I’m grateful for the day that you found HASA and we met there! That day was a gift to SWG, though I did not know it at the time!

Ithilwen: Thank you for the reassurances that the incompetence that I felt was not so obvious to everyone else! I’m still not sure that starting an ambitious project was the wisest course of action for someone who wasn’t even a part of the fandom yet, but you are right that things turned out for the best! Hey, I guess it shows why I relate so well to the Feanorians: I often act first and think later!

I hope to soon delegate a bit more of what I am doing right now for two reasons. For one, my love in this fandom is non-fiction and research, and I have been neglecting the Reference Library for too long now in pursuit of keeping other aspects of the group running. For another, I’m now only a little over a year away from being a first-year teacher (I will be in my student teaching internship this time next year) and can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to keep up at all when I am. And, unlike school, which I can occasionally blow off when I need to (having high enough grades that if an assignment is a day late, it doesn’t dent my average in any significant way), but I won’t be able to blow off my students for obvious reasons.

Alassante: You need have no regrets for introducing That Person to the group. You can’t be responsible for her actions (and I have forgiven anything that happened as a result of her actions, as you know). It was my trial by fire, and I learned a lot about myself from it. Masochistic as it may sound, I am grateful in retrospect that I got the chance to see the darker side of fandom and find out that I could handle it and everything turned out okay. Especially now that SWG is big enough to be subjected to the occasional offhand snarkiness (which inevitably, it seems, finds its way to me through the grapevine), it makes it easier to just let those sorts of remarks roll off of me. I keep my doors open to everyone, and if people choose not to take advantage of that when there are problems *shrug* There ain’t much I can do about that!

I doubt I would have been involved in the TBB incident if it had been a year earlier simply because I am totally guilty of provoking that one. I had (and still have) no interest in the cesspits that are the ff.net forums and would never have gone to the TBB forum if not for the threats that she made against a near and dear friend of mine and which I felt compelled to stand up against. It snowballed from there, and I do not regret it one bit; her little “smug award” showed her colors, not mine. Actually, the snarky bitch in me remembers that weekend very fondly since I had been so disgusted by her behavior for for so long, but we didn’t travel in the same circles, so I never had the chance to speak up about it in any way that wasn’t an echo-chamber with likeminded people.

The January 2006 incident…well, I blame myself for introducing that person to the group in the first place and how I handled the situation (poorly). You and I have discussed this at length. I’m so glad it didn’t derail you from creating the archive.

I’m sorry that this labor of love has caused you creative distress. It’s hard to make a balance. A lot of the archive owners seem to suffer because of it. I’m glad you gained your confidence to withstand the crap that goes along with it though. It sounds like that if you had been labeled as a ‘Smug’ writer by a ‘hater’ in the fandom a year earlier it could have affected you much more. That ended up backfiring on her since you and the others took the ’smug’ label with humor. I’m not sure I could have handled it so well.

SWG is a good place for all of us. I’m glad that I started posting on the archive and the yahoo group. Despite the controversies and dramas in this fandom, it’s nice to know that there is still a place to post my Silm fic where that will actually get read. And I’ve made a lot of friends there.

Happy (belated) begetting day!

Of course, I was a complete n00b in the fandom and really not qualified to be taking on such an ambitious project.

Given the success of the project, that’s an obvious untruth.

I am sad to hear that running SWG has sapped so much of your own creative energies. Is there any way you could delegate some more of the day-to-day stuff to others, to free up a bit more time for your own writing projects (at least until you can wrap up your schoolwork)?

I had been reading HoMe10 and 11 and that seemed to be it: I had NO idea that there was such a thing as fanfiction or that there could be somebody else interested in the Silm so imagine my ellation when I discovered that there were people who were actually interested in discussing why Maedhros had been left dangling rather than being rescued. I felt like I had found the password to the Cave of Wonders – which I didn’t even imagine existed. 2006 will be remembered forever as the Silmfic year !

And for July, I’m sure Pandemonium will share another of her premium bottles of Serce Valaron!

(So what site did you end up on with your “Maglor” search? The SWG archive didn’t open till June of ‘06–June 6, 2006, or 6/6/06, which always amused me–so I know you didn’t end up with us. I could cheat and look at when you joined the Yahoo! group, but I won’t. )

Come summertime, there will be much opportunity for lifting the lead balloon and getting done the many things I’ve put off due to school (not least of all getting more references and maybe more newsletter columns) … and of course, we have a birthday in July.

So a toast to friends made, people met, stories written, generally great times shared which wouldn’t exist without your timely insomnia!

And as regards, “the lead balloon”, we’re here to help you lift it.

Rhapsy:

And we didn’t made things easier for you with every commenter having their fav character, fav bits. Folks bouncing to get an update and all? I do look back at that time with fondness, it just had something. I also met folks that way that are friends still!

Believe me, that made all the positive difference for an insecure young writer! I remember it with fondness too. It was so cool how many people I met through that story, many who are friends still today! I often tell Bobby that AMC may well be the most important story (to me personally) that I ever write for that reason alone and because it really marked a turning point for me as a writer.

Oshun: Are you kidding me? She who writes an essay for us every single month thinks she needs to do more??

The newsletter is always mentioned as one of the things people love most about the group, and trust me, people don’t love it because they enjoy my nattering in the News section. I have you and the other contributors to thank for that!

Thank you for thinking the site is nice-looking too! About a year after I opened it, someone made an offhand remark about how, now that the site was up and running, I might do more to make it look nice. Ouch! At the time, the site was the pinnacle of what I could do as a web designer. (It took me an hour just to make the stupid logo, for pity’s sake.) I’ve since done much more prettified sites (MPTT’s main “Arda” layout probably being the most advanced) but still tend to personally prefer a cleaner design with minimal graphics.

And pimpage is so appreciated. This is my weakness as a site owner, that I still don’t like to talk about what I’m doing with my projects much less ask people to be a part of them. I always put off promotions till last and so they usually don’t get done at all.

Spiced Wine: Thank you! I have to smile whenever I hear that SWG is [one of] the achives with the best quality work because one thing that I insisted upon when I started it was that there would be no judgment placed on quality (or content, genre, rating) of stories or authors. Everyone was welcome, even if their writing was crap. Can I gloat a little that we’ve gotten such wonderful stories and talented authors without complicated vetting schemes that only piss people off and stifle creativity?

Thank you too for getting the word out about the group. As I told Oshun, I usually don’t get to this myself since it’s not something that I like to do, so I really appreciate those of you who rec, promote, and nominate stories and essays there!

Pandë: In 2005, I would not have dreamed I’d be writing Tolkienian fan fiction, let alone any fan fiction

Rewind a year to ‘04 and I was right there with you.22-year-old me was such a serious writer and would have been mortified that 28-year-old me spends her time on writing and websites about Elves. Of course, 22-year-old me quit writing for almost two years while 28-year-old me is chomping at the bit for this semester to end so that she can get back into it! So I wonder which outlook was really the best for one who calls herself a writer.

I marvel, too, sometimes at the collateral benefits I’ve enjoyed from running a website: the friends I’ve made and, yes, also the confidence to know that I want to do something that involves literature and writing. It’s funny how insomnia on the Ides of March can end me sitting by the River Liffy in Ireland with a friend from halfway around the world or in university doing a degree I swore I would never do … but there ya go.

That it impinges so much on your writing breaks my heart, too, especially because it was your writing in the first place that drew me into trying my hand at fan fic myself.

It really is a catch-22 in many ways. I have much less time for writing if I keep SWG at the level it is now. But then, having SWG at the level it is now and getting to interact regularly with intelligent and talented people who are also writers is really the reason that I have so much that I want to say in the first place. It reminds me of that song “Love and Marriage” (which I skated to once upon a time, so it’s not that random that I would be thinking of it! ): “You can’t have one without the other.” A lot of my frustration, too, comes from being so busy with school and this pain-in-the-ass job that takes so much time with so little reward.

If I may, I’ll take the opportunity to thank you for the marvelous community and archive you have built. In 2005, I would not have dreamed I’d be writing Tolkienian fan fiction, let alone any fan fiction, and the SWG proved to be a good fit for me in so many ways, not least of which is rubbing elbows with excellent writers who continue to challenge and inspire me to improve my craft and who often spark my own imagination with theirs.

The SWG has made a very positive impact on my life personally and professionally. Personally, in that I have met so many bright and affable people through the SWG (including some – present company included – in meat space) and professionally, in that dabbling on the SWG bolstered my confidence to try another career path (regulatory medical writing) when principal investigators’ positions in drug discovery have all but dried up. So I raise my virtual glass of serce valaron in salute and celebration!

If I am being totally honest, there are times when I have considered giving it up.

Understandably. Positions that require considerable work and responsibility but that are voluntary can be onerous at time (as a former trustee/treasurer for a condo association for 3 years, I can empathize). That it impinges so much on your writing breaks my heart, too, especially because it was your writing in the first place that drew me into trying my hand at fan fic myself. The way the SWG is managed so well speaks to the stellar efforts of the co-mods and to you especially as the founder/proprietor, but if there are ways we help lift the lead balloon, let us know!

I recommend and link to SWG authors and the site. I consider it the highest quality archive of Tolkien fanfiction on the ‘net and the essays and character biographies are superb.

Take care and all the best for the future of SWG.

I know I can be a big pain in the butt also. Sorry for that! If I get my personal problems of access to my computer and time sorted out later this year, I will try to do more to help on a practical level. I truly have no idea what I would do without the SWG.

Also, I think it is the with no close second the best looking, most easily read, and inclusive of any site I have ever participated in.