Thank you.

Thank you.

>If you absolutely cannot help yourself when it comes to how you act and type, for whatever reason, then it's likely for the best to stick solely to voting on stories and keeping silent otherwise

Noted. I'll remember this.

> 3) Posts made in the story boards, and in story threads, should try to stay on topic. Discussion related to events of the story are fine, and chatter about various other facets of related material to the story is acceptable as per author's judgment. Prolonged shitstorms over things not related to the story at all are naturally not acceptable, and will result in post deletions at best, and temp bans at worst. No one wants to see posts between two or more anons bitching at each other over nothing.

> 3a) Sometimes, arguments over various actions within the story context can spark up due to conflicts in personal interests and how votes made to cater to a particular taste might oppose others. While they can be unavoidable, it's preferred to keep them at a minimum. Everyone has their own tastes, and surely they can clash at times when opposing groups have two differing views on what should happen, and these prolonged arguments can derail threads, and even cause the writers to lose interest in the story in lieu of wanting to avoid more 'fan-faction' in-fighting.

Where were these when Gensokyo High was running?

>>6056

Is it really that hard to understand GH may be WHY this rule is here, to try and prevent anything like what happened there in the future?

Good work! Now just post this thread in every remotely active story.

>Sometimes, arguments over various actions within the story context can spark up due to conflicts in personal interests and how votes made to cater to a particular taste might oppose others.

Can you make the word "pedophile" and anything related to it an autoban?

>>6059
I would go with auto-flag, personally. It's too easy to mention pedophilia in an innocent context, and too high a price to pay.

I'm liking most of these, except for 3a.

I dunno. Something about 3a bothers me. Also, 3, but to a lesser extent. Mostly 3a.

>>6061

They're largely meant to keep down on shitposting and extended conversations about unrelated subjects that would be better off in the discussion/rage boards and not clogging up a story thread. I know I've heard complaints in the past about wanting to diminish the amount of off-topic posts and other protracted arguments as useless, under the logic that threads aren't a limited resource. While that's true, reader and writer patience for the posts is quite finite.

3a is a bit of a tricky one though, since it requires judgment to be made where to draw the line at. I would imagine that the unease of it comes from the supposition that it's meant to cut down any kind of vocal support for a certain story path/character/etc. This is not the case, it's perfectly acceptable to voice opinions on which direction to take a story, but when there are two sides that want their personal tastes to win so much that they votespam and cause arguments over trying to force their preferences, to the point it derails threads, that's when there's a definite problem. The idea is that with the warning that getting to such a point is unacceptable, people would hopefully restrain themselves. Unfortunately, I can only really foresee this as a method of preventing lengthy shitstorms, but it would probably not stop people from defending opposing sentiments on story progress.

It's a touchy subject to be sure, as a true solution to the threat of story deadlock between two equal strength fan-factions cannot be moderated as disruptive until it gets far out of control, and other than asking a compromise between the sides, it relies on writer judgment and the readers themselves.

I hope this clarifies it a bit.

>>6062
was 3a made with GH in mind? As that has fighting between two rather roughly equal fan factions, other the 2nd varies depending on who has the best chance of defeating the first. Looking at how that played out proves pretty
entertaining.

I have a question: can we report people who jump into the middle of the story and try to basically force their goals onto everyone else?

>>6070

I think your question is best answered by route locking early to the point where that doesn't happen.

>>6071
Exactly, sadly Taisa didn't read the memo. And I blame the lack of a routelock with how bad they've gotten as it encourages challengers to try their luck.

>>6072
From what I saw, it wasn't so much the absence of a routelock as it was a combination of fearing to alienate readers and failing to present a driving conflict.

When you take strong and active steps to discourage character or route-based choices and give the readers a goal to reach or an obstacle to overcome other than trying to get in this or that character's pants, reader infighting and the stupid shipper mentality associated with it becomes much less of an issue.

I'd like to request the use of sage being added to the list. The reason I ask this is because 'The Last Stand of Cirno the Valiant' was recently linked on TFF, and sure enough, a newfag stumbled in and bumped the thread. Others were on the job long before I noticed, so unless he's retarded he'll learn, but I figure adding something about it to this thread might help a bit. Assuming anyone will even glance at this thread, which might be a bit too optimistic.

>>6070

That shit has been around long before Taisa even found this place. Patchwork is the earliest I can remember. Ever since then there's been at least one writer who's built up some hardcore factions for whatever romantic interests there are in a story.

I'm glad we can finally tell that lot to shove it with an official statement.

>>6078
>>6079

The butthurt is staggering.

Was that supposed to invoke rage? 'Cause all I felt was overwhelming pity.

It's one thing to devote so much effort to trolling an obscure site, but to be so horrible at it...

>>6079

Congratulations, you now know how to use a proxy. You now have an intelligence level that equal to a 13 year old script kiddie who probably thinks Visual Basic is the best language ever. Does that make you feel accomplished? Nobody cares but by all means do keep on posting though. It's fun to watch your neverending butthurt.

>>6081
>>6082
>>6083
Random Anon trying to "troll" again? I feel slightly left out, as I didn't get to see it before it was deleted.

>>6084

You didn't really miss much. He just bragged that Mode failed at being a mod, in badly mauled English.

>>6085
Mmm... I saw moderators leaving the website during shitstorms like this one.
Compared to them, Mode is quite the perfect and elegant maid mod.

>>6086

That was hardly a shitstorm. It's more comparable to a dude running into an building yelling obscenities before being casually tazed by the guard.

>>6089

Better still, some crazed dude running into a building, yelling for someone they know is on the guard staff without realizing they're not even on shift at the moment, before getting tazed.

'The Last Stand of Cirno the Valiant' is something that I apologize for given that I was the one who did that. But yes it would be nice to have a place easy to find on the site where things like sage are explained (possibly the same area that explains the use bold italics, and all that) so that it would be harder to make such a mistake.

>>6091
Read the FAQ.
http://www.touhou-project.com/news.php?p=faq

Which actually doesn't mention sage. I guess it needs another update.

>>6092
That's kind of dumb actually. People rage when newguys don't use sage and stuff like that but when you look around the site, it's not explained anywhere so how could you expect them to know in the first place?

>>6093

Because, for the most part, the community is made up of old/current /jp/ users, with an increasing number of pooshlmer users, and both are places where sage is used. Therefore, you're considered retarded if it's usage escapes you. I suppose if you're from a regular forum, it would seem confusing.

Of course, if the person is question had lurked more he would have seen that the thread was a couple pages back and not done what was essentially necroposting, and hell, maybe even learned what sage was without being snapped at, but it seems that's a bit too much to hope for.

>for the most part
Well it's still a bit dumb to just assume every person knows it right away.
And knowing the thread is a few pages back usually doesn't change much.

This thread is not going to change much anyway unless you last post it in every single story on the site. Nobody goes around checking every other link on the site before commenting. It'll help people who already do stupid shit beforehand to stop doing it, but stupid shit is still going to happen...

>>6095
The assumption being made isn't that everyone knows what sage is or any other features unique to an image board.

The assumption being made is that any new user will sit tight and read existing posts before they make any posts (voting is typically considered to be an exception).

>>6095
>And knowing the thread is a few pages back usually doesn't change much.

Is necroposting suddenly not a universally understood concept? Why didn't I get the memo?

>>6095
>Well it's still a bit dumb to just assume every person knows it right away.

No, it is not. This is what happens when trash finds its way to the site.

>>6095

Fact of the matter is that the majority of people that find this place are more or less aware of even the basic features of imageboards. I know more people that at least know the basics of imageboards that don't, and frankly, if you don't already know the basic commands, you're either new to the internet in general, or you've been extremely limited in your browsing and rarely venture outside of a handful of sites.

Given the nature of the story boards as well, it's not really a stretch to assume that the active, live stories are going to be in the first two pages. I don't think there's enough active stories on any board that you'll need more than the first two pages to know what's still alive. Threads over 250 posts are past autosage and no longer bump, so they're 'dead'. Anything else that's on a higher page number is dead, with probably very few exceptions.

As for this thread not getting too much exposure, that's why for the meantime users should try to spread it's existence and bring it up when they see others acting outside of these. I keep forgetting to try to get one of the admins to link this in the blotter or something. Worse comes to worse, I could probably post a sticky linking here at the top of each board if it's absolutely necessary.

One more thing that people seem to have forgotten recently:

Please avoid using names and tripcodes while voting and discussing in story threads. Even if you're a writer, unless you have something to say as the writer of your story, it's preferred that you don't identify yourself, just like all the other readers who don't happen to write a different story. Writing doesn't make you a privileged class here. Cast off your reputation and let your words speak for themselves.

This has been an issue in the past. When we left 4chan /jp/ and started this site, some people were reluctant to accept writers using tripcodes at all, but it was determined that there was a legitimate need to identify oneself as the writer of a given story. I remember several new writers voting with their trip until they were asked to stop. New readers who show up using a name have always been asked to stop. Many of the anonymous votes you see are from people who write other stories. It's just how we operate here.

(edit: rephrased for clarity)

>>6101
Well, from what i can remember many trip Users used to vote in other peoples Stories without anyone saying something about most of the time. In the last 2 years or so.
Somehow YAF seems to always come to mind.

>>6074
>>6091

I think you guys are worrying about this too hard. Last time someone forgot to sage in an Owen thread he actually came back and responded to the reader.

Sageing a sticky doesn't do anything by the way.

>>6103
And YAF was usually stirring up shit back then. That's not helping your case.

Really, look around at a few stories and see how many posts are Anonymous. Why do you need to attach a name to your posts? Are your posts more important than all of theirs?

>>6108

I'd go with because my trip is saved in the name field and I occassionally forget to remove it.

>>6101
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say "Does it really matter?" This hasn't been an issue for the last two years. In internet time, it would be equivalent to bringing out something like "Writing with your left hand means you are possessed by the devil" or something equally archaic.

>>6112
It hasn't been an issue because most of the writers understand that it is just common courtesy to do it. With this new batch of writers, and random namefags, it suddenly needs to be pointed out.

>Writing "sage" in the e-mail field.

What its use? Is that useful, or is that just for the show?

>>6114

Sup, Random Anon.

>>6114
Not sure if troll, but this needs to be added to the thread anyway, so hey.

Typing "sage" in the e-mail field of a post (without the quotes) prevents the thread from being bumped to the top of the board like it would be for a normal post. On most imageboards, it is considered polite to sage your post if its contents don't relate to the topic of the thread at large, so as to make it easier for people to ignore inactive or derailed threads. On THP, this means that any post that is not either an update, a vote, or discussion directly related to the story should be saged. This is especially important when posting in threads belonging to completed or dead stories.

>>6117
Then it should be written on the front page! Why do I have to ask for such stuff?

>>6118

It's typically expected that if you're here, you probably already know how to use sage and even basic imageboard features.

To be frank, the majority of the Touhou fanbase that would likely fit in well here already knows how to use an imageboard at even the basic level. Those that don't already know how are either new to the internet in general, or probably not people that should be here.

I'm thinking maybe I should remake this thread, update the guidelines with the info on name usage, and apparently the use of sage, so that it's all in one post. I suppose this should be considered a request for any other details that could be necessary information.

>>6119
I'll be frank.
Except for some lurk on 4chan, I never used any imageboard before.
I discovered Touhou thanks to the wiki, and thanks to some forum. I know it's basic knowledge to the average touhoufag, but there are exception.

>>6120
Same as this guy. I discovered touhou-project by accident and had never before been on any other board. I got flamed right away for using emoticons~

>>6104

Owen came back to say hi because of someone bumping the thread again so it all works out well.

Someone bumping Demon Castle Remilia X in /sdm/ probably won't have the same effect, though.

>>6122

I thought you were just using that thread as an example, but then I saw it near the top of /sdm/.

I know all the necroposting bitching is more than old by now, but really? The last post in that thread was over a year ago. How dumb can you get?

>>6123

That story should be deleted, it's not going to continue.

>>6124

Best be trolling.

>>6125

It's in the archives if anyone still cares about it.

>>6127
>/SDM/ is pretty much dead right now
If the second most popular board is dead, I'd hate to think of what the rest of the site could be considered.

>>6128

Beyond dead?

>>6127
It's just really slow as either folks are busy with stuff or make grand stories. /th/ in contrast has been lively as fuck.

Question, sensei~!

What is the coriander board for?

The threads in it don't appear to have any connection.

>Question, sensei~!
>sensei
ಠ_ಠ

>What is the coriander board for?
It was established by IRC HY's fiat during the last newfag/site death panic about a year ago, without any 'purpose statement' like the other boards have.

>>6162
>Question, sensei~!

HAS THIS ENTIRE THREAD TAUGHT YOU NOTHING?

>>6163
>>6166
While I didn't see a word mentioned about random Japanese interjections in the guide, I almost certainly messed up part two of "getting along", I guess?
My bad but thanks for the info anyway.

>>6170
It's more a matter of pattern recognition based on rules 1 and 2 of Important Information. After all, it's not like emoticons are inherently bad; it's just that a large contingent of people who use them regularly are morons who are incapable of expressing their thoughts using words. Likewise, the problem with random Japanese interjections is that they are used mainly by insufferable weeaboos who are incapable of any sustained thought whatsoever.

>>6171
Hey, I resent that.

>>6175
If you self-identify with either of those two options, you are not welcome here.

I’m new in the ways of imageboards, so I’m very glad I’ve stumbled upon this thread. I had been reluctant to post a comment because I was afraid of breaking one of those unwritten rules people have around here.

Are there any imageboards features other than sage I should be aware of?

On the subject of random Japanese words; what about Japanese words that can't translate into the English language?

Like the word 'tsundere'?
Is using 'tsundere' also looked down upon on this site? And if it is, is there some kind of English equivalent people around here use, or is the term just a no-no?

Also, using this ಠ_ಠ smiley doesn’t seem to be looked down upon. Is this true? And if so, just out of curiosity, why is it fine using this particular smiley?

And lastly, I’ve been wondering if there is any motivation behind rules 1 and 2? Because I don’t see how a smiley or random Japanese words could cause any harm. I know it’s annoying, but if you really feel so enraged upon seeing them that you have to make rules to prohibit their usage, then I assume you have some severe anger management issues.

>>6213
>Are there any imageboards features other than sage I should be aware of?
noko is the only one I can think of. BBcode exists here as well; read the FAQ.

>And lastly, I’ve been wondering if there is any motivation behind rules 1 and 2?
It's essentially profiling. Posters that use *actions*, emoticons, and the like are simply more likely to be shit-tier posters. If you take a moron and force him to use proper capitalization, no emoticons, no actions, no random japanese words, and whatever else, he won't automatically become a good poster but his posts will at least become more bearable to read. And if he chooses to not follow the conventions then it's obvious he has no place here, making him an easy scapegoat.

>On the subject of random Japanese words; what about Japanese words that can't translate into the English language?
Words that cannot be translated effectively from Japanese to English can very well be left in Japanese, so long as it is expected that the audience knows the meaning of the Japanese.

However that is a rule for translations, and very few translations are actually done on this site. While it is perfectly reasonable for Marisa to call Reimu "Reimu-chan" in a doujin, it is not reasonable for you to write "Reimu-chan" in a story simply because neither the writer nor the audience is Japanese (probably). There is no risk of subtle meaning being lost in translation when no translation is occuring.

>Also, using this ಠ_ಠ smiley doesn’t seem to be looked down upon. Is this true? And if so, just out of curiosity, why is it fine using this particular smiley?
These guidelines are simply guidelines and not absolutely enforced rules. The guidelines should only be strictly followed until one has spent enough time on the board to actually learn the etiquette to follow, rather than following the crash course. Sage is a good example of this; it is frequently stated that every post should be a sage if it is not a writer giving an update. This is certainly not true, but it is a good guideline to follow until you learn to not fucking bump year old stories.

For example, if someone posts "lol Reimu was so mean to poor cirno in that last update :(", they'd be a fucktard unnecessarily using emoticons and will probably get called out for it. However if someone else posts "Isn't is sad, Sacchin ;_;", then that's perfectly acceptable (more or less). Why? What's the difference? Well, you just need to lurk for a long time until you pick up on what that meme is and where it came from (e.g. forever, because it originates from 4chan and honestly isn't used that often here)

>>6215
That makes sense.
Thank you, Anon. I’ve been enlightened.

Also, forgive my ignorance, but what are those random characters that can be seen besides the name of the writers?
If I suddenly decided to write a story, do I have to get one of those? And if so, how do I do it?

>>6217
Those are tripcodes. Come to think of it, you probably want to read the 4chan FAQ (http://www.4chan.org/faq) if you're completely new to imageboards at large.

And >>6215 beat me in responding to >>6213, but in the spirit of the Christmas season, I still feel compelled to post this story of Old Testament tribes killing each other which illustrates the role of smileys on THP:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth

>Also, forgive my ignorance, but what are those random characters that can be seen besides the name of the writers?

This is a tripcode. It's useful for identification purposes. In layman's terms, one can enter a password which will be scrambled into the tripcode, which will (hopefully) be unique.

>If I suddenly decided to write a story, do I have to get one of those?

You don't strictly have to, but most people will recommend that you do. Just don't use one (or even post with a name at all) if you're not writing something. It'll make you look like a stubbornly ignorant newfag at best, and a self-important ass at worst.

>And if so, how do I do it?

Just type # followed by your desired "password" after your name in the name field.

>>6219

As a note, using ! in place of # somehow seems to work too, from experience. But I'm not sure if there's any actual difference between using one or the other to declare your tripcode.

This thread is very useful and I am educated by it.
Thank you, moderator(s).

>>6215
Another important thing:
This whole website isn't like /b/, but Anon still can be an ass sometimes. Don't take Anon's words too seriously.
Basically, you should be able to tell if Anon try to annoy you, or if he's giving you constructive criticism.
(Tip: if there's any valid point, it's constructive. Otherwise, be careful!)

For example, if Anon says:
"This story is shitty!!1!"
Don't take that too seriously, it MAY be a troll.
But if Anon says:
"This story is shitty, the characters are flat and there's no plot !!1!"
Then you should ask yourself if he's right.

>>6243
Comparing absolutely anyone on this site to /b/ is a massive insult and you should feel bad for it. Even Random Anon, though thoroughly retarded, isn't that bad.

It may be blind optimism on my part, but I earnestly don't believe we have any real trolls on this site. Everyone genuinely posts what they believe, and if it comes across as trolling, than that is merely a failure on their part to effectively communicate what they are thinking.

>>6244
Re-read what I wrote.
I never compared the website to /b/, just some anonymous. I don't think there's troll here, but there's still one or two anonymous who act like dicks. Even if they are not /b/tard.

>>6245
Re-read what I wrote.
I specifically said comparing anyone on the site to an average /b/ user is an insult beyond ken. Even our worst posters aren't as bad as the average /b/tard.

>people who act like dicks
Get over it. Even the most berating and mean-spirited post is worth listening to if it has intelligent points.

>>6246
>Even the most berating and mean-spirited post is worth listening to if it has intelligent points.

That's exactly what I'm trying to explain here, but I think I went off-topic...
If it's unclear for you, can you try to rewrite it? Thanks.

>>6248
I think we both lost focus on our original topics. What is clear, though, is that we are in agreement. There are no intentional trolls on this site, and assholes have valid points, sometimes.

>There are no intentional trolls on this site, and assholes have valid points, sometimes.
This. SO VERY this.

>>6249
>>6250
>There are no intentional trolls on this site

Were you not around for that 'Random Anon' nonsense? The moron was shit-posting in decent stories and begging /jp/ to invade the site.

>>6255
When he first started posting, Random Anon did no intentional trolling. It came off as such because he was absolutely retarded, granted, but I don't believe it was his intent.

It was only after he was ostracized and banned that he began trying to incite raids and such. Even now, I believe he has gotten over his buttdevestation, and is quietly voting/posting with proxies.

>>6257
I have a bit of a hard time believing he'd be capable of posting quietly, truth be told.

I am asking for something to be added. Recently, a long dead thread was bumped, and people went apeshit, naturally. I really don't have the right to point fingers as I've overreacted over this in the past as well, but realizing what a tool I'd been over something like that isn't the point of this post. I would like to ask for 'if you have questions about a specific story, come to irc and ask' or something similar added. At the very least, it might reduce the amount of rage.

>>6273
Actually i've been a very good boy since my ban. Contributing to threads and doing write-ins. After all, who do you think informed the author of his Hokuto no shin ken faults in his CYOA? Who do you think came up with the flowers. flowers everywhere. idea in the Antagonist?Who do you think did almost all of the write-ins in the new doing shit in gensokyo? I'd also like to apologise for the death of the British Saxton Hale thread. Tor is a great program by the way.

(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

>>6372
Your ban didn't seem to do anything for your grasp of the English language, and it certainly didn't grant you amazing write-in prowess. Please go back to quietly posting. Do not identify yourself in any capacity. Stop trying to make write-ins, as you aren't particularly skilled at it. Please do all of this, so I can pretend its just another retard making a stupid vote, instead of Random Anon.

Quick question. I'm rather new to imageboards and I've read the faq provided in the thread but it didn't answer what I wanted to know about, so I wanted to ask here. Basically, is there a way to save threads (html and such) to reread without having to search for them each time here?

>>6382
Right-click, "Save As..."

>>6383
...That's it?

Thanks. I'll just go bash my head about how simple it was for a while now.

>>6383
Or more correctly 'save page as'

>>6386
No, with Chromium at the least it's just save as, presumably it's different for each.

How often is the archive updated? There are some threads that have been bumped off that I would like to see again.

This is really helpful, thank you for posting this EZMode

>>6912
I think you managed to skip over something pretty crucial.

Question, sen- teacher~!

If I've got a one-shot non-cyoa story piece that probably is going to stand alone, should it get its own thread or is there a thread for shorts?

>>6979
Generally speaking, you can get away with making an individual thread. Exceptions are when you plan on writing a great many shorts in a board slow enough that a single thread works (see, for example, Don't Read This) or when there's a writing festival sort of thing, like the anniversary write-a-thon.

>>6071
>>6072
>>6073

So, a question on these points. I was thinking of starting a CYOA that was basically "guy wakes up in Gensokyo, wat do?" to pull from a similarly-themed topic in /words/.

Are such semi-aimless romps sincerely frowned upon, or just in a "strongly advised against for your own good" kind of way?

>>6982
This entire site was founded upon such stories. Though you will have to contend with some of the stigma from doing such, there is no one here who will give you shit about it. If the writing is good, everyone will accept it. If it's not, you'll quickly be told to go fuck yourself.

>>6985

As it should be.

>>6982
It's been done so many times that unless you have truly grade A stuff, it won't get many readers. That's a very common newbie mistake: Making yet another average/mediocre WUiG story in /th/, and being upset when it turns out not to be that popular.

>>6987
Ignore this guy.

>>7007
History supports my statement, you can look up the story list and see how many abandoned stories are WUiG types.

>>7018
History shows nothing except that most stories have been abandoned or stalled. It is more general than you make it out to be.

>>7029

Yeah, the problem's more that most people never finish one story.

I got advice: if you want to do a story, don't worry about the concept's popularity or approval too much - just focus on never giving up on it. Whatever story you want to write should be something you really, really like that you're also fine with doing for a potentially indefinite amount of time. Otherwise, if some other idea comes your way that you like more, you might work on that instead and never finish either. People can accept a cliche premise, especially if it's done well; it's not finishing that grinds their gears.

>>7038
Indeed, popularity should not be the reason you're writing, and if you happen to be one of the many small fish on /th/, keeping at it may earn you a small but loyal following. My original point was that trying to do yet another WUiG style story won't get much attention or notice unless it's done well.

I'm a little confused as to why so many people go for a full-length story for their first try. It just doesn't seem logical at all.
I know if I tried writing for this site, I'd go for a short (at absolute most!) as a first attempt.

>>7111
Because this website is more or less specialized in CYOA. Peoples who are trying to write here don't want to write short stories, but rather CYOA.

Even with a obvious lack of experience.

>>7111

People probably do it because of what >>7112 said: it's not like anybody here does anything that's not CYOA. If they wanted to do a regular story, they'd probably start on FF.net or something like that.

>>7112

...Wait, was your post supposed to be ironic?

>>7127
What's stopping someone from making a short CYOA?

>>7129
Judging from many of the newer stories floating around this site, /th/ in particular, I would say skill.

>>7129

It's surprisingly hard to do unless you remember to stick very strictly to a plan, which nobody ever actually does.

>>7127
Nope. I just mean: "People here want to write a CYOA, even if they don't have enough experience for this". I didn't planned this to be ironic, and I'm sorry if it sounded like this.

>>6482
Once in a month as it seems.

>>7112
Hey, man, I started with short stories and stayed with them for some time. I guess I'm an exception, but I always thought the biggest draw of Touhou was seeing people's own idea of these characters. People everywhere have their very own Gensokyo, and sharing them with each other - through shorts or longer stories - not only allows Gensokyo and these characters to expand, making every look draw memories from not just the one story but the hundreds, but it gives a look into your mind, which can be a really personal thing hidden under layers of fantasy.

This may not have been the best place to write a bunch of shorts, and now that I'm balls-deep in it I must admit writing a CYOA is wicked fun, but had I started with CFA there's no way I would have been able to explore and imagine my own Gensokyo as well as I have. I feel like starting with shorts let me contribute so much more to all of that, and I'm glad that I did.

I'm sure there's a point in there if you look.

>>7141
I agree with you. The most interesting thing in a story isn't the plot itself, but rather how the writer is picturing Gensokyo.

I myself tried to wrote short stories, but I failed each time. I just can't write short stories, by my standards (aka less than 5 posts).

>>7142
That's a trap that a lot of people fall into. There's no minimum word count on a story. In fact, trying to hit one can bloat your story and ruin the flow of the narration. Use as many or as few words as you need to in order to tell your story. The important part is that it gets told.

And hey, if you ask for constructive criticism you might even get some.

>>7165
Well, I asked for criticisms, and I received it. So I tried to do as I was asked, and it's not really better.

>>7186
Constructive criticism is not a voice from God demanding you do it as such, with the exception of if you have atrocious grammar/spelling and they're telling you to fix it.

Think of constructive criticism as guidelines, a suggestion that you take a second look at an aspect of your writing with an eye to better it. If they give you suggestions on how to better it, instead of just pointing out an aspect, all the better, but in the end, it is your writing, and you have to interpret the criticism and take the best path for yourself.

A couple questions:

Is the writing on this board all supposed to be CYOAs, or are more "typical" stories also accepted?

Regarding the stories boards, are the various boards ("Eientei", "Forest of Magic", etc.) just meant to organize where each story takes place (stories about the Eientei crew go in Eientei, etc.)? Or is there more to it than that?

>Is the writing on this board all supposed to be CYOAs, or are more "typical" stories also accepted?

Whichever is fine. There have been 'typical' stories before. As for your other question, see the other sticky.

>As for your other question, see the other sticky.

wow look at how dumb i am

Thank you.

Thank you

How often is the story list updated?

>>7409
At this rate it's looking like every two months+. Anyone willing to update the story list?

Also, yeah, what about sage? Personally, I use it mostly when I'm posting without voting nor updating, but is there any rules about that?

>>7438
See >>6117. Sounds like you're doing it right to me.

I apologize if the thread is dead, but I really need to ask this: How do you use the IRC anyway? All the posts responding to newbie writer questions recommend using it to formulate new stories and such, but how? Is there a particular person one should go to for advice? Or does one just fire off in the middle of the room conversation?
Thanks

>>7756
Well, people won't particularly mind if you just fire it off. Whether you get a response kinds of depends on people's moods and who's there, but almost any time you'll at least be able to find a good number of authors hanging out. Of course, lots of them (myself included) choose names that are different from their trip, but most are given half-ops and marked with a %. If you want to talk to someone specific, we don't really hide our identities or anything, so you can ask.

Gotta warn you, though. First off, not everyone there is known for their mercy. If you're not up to par, you can expect to get chewed up. other than that, the room gets stupid sometimes. Like, "Just close the window and save yourself the trouble" stupid. Don't let these scare you away, it's a nice place all in all. Just try to stay loose and have fun while you're there.

>>7756
There are many people who goes berserk if you say the wrong thing.
For example, if you see a guy named "Giddy", never use the word "dick".

Yeah, but who exactly do I talk to? I doubt most of them on there would be willing to answer a newcoming writer's queries for opinions on his or her story.
Besides, even if it is okay to fire off, it's kind of hard when Patch or Glen's holding a wall of conversation about something completely different.
And if these questions sound like those from a greenhorn completely unfamiliar with contemporary IRC, that's because they are.

>>7761
Nah, really. You talk to whoever wants to talk to you. Sometimes people are more receptive, sometimes helpful people are just too busy. As for firing it off in the middle of a conversation, just relax and ask. People are conversing in text; they can read what they want, when they want. Unless you're flooding it isn't disruptive.

If you really can't get any help, or if you're so uncomfortable with the idea of asking (which I still think is just silly), look out for Kelvin or some variation on it. I'm generally pretty ready to talk about writing, in any capacity. I'd give you some other names, but I'm not the sort to volunteer other people.

Just fire it off in the open when whatever the current topic of discussion is gets mostly exhausted. Group discussions tend to work best for this sort of thing.

Is it just me, or has the site been really shitty lately? Like, not in terms of storys, I mean Fatal K.O'sErrors. Unless, of course, its just me.

>>7867
It's not just you. THP is currently being besieged by a bunch of evil zombies, trying a DDOS on us.

>>7869
Any idea of who or why? Cuz this is getting annoying.

>>7870
I'm afraid that the attack type makes the "backtracing" thing impossible. DDOS are done using zombies, so unless we counter-attack by reinfecting those zombies with our own viruse, it's impossible to learn who is the necromancer behind the attack.

>>7872
So basically, We've gotta find ourselves a Chris Redfield or whatever the fuck his name is.

The part about reporting is annoying.
>To be noted, reporting posts for frivolous reasons can lead to bans.
What exactly is a frivolous reason?
And when can we use that report thing, exactly?
Can I use it if there's a shitstorm in a thread, or no?

>>7978
Use some damn common sense.

For example,
If I reported you because you made a dumb post, that would be frivolous.
If I reported you because you were shitting up a thread, that would not be frivolous.
If you were a bot posting spam links, posting CP, or posting untagged NSFW anywhere other than /at/, that would not be frivolous.

why do we use a backwards ass timestamp

>>8039
year/month/day is pretty popular worldwide, correct me if i'm wrong

>>8041
Better than Month/Day/Year.
That just doesn't make any sense.

>>8041
no, just america as far as i've seen

d/m/y most places i've been to use that

>>8058
america uses d/m/y and m/d/y in most places, not y/m/d as far as I know

>>8058
>>8059
The US standard is month-day-year. Numeric day-month-year is unknown, and essentially unused.
The European standard is day-month-year. Month-day-year is known, but largely only because of Americans.
The Asian standard is year-month-day. Year-month-day is also ISO 8601, and relatedly is common among programmers, as it makes lexicographical sorting equivalent to sorting by date.

On the other hand, dropping the first two digits of the year is nowhere standard, and invites confusion, as there is no cue to distinguish which the above three formats that, e.g., "10/11/09" is in.

>>8175
It's an informal standard in Australia at least.

I for instance could write the date as 9/11/11 instead of 09/11/2011 and everyone in Australia would understand.

I AM A HUMONGOUS FAGGOT PLEASE RAPE MY FACE

Also, read this is you have trouble.

>>8211
Fucking grammars, how do they work?

>>8211
Cursing a whole fucking lot doesnt make you seem fucking mature, It makes you seem like a fucking 14 year old with his fucking dick in his hand. Fuck.

>>8212
>grammars
Ohoho, I see what you did there Anon.

>>8228
It is, however, really fuckin' cathartic.

>>8228
How can anyone be offended when you use such a powerful, unique and flexible word like "Fuck"?

I dont like to bitch about things, but could pictures be auto-tagged as NSFW in the 18+ forum? It sounds kinda redundant, But I dont exactly want to see a thread about shitting touhous right above a story thread.

>>8591
Click on that to hide the topic. It's a cookie, so it disappears each time you clean your temporary files, but that should do the trick.

Still want to know: how often is the archive updated?

>>8603
I'm pretty sure the archive gets updated around once a month. Not sure though.

I'm curious about adjusting the popular advice on checking old stories as I feel newbies get the strong impression from the advice alone and neglect current stories and trends.

If someone is banned for frivolous report or something like that, it just makes him unable to post, right? He can still read the threads?

I double posted because of the out of memory error, and I didn't think the first post went through. I've never actually had this happen, and to this day I still haven't bothered to read about how to delete posts because I've never needed to do it before. If a mod could delete >>/th/156141, I'd be enternally grateful.

>>9287
There's a delete post button in the bottom of every page. Unless you specified a password, simply checking the box on your post and clicking the delete button should work.

For writers, is it acceptable to start out anonymous and then give yourself a name or trip as your story gets better/more popular? Or should you just get one when you begin writing?

>>9324
This has happened several times, but why would you wait to adopt a name?

>>9323
If you press the back button the password field in the post box is cleared, which gives you a new random password. If you don't manually type in a password each time you won't be able to delete the duplicate posts, only the very last one.

>>9324
You should get one when you start writing, as Cthulhu's story downloader is based on OP's nickname. And I use it quite often.

>>9323
That doesn't seem to ever work for me, and it always gives me the "incorrect password" page. I assume it has something to do with having a dyamic IP that changes every once in a while.

>>9331
Nope. It's related to your password. The page will create one automatically, but you have to write your own if you want to be able to erase the post later.

Is there a way to get an email notification when a story updates or a thread gets bumped? It's quite a chore visiting this site every 15 minutes just to see if anyone has posted in a certain thread that holds your interest.

>>10014
It's possible to create a "watched thread" list, but it's just a cookie, and it doesn't work if you leave the website. And beside, it's telling you if the thread was bumped, not if the writefag updated the story.

>>10015
Nevermind, I just found out the solution to that.

Download that Firefox add-on that lets you monitor webpages for updates. It can check every 5 minutes so it's quite convenient.

Ah, Firefox and its addons. What would I do without you?

>>10016
Link please?

>>10017
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/update-scanner/

>>10016
And here's a chrome equivalent, Page Monitor.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pemhgklkefakciniebenbfclihhmmfcd

>>10018
THANK YOU!

>>10018
One more thing. That program has a tendency to check for your cache instead of the real, updated page.

So, make sure to set your browser to check for a newer version of a webpage every time you visit it. This is very important, especially for Firefox users since the default is to reload from the cache instead of checking for the newer version. The program won't work exactly how you want it to with that setting.

I'll just give a link for the explanation.

http://www.imasuper.com/53/technology/firefox-caching-get-latest-page-every-time/

Just found out about this myself. Fixes the problem of pages updating without being picked up by the scanner.

>>10018
One more thing. The pages you're loading in your "update scanner" folder are saved in your bookmarks list. Do NOT erase that folder, or you'll lose your list.

How laborious a process is updating the storylist, does/can anyone but Kapow do it, and can it be updated soon? The summer rush of new stories seems to have stopped, and at this point it's been over four months.

>>10129
story list is finally updated

>>10165

Hooray!

Thank you Kapow

Anybody here know how "famous" you have to be before it is acceptable to post in not-voting threads with a name?

>>10171
Just don't do it. Not even a lot of writefags do it anymore.

First Post? ( hope this works )

Here's some stuff to help use IRC/Mibbit better. If you want to join an alternate channel, like say #Eientei, just type "/join #Eientei" And it should take you there.

"/query nickname" to open up a PM window.

>>10764
>>10765
Welcome, gentlemen. Sit, stay a while.

Just wondering wondering, where did the website/image-board architecture come from? What parts are a generic and which were added in later?

>>10786
A person who has more experience with this site can tell you more, but the basics is that the site came from a split with /jp/ back in the day.

>>10786
If you're wondering about the underlying architecture, it's KusabaX and a few additions/changes. Pretty vanilla.
KusabaX is a giant pile of php spaghetti code

I have a question.
What's the rule for works you commissioned, but didn't create?

>>12979

In what sense? A little context would be helpful.

Also, you probably would have been better off asking at >>/blue/18124, General Discussion isn't the most active of boards and most people wouldn't notice that someone had bumped a pinned thread unless they're watching the home page at the right time, as people tend to subconsciously ignore them after a long enough period.

I was wondering: when will the storylist be updated? Is possible for us to help? Because the last update is from a year ago and I will be glad to give a hand.

>>13729
I've talked to Teruyo on IRC about it and as it is, the storylist can only be updated manually. There's nothing us non-mods can do to contribute at the moment... Unless you have the skills to write a convenient plugin.

>>13751
Well, there's a way to contact a mod? Not that I'm complaining about their work, I'm just worried that the storylist will be left like this for too long.

>>13785
IRC is your best bet. Pick a god and pray.

Well, it seems someone have just updated it! Good job.

Sorry if this is a dumbass question but is this board only for CYOA's or is linear fiction allowed?

>>14037
Linear fiction is allowed, I'm pretty sure. If it isn't long enough, you could always post it to /shorts/. If you deem it a long story with regular updates, you theoretically could post it to one of the boards, but I don't think you'll be met with active discussion or replies.

>>14037
CYOAs are the tradition here, but as long as a story is of decent quality there is no rule against other formats. Linear stories have been done before, in fact, just in specific places and not quite as often as CYOAs.

TL;DR: Go for it, I'm looking forward to seeing your story join our collection.

Is there a way to add this option in the reply box? Maybe it will help people to remember sage...

>>14068

Oh, lord how I want that... I can't even remember to remove my own name half the time...

Is there any way for the Storylist to be updated? It's been about four months since the last update.

Contemplated sage-ing for irrelevance, but this is kind of important and I don't know where else to put it.

>>14126
The story is updated manually by Kapow. It gets updated whenever we bug him and he has time for it. Thanks for the heads up though! We'll bug him soon.

Don't know where to post this, so I'll say it here.
I just found out that (maybe) the threads archived on warosu.org such as the first half of WUiG are unavailable. The website gives a 522 error (connection timed out). Hope it's just a temporary problem.

>>14214
Forget it, it's ok again now.

Don't know where else to ask this, but how do I modify text? As in italics, strikethroughs, blackouts and line breaks?

>>14763

>>/blue/22239

>>14764
Thanks

The story list hasn't been updated since July... is that normal?