Happiness makes me happy!

Somebody else starting the thread fills me with joy~

Losing my virginity, getting my own apartment AND working on updates to my stories fills me with joy!

Maybe I am a simple man, but pictures of Tohus I like from artists I like make me a happy simple man.

It took me way too long, but I did a nice thing for a friend~

And I guess I'm working on updates again because that's pretty damn good motivation~

Dead authors are coming back to life and they are hungry for voters!

Well it only happened once but it could potentially happen again still!

>>22800
Who's coming back from the dead?

>>22806
Both Teruyo and Flanders. The first one had two two month hiatus in a row in CAAW! But returned and even started another story alongside that one and Flanders posted in a year and a half story saying he might update if there's interest.

>>22808

From what I heard, there was a tie keeping it not going.

>>22811
Come on. If there's the will to write, no tie can stop it. A coin toss takes two seconds.

>>22812
You need to have a coin first...

>>22817
https://www.random.org/coins/

There. All the virtual coins you could possibly flip, and I can personally attest to their usefulness in deciding things, be it settling a stubborn tie in your story or just looking for a second opinion on whether or not you should finally get that mole checked out.
SPOILER ALERT: You probably should.

>>22818
Which one of them?

>>22819
He said 'All of them'

Geez, pay attention.

>>22812
What if the decision is too important to leave up to chance?

>>22821
Not worth abandoning the story.

>>22821
You're writing a story where things that happen in it aren't always determined by you, the writer, but by the sometimes fickle whims of your audience. Leaving choices up to chance is what you do every single time you let them vote.

If your readers are divided on a choice, and nobody is willing to change their vote, it's up to you as the writer to work something out. Flip a coin. Hop onto IRC and ask someone to break the tie for you. Do "eeny, meeny, miny, moe". Hell, just pick whatever choice you like better and go with it. At the end of the day, it's your story, and you can do whatever you damn well please with it. Just do something, because no matter what your readers may have been voting for to cause the tie in the first place, I guarantee you none of them want the story to just stop.

>>22823
It's not just my story, it's our story. My audience puts time into reading, thinking about, and voting on my work. Sure, an individual voter's resulting output is probably not as much as the writer's, but they vote for a reason: they care about the world and characters that have been crafted for them and want to work with the writer to bring the story through an enjoyable journey and to a satisfying conclusion.

Sometimes, an entry ends with something that will have complicated and irreversible effects. When a vote like this ties for a long period of time, leaving me to settle the outcome, I am immobilized. I don't want to remove agency from my audience. Leaving an important decision to a coin toss is silly and it tells my audience that I don't care about the process that goes into making a decision. Asking those outside of my audience to vote for the sake of breaking a tie is just as silly; I want those who have been following the story and are invested in the decision to be making that decision, not a passerby. As for deciding myself, that goes completely against why I write CYOAs in the first place. If I have to pick an option because the votes are tied, I would rather write a linear story without any voting.

I am not an automaton that waits for x number of votes after y amount of time and then spits out the appropriate predetermined description of events. I write with my audience. I take their concerns, feelings, and discussions, and try to build the protagonist's character off of how my audience thinks. I flavour the resulting entry after a vote with the worry or the pride or the joy of my audience as they discuss the events unfolding before them. If my audience is too apathetic to break the tie, I have nothing to work with -- even if I flipped a coin, what could I derive from my audience's motivations if they barely discussed the ramifications of the choice before them and the final decision was not even theirs?

As the writer, it is my job to paint a picture. I paint a world for an audience, but they provide me with the colours. If they don't provide colours, I can't paint anymore. All I ask is that my audience care enough to discuss, vote, and in the case of a tie, foster up a good enough argument to convince the opposite side to vote with them. This is not unreasonable. Even if my audience is mostly apathetic, a single passionate voter could stand up and argue a point, swaying the apathetic into changing their votes. Compared to the amount of effort I put into writing, it is not asking a lot that my audience settle ties amongst themselves.

When a story ties for days at a time, or even weeks, and none of the passive readers bother to vote, and none of the voters bother to discuss, it comes across as apathetic. I don't mind poking anon and reminding them that the tie still needs to be dealt with, but if my story often faces ties that don't move for days or weeks, it does a number on my motivation. If my audience doesn't care to vote, I feel like I shouldn't care to write. Before someone tells me that I should be writing for myself, I would like to emphasize that I wouldn't write if I wasn't writing for myself. It's just that I can't do it alone. My approach to CYOA requires team effort. That's why I love CYOAs and largely prefer writing them than to writing linear fiction.

>>22825
You're overthinking it. Go with your gut.

>>22825
So let me get this straight. You enjoy writing your story very much. Yet, in the event of a tie, instead of breaking the tie yourself, you would rather let your story wither and die a cold and lonely death?

If "removing agency from my audience" bothers you so much, just remember that everyone who reads the story gets one vote. Since YOU have to read your story at least once, that means you get one vote too. So use it to break the tie. Your audience will appreciate it far more than letting the story die solely because you refused to flip a coin.

sure is rage around here

>>22827
You're not really addressing my points here. Maybe read my post again? Specifically, the third and fourth paragraphs.

Note that I am talking about extremely important decisions that end in ties. I wouldn't let my story wither away over something minor.

>>22825
Yes, these stories are collaborations between the writer and audience, but it is not an equal relationship. As the writer, you are the one with the most power over whether your story moves or stops, and you are the one with the most responsibility to get it moving again if it starts to stall, whatever the reason for it may be.

If your readers can't come to a consensus, or don't want to discuss or debate their choices and try to get others to vote one way or another, that's on them, and there is nothing you can really do about that. A deadlock is something you risk getting any time you ask a bunch of people to decide on something when there's no clear “right” or “wrong” answer, and when it does happen, someone has to be the one to break it things are to continue. If there isn't going to be any action from the readers' end, then it must come from the writer. That's all there is to it.

So your votes are tied. You have options for resolving this. You may not like them, but they're there, and when you refuse to use any of them, you are the one choosing to not continue. Flipping a coin as a tie-breaker might remove some agency from your audience, but you would still be giving at least half of your voters something they want, both by virtue of their vote winning and the story continuing. How much agency do you give them when you choose to do nothing, and just let the story lie there? Who is getting anything they want out of this arrangement?

This whole scenario makes me think of someone driving their friends or family around town to get something to eat, except they haven't actually gotten anywhere because nobody can agree on where to go. The driver can hope that everyone might agree on something eventually, if only he just waited long enough, but at the end of the night he's still the one behind the wheel. If he decides to park somewhere and wait for a consensus to be reached, then he bears a chunk of the blame if everyone winds up going home hungry, especially when all he had to do was step up and tell everyone “fuck it, shut up, we're all going to Cracker Barrel, deal with it.” And then he flips them the bird or something. I dunno.

Is it an ideal solution? Of course not, but it's hardly an ideal situation to begin with, and it's not going to get any better unless someone does something about it.


>If my audience doesn't care to vote, I feel like I shouldn't care to write.

I understand this feeling, I really do, but surely you can see where that line of thought leads? Your audience doesn't care to vote, so you don't care to write. But if you don't care to write, why should they care to vote? They can blame their apathy on you just as easily as you pin yours on theirs, and where does that leave everyone? Bouncing blame back and forth like a ping-pong ball for a situation that nobody involved wants to be in, but nobody is willing to act to get themselves out of? Is this really better than the solutions that have been proposed?

>>22831
I really hate to put it like this, but writer/voter relationship is not unlike a relationship between a couple. If a writer is shit or if there's a problem with a story people tend to go away. On the other hand, if it's good, people stay and vote. Stories with less freedom (more control from a writer) tend to be a lot better because they have direction, which gives characters motivation and agency independent of player's - potentially creating complicated situations where a voter is forced to consider how interactions between TWO (sets of) characters (players and NPC's) may go instead of attempting to blindly adapt. CYOAs (or quests, I suppose) are all about forcing complicated, difficult and fun situations on your players. This would be impossible without a sizable degree of control in your story, a thing that so many people on this site are very afraid to do (It's hard to pull it off.) On the other hand, if you railroad too much, you might as well be on fanfiction.net, or if you're good (>THP >good) you could just write a fucking book instead.

What it comes down to, I mean, is that a writer has to write. If there's a tie in the way and you cannot resolve it, you're not writing when you could have. You're not getting better when you could have. If the decision is REALLY that important, mention that it is and give people a day to resolve a tie. If it's not swung in one direction by then, flip a coin and write - just like people quit relationships when their partner stops caring, if you stall too much there's not gonna be as much voters. Keep getting better. I say that because to have a 10/10 CYOA you'd need a good setting, wordsmithing skills, planning, quick wit AND the ability to put that wit into action when you need to put them through FUN situations, decent character development pace, good characters themselves, a natural sense of FUN, a degree of knowing what the voters want (AND need) and a pace that's not "post once every two months". You need all that (sometimes, though, if your CYOA is funposting general you get a pass on about half of those things, but it will become increasingly difficult to keep the pace up). If you just get better at juicy and beautiful descriptions it's not enough.

tl;dr gut fucking git and write you scruuub

>>22831
>it's hardly an ideal situation to begin with, and it's not going to get any better unless someone does something about it.

This. Holy merciful Kanako, this. This is something people could stand to learn with regards to pretty much everything.

Also, maybe we could get this discussion moved to the rage thread?

>>22832
>>22831
In the interest of keeping this a joy thread, I'll be replying to both of you in the rage thread.

>>22828
>>22833
My apologies for disrupting the peace.

I have joy that a writer that is considered good here is willing to help me out with editing and letting me bounce ideas off of them.

>>22863
>Writer
Oh, great, then we can—

>good
Well shit.

But if you really do need a proofreader/editor/idea-bouncer-offer, then I'm here. Feel free to message me on IRC or Steam or whatever.

>>22823
Hard to tell as it seems some people LOVE to make ties.

>>22825
See above. You're fretting too much about something that amounts to "SHIT HAPPENS"

If you have a decent number of voters in general it's something to take joy in.

Hope you're having joyful holidays, lads. A little snow is always nice.

>>22879
No snow here, just rain. And that's fine with me. Joyful holidays~

I made it to Manhattan just in the time for new years. This vacation is just what I need after such a shirt year.

>>22890
>shirt year

You know what? I'm going to blame 2016 for that too.

Happy New Year, TH-P. X more years.

When-ever will I quit you?

>>22890 Here. I broke my shoulder in battery park by daring to use the slippery subway stairs. Fuck this year and fuck everything else.

>>22897

Don't they have railings of some sort? Sorry to hear about that.

>>22898

Railings? Dude, Subway can't even afford more than 5 vegetable options. I'd say them forking over the dosh for a rail ain't gonna happen.

Is it just me or did Google Translate recently get a lot better? That's very good news.

Maybe it's nothing substantial, but any little burst of talk on the site itself gives me joy~

Seeing that one of my favourite authors still ventures on irc every once in a while made me so happy I couldn't breath for a few seconds.
Now I just have to work up the courage to talk to them.

>>22938

Just remember that they may one day leave even there. No time like the present, y'know?

>>22938
I'm chhering for you Anon! Work up that courage and talk to senpai! (And let us know how it goes)

>>22938
Oh man, I know your pain! I added one of my favorite writers to OW but then I realized that I suck so I started practicing and then I broke my fucking shoulder because NYC doesn't realize that wet metal is the slipperiest substance in the universe so now I suck again and I'm quietly dreading the day where he realizes he has one stranger on his list and deletes me.

Holy fuck, I'm a fucking fanboy. Kill me, please.

Just watched one of the best movies I've seen in a while. I thought it was a horror movie and it turned out to be a horror themed comedy. I have no regrets. Anyone see anything that impressed them lately?

Hoping to make a silly drawfag-ish story in the future.

That'l be fun.

>>22985
Am certainly not a wellspring of artistic talent, but touhou designs are fun to mess around with.

>>22985
>>22986
Do it you wonderful person you

>>22986

http://cyanyurikago.web.fc2.com/material-hanken.html

The above link is relevant to the conversation, but is spoilered because it brings no joy at all.

>>22987
The only problem is figuring out what to actually write.

>>22988
I fucking love the SMT blend of creativity and silliness.

>>22985

DO EEEEEEET

>>22985
>>22987
>>22989
>>22990

Heh, now I'm thinking about a story where a human gets transported to SMT Gensokyo. I wonder how many Anon could find the strength to stay true to their horrifying waif us.

>>22990
Will do.

>>22995
I'll probably be going for something SMT-ish.

>>22996

An idea I had for art unique to the site is to start an image thread to contain it. That way, it never enters the archive, and you never have to worry about future generations only seeing thumbnails. Just link to that thread every new thread.

Because who even uses that board?

>>23001
Good idea, I'll keep that in mind.

>>23001

Yes please. Seeing so many old stories with actual fanart that you can't even click on always annoyed me.

Holy fuck, when two popular stories update it's like the fucking Christmas of posting

I'm so happy that THP is getting more activity than usual. It brings joy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHZp7jiGPqw&

Iku game definitely lived up the the hype. It's probably the most Iku thing in existence.

>>22996
Not sure when I can actually make this bloody thing, but I'm having fun dicking around with designs at least.

>>23075

At least you have artistic skill going for you. Hard to make unique character designs when you're terrible at it. Even harder when you can't find a style you quite like, leading to flopping about like a loose firehose of creative juices.

Although, it's also absolutely fantastic motivation to learn, as I've improved well beyond what I expected to.

Anywho, I can't wait to see how your story goes! I'm a sucker for a good alternate design.

>>23076
I'll try my best. The first post is already written, just have to affirm all the details.

>>23081

That is certainly the most interesting Suwako I've seen. I can't wait to read it! Which board will it be on? Not sure if you said, but I hate missing the first updates. Feel I could learn a lot by studying your art, too, so that's great motivation.

Also, is that a sand hat?

>>23082
Quite sure it will be /forest/. If not, /shrine/. Both work.

The hat is made of semi-liquid amphibian flesh and fat. It's perhaps represented poorly as I only made simple lineart.
That said, sand may be more appropriate given Suwako's position as an earth god. It's a perfectly legitimate interpretation.

I wouldn't recommend using my art as reference unless you fancy anatomy abortions. Learning to draw is a pain in the ass.

I've detoured this thread enough, have some joyful music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrKHu7qxSfQ

Seeing the new print work fills me with joy. However, not knowing whether or not Momiji has wolf ears in canon bugs me. I know it's by different artists, but I wish they could have kept that consistent.

>>23098
Yes, this newest work brings joy to me in many ways.

And many places.

>>23098
what print work is that? Just making sure if I heard of it or not.

>>23107
Alternative facts in eastern utopia.

>>23108
Ah, from what I can see there's no translation/etc of it yet on the wiki.

Oh, did you hear about the penguin?
I hear a few youkai somehow wound up in a zoo in Japan. Seems like one of the native penguins fell madly in love.

http://goboiano.com/japan-puts-anime-in-zoo-and-penguin-adopts-a-waifu/

I'm coming home from Japan after a shitty pseudo-job turned what was supposed to be a two-and-a-half week holiday into a month-and-a-half long nightmare!

>>23128

Any recommendation for someone planning a visit? I hear asian chicks dig western guys.

>>23129
Hang around Roppongi or other places where foreigners gather? I mean, I'll be real honest with you, the whole "lol Asian chicks dig Westerners" line is a little overplayed; if you're hideous/obnoxious/whatever in your own country, you'll still be the same in another. Not getting onto you specifically for that, but it's one of those misconceptions that gets repeated a lot and irks me deeply.

If it's not about getting laid, then go see the Shitamachi area (Asakusa being the big, touristy exception). Don't jump between sights: soak up the atmosphere of the different neighbourhoods. Wander around. Poke your head in places. Ride the train around. Explore, in other words. You can't see everything that Tokyo offers in any reasonable span of time, so don't sweat it.

Also, consider going to places outside of Tokyo. Fukuoka's one of my favourites.

>>23130

I suppose my question was more geared twords the getting laid aspect of visiting Japan. Thanks for the info anyway, though.

I'm finally home! Albeit with a very screwed-up circadian rhythm.

Everyone look at this cute and pure touhou dance, and be filled with joy.

The Groundhog Day musical won the Olivier for Best New Musical. This is awesome. The only thing that can make this better is if it wins, like, all the Tonys next month.

I'm glad you are all alive, THP.

>>23178
I am insulted by the implication that I'm alive.

I'm on track to get my slow-ass story active again!

>>23264
Hooray!!

If this post goes through, then that means my quick-reply add-on script for THP is working. Coolio.

Woo.

>>23287
Man, I don't even care about the waifus of questionable quality; I want that reply box now.

>>23287

>>23283
>>23287
gibe script plos

I've discovered the world of Mastodon and find it immensely more fun and fascinating than Twitter! Community orientation and moderation, not to mention decentralisation, make for a much more exploratory atmosphere.

The anarchists and furries are sort of a drawback, but that's what the mute button's for.

>>23321
The federated nature of it is cool. I considered running a server for it when I first heard about it a while ago. Still, I'm a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to the social media and the things the kids like so I ultimately didn't get into it.

>>23322
Hey, considering I didn't get to Facebook until years after the fact (and have since left), I'm practically a dinosaur myself. It can be fun if you leave your expectations for interaction at the door and just drink from the firehose. Although, personally, I just use it as an aggregator for content, links, etc.

>>23321
Wow, you mentioning it is the first time I've heard about it. I'm in love!

Updating is nice.

Someone updated after I made a bump nagging him about it!

It probably was a coincidence, but still coolio

I got the beta key for Heat Signature and it was an awesome game.
Climbing back into your pod before you bled out after your rescue effort was interrupted by being trown out of the ship that was carrying your father hostage because said ship was under attack by other faction's ship, and then driving your pod back to that ship to continue your rescue effort as the clock ticks is quite an exciting experience.

>>23356
If it was my story you bumped, it wasn't a coincidence. You 100% shamed me for not updating in forever so I got off my ass and slammed out that update.

Consider that a rule for me: if you think I'm taking too long, bump the thread and yell at me. I'm almost certain to listen.

>>23360
I adopted much the same condition for a story which I had inadvertently dropped, quite the sad while ago. Nobody has bumped it in months.

More rest for the wicked, it seems.

>>23361

Get to work. There's no rest for wicked.

Putting the responsibility on others to motivate you never ends well for anybody involved.

Gotta find your own motivation or you may as well quit while you're ahead tbh fampais

>>23363
Not so simple, old boy. Not to make an update out of a blog post, here is the short of it. After I had suffered a minor nervous breakdown due to ominously omitted circumstances, I had put the story in question on an unannounced hiatus. At its end, I was again motived to a degree, but still lacked for that final ignition piece. And thusly,

“Very good, you miserable, gaseous dog,” threw I, right into my shilly-shallying self’s teeth. “The moment anyone bothers you to write, you are going to toss whatever else it is you do, and write. Post-haste.”

“OK,” meekly I replied, picking up my teeth. “Pinkie promise.”

And so, it was done. However, as time passed (which time is wont to do), no botherings were made in this writer’s address. Bereft of posts, but unable to update due to autistic self-imposition of rules, the writer slowly stopped caring.

And this is how my story ends. Thank you for listening.

>>23366
>“The moment anyone bothers you to write, you are going to toss whatever else it is you do, and write. Post-haste.”

I am bothering you to write. Now toss whatever else it is you do and write. Post-haste.

>“The moment anyone bothers you to write, you are going to toss whatever else it is you do, and write. Post-haste.”

"I was looking for an excuse to give up, but didn't want to admit it; so I made up a condition for something that needed none. That way, I could shift some of the blame"

Mission accomplished?

>>23368
Oh, absolutely.

>>23366
>I acknowledge being pointlessly neurotic but refuse to do anything about it

yup totally different story from all other dead writefags here

>>23369
You're still a good person

>>23370
If writers were non-neurotic, they most likely would not be writers.

>>23372
People can keep their neuroses in check, you know.

>>23373
Ironic you would say that, given this site's guilty history.

Back to the topic, all of you.

I'm filled with joy that /youkai/ has some more notable recent activity in it~

That activity will spill over to other stories, r-right?

>>23375
I would be over the Moon if >>23367 had included my name in his bothering. Or bumped my thread. Or saged my thread while issuing his botherings. The hiatusing mind knows little difference.

I would also be overjoyed if someone could resurrect Moral, while you're taking requests.

>>23377
...is this Faggot? That's the only person I can think of in the recent past who hiatused after a load of personal drama.

>>23366

It's kinda seen as poor form to bump inactive threads, isn't it? People tend to get their teeth pushed in for it if people liked a story. That, mixed with how some stories have a quarterly or bi-annual update cycle, leads to people not really being able to tell when a story is dead, being written, or on hiatus. Such as A Wizard is You, or Luck of 10 and 0. On that note, If you wrote either of those, go write.

Which isn't helped by how few in number those that announce such things are.

Don't make us have to write a list of every author name in recent memory and tell them all to stop being dead.

Also, if you wrote the Yamame thing, go write. I never got around to reading that because it stopped updating, and I was really sad! I wanted to read that.

Fuck it, necroposting it is. I'll start next week. Hope you're happy.

>>23380
>Don't make us have to write a list of every author name in recent memory and tell them all to stop being dead.
This is precisely what I’d intended for you to do. Me, I may have stopped caring; but who truly knows the rainbow myriad of writers lost, stuck in the aether between updates, waiting but the articulation of their names to motivate their creative engines? I know I would be screaming Moral’s name – if it hadn’t been proven already to do nothing. Or KC’s – if it weren’t risking his identity being revealed on this site.

Whose name would you call?

>>23382

Anonymous, Bee, Anonymous, Headwing Consulting, Anonymous, Luminous, Anonymous, Anonymous Writefag Number 1523, Anonymous, Teruyo, Anonymous, Moral, Anonymous, SirRailOfGun, Anonymous, Jerl, Anonymous, D47457341, Anonymous, Jace&, Anonymous, Sights, Anonymous, ANGRY MASKED MARINE, Anonymous, Nobu, Anonymous, Choa, Anonymous, Sage-King, Anonymous, OP, Anonymous, FUCKING Bread of No Consequence, Rape Stove, FRUSTRATED WRITER, Fallguy, ANONYBODY WHY, and DAMMIT SAXTON HALE YOU HAD ONE JOB!

That's everyone worth typing the name of off of the last 3 years of th. All of you assholes, get goddamn writing, or at least stop being colossal faggots who don't say they are stopping!

I TYPED HALF OF THOSE ANONYMOUSES BEFORE I REALIZED I'D BE HERE A WHILE!

...I feel that this may have been more appropriate in the rage thread, but whatever.

>>23382
Moral, Flanders, Rifle, Anonymous Writefag Number 1523, Doesntdeserveanamefag, Teruyo, Summerfield, Anonymous, Treia, Anonymask, KN09, Cuban Pete, Anonymous, Maxwell, Barkeep, Rabbit, Anonymous, WayMaker, Nefer Nightbug, Wolfsbane706, Realmhopper, Zan, Glen, Lag, Satzibeli, An Interested Reader (id319), Anonymous, Luminous, Wanderlost, Wander, Jerl, Klaymen, Anonymus, Alice Maestra, moon, Maiden in Black, AnonymousX1, Etcetera, Noner, Forte, Lagrange, Decade, Kahi, Choja Hiragawa, Lion, Hopper, OOO, Kernel, and Anonymous.

There, that's everyone who has ever written anything in /others/ all the way back through page 9. Except for Raftclans, who literally just updated a few hours ago and therefore does not need to be revived from the dead. Also Keymaster, who finished all of his stories in record time and therefore has earned his well deserved rest (although if he wanted to come back and write another story I would love it.)

>>23384
>Raftclans, who literally just updated a few hours ago and therefore does not need to be revived from the dead.

My update schedule is still pretty shit and I could always use a good kick in the ass.

>>23383
>Anonymous
Well I feel appreciated.

>>23384
>Not Patchwork

You best be nigga, joking.

>>23382

Dear !anAL.XVMTc, ANGRY MASKED MARINE/GENERIC MASKED MARINE/SAXTON HALE/Clear Sights/Clear Your Sights, Anonybody, Anonymous Writefag Number 1523, Barkeep/WayMaker, Bee, !Bl4xMArISA/!JmarISa7IU, Bread, Bread of No Consequence, Cuban Pete, D47457341, DirtyThief, Erratic Writer, faggot, Fell, Forest Mix Anonymous, Golden Lark, halffoxmask, Isolex, Jerl, Jura, Hungry Youkai, Kahi, Komeko, krisslanza, Kurodani Yamame Has No Author/Anonymous Sekibanki lover, Luminous, Mask of gold, Mask of the Moon, Masked Imbroglio, Maxwell, Moral, Platemask no Futo/Doesntdeserveanamefag, Quiet Magician, !ttRabBit9s, Raftclans, Revenant One, Rifle, Sage-King, Serial ATA, Stove, Stupid Little Drill Tank, Sulac, Summerfield, Taisa, TheThousandBeanster, Thirty Terawatt Satellite Cannon, Tulip Breaking Virus, V, Wayback/DUMB FOX MASK, YAF, Yata and !ZAL5aj48Pg, plus all the faggots who're so slow I wasn't even around for their last update and the fuckton of people whose names got pushed out of my tiny mind by that motherfucking giant list: UPDATES FUCKING WHERE.

Not listed: Keymaster and NRFB because they know their shit, and Fallguy because holy mother of fuck he's suffered enough already.

>>23383
You know, you can always ask in-thread or on IRC what's up. I can't speak for others but given how slow the site is and how few voters there are, it makes me feel shitty to basically keep talking to myself in my threads with "status updates" when no one asks for it. Bringing up authors in some thread on another board isn't liable to accomplish much.

>>23384
>/others/
The story there I literally dropped because of lack of votes after trying for a while to whip up activity a few times. You're just mentioning everyone, I get that, but fuck you all the same. If ya don't read, don't bitch.

>>23389
I'm doing quite fine.

>>23389
S-Somebody's paying attention to me. Since when did this happen?

I can tell you one person on that list is probably not coming back due to sheer frustration with the site, and another one is... a difficult case that I've been trying to drag back into action for close to two years now.

As for myself, well, updates come when they come, even if I have a "best effort" policy. I've been doing my level best to get updates out as close to every couple of weeks as possible. Your understanding is appreciated.

>>23392

I'm 99% sure I know exactly who you are and who you're talking about, and it's cool. I just went with the flow and threw the name of every author I could remember reading and enjoying over the three years I've been here on the list, including the few that are doing okay/have good reason for being slow.

Nobody's mentioned me yet either, but fuck hypocrisy. Writing tomorrow, sober or not.

>>23389
Updates for what?

>>23395
yaint foolin anybody

>>23389
>and NRFB because they know their shit

Please, I'm like two days behind and I keep fucking up my update schedule and getting distracted by my other project. I'm a jerk too.

Joke's on you, I've been lurking for two years and didn't write shit yet. Those guys are faggots for not updating, but the title of a supreme fucking homosexual belongs to me.

>>23389
It's, uh, coming.

>>23390

>Bringing up authors in some thread on another board isn't liable to accomplish much.

>Authors brought up in some thread on another board start commenting en mass.

Seems people are more active than everyone thought, huh?

>>23400
>less than half a dozen writers saying anything out of many times more names posted
>no actual updates either
Not really en masse or particularly active, is it? Can't say anything is being accomplished as a result. Just the usual wankery. I'm all for kicking people into gear but it's best to do it properly and directly.

>>23401

Rome wasn't built in a day. That half of the writers so many writers responded is a good start, in my book!

Writefag of Animating Gensokyo: I know you want to finish it. I know you think you've written yourself into a corner (or voters have, it doesn't matter)

Listen to my drunk words, for you will find no more honesty in them than you'd find into a child's voice: continue anyway. Ignore everything that's even a minor inconvenience and finish it with a good, happy ending.

Fuck choices. An ending will put your work into our proverbial hall of fame and it sure as hell deserves that.

Apologies if this post doesn't make sense.

>>23404

Heck, a story doesn't even need to end on a happy note. Sometimes heads need to roll. Having closure and such is important.

>>23405
try saying it again AFTER a bad end happens and the reactions roll in, bub

>>23406

Dude...you're looking at this the wrong way. A strong, emotional response full of vitriol and invective means you did a fantastic job as an author.

>>23405

I agree.

>>23401

You should offer the contest winners a 25$-75$ commission of their choice. Kinda like how video game companies send free stuff to youtube content creators to give to their subscribers. It's a win-win for everyone involved.

>>23406

When the voters write themselves into a corner, it isn't as if he did it out of spite or anything. An ending to a story is still better than a story never seeing an ending. Anon makes a bed, you let him sleep in it. A story doesn't have to have a happy ending to be good.

>When the voters write themselves into a corner, it isn't as if he did it out of spite or anything. An ending to a story is still better than a story never seeing an ending. Anon makes a bed, you let him sleep in it. A story doesn't have to have a happy ending to be good.

That's true, but a good-or even hopeful- ending is almost always better.

I don't think that punishing the reader for making a worse choice should make your story worse. And a ton of stories are not made to end in a dour note.

It may be controversial to say that choices shouldn't have that much impact in a CYOA board, but I still stand my ground in this topic.

>>23409

That only works that well if you don't accept write-ins, honestly. It's why going off the rails is fairly easy if the author isn't careful. If you give a yes or no choice and they make an incredible vote that shifts the tone completely, for example, it's quite easy to want to reward that awesome.

>>23378
>>23382
Hi, I'm alive. I'm just really busy. I should have really given a status update but I am a mess at keeping everything organized.

>>23411
See? I knew it would do nothing.

Hows about we get some happy girls in snow for a change??

>>23567
There's little to be joyful about, so this is the best I can do.

>>23568

Doctors say that pretending to smile releases the same feel-good neurotransmitters as actually smiling. Maybe you should try pretending to be joyful, then see if you feel happier.

>>23567
Fucking beautiful. Be of good cheer, everybody!

>>23568
Nazrin in snow fills me with joy~

Careful there citizens, there's been multiple sightings of a massive fucking dork roaming these snowdrift. Please contact your local kennel if you see her.

>>23573
I will BURY that dork!

The new touhous have arrived.

One of them might even be Reimu's goddess :^)

>>23673
Mima where

>>23673

Too bad authors here are afraid of Newhus. We'll prolly see the first one is a story somewhere in mid to late 2018.

>>23675
Last time I wrote a story about Mokou it was a disaster. Why would I want to write about Super Hourai God Super Hourai Mokou Blue?

>>23677

Because she has a vague and frustrating power multiplier that invalidates 99% of canon she's a cutie pie? Maybe you aren't a good Mokou writer? Either way, if you do decide to write a Blue Mokou story, you would hold the title of second best Blue Mokou write in ALL the galaxy. Pretty sweet digs, right? Come on dude, you know you wanna try it.

>>23675
I try to work new(er) characters into my writing. Hell, I just wrote -- and am still writing -- porn for TH16 not long ago.

>>23679

How's that workin out for ya? Personally, I'd think that writing porn of them before they even get any sort of fanon persona around their name would be a bad idea.

>>23680
>fanon
See, I don't (usually) go by fanon, so that doesn't matter much to me.

>How's that workin out for ya?
A couple of positive comments here and there, at least one demand to continue, but not much to say otherwise. I know that it takes a while for the fanbase to warm to new characters (assuming they ever do), so all I can do is shrug.

>>23678
>Maybe you aren't a good Mokou writer?
Oh, that is absolutely the case. My Mokou was irredeemably bad. It’s even worse, since Mokou is high up my top 10. Awful, awful, awful.

In any case, there’s not enough information on Mokou Blue out right now to mount any sort of written expedition just yet. Give it time. If she ends up interesting, she will likely end up written about as well.

>>23682

>If she ends up interesting, she will likely end up written about as well.

Very true. However, the reverse is also true. One could make the argument that most of the popular 2hu were carried to stardom on the back of ambitious authors/artist/meme'ers.

Those guys who sat down at their computers with nothing to work with but a few lines of dialogue and a dream are the real heroes.

ZUN's cheeky nod to the Bubble Era fills me with joy~

Happy new year fuckers. It's good to know people with something common to me exist somewhere.

>>23695
No better way to say it.

Happy New Year folks, wish a great 2018 to you and this site!

Happy new year. I'll try to vote more. Or at all.

>>23697
Well, one vote is more than zero votes, so just do one and you're ahead of the game

IT'S THE MOTHERFUCKING YEAR OF THE AWOO BABY

>>23699
Awoo update confirmed?

>>23700
If only. Perhaps the coming Chinese astrological year will spur our resident Molar into a frenzy; I'm not counting on such a thing happening, however.

New 2hus always fill me with joy. They are wonderful and deserve to be loved.

>>23704
Why are you posting a palette-swapped Moukou?

A belated happy new year. May 2018 be happy for y'all.

>>23704
>>23709

Check his blog. It's all part of a ten year contract he signed with EA to monetize Touhou. Zun will also be implementing loot boxes and paid DLC for the game.

>>23709
>palette-swapped Moukou
People keep saying that, and I cannot overstate how wrong they are. She is NOT just some "blue Mokou" and it is cruel and offensive to dismiss her as such!

Especially when she's CLEARLY a homeless Seiga!

>>23714
After all these years, Touhou finally, officially gets a homeless girl. I am elated.

>>23712
I know you jest, but that sentence made me irrationally angry.
Bloody EA ruining shite for just a wee bit more dosh.

Voters in my story has dropped with quite a lot over the last year.

But there are still people that care enough about my shit to keep coming back and voting. And as long as even just one vote comes in, I'll continue to write.

>>23729
On the chance this is Fell, I'd like to apologize. I do greatly enjoy your story and I'd like to read and vote, but frankly, one or two updates a month is below critical update speed for me.
At that point, especially in a relatively dense story such as Otherwise, it just becomes a pain to follow along. Even important points escape my memory and I'm forced to go back, reread and rethink every single time. The excitement of looking forward to each update fades, and it becomes a chore that comes up every month instead.

But when it finishes I'll definitely go back, read it, and probably have a blast.

>>23730
same

The potential full opening of the mystery box in the near future fills me with tentative joy~

>>23767
Same!

>>23767
What mystery box is this?

>>23770
Look down at the bottom of the front page.

>>23772
THP has a front page?!

>>23772

>donate today!

Well played Teruyo.

>>/gensokyo/15331 fills me with joy AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

>>23779
Wait a minute. The front page now tells us when the writefag bumps their own thread. That means everyone will know with 100% certainty whether a thread was bumped with an actual update or just some random anon necrobumping. That means we can now bump old dead threads with a "hey writefag,we miss this story, please come back" post without having to worry about random anons bitching at us for not sageing and getting their hopes up.

This means we can bump old threads guilt free. This means we can freely let the writefags know that we still want to read their story. This means we have a better chance to revive our favorite old dead stories.

Oh joyous day!

>>23782
>This means we can freely let the writefags know that we still want to read their story.

You do realize, I hope, that it was already entirely possible to do that without bumping threads, right? I mean, assuming the writer was using the "Watched Threads" function, they could clearly see that there were new posts in their thread no matter what page it was on. The writer gets your message, and you don't get anyone getting on your ass for making them think a story updated when it didn't. It's win-win!

This is, of course, if the writer is still around. Depending on the reason for them going AWOL, that could be a VERY big "if". If they're not, then it won't really make any difference what or how you post, since they're nor here to see it, anyway. You could change the banner image on every single board with a flashing gif reading "HEY FUCKFACE GET BACK TO WRITING" and it won't make a lick of difference if they're not even here to see it.

Honestly, the only difference I can see this making to necrobumping is taking it from being extremely annoying and highly frowned upon to slightly less annoying but still fairly frowned upon. The stories you dredge up won't be any more likely to resume because you bumped them up now than if you bumped them before, and this thinking of "we have a better chance to revive our favorite old dead stories" just seems like you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

>I mean, assuming the writer was using the "Watched Threads"

This is a big enough "If" that the rest of your post lacks traction. Well that, and recent anecdotal evidence on the matter.

Go necrobumping!

>>23786
Based on what I've seen, few people bother even using the front page, let alone watched threads, a thought that boggles my mind, but there you go.

It's hard to say how many people use the watched threads feature. I can only see who added what but not when in the database, let alone the last time that particular information was retrieved. I've just now deleted everything but the last 1500~ entries. I doubt there's even that many entries that need to be kept given the the number of daily visits we get and inferring user behavior from other parameters.

The whole feature is such a mess to begin with. Why does it only track per board instead of globally? It also depends on ancient script libraries for a lot of functionality that most users don't need to load every time but end up doing so regardless. And, most importantly, why is the data kept server-side? Having database queries and php code execute when you need to know when a thread gets a reply is far less efficient that a client-side ajax request to a static (html) file. I've been meaning to do a lot of scripting and storage changes on the site and I've been mightily tempted to do away with the WT feature wholesale until it can be redone from scratch because it's not worth holding up the rest of the changes and features for it.

But all that's tenuous, pending on time and meeting other objectives I have set out first.

Honestly, insofar as I'm concerned? Necrobumping is okay if you're not bumping stories that are years without updates or sighting of authors. Or if you're bumping it over a couple of threads that just recently got updates. That's a personal feeling, not an administrative diktat, btw.

>>23782
Well, I tried putting this necrobump idea into practice. Unfortunately, the story I tried it on was already in autosage. So, I guess I'll bump it here too.

Hey Flanders! Come back! Your story is too good to let it die a second time.

>>23790

If only we had a button that would call them a shit for not updating every time we pressed it. Like, no matter where they are.

It is officially Year of the Awoo~

Happy 10th birthday, THP. Here's to another ten.

>>23902
Same.

Let's pray for another 10, comfy, years!

>>23903

I don't support this motion. These authors have a bad habit of getting so comfy they forget to update a month, and then forever.

>>23904

Ten stressful years, then?

>>23904
Try and stop me from being comfy. You can't. Ten more years and ten more beers!

>>23905

No no, that's way too sad for the Joy Thread. How about we meet up somewhere around "here's to 10 more vaguely content yet cautiously hopeful" years?

>>23906

Be careful what you wish for, friend. I happen to be a retired Master Ruseman. I'll let you off the hook this time, since you couldn't have known. Just promise to not be so careless in the future.

>>23908

I won't take less than ten draining yet optimistic years.

>>23972

As much as I would love to get some early morning rage in, even I have to admit this site has hosted some truly exceptional and complete stories. even if the ratio is 1:Graham's Number

>>23973

I only joke like that because it's sadly true. There are a lot of good finished stories, but there are far too many great stories that was just abandoned, without even as much as a word from the author. At least we still have the parts of the stories that was compelling enough to make them great in the first place

Managed to finish my story despite numbing headaches for the last few weeks (with a known and unavoidable cause). Feel pretty good about it.

Still got the headaches, though.

>>23989

>>23975 here, no name fagging this time

>I actually feel kinda guilty about this one.
Don't. I don't expect my readers to compensate for my shortcomings. I failed to make the proper connection beforehand, making the vote too vague. You should have to analyze the votes just to figure out what they're for, rather, I'm sure most authors here would like it if the readers invested more time into analyzing the best option among the votes, discussing it in the thread, though not all votes can allow for that.

>Assuming of course that what I have since figured out, without looking at the spoilers, is actually right.
Like I almost hinted at above, theories are always welcome. Seeing readers actively engage with our stories is one of the greatest feelings you can get as a writer on this site. Which isn't much, but it's something.

>You'd probably still be mad at yourself for my having to do so
I vented. I got drunk. I got my ass kicked in an online game because I'm shit. I slept. Using the remaining anger, I did some aggressive reading to correct the course of my story to work around the other pieces of information I've gotten wrong.
I stopped being angry less than a day after I posted that, since I figured it'd be better to direct that energy into not making the same mistake again instead of just blowing hot air.

>You are amazing and deserve to know it, just for this.
I want to contend that. Mostly because I'm highly critical of myself. So I'll just accept the compliment instead.
With that said. Since before I started my current story, I'd decided that all stories I make for this site, from that point onward, is part of the same universe. Meaning all stories have to follow the same rule-set, regarding magic, human-youkai relationships, territory in and outside the village.
A lot of the things I've spent time on will never get used in PoH, like for example the 12 segments fo the village guard force. Or the Qi based magic system. "True Mages" might get an appearances, if I can make it fit naturally.
Or my favorite little detail that's never going to get mentioned in the story.
Back in post 8, the smith you ask for directions. To try and make him feel like more than just a no-face character, I gave him a small backstory. He's a single dad raising a young daughter of 14. The mother died 8 years prior. The dad wants to marry the daughter into a merchant family, so she'll be able to live better, but the daughter wants to become a smith like her dad, which causes them to fight often.

In short, I try to be the author I wish to see more of on the site. To write the stories I want to read. THP's motto is "If you want something, make it yourself" after all.

And lastly, if it wasn't obvious from all the small things, like the thread this is posted in, or my comments about reader engagement. Getting any kind of feedback to that rant was unexpected, but highly appreciated.

>>23991
> Seeing readers actively engage with our stories is one of the greatest feelings you can get as a writer on this site.

As a fellow THP writefag, I agree 100%.

But I'm still too lazy and insecure to actually post my theories. Meep.

> Or my favorite little detail that's never going to get mentioned in the story.

I'm glad you decided to accept my compliment, because I feel another one coming on.

You rock. And I want to be like you.

> In short, I try to be the author I wish to see more of on the site.

That's pretty much exactly what got me writing too. It ain't working worth crap, but tell me something I don't know.

> Getting any kind of feedback to that rant was unexpected, but highly appreciated.

Right back at ya. Like most greasy, mouthbreathing, basement-dwelling fanboys, getting a response from someone I respect makes me squeal and run around in circles while flapping my hands like someone half my age and the opposite gender.

In fact, it might even be enough to make me actually update sometime this month.

I'm so happy I could sing! A game I have been waiting for all year is finally coming to PC~

>>24050

MHW?

>>24051

Yup! I've been a huge fan of the series since the original game, and with the PC release of World staggered so hard, it was quite painful to wait it out.

>>24052
>>24050
Goodbye, updates. Goodbye...

>>24053

MHW is a heckofalot more important than whatever story he might happen to be writing. I have over 900 hours logged and I'm still having fun fighting the newly released Behemoth.

>>24054

Corruption Quest, Youkai Academy, No Such Thing as Ghosts, Dark Tidings and Eastern Tale. Although, the latter two are on hiatus, so it's only a small work load, and my writing burnout from NaNoWriMo is starting to wear off. Easy enough to both write and play.

On that note, yearning to write again is also joy.

>>24056
>want to write
>no solid ideas
And I refuse to start without one I know I can carry to the end. Not joy.

Wrote the first sentence of a story I've been putting off doing for a while now. It's not much, I know, but it's the first step towards finally getting it done.

>>24087
Good luck on your journey.

It never gets any easier. You just learn to deal with the strain more effectively.

>>24088
Thanks but it actually gets considerably easier for me once I get going. I get a feel for what I'm doing and immersed in the work and its voice. Getting the narrative beats just right can be tricky but I generally don't obsess about that until I at least have a first draft done.

The real problem here is resisting the urge to do more than one piece of writing at once.

>>24090
Whoops, I took your wording to mean you were a newly-minted writer. Dumb mistake to make. Happy writing all the same.

I saw Genso Rondo in a brick-and-mortar store today! I don't even have a PS4, but it's the first time I've seen anything Touhou-related in meatspace. Amusingly enough, I found a JoJo movie on DVD on the same outing, making it the first time I've seen anything JoJo-related too.

I'm sure being joyful about either means I'm losing at life, but I don't care.

>>24096

I really wish they would port Genius of Sappheiros/Devil of Decline/Nightmare of Rebellion to English on Vita. I got the Jap version of the first two and can say without a doubt they beat the pants off all current RPGs. Devil of Decline is still my Favorite RPG of all time just because the post game content is so difficult.

>>24097
I'd heard they were good, but not that good. There a fan TL of any of them, or should I take it as motivation to brush up on my moon?

Local temperature dropped by 10°C over the last two days. The BEST time of year is coming!

>>24099

There's fan translations for the PC games, but I wouldn't recommend playing those since they lack the huge expansion added with the VITA version. I've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of games/entertainment options that became available just by learning a few moonrabbit runes. If you got the time and interest, I'd say go for the Vita version. You can always refer to the English wiki if you need to look up anything.

>>24101
It's quite a trend for when games jump to consoles they gain more stuff that we'll be lucky to see filter back to the PC originals.

It's quite telling that the western side of things is far better about that.

But in other news, I finished my update and have some hopes of picking up my pace. That ad seeing this site still kicking pretty decently in this age.

The front page is almost full of updates and bumps from a single day!

>>24173
A christmas miracle! ...in november

>>24173
Makes me incredibly happy, even if I haven't had the time to check all the stories out yet! That's a good problem to have and I hope that the momentum is kept up during the month.

Happy X-mas, THP!

Merry Christmas to all my goons! I love presents!