Most of the content at VO has a rating section appearing at the top or bottom of the page; you can rate the content on a scale of 1 to 5. Your vote will then be added to the tally for that content.

We've been collecting news items for years, and many users find this archive useful when writing term papers or performing other research. The news items, much like 99% of the content here, is freely available to anyone visiting the site.

You will notice that all news looks to have been added in 2007, which in fact is true; all past news content was added in 2007 to a new database here at VO. However, the archives actually go back to the early 1990s.

So just ignore the "submitted on" date -- within the news item, the actual publication date is listed.

One aspect of VO we're always supporting is community interaction. As a member, you can be an active participant in the development of this website. That's where the Publish content options come into play.<!--break-->

Blog entry: post a new submission to your blog. All entries must have a title and a rating. See our FAQ on the rating system used at this website. If applicable, you may select a related category. To edit a previous blog entry, select it from My account or My blog under the User menu.

Forum topic: post a new message to our forums. You must choose a category:

• Creatures of the Night: a catch-all forum for discussions about vampyre myths, legends and realities. Also includes discussions of vamps in the literary and cinematic worlds.
• Life & Times: discussions not specifically revolving around vampyres and their kin, but are still related to a gothic/spiritual lifestyle.
• General Topics: discussions relating to this website, including introductory messages from new members. Also think of it as a catch-all forum for posts that don't fall under the first two categories.

Poll: create a poll, which other members and visitors can answer. By default, polls will be open indefinitely; if you want to set a time limit, choose it from the Poll duration drop-down list.

Story: this type of submission falls under three main content types; you must choose one sub-category in order to properly tag your submission, and you must also include a title and a rating.

1. Articles: any document relating to an aspect of vampires or vampirism; typically a research paper or other information document.

• From Fear to Fascination: Reports examining our love/hate relationship with creatures of the night, including speculative work about what makes vampyres "tick."
• On the Page, Stage and Screen: Documents relating to those creatures created for our entertainment.
• The Vampyre, His Kith and Kin: A look at vampyres throughout history: the myths, the legends and the "real" vampyres.

Web Link: found a site related to vampires that's pretty cool? Submit it here.

If you are looking for the immortal, fang-bearing, cape-wearing being of myth and modern literature, then you will be disappointed, because these vampires don't exist. And don't believe anyone who claims otherwise.
<!--break-->
Saying that, there are "real" vampires here, at least in the modern sense. These people (yes, they are human and alive) do drink blood, and for some it is part of their daily lifestyle -- but note that this is a dangerous habit to take part in these days. VO does not condone this practice, but everyone is entitled to do whatever they like. We at VO stride to appreciate and accept the differing habits and lifestyles of everyone who visits here, and we hope that you do the same.

One final note: there are role players here, who may stay in character when posting messages in the forums, in their personal blogs, or chatting in the Black Raven Inn.

These folks are more likely to be the ones who will claim to be these immortal vampyres, and you should realize that they are indeed only role-playing; if you feel so inclined, join in. After all, the owner/operator of this website spends most his time at VO as Vlad Tepes, otherwise known as "Vlad the Impaler," who was born in 1431.

So just because the site is called Vampyres Only doesn't mean that you'll find a real vampire here. The name started out as a means to describe the content of the website, but it has since evolved to mean many things to many different people. All alive and breathing, of course.

Any review of a book, film or other gothic/vamp event. Please include as much info about the subject as possible, such as the ISBN/AISN (for books/movies) or the credits for a film. This will help someone if they read your review and decide they want to hunt down the source for themselves!

Both online and offline publishers have a responsibility to convey an accurate maturity level of literary content to readers. Fiction Ratings is our way of simplifying this process. All content submitted under the blog or story categories must have an accurate rating assigned to it.<!--break-->

There are six fiction ratings used on this website:

1. B: Intended for preschool level and younger children between the ages of 1 and 4. Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, adult themes, and ideas very young children cannot comprehend.
2. K: Intended for general audience 5 years and older. Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, and adult themes.
3. K+: Suitable for more mature childen, 9 years and older, with minor action violence without serious injury. May contain mild coarse language. Should not contain any adult themes.
4. T: Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.
5. M: Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with possible strong but non-explicit adult themes, references to violence, and strong coarse language.
6. MA: Content is only suitable for mature adults. May contain explicit language and adult themes.

Members not accurately following this rating system will have their membership disabled. Repeat offenders will have their membership revoked, and will be banned from using this website.

Storytelling has always been a big part of the VO community. As such, once you become a member, it's easy to submit poetry or a short story. <!--break-->

Note: Steps 1 and 2 are required.

Step 1: click on the "Create content" link, and then choose "Story." You must then choose a content type: the main categories are Articles, Crimson Quill and News.

In this case, choose a sub-category under Crimson Quill: Fan Fiction is for your stories relating to existing characters or novels (e.g. Lestat, Vampire: The Masquerade); Poetry is for poetry; and Short Story is for your own short stories. Makes sense, eh?

Step 2: choose a rating for the story you are submitting. We use the standard ratings as found at the Fiction Ratings website. Please see the FAQ entry entitled Why do you use Fiction Ratings? for details.

Step 3: feel free to select any other categories that may relate to the content you're submitting.

Step 4: By default, other members and visitors can add comments to your submissions. If you would like to disable this, choose Disabled under Comment settings.

Step 5: Submit it!

If you've written any sort of school paper on the subject of vampires, consider submitting it to us via our Feedback Form. Don't worry about others taking your work and using it as their own; there has been only one case in the past where this was attempted, and we're happy to tell you that the student was caught.<!--break-->

The teacher had the insight to cross-check the submitted work with the material here on VO! It seems as though they are quite savvy these days in checking the internet for any chance of plagarism. We are always looking for interesting documents, so consider displaying your work at VO.

Most of the public-domain classics we have at VO (such as Carmilla) are available in more than one language. So we're continually looking for foreign (non-English) versions of the more popular, public domain titles.  So if you've translated one yourself, or have seen one posted on the internet somewhere, let us know!

Our book and film lists are quite extensive, yet are probably missing some titles. If you discover this, please let us know via our Feedback Form , and provide us with all the info you can on the missing item.  We'll then add it to the respective list as soon as (un)humanly possible!

Know of something that you'd like other visitors of VO to see? Feel free to use our Feedback Form to provide content that you think will be suitable for inclusion at VO. Surprise us! Appropriate credit will be given to all submissions.

Simple, really. If you see this image -- -- it means that the link will take you to an external website.  Many of these links will lead you to Amazon.com, as we are taking part in their affiliate program. <!--break-->

External sites will open in new window; please note that they are not endorsed by vampyres.com, and we are not responsible for the content within.

There are many excellent artists out there, and several in the past have had their work displayed at VO.<!--break-->

If you are interested in showcasing your work here, send us a message (via our Feedback Form) with the URL where we can see a sample of your work. After the presentation details are worked out, we will be happy to display your work here.

VO is what you would call the "unofficial" official home page of the VAMPYRES email discussion list, since VO was initially based on archives from this list. An immense thank-you to the past and present contributors to this list, whose files made up a good portion of this website in its early days.
<!--break-->
Also, we wish to thank:

• Dave Zeigler, the VAMPYRES list owner
• The Lady in Black, who initially supplied us with her archives of the VAMPYRES list way back in 1994
• Elyza, who was the main creative force behind the Black Raven Inn and other chat rooms through 1996-98
• Dark Savant, who was indispensable as the VO User liason from 1996-98
• The Mad Bibliographer, whose alter-ego continues to supply us with excellent book reviews
• LadyBlak, Lady Lilith, Ophelia Lost and Pestilence, who tested the 2001 VO release
• Ranger, the technical guru who keeps us alive and kicking
• And, last but not least, the current moderators

We'd especially like to thank the countless folks who have provided us over the years with suggestions on how to improve VO, as well as those who keep coming back!

You may not reproduce any of the VO content at your website, including graphics.  All material created for this website is copyrighted by Vampyres Only, and all submitted content is copyrighted by the owner of said content.
<!--break-->
However, you are quite welcome to obtain a screen shot of VO without our consent, for use to accompany a print article; we would appreciate it if you let us know when the article will be published, and in which publication.

You are also free to link to VO, under the following restrictions:

• Your site does not promote hatred based on creed, colour or sexual orientation (or any other basis)
• Your site does not contain pornography
• Your site does not include content which is considered illegal, where possession of such material is punishable under the laws of your State, Province or Country, including warez, mp3 files, or serial numbers
• Your site does not charge a User for access to said link
• You only link to our main URL, which is http://www.vampyres.com

We try to answer all messages as quickly as possible - but try to understand that we can sometimes get dozens each week, and it's easy to fall behind.<!--break-->

Please note that we will not spend time responding to the following messages:

1. "I want to become a vampire! How do I do it? Will you make me a vampire?"
2. "I love your site! Send me all the information you can on vampires!"
3. "How do I ... ?" (see note)

Reasons:

1. We don't believe vampires truly exist, in the mythological sense; we obviously can't "make you into one." We're not vampires, and even if we were, it would be kind of hard to turn you into one over the Internet. We respect that you may have certain beliefs, so please be respectful of our choice to not believe in them. We certainly know that there are folks out there that partake in drinking human blood, but we do not condone such a risky activity. Trust us, it does not grant them immortality. But to each his own!
2. "Send you all the information we can?" You love the site -- but did you actually explore it? We've spent a lot of time (years, actually) and effort making VO as user-friendly as possible, so any info you need is probably just a few clicks away. Please explore VO on your own time, because unfortunately ours can be limited.
3. If you request info on something that is already explained within the content of VO, then we rarely email you back (ie. "What's up with that new Buffy comic?" or "How many vampire books has Brian Lumley written?"). We've gathered as much information as possible, so most of your questions should be answered somewhere within this website.

If you've had a peek through VO, tried the search engine, and still haven't found what you're looking for, then definitely contact us.

VO has been around since 1994, back when every other site you went to did not include annoying ad banners, which have become standard these days.

Even though VO is now a "dot com", we will never introduce a subscription type service for any of the content. We're against these ad banners; they are only used on third party services (such as our @crypt email service). This is a necessary evil, since the company who freely supplies these services to us does so in exchange for running these ads.

However, we are taking part in the Amazon.com affiliate program; as such, you'll find that most if not all of our book and film information is linked up to the corresponding page at Amazon.com. It's very unobtrusive, and actually provides a great deal of good content to VO. If you click on one of these links, and end up purchasing the item online through Amazon.com, a small portion of the cost will be returned to VO.

The only reason we're doing this is to help subsidize the costs of running such a large website. Any revenues gained are 100% redirected into this site, and since the owner/administrator of this site has a day job, VO is by no means a source of income.

We never intended for VO to be commercially-oriented -- especially since the content has been submitted by hundreds of kind folks across the Internet -- which is why we've introduced these inobtrusive means for subsidizing the cost of running the website.

After all, VO is a Community, not a Commercial venture.