Beta is just what it says, and only visible to HASA members. Where you put stuff you're still working on and are happy for other members to comment on. (Though if you want it visible only to you, you can set that too)
General - everybody can see it; members can comment; non-members can send the author an email.
Reviewed - this is the bit that is a bit different from the usual meaning of "review", and gets some people's hackles up (each to their own; it was set up in the early days of post-movie LoTR fanfic, long before LJ, when there were very few archive sites and when the dreck-to-half-decent-fic ratio on the Pit of Voles was possibly even higher than it is now...)
- Reviewed is a stamp of "our members particularly want to recommend this to you". If you choose (it's entirely voluntary) to put a story into Review, it then gets checked out (blind - you are asked to remove all identifying info first) by nine members. (Can be any members of HASA who've chosen to be reviewers - people choose what to review, and are asked to be as objective as possible and not just approve fics they recognise by friends, nor review and automatically turn down types of fic they know they won't like). If a simple majority, five out of nine, think your story is "exceptional or outstanding" - and that's the bar, not just "it's fine" - it will be approved as Reviewed and get a shiny star next to it. If not, it can stay in General. Either way, everyone can read it. That's all it is, really.
no subject
Beta is just what it says, and only visible to HASA members. Where you put stuff you're still working on and are happy for other members to comment on. (Though if you want it visible only to you, you can set that too)
General - everybody can see it; members can comment; non-members can send the author an email.
Reviewed - this is the bit that is a bit different from the usual meaning of "review", and gets some people's hackles up (each to their own; it was set up in the early days of post-movie LoTR fanfic, long before LJ, when there were very few archive sites and when the dreck-to-half-decent-fic ratio on the Pit of Voles was possibly even higher than it is now...)
- Reviewed is a stamp of "our members particularly want to recommend this to you". If you choose (it's entirely voluntary) to put a story into Review, it then gets checked out (blind - you are asked to remove all identifying info first) by nine members. (Can be any members of HASA who've chosen to be reviewers - people choose what to review, and are asked to be as objective as possible and not just approve fics they recognise by friends, nor review and automatically turn down types of fic they know they won't like). If a simple majority, five out of nine, think your story is "exceptional or outstanding" - and that's the bar, not just "it's fine" - it will be approved as Reviewed and get a shiny star next to it. If not, it can stay in General. Either way, everyone can read it. That's all it is, really.