Thursday Forum-Discuss Lit's OPG's

[Polite]

It's Thrusday, the only day I can come to the internet cafe and visit with you all, and in response to some comments in my recent poll I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to:

* why some threads work and some don't.
* fustrations of running threads
* ideas for new threads
* tips & tricks
* great writing awards (please link to relevant post)

 

[Polite]

Bloodstone Revived

I was really excited about this thread by Firespite but I see it's no longer active.

It had a lot of good elements in it, and Firespirte had backed it up with a web site for the clues and everything. Top notch GMing on her part.

 

[Polite]

A Great Tip!

You want to read a story-line through because you want to join ( or rejoin) but all the sig-lines and graphics get in the way?

Streamline the whole thing by choseing "show printable version" from the bottom of the screen and you'll only get the text and the poster's name and date stamp!

 

[cats]

Blood stone Revived, seem to have a lot of promise to it. The story was very promising, but also challenging and so it drew several of the more experienced writers, not a bad thing just an observation.

After skimming threw it, I notice there wasn't a starting point. Had they began writing it may have been different, if it had momentum going by the time fire left it may have stayed working.

I'd like to add a tip, it is sometime easier to post an OOC thread. If you begin in an OOC thread you can give a place to let your writers discuss plot, character, or full around. Once you have gotten a few players then do an opening post in an IC thread. Or if you don't want to have a separate OOC thread, begin by writing a post. This will give other writers a chance to take initiative with there characters.

 

[poohlive]

One thing that might have been the downfall into this thread was too much planning. I don't think that's ever been an issue before, but it seemed to me, like more people were interested in research and pictures, then getting the story started in the first place.
I know planning, especially in something as complicated as that thread is very important, but also, you need to learn that once you have a group of posters, role players, they're not going to sit and wait forever, they want to get started, blow shit up, look for clues, and whatnot.
That's the fun in role playing.
Might have been communication problems as well.
I don't even see FireSprite posting the last part of that thread, perhaps she had a family emergancy or something, and had to leave unexpectedly. In which case, it was supposedly doomed from the start.
Very detailed though, would have loved to see it done myself, maybe joined in too.

 

[hybirdx]

I'll have to agree with Poohive, if you plan too much, its really gonna criple the thread. Sometimes its better to make your threads as random as possible with just a few guide lines, that way posters with different personalitys don't feel so controlled.

Of course there are other thread where if you make them so random, its just confusing. You just have to make a near-perfect balance.

 

[cats]

Ofcoarse if you look at a thread like "Holy Hole in the Plot Batman" or the pillow pit, the randomness is the point of the trhead, and in those cases an asset asumeing you didn't want to actually have a story developed. But that is a difrent type of thread.

I recall reading Fire had real life come up, as did one of the writers.

 

[Morgoth]

But you still want some planning in the thread, even if its just cursory. Just look at "Holy Hole in the Plot Batman". How far did that get before writers started to just negate each other?

 

[cats]

I was just reveiwing that thread. It was six pages long, and suprisingly i didn't spot any negateing. Could you clarify what you ment?

It suprisingly made it close to 150 posts, and acheived six pages. the only really odd thing was two people did twice as many posts as the next person. 30+ for two posters and after them came 15.

 

[Morgoth]

Not really negating. It was bad choice of words on my part. More like foiling each others' plans. I started it by melting the shark, then it got to the point where someone would introduce something, and it would blow up or get killed or run away or whatever very, very quickly. Not that it wasn't funny, but it did take away the wonder, tension, suspense or anything along those line quite quickly. (For me, anyway)

 

[LadyRozes]

alright I have a question, for those of you people on lit that is very experienced, what do you do if your thread starts out very good, then suddenly people disappear on you... how do you keep the thread alive??

This is something I am learning, is very hard to do. I mean you have regualr posters and then you have kinda regular posters, then you have .. the rare posters.. Im just interested in seeing if the thread can be finished, but everytime I start a thread peopel get excited join and then disappear, can someone help me figure out what I am doing wrong???

 

[cats]

That is very normal. Sadly people come and people go, then you have people that lose interest in a story, and so forth. So here are three examples of long threads I've been in. Each are rather long boasting over a year long in life.

High School Blues: Started off great, with many people. After a month it was just me and Hy. We then made multiple characters to make things interesting and wrote out every one that left. Then about a month later we got lucky and JC joined. between the three of us we made my favorite thread. it eventually died because of real life problems. How ever it shows a good thread can be made with as few as three people, and last.

Dragon Ball NW, the first thread I joined on this forum. It was quite nice but it was the only thread all of those writers were in pretty much. So they slowly fail away from lit. how ever Dragon Ball was enough to grab peoples attention, so the number of writers stayed fairly high at about five. Trouble is introducing characters to the plot line, and maintaining the plot line. With some effort I got some of the first writers to come back, sadly that also didn't work. And in the end it died long after it should of.

Lastly we have the still active Loa Blood. This thread was old when I joined it, and it is still going strong. ST puts a lot of effort into her threads though, and she is actually DMing it which is a rather unique thing.

 

[Polite]

One thing ST does is activly ask other people to join....

He often posts "Join Cool Thread" posts, and I suspect that he also PM's good writers....

Oh wait, he PMed me!

I think a lot of new writers join and then look at the boards and say "Oh man, it's got *** pages, there's no way I'll be able to figure out what's going on and join!"

With Loa Blood you don't have to start from the very beginning, you can jump in anytime and ST makes that very clear...

So, if you want new blood to your threads, ADVERTISE and make sure folks know that they can jump in anytime (if they can).

One thing about the SRP board I noticed and liked was the "Closed" threads. Anyone could read them, but they generally have only one or two writers, and I think that some of the writers here might like to try something that dareingly "up close and personal".

 

[Morgoth]

I agree. I've made a lot of threads(Hey, only half of them were bad ideas!) and I know the frustration of writers leaving. Unfortunately, nothing can be done but getting other writers. But to insure that writers don't leave, try a screening process, where only writers with a good history(they stayed in 'till the end) can post. Not to be mean, just to ensure that a leading character doesn't suddenly dissapear. That's not a good situation.

 

[Polite]

Why Oh Why do I suddenly feel guilty?

I gave notice I'd been gone for a while!

 

[hybirdx]

At least you gave notice. I had to disapere for a bit without warning, and when I came back, every bodie chewed me out.

 

[Arc da Rat]

When do we not chew you out Hy?

 

[cats]

Hy your still unforgiven for that too!

But on a serious note, checking to see if a writer hasn't vanished from trheads isn't such an eassy thing to do. If your new here that would take a great deal of effort, and learning threw experince by trial and error only goes so far. To top that off, I know I've left threads with out notice, as I am sure most of us have at one point or another. So is tehre a mroe reliable screenin meathod?

Also in any case while long term posters may not be something to screen by, they are definitly one to invite.

 

[Morgoth]

This is true. Long-term posters tend to have the ability to just stick through it. I'm pretty sure all of us old-timers have vanished unexpectedly(or expectedly) at one point or another. It's better to leave a notice that you'll be gone, but I know I haven't on several occasions. The point is that there's no way to insure someone will stay. Just keep your posters' attention, and keep 'em writing.

 

[cats]

Or adapt when they disapear. I know ST has, other wise Loa Blood would be gone.

Also you have High school blues that I mentioned above, Hy and myself adapted when every one else vanished.

 

[Polite]

Hello from the wilds of the north....

Sorry I wasn't here last Thrusday as planned, I had to work since a co-worker called in sick.

I worked on the new RPG at home and have it on disk and am now sitting at a different internet cafe....which not only has no floppy disk drives but has Mac's!

I'm headed off to Kinkco's next.

On the subject of keeping players....Two thoughts:

One, praise your writers for good writing, publicly if possiable, or in PM if not. Everyone likes to be appricated, even if they can't spell it...

Two, there IS a E-mail function ya know....I know I would have hurried back faster if I'd felt more missed and didn't Cats write a certain someone to entice her back? It works.

Ok, gonna check my PM's and then off to find a disk drive!

 

[Morgoth]

I think that you bring up a great point, Polite. It is always a good idea to give out appreciation and compliments when they are due. This site gives nothing in the way of material satisfaction, so often, all an author gets from here is the mental satisfaction of writing, so it really helps when an author's peers make him or her feel appreciated, maybe even with a simple comment like "great post!" or "awesome writing!" Little things, many also this simple, instill a lot of confidence and a great sense of belonging in the writer, and are sure to keep that author's posts high quality.

 

[LadyRozes]

WOw you guys this is great advice.. .. I have been doing just that .. and ..... I am fairly new been on lit for about oh.. eight or nine months now.. and I think I am doing okay.. .. one of the threads I started died becuase I lost too many charcters and the other .. thank the GOD that it has picked up again .. adn I do want people to join again .. but .... I dont know if peopel will be interested .. so first .. I have posted on teh ooc a lot.. and second I am going to do as you guys said .. start another ooc thread that has invites to the IC thread.. I never know how to get the link to my thread there so I jsut put the titles..

I have a lot of ideas.. and I guess I like interaction a lot.. so thanks everyone for their way awsome advice.. (suddenly I feel like a valley-girl... eh must of have been something else *shakes head to clear it)

and ST is like by far the one Gm I look up to .. I aspire to hav ea thread that can go that long .. so I am learning to adapt when people disappear.. and I definately do the pms .. I think most of you on here got one from me if not I am begging now on my knees (hey woman here on her kneees this doesnt happen very often) check out my thread .. if your interested I'd like people to join ..

 

[Polite]

Hey Lady, You want to link things? Easy as pie!

Simply go to the page you want to link to and highlight the addy bar at the top of the page and hit control + C....

Then go to the post you want to add the link IN...hit the http:// button at the middle of the posting screen (under vB code) and a box will come up....Type in what you want the code to say ...

"My New Page" and then another screen will pop up and you hit control+V to insert the addy...

Ta DA! You've got a link to another page!

 

[LadyRozes]

wow That is really a lot of steps which the jargen and the many butons seem complicated .. for my noncomputer head.. so .. im sure once I try it .. then it wont be so bad.. thanks polite.