Website update

[auronlu]

Wow. Time for a bit of celebration, I think.

Back in March I was getting close to finishing FFX, looked around, and realized that the only Auron/Lulu fansites out there were in Japanese, or hadn't been maintained in years. So I decided to start a little shrine for Auron and Lulu. Originally it was just going to be my own scribbles and links to some stuff I'd found that I liked.

It became clear that someone needed to keep track of the Aulu stuff posted out there. So I added a section of "favorite art" (at which point, TastyGraphite, the main Aulu art archive, disappeared) and started scooping up summaries and writing mini-reviews of the Aulu fanfic on ff.net. I started expanding my search to hunt for Aulu fanfics posted elsewhere. I reviewed every good Aulu fanfic or fanart I could find with encouraging feedback and a breadcrumb trail back to the Shrine. I urged folks to cross-post on Ficwad, since it doesn't have the censorship problems of ff.net, its review and upload system is easy, and that way new Aulus would tend to appear in one place.

Then muggy_mountain started up the aulu community (why didn't I think of that?!) and suddenly we've got this cozy group of writers and readers and artists.

Since March 3, the AuronLu Shrine has collected:

~ Mini-reviews/links to 40 Regular Auron/Lulu fanfics by various authors
~ Mini-reviews/links to 10 Mature-content Auron/Lulu fanfics by carious authors
~ Links to about 20 individual fanarts, plus 4 websites with multiple pieces
~ Links to the Auron/Lulu LJ icons posted on aulu
~ Links to a selection of Auron or Lulu shrines, videos, resources
~ Links to 30 of my own fanfics ranging from epic serials to drabbles
~ 8 of my own photomanips, 2 mediocre bits of art, and 43 LJ userpics

Bwah. Procrastination R Us.


Thank you to MANY people who have provided links, suggestions, and supplied the stories and art without which the Shrine wouldn't exist. :)

Oh. Cheesy thing.

Any time you post a link to the AuronLu Shrine or aulu community it helps bump them higher in google search, especially if you make the link's text match the search people are most likely to google for, e.g. Auron Lulu Fansite or Auron Lulu fans. It would be nice to keep them on the front page of Google searches for "Auron Lulu" since they're the two largest, most active English-language webpages devoted to our favorite obsession.

EDIT: IMPORTANT! Originally I was using the online nickname "Helluin" and using "AuronLu" for the name of the website/shrine. However, I am a dolt, and got confused about the difference between the username and login name on Livejournal. As a result, everyone now calls me AuronLu (which I like anyway) so I'm changing the Shrine's name to the Auron/Lulu Shrine. But the URL isn't changing, because it would break all the links to it.

Comments

[muggy-mountain.livejournal.com]

You think we should link the phrase Auron/Lulu to the Auronlu Shrine?

Or perhaps words likeLulu/Auron?

Or should we tryAuronxLulu?

MaybeLuluxAuron?

I think more should be aware of the your tribute to Auron and Lulu in any case. I'm really glad you started theLulu and Auron website and am glad to have contributed to your Aulu site.

:)

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

Heh.

Google pimping is SUCH a silly exercise, isn't it? But, hey, we want folks to find us. :)

[saharasnow.livejournal.com]

You don't know how glad I am when I received the email to join in the Aulu community and then later the visit to your website. I'm going to make some banners and put them under both my websites' link pages ♥

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

And we're so glad to have you here with your lovely icons, art, fanfic AND cosplay!

:D

[heyheyrenay.livejournal.com]

So, you're on geocities--ever thought about maybe moving to a domain? It's mostly the ads thing, freeservers aren't bad, but having a domain to play with is cool. I'm mostly thinking of being able to use cool scripts. I geek out, sorry. xD

Also, for June we're having Rikku/Wakka month at our little community. Doing something similar for Auron/Lulu might be cool over at the pairing community? It ends up being like a little ficathon thing and a good way to have the focus on those characters. :D I think I would love to see a Auron/Lulu month and have fun taking part. Us FFX canon pairing fans have to stick together. ;)

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

Oh! Who is actually seeing ads on geocities? I haven't in years, because of popup blockers. Geocities is nice because it lasts forever. I built a help page for my students almost ten years ago for a class I was teaching, and so help me, I haven't maintained it in YEARS, but it's still there!

Also it tends to work well in google searches. :) But, yeah, I hate throwing ads at people.

As for Auron/Lulu month, hmmmm, it sounds fun, and yet... the maintainer of aulu, muggy_mountain, is having trouble keeping up with the amount we're posting as it is, and I personally couldn't post anymore than I'm doing now. Trekqueen's got an Auron/Lulu serial she's working on. So does Muggy_mountain. So do I. The more we drabble, the less time and ideas we have left for our deeper work.

I confess that I love the way Aulu writers/readers tend to review one another thoughtfully -- I don't want to start churning out so much that it becomes a chore.

Maybe I'm overthinking here. Then again, that's one reason why I like Lulu and Auron. :D

[heyheyrenay.livejournal.com]

I see ads when I go to geocities. They're not pop-ups, they just hang around on the side and smoosh the page smaller. I've had my domains for long, when I think about ads I get a little twitchy. xD

Ah, well, I've done the month thing twice before. I talked to muggy_mountain about it a little, but posted here because the post made me think about it. My Rikku/Wakka month is pretty excessive, but out area (Rikku/Wakka) has cupcakemonster, [Unknown site tag] and me, and those two are prolific beasts that write amazing things all the time, so the events I thought up geared toward more active writers.

So I suppose it's maybe a suggestion for the future for the smaller Auron/Lulu fanbase, rather than loading up activities, do it when there's a lull in the fandom, for inspiration and advertisement for the characters, and have smaller projects. Let me tell you, that drabble tree idea works really well, and is a lot of fun besides, because it gets people working together. Maybe it would be be a good six month celebration kind of like this. xD

*geeks out*

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you! And yes, good things to keep in mind when our initial flurry of writing starts to fade a bit.

There's really only about five of us writing -- gah -- gotta get some more! :)

[heyheyrenay.livejournal.com]

I'd be six if I could get off my rear and finish some other stuff. xD