> Hey guys,
>
> I need a little bit of help with information on setting up archives like
> the ones used for fanfiction as a possible alternative to the useless
> creative writing society at my university (who are mostly interested in
> going and reading out stuff for gratiutous praise rather than
> constructive criticism or information on how to get published). Seeing
> as there are so many of you who are so nice, helpful, and active in teh
> fanfiction community I was wondering if you'd be able to help me. If you
> can help, or point me to a useful site, then please email me off-list.
>
> Thanking you all very much :D

I'm assuming you're writing original SF&F? If that's what you're doing, I
have a few suggestions. First, I would check out Baen's Bar. It's the
webboard for Baen Books, one of the best SF&F publishing houses out there.
Most of Baen's authors have a forum, and they're generally very friendly
to people who are at least moderately polite. There's a lot of knowledge
in the authors and the barflies, on a wide variety of subjects, including
writing and becoming published. There are several Barflies who eventually
became Baen authors.

For constructive criticism on original SF&F, I would suggest joining the
Barfly_Slush yahoogroup. It's a group for people who want to become SF&F
authors, and they do a lot of story critiqueing and sharing of publishing
information. I haven't participated in years but when I did they were
giving out good, thoughtful criticism for a wide variety of SF&F stories.
I'm pretty sure most of the people who were there when I was are still
active.