We had a discussion amongst administrators at MTT, and we just wanted to outline a few important points.
Most members are respectful and overall, we have a lovely peaceful community. However, some recent incidents have made it necessary for us to remind you of some points and institute a change.Â
1) While registering multiple aliases for the purpose of having different types of fic kept separate is acceptable (e.g., to keep your MA-rated stories separate from the rest of your writing or to have a different identity for your angsty stories vs. your fluff), using multiple identities to flame, troll, and/or deceive other members is strictly forbidden.  Accounts will be locked immediately if such behaviour comes to our attention.Â
2) Reviews must be polite and while constructive criticism is welcome, flaming/unpleasantness towards the writer of the story or other members of MTT is not. This point leads to...
3) The option of leaving anonymous reviews has been suspended, at least temporarily. It is far too easy to leave a rude review when one does not have to own up to it, and monitoring anonymous reviews is a bit of a headache on our end. We hope this does not discourage readers from leaving feedback to our wonderful writers because this is not the intent. We just want to make sure our writers receive a helpful kind (i.e., constructive) of reviews.
4) Please do read the Terms of Service and the submission rules. Makes life easier for everyone.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to help, especially if you are new around here and are not sure how things work. Â
--Morning Angel on January 31, 2007 11:43 am 3 Comments
Please remember that actor/actress stories are not permitted, as stated in the TOS.
As The Office is a mockumentary, there is some grey area with real life people popping up in stories.
An example of what would be ok: real life talk show hosts/comedians appearing to interview the reality tv stars at Dunder Mifflin.
An example of what would not be ok: Any of the current cast appearing in a story as themselves. There is some confusion with Creed as he is somewhat playing himself, but so long as you are writing based off fact from the show, and not fact from his real life, I don't think that would cross any boundries.
--andi on January 30, 2007 08:53 am 0 Comments
I just updated the site to the latest patch of the software.
The sorting feature within categories and subcategories is now working without any problems by the looks of it.
The same can't be said for the Search function, which still doesn't seem to sort the fics to the search parameters, and on some searches navigating to the next page of the results will return a mySQL error. I will try and follow this up, but we may just have to wait until the next patch.
On the brightside, it's halfway there!
Don't forget to contact us if you run into any other site bugs.
--andi on January 29, 2007 05:54 am 0 Comments
Thanks to erin3512, we are now 500 members strong!
--sicokitty on January 27, 2007 06:12 am 0 Comments
Challenges were being discussed over at TWoP so I am adding two excellent ideas sent in by MTT readers. I give you Evening Coming and Role Reversal. Enjoy!
--Morning Angel on January 22, 2007 01:29 pm 7 Comments
There have been some changes in how the "Favourite Stories/Authors/Series" feature works and I've gotten some questions about it to which I didn't even know the answer myself so I thought I might as well let everyone know what sico kitty found out about it. You now have to deal with 2 screens to make a story or an author your favourite. When you click on "add story to favourites" or "add author to favourites", it then takes you to another screen with the name of the story or author on it and underneath a box for comments.  It doesn't matter if you decide to put comments in it or leave it blank, but you must then press the "submit" button underneath the comment box for your favourite to be added to your account. I hope this helps.
--Morning Angel on January 14, 2007 02:20 pm 3 Comments
Here is a post-episode challenge that I was planning to have up last weekend, but time got away from me. Anyway, here is Jamaica Jan Sun Princess. In Jim's words about Jan's trip with Michael to Jamaica: "What happened there? Kidnapping?" Indeed, what happened in Jamaica? What made Jan decide to go with Michael? What was their vacation like? Can a holiday with Michael Scott be a relaxing time?
As always, we ask that you refrain from posting challenges yourself, and email us instead with your ideas so that we can have a steady flow of new challenges, which we will feature on the homepage.
--Morning Angel on January 12, 2007 07:38 pm 2 Comments
I haven't posted a challenge in a while so I thought it would be fun to suggest new ideas to writers. This challenge idea was sent in by Emily quite a while ago. Pam's Mom. Write a fic that has Mrs. Beesly's as one of the main characters, either written from her point of view or maybe through phone conversations with Pam. Her thoughts on Roy and/or Jim would be interesting.
As always, if you have challenge ideas, feel free to email us by clicking the "contact us" button or post them on our boards.
--Morning Angel on January 10, 2007 11:57 am 0 Comments
Yes, we do have forums at MTT that you can feel free to use to discuss fanfic and/or the show. Some people asked how they work. The databank with usernames and passwords that goes with the fanfic software we use here is not connected to the one for the forums so you have to register for the forums separately although you should be able to keep the same username and password if you so choose. The registration button is hard to see but it is at the top of the page, under the more than that quote.
--Morning Angel on January 07, 2007 09:44 am 0 Comments
I have noticed that many recent stories are lacking the disclaimer for non-ownership of characters. Please make sure you include it within the author's notes or in story notes. Here is a standard disclaimer you can use (although you are free to write up your own, if inspiration strikes):
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
It would really be appreciated if you could make sure it is included in your stories, and add it in, if it isn't. Thank you so much for your help!
--Morning Angel on January 03, 2007 09:39 pm 4 Comments
I've always had trouble with our default skin(version 5) viewing in Internet Explorer the way it should, but with the upgrade, it's messed it up even more than it was! If you're seeing the white and pale green layout and using IE, you should change the skin to one of the other four layouts, which seem to be working fine after some upgrade tweaking. Or you could switch browsers to the far more superior Firefox. Just saying. ;-)
Version 5 is my favourite skin because it integrates with the rest of the site so well, so I'll be working very hard to fix the text run off problem. Hopefully I can have it fixed sometime during the weekÂ
--sicokitty on December 18, 2006 06:53 pm 4 Comments
Submissions have been turned off while I begin the upgrade to 3.0.
The site should be upgraded and ready to go in about 30 minutes.
The upgrade is complete!
There shouldn't be too many wonky bits. We know the that the image upload works, but actually using the images doesn't work. We also know that there is no longer a beta filter on the members search. I'm going to post a mod request for that one, because it's a pretty important feature for this site.
Some new features include story counts(a hit counter for your story), the number of challenge responses on the challenge index, a who's online block so you can see who's online when you are, and in the account info area, the members statistics feature is fantastic. It shows members a list of all reviews ever left, and authors can now see which members have the m listed as their favourite author.
It's all pretty neat! I think there are a few more shiny features, but nothing I can think of right now. If you run into any bugs or issues on the new software, please drop me an email, which you can do by clicking on my profile.
--sicokitty on December 18, 2006 12:19 am 6 Comments
We have received a few emails of people dismayed at having been spoiled for upcoming episodes by stories that did not include a warning up front. So in the spirit of kindness towards your fellow readers, please DO NOT put any spoilers in the summary of your story. In fact, DO WARN readers about potential spoilers in the summary, indicating the upcoming episode(s) which the story might spoil. You may want to reiterate that warning in the author's notes as well.
Thanks for your cooperation!--Morning Angel on December 15, 2006 03:53 pm 0 Comments
Hi everyone!
Just a short note to let you guys know that over the coming days, I will be upgrading the software to it's newest version, which is exciting as there are many existing bugs on this version, and there are some new awesome features on the new version.
I can say with absolute certainty however, that there will be glitches during, and even after, the upgrade process. 3.0 is a stable release now, but that doesn't mean that there won't be the occasional missed bug still floating around!
So please bear with me while we go through the upgrade process, and fingers crossed that everything will go as smoothly as possible! Once the upgrade is complete, I will post another little note and let you all know, so the bug reporting can begin!
--sicokitty on December 15, 2006 05:35 am 0 Comments
I am loving all the drabbles we are getting these days. Awesome job, everyone! :) In addition to featuring new stories, I like to pick out older stories I stumbled upon or some of my favourite stories to recommend. Here are two for tonight: 1) 5 Obscure Times Pam Falls in Love With Jim by Petty, a lovely story using little moments from the show in a delightful way, and 2) Three Minutes by TV Buffy about an overheard conversation.
I'll be back later this week with a new challenge!--Morning Angel on November 26, 2006 08:48 pm 0 Comments
--sicokitty on November 22, 2006 08:41 pm 1 Comments
--Morning Angel on November 16, 2006 11:38 pm 9 Comments
I apologize for not having been as active recently in posting recommendations and challenges. Real life has made it challenging to do so. The good news (well, I hope!) is that I come bearing recommendations for older fics: Truth or Dare by Pixel (rated MA), which is some very hot Jim/Pam smut, and All New People by missparker85 (rated T), which is a lovely Michael and Pam story.
I know we still have a little while to go before the Holidays are truly here, but I went shopping for Christmas decorations today, and I am in a festive mood. Hence, today's challenge: Home For The Holidays. How do Dunder-Mifflinites celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas? I conceived of this challenge as a great occasion to meet the employees' families and get a bit more insight into their lives outside the office.
As always, questions and comments are welcome at morethanthat1@gmail.com.
--Morning Angel on November 11, 2006 07:56 pm 0 Comments
In an ongoing effort to improve the quality of MTT, site administrators will now have the right to make changes to a story's tags (categorization, rating, warnings, labels, disclaimer, etc.) without notifying the author. Any changes will be made in accordance with MTT's Terms of Service and Submission Rules, which have been updated to reflect this new policy.
Our goals are to give readers the most accurate data possible for story searches, and to ensure that site admins can do this as efficiently as possible.
Be assured that the body of a story will never be altered without an author's permission - only its tags.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to use the Comments feature below or the Contact Us link above.
Thanks!
--nomadshan on November 06, 2006 10:01 am 5 Comments
--Morning Angel on October 28, 2006 01:44 pm 0 Comments
Like Michael Scott, we like to do our spring cleaning out of season! The administrators have noticed that a lot of fics are miscategorized, missing labels, missing disclaimers, and so on. Thus, to make sure that stories are well classified and easily available to readers, we will be doing a bit of cleaning up in the next few days.
Authors, to make our lives even easier, it would be greatly appreciated if you could take the time to verify that your stories meet the criteria outlined in the submission rules. We will only be modifying tags and other header information on stories which do not meet those standards.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns about this, feel free to email us.
Thank you,
The Cleaning Patrol aka The MTT Administration Team
--Morning Angel on October 27, 2006 04:38 pm 3 Comments
We have reached tonight (just before the airing of the show on the East Coast, no less!) our 500th story archived. Lis posted a little five hundred-themed story to mark the occasion. This is a nice milestone for an archive that just started back in July. Thank you to sicokitty for taking the idea of an archive and making it a reality. Thank you to all the readers and the writers who have contributed to make this site blossom. Here's to five hundred more stories! Cheers!
--Morning Angel on October 26, 2006 05:49 pm 7 Comments
It is a slow fanfic day, and I am trying to write a story, and it is just going nowhere so I reread a few of my favourite stories and thought I would share... Safety First by veryangrymidget & Camping Trip by unfold.
Safety First was the first multi-chapter Office fanfic I read (and it was one of the first, I believe). If I remember correctly, veryangrymidget took TWoP readers' suggestion about including a shower scene, which made us very happy. I won't say more... ;)
Camping Trip was written for the Confined Spaces challenge, and unfold's writing is brilliant as always. Unfold is so nice; she even wrote a pool story for the TWoP crew because we were clamoring for Wet Jim. That story is not archived here, but you can read it at ff.net. Happy reading!
--Morning Angel on October 21, 2006 03:52 pm 0 Comments
--Morning Angel on October 20, 2006 05:43 pm 2 Comments
Nomadshan gave suggestions for fics at TWoP, and I decided to use one of them for a challenge prompt: Haunted House. In the spirit of Halloween, Michael organizes an office outing to a haunted house. I can't wait to read Halloween stories! :)
--Morning Angel on October 18, 2006 08:18 pm 2 Comments