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Cyberworm
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 Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 6:56 am Post subject: |
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I have started my mission of activeness by reading as much as I can squeeze in the day. Still quite a lot to go. 
And this is posted by request from Tikanni Corazon, who is busy currently.
This is a message from the Fantasy Guildmistress, so take heed or fear my wrath! *waves magic fingers menacingly*
I'm entirely on the same wavelength as Muaddib and have actually been discussing this at length with a select few IFians, who have pledged to help me get this place thriving again. But, as it's now being spoken about by others, I'll take it to the rest of the city too. I've made a list of all the more recently active threads in all the SG forums (note, I've only put up storygames and not those in linear, meaning that those included have a suggestion phase and a poll). My friends and I are going to be doing as planned, and being as active as we possibly can and I urge you all to do the same. Any newbie that enters the city at the moment is going to walk straight back out again, due to the risk of dying of boredom.
There are some FABULOUS SGs on this list, and your lives will only be enriched by following them. So, without further ado, here they are! Please, enjoy them!!!
Active SGs
Fantasy Forest
Line of Kavanagh - Andolyn (4 chapters)
The Children of Leyond - Kalanna Rai (new)
The Tale of Strom - Tavanesh (new)
Dragon Tales Challenge - PopeAlessandrosXVIII (not the average SG, no chapters)
Beyond Good and Evil - Cyberworm (7 chapters + prologue)
SparkleSteps - Tikanni Corazon (16 chapters + prologue)
Is This Me? - PopeAlessandrosXVIII (7 chapters)
Tempora Crepusculi - Shillelagh (9 chapters)
IF Tales
Justice - Lilith and Tikanni Corazon (new)
The Night Before IFmas - Tatkret Sos (4 chapters)
Skiffiville
Murder in the Intergalactic Garden - Lebrenth (10 chapters)
Heavy Metal - Thunderbird (22 chapters + prologue)
Creepy Cave
Escaping Eternia - misterbiz (7 chapters)
Dark Horror
Control - Tainted Biohazard (3 chapters)
Kissing the Darkness - misterbiz (1 chapter + prologue)
Lover's Court
The Color of Sound - Andolyn (7 chapters)
Hate - Vikas Muralidharan (1 chapter)
Humor House
Rotch - Tavanesh (new)
Speedwriter's Square
Worms of the Wasteland - Lebrenth (1 chapter + prologue)
Run - Chinaren (26 chapters + intro)
Innovation Isle
The President's Family - D-Lotus (author is currently away, so this one won't be properly active until he returns) (5 chapters + prologue)
Ihniwid (sg in pictures) - Shillelagh (2 chapters)
Ye Immortals - Kalanna Rai (7 chapters + prologue)
Symphony's Requiem - Emperor (8 chapters)
_________________
Slit and Slide
One man's journey through the possibilities of solving what he says is a murder. What was it? Try not to forget.
Beyond Good and Evil
Could it be that being good is not good at all?
Last edited by Cyberworm on Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:47 am; edited 2 times in total
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Emperor
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| Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 10:39 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for putting me on the list!!
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A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one. - Baltasar Gracian
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Tikanni Corazon
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| Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 10:49 am Post subject: |
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Absolutely my pleasure, Emperor! Symphony has been one of my favourite tales on IF for quite a while now, and others can only benefit by reading it. 
_________________
.... there is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham....
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, 1887
 
 
  
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Lebrenth
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| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:03 am Post subject: |
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I also approve of the list. Probably doesn't hurt that I'm on it and I love a little recognition, but besides that it helps to have a list of SG's to look into without worrying about reaching the last chapter and realizing it's inactive. Looking through people's favorites list can help too, though my list as well as many others I'm sure, is out of date by now.
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Please visit my Library of completed works.
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Tikanni Corazon
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| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:23 pm Post subject: |
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Glad you approve, Lebby! And I agree, it should prove very useful, if I do say so myself. *giggles*
As the Hall of Debate isn't really the place for this (not least because no one is going to know to look there for it ) it now has its own thread in the Auditorium. Thanks to all who've taken an interest already!
_________________
.... there is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham....
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, 1887
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Cremuex Levier
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| Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:56 am Post subject: |
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I'm new so I can't really talk, though the lack of activity is kind of worrying since I have a lot of enthusiasm right now and I can see the potential for some things. Mainly I'm a bit concerned that nobody is interested in the academic section where you can teach classes. I for one am excited about the opportunities to learn new things from new people or share in the communication of information that others might be passionate about.
I can here because of Pope's interview. I saw his signature advertising the City of IF ages before that though but never acted on it because, no offence to you Pope, having text that says 'Join the City of IF' and little information on it is kind of plain, boring and in every sense of the word uninteresting.
I see this as a place where there's something to do, something new to learn, new prospects, a new style of literature, a new community to explore and get to know; which isn't what I got from a line of text in someone's signature. Word of mouth helps a lot, and I assume that a persons friends would tend to have similar interests, though I highly doubt that hasn't been thought of yet. I'm just posting this before I go to bed since I've decided to stalk CyberWorms topics. I'll come back later and read through what's already been said properly and maybe make some new suggestions later.
The city already has a logo that they have for shirts, why not make that into a banner for people to put into a signature. Generally speaking I'm more attracted to banners with images then I am with just text.
I'm not sure if the problem is getting new people, keeping the new ones, keeping the old ones- I don't have any clue of the demographics and I can't make an educated deduction without looking deeper into it. Pope mentioned a lack of interest in the newsletter too about nobody doing the find-a-word and such, I don't know how profound this problem is.
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Cyberworm
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| Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:54 am Post subject: |
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I thought this topic was deceased, but alas it still runs without my attention. I'm sad to see it is a recurring topic. (So you're a stalker, huh? Never would've thought... )
Editing images is something I would extremely lean on if I wasn't in the stupid studying business. Digital photography/painting and editing is my not-yet-acted-upon passion. Sadly, my skills in such matters are limited to basic knowledge of the matter.
I could do sommething about banners though. I believe someone already did some banners, but I'll have to search the forums.
Oh, nevermind, found it while typing.
http://www.cityofif.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6483&highlight=banner
Lilith did those, and they are very useable. If there is a need for a more elaborate banner, we could definitely arrange something.
Hmmm... How about putting a vivid quote from a story for the people to read? Or maybe a slogan-ish line? Could tickle someone's imagination along the way. Maybe we could put multiple banners with different quotes and post them all over the place.
*is getting fired up*
_________________
Slit and Slide
One man's journey through the possibilities of solving what he says is a murder. What was it? Try not to forget.
Beyond Good and Evil
Could it be that being good is not good at all?
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:35 pm Post subject: |
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I remember how I found IF. I was googling sites linked to greek mythology in school when I first discovered InterFable. At the time I wasn't about to join the site, but I kept it in the back of my mind for a while. A couple years later, I'm again searching for greek mythology and here pops up the City Of If. I didn't know at the time it was the same site but this time I figured I'd give it a go. Six years and I'm still here despite the sporadic absences that have claimed my attention.
I've recommended this place to friends, many have joined, one has stayed, and I link it in every signature page in every other website I sign up to. I had one person follow it here but sadly they too vanished off the face of the internet.
Honestly IF doesn't show up in any kind of writing or gaming tag. Or if it does, you've got to be digging. I'd look at getting us placed on Free List websites that detail good free websites to visit. We might get an influx of people we don't want for a while, but I'm fairly certain the very nature of IF will weed through them.
We might be a supportive community and we might be good people. But the folks coming here for reasons other than writing improvement and Choose Your Own Adventure stories will likely move on if they don't find the appeal. And if they do...isn't that what we're looking for? I'm not sure what it takes to get on one of those lists and I don't think I'm the person to look into it, I'm really bad at these sorts of things, but it's an idea.
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"Music makes you braver."
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Cremuex Levier
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| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:20 am Post subject: |
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Hee, didn't mean to resurrect this, I just didn't notice that the last post was in August of last year. I just think that a community is what holds a site up and if this thread aims as encouraging an active and friendly community, why not help in the endeavor?
I have read through the suggestions that I've missed and one thing that I've noticed is that I would like to update my story on a fortnightly basis, which is more then enough time for me to get some art done as well to make it more attractive. I've only had two people make suggestions but I'm fine with that. I check in every day at the very least, mostly checking in every couple of hours to see if anyone's posted anything.
As much as I don't really see what you can buy with the currencies of the site aside from a title to go with your username and a plot of land in the city of if I actually like how challenging it is to get the money here. Right now I'm just aiming at getting a plot of land so I can write up some study notes for the classes I'll hope to be teaching. That and owning a bit of IF just seems to be a worthy investment and a way to say "I've made my impact on the site".
I'm mainly only stalking though so I can find some stories to follow. I don't mind reading to catch up, I've read the twenty or so chapters from Pope's story just because I know them. Reading people's work just seems to give a bit of insight into what the person writes like, how the person writes, what there interests are.
I've done some PMing to meet some people and as a new member, despite not many people being online at the same time, everyone I've met so far has been lovely and helpful.
I've suggested the site to my boyfriend because he likes reading fanfics but according to him it's because he already knows the characters and the settings, where as starting a new story means he has to learn those things all over again and there's no familiarity about it.
I've had a bit of experience with roleplaying from table tops, live action role plays and quicker, multi-charactered literate role playing threads from other sites and that's what I'm used to. I'm used to having to check in every day in case someone has posted a response and needs character interaction- even though on here it tries to steer away from being too dependent on an individual in particular I feel that helps you get to know people and make friends a bit more easily. Tomorrow though I'm going to a LARP that I do based on the white wolf's World of Darkness- I play two of their genre's (Changeling and Requiem). I should be able to do a speil about the site to see if anyone is interested in a literate role playing/ story telling site. Most of them play pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons so there might be a few nibbles of interest, though at Easter we're hosting the National World of Darkness Games for Australia so I might be able to put some pamphlets in the welcome bags for the site too. I would just feel guilty joining a site and then seeing it die :/
So far I've only read two stories but I've read them all the way through and this is my first post for the day so I might read some more before the day is done. That'll be my hit of activity for the site.
I haven't joined any guilds which I'm interested in simply because I can't find the damn things to check out which ones I might be interested in.
I know it's kind of the norm to only have one character through the stories and to focus purely on them but I'm interested in seeing how it would work with multiple characters that you can get to choose what to do with. Like say there are three characters... you can choose to make one have a crush on another one, you can make them hate each other, you can make one stay behind and call for help, you can make one follow the bad guy, you can make one charge into the heat of battle- I just feel there'd be so much more option with more then one character being the focus of the story. Not so much that it would be difficult to keep track of the characters and what they do, but the more frequent suggestions would stand as their own vote since I don't think you can have more then one poll at a time and extra voting would only work to slow down the story even more.
I haven't seen any in fighting so far and this topic is about bringing the community together for the benefit of the community not arguing and tearing the site apart. I'm not sure who said that but I literally rolled my eyes at the comment. You can have a discussion with more then one opinion or point of view and not be at each others throats, this is a mature site isn't it? We're all reasonably mature adults and when we're immature it's because it's called for, like if someone farts loudly in the middle of an exam when the whole hall is dead silent.
Oh my, I think I've rambled long enough, I might go check out some other threads now, ciao!
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Muaddib
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| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:33 am Post subject: |
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| Cremieux, you wouldn't believe how many times this discussion has arisen in various forms. I blame the ennui on facebook.
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Cyberworm
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| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:42 am Post subject: |
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Glad to have you in this one, Rai.  I missed hearing your straightforward and efficient suggestions. Indeed, the site was a hard one to find for me as well. I was actually searching for online roleplaying in the style of D&D, and after about 5-6 pages it brought me here. Can't say I ever had any regrets.
Posting the site on a free site reviewer's list sounds like a very good idea. The more this site is talked about, the more people will hear about it. All that is left is rooting out the chaff from the wheat.
@Cremuex: The "at their throats" part really depends on the individuals. One of them in an argument is plenty. That's why we resolve to civil communication in every possible way.
One of the reasons why I accepted the position in the Speed Section was to make it a springboard for writing other stories, meaning the fast-paced writers would be transferred there, write a bunch of things, and eventually get an idea for that big novel they had. And boom, other sections get higher quality stories.
Seems legit.
I'm all in for roleplaying, since it stirs one's imagination. We need to tickle people's muses a bit. They're stubborn, but it'll have to be so. If people start enjoying the site as they did again, they'll eventually start talking about it. The 'word of mouth' line of advertising is set. Hmm... Do you think that making it viral would be a bit much?
Even if it's not viral, advertising to and through the people you know is still the best way, since it shows the site's credibility and quality, instead of it being "Dude, I'ma writing storyz on a cool site, lulz!".
I have nothing against an occasional firecracker in the team, but every one of us could fit into that role.
All that said, what would be a good free advertising site, if there is such a thing? There are review sites, but I don't know the details of getting them to do a review for a site.
Hmmm... I set up a mediafire account for myself, and I think that we should designate a person to make an official IF account for sharing music and pictures. It would be relatively easy since it's free, not shut down by PIPA and SOPA, and has multiple downloads available at the same time. I presume their servers are not in America, which is a good thing these days. 
Saying that, putting music and pictures on a sharing site would make it easier for people to start voicing stories and having whole sets of art in a single file. It can be set to private, and only the persons you choose would have access through PMs.
I started voicing Tika's SparkleSteps, and though it's sometimes hard to do, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm going to finish it and then, if she gives the permission to do so, will start a voicing section. It'll be a blast. XD There were already singing projects involved, though singers are rare here and with their absence, it died. Well, we'll see about that when the time comes.
_________________
Slit and Slide
One man's journey through the possibilities of solving what he says is a murder. What was it? Try not to forget.
Beyond Good and Evil
Could it be that being good is not good at all?
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Andolyn
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| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:59 am Post subject: |
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oh...this post again. XD things you miss when you're gone a couple of days...
Cremuex, i'm not sure where you found the stat about the last post being in August...but i think if you do some searching in the SGs themselves, you'll find MisterBiz posted a new chapter yesterday in his Escaping Eternia, my Line of Kavanagh got a new chapter the 9th of January (and will be polling soon), mine & MisterBiz's collaboration, Fading Immortality got a chapter the 24th (and only has had one suggestion...) and Tikanni Corazon's Sparkle Steps got a new chappie the 23rd...those are just a few of the new postings. I'm not denying that our activity is down. it has been since the spring, really, but August is a bit of a stretch.
I do love all the ideas you all have as far as technical ways to spread the word about If. the key will be having someone actually act on it instead of simply talking about it as we've always done in the past. Cremuex, you seem to be rather tech savvy from what little i've seen of you, do you think you could look into setting up some things like what's been mentioned? maybe you and Cy could partner on that.
i do apologize for my absence the past few days...i'll not bore you with the details, but HOPEFULLY, Monday will be the end of it. thank you all for sticking with this.
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HalfEmptyHero
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| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:14 am Post subject: |
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| Andolyn wrote: |
Cremuex, i'm not sure where you found the stat about the last post being in August... |
She meant the last post in this thread 
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Andolyn
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| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:23 am Post subject: |
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| teeheeehee...i knew that. XD
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Vikas Muralidharan
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| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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Wow... that was a suprising revival.
I've really liked most of what's been said here. Cy, Im already on setting the mediafire account (mind you, its only a trial, a free account). So, yeah, it only has the basic features.
Banners are a good idea... we need to get working on those. Or maybe even a video that we could shoot for use as an ad. Just a few thoughts. I'll post a few more in sometime.
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Cremuex Levier
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| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:35 pm Post subject: |
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Oh, yes, something I forgot to mention in the above post; I couldn't actually use that link to the banners, it took me to a page that said "The topic or post you requested does not exist"
I could try my hand at some, however the programs I have are very basic. Like, microsoft paint basic @.@ Although Paint Tool Sai has layers, a one up on MS Paint, it doesn't have a text box for letters and typing.
I'm not sure why I come off as tech savvy but I thank you for the kind words. Depending on just what it is that's been mentioned that I can help with I'll have to have a think through. I will however send the delightful Cyberworm a PM concerning what might be done to boost activity. Right now though I must be off to Camarilla for some LARPing and a little spiel on the site, I'm not sure how much attention it'll get but any publicity is good publicity I suppose.
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Vikas Muralidharan
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| Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:36 pm Post subject: |
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Mediafire account created.
When do we start uploading? 
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sagittaeri
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| Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 3:05 pm Post subject: |
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I'm going to revive this topic.
For a site to be successfully active, I suggest (in my humblest of opinions, even though my tone below many not indicate so) it must:
1. Allow easy participation. While SGs are the best things ever (in my opinion), it requires a lot of effort to participate. We need more alternative activities for the times we are too mentally drained for anything heavy. There are already some good activities here, like debates and word games. Personally, I love debating anything controversial, like gun control, abortion, freedom of speech, etc. These stuff can keep me on the site until I'm mentally ready to participate in SGs again. It can also build relationships within the site, which increases site-loyalty and participation rate.
2. Have some form of advertising. I don't use Facebook or Twitter, so I'm really quite ill-equipped to advertise. But, everyone else should have the ability to easily announce activities on this site on social media. For example, "Story X: Chapter 3 is now voting! (link)" or "This new chapter is awesome! (link)" as a tweet or a Facebook wall message with a single click within the site. This will increase the exposure of this site dramatically. Nowadays, people rarely actively search for anything they want anymore...they expect it to be advertised in front of them. This is what advertising has done to our society, so, unfortunately, everyone else has to follow suit.
3. Ease of use. Yet another thing people now simply expect. They don't want to "work" to get the entertainment they want. So, there might be a few things we can do to make it simpler for users of the site. For example, I wouldn't quite have so many categories of SG, and I would use tags to describe the features of a story. As an extreme example, I would lump "scifi" and "fantasy" into the same category, and everything else as "general fiction". Of course, this system works better if we also allow "tags" to be attached onto stories, e.g. mystery, horror, romance, comedy, adventure, short, epic, adult, and etc. The technical implementation wouldn't be easy though, because this means we'll want to be able to browse/filter stories based on tags. Moreover, we should also implement a simple rating system (e.g. 10 people starred this story). We want new users to be able to find the best SGs quickly. Once properly hooked, they'll also start looking at the new unstarred ones.
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Jack_D.Mented
Respected Citizen
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
Topics: 9
Posts: 958
Location: Hiding out in the woods of Washington
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| Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 10:57 am Post subject: |
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I think our biggest problem is that, as a society, people are getting lazy. Writing is seen as a chore and reading is seen as a drag.
It also becomes difficult to draw new readers in once your SG starts getting some length in chapters. I've been guilty of that one before. "Dear Christ... 25 chapters? Not reading that right now."
One of the easiest ways to fix that problem is to edit your initial post on the SG with synopsis at the very beginning, and to update it each chapter or two. I used to use that approach, and people really seemed to respond well.
Another idea I had was to allow links from a site like playlist.com, where authors could set up playlists of tracks that they think would compliment their SGs well. If a person is going through stories, and they hit upon a song they like, it may help convince them to stick around and read a bit more. It's kind of little preview of what to expect for mood or tone, kind of how a film's soundtrack always comes out first.
I would also say that a redesign of the initial cityofif.com page would be a good idea. It has remained almost exactly the same since I first joined, long ago. I think if we immediately had a login/register bar instead of a link, it would be a help for the chronically lazy. I also think some more color/ pictures on the initial page would be good too. Perhaps an exciting playlist there? And instead of doing a summary of one story on there, perhaps we could do several exciting excerpts from some recent stories? Have a representative of each section posted up, the best from each genre to draw people in.
I think that it would pretty cool if major genre had its own distinct look. For instance, instead of the metallic for fantasy, a papyrus look. Some neon green piping for sci-fi and maybe some blood dripping for horror.
I think we should start doing more awards and achievements. We could have one called "Trifecta" for writers who have active SGs in all three big genres. I think we should encourage people to do crossover stories and RPs where we can have characters from each other's stories interact with one another. There could be some awards for that and for activity and for having multiple SGs running at once in one genre. Make puns with known author names for some of those. For instance, if someone is running three horror SGs at once, the acheivement could be "All Hail the (Stephen) King" or for the fantasy genre "The Tolkienator" and "(Orson Scott) Card Shark."
Those are just some rough ideas I have. Any feedback?
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Lebrenth
Honored Citizen
Joined: 29 Dec 2005
Topics: 43
Posts: 1483
Location: Utah
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1007 Strata-gems
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| Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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I like the enthusiasm, but I would focus more on keeping the users already here instead of getting more users. People aren't just lazy these days, they've always been lazy. Unless they find value in something, they won't work through it. If reading and writing is a chore, why do it?
Making a storygame of high enough quality to compete against movies and video games takes a lot of work; it's more work than any of us really want to consider. Mostly we, as authors, are trying to entertain ourselves when we write a storygame. We expect to crank out a chapter in 1 to 2 hours or its not worth it. Even a simple half hour television show that appears once a week will likely have a staff of writers working feverishly to make it the best it can be. And that's not counting the research and study and efforts that went into becoming a professional writer in the first place.
I guess I'm just saying that if you're an author writing for yourself instead of your audience, you shouldn't expect much. Be happy you have a forum to put your stories into and if you have any readers, show them some love. If you really want readers, write for them. Make outlines and character summaries. Let other writers proofread your work before you post it. Ask your readers what they're looking for, and take the old Author's Advice: "REVISE, REVISE, REVISE".
If there was any money to be had from storygames, I'm sure we'd see much better quality. In the meantime, we need martyrs to sacrifice their time for nothing more than the occasional compliment.
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