1. How do I post a story to the archive?

2. How should I format my text file before uploading it to the archive?

3. How does that search engine thingy work?

1. Are there any due South email lists I can join?

Yes, there are several, mostly on Yahoogroups, though most of them get little or no traffic at all these days. The DIEF-L (General Fiction) and DSX-L (Erotica/Adult content) fiction lists still technically exist, but have seen no traffic for some time. (That doesn't mean that you can't be the one to revive them!) There are also a number of DS discussion lists including--but by no means limited to--Bindlestitch, ds_Asylum, DSGenficupdates, serge, RedSuitsYou, TwoAxes, & TheNewRideForever. Each of these has its own flavor and character: some are slash, some are gen, some are Ray Vecchio-exclusive, some are Ray Kowalski-exclusive, some are pro-kink, some are anti-kink. As of this writing (1/9/05) Two Axes, The New Ride Forever, and Red Suits You seem to be among the more active lists. (A word to the wise: make sure you know what list you're on and what their ethos is before barging in with off-topic conversation!)

2. Where else can I find due South Fiction and Discussion?

At the moment, due South has a big presence on the web in blogs, and particularly on Livejournal. Livejournal Resources include:

* The DS Noticeboard, for fiction posting, recs, and more.
* DS Discourse, for show discussion.
* DS Flashfiction, for fiction challenges.
* DS Icons for sharing show icons.
* DS Writers for writer-talk and betaing.
* DS Flashback now defunct, but a good site for older recs.

Also, many of the authors who archive here have their own fiction webpages, and many have livejournals or blogs where they will talk about the show and post fiction.

1. "Hey, what's the name of this archive anyway? Why do I hear people calling it Something-Wood?"

This archive, the DSA (Due South Archive) used to be on a server called "Hexwood" and was therefore frequently (and not unreasonably) called "Hexwood" or "the Hexwood Archive." As you can see (pointing upward) we ain't on Hexwood no more. But some wags, myself included, have taken to calling the place "Ex-wood," partly because it's funny and partly because it preserves the tradition of the archive, which has been around for almost a decade.

2. "Is this a slash archive or a gen archive? Which Ray is it?"
This is officially a non-partisan archive. All due South fiction is welcome here, slash and gen, featuring any Rays or no Rays, and even, you know, Turnbull. *g* You write it, we archive it. The DSA archive was founded before the Ray Wars, and we're still here.

3. "Have you been archivist all this time?"

Hell, no. I'm the sixth and hopefully not the last. ("She went down with the archive--arr, me mateys!") The list goes something like this:

Seah (1995 - 1998)
Elaine Walker (1998 - 1999)
Anagi (1999 - 2000)
Nord (2000 - 2001)
Merry Lynne (2001- 2003)
Speranza (2003 - ongoing)

4. Okay, but seriously, you're not doing all this by yourself, are you?"

Hell, no; there's a whole team here. Seah designed the first Hexwood archive and hosted it for years. Shalott designed the first archiving scripts and has written the software runs the joint now. Walter at squidge generously gives us the space and the bandwidth and maintains the servers. And Merry Lynne has been holding my hand with this thing since she forced asked me to take over a year and a half ago.

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