28%Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
- Contact Information- Archive Rules
- Help
- Most Common Questions
General Questions- Do you accept Insert You or Reader Insert fan fiction?
- Do you accept CYOA stories?
- Can we reply back to the accept / decline e-mails?
- Do you have a mailing list?
- Are Insert you blanks okay here?
- Do you accept stories with sex in it?
- Are stories with Original Characters allowed here?
- Are stories censored here?
- Do you accept stories with swearing in them?
- Do you allow single chapter author notes?
- What's wrong with shorthand?
- What HTML tags do you allow?
- Do you allow pictures in stories?
- Why hasn't my story been reviewed yet?
- How do you choose your monthly features?
Account Questions- How do I get my fics on here?
- I didn't get my password! What happened?
- What does "validated" mean?
- Why haven't I been validated yet?
- I lost my password, what do I do?
- Can I change my user name?
- Why do you delete unused accounts?
- I haven't posted a story in a long time, is my account going to be deleted?
Questions about Stories, Categories, and Characters- I just posted my story, why won't it show up?
- What rating system do you use?
- You don't have the characters or category I need, what do I do?
- How do I post a new story?
- How do I edit my story?
- Can I change the order of my chapters?
- How do I add a new Chapter?
- What are series?
- Can I post my own Challenges?
General Questions_______
Q: Do you accept Insert You or Reader Insert fanfiction?
Answer: Yes, we do. =) When you go to upload them, be sure you choose to choose Insert You or Reader Insert in the Story Type menu. We also have "You" and "Reader" available as characters.
Q: Do you accept CYOA stories? What do you consider a CYOA?
Answer: Yes, we accept true CYOA or "Choose Your Own Adventure" fan fiction. We define "true CYOA" as stories that offer you choices of where the story goes, rather than just what your character looks like. We enjoyed reading these types of stories as kids and see no reason why CYOAs should be refused. Just be sure you choose CYOA in the Story Type menu.
Q: Can we reply back to the accept / decline e-mails?
Answer: Yes, you can. Please make certain you have the original message quoted so we can tell what story or e-mail you're talking about.
Q: Do you have a mailing list?
Answer: We don't have one set up at this time.
Q: Are stories with Reader Insert blanks okay here?
Answer: Yes, they're okay. =) Do them however works best for you.
Q: Are stories with sex in them okay?
Answer: Stories with sexual content are fine here. The fact is, 99% of the lemons out there are no worse than harlequin romance novels you find at your local grocery store and are actually pretty tame / non-explicit.
Just be sure you rate your story appropriately and include any warnings you think match your content.
Q: Are stories with Original Characters allowed here?
Answer: Yes, we do. 90% of the time characters and characterizations play a only small role in our decision to allow a story in. It will only begin weighing against you if your story has a really obvious Mary Sue or Gary Stu; or, if you have other problems with your spelling or grammar.
Q: Do you accept stories with swearing in them?
Answer: Swearing is fine, especially when used in dialogue. We frown on swearing in the actual story body, but we won't penalize or censor you. The most we might do is adjust your rating or warnings if we feel you've rated things too low. (i.e. You just dropped an F-bomb in a story rated as being safe for All ages.)
Our primary stance is that there are over 1,000,000 words in the English language for you to choose from, plus whatever you've picked up as an anime, manga, or gaming fan. Sometimes swearing is completely unnecessary, other times it is absolutely necessary. Since you know yourself and your story the best, we have chosen to allow you to determine when those times are.
As with everything that might be considered objectionable, please rate your story appropriately and include any warnings if necessary.
Q: Do you ever censor stories?
Answer: No, never. The most we might do is adjust your rating or warnings if you've rated things too low, but we will never censor you. If swearing or other questionable content disturbs you, we have plenty of material that contains nothing questionable.
Q: Are single chapter author notes okay here?
Answer: Yes. =) We encourage you to be prudent about where you put them, but otherwise we don't care.
Q: What's wrong with shorthand?!
Answer: These go by so many names, it's difficult to give the proper term everyone will understand. These are abbreviations used by people in chat rooms and online games to stand in for words or whole phrases. They're known as chat lingo, shorthand, chat slang, internet abbreviations, dude speak, and others.
So what's wrong with them? Well, aside from the fact these are not proper English or even considered good spelling? These are stories; not chats or games where speed and brevity are more important. If you're writing a story, you have plenty of time to properly write full sentences. We're attempting to run an archive for high quality stories. Unless you're using chat lingo in dialogue to make a character come across a certain way, using shorthand is really a lazy way to write.
Some common examples would be substituting "u" for "you", "r" for "are", "ur" for "your", "thx" for "thanks", "plz" for "please", "b4" for "before", "ppl" for "people", "becuz" for "because" etc.
Q: What HTML tags do you allow?
Answer: We allow , ,
,
,,, , , ,, ,,
,
,, and
.
Q: Do you allow pictures in stories?Answer: No. The only place we allow thetag is inside your author bio.
Q: Why hasn't my story been reviewed yet?Answer: I'm really sorry, but this archive is small and not as well known as some of the larger archives. =( If you need a certain amount of reviews before you feel you can continue this archive might not be the best place for you. Otherwise, about all I can say is try to advertise your fic everywhere you can.
Q: How do you choose your monthly features?Answer: We choose our features based on nominations first. You can nominate a story, author, challenge, or even suggest we feature an anime or manga title.
If no one makes any nominations, we will make the choice based on the available fan fiction in the archive.
Accounts_______
Q: How do I get my fics on here?Answer: You have to have an account to post stories on this archive. To join, you have to have a working e-mail address. You first password needs to be sent to you, so if you put in a fake one, you won't be able to join.
Q: I didn't get my password when I signed up. What happened?Answer: Okay, that generally means one of two things: Your e-mail address wasn't valid or some sort of spam protection is blocking the welcome e-mail.
With some companies like AOL and SBC, you can choose to only allow people already in your address book to contact you. If you're using one of these companies, you might want to temporily disable your protection just long enough to request a new password and then turn it back on once you're in.
Q: What does "validated" mean?Answer: We use the word "validated in two ways. One to refer to stories that we've "validated" on the moderation queue. It's just a fancy way of saying a story was approved. The other way is to refer to authors. A validated author simply means that person has permission to skip the moderation queue so their stories post immediately.
Q: Why haven't I been validated?Answer: We only validate authors who we trust, already know have good writing skills, or have proven their writing skills through repeated submissions. If we haven't validated you, it probably means we don't feel we know your writing skills well enough yet.
Q: I lost my password, what do I do??Answer: First of all, DON'T make a new account. Try using the Lost password link or contact us for help.
Q: Can I / How do I change my user name?Answer: You can't, but we can. =) All you have to do is ask.
Q: Why do you delete accounts after three months?
Answer: One of the things that irritate me is when people create accounts and then not use them. It's a waste of space and server resources, in my honest opinion. Not only that, but in recent months I've found hackers creating accounts in order to try to exploit my Web site. I feel that three months is plenty of time to post at least something you've written.
We usually delete unused accounts at the beginning of each month, usually within the first two weeks. I try to let these members know their accounts are going to be deleted at least a week ahead of time in order to give them one last chance.
Q: I haven't posted a story in a long time, is my account going to be deleted?
Answer: NO! ^^; Once you have at least 1 story posted, your account is safe. We only delete accounts that have not posted anything at all since they joined.
Stories, Categories, and Characters_______
Q: I just posted my story, why won't it show up?
Answer: These Archives are moderated. That means that every story that people post on here has to be looked at by the Admin before it'll show up. Be patient and we'll eventually check it out. ^_^
Q: What ratings system do you use?Answer: Due to the MPAA's decision to begin sending out Cease and Desist orders to any archive that uses their G - NC17 ratings system, we are using a new system to rate stories. It's very simple and based on age.
They are as follows:All - Suitable for all ages. The story should not contain anything questionable at all.
Youth - Suitable for children 6 years and older. The story can have minor action violence without serious injury, some very minor gross things, but it shouldn't contain anything truly questionable.
13+ - Recommended for teens, 13 years and older. It may have some violence, coarse language, crude humour, mildly suggestive themes and overtones, and mild references to drugs.
17+ - NOT suitable for children or the sensitive; recommended for age 17 and up. Stories with this rating may contain strong but non-explicit adult themes, violence, drugs, and strong language. Please refer to the story warnings for more information.
Adult - The story is only suitable for mature adults. You might find explicit sexual content, graphic depictions of violence, and more. Stories with this rating are hidden due to graphic content. To read stories with this rating, viewers must be logged in and agree to the age waiver located in their user profile. Please refer to the story warnings for more information.
Adult + - This rating should only be used when absolutely necessary. This is the highest possible rating for a story. Stories with this rating are hidden due to graphic content. To read stories with this rating, viewers must be logged in and agree to the age waiver located in their user profile. Again, please refer to the story warnings for more information.Please note that it's up to the authors to choose their own rating. We don't rate stories for them, though we do encourage authors to be conservative and rate higher if they're in doubt. Warning boxes appear on stories rated [13+] and up, giving a brief warning regarding the story's content.
If you feel that a story has been rated inappropriately, please e-mail us at princess[AT]castleoflions.com or use our Contact Form and let us know. If you do this, please supply the URL of the story and let us know why you think it was rated incorrectly.
This system was borrowed with permission from the Lunaescence Archive.
Q: You don't have the characters or category I need, what do I do?
Answer: You e-mail us and ask. ^_^ Be sure to also let us know what characters you'll initially need.
Q: How do I post a new story?
Answer: When you first log in, you'll be taken to your Account screen. "Add Story" is the first option. =)
The only thing that might be confusing is selecting the category. Simply click on the drop down menu and choose from one of the main categories. Click on it and let the menu close. Reopen it and you'll see the subcategories. Click on the one you want, and let the menu close again. When you're happy with the category, click "Select" to add it to your story. You can go back to the main listing by selecting "Back to the Main Menu" and then letting the menu close again.
You can repeat these steps to add other categories for Crossovers. =)
Q: How do I add a new chapter? Can I change the order of my chapters? How do I edit my stories?
Answer: When you first log in, you'll be taken to your Account screen. "Manage Stories" will be the second option down from the top. That screen will allow you to add chapters or edit your existing stories.
The chapter controls will be at the bottom of your screen, and will allow you to edit a chapter, change the order it appears in your story, or remove it completely.
Q: What are series?
Answer: A "series" is a set of linked stories.
You can add a new series from your account screen; it should be the third option down. Simply fill it out like you would for a story.
To add stories to it, go back to your account page and click "Manage Series" -- this should allow you to add stories to your series.
Q: Can I post my own Challenges?
Answer: Yes, you can! ^_^ You can set the rules in the summary or create a temporary rules post -- do it however works the best. Just be sure that the rules post eventually gets deleted to save space.