Thursday, May 26, 2011

Please read, we're still behind

We're at -$333 which means we have 22% of March, and all of April & May to cover, and the June bill will soon come due. HASA depends on member & reader donations to pay hosting fees.

The hosting fee pays for the dedicated server we need to host our content -- all the features and fun visitors love - stories, comments, forums, alerts, challenges and more. Thanks to recent donations we're $25 better than we were this time last month, but we shouldn't be running this far negative for this long. It would be best if we were positive. Please support HASA so our great stories can remain online and accessible.

One way we can do that is subscriptions. Currently we have two monthly and two annual subscriptions. It would be great if we could have more! I would be pestering you less. The monthly hosting fee for HASA is $150. There are now three ways to donate to our PayPal account, one time donations and monthly or annual donations.
Donation buttons are on the home page (one-time donation only), all story list pages and on the Donations page. If you haven't donated yet to help support HASA, please consider doing so; any support will be timely and greatly appreciated. HASA gets a lot of traffic and offers many great stories and features.

If you're a little short on spare change at the moment, donations of time are always appreciated. There's an archive full of stories just waiting for comments, authors who would dearly love an email complimenting them on their work, challenges that need entries, playlists that need to be created, and forums begging for discussions. If you are a reviewer, check out a story today. If you aren't a reviewer, no better time than now to sign up. If you are an author, please consider donating a new story.

Thanks for enjoying HASA!

Julie

Monday, May 23, 2011

HASA How-tos - May 2011

This month's HASA How-to tells you how to customize My Stuff and update your profile.

How do I...

... use the Forums?

In this How-to you will learn what My Stuff is and some of what you can use it for.

What is My Stuff for?

As the name says, it is where you will find your own stuff. Here you can manage your profile, add and update stories, see reviews, send alerts, and other activities.

How does this area work?

When you sign up as a member on HASA, you automatically get a My Stuff section. You have to be logged in to see your information. You use My Profile to manage the information in your profile.

There are other areas in My Stuff, such as My Stories and all of the related activities. My Stories is where you create and manage your stories. You may add as many stories as you like to the database. In the reviews section, authors who submit stories for review and members who perform reviews can see the reviews given and received.

There are the promotional tools, all gathered in the My Readers section. The links to Forums, Playlists, Workshops and Challenges all go to pages where you can take care of things in those areas.

Now, though, we will only look at how to update your profile and customize the pods in the main and righthand columns

How do I update my member profile?

  1. Log in.
  2. Click on "My Profile" in the main navigation drop down menu.
  3. On the main My Profile page, you will see all of your profile information displayed in boxes. In the main column are member info and personal web links. On the right you find login info, author name, whether or not you’re a reviewer, and your beta reading info.
  4. Click the "Edit" button on any box to update that part of your profile.

You can give as little or as much information as you’re comfortable with; for instance, while there is an option to display nationality or where you live, this isn’t obligatory.

How do I customize My Stuff?

The My Stuff home page comes with a set of pods that you can add to and arrange on your My Stuff home page.

  1. Log in.
  2. Go to My Stuff home.
  3. Click on the "Customize Page" link in the navigation column on the right.
  4. You now see a page where you can select one or more pods for the main column and the side column of the My Stuff home page. Detailed instructions for adding the pods are on the page.
  5. After you add pods, you can set an order to them.
  6. Return to the home page and do final adjustments for how many records to show in each pod.

Have fun!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

HASA Reviewed Stories May 2011

Since the previous Bulletin, 6 stories have been reviewed and there are currently also 6 stories in review. Make an author's day and review a story! New submissions are of course welcome as well!

As I type this, there are 6 stories waiting to be reviewed (remember to log in before you follow the link).

Member participation is crucial for reviews. The more people are involved in reviewing, the more different opinions are represented. Just as importantly, having more people involved means that stories pass through review more quickly - which is good for everyone. If you are an active reviewer, why not go and check out a story?

Or, if you are a writer, take the plunge and submit a story for review (and when you do, remember: Put one in, take one out).

By submitting a story for review, you are asking nine other members to read and evaluate it. So why not do for the other authors who have a story in review what you'd like other reviewers to do for you: check out one of the stories already in review and give it a read.

Becoming a reviewer
If you're not an active reviewer, but think you can spare a bit of time... - even if you just review one or two stories in a month, every review is welcome. If you are logged in, you can sign up here if you've been a member of HASA for thirty days or more.

Daunted by the idea of reviewing? Don't worry, reviewing at its simplest comes down to asking yourself: "Would I recommend this story to someone?" Then, whether the answer is 'yes' or 'no', you can make a choice from the capsule reasons to clarify your decision. If you want to, you can add a few more words to convey what you (dis)liked about the story, but just the capsule reason is perfectly fine as well.

And remember: even if you think you're too critical or not critical enough: your review is only one of nine, and all points of view are welcome. Not every reviewer has to review every story and in the end it does all level out to a balanced judgement.

Reviewed story spotlight
These stories have passed through review since the previous bulletin. Congratulations to all authors; well done!

Full Circle by Vaysh
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 4th Age
Summary: Five times Sam spoke to Frodo after Frodo left for Valinor. (five drabbles)

Amid the Powers and Chances of the World by Azalais
Rating: General
Genre: Romance
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: "Men..should have a virtue to shape their lives, amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of the Ainur, which is as fate to all things else" (Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter 1). A mortal woman is brought to Rivendell for healing in the summer of 3018, and thus becomes entangled with ...

Light from the West by Armariel
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 4th Age
Summary: In the Blessed Realm, Frodo discovers he can talk to Sam through his star-glass, and uses it to tell his friend of his life in the West.

Last Stroke by Elena Tiriel
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - Ring War
Summary: 'The Corsairs of Umbar!' men shouted.... 'The Corsairs are upon us! It is the last stroke of doom!' Drabble: What might have come to pass....

Gundabad by Lindariel
Rating: General
Genre: Drama
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: "Anyway by mid-winter Gandalf and Bilbo had come all the way back, along both edges of the Forest, to the doors of Beorn's house; and there for a while they both stayed." The Professor doesn't tell us much about Bilbo's return home from Erebor in the company of Gandalf and Beorn. ...

After Sunset by Adonnen Estenniel
Rating: General
Genre: General
Era: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Summary: After her parents' deaths, Éowyn finds it hard to adjust to her new life in Edoras. Constant nightmares plague her sleep, and with her brother too busy to spend as much time with her as he used to, the little girl must find a new source of comfort.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Consider giving a gift to HASA on your birthday - one day of stories for all visitors.

What would your gift give? Here are some numbers: HASA's hosting expenses are about $5 per day. A $5 donation will provide a full day of story reading - that is about 700 chapters, viewed over 1,000 times (some chapters are viewed more than once). And that's just counting stories! Every day, hundreds of other site pages are clicked, from authors in My Stuff, to members in the Forums, to more readers in the Playlists, Resources and Reviews.

Be a good Hobbit and give a gift to all of your fandom friends on your birthday, or become a subscriber. It will be much appreciated.

If you're a little short on spare change at the moment, donations of time are always appreciated. There's an archive full of stories just waiting for comments, authors who would dearly love an email complimenting them on their work, challenges that need entries, playlists that need to be created, and forums begging for discussions. If you are a reviewer, check out a story today. If you aren't a reviewer, no better time than now to sign up. If you are an author, please consider donating a new story.

Thanks for enjoying HASA!

Julie

HASA news - Birthdays, stories

May birthdays and links to the stories written or updated in April.

May Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in May, and would you like a drabble about your favourite character or topic? You can request it here.

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at stories written for previous requests.

April Stories

All of us writers love feedback. It is the lembas and miruvor that sustains us as we write our story, and leaving a few words about a story you read is always a nice thing to do, whether the story is new or old.

Every fifteen minutes HASA highlights a story chosen at random from the Reviewed and General stories in the archive. Read the currently featured story on our front page.

Many talented writers are publishing every day. In April:

(Please note, you need to be logged in to view beta stories.)

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!

~Nath ~

Sunday, May 1, 2011

HASA news - Challenges

In this week’s news: birthdays, current and prospective Challenges, and the Nuzgûl of the Month.

Birthday Challenges

The April Birthday Challenge has just finished, though I’m sure the April birthday babes won’t mind a very late drabble.

The May Birthday Challenge has just opened, and we already have one request. Feel free to add your own request if your birthday is in May, and/or start writing if you’re feeling inspired.

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at the stories already written this year.

Current and closing Challenges

There are no closing challenges this month.

Prospective Challenges

Challenges are born from Prospective Challenges, and the Prospective Challenges Forum is where you’ll find out what other people would like to spring on unsuspecting authors... If you have any ideas you want to share, why not head over to the Challenges Forum; or be inspired by what is already there and pick up an older idea instead?

Nuzgûl of the Month

Just as Challenges come from Prospective Challenges, Prospective Challenges come from Nuzgûl, and Nuzgûl need attention to grow from tiny ideas into big stories. Step into the Nuzgûl hutch. The bunnies don’t bite (much). And who knows what ideas you may come out with?

The Nuzgûl of the Month!

May’s Nuzgûl will be: Heroes and Demons.

Come on over to the Nuzgûl of the Month Workshop and join in the fun.

Other news - donations
First, thank you to everyone who donated after last week’s appeal. It is much appreciated, and helps to keep HASA going.

However, we’re still over two months’ worth in the red, so please consider donating in May if you haven’t done so recently. Every little bit helps, even if you can only give $5.



Thank you for reading at HASA. Have fun!