I'm dividing the unofficial version of the official FAQ into four threads. This one covers the General, Site, Contact, and User Accounts sections.

The main FAQ was written by site admins. This version was updated by me and members of this group and is unofficial.

General

What is Fimfiction?

Fimfiction is dedicated to hosting fanfiction based on the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic tv series and comics, as well as the Equestria Girls movie series. It's also a community and gathering place for fans of FiM, as well as a pillar of the fandom in general. Fimfiction has the largest collection of MLP fanfics around!

FIMFiction, FimFiction or Fimfiction?

Fimfiction is what knighty prefers, but all three are fine.

How does it work?

That's a pretty big question!

Here is the basic idea. People join fimfiction by creating an account, and verifying their email. People can join to read, rate, and review stories, be part of the groups, forums, and chat, or just to hang out. It isn't just for writers!

The writers can be part of the site by writing stories, publishing them, and talking with other writers and users about writing or whatever they want. You might make a group for something you think is missing, review other stories, make a fanclub for your favorite stories, or just hang out and make some friends. With a few exceptions, like NSFW stuff and roleplaying, the sky's the limit!

There's a lot more to it, but that gives you a general idea. The site works by having cool people join and do whatever they want, while the staff tries to keep all the gears running smoothly to make it a great place for everyone to be.

Things are broken down more below, so keep reading if you want to know how any one part works.

How do I avoid being banned from the site?

Don't do anything dumb and use your common sense, mostly.

Here are a few things that you shouldn't do on fimfiction, and could get in trouble for:
Don't harass other users. This includes, but isn't limited to, posting blogs badmouthing them, threatening them, spamming their stories with comments, downvoting all their stories without reading them, writing stories that attack them and creating alts to get around when they've blocked you.

Don't create a bunch of alts and use them to upvote or downvote stories more than once, or to get around bans.

Posting NSFW material or linking to it is forbidden on fimfiction even if it is a story on fimfiction.

Follow all the guidelines that show on the new story page, and don't change the story to violate the guidelines after it is approved.

There is no roleplaying on fimfiction any more. You can talk about it and post links to where you are doing it, but you can't roleplay in the forums.

Don't try to mess with the way the site works. Groups for nothing but upvoting stories to get them in the feature box'll get you in trouble, for example.

You aren't allowed to kill yourself, or at least, you can be banned for leaving a suicide note in a blog, then actually going through with it. If you are depressed enough that you are thinking about it, but aren't actually going to do it yet, post about it in the Anti-Depression Ponies group. If you're actually planning on doing it, post in the Feeling Suicidal? Talk With Us group, but please actually talk to them.

Contact
How can I contact the administrator?

You can send an e-mail to knighty@fimfiction.net, but it's best to check the questions below first if you're a registered user.

Who works on the site?

Please check the staff page.

Who do I contact if I have a question not listed in the FAQ, or a general inquiry or comment about the site?

If you have any questions or concerns not addressed in this FAQ, feel free to PM someone on the mod team, or leave a comment on their user pages. We can't promise that it will be addressed immediately, but they'll certainly do their best to take a look and get back to you as soon as they can. You can also ask at the bottom of the faq page page in the comment section.

Someone is harassing me on the site! What should I do?

Your best friend here is the block tool. You can find this in the dropdown below and to the right of their name on their userpage. This will prevent them from sending you further private messages or commenting on any stories or blogs you make, though they can still reply to comments and threads of yours. You can also report users by clicking the dropdown next to their name on their userpage and clicking report.

Please put in as much information as you can. Screen grabs, dates and times, etc. can all be helpful.

Does the site have a chat room?

It sure does! You can find the connection information on this page as well as a web client to use if you don't have a dedicated IRC client. Note that we do not support the embedded web chat client, sorry! There's usually lots of people active at all times of the day, and site moderators will occasionally pop in as well.

How do I report a bug or request a change to site functionality?

If you have a bug to report, please PM one of the moderators or admins. If you have a suggestion for a site improvements, feel free to send knighty a PM.

Help, I've been banned! How do I talk to someone about this?

If you've been banned, please don't try to make a new account to contact the staff. Instead, send an email to one of the site's moderators, who will review your case with the rest of the staff.
Contact Details:
Obselescence: obselescence@fimfiction.net
Alexstrazsa: alexstrazsa@fimfiction.net
Wanderer D: wandererd@fimfiction.net
Poultron: poultron@fimfiction.net

User Accounts
How do I make an account?

To make an account, click on the 'login' button in the top right hand corner of the site and then follow it to the registration page. Fill out the required account details, and be sure to check your email for the email sent out shortly after your registration. You'll need to click the link in it to validate your email within 24 hours or the account'll go away!

Is there a minimum age requirement for making an account?

Yes, new users must be at least 13 years old. This is due to the requirements under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act requiring parental permission, additional reporting, and extra security when users are under the age of 13.

I didn't receive my signup email, what should I do?

If you didn't get your signup email, first check your account information to make sure you gave us the correct email address. If you did, check your spam folder/filters to make sure your verification email didn't get blocked. If you've done all of that, you can hit the 'resend verification email' button on the main navigation bar, but make sure you're positive about that, because verification emails can only be sent once per hour.

If you're still having issues with receiving your email after that, send knighty@fimfiction.net an email and he'll look into the problem for you.

How do I delete my account?

Account deletion is not supported at this time. If you have a reason to have your content removed, you can always delete your stories themselves. If it's for a personal matter, you can PM one of the site mods/admins to request a ban.

How do I change my account name?

You can change your account name by editing the 'user name' field under the 'edit account' section from your username drop-down in the main navigation bar.

How do I change my password?

Passwords can be changed from the 'edit account' section of the username drop-down in the main navigation bar. Just make sure your password meets our minimum security requirement of 8 characters in length. Heck, throw some uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols in there too!

How do I upload an avatar?

To upload an avatar, select the 'avatar' option from the username drop-down menu. Then you can either upload a file from your computer or provide a link to the image hosted on another site.

Fimfiction doesn't like my avatar! Whatever should I do?

Make sure the image you're uploading is a jpg or png and is under 1mb. If you are using an offsite image, make sure you link to the image itself (ending in .jpg or .png) rather than the page it is located on.

How can I enjoy Fimfiction in the company of an interactive Rainbow Dash?

To peruse Fimfiction with a Rainbow Dash to call your very own, click on the 'Enable Interactive Pony' checkbox on the settings page. Warning: Interactive Pony is permanently in beta status, and as a result does not feel pain or joy, nor does she have an understanding of innuendo.

Activating my account didn't work, what should I do?

If you don't activate an account within 24 hours of signing up, the account will be purged from our database and you'll need to sign up again. You can reuse the same name and email, though!

Someone got into my account, what can I do?

Send an email to knighty@fimfiction.net and, depending on the circumstances, we may be able to help.

My account keeps logging out, why is this?

Automatic logins are currently tied to IPs, so if you login from a different computer or network, you'll need to login again.

Why are my story views on my profile so low compared to how many total chapter views I have?

The total story views on your profile page actually just adds the most viewed chapter on each one of your stories together. For example, if you had a story whose highest-viewed chapter had 300 views, and another with 200 views, your Total Story Views would be 500.

I forgot my password. Help!

Don't fret! If you've forgotten your password, you can reset it from the main menu while logged out. Note that this means you'll actually have to log out to see the reset option if you're still logged in and just want to change your password because you can't remember it.

Site
Who made the emoticons on the site?

Midori-no-ink. You can find them on her DeviantArt here

When was Fimfiction.net started?

Development began in April 2011, and the doors opened on the 10th of July 2011 for beta.

Does the site have an API I can use?

It's being worked on, but you can currently grab story information using http://www.fimfiction.net/api/story.php?story=[story_url_here], supporting JSONP with a ?callback parameter, as well as CORS. I'll make proper documentation for it when it's done.

Got a high resolution picture of that logo?

Sure do!

Click for fullsize transparent image

References:

This is where I'll post where any information I referred to in this faq came from that I remember.

--Sweetie Belle