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Last Updated: 2004-01-31, Thomas

Huh?

The short version: Two things will happen at Elfwood at once:

There will be a new graphical design / layout of the whole Elfwood site.
The SciFi ("Zone 47") and Fantasy ("Lothlorien") areas will be merged into one new area that contain all types of SciFi and Fantasy related art, except FanArt.

Why?

I am tired of the current layout/design - and it's too complicated. I want a site-covering menu on all pages, for example.
There's too much work on the rules and for the moderators about the border between Fantasy and Scifi art. I want to merge all art, except FanArt, into one area - to promote creativity, and to make Elfwood easier to understand and Join.

How?

Zone47 will be closed. All present account will have to be merged EITHER into an existing Lothlorien account, or simply be converted to one. Lothlorien will no longer be named Lothlorien though. This will need all existing zone47 accounts to be converted by the users, using a "convert account" function at the Extranet. Scifi Art and Zone accounts will stay available for a couple of years, but only at the Extranet - the official Zone 47 will close.
All pages will be reorganised, like FARP and all official pages, into the new layout.
Lothlorien/FanQuarter/Library account owners will not have to do anything at all, only Zone47 accounts need to be converted.

When?

The Merger was done in late January 2004, during some days of intense programming by Thomas Abrahamsson...

F.A.Q.

Read this first, please...

Q: - What will the new design look like??
A: - Grayish - with a nice Gargoyle decoration by Renee LeCompte.

Q: - What will be the name of the new art area that contain both Fantasy and SciFi art?
A: - Simply 'SF&F Art'

Q: - Will the Wyvern Library keep it's name?
A: - Probably not. The design will be quite similar though...

Q: - Will the FanQuarter keep it's name?
A: - Probably.

Q: - Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you telling me that the nice names of "Lothlorien", "Zone 47", "Wyvern's Library" and "FanQuarter" will be removed?
A: - Yes, That's the way it's probably going to be like.

Q: - What is the max picture limit in the new art area?
A: - 100

Q: - Won't the index thumbnail map be.. huge?
A1: - Well, let me see what we can do about that. I will cook up some solution...
A2: - There is a new attribute to all pictures that classify them into one out of 8 main categories; this info can also be used to create sub pages at artists pages, or divide the index map somehow...

Q: - What will happen with the tours?
A: - They will need some attention, yes. We will disable them all, and ask their owners to update them and reapply for their publication...

Q: - Can I keep my existing Zone47 user ID?
A: - Yes. If you have no Lothlorien account, you can. Otherwise you will merge all Zone47 art into your existing Lothlorien account.

Q: - Do I merge my Zone gallery into my Lothlorien Gallary or is this done for me? How?
A: - Yes, you do. It is not done automatically (There's no way for us to do it automatically, besides, we want a check that all accounts are active). It is done using a function at the extranet (soon to be enabled) which is very easy to use and quite obvious: You log on to your Zone account and see a button at the top of the screen!

Q: - Will anything be lost if I merge a Zone 47 with a Lothlorien account?
A: - Yes, unfortunately we haven't had any time to do a merger function for the comments on the main page comments in your gallery. All picture comments are kept, though. The comments on the main page of the Zone47 account will be lost though!

Q: - Will the moderators pick status stay on my pictures?
A: - Yes.

Q: - I am a moderator - will my status stay and also work on the new account?
A: - Yes.

Q: - Will donations that I've made stay?
A: - Yes.

Q: - I am a writer. I do only have a Wyvern's Library account. Does this merge affect me?
A: - No. There's no need to do anything at all...

Q: - I am a FanArt artist. I do only have a FanQuarter account. Does this merge affect me?
A: - What? How did you manage to do that? Orphan FanQuarter accounts are not allowed without a parent Lothlorien or Zone47 account...

Q: - If I convert a Zone 47 account, will it require a ticket to be published again?
A: - Short answer: No.
A: - Detailed answer: All 'published' material will stay published, and the account web pages will be automatically rebuilt (thumbnail maps, etc). All unpublished material will, as always, require a ticket to become 'published' and available to the public.

Q: - When Lothlorien and Zone 47 are merged how will the urls change?
A: - I plan to keep the /loth/x/x/xxx/xxx.html scheme for all art. Zone47 URL's will change from /zone/... to /loth/... - At least to start with. If I ever change that, I will make it backwards compatible with automatic referring.

Q: - Since so much is being changed on Elfwood, are you going to change anything in the Library? (Most of this has to do with adding more space for more stories...like putting the limit up to 50 or more stories).
A: - The layout will change a little, and the max number of stories will be increased to 50.

Q: - Are the changes going to affect the ability of the Library writers in putting up their stories, illustrations, etc.?
A: - Nope.

Q: - Is the change going to affect the Library files, such as making them hard to get to or completely losing them?
A: - Nope.

Q: - Is the ticket process going to be any different for the different sections of Elfwood?
A: - It will be just like it is today.

Q: - Will the merge allow for a bigger fanquarter page?
A: - We've increased it to 25 pictures now...

Q: - If I merge my Zone47 pictures into my existing Lothlorien account, will they keep their access counter?
A: - No, they will not. We're sorry about that.