Hello, and welcome to the next generation of the Reviews Lounge! Read on to learn the history, mantras, and rules of the Reviews Lounge, Too, affectionately known as the RLt. Also, let us take the time to encourage you to subscribe to our communities for under-reviewed stories (one-shots , WIPs, and M-rated content) and check out some of the great pieces we have there! (We also have a community for stories we've "graduated"...!) If you are new, we ask that you read this thread in its entirety.

What are we? We are a forum that, foremost, promotes and reviews quality, under-reviewed stories. Along the way, we seem to get into all sorts of fun and randomness. We believe in reviewing every story, no matter what, with honest and well-meaning compliments or con-crit.

Table of Contents

I. Rules

---A. Forum Rules

-------i. General Etiquette

-------ii. Conflict Resolution

-------iii. Consequences

---B. Community Rules

-------i. Submitting to the archive

II.The RLt Team

---A. The RLt Team System

---B. Meet the RLt Team

---C. RLt Team Rules

III. A History of the RL

---A. The Reviews Revolution Pledge

---B. Previous versions

---C. Our past

IV. What's What?

---A. Interesting/Helpful Threads

---B. Story of the Week Feature!

---C. Who's Who? (The Regulars' Cheatsheet!)

Rules

Forum Rules

We ask that you please adhere to these rules whenever you post on our threads. Failure to do so will result in a warning (see below).

1.) Please respect everyone. You don't have to be best friends with someone - or even like them - but we do ask that you treat them with respect. Take personal problems elsewhere. This applies to newbies, as well. We are a forum that prides itself on embracing change. Just because someone is new doesn't mean they deserve your scorn.

2.) Please use correct spelling and grammar. A mistake every now and then is fine. talkin lyk tis iz not OkAy.

3.) Keep it PG-13. The filters are currently OFF; therefore, while you may curse, keep in mind that we do have younger members.

4.) Post in the appropriate topics. Don't recommend your story for our archive in Randomness when we already have a special thread for that. Any posts that do so will be deleted.

5.) No trash-talking other forums or members.

6.) Keep your troll!fics out of our rec threads. They're never funny and will result in a ban.

----Conflict-Resolution

Here at RLt, we ask that you please treat every member here with the same amount of respect you'd like to be given. However, sometimes that just doesn't happen. If you have a problem with another poster, please first try to resolve your problem other places than our forum. If you feel someone is treating you with disrespect and doesn't want to work it out, you may come to any forum moderator for "Conflict-Resolution." Please be aware that such an action can end in compromises, restrictions, or even temporary banning.

----Consequences

We work on a "three strikes" basis, with some exceptions. The first time you break our rules, you will receive a warning from a forum moderator. Three warnings result in a temporary banning. At our discretion, we reserve the right to forgo the three warnings or ban members permanently. Three temporary bannings results in permanent blocking from our forum.

If you feel you deserved to be unbanned, you must talk to the moderator who banned you. If the two of you can not reach an agreement, please PM Wendy Brune, and the moderators will hold a vote to determine whether you deserve to be unbanned or not. Please note that we will almost always side with the moderator who banned you.

Community Rules

The RLt is committed to the plight of quality, under-reviewed stories. To belong in one of our archives, a story must be one of the following:

a.) A good, quality one or two-shot with less than 20 reviews. (40 if a two-shot.)

b.) A good, quality multi-chaptered fic with three chapters or more that has less than 10 reviews per chapter.

c.) A story that we have already graduated from our archives.

We have four communities devoted to the cause.The Reviews Lounge, Too C2 hosts under-reviewed one and two-shots. The Reviews Lounge, Too WIPS community holds our collection of under-reviewed multi-chaptered fics. The Reviews Lounge, Too M-Rated Content hosts all M-rated stories, chaptered or not. Finally, The Reviews Lounge, Too Graduates archive is home to the stories that were once in our archives but are no longer under-reviewed. We are very proud of how fast this archive is growing!

We accept any and all fandoms! However, we do not accept stories that are:

a.) Against ff.net rules. (This includes chatroom script, MA content, lists, non-stories, original fiction, etc.)

b.) Relatively still new on the site. Give it some time! You might not be under-reviewed in a few weeks!

----Submitting to the archive

We have three threads where you can submit stories for archival review. If you're recommending your own story, please do so here. If you would like to recommend someone else's story, you may do so here. If you would like to recommend an M-rated stored, you should do so here, whether it is your own story or not. Please fill out every part of the form and remember to adhere to our community guidelines.

The RLt Team

The RLt Team System

Our leadership system is compromised of three parts. Want to be involved? Look for announcements regarding applications! Every now and then we realize we need more help and will post applications for jobs we need filling. If applications are not currently up, please do not ask us for a position.

Forum Moderators- Your forum mods watch over the forums to make sure everyone is following the rules and having fun. Serving as moderators on the forum and staffers at the archives, they also are in charge of forum rules, regulations, and other "administrative" business If you have a forum-related problem, don't be afraid to go to them. They're known for being social, friendly, and helpful.

Community Staffers- Your community staffers have a definite eye for good, quality stories. Besides weeding through the recs list, they're also known to add wonderful, under-reviewed stories they find on their own adventures through fanfiction. Need a good reading recommendation? These are the people to come to!

Temp!Mods- Because we all have real lives (or pretend to, anyway), sometimes moderators will go on hiatus. When this occurs, usually a temp!mod will be given moderator powers to help out. These individuals have been hand picked for being awesome regulars with a strong knowledge of the rules, so while you don't have to listen to them when there's no shield beside their name, you'd probably benefit from doing so.

Meet the RLt Team!

FORUM MODERATORS

• Wendy Brune (Wendy): Creator and head-mod of the RLt, Wendy tries not to become insane from all her college work. She sees herself working public relations one day, loves Mildred LeProut, and is a fairly accomplished dancer. Her favorite fandoms include Harry Potter, Peter Pan, and Disney. She is giggly, friendly, and only sometimes random.

• ShadedRouge (Cass): Cass is known for her diverse fandom interests and, incidentally, is the first member of the RLt Team whose primary interest is not Harry Potter. Cass lives in an igloo, rides polar bears everywhere, and drinks maple syrup straight from the tree because she is Canadian. One of the older members of the forum, she's super friendly and a very talent writer.

• Desktop Warrior (Time): Time is one of our more thoughtful members who is great at giving advice. He's another Canadian who is one day going to open up a cafe that we will all party at when we're old and gray. His favorite fandom is Pokémon, so you'd better get that accent mark right. Time has an excellent grasp of the English language, making him a much sought out beta reader around the forum.

• Rosawyn (Rosa):

• darkin520 (Darkin):

• Megalink1126 (Mega):

COMMUNITY STAFFERS

TEMP!MODS

• IrishPanther (IP, Pan): IP is funny and friendly, and enjoys playing Review Tag and popping into Randomness. He writes for the Digimon and Zelda fandoms and is one of the many stressed-out college students who like to frequent the forum.

• The Bitter Kitten (Danielle): Although her username may suggest otherwise, Danielle is one of the sweetest members on this forum. Look out for her fandom-related socks and interesting Sherlock tidbits.

TEAM MEMBER HALL OF FAME

(i.e. the people who are no longer helping out but made a HUGE impact)

• EHWIES (E): Previously second-in-command of the RLt team EHWIES is the only RLt member thus far to be a regular at all three incarnations of the Reviews Lounge. She knows a lot about pi, writes huge walls of text, and is the resident genius on all things James/Lily. Her favorite fandoms include Harry Potter and Glee. Highly intelligent, she is the resident Hermione Granger, but MUCH less irritating and a THOUSAND times more lovable.

The RLt Team Rules

Besides following general forum rules, team members also have other rules to comply by.

1.) Do not abuse your power. Follow the consequences system when trouble arises. Abusing responsibilities to meet personal needs WILL result in loss of position.

2.) Please announce any and all hiatuses. If, failing to do so, you are inactive after four months, your position will be cleared for others. Failure to re-appear, or at least update, six months after an announced hiatus may result in a demotion. Each circumstance will be considered on a case by case basis.

3.) If you plan to go on a hiatus that will be a week or longer, please utilize a temp!mod. PM Wendy to help set this up.

4.) Especially when working for the archive, try to meet your duties in a timely fashion. Not only are other team members relying on you, but so are the members of this forum.

Additional rules for staffers apply:

1.) Please remember to ONLY add under-reviewed stories, as defined above, to the archives.

2.) We operate on a one story per author per fandom per archive rule. Simply put, Author A can have a Harry Potter and a Disney story in the one shot archive, as well as one Harry Potter and one Disney story in the WIP archive. However, they could not have two Harry Potter stories in the one shot archive.

3.) Staffers, moderators, and anyone else with access to the archive MAY NOT add their own stories. Someone else may add your story if they deem it worthy, but please never add it yourself. This is to maintain the integrity and quality of our archive.

A History of the Reviews Lounge

The Reviews Revolution Pledge

This was a little movement that began before the RL was even dreamt of - (and we take no credit for it) - however, we encourage you all to join! Simply copy and paste this into your profile, and help spread the word! :

I, [insert name here], do solemnly swear to review all the fics I read, regardless of the number of reviews, its age, or anything else.

I have joined the review revolution.

Previous Versions

The Reviews Lounge began on April 21, 2007 as a community dedicated to promoting under-reviewed authors and their stories in the Harry Potter fandom. It grew into not only a rather large and very dynamic archive but also a forum by the same name that promoted reviewing and fostered interesting conversations on everything from Harry Potter to a Reviews Lounge island. In its first year, it was the fastest growing Harry Potter forum on ff.net

The Reviews Lounge, affectionately known as the RL, aimed to encourage readers to review every story they read and was formed after the founder, Lexie-H, became particularly alarmed at the strange phenomenon which indicated that many people on this site were too lazy to review. Reviews are a very important aspect of posting a story/poem on ff.net, and the forum encouraged each and every member to review.

In the summer of 2008, Lexie stepped down as head mod, effectively handing the reigns over to Cuba and a kick-butt modding staff. The RL continued to spread the word of reviewing through the archive and forum. Other projects included collaborative pieces, a fic exchange, and numerous challenges and games.

Finally, in January 2010, Cuba retired from the modding, as did the rest of the staff. After realizing that the Harry Potter fandom was beginning to trickle out, a decision was made to expand the Review Lounge to all of fanfiction. Going under the name of The Reviews Lounge, Too, the forum and archive still honors the original mission and hopes to encourage all readers to review.

Our Past

Under construction. Check back soon!

What's what?

Interesting and Helpful Threads

Now that you've read through this entire thread, you should be ready (and excited =D) to begin posting on the forum. Not sure where to start or what to do next? See the list below to give you some ideas.

• Make sure you've introduced yourself at the Welcome to the Dark Side thread!

• Check out The Noticeboard for any recent announcements related to the forum or communities.

• The best way to get to know the group is to pop into the current Randomness thread. Don't worry, we don't bite!

• Under-reviewed or not, try joining in at Review Tag (as created by TML) to get more reviews and read some of our member's stories.

• We love giving reviews, but we've all had our own share of head scratchers. Share some your more LULzy reivews at the "What the heck?" Review thread.

• Join in on a few fun games, like the Character Development Game, Cliff, Shag, or Marry, or Round Robin, RLt Style!

• Check out Fanfiction Brainstorming and Discussion to discuss your favorite story or get some help on a piece you're writing.

• Squeeing about characters and fandoms your thing? Let's all squee together at the "OMGZ HE GLITTERS" thread.

• Read some of our forum-wide collaborations at The Reviews Lounge, Too profile page!

Story of the Week

Each week, a mod will post a story from the Reviews Lounge archive that they think is worthy of more reviews. Everyone is encouraged to then review the story and discuss it in the Story of the Week thread. This is the best way to explore our archive, and we strongly suggest you check it out.

• Forums are not to be used to post stories.
• All forum posts must be suitable for teens.
• The owner and moderators of this forum are solely responsible for the content posted within this area.
• All forum abuse must be reported to the moderators.