicated to this competition, as well as all the help you could possibly need to complete it along with all the normal forum goodness that will never end. Good luck to you all! :)
Our ships have set sail - Has yours?
--Bobby Dazzler ((Kate)) on 30 Oct 2008 5:02 pm 0 Comments
Hi guys, please note that the Terms of Service (linked at the top of every page, and what you had to agree to when joining our archive), and the Submission Rules have been updated, and now includes the following. We're sorry for any inconvienence this may have caused, but it is vital that you all know of this new ruling that has come into effect from October 22, 2008 onwards, thank you! If you have any questions regarding this new ruling, please contact the administrators immediately at admin@the-dark-mark-.com and we will be able to assist you.
Quality over Quantity:
The Dark Mark prides itself on maintaining a high standard of quality in the writing on our archive. It is for this reason that stories may occasionally be rejected on the basis of not meeting this standard. When this occurs the writer will be immediately notified of the reasoning for the rejection and will be directed to our writing workshop areas in order to help them improve upon any problem areas in their writing.
Please understand that we do not wish to put down any authors who are rejected, and it is for this reason that we strongly recommend that once the story has been worked on, that it be resubmitted to the queue. The intention in this action is not to offend or deter authors, but the purpose of this archive is to prioritise the quality of writing over the quantity.
Frequent problem areas that result in the rejection of a story based on quality, are as follows:
- Poor Characterisation - OOC/Mary-Sues
- Poor Grammar - Spelling/Syntax/Typos/Tensing
- Cliches
*Note: exceptions in these areas are made for stories specifically intended to be a parody or satire.
--Bobby Dazzler ((Kate)) on 21 Oct 2008 10:08 pm 0 Comments
What is the NaNoShip 08?
The NaNoShip 08 is a writing competition that merges two wonderful events into the one challenge, held right here on TDM!
As many of you already know, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has been an annual event for the past 10 years and it is immensely popular worldwide. The idea behind that site challenge is to write a story consisting of 50,000 words or above during the month of November, and there are many prizes to be won under various categories.
TDM has previously held its own monthly writing competition, called the BattleShip. This was formerly held during the month of May, and it is a month where members are encouraged to write as much as they can for one of the ships on offer to help their house get the highest accumulative word count and win prizes.
Because TDM likes to be efficient, we have decided to merge the international NaNoWriMo competition that we would've been holding on here on behalf of that wonderful site anyway, with one of our own ideas which of course is the BattleShip challenge, and hence the NaNoShip 08 was born!
How do I compete?
To enter this years NaNoShip competition, you need only reply to this thread with the ship you'll enter with, then get writing!
The Ships!
To successfully enter the NaNoShip 08 competition, you must use one of the following ships located below as your MAIN character pairing. You are allowed more than one, but the main character ship must be one from the list below, otherwise your entry will not be counted in our competition.
Draco/Hermione
Seamus/Pansy
Blaise/GinnySirius/Lily
Remus/Tonks
Lily Potter II/ScorpiusTeddy/Victorie
Dumbledore/Grindelwald
Voldemort/McGonagallSalazar/Helga
Godric/RowenaOC/OC (for original stories ONLY!)
The Rules!
1. Stories can only be started at the beginning of the month. Anything written prior to that will not be counted into this competition, therefore, no old stories of yours using ships listed above will be counted. Only new stories allowed to be entered for the NaNoShip 08 contest otherwise it defeats the purpose of the entire challenge!
2. The goal of this challenge is to reach 50,000 words. Going higher than this limit is permitted as a valid entry and will benefit your houses total, but going under it will only count towards your houses overall total and put you out of the running for the additional individual prizes.
3. Stories posted for this challenge will go under the header of an OPEN Queue for the month of November. Only stories entered into this challenge may be updated as often as the author chooses to ensure that the challenge deadline can be met. Any other stories updated during this time belonging to the author must adhere to normal submission rules. Anyone found breaking this rule is automatically disqualified from all aspects of this challenge, so play nice.
4. All stories must abide by TDM's archive rules. Failure to do so results in the story not being validated.
5. This challenge starts at midnight, November 1st Australian EST and ends midnight December 1st Australian EST. This will ensure each country has exactly 30 days to complete this challenge, no matter which time zone you're in. Once this deadline has been reached, what you've got posted is what your entry consists of and that's it.
Please note that once this challenge has ended you are more than welcome to continue writing your stories and finish it on our archive, but anything posted after the deadline to the NaNoShip 08 competition will not count towards your stories statistics in this challenge.
How to post your NaNo work on the archive!
Since the point of this competition isn't to write the best novel within 30 days, but rather the most words, we have made extra provisions for the authors who do not wish to display their works to the public eye right away.
In order to successfully enter this competition, an author must post their NaNoShip 08 material over the course of the month, but they may either elect to have it hidden until it is complete/properly edited or to submit it under standard OPEN queue regulations (if the author is writing the story from start to finish and is happy with the original content.)
Stories must be posted on our archive in order for the word count to be counted and added to the scoring, but the stories do not necessarily need to be published and validated right away in order for your word count to be taken into consideration. They just need to be posted on the archive and can remain in the queue on your behalf until such a time that you're comfortable sharing them with the rest of the site.
When posting your NaNoShip material, regardless of whether you want it visible or hidden, please do the following:
1) Go to 'Add New Story' and fill out the form as you would normally.
2) Post the first segment of your writing as the official first chapter, and send the story into the queue.
3) Send a U2U to either Bobby Dazzler or Elysium in the following format:
Archive penname:
Link to account:
Story title:
Hidden or Visible:
Forum house:
The Buttons!
Below, you can find some buttons you are most welcome to use to advertise your story that it is a NaNoShip 08 entry, to inform your readers that you are partaking in it, or just to advertise the challenge and help it grow. You do not need to rehost these, just right click them, retreive the URL and paste it how you normally would in image coding to get it to appear on the archive. You are most welcome to supply your own for use as well :)
--Bobby Dazzler ((Kate)) on 15 Oct 2008 8:47 pm 0 Comments
Hello everyone!
As you all know, Halloween is coming up fast upon us! If you wish to have a bit of trick or treating fun The Dark Mark style, be sure to join up on the forum right away and let your inner demons run free on the month leading up to All Hallows Eve!
If trick or treating fun isn't your cup of tea, here is the Treat none the less. I just spent the last 4 hours rewriting the archives ToS and Submission Rules for you all and have made them nice and clear and easy to understand. There should seriously be no issues regarding ToS violations from now on, because they're a lot easier to navigate and find. The Trick? Not so much a Trick, but damn important nonetheless, and that is that you are all required to reread the lot of it to read up on all the new rules and requirements, and to make it so my time wasn't wasted and the validators don't have to deal with as many ToS violations in the queue. We're aiming to get it running a lot smoother, and in doing so we need your cooperation from the authors side of things, so please, if you could read up on all the new rules and requirements and obey their guidelines from now on, it'll make everyone's time on TDM a lot more productive, and the queue will run a lot smoother and faster.
Speaking of which, the queue has just been dealt both a sweet and sour card this week. Sadly, Desi (eerised) has had to leave the validators due to her school commitments and her time restraints on the computer, and because of these other important commitments she's had a hard time trying to fulfill her validator duties and pass her training, so it is with a very heavy heart that we say goodbye to her as a validator for now, but hopefully not as an author and member of TDM :) On a happier note though, after a short break with us, I'm delighted to announce that Jess (SBSL) has once more taken up her position on here as a validator. She will need to have a little bit of retraining before she's unleashed as a full validator with us once more, but it's wonderful to have her back and we all wish her the very best of luck :)
To all authors, I'd just like to say that the OPEN queue is still running if you wish to use it, but it will be ending at midnight, GMT of October 14th. If you wish to post a lot of stories, between now and then is the time to do it. Furthermore, to all those members of the Appleby Arrow and Wimbourne Wasps reviewing teams, you have until the same deadline to try your hardest to reach 10,000 reviews, or at least be the highest reviewing team, to win an amazing prize known only to the administrators! That's right, not even the staff members know what we've got in store for the winning team... Wouldn't you guys like to be the first to find out? :D Sign up on the forums to join a team then get reviewing and you could be!
Also, to every member of TDM, be sure to keep an eye out for a very important notice that will be coming out on October 15th about TWO very exciting challenges that will soon be coming to TDM! You don't want to miss it! :D If you have any questions about anything, or wish to discuss things mentioned in this thread, feel free to leave a comment – all ideas posed in them will be listened to by the admins.
Thanks guys!
--Bobby Dazzler ((Kate)) on 09 Oct 2008 4:59 am 1 Comments
I don't know how many of you have noticed this, but last night the archive breeched the 1 million word marker for our stories! How wonderful is that?! Thank you to all of our amazing authors who have contributed something to the archive in order to make this happen so far, you're all brilliant and your stories are too!
If you haven't yet jumped on the bandwagon, now might just be the best time for you to start!
From the first of October, until the 14th, The queue is going to be OPEN! This means that authors can submit as many chapters to as many stories as they like during the 14 days and they will be validated! This is a present from the validators for having reached this wonderful milestone!
But, this doesn't end here!
The validators have issued the challenge to the Arrows and Wasps to reach a collective total of 10,000 reviews during this time! The first team to reach that mark, or to get the closest to it while the Open queue is on, will receive an awesome surprise that will be announced once this is over, but rest assured, it's very amazing :D
Current Arrows Total: 506 reviews, 28 members
Current Wasps Total: 880 reviews, 28 members
(Please post in your houses pinned "archive account/link" threads so we can add your reviews to the teams totals! Don't let the team down!!)
So, we hope you like our present and the challenge we've issued to you all! The queue is OPEN until midnight GMT of Oct 14 - if your stuff is still in the queue after that date, it will be validated, but until it has been the normal rules regarding validating will once again apply - and you have until that time to help bring your reviewing team to victory with this challenge! Good luck to you all with that as well!
We hope you have fun and enjoy these awesome presents and surprises! *hugs*
--Bobby Dazzler ((Kate)) on 30 Sep 2008 8:17 pm 0 Comments
