A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
Mary Draganis - 20 April 1997

Welcome to the first note from the Editor. I would like to discuss two issues that affect this site and the fan fiction that is submitted.

Firstly I would like to welcome all the new authors to the site.. I must say it's been a difficult time this week...too many good stories :-) It's a treat to read all the wonderful fan fiction streaming in (and I mean streaming in). If you haven't seen your story up on the site yet please be patient. I'm trying to get through as many as I can. If you are wondering where your story has gone to and you are really not the patient type, you can email me at kira@zip.com.au and ask me.

I've received such positive feedback about The Eddies and I want to thank everyone who has written and made their suggestions - it's a difficult choice! For something totally different this week...I have given the Eddie for best new fan fiction to SIX stories. Well the editor was a bit gobsmacked by all the fiction arriving in her inbox :-) I couldn't decide!

To all the authors out there...is there a contest or something to try and get me to cry as often as possible? <g> Some of these stories got me very misty eyed. Great work the lot of you! Go and have a look on the Eddies Awards page for all the winners.

Also a small reminder. If you read a story that you liked why not send the author an email telling her/him about it? I'm sure they would love to hear from you. If the story has not got the author's email address you can email me and I'll pass it on to the author concerned. Just remember that the author works very hard in trying to come up with a story and the least we can do is tell them how much we appreciated his/her effort.

Secondly I want to address the issue of plagiarism..

Over the past week it has come to my attention that a story that was housed on the web site was plagiarised. Unfortunately neither Tom or I were aware of this fact until a reader contacted me and let me know. As you are aware I haven't got the time to read every story that appears on other web sites therefore I won't be aware if the story you are submitting is plagerised in any way. Now should anyone think that he/she could get away with sending me plagiarised material you can forget it. The xenaverse is a close knit community and with fan fic it is read and commented on daily and remembered. Now if a reader sees a story on this site that they have read on another site and it's not by the same author, you can be quite certain that the reader will contact me and let me know. As I have done with the story mentioned above, I have removed the story, informed the author of the reason why this has happened AND I will refuse to publish any further work by this author. That part is written in stone.

If you think this is harsh just remember that the author that the work is stolen from has worked long and hard to produce their work. It's theft. In not doing anything about this, I risk the reputation of this site. Now I'm not prepared to do that. Tom has worked long and hard to produce a web site that is loved by all in the xenaverse community. plagiarism is theft pure and simple.

This is now the policy of Tom's Fan Fiction web site. ..

Well that's about it from me. If you have any comments about what I have written please feel free to email me at kira@zip.com.au and let me know.

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