Lavender Eyes

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Website
Name: Lavender Eyes
Owner/Maintainer: Rivka, grumpie1
Dates: 2001-2017[note 1]
Type: Fansite, Archive
Fandom: Forgotten Realms
URL: http://www.lavendereyes.net/[note 2], http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com[note 3]
Laveyeslogo.gif
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Fanart of Drizzt

Lavender Eyes was a fansite dedicated to Drizzt Do'Urden, and the wider universe of R.A. Salvatore's dark elf books. It hosted an archive of fanfiction and fanart, collaborative encyclopedia, store, forums, chatroom, and a link directory. Though now defunct, the site was active from 2002 to 2016, and taken down sometime after 2017.

The site appeared to be relatively popular within the fandom, and was a source of regular news updates about Forgotten Realms media. Before shutting down, it had 241 guestbook entries,[1] 5392 forum threads, 222371 individual forum posts,[2] and 333 encyclopedia terms.[3] Lavender Eyes linked to 66 other sites through it's directory, including other fanfic archives, non-english fansites, and official dungeons and dragons websites.

History

The original site was created in 2001[note 4] by Rebecca Smallwood (aka Rivka), the webmaster and owner, who massively updated it throughout the beginning of 2002, adding a variety of fanworks to the archives.

Never fear, folks, I haven't forgotten about this site. I am currently revamping it, and will unveil the new site within a couple of weeks. The new site will be all database driven and it will be a lot easier to submit stories and images. If you've sent me something (images, e-mail, whatever) I haven't forgotten it :)

An update from Rivka on April 13, 2002[4]

By July, the revamp was largely finished, and included a new site layout, account creation, encyclopedia, new forums, an organized links page, and news feed;

As you can see, the site has been completely revamped to allow for more user interaction. If you become a member, you can submit fanfics, fan art, make comments in the gallery, post in the forum, submit links, and all kinds of other stuff. So become a member and participate!

Also, we're looking for folks to help us flesh out the Encyclopedia--we need people to write brief (or not so brief) entries for the various people and places of Forgotten Realms that relate to the Dark Elf books. If you're interested, pop us a note in the forum.

Finally, I'd like to thank Steve Smith for his help in seeking out new fanfics and art to add to the site, and his huge amount of effort in getting them physically added. He's agreed to stay on and help with the site, so thanks, Steve!

An update from Rivka on July 31, 2002[5]

The account feature allowed users to private message other members, talk in the forums, comment on posts, and submit fanworks to the archives. As of 2017, there were 105,604 registered members[6], though this number did not reflect the number of unique users; as it was impossible to change a username once registered, any member wishing to change theirs would simply create a new account.[7]

How can I change my username? Do I have to have the first account deleted? If so, how do I do that? You can't actually change a user-name. To get a new name, simply re-register with the site, choosing a different name.

Lavender Eyes FAQ

Though not mentioned in any official updates, community polls were added around this time, with two separate polls recorded as of October 6[8]. After the revamp, Smith took over updating the homepage feed, posting both regular news about the book series and related media, and monthly recaps of any new fanworks added to the site. It seemed members could also post messages to the homepage concerning similar topics. No major events occurred throughout 2003, except a server move in August.[9]

A site member named Eladriewen announced a plan for monthly theme-based fanfiction/fanart challenges in August of 2004[10], though the full version of the post was not archived and remains unreadable. A large amount of blog posts also have no accessible web-archive, with only the home feed summaries remaining. Due to this, a number of fanworks and details of site activities are lost.

In November 2006, Rivka announced in a forum thread that private messages would be limited to 100 per member due to a lack of server space.[11] Users with over 100 messages in their inbox would need to delete messages before they were able to receive new ones.

On June 26, 2007, Rivka made an announcement introducing donations to the site.[12] Though the full post, and related forum thread are unarchived, the homefeed summary is still accessible;

Do you wish you had more themes to choose from on this site? Have you always wanted to try making your own? Do you want your own avatar pool so you don't have to share your avatar with other people? Do you wish you had a way to help your favorite Drizzt site?

Lavender Eyes is implementing a special donation policy, in which those who donate $15 for the year will be given special privileges including the ability to make their own themes, and the site rank of Harper. To learn more about this, please click here.

If you have any questions about the new policy, please feel free to ask in this forum thread.

Donate to the site, and make your own themes!

In June of 2008, the site experienced downtime due to a fire in the center where the servers were hosted.[13] Later, in 2009, the site servers would experience issues related to the image gallery, though no detailed records of the issues survived.[14]

A November 2009 news post spotlighted the site store, which utilized affiliate links on Amazon;

Are you someone who tends to do a lot of their book shopping via Amazon.com? If so, I'd like to direct your attention to a frequently forgotten resource right here on LE: the Store.

The LE Store connects right to Amazon.com and contains books, video games and other odds and ends that might interest you, but the real magic is in the url. Go to any book in the store and click on the Amazon link, then look up at the address bar. Do you see that part on the end that says "/councilofelro-20"? Every book, every video game bought from a link containing that bit contributes money to help defray server costs for this site. With server costs running around $300 US a month, every little bit helps!

Using the LE Store to do your Forgotten Realms book shopping enables you to contribute to the upkeep of this site without costing a penny extra. Magical indeed, no?

Articles: SpotLight On: The Lavender Eyes Store[15]

Domain Change

On January 5, 2008, Rivka announced the launch of lavendereyes.net, a new version of the site, hosted at a separate URL.[16] Around March 2010, the original site was no longer accessible, instead redirecting to the new url.[17] A year later, the redirect was broken, displaying a 404 error when attempting to access the original site.[18]

Admin Change

On November 19, 2009, Rivka handed over administration of the site to user grumpie1[19], who brainstormed new ideas for the site in a forum post, which was not archived. Rivka would stay on as a technical advisor for the site.

Deletion

The last homefeed article was posted on October 20, 2011,[20][note 5] But the forums would remain active until 2016.[21] The site was taken offline sometime between May and November of 2017, though the specific date of deletion is unknown.[22]

Screencaps


  • Homepage Pre-Revamp, 2002

    Homepage Pre-Revamp, 2002

  • Homepage Post-Revamp, 2002

    Homepage Post-Revamp, 2002

  • A webpage with a black background and purple text, and the logo of two purple eyes in the top left corner. There is a blog style post feed in the center, a small navigation bar in the top right corner, and a column on each side with purple accents.

    Homepage, 2017

Site Gallery

The gallery hosted a total of 2,197 images,[23] which were organized into three categories; submission, fan art, and book and game. All images would be initially uploaded to the submission gallery, where admins would approve them. Once accepted, they would be sorted into the appropriate category.[24]

Submission Gallery

Please put your submitted art in here. We will create a gallery for you if your work is deemed suitable. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME IN THE TITLE OF THE WORK SO THAT WE KNOW WHO THE WORK BELONGS TO. EXAMPLE: Rivka_picture1.jpg . All artwork submitted without a name will be deleted after one week

1) Please do not submit fan art as your own if you did not actually create it.

2) Please only submit .jpg images. If you submit a .gif or a .bmp, they will be deleted.

3) No pictures that contain only original characters, please. This is a Drizzt and friends fan site, and as such, has no place for images or stories about original characters/Mary Sues.

Submissions Gallery Guidelines circa 2017

Once sorted into a category, images were organized into sub-galleries,[25] and if necessary, into specific sub-albums.

Fan Art Sub-Galleries and Sub-Albums (circa 2008)[26]

  • Lavender Eyes Theme Contest; no sub-albums, 11 images
  • Guest Art; 56 sub-albums (organized by artist), 238 images
  • Lavender Eyes Coloring Book; no sub-albums, 26 images
  • Member Art; 101 sub-albums (organized by year/artist), 1591 images
  • Lavender Eyes T-shirt Designs; no sub-albums, 7 images

Book and Game Sub-Galleries (circa 2017)[27]

  • Artwork from the Devils Due Publishing adaptation of The Legend of Drizzt; 2 sub-albums, 94 images
  • Wallpapers; no sub-albums, 21 images
  • Screencaps; no sub-albums, 34 images
  • Maps; no sub-albums, 3 images
  • Todd Lockwood; no sub-albums, 40 images
  • Book Art; 13 sub-albums, 100 images
  • Forgotten Realms Game Covers; 1 sub-album, 7 images

Fanart

  • Laveyesalbum10Aag.jpg
  • Laveyesalbum43abj.sized.jpg
  • Laveyesalbum43aan.jpg
  • Laveyesalbum9aab.jpg
  • Laveyesalbum63aab.sized.jpg
  • Laveyesalbum99aaa.sized.jpg

Fanfiction

The site used Rivka's Fanfiction Module 1.0, an early predecessor to eFiction, as the basis of it's archive. Only site members could submit fics to be hosted onsite, but any user, including guests, could access them. The main page included a basic search/navigation bar, and functioned as a gateway to the archive, which was split into two categories; Drizzt & Co and Adult/Slash. Both categories were separately linked on the main page, functioning as sub-archives.[28]

Archive pages had search and filter bars at the top, where users could filter by MPAA rating, character(s), and genre. Pages listed fanfictions with their title, author, link to reviews, summary and metadata (characters, genre, chapter count, category, date added, and date updated). After clicking on an NC-17 fic, a pop-up would appear;

This story is not suitable for children. If you are under 18, please go read something else.

Lavender Eyes Pop-Up Warning

Guidelines

Our submission rules aren't too stringent:

1) Please check your stories for grammar and spelling errors. Any stories with multiple errors will not be accepted.

2) Please don't submit Mary Sues. They suck.

3) Please be sure to put any adult or slash fics in the correct category.

Submission Guidelines circa 2003[29]

1) Please check your stories for grammar and spelling errors. Any stories with multiple errors will not be validated.

2) Please be sure to put any adult or slash fics in the correct category.

4)Your story must contain characters from the Drizzt Do'Urden novels, or characters based on R.A. Salvatore's creations.

Submission Guidelines circa 2007[30]

Forums

Users were required to login to utilize the site forums, which were divided into 7 categories,[21] each with their own moderator(s); Welcome Room, Discuss the Books, Discuss Fanfiction, Art Discussion, General Babble, RPG Forum, and Site Suggestions & Announcements. A simplified version of HTML allowed users to format their text, include links and images, or change fonts.[31]Unfortunately, little of the second site's forums were archived, leaving a large blindspot after 2008.

The rules for the forum are as follows:

1. Please post topics in the appropriate forums. If you want to swoon over Legolas, do so in the casting forum, and not in the movies forum. Any off-topic posts will be moved to the appropriate forum or deleted.

2. Before posting a new topic, please be sure to see if anyone else has posted on your topic already. Duplicate posts will be deleted.

3. Be sure to indicate in the topic message if you are including any spoilers in your post.

4. Be respectful of others. No flaming, rudeness, or name-calling will be allowed. Trolls will be banned. Hate speech, anti-gay or homophobic comments, and racist remarks will be dealt with swiftly and with zero tolerance.

5. Please be aware that children may be viewing this forum. No profanity or inappropriate sexual discussion is allowed.

6. No advertising of your own website (links to it within topic are allowed. For example if people are looking for a picture of something specific that you have on your site, including a link to it within your post is okay.) You may include a link to your site within your signature.

7. Please keep sig files no more than a few lines long. Do not clutter up the forum with 10-line long sigs, or slow loading images. If the staff feels your sig file is breaking this rule, you will be contacted.

8. Please refrain from using all caps in your posts--this is considered flaming. Also, please do not use irregular characters or lots of exclamation points in your thread titles--they make the titles difficult to read.

9. Please do not post single line posts (things like only saying "I agree" or "LOL that's so funny") or pointless posts just to raise your post count. This is known as "post slutting" and we don't like it.

10. Please refrain from "machine gun posting" which is posting several posts in a very short period. This is especially important in the RPG Forum -- post thoughtful and well-written things, and use the Chat room for fast paced RPGing.

11. Please do not post suicide threats or thoughts in the forums, or anything related to self-harm. Lavender Eyes is not the appropriate venue to express such feelings.

Forum Rules circa 2008[32]

Roleplaying in the RPG forum was popular, but fizzled out in 2014, with a grand total of 352 topics and 91,646 posts.[21] There was a dedicated forum thread and database page for recording users' characters.[33]

Surviving Forum Threads

Un-Archived Material

While the site's homepage was extensively archived on The Wayback Machine, because it ran on php, many of the outlinks are broken. A large amount of fan content hosted on the site is unarchived and inaccessible, though it may be referenced or linked to in surviving pages.

Maintenance & Community

  • Any monthly challenge posts
  • A post by member grumpie1, referencing an ambiguous incident in which the front page feed was broken, and subsequently repaired[34]
  • Admin threads from the RPG forum, including topics like; The Rules for Roleplaying, Member Character Database (printer snapshot from 2005 here), Leaves of Absence, Looking for Members (printer snapshot from 2005 here), and Player of the Month[35] (printer snapshot from 2005 here)
  • All forum threads in their original format (many are still available in printer-friendly format, a function available for most text-based content on the site)
  • The majority of images hosted on-site, with some surviving only in thumbnail formats
  • The majority of fanfiction hosted on-site

Fanworks

  • The L.E. Times, a member-made fan newspaper from March, 2007[36]

Notes

  1. ^ the latest web archive of the site is dated May 16, 2017, though it stopped updating before then
  2. ^ Now defunct, archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20120615052506/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php
  3. ^ The original URL of the site, archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20081221141655/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php
  4. ^ See bottom of the website in the earliest web archive
  5. ^ The archive of homefeed posts can be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20170517082430/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=News&func=archives

References

  1. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170516194618/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=guestbook
  2. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20160201194149/http://lavendereyes.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=index
  3. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170516194344/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=Encyclopedia
  4. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20020728234800/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com:80/
  5. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20021004073849/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com:80/
  6. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170205095442/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=Profile&func=viewmembers
  7. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170205135229/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=FAQ&func=display&faqid=22
  8. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20021006062541/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com:80/modules.php?op=modload&name=NS-Polls&file=index
  9. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20030919091436/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=36&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
  10. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20040901044105/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com:80/index.php see second post from the bottom
  11. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20070812052838/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=print&fid=7&tid=6548
  12. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20070702061717/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php
  13. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20081029233041/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=352
  14. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20090331205716/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/
  15. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170205142142/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=News&page=3
  16. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080509131718/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php
  17. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20100322221552/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com:80/
  18. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20111022122024/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=390
  19. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170205142142/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=News&page=3 see sixth post from the top
  20. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170516194550/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=395
  21. ^ a b c http://web.archive.org/web/20160201194149/http://lavendereyes.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=index
  22. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20171127051625/http://lavendereyes.net/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi
  23. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170515183622/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=mGallery2
  24. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170205080550/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=mGallery2&g2_itemId=19
  25. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170205070813/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=mGallery2&g2_itemId=66
  26. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080405162713/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php?set_albumName=album01&name=gallery&include=view_album.php
  27. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20170205142311/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=mGallery2&g2_itemId=244836
  28. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20160201120929/http://lavendereyes.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Fanfiction&file=index
  29. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20030906122908/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Fanfiction&file=index&options=ViewRules
  30. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20070722141441/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Fanfiction&file=index&options=ViewRules
  31. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080918214705/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=misc&action=faq
  32. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080918215023/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=rules
  33. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080918214504/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=RPG&file=index
  34. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20070702062345/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php?name=News&startnum=91
  35. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20070812051745/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=forumdisplay&fid=11
  36. ^ http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php?name=News&startnum=11
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