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Welcome to fatalfae!

Thank you to [personal profile] fatalfae, who has volunteered to take up Herald editor duties! We can enjoy her hand-crafted artisanal Buffyverse links on Mondays from now on.

This means we now have an editor for every day of the week, yay! We're no longer in urgent need of new editors.

(However, if someone is keen on joining, we could always use a backup or every-other-week editor for now.)
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Thank you and goodbye (for now) to rhymeswithlungs, and a call for volunteers!

Our Monday editor [personal profile] rhymeswithlungs is taking a Heralding hiatus of at least the next few months. We thank her for over three years of help so far, and hope that Real Life's rude demands on her time will cease soon and she'll be able to return comfortably.

In the meantime, we are looking for someone to step in as Monday editor or potentially take another day of the week. (If we end up with an extra editor after rhymeswithlungs returns, we'll figure out the schedule - we've never had too many volunteers for as long as I've been here to witness.)

Being a Herald editor means making one newsletter post a week, which may take roughly 2-4 hours depending on one's level of perfectionism. Most of the potential links come to us pre-gathered in one tidy Dreamwidth reading page. You'll also have help with turning the day's selection of links into a formatted list: you can either paste everything into our HTML template that already contains all the formatting tags, or use some alternative tools (including the fabled Pinboard!) that will do part of the pasting and sorting for you. We're happy to explain and show how everything works from the ground up. :)

To find out more, feel free to contact me (thenewbuzwuzz) on any site where you've lately seen me around or via email at thenewbuzwuzz@protonmail.com, comment on this post, or send sunnydaleherald an ask on tumblr. We'll be thrilled to hear from you, and you won't have to commit to anything until you're sure!
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Possible delays in our responses to submissions and other messages

Your friendly neighborhood chief editor is traveling and may not be able to check the relevant inboxes every day. I have asked the other editors to pick up the slack when they can, but admin tasks aren't what they signed up for, so bear with us.

Things should be back to normal by May 19th at the very latest. Until then, we might not include submissions in the next Herald post (but a later post instead) and might take a while to react to asks and other messages.

If we miss something for two days in a row, feel free to resubmit or email me directly at thenewbuzwuzz@protonmail.com. I will get to it when I can. Thank you.
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PSA: When the Herald editors will (and will not) notice an AO3 work

We love to see the variety of Buffyverse events in the past few months, and it has given us a clearer idea of the limitations in how the Herald editors find out about works posted to Archive of Our Own. So here's a summary, because I don't think we have explicitly stated how this works, and it may be useful to know.

(1) We *generally* know about new AO3 works in these fandom tags:
  • "Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)"
  • "Angel: the Series"
  • "Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)"
  • "Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Comics 1998)"
  • "Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Comics 2019)"
  • We weren't subscribed to the "Slayers: A Buffyverse Story" fandom tag until just now, but now we are.

Our track record with noticing chapter updates, however, is less consistent: we don't get automatic notifications about new chapters in an existing work, although some of us go check manually if we have time. Sometimes we link only newly completed works in the Herald and skip middle chapters of WIPs.

(2) We don't get automatically notified about AO3 works that have the lock icon (can only be accessed by logged-in AO3 users).

(3) And last but not least: if an AO3 work is in a collection and gets revealed some time after it was posted, there's a good chance we won't get a notification from AO3 about it. So it's very helpful to us when event mods (or participants) link the revealed works somewhere we'll see, for example, in the "btvs", "buffy the vampire slayer" or "angel the series" tag on tumblr or in a LiveJournal/Dreamwidth community or journal that su_herald_reading is subscribed to.

As always, things can sometimes slip through the cracks even if we theoretically should have seen them, so if you've posted something but it didn't get included in the next Herald, feel free to submit a link to us! :) (You don't need a tumblr account in order to use the submission box, and even though it asks for an email, you don't have to enter a real email address.)
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The Herald's position on AI-generated text and images

We've occasionally linked outputs of things like predictive text engines in the past, especially back when those were an interesting novelty. Now that pretty much the whole world is using ChatGPT, the time of novelty is past, and it's time to clarify where we stand. A summary of this post will be added to the Herald's FAQ for reference.
Read more... )
A very happy ritual sacrifice with pie to all who celebrate!
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Welcome to veronyxk84!

Thank you to [personal profile] veronyxk84, who has volunteered to take up Herald editor duties! We can enjoy her hand-crafted artisanal Buffyverse links on Wednesdays from now on.

This means we now have an editor for every day of the week! 🎉 We're no longer in urgent need of new editors, until one of the current editors decides to step down.

(However, if someone is keen on joining, we could always use a backup or every-other-week editor for now, and we are still looking for tumblr-only volunteers to reblog things to sunnydale-digest.)
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Thank you and goodbye to Restfield!

It's an end of an era, guys. [personal profile] restfield has been contributing to the Herald for over 8 years, not to mention she originally created the blog sunnydale-digest that we use to gather links from tumblr. She certainly taught me a lot when I joined. 💙

Enjoy your well-earned newslettering retirement, Restfield, and good luck in other pursuits!

The comments on this post will not be screened.
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Volunteers (still) wanted

A friendly reminder that the Herald could use a new editor, because one of us would prefer to step down. As the current person keeping an eye on the schedule and logistics side of the Herald, I do try to not ask for more than the editors can comfortably do, so she's free to retire even if we don't have a new volunteer yet. At that point, we'd be down to six editors for seven days of the week - something we can handle as long as it's temporary. So we're not in the direst of straits, but we could certainly use some help.

If you'd like to find out more about what it means to become a Herald editor, feel free to read our previous mod post or contact me - for example, by commenting on this post. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have, and we wouldn't expect you to commit to any responsibilities until you're sure. :)
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Call for volunteers

It's that time again! The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor.

Being a Herald editor means making one newsletter post a week, which may take roughly 2-4 hours depending on one's level of perfectionism. You don't have to manually scour the internet for links (unless you want to!) -- most of the potential links come to us pre-gathered in one tidy Dreamwidth reading page. You'll also have help with turning the day's selection of links into a formatted list: you can either paste everything into our HTML template that already contains all the formatting tags, or use some alternative tools that will do part of the pasting and sorting for you.

If that's a bigger time investment than you can commit to, consider volunteering as a tumblr reblogger instead! We are looking for two volunteers who'd be willing to spend up to an hour one day a week reblogging new Buffyverse posts to the blog we use for tumblr link gathering, sunnydale-digest.

Come join us if you like to support a variety of viewpoints and communities and do your part to help the Buffyverse fandom thrive! Contributing to the Herald or the Digest can be a fun way to keep up with new fanworks and a chance to collaborate with some friendly and knowledgeable folks on a project that has been going strong for close to twenty years now.

To find out more, feel free to contact me (thenewbuzwuzz) on any site where you've lately seen me around or via email at thenewbuzwuzz@protonmail.com, comment on this post, or send sunnydaleherald an ask on tumblr. We'd be thrilled to hear from you!
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Welcome to burnhername!

Thank you to [personal profile] burnhername for her kind offer to take up Herald editor duties! We can all enjoy [personal profile] burnhername's hand-crafted artisanal Buffyverse links on Wednesdays from now on.

This means we now have an editor for every day of the week, yay! We're no longer in urgent need of new volunteers, until one of the current editors decides to retire. (However, if someone was keen on joining, I'm sure we would find space for a backup or every-other-week editor or otherwise.)
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Good news for people who loathe HTML, don't know who HTML is, or love Python/JavaScript

As you've probably heard if you're reading this, the Herald has been at least one editor short for a few months now.

This isn't a guilt trip post, though. (We'll do that later.)

Instead, we've been thinking about ways to make Heralding easier and less time-consuming, in case that helps someone who may be on the fence about volunteering.

If you saw the phrase "HTML template" in our previous calls for editors and that was what made you decide that Herald duties aren't for you, you may be glad to hear that we've set up an alternative posting process! It's much less reliant on the ability to find one's way around HTML formatting tags, and it involves less copy-pasting and more clicking. It's pretty cool. If you're curious, we'll be happy to show you what this posting process looks like!

Or, perhaps there's someone out there who doesn't have an interest in making a weekly newsletter post but DOES have programming skills? Someone who could set up a more efficient way to get links from point A (a collection of feeds) to point B (a formatted list)? We think it might involve Python or JavaScript and maybe the Pinboard API. Everything we do here is on a volunteer basis, though, so you'd be lending us your expertise out of the goodness of your heart. [ETA: we found someone for this.]

As always, everyone, please feel free to ask us stuff and find out more about what volunteering for the Herald would be like! We don't expect anyone to commit to any duties before you're ready (or at all, if you talk to us and then decide it isn't for you). :)

If you'd like to contact us, sending me a message on Dreamwidth or emailing thenewbuzwuzz@protonmail.com are two good ways to do that. Commenting on this post should work fine too, but if I haven't replied within 24 hours, assume that spam protection ate your comment and you should try another way.
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Technical difficulties

The RSS feeds that usually provide 95% of links for the Herald are currently not working on Dreamwidth. So, although we have created a workaround, we missed some posts yesterday, and there's a chance we might miss more as we adjust.

If there was a post you particularly wanted us to signal boost and you think we might have missed it, please wait until tonight's (Sunday's) newsletter edition. If it's still not included then, feel free to submit it. Thanks for bearing with us!
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Thank you and goodbye to Gillo!

The January 26 post with the appropriate transcript quote was [personal profile] gillo's last. We're grateful to [personal profile] gillo for all her work as a Herald editor from 2012 through 2017, and for coming back for another year in 2021.

We are now six editors covering seven days of the week. This is something we can handle for a while, but we are still looking for at least one new editor. Volunteering for the Herald can be a fun and rewarding way to get your Buffy on! More on that here.
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Welcome back, fancyflautist!

[personal profile] fancyflautist, who was already a Herald editor in 2019 and 2020, has kindly agreed to take up Sundays again. Thank you, fancyflautist!

We are still looking for at least one more editor, because some of us would prefer to retire but are staying until we find a replacement. Volunteering for the Herald can be a fun and rewarding way to keep up with the fandom! If you might be interested in joining us, check out the details in the previous announcement post, and don't hesitate to contact me. :)
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Goodbye to Dreamkist, and 'tis the season to volunteer for the Herald!

Thank you to [personal profile] dreamkist for more than three years of service to the fandom!

We are now officially looking for two new editors. [Update: as of February 17th, we have all the people we strictly need right now, but we have space for at least one more in case someone wants to join us.]

Being a Herald editor means making one newsletter post a week, which may take roughly 2-4 hours depending on one's level of perfectionism and individual creative process. You don't have to manually scour the internet for Buffy links (unless you want to!) -- most of the potential links come to us pre-gathered in one tidy page, like this. We use a HTML template that formats our posts for us, so it helps if you don't loathe HTML, but you don't have to be an expert! :)

If you like to support a variety of viewpoints and communities, if you think it would be neat to try and help keep the fandom as cohesive and enduring as we can, and/or if you'd perhaps get a kick out of collaborating with some friendly and knowledgeable folks on a project that has been going since 2003, come to the newslettering side! We'd love to work with you!

To find out more, feel free to contact me on any webbed site where you've lately seen me around (or via email), or send sunnydaleherald an ask on tumblr.
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Welcome to rhymeswithlungs!

Let's give a big hand to our newest editor [personal profile] rhymeswithlungs a.k.a. [livejournal.com profile] soddin_engine, who will be covering Mondays!

We do still have space for at least one new editor if someone is interested in supporting the Buffyverse fandom by making lists of links for a couple of hours a week. If you'd like to know more, feel free to comment on this post or contact me on any site where you read the Herald or via email (thenewbuzwuzz@protonmail.com)!
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The Herald now has a Facebook page

The page at facebook.com/sunnydaleherald is going to provide a link to each new Sunnydale Herald newsletter post and a preview of the post content. Hopefully, this will help some people keep up with the fandom even without checking Dreamwidth/LiveJournal/tumblr.

If you're involved in Buffy fandom on Facebook, tell your friends! :D Without breaking any Facebook group rules, of course. There is a post that we can share to tell people about the page. The editors will take care of sharing it in the main "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" group, but beyond that, we appreciate help with getting the word out.
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An update on our editor search

Thanks to the kind and timely return of [personal profile] gillo, we are no longer desperate enough to experiment with reducing post volume or frequency. Yay! \o/ Thank you, Gillo.

However, we are still two people short. The Herald can function for now, but some of us are covering more than one day a week, and any of us who might need to take a break have to weigh their own needs against the future of the Herald. That's no way to live in the long term, so we're still officially recruiting!

As you may have heard, being a Herald editor means dedicating one evening a week to making a newsletter post. Most of the links for that post come to you in one handy dandy Dreamwidth reading list. You need a Dreamwidth, LiveJournal, and tumblr account, and knowledge of HTML helps, but is not required. We are very happy to help you learn everything you need to know from the ground up.

If you enjoy lists and links, if you love Buffy fandom and want to support it, if you like what we do here - consider lending us a hand! Feel free to contact me on any site or send us an ask on tumblr, and I can give you any other details you might be wondering about.
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Let's thank Barb C for all she's done as the chief editor of the Herald!

[personal profile] rahirah has been contributing to the Herald for over 10 years, and she's been our chief editor for most of that time. She is retiring from said chief editorship for some well-earned rest. I'm sure everybody on the editor team will miss her gentle and level-headed guidance, and I, for one, am in awe of her part in keeping this valuable fandom resource afloat through the years.

[personal profile] rahirah  is still one of the editors, but any woes and inquiries regarding the Herald should be directed to me from now on. Accordingly, there are slight changes to our contact info, which is available in our profile and FAQ as always.

The comments on this post will not be screened. :)
rahirah: (su_editor)
[personal profile] rahirah2021-02-10 08:26 pm
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Sunnydale Herald Usage Poll

Hi All,

We haven't gotten any response to our latest call for a new editor, so we're looking at possibly cutting down on the volume or frequency of posts, so as not to burn the remaining editors out. In order for us to make the best decision on what to keep/drop, I've put together a poll here! Please take a moment to fill it out!