Hashtags allow messages to be filtered, and also alert the admin to issues at the MEFA Archive. Please use hashtags when appropriate. General posts - no hashtag required. Discussion about MEFA history preservation - use #archive. Request to update your own story links at the MEFA Archive - use #update. Reporting a broken link for other stories, or some other issue at the Archive - use #broken. Announcements from the admin will use the #admin tag. If a new hashtag is needed, please post a request using the #broken tag.

If you are requesting an update to your own story links I will need the title, the year the story competed, and the new URL. Use the hashtag *#update* on the post. If you have found a story at the archive with a broken link, please try to contact the author first to let them know and ask them to contact me themselves (I prefer to get updates from the author, so they can give me the URLs they choose). If you get no response (give it a week or so) or if you know the author has passed away, then you can report the broken links here, using the *#broken* tag. If you know the story is located elsewhere, include the URLs. If the story location is unknown, I will just remove the links. :-( *Authors* : If your stories are currently homeless due to an archive shutting down, or you would just like to move your stories to a stable archive so you don't have to worry about them disappearing, consider using Archive Of Our Own (AO3) ( https://archiveofourown.org ) as a new home for your work. They are all about preservation of fandom history.

Well, here we are. Yahoo has given us the boot so I've created a new space to discuss MEFA things, if anyone is interested. This group will also be used for the MEFA Archive ( https://mefawards.org ) and the preservation of MEFA history. When joining the group, please make an introductory post here if you are using a different name than your MEFA fandom name, so we know who you are! Or you can just re-introduce yourself anyway, since it's been a billion years...

I have created a MEFA Discord. https://discord.gg/P5M7XeV

*What can you do to help preserve MEFA history?* * Keep your story links up-to-date at the MEFA Archive ( https://mefawards.org ) ( *#update* ), and report broken links on other stories ( *#broken* ). There is a sticky post for requesting updates and reporting broken links. * Archive your stories at a stable, long-term archive such as Archive of Our Own (AO3) ( https://archiveofourown.org ) and use that as your primary MEFA Archive link. * Help out with preservation efforts. Currently I need help with tracking down and archiving the award banners for each year of the MEFAs. If you would like to help out with this project, contact Aranel (post here or email me at araneltook@... ). * I would like to use a standardized format for filenames, so if you are organizing banners you have found, please name them in the format of [Year]-[Type]-[Main Category]-[Subcategory/Description]-[image number]. Use hyphens to separate each section. Use Upper Camel Case ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_case ) instead of spaces, ampersands, and when replacing hyphens in words. Use an underscore before the image number. Type will be "AwardBanner" or "Nominee". So for the 2005 award for the Merry & Eowyn Cross-Cultural story award, a banner for that category is named "2005-AwardBanner-CrossCultural-MerryEowyn_01.jpg". (The other banners are '02' and '03'). * I will make some folders in the Photos here at groups.io that can be used for collecting banners. * We have a Wiki here at groups.io, so if anyone has any ideas on how we could use it, please make suggestions! I was thinking of using it to make a backup to the results posted at MEFAwards.org, with a page for every year of the awards. If you would like to help with copying that info over, contact Aranel and we'll figure out a format for doing it. * Help with keeping the MEFA Fanlore Wiki ( https://fanlore.org/wiki/Middle-Earth_Fanfiction_Awards ) entry up-to-date.