State of the Clan: 2020

State of the Clan: 2020

We’ll we’ve survived another year!  And can you believe it’s 2020?

Time really does fly, and we’re now staring down a new decade.

Let alone Sylum’s 15th Anniversary.

15 Years.

Well at least the 10th Anniversary of Clan War is finished. *snickers*

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Recap of 2019

It was a pretty eventful year, despite only having our normal Sylum Events:  Spring Fling, Seven Days of Summer, and the 10th Anniversary of Sylum Advent.

This year alone Sylum put out:

• Art = 22 pieces of art (all done by Gil – including 3 Book covers for Sylum Series)
• Aesthetics = 8 (mix between story, clan, and genre)
• Fanmix = 4 (2 Arc mixes and 2 general ones)
• Video = 7 Videos (3 Trailers, 2 End Credits, 2 General)
• Stories = 15 Stories (6 of them over 100 pgs)

And a special note to taibhrigh for all their hardwork on a variety of projects.

• Event Banners = 3
• Story/Vid Banners = 29
• Fanmix Covers = 2
• Bookcover = 1
• Website Banners = 1
• Wiki Images = 218 Wiki Images (which equals to 107 Character Bios!  Plus one Clan completed: Sanguen Vitae.)
• Clan Images = 19 Clan Banners for the Wiki

The biggest accomplishments:  Finished Clan War!  At the same time wrapped up Hell Week, and Hurricane Season!

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So what now?

Well first off lets start off the most important thing.

Sylum is a safe place.   Always has been, always will be.

There has been a lot of unrest world wide, for a variety of reasons: politically, socially, and economically.  There are times it’s hard to turn the news on without being blasted by hate, suffering, and insanity.

But here.

Here we will always have our doors open for all those who need us.   We may not have a physical manor that we could offer as refuge, but we can offer a virtual one.   Here you’ll find fun and pretty things.  Here you’ll find comfort and support.

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So what do we have in store for 2020?

Well first off we’ll have our normal Sylum Events.

Spring Fling: Sign Ups will begin in Late January – Event starts April 12th
7 Days of Summer: Sign Ups will begin Late April – Event starts July 1st
Sylum Advent: Sign Ups will begin in September – Event starts December 1st

Like 2019, we’ll be focusing on ‘old school’ Sylum, and will not have any other Sylum Events, but the three listed above.

At the moment our main focus is editing Family and Evolution, which we’ve already started.  I’m not going to say when they’ll be finished as we know, real life has a tendency to screw with timelines.

I’ll be posting Afternoon Fic, likely starting in late February.  This year it won’t be focused on a Sylum story, but instead actual fanfic.  The few ideas that are brewing: a segment in the Dragons of Interest series, Part three of the X-Men AU (well if I can get that bunny to come back from Egypt with a storyline), a whole new fandom/story idea that Speed keeps throwing bunnies at me.

We will be continuing with the idea of Sylum Snippets.  These are random stories, that are not really part of a bigger story, just moments in time of a variety of Sylum characters.  They will usually be incorporated with National Days or within Guest Posts.  Reminder: these snippets will not go into the archive, but stay on the blog just click the tag ‘Sylum Snippets’ to read them.

Outside editing Family and Evolution, we have a few stories we’ll be working on.  Including, but not limited to:

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And now for the Odds & Ends

Sylum Website

• We have a new front page!  Thank you taibhrigh for the artwork and update for the website.
• We also streamlined the website to showcase the four main points of Sylum: Archive, Blog, Wiki and Store.

Sylum Archive

• We’ve moved over all the Artwork, Fanmix, and Videos to the Archive.
• As we’re editing Family and Evolution, we’ll be removing them from the old archive, and prepping for that one to be deleted.  We will keep you posted during this process so you can grab any non-canon or older stories that will not be moved to the new Archive.

Sylum Wiki

• We’re still working on updating the images, it’s a long process as their is a lot of characters.  We have a tendency to update characters that are part of an upcoming story, or work through a specific clan.
• I’ll be looking into updating the wiki, finding a new look that can be easier to navigate.

Nicholas J. Finch

• I’m working on two new novels this year!
• Also set my reading goal at 80 Books!  Follow me on Goodreads to see the books I’m reading and reviewing, plus see if I’ll make the goal.
• If you’re not following Nicholas J. Finch website you should be!
• Also got an Instagram account, stop by and check it out!

Sylum Vault

• So we’re working on updating the shop.  Through 2020 we’ll be moving to our own domain name, and working more independently.   It’s scary and amazing all at the same time.
• Also opened an Instagram account for the shop!  Follow us to see new things being designed.
• Don’t forget if you’re looking for something totally unique we can make customized jewelry!

Yahoo Groups

• Yahoo Groups is an asshole.
• At first we thought it would fine, as it continued as a mailing listserve type of arrangement.  Accept they fucked one important thing.
• We originally had it arranged that an email would go out once a month as a reminder of the password.  Considering they deleted all the files, we figured this would change.  Shockingly, Yahoo even fucked that up.  On the 1st of January, Yahoo sent out that email.  Problem:  I can’t change, delete, or do anything with it!  There is no file to change, no section in the control panel to change what goes out, and they is no support from yahoo.  Great job there Yahoo.  Which leads to a major problem, when we change the password, once a month an email would go out with the wrong information.
• So what does that mean?
• It means we’ve come up with a new system, that is based on the old.  Sadly, Yahoo is one of the only systems that has a ‘mailing service’ that is basic and free.  Mailing Lists, are clumsy and can be expensive.  While other groups have restrictions on adult content.  And we’re not going password free, due to the nature of our content.
• So we’ve built a new Security Group, through Yahoo.  It works just like the old one, you sign up and you get the password.  If you are on the old group you WILL have to join this one to get the new password.  And yes it is a NEW password.
• The old group and password will be deleted March 1st.  So you have about 6 weeks to transfer over.  I’ll be sending out reminders on the blog and the old security group.
• All links on the blog, plus the one on the new Front Page of the website have been updated to reflect this change.
• And speaking of Yahoo Groups, for those of you who remember the old Sylum Yahoo Group, this has been deleted. Though it had been closed for years, we kept it available for archival purposes.  As Yahoo took away all the messages, thankfully I was able to get a download of the content, but there was no reason to keep it available.

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How to support Sylum?

Give me all your adoration, kidding or am I?

No really, one of the best ways to support Sylum is by being active on the blog and in the archive.  All of us who work on Sylum throughout the year, do this because we love this universe, and the annoying assholes in it *cough* Nick *cough* McFassii *cough* Ernesto *cough* spies *cough* fucking swans *cough* damn Meridii *cough*

So please hit the like button, and leave a comment on the archive.  Note: You can leave comments on the artwork, music, and videos – along with the stories.

Other ways to help keep Sylum going past our 15th towards the 20th.

• We take donations for our Hosting Company.  All donations go directly to the Hosting Company, which holds the website, blog, archive and wiki.
• Sylum Vault – this is to help me personally with Sylum expenses.

All donations and purchases help keep Sylum striving for the future, and I am always grateful for each one.

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I couldn’t do this without help from my friends!

To Gil, thanks for the support, and dealing with the hooligans in Border.

To taibhrigh, I can’t thank you enough for all the amazing banners & images!  When it comes to dealing with the wiki the spreadsheet alone is awe inspiring 🙂

To my partner Speed, none of this would be possible without you.

And to Bob, Bob 2, and his army of bunnies.  Fuck You.  I say that with love and contempt.

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In Conclusion

We’ve survived 15 years, and here’s to another 15!

We’ve got some great stories lined up, and working on fun surprises.

Remember everyone is welcome here.

Be kind.

Be courteous.

And most importantly, be yourself.

Sincerely,

Bj Jones aka The General