https://efiction.org/2024/05/29/status-of-efiction-in-2024/

Any data between Feb 14th and today has been lost. :(

This should hopefully be the last time! 

With that said, I know some of you have some concerns over just how much our Patreon actually does for eFiction. That's why I'm writing up this forum post, as I really hope to be able to quell any and all concerns you may have. 

Q. Where does the money go? 
A. The money goes to me, Tyler Harvey. 

Q. How is the money used? 
A. The money is used for personal and business expenses, as a way to help ensure that all of my projects, including eFiction, stay updated and relevant. 

Q. How many Patreons would you need before you can reliably fund all eFiction development? 
A. To be absolutely blunt, eFiction is not a cheap endeavour. I have some rather big plans for this thing, and big plans are typically a lot more expensive than small plans. 

The amount of money I would realistically need to bring eFiction into its own self-sustained active development phase, would be about $500 per month. And even that isn't entirely self sufficient, as I would still need to pull some funds over from my main business to fund development for eFiction. 

Q. How much are you making right now?
A. As of this writing, the Patreon is making $7 per month. This covers core hosting fees to keep this site up and running, but not much else. 

Q. Do you need more Patreons? 
A. Yes, most definitely. It would be great to be able to bring in a few thousand dollars with this thing, which would more than cover eFiction's development costs, as well as to ensure that both my life (I gotta eat, sometimes) as well as my business remain functional and stable. 

We'd actually be rather set if a mere 0.05% of all website operators (those that installed and use eFiction) subscribed to our Patreon. 

Q. Does eFiction make money in any other way? 
A. No, eFiction is currently not being monetized in any way, shape, or form, though we do have plans to monetize eFiction in the future as part of a hosted platform. However, the main open source eFiction software will never have ads. 

Q. Why is eFiction development taking so long?
A. So, long story short, I lost both of my parents this year, which put a bit of a stopper on all things in my life, including my business. I also moved recently, and now live 500 KM away from where I once way. 

To say that things have been stressful, and pretty hectic, would be an understatement. Unfortunately, with my life taking an unexpected turn for the worst, I've had no real time or energy to dedicate towards eFiction. 

With that said, however, eFiction is still going to be supported, and all of my original plans of updating and modernizing eFiction, are still valid and planned. 

Q. How do I ensure that eFiction does not die?
A. Keep using it. Keep posting stories, and operating your websites. Beyond that, you can also assist financially by subscribing to our Patreon, or by ordering website hosting through DoRoyal. 

Q. I subscribed to an eFiction tier on Patreon, but didn't get my community rewards. What gives? 
A. The community rewards aren't yet active, but are still planned. In addition to the forum and backend dashboard rewards, we also intend to release a Discord server, and provide server ranks based on your supporter levels. 

I will also sell merch through Patreon as an additional perk / reward. So if you want a unique and limited-time eFiction shirt, hat, or hoodie, stay tuned for that. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I'll answer as much as I can. 

So, as mentioned in my previous topic, these forums are dealing with a fair bit of spam as of late. To help combat this, I've installed a premium anti-spam plugin that should automatically block bots before they can even access eFiction.org. So far, the plugin is doing its jobs, though it's far from perfect. Here's some information and general stats on what's going on. 

1. Over 32,000 bot accounts have been blocked from accessing eFiction.org in the last week alone. 

2. Over 3,600 spam posts and topics have been blocked in the last week alone. 

3. Over 10,000 registered accounts have been identified as a bot, and deleted from eFiction.org. We're still scanning our user list for more bot accounts, and deleting hundreds every day. 

There will be the occasional bot that manages to get through our defences. If this happens, you're encouraged to report the fake or spam account to our moderation team. 

Starting immediately, we will be removing any posts that contain links to websites or services unrelated to eFiction. This includes links that are contained within user bios, or on user profile pages. If you are presently advertising or otherwise promoting a link to a website or service that's not related to eFiction, or fan fiction in general, then you should expect for this link to be removed. 

You are still going to be allowed to advertise your own eFiction-powered websites, or any other community-focused services that may be of some value to eFiction users, such as themes, skins, mods, or scripts. Just don't expect to use our forums as a place to advertise some random betting website, or an unrelated blog about healthcare for pets. 

Simply put, if you have posted a link to an outside website or service, and that link is unrelated to eFiction or fan fiction in any way, it will be removed. Depending on the type of link, your user account may also be banned. Seriously, we will not allow gambling, betting, or any other adult-focused or themed website on eFiction.org. It's really that simple. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I'll update this thread once all of the updated rules are live. This could take a while, so please be patient. 

-Tyler

as you have surely noticed, we have switched to a brand new forum software to make it easier for us and our possible successor team. The SMF Forum was spammed to a degree that we could hardly manage. I was searching for a long time, thought about different options and finally found the possibility to install a forum software via Wordpress and to take over the old forum completely.

Your user accounts have been taken over, but it is possible that you will have to get a new password sent to you to log in successfully.

New registrations should also be possible, if I have made the settings correctly.

Now I hope that we will find a successor that will continue and modernize eFiction as an 'Open Source' project in the sense of the community, so that we all will still have a lot of fun with the script and can maintain our own archives without being dependent on the giants of the scene like fanfiction.net and archiveofourown.org. :)

Stay creative!