What a year it has been! 
In one year’s time we have accumulated: 1,108 members, 91 creators, 19,484 comments on 1,051 stories with a total of 17,899,853 words.
When we started this archive, we never expected numbers like that. We talked dreamily about a small, cozy archive with a fun and friendly vibe. We wanted our own place, a clean slate, where anyone and everyone could join and feel like they were valuable, where creators could just create and fandom could simply be a good time! Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show with a long, complicated history. The fandom itself has become just as historic and just as rich— with many personalities and stories of our own. This is something to be proud of! But it’s also something that can overshadow the common thread that runs through us all, which is a love for this show and these characters.
Sunnydale After Dark is about the love. It’s about connections and joy in finding that story or artwork that speaks to your Spuffy-loving soul. It’s about those beloved friends you’d never know unless you’d found this corner of the internet together. It’s about enjoying this fictional world in whichever way you want to. It’s about embracing the people who don’t always see things the way you do, and saying “Hey, we have this love in common, and that is more important here than all the many things we don’t share.”
Every choice we’ve made this past year at SAD has been about preserving that love and nourishing a culture of positivity. It’s been about welcoming and including as many people and viewpoints as we can. That’s why we decided to be more than a fanfiction archive and to invite artists to be as much a part of this creative community as the writers. It felt to us like for decades, the artists had hovered around and put just as much love into their creations as writers had, but like their work was homeless, living only on the periphery of fandom in social media spaces. How many times had we seen artwork shared with no clue where it had come from or who the artist was? That didn’t feel right. No one would ever do that with fic. So giving artists space here to get the recognition they deserved was one of our primary objectives and it worked out so well and is rewarding to this day to see all the creativity that has blossomed as a result of making that one decision.
Speaking of artwork, nothing embodies the spirit of Sunnydale After Dark better than the extraordinary mosaic at the top of this post created by Dynamite and Dirtyaim. When they reached out to us about the possibility of a community art project in which the combined talents of all our Spuffy artists could come together to create one stunning piece, we knew it was the perfect symbol for what we strive for here every day. Not only because of the amazing art, but because this idea was not from the SADmin team. This idea came from the members to celebrate the members and was organized and run by the members.
We love when that happens.
We love that Tessa and LJ94 decided to organize and run a Buffy watch party. We love that flow highlights a special piece of artwork every Friday. We love that Julikobold and others started having morning coffee time together in The Alibi Room on Discord, where readers and writers chat all day long about anything and everything. We love that Grief Counseling showered this site in adorable emojis and wrote her own prompt list after the drabble prompts were so much fun we needed more! We love that bookishy and Girlytek created the ultimate Buffy-themed drink menu for our holiday prompt exchange party. We love our diligent commenters like Magnus374, Rea, and Marina Eulalia (to name a few!) who put so much energy into supporting our creators and of course, of course we adore those creators filling this archive with art and fic!
We couldn’t possibly list all the incredible ideas and contributions you all have made.
We the SADmins think of ourselves simply as the facilitators of this community’s ideas. We want to curate and deliver the things that our Spuffy fic and art community want most. The ridiculously talented D’Hoffryn is here to make this website run lightning fast and without error, but he also loves building the things you all dream up! We have 1100+ members. You all are bound to have brilliant ideas that would never occur to us. So please never hesitate to share.
In light of the sharing, we have created a one year feedback form! We want to know how everyone is feeling, what things you’ve loved, and what things need work. If you’ve had an idea for a really cool event or site feature you’d love to see, this is the time to share it with us! Fill out as much or as little of the form as you wish. We’re excited to read everybody’s thoughts.
Hopefully, all of this explains a little bit about why we wanted our one year Spiral Spuffy event to showcase teamwork! We hope this event experience allows different members to get to know each other and come together to create five unique stories that we can all enjoy. Look out for the first chapters of each of these fics being posted today!
Thank you for being a part of this community. Thank you for celebrating this fandom and our creators with such passion and kindness. And thanks for making this past year so much fun and such an incredible success!
Much love! 
--Dusty, sandy_s, GetItDone, and Chelle on 06/22/23 08:25 am 21 Comments
I love you all so much! This site has literally become my fic home and I’m so grateful to be a part of the origin story of Sunnydale After Dark, both as a contributor and greedy consumer of all who have joined. I hope you have many great years ahead of you, that the site and community continue to flourish and grow, and that BtVS/AtS love never dies. That I’ll be old and rickety, pounding out love stories and talking about my arthritis.
Congrats on one hell of a great year for the books!
Congrats with your birthday SAD! Thanks to all Mods for making this a safe and fun space to create and interact with other Spuffy enthusiasts.
I have found a place that makes me very happy as a starting writer and avid reader and commenter. The Discord gives me a lot of laughs and great friendships.
Can’t wait for all the new celebration stories to get posted today!
Thanks so much,
Tessa
Hi all, and thank you so much for this news article!
I was really curious to learn something of the history of Sunnydale After Dark.
I came to SAD by chance because I was looking for a good piece of penmanship to describe what might have happened in the fade-to-black scene in Season 7, which Whedon decided to leave up to our imagination. But I love to read, and that became my primary focus. I can't even remember which story I found here to quench this need, but I was, I remember, simply so grateful.
But most of all, I'll never forget the immediate, warm-and-friendly, welcoming e-mail from one of the SADmins when I was having trouble logging in, which really made me feel like I was being accepted into a small, cuddly community of Spuffy lovers.
I was completely new to fanfic, and I had no idea that I would be carried away by a magic, rainbow whirlwind of creative, inspirational writing and artwork. I was blown away by the utmost generosity of the authors and artists here putting their work out for free. It feels natural to show my appreciation by giving them some feedback when I can. I also love that there are chapter and end notes, because when I read Vero's "apologizing" for not being a native-English speaker, even though I found her command of the language to be outstanding, I offered her my skills as a copy-editor (same as a beta, I ended up understanding)... and she accepted!
I read the comments a lot too, which shows me that despite the growing numbers--a good thing!--the strong "small community" feeling endures.
I was an Internet-based facilitator for a big chunk of my professional life, and I know how gratifying that can be. In my case, there was a bit of frustration attached to that because facilitators are usually expected to remain transparent... and mostly do. But SADmins are not mysterious behind-the-scenes workers! You can't imagine how inspiriting that is for me.
So thankyouthankyouthankyou, unrestrained congratulations, and long live SAD!
Marina
Oh and I love the collaborative art mosaic Dirtyaim and Dynamite! Great job, it is gorgeous!
Congratulations on the anniversary!! I haven’t been around much lately bc of life stuff but I love that this site is thriving and always coming up with these new and fantastic ideas to keep things fresh and finding new was to include everyone! I can’t wait to see what the future holds!!
I think you're all wonderful humans who have built a beautiful, open, and welcoming community. It's been a great year. Many congratulations to you all on a job well done.
Congrats on the anniversary! It’s such a lovely and welcoming place! So glad to see it doing so well a year in. And wonderful image collage Dirtyaim and Dynamite! It’s so pretty. ❤️
I can’t believe I didn’t say anything about the amazing mosaic!! What an awesome idea to include everyone, and it’s gorgeous!
I will be posting a story later this weekend with the names of all the artists who contributed and links to their art. As well as a version of the banner that will be easier to zoom in on and see the 110 individual pieces that make up the whole.
This idea was inspired by my recent trip to Barcelona and the 'The World Begins With Every Kiss' mural which made me think of the Spuffy community and how all our art, comments, reading, etc... feeds and keeps this ship/corner of the fandom active and exciting for 25 years and the amazing, supportive fandom world we have built together.
https://barcelonalowdown.com/the-world-begins-with-every-kiss/
Thank you to the SAD admins for not only letting me do this project but being as enthusiastic as I was and trusting me to get it done in two weeks. And to Dirtyaim for taking my raw first attempt and turning it into that gorgeous banner above.( I'm going to post versions of the banner in the story so you all can see exactly how amazing Dirtyaim is.)
Happy Birthday SAD. This place is such a genuine bright spot. Many thanks to the people who make it possible, from the admins, writers, artists, commenters, betas, and everyone in between.
Happy Birthday, SAD! Thank you to the SADmins and the members for making this place so FUN and welcoming and unique but still familiar. The collage banner looks so COOL and I could find my own little banner in it so that makes me happy, lol.
Congrats to the admins (old and new) who provide the fandom with this friendly, warn, and busy new archive. Happy Birthday, SAD!
Thank you for making SAD a wonderful place to be, also for artists! The mosaic banner is a great tribute to that. Amazing job by Dynamite and DirtyAim!
I can’t believe I didn’t say anything about the amazing mosaic!! What an awesome idea to include everyone, and it’s gorgeous!
Happy birthday SAD and congratulations to the mods and all the amazing people of this community for making this place awesome! ❤️
Happy birthday, SAD!
Dynamite, Dirtyaim, that banner is pure gorgeousness!
I've really enjoyed the last year of my Spuffy journey here amongst other After Darkers. Lots of reading, a little bit of writing (for the first time in over a decade!). But, above all, making friends. I love how sociable this community is, and to all the SADmins, really, thank you for fostering such an open and accepting space for everyone, making sure that everyone feels welcome and at home.
❤️❤️❤️
Happy 1st Year Anniversary to SAD!
What a beautiful post to celebrate a wonderful year of this site. A huge thank you to the mods, creators, readers and fellow Spuffy fans who help make this such a special place. Looking forward to many more years! Congratulations!
Dynamite and Dirtyaim - the mosaic is beautiful! I was so excited when I first heard about the project, and I especially love the thought process behind it. The amount of work you clearly put into it shines and I'm sitting here zooming to capture all of the gorgeous art pieces. Amazing job!
Happy Anniversary! Fantastic mosaic and even more fantastic site! Thank your for doing so much for the Buffy community, 26 years old (and even more if you count the film!) It’s amazing how long Spuffy has lasted and how many people are still inspired by their relationship. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of you and your work, all done gratis and all out of a mutual love for BtVS and Spuffy.
Thank you, thank you so much for keeping the fan community going strong!
Late as per my usual, but happy anniversary, SAD!! 
I love this place so much. I always feel like all the objectives you've set out for yourselves and for the site and its community have been reached and surpassed, and this post is such a jewel of showcasing that. As a person who doesn't only love Spuffy in this fandom, I feel those warm fuzzy feelings of welcome acceptance more than ever!! 
And that banner? That is AMAZING. I'm so happy Dynamite will post a version of it that is more easy to zoom and give us various moments of its creating process!! Man, you SADmins were AMAZING for deciding to bring art to this archive.
And I absolutely love the fact you made a form to encourage us to give ideas and feedback. I admire you all so freaking much for how open you always are. 
Thank you so so much for this place!!
Happy birthday to SAD!! And thank you oh so much to the amazing mods who have put so much devotion into making this space what it is. And to the almighty D'Hoffryn for all the seamless work of making this site really shine. This post was written beautifully, and I definitely believe that the goals of creating an inclusive and encouraging community have been well surpassed. There is great energy and positivity among the community here and an amazing collective of impassioned stories, artwork, comments, discussions, and Spuffy camaraderie. Long live SAD!
And what an amazing banner, Dynamite and Dirtyaim! I so love how this turned out and can't imagine how much time went into piecing it all together. Now I have to check out the story post to explore in more detail.
Two Things: First, as I've primarily spent this first year as a user for this site, I want to pass along tremendous gratitude to those of you who built this place from the ground up. This has always been a place where I've felt valued and heard, and the community that has sprung up around this site is second to none. I'm so appreciative to all of you (SADmins and members alike) who have been instrumental in creating this corner of the web!
Second, speaking as a SADmin, we'd LOVE it if you could share your thoughts through the survey link provided. It's a little lengthy, but you can skip around if necessary. Also it's designed to be anonymous (with a place to add your name, optionally) but if you access it signed in to a google account it will save your progress. So if you start it and want to come back to it you definitely can!
Thank you again to all of you who are making this place THRIVE!!