#sunnydaleherald

[iwillrememberyoumarathon]

Twenty years ago the I Will Remember You Fic Marathon (IWRY) was born. Originated by Leni, then passed on to Chrislee, to Dark Star, and then Angelus2Hot, IWRY has remained the premiere event on the Buffy/Angel calendar and the centre of the B/A fandom itself.

This year we are hoping to mark these two decades of fan creativity and storytelling by making it the biggest IWRY in years. 

In this spirit, one of our team approached the current moderator to ask if we could join her in the running of the event. She did not feel this was necessary. We respect her decision and all the work she has put into keeping the marathon going these past years. We wish her nothing but the best with it now and in the future.

However, we believe IWRY is deeply rooted in our fandom as a collective and community experience. We want to create spaces and events where all who wish to participate can participate. It is for this reason we have decided to run our own I Will Remember You Fic Marathon.

Sign-ups for IWRY Fic Marathon are open now. 

If you are a writer or even just writer-curious, please put your name down and join us as we celebrate all things Bangel. We will accept any piece of fanfiction, of any rating, that is 500 or more words long and focused on the relationship of Buffy/Angel (and/or Buffy/Angelus). If drabbles are your jam, we will be happy to include those among the Another Minute bonus stories at the end of the event.

We have also decided to open up the Marathon to other forms of art. All we ask is that it is centred on Buffy/Angel, and that you put your best foot forward! 

We are now accepting submissions of artwork such as:

gifsets

moodboards

fanart 

manips 

videos

soundtracks 

Please sign up for artwork submissions here! 

If you are neither writer nor artist, fear not! We would love to have you join in whatever capacity is best for you. Some roles to consider include:

Beta reading

Supporting the writers with reviews & comments on fics

Taking part in our "Meet the Fandom" series

Helping us with the logistics behind the scenes

Promoting the marathon on your platform of choice

Anything we missed? Let us know!

If you are interested in participating in a non-writing/art role, email us at iwryficmarathon@gmail.com.

If you are a writer without an AO3 account, we have a number of invitations that we are happy to share. Just let us know on the signup sheet. If you are not a writer but would like to be active on AO3, just reach out to us directly via email.

The stories will be posted to a 2023 Collection on the I Will Remember You Marathon Archive. We will provide clear instructions about how to do this closer to the event.

Once again, we welcome you to the IWRY Fic Marathon and encourage you to take part in any way you can!

Please reach out to us here or at iwryficmarathon@gmail.com with any questions.

IWRY Fic Marathon Organising Committee:

Abby | Aboutafox | Bri | GraceNM | Kairos | Kean | Lea | Taaroko

Supported by:

calenlily | Fluffernutter8 | MrsGordo | MamaBewear | Najae

[sunnydaleherald]

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.

As a rule, we will not knowingly link AI-assisted stuff unless it's exceptionally original compared to what we've seen before (for example, an entirely new format) or the human artist/author has modified the generated material in some creative and non-trivial way (for example, by using AI to create a background, which they then heavily modify by hand), or the post has sparked substantial discussion.

If someone posts machine-generated material and doesn't label it as such, we--in all honesty--might not be able to tell. However, if we do find out, especially if there's evidence that little to no human editing went into the finished work, we'll remove the work in question from the Herald if we've already linked it, and we'll avoid linking anything else posted by the same person in the future.

We arrived at this approach because the Herald pretty much exists to promote what fans create and what fans have to say. Large text models are not Buffyverse fans, and if their developers have any opinion on the series, it's not apparent in their work.

On a more serious note, one of the Herald's stated purposes is to encourage fandom members to participate in their community. We want to support people pouring time, effort and love into what they create, expressing and discovering themselves in the process, starting conversations based on their own opinions, and collaborating with actual human beings. The process is crucial; it's part of what builds the community. Sure, AI is efficient in the sense that it can provide something vaguely acceptable faster than humans can. But if efficiency was our goal, none of us would be here taking our sweet time to ruminate over a 20+ year old show.

I bet many of our readers don't need us to explain that there are issues with AI, but are more surprised that we're not taking an even more categorical position against AI. To stay at all relevant and useful, because as a newsletter started in the oughts we are a relic of ages past, the Herald has to make an effort to be open to different forms of fandom participation and keep up to date with new developments. We're well accustomed to linking some things we personally don't like, because our work isn't about each editor's individual opinions. So we're not closing the door to the possibility that these technologies *could* be used for worthwhile creations. In a few more years or maybe even sooner, if the use and regulation of machine learning continues to develop and forms of artistry get more established, we (or future editors of the Herald) might make different decisions about what to include. Or the fad might blow over and AI use in art might become an anecdote of the past, like that era when people put jello in all their cooking.

P.S. We don't always have time to do substantial research as we gather and select links, so if you notice we've linked something that is for sure not human-made, feel free to let us know by sending sunnydaleherald an ask on tumblr or contacting me (thenewbuzwuzz@protonmail.com or a direct message on the webbed site of your choice where you've seen me around). However, we are unlikely to act on such tips without solid proof.

A very happy ritual sacrifice with pie to all who celebrate!

[btvspolls]

Life Update

hey everyone, sorry for being so inactive this week. My paternal uncle passed away on monday morning, and helping with preparations for the funeral has taken up most of my time. I'll resume activity when I can, but in the meantime I encourage you all to check out the brilliant @sunnydaleherald for not only poll/bracket updates but also curated lists of fanfiction, fanart, meta, ect. from not only tumblr but also reddit, buffy-boards, ao3, dreamwidth, youtube...if it hosts btvs content, they cover it.

[aufredpratt]

Hi! I just answered your sunnydaleherald ask, but I'm a little concerned the response might hit some sort of spam detector because of all the links. If it didn't arrive, lemme know and we can try sending differently. :)

I got it thanks so much!

[sunnydale-digest]

Anonymous asked:

I'm kind of looking for a possibly very old Bangel time travel fic, and maybe this page could help? I remember - Someone is after Angel and Buffy has to go back in time to save him.

- While there she and Liam get together, meanwhile in the future (present) Angel loses his soul when he gets the memories of Buffy/Liam in the past

- There's a scene w/ Angelus in pain remembering Buffy and Liam together, Buffy has his head in her lap ? Anyone know it ?

-------------

*We got this ask at @sunnydaleherald, but that's not where we boost individual posts. Hopefully anon will find this when it circles back to being included in the Herald.

[willowrosenboob]

what are ur fav buffy blogs ? i luv the show and am trying to get into the fandom !!

first of all, I recommend checking out some source blogs. my favourite are @dailybuffysummers, @slayerdaily, and @spuffygifs. they make lots of gifs and share lots of edits and fan content, and if you look through some of the blogs they regularly reblog from I'm sure you'll find a lot of creators you like. there are quite a few other source blogs out there too, so I'd recommend going through the btvsedit tag and finding ones you like

secondly, some of the people with the sexiest opinions are @chasingfictions (their rewatch posts here are so much fun), @johnaeryns (the lesbian spuffy manifesto is essential reading), and @impalementation (I'm in love with the romanticism series). @sunnyhellcalifornia makes gorgeous fanart as well.

lastly, if you really wanna get in deep check out @sunnydaleherald. they post whole lists of recent content that comes from multiple different websites. there's a lot there though, and it could get quite overwhelming

good luck anon <3

[buggerthis]

idk how people do that but u should totally get the sunnydale digest or sunnydaleherald to reblog/include ur website!! that rly helps with publicity in the btvs fandom i think & it’s so cool everyone needs to see it :)

thank you!! i’ll definitely look into it <3

[headlineawards]

What's Sunnydale Herald? What they on? I'm leaving Tumblr

Hi. The Sunnydale Herald is a newsletter that tracks everything related to the Buffyverse. Just look for sunnydaleherald and they should pop up. As far as I can tell, they post here, Live Journal, and Dreamwith. Honestly, I only come back here to do Headline. What other platforms would you like to see Headline on? I don't do much personally, but maybe we can figure it out to promote the event once a year.

[winchestress]

Check out the blogs impalementation and visitingthefuneralhome for symbolism meta, or check out sunnydaleherald for links to all kind of BtVS links on and off Tumblr.

Thank you! I also got an anon recommending @impalementation, so I’m going to check it out. Also tagging @visitingthefuneralhome and @sunnydaleherald so I can find them later. 

[seasonal-spuffy]

LiveJournal for Scoobies #4: How to Do Things with Communities

In last week’s post, I listed some Buffy-related LiveJournal communities. This post is about things you might want to do once you’ve found a comm that sounds fun.

How much can I do *without* an LJ account?

Depending on the community, it could be a lot:

READING

Read on LJ to your heart’s content. Most current communities are public.

You may be able to read some of the community’s fic in AO3 collections such as IWRY2018, TwistedShorts, buffy_genminis, Giles_Shorts, femslash_minis, summer_of_giles, tthdrabbles, etc.

Or read some of the community’s fic in AO3 tags such as Community: nekid_spike, Community: femslash_minis, Community: twistedshorts, Community: giles-shorts, Community: seasonal_spuffy, Community: sb_fag_ends, Community: summer_of_giles, Community: whichwillow.

Read entries on Dreamwidth for summer-of-giles and some of buffyversetop5. Many other comms have archives of past entries there.

UPDATES/NOTIFICATIONS

Get news about a community by following its tumblr: @buffyversetop5, @iwillrememberyoumarathon, @summerofgiles, @headlineawards​ .

Get announcements on Dreamwidth: buffyversetop5, seasonal-spuffy, summer-of-giles, and some others are on DW.

Keep track of the “Community Announcements” section of @sunnydaleherald​. The Herald also links to entries posted in public communities, but those links aren’t labelled/sorted by community.

If you use RSS (Really Simple Syndication), you can get notifications via the community’s RSS feed: communityname.livejournal.com/data/rss .

You may find even more ways to follow a community outside LiveJournal by checking its LJ profile info and sidebar links.

INTERACTION/PARTICIPATION

You can comment on LiveJournal entries anonymously (in some communities) or using your Facebook or Twitter account. 

For some comms, you can participate on tumblr: @buffyversetop5​ (this round), @seasonal-spuffy​ (sometimes), @summerofgiles​ (recently).

buffyversetop5 and summer-of-giles allow participation on Dreamwidth.

Participate on AO3 - for @iwillrememberyoumarathon.

If you do have a LiveJournal account, that gives you even more options...

How to make a community’s entries show in my friends feed (WATCH)?

To WATCH a community, go to its recent entries page and click the “watch this community” icon in the header. It looks like one arrow pointing at a feed of entries. See screenshot 15 (the first of this week’s screenshots). After clicking, you’ll be able to set up notifications and tweak some other settings. You can return to these settings later (screenshot 17).

How to get posting access (JOIN)?

Click the icon that looks like four arrows pointing inwards (screenshot 15). If membership is moderated, you won’t be a member instantly, but only when a moderator approves (this setting is visible in the community profile).

How to access a members-only community (JOIN)?

Occasionally, communities can have members-only entries: you have to join the community in order to see the entries. See screenshot 15.

How to know if a community is locked or just inactive?

If you don’t see any recent entries, check if there are any mod posts or profile info saying the comm is members-only. You can also check the “last updated” date in the profile of the community (screenshot 16). If that date is more recent than the newest entry you see, there are probably some entries you can’t see.

What should I post to a community?

Many communities are only for certain ships or characters, and/or for certain formats of fanworks. Some allow reposting your older work, some don’t. To find out, please look at the profile of the community or wherever else its rules are (the recent entries page or the sidebar). When in doubt, ask the mods. :)

How to post to a community?

Option one: click “Post to Community” in the community header (screenshot 17). It might be a pencil icon instead.

Option two: click “Post New Entry” next to your username in the top right corner, then adjust the “Post” settings inside the post editor. See screenshot 18.

As for the specifics of posting, check the LiveJournal FAQ or wait until next week’s tutorial.

To stay on the safe side, make sure to read the text on the blue “post” button right before you post a finished entry. The button caption will say what you’re doing, e.g. “Post to [journalname]” or “Post to Sunnydalescribe”.

How to participate in a seasonal community?

Since every round of a seasonal community is a new event, these comms often organize signup by the round. Signup can be as simple as commenting on a certain mod post (see screenshot 19). Some comms accept signup via email. Other ones, like buffyversetop5, don’t need signup at all. To find out, look at the community’s profile and announcement posts, and if that doesn’t help, ask a mod.

How to find out more about a certain community?

Try communityname.livejournal.com/profile first of all. In other cases, it can help to look at the top of the recent entries page, in the sidebar, or ask a mod.

How to find out more about communities in general?

See the LiveJournal FAQ on this topic. If that doesn’t help, feel free to ask. :)

There are two more tutorial posts planned: a step-by-step guide to posting to seasonal-spuffy, and some tips about How to Be Polite on LiveJournal.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

We've just had 7 consecutive days of @sunnydaleherald posts -- not only covering all days, which we do, but posting every day, which is not how we organize things when we're under-editored. I, for one, am having warm fluffy feelings.

[sunnydaleherald]

FYI, we have opted out of "third-party sharing" for both sunnydaleherald and sunnydale-digest. :)

[torrilin]

@sunnydaleherald look!

@colubrina @itisariddle @torrilin @slytherinxbadxgirl @evolutionsbedingt

ask and you shall receive

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Wednesday, February 28

WESLEY: Mr. Giles. I'd like your opinion. While the last thing I want to do is muddle bad behavior in front of impressionable youth, I wonder if asking Miss Chase to dance would... GILES: For God's sake, man, she's eighteen. And you have the emotional maturity of a blueberry scone. Just have at it, would you, and stop fluttering about. WESLEY: Right, then. Thanks for that.

~~BtVS 3x20 “The Prom”~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Final Ingredient (Willow, Buffy, PG) by badly_knitted

Rusty (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by veronyxk84

Blackout (Interlude) (Darla/Drusilla, M) by SomeKindOfADeviant

Tangled in HelLA (Buffy/Spike, M) by all_choseny

Valentine's Date (Buffy/Spike, G) by all_choseny

Take Me Home Tonight (Buffy/Spike, E) by all_choseny

[Chaptered Fiction]

Amber the Vampire Slayer, Chapter 1/? (Ensemble, OC, T) by Redtheseer

Standing Back Behind, Chapter 1/? (Ensemble, OC, T) by silvain

Dawn Rising, Chapter 45/? (Buffy, LOTR xover, T) by Luna_delCielo

Same Coin, Chapter 3/? (Buffy/OC, G) by The_Eclectic_Bookworm

[Ukrainian language] Forward to Time Past//Вперед у час минулий, Chapter 30/67 (Buffy/Spike, E) translation by Uraniya

Everything is different now, Chapter 20 (Buffy/Faith, M) by alwynjaegar

Blue, Chapter 7 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Halo0223

The Steps Saga, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Angel, M) by a2zmom

Xander: A New Knight, Chapter 1 (Ensemble, M) by KingGold77

Early One Morning, Chapter 19 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by all choseny

Love Lives Here, Chapter 28 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Passion4Spike

Agency Has It's Price, Chapter 19 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Desicat

[French language] Du fond du cœur, Chapter 4 COMPLETE! (Buffy/Spike, PG) by Miss Kitty

Dawn Rising, Chapter 45 (Buffy, LOTR xover, FR15) by Luna

A Breath is But a Soundless Whisper, Chapters 25-26 (Buffy/Spike, 18+) by Blackoberst

Coming Through, Chapter 44 (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only) by hulettwyo

Oblivious, Chapter 7 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by hulettwyo

Ready for it?, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Lilacsandorangeblossoms

Early One Morning, Chapters 18-19 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by all choseny

I Do!, Chapter 24 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Dusty

Stomping on butterflies, Chapters 15-16 COMPLETE! (Buffy/Spike, T) by Blackoberst

Risque Roommates, Chapters 6-7 (Buffy/Faith/Spike, E) by shithappens

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: I wish I was better at coloring. (Lindsey McDonald, worksafe) by pinkpersonsblog

Artwork: You Shouldn’t be anything like me, You’ll never be anything like me (Faith, Xander, worksafe) by yarboyandy

Artwork: “ Hello Luv… ” (Spike, worksafe) by bertolts

Artwork: Art - Valentine's Feast Day (Angel, Darla, Drusilla, Spike, M) by genericaces

Artwork: Fanart (Buffy outline, worksafe) by lars_mayzx

[Reviews & Recaps]

Wrapping up the series for the first time: some thoughts! by LateRegistrationz

PODCAST: HELLMOUTH HOMOS: The Freshman (SEASON 4 PREMIERE!) by Fear Queers

PODCAST: Fang Measuring Contest - Angel S05E20 - The Girl in Question by Pop Culture Role Call

[Recs & In Search Of]

ISO: A faith x buffy fanfiction that was over one million words long that used to be on fanfiction.net requested by howsummerfeels

ISO: Does anyone remember the Traveling Spike blog?? requested by TouringTheFacility

ISO: does anyone know the artists of these fan-made posters? requested by Due-Drag5700

[Community Announcements]

FYI, we have opted out of “third-party sharing” for both sunnydaleherald and sunnydale-digest by sunnydaleherald

[Fandom Discussions]

we get the two great loves of giles’s life in one episode and they never once interact but they both share this moment by jennycalendar

the thing that makes me crazy about gethan + calendiles is that both ethan and jenny are so hungry for even a corner of giles’s heart by jennycalendar

do we know by season 8 (or later, if it comes up) if Faith is still a fugitive? Or did the writers forget that? by bisexualblckcanary

HELLO THE FRATERNITY BOY THAT BUFFY’S MOST DRAWN TO BEING “THE ONE TO WATCH OUT FOR.” by jennycalendar

Willow and Buffy never dating is my Roman Empire cause they are so underrated by hermyohkneegranger

[Parallels between Buffy and Faith's life experiences] by coraniaid

lilah and lindsey are so funny to me by justafriendofxanders

Is dawn a real person/human? by StarSilver0117

I am still confused on why Wesley trusted Holtz to keep his word regarding their deal regarding Connor? by b3_k1nd_rw1nd

I am a bit confused on the series finale tbh and how the First was defeated? by b3_k1nd_rw1nd

Anyone else notice an 'oopsie' that you missed the first time around? by Eldon42

Does anyone think Amy could have been a better girlfriend for Xander in the earlier seasons than Cordy? by AceItaliano

Is it canonical that slayers need less sleep than average people? by sadhungryandvirgin

Was Xander always this difficult to watch? by bobsthrowawayacct

What would you say Cordelia is afraid of by the end of Season 2? by Beached-Peach

US college culture question by Reviewingremy

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[sunnydaleherald]

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 Buffyverse 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 thenewbuzwuzz on the webbed site of your choice or via email at thenewbuzwuzz@protonmail.com, reply to this post, or send sunnydaleherald an ask on tumblr. We'd be thrilled to hear from you!

[sunnydaleherald]

Goodbye to ifall, and 'tis the season to volunteer for the Herald!

Thank you to @ifall a.k.a. Dreamkist for more than three years of service to the fandom! The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter is now officially looking for two new editors.

Being a @sunnydaleherald editor means making one newsletter post a week. This 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 (thenewbuzwuzz) on any webbed site where you've lately seen me around, or send sunnydaleherald an ask.