⋮ No. 19856 >>19855 Simply by the nature of this argument, anything I say is going to make me sound like another fanboy. Just the same as anything you say is going to sound like the woes of yet another jealous, second-rate author.
But, setting all that aside for the sake of civility, voting and discussing things in a Keymaster thread is like playing one of those guaranteed win prize grabber machines. No matter how much I time/money I invest, there will always be guaranteed returns. The fact that I know for certain my hard will with pay off is what draws me to his threads.
It's hard to trust all you new authors, since a lot of us have been burned in the past.
⋮ No. 19858 >>19856 >anything I say is going to make me sound like another fanboy Wrong. What makes you sound like an elitist fanboy is the usage of derogatory terms of the likes of "jealous, second-rate author", explicit and implied. If you really want to have a civilized argument, you ought to start by stopping throwing personal insults. I realize calling you a fanboy is absolutely hypocritical on my part, and I apologize for insulting you like that. But I hope I made my point across in this regard. Now onto the really important topic:
>It's hard to trust all you new authors, since a lot of us have been burned in the past. This right here is exactly the kind of attitude I'm complaining about. What's all that about "guaranteed returns"? This is a fanfiction site, not a stock market, for ZUN's sake! You lose absolutely nothing by reading other stuff too, so why can't you give other stories a chance? I understand you might feel betrayed when one of the stories you've been avidly following suddenly falls on indefinite hiatus (I know that feeling all too well), but that's not a good reason to just stop trusting other authors.
THP is a site where strangers on the internet come to have a good time writing and reading stuff from other strangers. It's a shame when someone drops a story, and the readers have all the right in the world to feel disappointed, but ultimately it doesn't really matter, as there are hundreds of other stories you can enjoy too. Sticking to only one story just because you feel your investment in it will not be betrayed means you're missing a lot of other good stuff - who knows, you might find an even better story buried and forgotten in other boards.
⋮ No. 19876 >>19874 Isn't it enough that I like your story enough to waste my life reading it? Some fraction of my finite life is entirely focused and devoted to you, and yet you still aren't satisfied.
You only
>feel incredibly disheartened and disappointed because of some arbitrary importance you place on participation, discussion, and comments. By your logic, you would mistakenly assume I care less about your story than the people who do comment/discuss it, when that simply isn't true.
⋮ No. 19877 >>19876 You may be right, but try to see it from a writer's perspective. If you were to write a story, and you have a reader that wrote a couple paragraphs talking about what happened in the last update, and discussing what would be the best course of action for the next one. Then compare it to the two or three voters after him who limit themselves to copypaste what the first wrote. Also take into account the five or six readers who are silently reading the story from the shadows, without participating.
Do all those readers have the same interest in your story? Probably. But as a writer, you have no way to be sure about that. You only see the dedication of the first voter who spent five minutes to comment your story, and the other two who copypasted the first's vote in a couple of seconds. You don't even know if the silent five readers are there or not.
Naturally, your first immediate impression would be that the first guy is really interested in your story - at least he cares enough to think about how would he like the next update to be -, while the other two are either too busy to come up with something original (understandable), or don't have the same ability to come up with good write-ins (again, understandable), or simply are too lazy or uncaring to give a bother (that's not so good - it means your writing isn't eliciting a strong enough reaction on the readers).
In short, it's not only a matter of whether our stories are capable of getting the reader's interest. Their responses also tell us writers how really invested they are. Their comments give us ideas, their suggestions help us improve our writing techniques, and figure out what do the readers want to see. You don't even need to write long-ass paragraphs about the last update; just a single sentence is enough to give us a moral boost. When you don't speak your mind, you leave us in the dark, and we won't know for sure if you're really liking it, or if there's something we can do to make the story even better.
⋮ No. 19887 >>19877 >try to see it from a writer's perspective That, sir, is Perhaps the entire crux of the dissonance in the thread. I'm not a writer, never have been, never will be. Have I ever spent hours trying to get a single sentence to sound right? Nope. Have I ever sat in fear of refreshing a thread because I'm scared nobody liked my story? Course not.
Perhaps we can compromise, thought. I am not an unreasonable fellow, so how about this; instead of a pity vote, I post a pity comment. It would, in essence, be virtually indistinguishable from the comments of people who actually care about such things.
Everyone wins. You get your "moral boost" and I get my story. What say you? Will you parley?
⋮ No. 19896 
>>19895 >>19894 Burnt toast is undisputedly best girl.
It's not the greatest VN ever of all time, but it's a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon. The routes are pretty interesting and none of the characters are really bad per say. Some are just more interesting than others.
I do find it fascinating just how much of 4chan it left in tears or emotional shock.
⋮ No. 19901 >>19899 A curse.
An excuse. Hard drives begin to fail the moment you think about them failing.
It's an excuse. In all seriousness, though, life is tough. Things like hard drives failing and truck accidents happen a lot.
⋮ No. 19904 Say, has anyone here been a member of that one role-play site?
This one:
http://poir.netherworld.gs I'm kind of curious as to what kind of atmosphere it has. Reading the rules and threads can only tell you so much.
⋮ No. 20032 >>20021 depends on if they're in /th/ or not.
In /th/, saying that none will would be a pretty safe bet.
Outside of it, is less certain.
⋮ No. 20066 >>20063 >>20064 I usually avoid plugging my own story, but Not-Life over in /others/ is written from the point of view of a canon Touhou. The story has been completed, if you care about that.
There's also
If You Spook the Buddha in /shrine/, which is written from Kogasa's point of view.
Besides those, I can't think of many.
The Game by Fell is the only other that comes to mind at the moment. Most stories on this site are written with an OC as the protagonist -- probably because that was how this site was founded, but I would also say that it's because it can be easier than trying to write from the view of a canon character. (
Can be. That's not always the case.)
⋮ No. 20146 >>20131 That doesn't work well either, horribly cluttered board. Though I must say /others/ is becoming the same way due to people flocking to it, all while other boards go without much life.
As far as your story, it just didn't interest me. Sadly it comes off as /th/ fare (short lived at least; not assuming anything about quality, but the whole "gimicky concept" does it no favors)
As far as the story getting pushed down, well just wait for ToY to slow down some.
As for other boards, it's not really an issue, even in /youkai/ now that Keymaster finished his story there.
>>20143 there's other things, summer is a time for real life interruptions.
⋮ No. 20535 
>>20533 Its a false impression. If a writer's not writing for some reason or another, they go onto IRC. If they are writing, they will pop up randomly in IRC to ask questions about touhou canon, for advice, proofreaders, etc.
A lot of people on IRC are my friends, and also good writers whom I turn to for advice, help and sometimes a kick in the ass to break through writer's block.
Some people use it for procrastination, but those people would find another way to procrastinate without it. There's nothing magical or wicked about IRC.
⋮ No. 20536 >>20535 I'm more raging about the fact that THP High manages to update at the speed of light while all other stories are lucky if they update faster than once a month.
Maybe this is a sign. A sign that we should go back to the root core style of CYOA. With short updates, no overarching story, and simply having lots of fun.
Shame this writing style got shunned into oblivion on this site.
⋮ No. 20543 >>20540 Aaaah, the glory days of rapid-fire updates for an audience of dozens of voters. Yeah, those were great fun. At the same time, though, and speaking as a writer guilty of those month-long waits between updates, I like what I'm able to accomplish with several thousand words per post, even if I get mad at myself for how long it takes me to do it. Mostly because I'm a lazy sumbitch, but hey.
Fast stories, meanwhile, allow output at an unprecedented rate, but at the cost of being both exhausting for most writers and usually coming at a hit to quality, unless you're some sort of mutant like Keymaster. There's something spectacular about stories going through threads at a meteoric rate, and I agree with you that we should have more like them.
⋮ No. 20546 >>20545 Well, Do the Right Thing is a good contender, although that's been going for like 4 years.
I think there's a place for the style of CYOA's we have now, and the ones we had back then.
Embrace them both, I say.
⋮ No. 20547 >>20536 >A sign that we should go back to the root core style of CYOA. With short updates, no overarching story, and simply having lots of fun. I went back and read your root CYOAs, and guess what.
They're hot garbage. I can understand how they'd be a lot of fun with a lot of people and updates every 10 minutes or whatever, but I don't think it can be revived now that we're used to stories with a little more... story to them.
Certainly wouldn't cut it for me, in any case.
⋮ No. 20556 >>20552 >>20553 >>20554 For starters, Keymaster's ability to update fast is not normal, most that try even once a day burn out. Quite telling as once a day is the fastest a story should go before risking burn out or losing readers due to missing votes.
Writing isn't always as easy as some make it seem, and it's the 'work' related to writing that tends to cause stories to die because most would be writers aren't prepared to put in the work to sustain a story once the novelity's worn off.
It's this same factor that causes not so fast rates and burn outs upon doing fast stories.
reader alienation is a thing as if a story goes beyond once a day update, the risk of people missing updates skyrockets and some will quit reading a story they feel they have little say in.
⋮ No. 20559 >>20556 >Keymaster's ability to update fast is not normal It's normal enough. If you really like doing something you find time to do it. Even when I was being pounded in the ass by uni, life and people daily I found time to write. You do what you can when you can. And I've talked to people who were 10 hours at work and didn't have a carefree domestic life either who still managed to read and vote at the least. This may not apply to everyone all the time but if you have time to play hours of games or watch movies you also have time to read and/or write. An argument can be made that doing those other things are more fun or more relaxing or an overall better usage of time. That's more than fine! It's understandable. Just don't pretend that it's somehow physically impossible to keep a consistent update schedule.
>reader alienation is a thing as if a story goes beyond once a day update, the risk of people missing updates skyrockets and some will quit reading a story they feel they have little say in. Let me tell you why this is absolute bullshit: there's a ton of people who read without voting at all or voting only sometimes. Even with slow updates. Just ask around. Not to mention that it's not hard in the least to check the site every couple of hours in this day and age. Even from work. If you can idle and chat on IRC from work, you can read and vote.
Oh and I've never gotten complaints about updating quickly. Six years now. Plenty of other things, sure, but never for actually writing at a non-glacial pace.
You're right about writing not being easy and people burning out though. It's hard to understand how much effort it requires until you actually do it. But that's more of a human thing than the fault of the medium itself.
>>20558 It's really hard but experience makes it easier. Don't give up it becomes easier to make plans and manage.
⋮ No. 20563 >>20559 This. A million times this.
That said, let me just reinforce the idea that we have to strike a balance between quality and quantity so we can give you, the reader, something that's not shit. Now, I'm not the best writer in the world, but I do try my hardest to at least be entertaining. My stuff might not be as funny as Keymaster or as epic as Demetrious (goddamnit), and it's certainly not deep, but I do want it to be fun. Or mostly fun. Maybe a little bit of navel contemplating.
Which brings me to my second point.
>>20561 Have you ever taken into consideration that a lot of stories are sitting around waiting on someone to vote for them? Some really active people that would love to get some votes in order to move their story forward.
I'm not sayin.
But I'm just sayin.
⋮ No. 20565 >>20564 Full of faggots.
Literally. Still is too.
Stories felt more like /tg/ quests than full fanfiction.
⋮ No. 20568 
>>20536 >that THP High manages to update at the speed of light BECAUSE ITS A FUCKING ASSHOLE PLAYING A FUCKING VIJERGAEM AND TAKING HIS ACTION FROM THE FIRST VOTE POSTED AND HE JUST POSTS A FUCKING SCREENSHOT WITH A THREE LINE DESCRIPTION OR SNARKY COMMENT
ITS NOT A "STORY" YOU CHUMP
YOU FUCKING
KNUCKLE
DRAGGING
SHIT
FLINGING
SIMIAN
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH ⋮ No. 20571 >>20570 Going out of a limb here, but I think it's because said porn streamer is probably taking time out from potential writers that could instead be using that time to write stories for the ungrateful masses.
But yeah, I agree complaining about it is just a waste of time.
Time.
⋮ No. 20581 >>20572 >>20574 The problem, for me personally at least, goes beyond the virtual circlejerk. The site needs activity. Not just writing and updates but voting too. Here we have a group of people who fill up threads with lightning speed and use energy to care about something but it doesn't translate to the rest of the site at all. It's like wasted potential. So it feels like rubbing salt in wounds. If you're going to be a faggot and talk about video games and whatever, go ahead and do it with your friends elsewhere and take it easy. It just seems in poor taste and makes it feel like you're flaunting the fact that you choose not to do anything of consequence on the site. If we were thriving then I guess off-topic stuff like that would be an okay oddity. But we're not and so it makes it a bitter pill to swallow. We're a touhou fanfiction community, I'd rather get that part working smoothly before indulging in off-topic stuff.
I know it's not fair and some of the people involved to read and write at times but, to me, all the other stuff I said makes the whole experience unpalatable.
>>20579 >>20580 I think you could always ask for permission. That'd be the way to go about it. There was a story on shrine that got picked up again by someone else iirc.
⋮ No. 20585 >>20581 Well to perfectly honest a lot of times it's just one vote.
and that one vote is from the same guy 3 times.
So I mean, it's not like it's actually flooded with activity.
⋮ No. 20723 >>20579 I had that idea.
I planned out what would happen after the shower scene, what the writer intended to do afterwards with the whole masquerade lifting itself around him, what the red eyes on the dragon statue meant, minute details about side characters, how to calm anons if I were to routelock to one of the vampires etc.
But that was just theory. How do you actually get away with all that? Where do you find the guts when you have failed with your own tiny projects before?
⋮ No. 20743 >>20533 This guy was right, but for the wrong reason.
IRC NEVER FUCKING VOTES.
THEY NEVER FUCKING WRITE.
WHAT FUCKING GOOD ARE THEY??????
Seriously this pisses me the fuck off. Writing isn't easy, but what the fuck is so hard about voting? How is that so fucking difficult? They never fucking do ANYTHING.
⋮ No. 20769 >>20763 Well,
I think we can all agree that strawberry preserve is far superior to anything involving grape. And also that you're an idiot.
Wow, when I put "I think we can all agree" in front of whatever I believe personally it's almost like it automatically lends my statements an air of legitimacy! What a neat trick. Also, you're an idiot.
⋮ No. 20867 
>>20864 IRC -> I R C = 3 letters
A triangle has 3 sides
Therefore, IRC is Illuminati
But wait, there's more!
Cabal - > C A B A L = 5 letters
5 - 3 = 2
3^2 = 9
What does this mean? The Cabal did 9/11!!!!!!11111oneoneone
WAKE UP SHEEPLE
⋮ No. 20879 >>20873 It's the secret IRC group that controls THP from the shadows, shitposting in your favorite story so your waifu doesn't win.
They operate from Rizon, on the #THP channel, where they encode all their shitposting messages in code. Tuesday night, when they appear to be watching videogame wrestling, they are in fact communicating to each other about their next target.
For example, "Bazaa" is code for "anon" and "Always bet on DUEK" signifies the next target.
Dude Im making all this up please don't take me seriously Or am I? Or is this just what they want you to think?(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS TREACHERY) ⋮ No. 21001 
>>20999 Not much, provided the events I have been subjected to over the last 1-2 months, but your post did prompt me to finish another chapter of my may-one-day-be-novel. Cheers for that.
As for the
bulge blog, it has been linked several times already. Go look.
Working on that Futo/Youmu thing I did promise at the moment. Let none say I break my promises. ⋮ No. 21003 File
141285200938.jpg - (10.13KB, 247x227,
albert_wesker__s_psyche_by_dragonkeeper333-d2zqgtn.jpg) [
iqdb]
>>21002 Think of it in terms of postponing the inevitable.
⋮ No. 21038 >>21035 You fool. Do you know how many shitstorms that would stir?
A civil war would break out, between [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]! The whole place would burn!
Think of the greater good here!
⋮ No. 21061 >>21060 2006, eh? Hmm, too old. I'll need to do some more research first.
Also...
>Examples of Dubious or erroneous statements >Sakuya Izayoi's past before serving Remilia Scarlet is complete speculation (Akyuu states this in her article). >Eirin Yagokoro and Kaguya Houraisan have been categorized as human (while it is arguable whether Lunarians are human or not, the way their articles are written seems to indicate that Akyuu is completely unaware of their Lunarian descent). >Fujiwara no Mokou is the descendant of a group of anti-youkai ninjas who live in the bamboo forest (she is not a ninja and there is a high possibility that she is not a descendent, but instead is the actual person that caused the legend of ninjas in the first place). >The reason why ascending into Heaven nirvana is restricted is because Heaven is filled to capacity (in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Yukari Yakumo and Suika Ibuki eventually discovered that it was a big lie. There's plenty of room in Heaven, though it implies the Celestials are hogging more than their fair share.) Who wrote this, I wonder?
⋮ No. 21066 >>21064 >>21065 Not sure really though it doesn't help that the flow of games seems to have slowed down and we're limited by that and the inflow of stuff released.
The issue here is that the newer characters have to compete with old favorites, most of which due to the usual THP fashion of dopping stories, still don't have stories.
The DDC cast doesn't have much material unlike even TD, so that's a factor as well.
⋮ No. 21094 >>21093 At this point I think it's just too little too late.
It's been 4 years since the previous update, and 3 years since you cancelled it and posted spoilers for what would have happened. As far as I was concerned, the story ended then. After all this time I cannot clearly remember what happened in the story, and I don't really want to reread it since I do vaguely remember disliking it.
I didn't post anything about the ending because I didn't have anything positive to say, and it's just bad form to insult someone for actually going to the trouble to finish a story. Sorry, I do appreciate that you made the effort, at least. Most authors who abandon their stories don't.
⋮ No. 21099 >>21098 I didn't notice it, sorry.
But yes, like they all said, giving spoilers for the ending is a good way to close faster the wounds that a hiatus creates- but that is a double edged sword
For what's worth, I read the story when it was being updates and I liked it
