As I'm sure most of you gathered, we are having continued issues with the backup. While an original backup took place over the weekend it was out of date (which caused many of you to be missing reviews/favorites, etc.). To try and eliminate those errors, we are attempting to put a newer, more recent back up into play. However, this is taking more time than expecting.

During this we have kept member accounts open. However, this is causing some problems of its own so we are now going to restrict all access to all accounts for the immediate future. This will give us the opportunity to work through kinks and glitches before putting the site back into all of your hands. Hopefully, that will help ease some of the stress of the server.

I know it has been a difficult week and I want to say thank you to all of you who have stepped up and helped out answering questions and the like around the forum. It's been amazingly helpful to us to have you doing that so we can concentrate on getting the site back up and running. Thank you so much and, as always, we'll continue to update you as things progress.

The backup is taking longer the anticipated and we are going to have to ask for your continued patience. It will likely take at least 48 hours to get things completely uploaded and sorted out. In the meantime, feel free to stop by our forums and chat with some of your fellow HPFF'ers to help bide your time.

As always, we are tremendously grateful for your continued patience and support and we will update you as things progress.

In instituting the backup, we have had several site errors and problems being reported. We’ve answered these as best we can but the information is a bit scattered across several different locations. Some things are still not resolved but we’ve compiled the information we can give you here.

Please read through this thoroughly before starting a thread, sending a trouble ticket or any of the like.

My account is gone
It doesn’t recognize my email address
Almost all accounts are still there, you just may not be able to see them yet. The exception is if you are a new member and registered this summer. In this case, you may need to register again. HOWEVER, please do not do so for a few days as you may end up with a duplicate account. If you are not a new member and your account is still not showing: be patient. We’re working on it. Reminder: if you are a member and not an author (meaning you have not posted a story at the archive) you cannot use the search function to look for your account. You will have to use the alphabetical list. This includes persons whose first story was awaiting validation at the time of the server crash.

My password doesn’t work
First, search for your penname at the archive. If your penname is there:, try your current password again. If you have changed your password this summer, try the old password. If that doesn’t work, request a new password. If that doesn’t work, submit a trouble ticket but expect it to be a few days before we can assist you with your account info. If your penname is NOT there: you aren’t having a password problem, you are having an account problem. Go read the section above.

My favorites count is off
The number of people who “favorited” me is off
My review responses are missing
My reviews are missing
The reviews I left are missing
My trusted status is gone
We are still working on this but it is likely you are going to lose some of these. A back up takes the site back to the way it existed at a past set date which means things after that date are no longer there. You can wait for us to try and resolve this (we can’t guarantee this but we are still trying) or you can go do some reviewing and “favoriting” while we are working on the problem. I promise – if the old reviews do show up, we won’t come after you for review spamming if you end up with duplicate reviews on your account or being posted by you.

My story is missing
My chapter is missing
Check your account area first. If your chapter is showing “waiting” that means it’s still sitting in the queue. If your chapter shows “rejected”: it was rejected and will need to be resubmitted as usual. If your chapter is not there: You will need to submit it. It will be awhile before we start validating so please, don’t harass the staff about validation time while so many other issues are still being worked on. In all likelihood, we won’t respond at all to those type of inquiries.

My chapters are out of order
I have duplicate chapters showing
Go to your account area. Under your controls, you can delete and rearrange your chapters as needed. A note on this: even if you don’t have this problem NOW it may occur as we start validating. If a duplicate chapter happens to appear in your account one day it is likely because we validated your chapter and then the backup occurred and a duplicate of your chapter was submitted to the queue. We can’t control that (or check every story to see if it is a duplicate) and will merely go ahead and validate/reject it. If that happens, just simply go to your account and delete the duplicate. There is no need to report it to staff.

As many of you know, we began the process of instituting the site backup earlier this afternoon. That process is still underway and the site is slowly coming back online.

On the main page, you may see authors begining to sign into their account. Don't get jealous! That means the backup is working as it should. Everything is coming on line little by little and as time goes on you will see additional author accounts become active. If you can't log into your account yet just try again at a later time...it doesn't mean we've suspended your account or deleted you or anything like that. Just relax and keep writing so you can inundate us with stories in the queue when the site is back up an running to perfection again!

As you know, the site suffered some downtime yesterday due to some server issues. The site is being worked on and tested today to make sure everything is in its rightful place. You may experience difficulty logging on, retrieving passwords, viewing stories or reviews, etc. while this occurs. HPFF is an extremely large site and it will take some time for us to make certain everything is in proper working order. Until then, please just be patient and try again later today or tonight.

As most of your are aware, the site is currently down along with the forums and TDA. While we are unable to provide a time as to when it will be back up and running at this point, please know we are working on the problem. Feel free to check back here for further information and we will update you as we proceed.

It seems that everyone here at HPFF is in the throes of going back to school. Be it as a student of any kind or as a teacher, getting back into a routine of meeting deadlines and turning things in (and, dare I say it, thinking ) isn't usually on the top of anyone's list, mine included. I was hit by two at once - teaching and taking two classes at the graduate level.

So far this school year has been interesting. It's my fifth year of teaching, and I'm enjoying it more than any year so far. Maybe I sort of know what I'm doing now and can reach the point where I feel like I'm making a difference in my students. An added little perk this year is that the kids seem to be giving me almost unlimited inspiration for how to characterize my little first-years in my novel. I mean, I was kind of freaked out on the first day of school when I saw ickle Scorpius Malfoy walking through my classroom door... Let's hope I don't slip and call this kid by that name. That would be, to say the least, very embarrassing.

Most Convincing Ship Writer: momotwins
Most Original Fic: Colossus Legacy
Best Founders Era: The Founders Four
Best Mystery/Suspense: The Road Home
Best Original Character: Match
Best Story Graphic: Wicked Children
Best Minor Character: Give Up This Fight
Most Memorable Scene: The Road Home Ch 13
Best Alternate Universe: V
Most Addicting Story: Delicate
Best Reviewer: Girldetective85
Best Plot Twist: Protection
Best New Author: Harry_Potter_Mom
Best Novel Length: Give Up This Fight
Best Romance: Give Up This Fight
Best Novella: Saving Mum and Dad
Best Post Hogwarts: When Luna Met Rolf
Best Song Fic: Like Angels in the Falling Snow
Best Humor: Settling the Score
Most Versatile Author: Violet Gryfindor
Best Next Generation: We Gryffies
Best Marauders Story: Match
Best One Shot: Hey, Fred
Best Action/Adventure: Colossus Evolution
Best Canon: Unsinkable Molly Prewett
Best Collaboration: Defining Moments
Best Trio Fic: Harry Potter and the Mysteries Unveiled
Best Podcast: Hogwarts Sanitarium


Congratulations to all those nominated and our fabulous winners! Please take some time to read through their stories and don't forget to leave a review!