(Jan. 23, 2011 6:32 PM)mac167 Wrote: [ -> ]it could could have a place for people to sign up to tounoments held by local kids and a map for the citys that there in and a list that has visual appeal that shows the people with the most points and the town/city/state/country they live in witch one they provide is optional
Just check the Official Events forum ... All of this can be found there in one way or another.
A chat box. Or is there one allready
?
(Jan. 26, 2011 2:58 AM)Phrizbe Wrote: [ -> ]A chat box. Or is there one allready ?
I decline, they are annoying to have; and some make annoying pop up noises when i'm trying to do other things. Want to talk to people, get MSN, etc.
(Jan. 26, 2011 3:07 AM)JÆMS Wrote: [ -> ] (Jan. 26, 2011 2:58 AM)Phrizbe Wrote: [ -> ]A chat box. Or is there one allready ?
I decline, they are annoying to have; and some make annoying pop up noises when i'm trying to do other things. Want to talk to people, get MSN, etc.
I think he means a chat box feature that you can turn on/off.
(Jan. 26, 2011 3:07 AM)JÆMS Wrote: [ -> ] (Jan. 26, 2011 2:58 AM)Phrizbe Wrote: [ -> ]A chat box. Or is there one allready ?
I decline, they are annoying to have; and some make annoying pop up noises when i'm trying to do other things. Want to talk to people, get MSN, etc.
whel you could just turn your sound off
The "Your Creations" forum has gotten an obscene amount of story threads, however, it almost looks like it's a variant of an attempt to roleplay.
Maybe there should be a subforum for stories in the Your Creations forum or just a role playing subforum because that's basically what the story threads are.
There probably should be some limitations on the stories because some of the OPs consist of like, a paragraph followed by "to be continued". I think I speak for many users when I say I'm all for creativity and self expression through writing, but there needs to be more substance and a hint of quality (I.E. decent English, structured plot, description, body, etc.) when posting a creation otherwise it comes across as a random thought or spam.
I'd love to share my art or writing in that forum, but I doubt that forum is taken very seriously. It lacks the criticism it needs.
(Jan. 28, 2011 4:28 AM)Deikailo Wrote: [ -> ]The "Your Creations" forum has gotten an obscene amount of story threads, however, it almost looks like it's a variant of an attempt to roleplay.
Maybe there should be a subforum for stories in the Your Creations forum or just a role playing subforum because that's basically what the story threads are.
There probably should be some limitations on the stories because some of the OPs consist of like, a paragraph followed by "to be continued". I think I speak for many users when I say I'm all for creativity and self expression through writing, but there needs to be more substance and a hint of quality (I.E. decent English, structured plot, description, body, etc.) when posting a creation otherwise it comes across as a random thought or spam.
I'd love to share my art or writing in that forum, but I doubt that forum is taken very seriously. It lacks the criticism it needs.
Plus, it also lacks the attentive readers. They see something over 200 words long in the first part and 95% of the "readers" run away. Many good stories are out there that don't get the attention they deserve. (Like Kavasiki's God's Pawn, Dude's Beyblade Apocalypse, and the one in my sig.)
Well, yeah, I mean, you look for criticism, your plot isn't solely Beyblade, and clearly your story wasn't written because everyone else was writing a story.
Granted, I didn't read your thread, however, it's a good comparison.
How do you decide that a story needs to be closed then ? This is way too subjective, while I agree that a lot of them are poor.
I try to make all of my Chapters long so their not categorized as a "Short" Pointless Annoying Message (SPAM lol)
Maybe have a minimum on how long chapters/parts need to be?
You can write a lot of garbage as well ...
Umm, I don't know then. Have some people be story critics, and decide whether the story is garbage and deserves to be closed, think its ok, and then give advice, or say its brilliant and not do anything?
You could implement a minimum word requirement. Obviously no one will sit there and count the words, but anyone who has written lengthy essays could eye it. Upon entering that forum, I would assume that a creation means time and effort is put into it. A large portion of those stories lack both. If you put in a word minimum for stories, people would be compelled to think before they post, and in turn, putting in some effort and time.
Every thread on this entire forum demands a topic worthy of discussion. The key is to build off of it and discuss it. It should be no less with these stories. Instead of saying something like "taking characters" or "wow nice story" any replies should have some sort of suggestion to the writing in general, plot devices, use of grammar, vocabulary, etc. If none of that is offered, it's just spam, really. When a writer asks for characters, it becomes role play and then it isn't their creation anymore.
Dei, when people ask for characters, sometime they just put them in as a filler to make some people happy/ make them read the story to see their person in it. It's like a way of advertising, or sponsoring. "Read my story, and I'll put your character in"
What I do with characters, is that I have the plot,events,chapters planned out loosely (like, im not making it up as I go along, I have the basic thing on paper. It's just actually writing it/putting details in, is what I do on the spot)
I have the characters given to me, play a minor role, or a major role if they fit what I was going to do with other characters anyway, so basically what I did is purposely leave room in my story plot for characters to be put in.
(Jan. 28, 2011 4:42 AM)Deikailo Wrote: [ -> ]You could implement a minimum word requirement. Obviously no one will sit there and count the words, but anyone who has written lengthy essays could eye it.
Another way this could be done is something I learned a while ago. Count the first 2-3 lines, get an average of words for each line, then multiply the average by however many lines there are total.
Edit: so really I see no problem with a word minimum
(Jan. 28, 2011 4:40 AM)Kai-V Wrote: [ -> ]You can write a lot of garbage as well ...
You can, but this is a fad among users. Most of them are posting stories because they want to be a part of it, too.
Alternatively, instead of just sharing your creation in that forum, you could have the author/artist state in the OP what they are looking for and state a discussion for improvement for their work.
For example, if I were to post my writing, I would hope that someone would point out that I tend to stray off focus in my writing or I lack detail. My mother read my story and pointed out that I should touch base on all five senses because I hit a point on every one of them except smell.
But Dei, you have to notice that people write these for fun. They are not a college essay, or something else major. They won't take hours looking over there work/editing it for fun.
I think anyone should take pride in their creations. If you really feel passionately about your work, you would take the time to improve on it. Just like Beyblade is mostly for fun, we all still take the time to make a serious effort to improve on it because we feel passionately about it. You don't just create a combo in 5-10 minutes and expect it to be amazing without extensive testing and work.
I get what you mean there, and now that I think about, you are right in a sense.
But then we get to the Readers, most readers just want to read a story for about 5 minutes, for a way to get entertainment. They certainly won't look over every detail, pointing out what you can improve. But then there are the readers that do that, and are helpful. But those are a small percentage. Most people that I see post on story, just post to say compliments, or their character to get in, or say other stuff.
Yeah, I always have some Idea planned out, I just need names, and names of beys. So I ask for some by the readers. You may want to close the stories that are just one big jumble of random words. If you can't read it due to grammar, it may be closed. That should encourage people to put out quality stories. Like Night. All of his stuff was amazing.
Then there are also Script-Fics, where its just dialogue lined up
Person 1:Lets beyblade
person 2:Lets go!
*insert vague battle here*
Person 2:Wow, you were awesome
person 1:thanks lets be rivals now.
Person 2:yeah!
I remember reading a few of these, like wyrms (atleast he put in more detail, then a regular one)
Then that's spam. Honestly, I'd like to read many of the stories that the users on this thread post (as I have in the past), but it's all too difficult to sort through them. Perhaps there should be a structure for all stories posted, maybe something like this:
- Summary of piece (include what the author/artist's aim is)
- The creation
- Topic of discussion: what the creator hopes to achieve by posting their work. Questions for other users and what specific feedback they are looking for.
Really, that sort of guideline should apply for art as well or else it has no topic of discussion and it exists for the sole purpose of boosting that user's ego.
(Jan. 28, 2011 5:06 AM)Megablader9 Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah, I always have some Idea planned out, I just need names, and names of beys. So I ask for some by the readers. You may want to close the stories that are just one big jumble of random words. If you can't read it due to grammar, it may be closed. That should encourage people to put out quality stories. Like Night. All of his stuff was amazing.
I'm a big fan of making up your own names and building off of what you already have, but that's just me.
I don't think it's fair to fault others for a "big jumble of random words" because a large portion of this forum is made up of kids. I think if their aim is to improve, then we shouldn't completely shut them down for being new to writing. That's where the readers would post constructive criticisms and suggestions to improve the writing.
I guess, but should they not watch the other writers first? But if you'd notice, some people usually ask once, and never ask for new names again. They usually hit writer's block, and need some ideas. Well, that's the case for me, at least. I have seen one too many stories that's just one sentence, but has one or two spaces, and takes up 9-10 lines.
Even so, writer's block is part of being a writer. If you get writer's block before you hit a thousand words, you probably shouldn't be writing. That's too much of a work in progress instead of a creation.
Maybe they should watch over other writers first, but that's what school and reading published work is for. None of us are perfect writers here.
(Jan. 28, 2011 5:09 AM)Deikailo Wrote: [ -> ]- Summary of piece (include what the author/artist's aim is)
- The creation
- Topic of discussion: what the creator hopes to achieve by posting their work. Questions for other users and what specific feedback they are looking for.
"i wanted to write a cool story with a lot of action that i would imagine in the beyblade anime"
"joe rakuya was at school one day and one of the bullies came up and said lets go i challenge you to a beybattle and he replied your no match for me bring it on [...]"
"so tell me if you like it"
And then you get kids replying that the story is "
AWESOME!!!" and who keep asking when the next "chapter" will be posted ...