‡ Diagon Alley ‡

• http://www.diagon.org
  
• All ratings.
• Authors’ review by Ali Wildgoose, site owner.
• Reader review by Ali Wildgoose, site owner.
  [Editor’s note: Diagon Alley lost its original webspace and is in the process of relocating to its new domain. This is the review Ali submitted when Diagon Alley was still at its old address. When the new site opens, this review will be revised to reflect any changes.]

‡ Authors' Review ‡

• Are the rules and terms of submission easy to find?
  Submission guidelines are linked to from the main page and the site info page.
• Do you supply a beta reader for authors?
  No.
• Are you polite about rejecting fics?
  Most rejected authors recieve a polite form letter. Some authors, particularly ones with easily fixable problems, are sent a more detailed eplanation, along with suggestions for improvement.
• Do you remove author's notes or copyright notices without asking the author first?
  Not intentionally.
• Do you ever archive fics without permission?
  Authors are asked if their work can be included in the archive. If they say yes, all future work will be added as it is written, unless the author requests that it be left out of the archive.
• Are you prompt about removing fics at an author's request?
  Sometimes. It doesn't happen often. Usually the webmaster prefers to wait until an update to remove authors.
• What is your plagiarism policy...do you investigate or do you take a complainant at their word?
  There have been no plagiarism accusations associated with this archive.
• Do you update at least once a month?
  No, not anymore. The archive is updated when the webmaster has free time, which isn't very often.
• Do you make it possible for readers to leave feedback?
  Yes.
• Is your location stable, or do you move frequently?
  Stable.

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‡ Reader review ‡

• Is the site attractive?
  It's nice enough to look at. <:}
• Is the site easy to navigate? (can you get to all the main sections from every page, or do they rely on the 'back' button an awful lot?)
  It's more diffucult than it should be to get back to the opening page where updates are noted, but it's easy to navigate between different sections.
• How selective is the archive? (Are you likely to find a good story?)
  Very selective. However, since it's run by one person, it reflects her tastes. Not everyone will agree with her.
• Are they a specialty (ship or genre centric) or general (only ratings restrictions) archive?
  No. All ships and all genres.
• Is it easy to navigate within multi-chaptered stories?
  It's easy to navigate to the next chapter. Going backwards or jumping around takes more effort.
• Are there search engines? Are they easy to use?
  No.
• Are the indexes (author, title listings) clearly laid out?
  There are three different listings - a list of authors, a list of ships and genres with the authors that write them, and a listing of all the authors and fics in the archive, summaries included.
• Are stories appropriately labelled if they require warnings?
  Fics with an R or NC-17 rating are labled. Slash fics are also marked.
• How many pages do you have to search through to get to the first story?
  You arrive at the main page, click on "fiction," click on the author whose fic you want to read, and then click on the story.
• Is it easy to leave feedback?
  Yes.

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