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Snape/Granger Archive


Various fandom and original works Archive


General Harry Potter Archive


Death Eater Archive


Severus Snape Archive


Malfoy Family Archive


Slash Archive


Remus Lupin Archive


FAQ/Help

Submission Rules
User Help
Archiving Help
Known Script Errors
Contact Email
Credits and Site Information


Submission Rules:

Each chapter from an unvalidated author is individually read and screened for quality by the Admin staff.

  1. Age Restrictions: Sycophant Hex does not accept stories from underage writers. We host adult content that is not appropriate for minors and such we will no longer take submissions from them.


  2. Content: All submitted stories will be checked to ensure they have been placed in the correct archive. If they have not, a 'No Letter' will be sent asking the author to resubmit the story to the appropriate archive. Stories will be rejected if the canon characters are so OOC (Out Of Character) that they cannot be recognized.


  3. Plot/Story Development: Each chapter will be read to make sure that, at a minimum, it is internally consistent. Readers expect stories to make sense and develop in a steady and coherent fashion. Beta readers are strongly recommended for any problems in plot development and will help any author keep on track.


  4. Language: Our primary readers are adults; therefore, the language of all submissions to Lumos must be at an appropriate level. Our readership expects fully developed works of prose or poetry whose style is reasonably sophisticated. Stories using Netspeak, computer chat abbreviations, or (except in dialogue) colloquial language will not be accepted. Also, when writing, it is important to stretch beyond a primary or grammar school level. A variety of words describing scenes or objects makes for a more exciting story and is more likely to grip readers’ attention. The website http://www.thesaurus.com is a good resource for expanding your vocabulary. We also encourage authors to use a broad range of sentence structures.


  5. Punctuation: Correct punctuation--particularly commas, quotation marks, and apostrophes--is a must for acceptance. Infrequent or minor errors will be noted and a letter sent to the writer asking for changes before validation. Stories with frequent or significant problems in these areas will not be accepted.


  6. Grammar: Each chapter is checked for grammar. Infrequent or minor errors will be noted and a letter sent to the writer asking for changes before validation. However, chapters containing frequent or major errors that in our judgment would distract a reader will not be accepted. Major errors include problems with noun-verb agreement, verb tense, syntax (word order), or usage. In those cases, the writer will receive a letter explaining why the chapter was rejected and advising the use of a beta reader.


  7. Dialogue: Dialogue grammar and punctuation must be correct for acceptance. Frequent or consistent errors will result in rejection, possibly without the chapter even being read in its entirety. There are very specific rules about the correct formatting of speech. They are as follows:


    8. All spoken dialogue is placed in quotation marks (double inverted commas). The attribute (explanation of how the dialogue is spoken) is generally linked to the rest of the sentence thus:

    1. "It’s a very hot day," panted Hermione. (Note the comma within the quotation marks.)


    2. "What did you say?" asked Hermione. (Note the question mark within the quotation marks and the lower case beginning of the attribute.)


    3. Severus said, "We did not expect to see you here, Miss Granger." (Note the comma after the attribute and the capital letter introducing the spoken sentence.)


    4. There is only a comma within the dialogue when it is linked to direct speech attribution. If the speech is followed by action, or other descriptor, then there is no comma. Here is an example:


    5. "I hate you!" She glared furiously at him. (Glaring has nothing to do with the act of speaking.)


    6. And another example:


    7. "That is all I have to say." She turned away and walked to the door without another word. (Full stop here because there is no speech attribution.)


    8. Split dialogue:


    9. "What did you say? Are you telling me," he gasped, "that you are pregnant?" (The second speech fragment begins lower case because the sentence is split.)


    10. "What?" he shouted. "You are pregnant? How the hell did that happen?" (The speech attribution separates two complete sentences here.)

  8. Spelling: Each chapter must be spell checked even if a beta has read it - beta readers make mistakes too. Depending on the severity and frequency of misspellings, a writer will either receive a letter asking for corrections before validation, or a letter explaining that the chapter could not be accepted.


    1. Canon spellings: Correct spellings of canon names, places, and object are crucial for acceptance! Consistent misspelling of canon names will result in immediate rejection. Please take the time to read through your chapter before uploading to ensure canon spellings are correct. Names of characters, spells, magical items, and fictional places can be verified in the books or at the Harry Potter Lexicon and added to your spell check program.


      2. The proper names and incantations of all spells, curses, and hexes must be capitalized. If a potion is not a JK Rowling potion, it can be spelled in lower case only if it is a type of potion, not the actual name. It is best when making up potions to use the title as the name of the potion and capitalize it. (For example, burn-healing paste and boil cure potion aren't capitalized, but Aging Potion and Blood-Replenishing Potion are capitalized.)

  9. Length: Story length must be at least five hundred (500 words) if it is a chaptered length story. Short one-shot stories and drabbles are allowed to be less but must be at least one hundred (100) words.


    1. 100 Word Challenge Rules: If an author has several entries to the same challenge it is asked that they be combined into one entry, as this will be easier on the Admin staff and less frustrating for readers so they do not have to weed through links on an authors page to find them all.


    2. Poetry: Poetry must contain recognizable parts of the characters if posting at one of the character focused archives. If it is vague the Admins have the right to refer you to Chaos, original works archive, for posting it there.


    3. Epilogues: Epilogues are to be at least 300 words and can be a chapter within itself. The Epilogues will need to be clearly marked so the Admins can appropriately assess submission. (This does not include Prologues they still must be 500 words or more.)

  10. Formatting: Proper formatting lets the reader view the story comfortably. Stories must fill the entire width of the page before going to the next line in a paragraph. If stories do not fulfill the requirement they are to be rejected without consideration until the author reformats it correctly and resubmits. Taking out the tags within the text box area and deleting the spaces to move the line up will solve this error. Using < p > tags will result in rejection because they change the settings set up by the Webmistress on the script, and result in your story being posted incorrectly and quite possibly illegibly.

    Double spacing between paragraphs and each new line of dialogue is required in order to make stories easier to read. A new line must also be in place when changing character point of views. Admins use their own discretion to validate, or send a letter requesting these changes and asking for resubmission.


    1. Author's notes/Scene changes: Author's notes may be included only at the top or bottom of a story and must be separated from the story text in some fashion. Lines across the page ( < hr > HTML tag) or dots/dashes should be used to indicate the difference between the story and notes from the author. When creating the lines to separate the author notes or scene changes we request it does not take more than 90% of a 800x600 screen resolution or fifty (50) character spaces across the page, if you do it may force the browser to have a horizontal scroll bar (on the bottom of the window) to enable the reader to view the complete story. You can check this by doing preview of your story when uploading. A story may be rejected for offensive or inappropriate author's notes, if author's notes are used within the text of the story itself, or if the Admin feel the separation of author's notes, and story text, is not defined. If need be, footnotes are acceptable within the story.

  11. Informational fields about stories: When filling out the information for the story/chapter, proper English is required or the submission will be rejected. This includes proper capitalization and punctuation marks. Badly spelled and grammatically incorrect summaries often discourage readers from even opening a story. Please use spell check to verify these parts as well.


  12. Uploading: We will reject stories that have more then three (3) chapters uploaded at once. (On Ashwinder we ask for only two (2) submissions at one time.) Such submissions take long periods of time for the Admins to read, and cause delay in validating other submissions.


  13. Ratings: All ratings must be appropriately marked. When Admins read a story and feel the rating is not correct, they reserve the right to change it as needed. Underage authors are not allowed to post stories beyond the rating appropriate for their age. Please do not submit adult rated stories if this rule applies to you.


  14. Warnings: All warnings must be acknowledged accordingly. Admins reserve the right to add any if the need arises.


  15. Categories: When uploading stories authors are given the choice of a category they feel will best suit their chapter, but when an Admin validates it, they reserve the right to place it in the correct category if mistakenly placed wrong.


  16. Validation time: While Sycophant Hex has numerous Admins placed around the world and in different time zones, they have other real life obligations and give time to this site for free, so please be patient. We endeavor to validate your story as soon as realistically possible. Please allow at least twenty-four (24) to forty-eight (48) hours for validation of a chapter. If you do not see your story validated or have not seen a rejection letter within this time, please email us so we may assess your story as soon as possible.


  17. Validation withdrawal: When a story is validated it is subject to removal if the quality is questioned by any other Admin. Only an Owner, Admin Mistress (in cooperation with a Senior Admin) or Senior Admin (with consent from an Owner or Admin Mistress), will be allowed to pull the story.


  18. Quality Review Panel: The Quality Review Panel exists to review works that are referred by the public as being below standard. There are five (5) members to this review panel, which will make an independent decision as to the future of a story on site. If anyone notices a story that is questionable please submit an email to the Webmistress, Admin Mistress or Public Relations Mistress so they can start the process of having it reviewed.


  19. Validated Authors: This means the author is validated to upload stories automatically without having them screened. To become a validated author you have to earn the trust of the Admins that your stories will follow the submission rules at all times. Usually to accomplish this we require three completed stories submitted without violation of Submission Rules. Exceptions will be made in extraordinary circumstances.

    If a validated author allows their story standards to fall, we will remove them from that status and screen the stories while requiring the author to fix the stories that are below the standard. In time the author can earn their validated status back.
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User Help

Registration:
To post stories the user must register, this requires a penname and providing a valid email address. Email addresses are only for administrative purposes and are not seen by users. After registering, a password will be emailed to the address provided, this is an automatic email.

Registration Problems:
If the user has not received a password by mail within twenty-four (24) hours, please check the Email Contacts and send an email to User Help.

Lost Password:
If the user has lost or forgotten their password please click on 'Lost Password' under 'Log In' and a new one will be sent to you automatically.

Your Account area:
Add New Story - this allows the user to submit a new story. It will give step by step instructions on submitting.

Add New Chapter - this allows the user to submit a new chapter to an existing story.

Edit/Delete Your Story - this allows the user to Edit or Delete a story/chapter. Within this area the user may also mark if the story is 'Completed: Yes or No'.

Edit Personal Information - this allows the user to change their real name, email address, profile, password and skin preference.

View Reviews - this allows the user to view all the reviews they have received in breakdown according to story. The user may choose to respond to any review by clicking on 'Respond' next to the review.

Manage Favorites - this shows all the favorite authors/stories the user has chosen. To select author or stories, the user must be logged in and click on [Add to Favorites] by the author name or the story title while viewing the story.

Logout - this logs the user out of their account.

Review a story:
To review a story a user will be at the story and click on, "Would you like to submit a review?" This can be found near the top of the story or most commonly the bottom of the story. The reviewer does not need to be a registered user.

Author Alerts:
Currently there are no author alerts available. We hope with a new release of eFiction that this feature will be incorporated, but until then use the Favorite Stories/Authors feature to help keep track of them.

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Archiving Help

How do I submit a story?
Log in click on 'Add New Story' choose a Category the story would fit into. And fill out the information.

What type of files do you accept?
The script currently is not set up for documents (.doc). It only accepts text files and html files. If you are using MS Word or WordPerfct and saving as HTML file it will not load correctly because the HTML those programs use are not correct.

Can I use HTML in my story?
Yes, you may use HTML in your story. A list of allowed tags are next to the text area box when uploading your story.

How many chapters should I upload at one time?
When uploading chapters please upload only three (3) maximum at a time if it is a new story. If stories are uploaded in their entirety we may reject and ask them to be uploaded in batches of three. We ask this because of the amount of submissions we receive daily. Validation would be inhibited if the Admins were forced to focus on only one story with multiple chapters uploaded at once.

My story is completed how do I tell the archive that?
Log in click on 'Edit/Delete Stories'. You will see a list of your stories. After the title and the chapters you will see 'Completed: No,' click on the 'No' and it will change to 'Yes'.

I uploaded a story/chapter and it's not appearing?
While Sycophant Hex has numerous Admins placed around the world and in different time zones, they have other real life obligations and give time to this site for free, so please be patient. We endeavor to validate your story as soon as realistically possible. Please allow at least twenty-four (24) to thirty-six (36) hours for validation of a chapter. If you do not see your story validated or have not seen a rejection letter within this time, please email us so we may assess your story as soon as possible.

The 'Reads' counter on the story is showing X amount of views or I have reviews on a newly submitted chapter, but my chapter isn't appearing yet, what is going on?
The 'Reads' counter is not always accurate when the story is still in Queue. If it shows twenty (20) do not panic, it does not mean the Admins are debating whether or not to validate or reject the story. We believe the counter counts one (1) 'Read' for each time an Admin enters Queue. Users can leave reviews for a newly submitted chapter even if the chapter has not yet been validated. There is nothing we can currently do about this.

What do the ratings mean?
G - General Audience: All ages admitted. Scenes of nudity, sex, drugs, abuse and other questionable material will be minimal.

PG - Parental Guidance Suggested: Some material may not be suitable for young children.

PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned: Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Some drug use and curse words may be used, minor briefs of nudity might be mentioned.

R - Restricted-Under 17 require accompanying parent or adult guardian: Story may include more descriptive curse words, sex or drug scenes may be more detailed.

NC-17 - No One 17 and Under Admitted: This signifies that the rating board believes that most parents would feel that the fiction is patently adult and that children age 17 and under should not be allowed to read it. Explicit sex, drug or violence may be present within the fiction. NC-17 does not mean pornographic material though.

How do I know what rating to choose?
Use your best judgment but if you are unsure submit the story and you are welcome to ask the administrators.

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Known Script Errors

AOL Users:
AOL users have a hard time receiving email from us because we have an automated email system and AOL considers it SPAM. To allow for our emails please put '@sycophanthex.com' when customizing your AOL settings.

Recently Updated/Added section:
Stories appear in the Recently Updated section of the site before the new chapter appears, this is because the author submitted the story and is not a validated author and the Admins have to validate the story before it can be seen publicly. This is a script bug and the programmer is aware of it and we hope it will be fixed during the next release.

MS Word/WordPerfect Documents:
Microsoft Word/WordPerfect documents are not accepted by the site. They will show programming lines when trying to upload, sometime in the future, we hope to have this problem solved.

Log in Timeouts:
When logged in for an extended period of time the site will log the user out and re-logging in is required. With the next release of the script the user will be allowed to keep a permanent log in with a cookie.

Mac/Apple computers:
When trying to upload on a Mac computer, the text will either appear in one big paragraph or the story will be cut in half. The browser Safari is believed to be the problem, use Netscape when trying to upload to solve the problem.

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Contact Email:

Please read the Submission Rules, Frequently Asked Questions, and Known Script Errors before submitting an email. If a question is sent and the answer is already within the FAQ/Help page, the Admin answering the email will direct the user to the correct area. When sending an email, please be sure to include the penname, archive and story title of applicable, without this information the email cannot be answered in it's entirety.

User Help: Any user needing help may contact an Admin through this email. userhelp@sycophanthex.com

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Credits and Site Information

Credits
Rivka - eFiction script
Elyse - for the use of her Severus and Hermione Craving picture

Owners of Sycophant Hex
Daya, MetaMuse, and Shem

Short descriptions of the archives Sycophant Hex offers:

Ashwinder is a Snape and Granger only dedicated archive.

Chaos is a various fandoms and original works archive.

Lumos is a general Harry Potter archive.

Morsmordre is a Death Eater related archive.

Occlumency is a Severus Snape archive, involving any pairing except Snape/Granger, which must be posted only at Ashwinder.

Pureblood is a Malfoy family archive.

Serpensortia is a slash and femslash archive.

Wolfsbane is a Remus Lupin archive.

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