Frequently Asked Questions - Dragons Valley FAQ

FAQs - Dragons Valley FAQ

A short history and review regarding the features and details of this site.

Jafira Dragon is the administrator of Dragons Valley, as he feels that it is important for others to know about the administrator of any community and what they stand for, he has added a brief time line into the faq.

Jafira was a late comer to the Internet first gaining access in the year 1998. Upon gaining access Jafira quickly discovered Altfandra and other dragon themed websites. Jafira always believing himself to have had a spiritual connection with dragons vowed to make a dragon based website as well.

In 2001, Jafira took classes in web design, (his results were poor to say the least) and created a small geocities page, introducing himself and his dragon personas as well as some fictional stories and artwork. -
http://www.jafiradragon.com/old_site/html/

In 2003 he opened a larger more appealing site at http://www.jafiradragon.com/index2.htm From there on in he had a small message board within his site but was never able to obtain sufficient traffic or become well known. Furthermore the main forum that Jafira constructed was so plagued by spam-bots that he eventually just gave up.

For many years Jafira lurked on communities such as Draconic, Tysha's Dragonforum, Draconomicon, Dragons Empire, Silverdragonsbreath, Silverdragonsden, Rashans, NTTS, DMBH, Nukapai's and Dragon Realms, however due to a personal issue concerning shyness he was never able to remain active for more then a few months.

In 2003 Jafira met Mojo Lahojo (Smotri) who acted as a mentor and friend to him, as well Jafira later came into contact with others in his neighborhood who had otherkin style beliefs. These new friends helped Jafira to better his social skills and begin to slowly overcome his problem with shyness.

As far as Jafira's interest in dragons goes, he studied them on line and off for most of his life and has gained an extensive collection of dragon literature, as well as collections of dragon themed media, artwork, statues, and a variety of other dragon collectibles. Always the dragon fanatic Jafira often wore dragon themed clothing and pendants, gaining the ire of his more conservative family members and instructors.

In 2004, Jafira fantasized about uniting all of the dragon communities on the web into one large super-site, he published his vision in a project titled New Alftandra. - http://www.jafiradragon.com/NAFD/NAFD.htm

This dream however was later deemed unnecessary as the dragon sister sites that existed online at the time fulfilled the need. Furthermore it was figured that a variety was indeed better than one all encompassing site.

In 2007 Jafira obtained the means to build Dragons Valley. However the software which he was given to do such was several years out of date. Although it had surprising support and fanfare from the admins of neighboring communities, the first variation of Dragons Valley quickly collapsed under the weight of its security flaws and Jafira was forced to abandon the project. One year later after obtaining a more recent version of the technology and gathering up the proper resources Jafira quietly re-opened Dragons Valley in 2008.

Dragons Valley as a community never truly recovered from the first failed start or Jafira's weakness in social insecurities, it had several small bursts of activity over the years but never truly took off, it stagnated for several years until its code became irreversibly deprecated in December of 2018. Jafira was encouraged by his friends to recreate the community and thus this incarnation was created in early 2019 with the help of his closest friends.

That concludes a brief history of who Jafira is.

Further things you should know include: Jafira is still extremely shy, his political views are liberal, his religious views are fairly new age, he is an art fanatic but is pained by the fact that he himself cannot draw, he is a fantasy writer and explores during most of his free time, he is poor at web-design and doesn't know what the hell he is doing, he seldom watches TV and is media inept, he loves snakes almost as much as he loves dragons, and lastly he is obviously considered to be a loser offline. For further information, visit his homepage or contact him directly. Meh.

What is Dragons Valley?

Dragons Valley is a dragon themed community designed to provide a gathering place for dragon enthusiasts to come together, exchange ideas and have fun. It was primarily designed to be a refuge for those who have a strong interest in dragons, or happen to have dragon spiritual beliefs. Dragons Valley was inspired by such sites as AltFanDragons, Tysha’s Dragon Forum, Draconity.org and Dragon Realms.

In the Spring of 2007 Dragons Valley appeared on line for the first time, it was active for less then a month, and had great support from seasoned administrators from other forums. However it had a very rough start and many problems occurred. Jafira worked many sleepless nights, whenever he didn't have college or work, in the end however, a security vulnerability caused irreparable damage and this site was lost.

Jafira exhausted from the sleepless month of coding and failure decided to take a long break from the web. One year later in the spring of 2008, Dragons Valley returned for round two, and we are hoping this time it will be successful. (Edit: It wasn't --> Let's try its 2019 incarnation.)

In Regards to draconity:

Some individuals may feel a spiritual connection with dragons, or have a personal belief system based around dragons, others may personally believe themselves to be a dragon in mind or spirit, further information can be obtained by reading the accompanying draconity faq.

In Regards to the forum:
Although dragon spirituality is a primary aspect of this community, it is not the sole purpose. Dragons Valley has been designed to cater to anyone who has an interest in dragons, not simply those who have dragon spiritual beliefs.

Our forums have locations for role playing, general discussions, entertainment, debates and so on. Only one location is based specifically on dragon spiritual beliefs and that would be the draconity board. So long as we can all mutually agree to respect each others personal beliefs there should not be a conflict.

Where the name came from:
The name Dragon Valley was based off of a valley paradise from my old stories. It is based of the homeland of my dragon Korageth, a realm personal to me. I named the community after my fictional paradise the Tycosian Valley – "Dragons Valley, a dragons paradise."

It has come to my attention recently that there is a “dragons valley” within Second Life, I assure you that I was not aware of that until fairly recently and that I find it neat, but must iterate that it has no relation to this site other then name and association to dragons.

How do I use the dragon-wiki on this site?

I did my best to find a compatible wiki program for Dragons Valley, but I was sadly unable to bridge it to our community at this time, as a result, it will require you to create a separate account if you wish to add or edit. Still, I hope that it is to everyone's liking!

To use our wiki, first you must create a separate account in the right corner of the page, then simply click on the edit option of any page or category you wish to alter, then type or add your information. Using html is not necessary, but if used within your writings it may allow for added page effects.

To create a new page in any category simply type the title of your new page in double brackets --> [ [ your new page ] ] while in a text editing box, then save and a link to your new page should appear.

Due to the risk of abuse, I have locked the dragon wiki from non-members. I am trusting you all to act responsibly and not abuse this tool, please be mature and helpful, overall, have fun!

I noticed that there is a member galleries section, how do I get a gallery?

The Members Gallery feature installed into Dragons Valley only requires that you create a personal album before art can be uploaded.

This option is available to all registered members; simply sign in, click the member galleries link from the menu and check out your options, it is all fairly simple, any questions just PM Jafira.

How do I add a pin to the Dragon Map or Member Map?

Unfortunately, at this present time only an administrator can add pins to the map feature. If you would like a pin added to either of the maps, please contact Jafira or another mod with any details you may wish to share and we will put your submission on the map promptly.

Note: In regards to the Member Map, we prefer the general area, such as your town or city, not your exact location. Your privacy is important and your general area is more then sufficient to alert others with similar interests that you are nearby.

How do I create a blog or journal?

As a registered member there should be an option to write a blog (Located in your profile page) clicking on this menu will lead you to a page which will require you to set up your blog, the blog set up process should be fairly straight forward similar to the member gallery feature.

You will be asked to name and customize your blog, it may request a category, if so that would be "member blogs" but for the most part the process should be fairly automated and simple. New posts can be submitted from your blog dashboard menu Should any difficulties arise please do not hesitate to contact the admin (Jafira) or a mod.

May I add an event to the community calendar?

Any registered member should be able to post an event to the site's calendar, you are encouraged to do so, that is what it's there for! We only ask that your submission have some relevance to yourself, the community or to other members.

To add an event such as a hatchday, a day of dragon themed significance, a scheduled stream of art or media, or a day of relevance to our community simply click on the date you wish to edit and look for the plus sign. fill out the form which appears and submit your event.

Why does the site keep logging me out?

The site's code likes to sign cookies out after fifteen minutes of inactivity, it's automated but appears to be a security precaution, such as if you were away from your browser nobody could hop on and mess with your account. The staff is still learning the backend of the site, but we may increase the time out to perhaps an hour or more once we become more familiar with the site and it's functionality.

What is the "Submit Content" option?

Atop the site in the main menu there is a "Site Content" option, it contains a few random pages with various dragon themed goodies. The "submit content" option allows registered members to add their own works or contributions to that menu.

Do you have a short dragon themed story or poem you wish to publicly share? Feel free to submit it and we'll host it for you! Do you have a dragon oriented essay or theory you've written? Submit it, we'll host it publicly for you! It's pretty straight forward. "User submitted content" it's kind of a less complicated lite version of our wiki. Please keep submitted content generally relevant to the context of either dragons or otherkin.

How can I have my stream in the video feature?

Contact Jafira or a mod through PM or discord, please share with us your request and your video URL, we'll add it to the feed for awhile upon request.