1.
No flaming on the review boards. (Penalty:: 1) Warning, 2) 10 points
from House)
2. No plagiarism (copying other peoples' work without quoting
them or getting specific permission from them). (Penalty:: 10 points
from House, suspended 5 days)
3. Keep swears to a *bare minimum.* If the occasional profanity
slips out, that's okay, but children visit this site, so don't get
carried away. (Penalty:: Warning)
4. Internet slang (lol, u, etc.) is fine in the boards, NOT in
fanfictions. We can't accept anything written in Internet slang,
sorry.
Q. What IS a
fanfiction/fanfic/fic?
A. Harry Potter fanfictions are stories written by fans of Harry
Potter which contain characters, places, ideas, etc. from the Harry
Potter books. Fanfic and fic are just shortened words for
this.
Q. What is flaming anyway?
A. Flaming is when you review someone's fic very harshly when you
thought it was bad, so in a way is like taking a torch and burning
down someone's ideas and/or self esteem.
Q. What is a "ship"? How do you become a shipper?
A. Ship stands for relationship. It means a romantic relationship
between two characters, usually two characters from the books, or a
character from the book and a made-up character. Ships are usually
represented with an initial / initial. Some popular ships are H/Hr
(Harry/Hermione) and H/D (Harry/Draco) but you can use any ship. A
shipper just means a person who really loves to read and write
fanfics of a certain ship.
Q. I've heard people commenting about "Mary Sue." Who is
she?
A. Mary Sue is the term used to describe a character in a fanfiction
who is just too perfect. (Usually they are female, but there are male
variations such as Gary Lou.) A Mary Sue is usually beautiful as
Fleur, smarter than Hermione, daring as Harry, funny as Ron, and
everything in between. Mary Sues are usually unintentional, unless
intended as a parody (see 'Mary Sue Comes to Hogwarts,' by Lorelei
Phantomwall).
Q. How does my fic become a Featured Fic?
A. If your fic is very good and gets mostly good reviews we put it on
our spotlight page.
Q. What is the purpose of the Featured fic page?
A. The Spotlight Fic page is where we put fics that are considered
very good, and we believe that mostly everyone on the site would like
to read those fics, kind of like a Best Sellers list.
Q. What is the purpose of selecting a Hogwarts house?
A. The Hogwarts houses are just for fun. You select any Hogwarts
house when you join and everytime there is a new member to your
house, your house earns points. If your a member of your house
submits a fanfiction that gets accepted to Under The Lake Fics, your
house also earns points.
Q. Is it possible for a Hogwarts house to lose points?
A. Yes, but only by breaking certain rules.
Q. What do you mean by reviewing fanfictions?
A. Just go to that fanfiction's thread in the Reviews board and write
your thoughts on their fic (remember, no flames!), offer helpful
criticism, etc. Also, please rate their fic!
Q. How do I rate a fic?
A. Fics are rated from one to ten (1-2: bad, 3-4: not so good, 5:
average, 6: good, 7-9: great, 10: perfect). When you are in the
fanfiction's thread in the reviews board, you will see an option to
rate the post. When you do so, you are actually rating the person's
fic (don't bother rating any other posts; just the first one). You
must be signed up with Network54 (it's totally free) in order to rate
fics.
Q. In the review board, I've seen some strange abbreviations, such
as IC. What do they mean?
A. IC stands for In Character, meaning that the characters act much
as they act in the books by J.K.R. Some other initials you might see
are SS/PS (Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone), COS (Chamber of
Secrets), POA (Prisoner of Azkaban), and GOF (Goblet of Fire).
Navigation Information
To navigate through Under the Lake Fics, you may use the links in
the column along the left side of this page. If you're confused as to
where the links will lead you, below is a description of each
link.