Elfwood
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Elfwood is a popular web site devoted to original science fiction and fantasy art and writing. It was started in 1st of May in 1996 by Thomas Abrahamsson (http://www.lysator.liu.se/~celeborn). It is divided into three main parts:
- SF&F Art (Science Fiction and Fantasy Art) is the main section (it was formerly divided in two sections, "Lothlorien" for high fantasy art and "Zone 47" for science fiction and modern/futuristic fantasy art).
- Wyvern's Library is for sci-fi and fantasy themed stories and poetry.
- FanQuarter is devoted to fan art based on sci-fi or fantasy themed visual media such as certain games, movies, cartoons or tv-shows.
Elfwood also has a section called FARP (http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/) (Fantasy Art Resource Project) which includes art tutorials.
History
Elfwood is one of the very first art communities to appear on the internet when graphical browsers began. It was first founded in May 1996 under the name of "Lothlorien" and was only aimed for amateur high fantasy artists. After a while, Zone 47 was created for sci-fi and modern fantasy art, and two years later the Wyvern's Library came into existence. Few months later, FARP was created. In April 2000 the ERB (Elfwood Review Board) was founded; it was responsible for the Elfwood rules and sometimes had to enforce them. In June 2001, Elfwood was closed due to death threats and reopened a month later. In August the FanQuarter area was opened.
At the end of 2001 changes to Elfwood were closed so a more manageable system could be created. Elfwood was reopened in February 2002 with a new moderating system. After that, every update has had to go through the Elfwood moderators.
In January 2004 the sections known as Zone 47 and Lothlorien were merged to create the current SF&F Art area. Along with the change came a new layout for the whole site, as well as revisions to the rules.
Elfwood crashed badly on the first of April in 2005. All data was lost and the last backup was from February. The site came back with a timewarp to February and the rules were again revised and rewritten.
Sub-communities
The Elfwood ezine Woodworks (http://www.woodworksezine.com/) was started in January 2002 by Georgette Tan, which featured articles, reviews, artwork and tutorials by Elfwood members. Tan later retired as Editor and Megan Larson took the position, leading Woodworks to its final issue in December 2004.
Elftown, the official Elfwood community, was created in 2002.
External links
- Mainpage of Elfwood (http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/)
- Woodworks the ezine (http://www.woodworksezine.com/) (has been discontinued)
- Elftown, the community (http://elftown.lysator.liu.se/)