Lavender Eyes

Lavender Eyes was a fansite dedicated to Drizzt Do'Urden, and the wider universe of R.A. Salvatore's dark elf books. It hosted an archive of fanfiction and fanart, collaborative encyclopedia, store, forums, chatroom, and a link directory. Though now defunct, the site was active from 2002 to 2016, and taken down sometime after 2017.
The site appeared to be relatively popular within the fandom, and was a source of regular news updates about Forgotten Realms media. Before shutting down, it had 241 guestbook entries,http://web.archive.org/web/20170516194618/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=guestbook 5392 forum threads, 222371 individual forum posts,http://web.archive.org/web/20160201194149/http://lavendereyes.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=index and 333 encyclopedia terms.http://web.archive.org/web/20170516194344/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=Encyclopedia Lavender Eyes linked to 66 other sites through it's directory, including other fanfic archives, non-english fansites, and official dungeons and dragons websites.
== History ==
The original site was created in 2001See bottom of the website in the earliest web archive by Rebecca Smallwood (aka Rivka), the webmaster and owner, who massively updated it throughout the beginning of 2002, adding a variety of fanworks to the archives.
 
By July, the revamp was largely finished, and included a new site layout, account creation, encyclopedia, new forums, an organized links page, and news feed;
 
The account feature allowed users to private message other members, talk in the forums, comment on posts, and submit fanworks to the archives. As of 2017, there were 105,604 registered membershttp://web.archive.org/web/20170205095442/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=Profile&func=viewmembers, though this number did not reflect the number of unique users; as it was impossible to change a username once registered, any member wishing to change theirs would simply create a new account.http://web.archive.org/web/20170205135229/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=FAQ&func=display&faqid=22 
Though not mentioned in any official updates, community polls were added around this time, with two separate polls recorded as of October 6http://web.archive.org/web/20021006062541/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com:80/modules.php?op=modload&name=NS-Polls&file=index. After the revamp, Smith took over updating the homepage feed, posting both regular news about the book series and related media, and monthly recaps of any new fanworks added to the site. It seemed members could also post messages to the homepage concerning similar topics. No major events occurred throughout 2003, except a server move in August.http://web.archive.org/web/20030919091436/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=36&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
A site member named Eladriewen announced a plan for monthly theme-based fanfiction/fanart challenges in August of 2004http://web.archive.org/web/20040901044105/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com:80/index.php see second post from the bottom, though the full version of the post was not archived and remains unreadable. A large amount of blog posts also have no accessible web-archive, with only the home feed summaries remaining. Due to this, a number of fanworks and details of site activities are lost.
In November 2006, Rivka announced in a forum thread that private messages would be limited to 100 per member due to a lack of server space.http://web.archive.org/web/20070812052838/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=print&fid=7&tid=6548 Users with over 100 messages in their inbox would need to delete messages before they were able to receive new ones.
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On June 26, 2007, Rivka made an announcement introducing donations to the site.http://web.archive.org/web/20070702061717/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php Though the full post, and related forum thread are unarchived, the homefeed summary is still accessible;
In June of 2008, the site experienced downtime due to a fire in the center where the servers were hosted.http://web.archive.org/web/20081029233041/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=352 Later, in 2009, the site servers would experience issues related to the image gallery, though no detailed records of the issues survived.http://web.archive.org/web/20090331205716/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/
A November 2009 news post spotlighted the site store, which utilized affiliate links on Amazon;
 
===Domain Change===
On January 5, 2008, Rivka announced the launch of lavendereyes.net, a new version of the site, hosted at a separate URL.http://web.archive.org/web/20080509131718/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php Around March 2010, the original site was no longer accessible, instead redirecting to the new url.http://web.archive.org/web/20100322221552/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com:80/ A year later, the redirect was broken, displaying a 404 error when attempting to access the original site.http://web.archive.org/web/20111022122024/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=390 
===Admin Change===
On November 19, 2009, Rivka handed over administration of the site to user grumpie1http://web.archive.org/web/20170205142142/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=News&page=3 see sixth post from the top, who brainstormed new ideas for the site in a forum post, which was not archived. Rivka would stay on as a technical advisor for the site.
=== Deletion ===
The last homefeed article was posted on October 20, 2011,http://web.archive.org/web/20170516194550/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=395The archive of homefeed posts can be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20170517082430/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=News&func=archives But the forums would remain active until 2016.http://web.archive.org/web/20160201194149/http://lavendereyes.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=index The site was taken offline sometime between May and November of 2017, though the specific date of deletion is unknown.http://web.archive.org/web/20171127051625/http://lavendereyes.net/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi
== Screencaps ==
File:Laveyesog.png| Homepage Pre-Revamp, 2002 
File:Laveyesrevamp.png| Homepage Post-Revamp, 2002 
File:Lavendereyesnethome.png|alt=A webpage with a black background and purple text, and the logo of two purple eyes in the top left corner. There is a blog style post feed in the center, a small navigation bar in the top right corner, and a column on each side with purple accents.|Homepage, 2017
==Site Gallery==
The gallery hosted a total of 2,197 images,http://web.archive.org/web/20170515183622/http://www.lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=mGallery2 which were organized into three categories; submission, fan art, and book and game. All images would be initially uploaded to the submission gallery, where admins would approve them. Once accepted, they would be sorted into the appropriate category.http://web.archive.org/web/20170205080550/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=mGallery2&g2_itemId=19 
Once sorted into a category, images were organized into sub-galleries,http://web.archive.org/web/20170205070813/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=mGallery2&g2_itemId=66 and if necessary, into specific sub-albums.
Fan Art Sub-Galleries and Sub-Albums (circa 2008)http://web.archive.org/web/20080405162713/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php?set_albumName=album01&name=gallery&include=view_album.php
*Lavender Eyes Theme Contest; no sub-albums, 11 images
*Guest Art; 56 sub-albums (organized by artist), 238 images
*Lavender Eyes Coloring Book; no sub-albums, 26 images
*Member Art; 101 sub-albums (organized by year/artist), 1591 images
*Lavender Eyes T-shirt Designs; no sub-albums, 7 images
Book and Game Sub-Galleries (circa 2017)http://web.archive.org/web/20170205142311/http://lavendereyes.net/index.php?module=mGallery2&g2_itemId=244836
*Artwork from the Devils Due Publishing adaptation of The Legend of Drizzt; 2 sub-albums, 94 images
*Wallpapers; no sub-albums, 21 images
*Screencaps; no sub-albums, 34 images
*Maps; no sub-albums, 3 images
*Todd Lockwood; no sub-albums, 40 images
*Book Art; 13 sub-albums, 100 images
*Forgotten Realms Game Covers; 1 sub-album, 7 images
== Fanart ==
File:Laveyesalbum10Aag.jpg
File:Laveyesalbum43abj.sized.jpg
File:Laveyesalbum43aan.jpg
File:Laveyesalbum9aab.jpg
File:Laveyesalbum63aab.sized.jpg
File:Laveyesalbum99aaa.sized.jpg
== Fanfiction==
The site used Rivka's Fanfiction Module 1.0, an early predecessor to eFiction, as the basis of it's archive. Only site members could submit fics to be hosted onsite, but any user, including guests, could access them. The main page included a basic search/navigation bar, and functioned as a gateway to the archive, which was split into two categories; Drizzt & Co and Adult/Slash. Both categories were separately linked on the main page, functioning as sub-archives.http://web.archive.org/web/20160201120929/http://lavendereyes.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Fanfiction&file=index 
Archive pages had search and filter bars at the top, where users could filter by MPAA rating, character(s), and genre. Pages listed fanfictions with their title, author, link to reviews, summary and metadata (characters, genre, chapter count, category, date added, and date updated). After clicking on an NC-17 fic, a pop-up would appear; 
Guidelines 
== Forums ==
Users were required to login to utilize the site forums, which were divided into 7 categories, each with their own moderator(s); Welcome Room, Discuss the Books, Discuss Fanfiction, Art Discussion, General Babble, RPG Forum, and Site Suggestions & Announcements. A simplified version of HTML allowed users to format their text, include links and images, or change fonts.http://web.archive.org/web/20080918214705/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=misc&action=faqUnfortunately, little of the second site's forums were archived, leaving a large blindspot after 2008.Roleplaying in the RPG forum was popular, but fizzled out in 2014, with a grand total of 352 topics and 91,646 posts. There was a dedicated forum thread and database page for recording users' characters.http://web.archive.org/web/20080918214504/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=RPG&file=index
Surviving Forum Threads
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* opinions on shipping drizzt/cattie brie
* on fic writer Neven
* A thread about criticizing the mods
* a thread for posting manips
* Examples of RPs: 1 2 3 4
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== Un-Archived Material ==
While the site's homepage was extensively archived on The Wayback Machine, because it ran on php, many of the outlinks are broken. A large amount of fan content hosted on the site is unarchived and inaccessible, though it may be referenced or linked to in surviving pages.
Maintenance & Community
* Any monthly challenge posts
* A post by member grumpie1, referencing an ambiguous incident in which the front page feed was broken, and subsequently repairedhttp://web.archive.org/web/20070702062345/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php?name=News&startnum=91
* Admin threads from the RPG forum, including topics like; The Rules for Roleplaying, Member Character Database (printer snapshot from 2005 here), Leaves of Absence, Looking for Members (printer snapshot from 2005 here), and Player of the Month http://web.archive.org/web/20070812051745/http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=forumdisplay&fid=11 (printer snapshot from 2005 here)
* All forum threads in their original format (many are still available in printer-friendly format, a function available for most text-based content on the site)
* The majority of images hosted on-site, with some surviving only in thumbnail formats
* The majority of fanfiction hosted on-site
Fanworks
* The L.E. Times, a member-made fan newspaper from March, 2007http://lavendereyes.rivkashome.com/index.php?name=News&startnum=11
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Forgotten Realms‎
Category:EFiction
Category:2001 Archives
Category:2000s Archives
Category:2010s Archives