The Two Broomsticks (community)

Fanfiction Mailing List
Name:	The Two Broomsticks
Date(s):	20 January 2005 – April 2009
Moderated:	yes
Moderators/List Maintainers:	Empathic Siren, Sansa, magic_helmet
Founder(s):	Empathic Siren and Sansa
Fandom:	Harry Potter
URL:	thetwobroomsticks at Yahoo! Groups (deleted) two_broomsticks at LiveJournal (deleted) two_broomsticks at InsaneJournal (empty)
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The Two Broomsticks is a Yahoo! group founded by Empathic Siren and Sansa for their Harry Potter fanfiction. It was originally created "to combat the unreliability of Fanfiction.net as well as its oppressive ratings guidelines."

An associated LiveJournal community, two_broomsticks, served as home for the community's 2006 ficathon, The Two Broomsticks Fall Fic-a-Thon.

In April 2009, Empathic Siren and Sansa announced that they were both leaving fandom, and that the Yahoo! group would be closed soon thereafter.

Moderation

Group membership was open and did not require moderator approval, and all members could post to the list without approval.

Sansa wrote in June 2007 about magic_helmet becoming a moderator of the group:

This fine, fine lady is my (and empathic_siren's) savior. When the Two Broomsticks became too big and busy for us to manage effectively on our own time, she volunteered to take the reins. In general, moderating is a pretty thankless job. Let's face it, it's not much fun being the one who has to enforce the rules over and over and over again.

But she does this masterfully. She keeps a group of nearly 5,000 people feeling like a close-knit family. She handles squabbles with maturity and aplomb, and enforces our few rules with a firm, but kind hand. Membership issues, file problems, reminder messages – she's on top of it all, and she never misses a beat. She answers the same questions over and over without losing her patience. She keeps us informed, but makes decisions on her own with unerring judgment. Without her…well, I can't really imagine managing things at the Two Brooms without her. Thank you, dear, for all you do for us and the group.

Fanfic Challenges

In October 2006, Empathic Siren posted a background of fic challenges at the community and introduced The Two Broomsticks Fall Fic-a-Thon:

[The Two Broomsticks is] the Yahoo Group sansa1970 and I started two years ago to house all of our stories. On occasion, we write challenges set by our members. Usually we receive suggestions and have an impartial third-party pick a prompt for each of us to write.

This time we did things a little differently. First, we agreed that we would each write the same prompt and that we wouldn't share our fics with each other until the unveiling. (very, very hard--never again!) Second, the members of the group voted on the prompt they wanted us to write. Here's the winner:

HP/DM. “Harry and Draco meet ten years after leaving Hogwarts. Harry has defeated Voldemort and is living his life quietly. His world is turned upside down when he meets Draco at a local shop. Draco is quite the flirt. Intense and passionate requested.”

Sansa and I posted our fics this morning. You can read sansa1970's fic, A Mile in his Shoes, here^{[Dead link]}, and mine, Coming Home, here [archived from original].

We received over thirty prompt suggestions--all of which were fantastic--so we decided to open up the challenge to all members of the group, resulting in our very own little fic fest. New stories will be posted over the course of the next couple of weeks, written by both veteran and new authors. Check out the tentative posting schedule here^{[Dead link]}. Please stop by, order a butterbeer or two, and take a gander at everyone's efforts. And if you're a group member who has a sudden hankering to contribute as well, sign up for a prompt here^{[Dead link]}.

One other challenge posed to Sansa and Empathic Siren was an "Opening Line" challenge, for which they wrote the following stories:

• A Scientific Approach by Sansa. Prompt: "Is it supposed to be that small?"
• The Difference Between by Siren. Prompt: "The Boy-Who-Lived is nothing but a fraud."

Spotlighted Authors

The group would periodically feature an "Author in the Spotlight". Spotlighted authors were advertised in the group's description and author interviews were posted to the group's files section. Authors featured include:

• Lightning on the Wave (January 2006)
• Montana Daniels (February 2006)
• RaeWhit (November 2006)