Project Max Revive: FF&W Revitalization Project

[JX Valentine]

Originally Posted by Rekky

I know a lot of you were talking about having an adventure story featuring Astinus in which one rule would be dealt with per chapter (Rekky: professional lurker), but honestly, I've gotta say I don't think it'd work.

*facebury* For the umpteenth time, we've established that we're not doing that. (Or at least I have in that post where I mention this list you're bolding.) That's why that thread hasn't been updated in weeks. To everyone: please stop saying that the story idea won't work. We already know that. In fact, we went into great detail about why it won't work. Repeatedly.

And this is why I say we need to stop PMR right now and actually go with the plan I've outlined. Because all too often, people keep bringing up the same points over and over again, either because they're not reading the latest parts of the discussion all the way through or because there's something about the WL that encourages people to argue themselves into circles. I don't mean to be biting at all, but really, guys, we've been talking about this since March. It's really annoying to keep folding back on issues we've already gone over.

This is silly. Personally I'd expect everybody who's posting in this thread, looking for ways to innovate this forum, to be already doing this. And not because they have a duty but because that's what they do.

Yes, it's a given that the regulars enforce the rules by example. Is it happening in FF&W? Well, no. That would be the problem. This is a statement that pretty much ends the argument about how to improve quality -- by encouraging people to go review things in the main forum instead of arguing themselves into circles like we usually do around here. (I'll get into the issue involving reviewers shortly.)

I highly doubt anyone could pull that off. Why not bring in the monthly prompt thing that we had going on ages ago?

The issue we're trying to address with the review-a-day idea isn't to encourage writers to become more active. It's to encourage reviewers to be more active. Bringing back the prompt challenge (which was dropped in the first place because no one wanted to write for them after awhile) touches on a completely different issue; it won't get people to review and establish the forum standard we're looking for.

As I've said ages ago, we have no problem with forum activity on the writers' end of things. Just look at the first page of the main forum. Fifteen different stories, and they've all been updated within the past two days. Where we're falling short is with the reviewers. Writers are posting, but we don't have enough quality reviewers replying. (*motions to the number of threads that have less than five replies*) So, no, it's not a working system because, well, it hasn't worked here. No one seems to want to answer the question of why people don't review despite having plenty of material to go over. They just don't, and that's the problem PMR was supposed to be solving (because it ties in with the clique atmosphere as well).

As for whether or not people can write a review a day, unless you happen to be bogged down with work (which may be unlikely for those of us on summer break), it's plausible because of what I said earlier about reviews. Reviews don't have to be massive analytical shindigs. They just have to be a paragraph stating what you thought of the chapter/story/whatever with specific details (e.g., references to specific events in the chapter) thrown in to show you're paying attention. This, of course, is a minimum. You can make it longer than that, but it's really not necessary. And if you can't sit down, read a five-page chapter (which seems to be the average length), and write a short paragraph on it even though you have enough time to look through this thread and write a response, then I'm going to have to say there's an issue here, and it's not with the request.

[Astinus]

FFL has been closed. The rules rewrite thread has been closed.

And Breezy said what I could have said about SPPf. (I'm a member there as well.) It's the same thing with BMGf. There's not even a sub-forum for authors to ask questions about writing, but there are reviewers for the stories posted there. People get out and review.

I'm going to start tonight by reviewing a story. Though I'm not going to be happy if I'm the only one reviewing.

Originally Posted by Breezy

Actually, I do have a question that's somewhat off topic. What happened to the Fanfiction of the Month thing? Is that no longer happening? I know there's an fanfiction archive for stories "that have been recognized to be outstanding" (is this for finished fics, btw, or just any story recognized to be well written?). Is it not used anymore, like the Revision Bin?

It stopped once I became too busy to read through all the fics posted and move them to a separate forum and PM the author to let them know. Plus it caused a few problems, so I decided to drop it.

The Archive houses the fics that won Fanfiction of the Month previously. But it, like the Revision Bin, is not in use.

[Giratina ♀]

Well, I will admit that I don't have much to say on this topic, and I really haven't yet - I haven't objected to any of the major ideas that have been around for a while ('for a while' meaning, of course, the initial response of "WHAT CLOSE THE FFL NOOOOO"). I do, however, understand that the sticky problem is definitely unhelpful - and, just to try and get a solution out there, is there any way that we could condense the various stickies into one thread? Or to shave off some of the unnecessary ones, at least? For example, I think we can safely un-sticky and move the Pokémon Fanfiction Challenge that hasn't been looked at since two years ago. Having a dated sticky, as well as making the whole thing look generally more daunting - which is exactly what we're trying to stop - also makes us look like an either inactive community or one that doesn't really care about what it looks like. (Yes, I know I'm making a big deal out of this image thing; blame my father for bringing me up that way.)

I'm going to start tonight by reviewing a story. Though I'm not going to be happy if I'm the only one reviewing.

[opens up Word]
Meh, Yooyuball can wait.

[Luke]

I'll admit it. Marcin's dancing old man attracted me to this thread.

Anyway, if you guys need any H-Staff assistance, I'll be willing to offer my assistance. Like if you need some restructuring/adding of sub-forums/whatever that needs to be approved in HQ first, I don't mind being your lackey. This was the forum that actually brought me to the Pokecommunity in the first place and I'd love to see this place super duper active again. I'll admit that my attention span at the moment is pretty limited so if you all could give me a short-ish summary of what you're looking do, the problems with the forum in the past and anything else I need to know. I have a knack for fixing up forums on here (Strategies & Movesets, DPPt to an extent) and would love to help you guys as well.

[bobandbill]

Originally Posted by Luke

I'll admit it. Marcin's dancing old man attracted me to this thread.

Anyway, if you guys need any H-Staff assistance, I'll be willing to offer my assistance. Like if you need some restructuring/adding of sub-forums/whatever that needs to be approved in HQ first, I don't mind being your lackey. This was the forum that actually brought me to the Pokecommunity in the first place and I'd love to see this place super duper active again. I'll admit that my attention span at the moment is pretty limited so if you all could give me a short-ish summary of what you're looking do, the problems with the forum in the past and anything else I need to know. I have a knack for fixing up forums on here (Strategies & Movesets, DPPt to an extent) and would love to help you guys as well.

Yay for my dancing man getting attention. ;P But cheers for helping out. =)

I guess as mentioned by people before the main things that would need changing about would involve removing the not-used-for-years-and-is-pointless-according-to-grand-plans Revision Bin section... as for the fanfic archive that may need more discussion - IMO I'm for it being a place where completed fics go (because it'd be nice to have them stored as a memento and tribute to the author for finishing something, particularly with chaptered fics - and if one wants to bring back the fan fic of the month thing then that could always be done as well I guess easily enough... =/)

And also as Delusions of Originality said, would the following be possible:

If you want to go to the admins about making it more visible, see if there's a hack or something that will make the rules thread always appear as though it is unread, or at least let you use bold formatting or something in the title.

ALSO IN TWO DAYS I will post that Plot Idea discussion thread of doom so here's a repost again of what the first two posts will be throw in suggestions (and I can always edit afterwards as well so no biggie if you're dead for the next two days as well). Any stuff that needs rewording or things that could need adding for instance.

Spoiler:

The Plot Bunny Thread

Welcome to the Plot Bunny Thread. This thread is simply to post any story ideas you may have and receive feedback on them, or perhaps help provide feedback to other people’s ideas.


Some things to note before posting:

• The more detailed the summary of your idea, the better. Simply saying ‘trainer fic where the main character has a broken leg’ provides less information for people to work with as opposed to actually mentioning how, for example, the broken leg will affect the character in the story, how it happened, etc. Of course you needn’t have to go into such detail, particularly if you are unsure you want to reveal so much information about your story, but generally the more the better. This also includes what you are basing your story off (e.g. the anime, or the games, or maybe a specific manga) and things like that.
  
• The above is also the case with feedback. Responding ‘I like the idea’ for instance is…nice to know, but not helpful and is spammy (and spam [short pointless annoying messages] is against the forum-wide rules). Rather, mention what you like (or dislike) about the idea, offer advice/suggestions, ask a question if you’re curious about a point… basically, in-depth discussion of ideas is encouraged here, so don’t be shy.
  
• Before you post your idea, please check the next post which contains the Plot Bunny Guide *insertlinkherewhenposted*. It offers some basic things to consider about your idea before posting and also how to come up with/develop ideas, and may very well be of help to you.
  
• Don’t argue and be civil – please don’t ask people to get out of the thread or whatnot because you may not agree with each other, or outright say someone is stupid for having such-and-such an idea, and so forth. If there happens to be flaming going on remember it’s better to report and leave it for a mod/higher up to deal with it, not you.
  
• This isn’t restricted to Pokémon fics – any fandom-related (or original story) ideas can be discussed here – note though that one is more likely to get more feedback on Pokémon fics because this IS a Pokémon forum.
  
• Please don’t advertise if you decide to go ahead with it and use it in a fic – save that for your signature, as advertising is against the rules.

And with that, post away!

Spoiler:

Story Ideas Guide

Got a story idea that you think will take the world forum by storm? Or maybe you are unsure about how much potential it has or indeed if it’d make for an interesting story? Alternatively, you may be unsure how to develop an idea or find inspiration? Whatever the situation, the Guide may or may not have something that will help you. To find out…well, read on!


Why is Plotting important?


Why indeed? Because chances are if you jump into a story blindly, you stand a bigger chance of running out of steam/ideas before you’re done, and the story will add itself to the ever-growing mound of unfinished stories out there. Furthermore, plotting and planning out even the bare bones of the story gives you a better idea of what the story looks like and may help you catch some potential plot holes or problems earlier rather than later. And it tends to be easier to fix it in the planning stage then when you’re halfway through your fic realising you’ll have to either change your idea or go back and edit.


How to Come Up with the Plot


The first step in making a story tends to be considering what the story is about – what characters, what happens, and so forth – but the first problem is coming up with those things in the first place, and how to do that. First thing you should probably consider is to not rush your plotting – it applies to writing, and should apply to your plotting. When you think of a detail or event to use, take the time to consider the implications of it. As for finding inspiration or ideas to use - there isn’t any sure-fire way that guarantees a good idea to come about – every person is different. Maybe listening to music helps you think, or going for a quiet walk? Mind-maps or the sort can help to give you a method to see your ideas and organise it out as well.

A good approach to begin with is to go for a top-down approach – that is, start from the big picture (the general story idea itself), and from there work out the smaller details/factors of the story. The problem with trying to start with a small idea or point is that it’s harder to build a small moment or event into something big. However, if you do think up a character or event that interests you but are not sure how to use it – make a note of it! Write it down in a document or notebook and save it for future reference and maybe even use.


The Plotting Itself – Consider the finer details!


After you have the general structure fleshed out, reconsider the smaller details to see if they make sense and how they'll add to the story and work together. So to speak - you've laid down the framework for the metaphorical house which represents the story - now you've got to check out the windows and doors and furniture you put in so you don't end up with the front door sticking out of the roof and the toilet in the kitchen.

For instance, the idea may be ‘Midway through Character X’s adventure through the jungle she encounters a legendary Pokémon Suicune and catches it!’ On the face of it, it seems pretty exciting – jungles, Suicune, trainer has a legendary, stuff’s going to happen.

However, it’s not going to be as simple as that for the reader to take in their stride. How likely is catching a super-rare one/few-of-a-kind Pokémon going to be? Why would Suicune not just run away instead of letting itself get caught? Why did they meet in the first place – fate, chance? How would that affect the rest of the story – how would other characters react to the character having a Suicune? How long would this story be? By considering these things you can build on the idea, flesh it out, as well as figure out for yourself if it’d really make for a good idea or not, and hence a good story.


Overall though there are a lot of points to consider, even if the idea seems simple. Breaking it down into parts:

• The Genre and Style

Generally, the genre means what is the type/category the story falls under. Figuring out what your story is going to be like and what type of story it is is something better done early on. No point trying to plan a story if you don’t know if it’s a comedy or a tragedy! Consider what genre it would be, and from there decide what features in your story make it that genre, and then write to it.

• How believable is the story?

This is a rather important point to consider – how believable is the idea going to be for the reader? In other words – how feasible/likely are the events in the story? Generally the more exaggerated and unlikely the events the less believable a story will be – such as say the protagonist finding a Rattata in Kanto is far more likely than a shiny, abandoned Piplup which knows Hyper Beam there.

• Story length and format

You’d want to figure out as well how the story will be written and how long it may end up being. Is it a one shot, or a full chaptered fic? What point-of-view will it be written from – say 1st (from a character’s perspective) or 3rd (narrator’s?) Maybe it’d be written in a diary format? Whatever the choice it will impact the delivery of the story. Remember however that a story should be as long as it has to be to tell the story.

• Characters involved?

Basically, consider who will be in the fic. Are they OCs/self-inserts/etc, or canon characters? In the case of the latter appearing also consider how they act in your story and if this is in line with how they act in canon – for having a smoking, swearing, sword-wielding Professor may be an awesome thought, but not if this is what you call Professor Oak – it’ll hurt the aforementioned believability part and just look silly.

• The finer stuff – Character reactions, consequences, etc

Once you have the general concept down and you are generally satisfied with it, you can work on the finer details. Keep a clear idea of what you’ve thought of so far, and consider how character reactions to events would go, how the events are portrayed and how they affect everything relevant in the story.

[Astinus]

Do you know how difficult it is to read your posts seriously when there's an old man's butt wiggling in my face?

summery

This has been bothering me: "summary". "Summery" is like the season.

First thing you should probably consider is to not rush your plotting – it applies to writing, and should apply to your plotting.

You have this line twice in "How To Come Up With the Plot" and "The Plotting Itself". idk. That bothered me as well.

Yes, I'm picky.

But aside from those nitpicks there, I can't think of anything to add/take out/clean up with those posts.

btw, anyone know about the resource list Dagzar was collecting? I'd like something to replace Elite Overlord LeSabre's thread before I de-sticky it.

[bobandbill]

Originally Posted by Astinus

Do you know how difficult it is to read your posts seriously when there's an old man's butt wiggling in my face?

Sorry. XD But hey, at least he's attention grabbing! =P

But cheers for the mistakes which don't seem nitpicky to me (well the random repetition thing leastways - lolwut did I do there).

[Dagzar]

btw, anyone know about the resource list Dagzar was collecting? I'd like something to replace Elite Overlord LeSabre's thread before I de-sticky it.

Right here. I'm not sure if I collected enough links, but feel free to suggest more ideas.

Spoiler:

Alright, guys, welcome to the Resources Thread! This is exactly how it sounds. Here is a list of links that I and other members find useful to all things writing. Of course, if you have a link that you find useful for writing, go right ahead and post it here and I’ll add it.

Pokemon Related:
http://www.serebii.net/index2.shtml - This is the first website I go to when needing Pokemon information since it’s quick, reliable and navigable (not including times when it’s as slow as hell).
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Main_Page - My second Pokemon resource, this site is useful when I need to know anime stuff, like what an attack looks like and things that Serebii doesn’t have.
http://www.trsrockin.com/tales.html - A guide on Pokemon glitches, from the Pokemon to tricks and locations (Glitch City, exc.)

Character Related:
http://www.mybirthcare.com/favorites/babynames.asp - A nice site for getting names when you can’t think of one.
http://www.behindthename.com/ - Another site for names, but this one has the history of the name and way more options to play around with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue - The most comprehensive guide to Mary Sues, believe it or not. A definition of what they are in general, followed by the basic archetypes and examples.
http://fullcircle.comicgenesis.com/c...evelopment.htm - Definitely something to look at if you want to know how to flesh out a character and make them feel like a real person.
http://www.poewar.com/get-ready-for-...cter-building/ - Ten articles on building and fleshing out a character. Includes questions and ideas to help you on this path.

Plotting Related:
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-...ing-questions/ - Awesome site of awesomeness. It’s a great help for building fantasy worlds like you wouldn’t believe. Includes questions on geography, culture, history, magic- all that fun stuff.
http://www.writing-world.com/romance/starters.shtml - Ever have trouble thinking up a plot? Then here’s a list of ten ways to jump-start that epic plot waiting to be found! It’s sot of romance related, but it’s still has great advice, so check it out.
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php - This is more for writing novels then fanfiction, but it can still be used. This is the ultimate plotting guide which will help you on the way to making a strong and structured story.

Writing Mechanics:
http://dictionary.reference.com/ - Exactly what is says (it even has a thesaurus!).
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/ - A pretty thorough guide to grammar, complete with various exercises that help you develop your grammar-related skills.
http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp - Another guide that's just as thorough as the above. Includes detailed examples and more details about rules OWL's a bit fuzzy on. (This includes a list of commonly confused words, too.)
http://orangoo.com/spellcheck/ - Online spell checker.
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html - Goes over rhetoric terms (simile, metaphor, exc.) and lists examples.
http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary.html - Contains definitions and examples of all those terms you vaguely remember from your elementary school days.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page – A dictionary version of Wikipedia.

General:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - It may not be that reliable, I suppose, but it’s good for a quick fact.
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/forum - You can find anything here and the forum comes with its own resources thread that includes information on medicine, police stuff, geography, history and so many other things.
http://community.livejournal.com/little_details/ - A LJ community geared specifically towards helping writers do their research by answering their questions. It's already an impressive community filled with information (sorted by the tags) that you can't find practically anywhere else. PC writers with LJ accounts can also sign up for the community and ask away if they can't find the answer they need in the archives.
http://www.google.com - Best search engine in the world and your first stop before trying to tear your hair out over not finding things in Wikipedia first.
http://www.pgtc.com/~slmiller/fictiontips.htm - Contains articles on many sources of writing, including mechanics, characters, and other useful tips.

[Giratina ♀]

Personally, I don't think that TR's Rockin' needs to be up there. Oh, I love the site and it was a godsend when I was working on the MissingNo. chapters, but I don't think that everyone needs to know about old glitches. Not many people choose to include those in their stories, I've noticed, and it seems a little too specific to be useful for most people. Unless I'm mistaken, there are a couple of guides there on writing fanfiction, so you may want to link to the site as a whole and list it as "guide resource/Glitch encyclopedia/time waster akin to TV Tropes but with cosplay". [shrugs]

EDIT: Agreeing with Delusions in that Veekun should be added, but I've never used Psypokes. That said, should we list TV Tropes? On one hand, it is a valuable and witty resource of the conventions of writing, story, and character, but it is also an extraordinarily fun time waster as I mentioned before. Is it important enough?

[Delusions of Originality]

That looks like an excellent list to me. I might add that veekun and Psypokes tend to be slightly more reliable than Serebii as far as pokédexes go, since they give more detail and are a bit more accurate (there are exceptions); they also have handy search and sort features that are nice even if you prefer sticking to the green 'dex. If you're looking for a pokémon that's a certain size, belongs to a certain egg group, learns a certain move and was introduced in a specific generation, it's hard to beat veekun's search--I use it all the time. And now I feel like a walking advertisement, but yeah... custom search = fic author's godsend.

I wonder... anyone think that links to word processors and other such stuff might be useful? I don't know that it'd alleviate the "typing the fic into the post box" problem, because I'll eat my laptop if most of those people don't have Word or at least TextEdit or something on their local machine, but maybe some distraction-free writing tools like DarkRoom? Google Docs or Buzzword, which could potentially make sharing with beta readers and the like a little easier? (Write or Die? :p)

[Astinus]

Originally Posted by Delusions of Originality

That looks like an excellent list to me. I might add that veekun and Psypokes tend to be slightly more reliable than Serebii as far as pokédexes go

Indeed.

Link to veekun and Psypokes.

I had something to say on the other half of your post, but I'm way too tired to be coherent.

[Delusions of Originality]

Mm, well... I guess I could just post some links anyway, and then you guys can add 'em or don't.

Spoiler:

Word Processing/Story Project Software and Websites

OpenOffice.org - A fully-featured office/productivity suite, just like Microsoft Office only better because it's free. It runs on every major OS. What you want is Writer, their word processing application; unfortunately you can't download Writer by itself and need to install the entire suite, but OpenOffice as a whole is so good that you really shouldn't care. It reads/writes .doc and .docx files from Word, too, by the way.

Abiword - A much smaller program that is strictly a word processor but is also free and multi-platform. Not as sophisticated as Writer or Word, but if you want something fast and simple and don't need to make spreadsheets then it's a good option.

Celtx - More free, more multi-platform. It says it's for "media pre-production" and is really intended for things like screenplays or radio dramas, but it still works beautifully for plain-ol' fic writing. Chances are very, very high that you don't need something like this and will do just fine with a simple word processor, but if you are hopelessly disorganized then you may find its project-oriented structure helpful for your longer works.

yWriter - Similar to the above, but specifically geared toward novel (or longfic!) writing. Again, aids with structure and organization if you are beyond redemption in that area. Made for Windows, though you can try running it on a Linux computer with some tweaking.

Google Docs - Yes, Google has a word processor. Sign up for an account and start creating documents; simplistic, but more than adequate for most fanfics. You can choose to share docs with collaborators, which could be useful if communicating with a beta reader. Doesn't require downloads but does need an internet connection.

Adobe Buzzword - Adobe's answer to Google Docs. It's a little slower than GDocs, but it's fancier and is capable of more complex formatting should you need it.

WriteRoom - A simple program for what is called "distraction-free writing"--it removes all of the bells, whistles and buttons of standard word processors and often hides most of your computer screen so that you can focus on what you're writing and only on what you're writing. It sounds primitive (and is) but is actually incredibly useful. WriteRoom itself is Mac and iPhone only, but this page on their wiki lists similar options for people who have different platforms or need slightly different features.

Write or Die - An online program for people who need to get some writing done Or Else. It not only removes distracting interfaces but introduces the added condition that it will punish you if you do not write constantly. You can choose punishments that range from annoying beeps to Hanson songs to deleting what you just wrote, so it's great motivation when you're having trouble getting stuff out. For rough drafts only; you will also need to make sure you have an actual word processor to save your work in, whether it's Word or GDocs. There's a multi-platform desktop version that does allow saving and is more customizable, but it's not free. (Still cheap, though.)

y/n/m?

[Giratina ♀]

Well, what we have now looks like a perfectly competent list of websites to me. Don't forget we can always add sites to the thread later if they pop up or we somehow forget about them. As for me, I have no recommendations apart from what I already gave to Dagzar about a month ago, and the list hasn't gotten bigger since then. XD I still rely on Word 2003 and the supplied-with-computer wonders of Microsoft Works Word Processor (which is exactly like Word without a quite so aesthetically pleasing layout).

[JX Valentine]

Sliding in one last shameless rec to add to the list if I may:

http://www.studio-revolution.net/summary.php - Reviewing and You, everything you ever wanted to know about reviewing but were afraid to ask. (Includes a guide on how to get reviews as well as how to do the entire review exchange thing civilly.)

Compared to the current sticky, it's refined, reorganized, and even a little rewritten at some parts. I'm just too lazy to code the thing (and, on top of that, I was wondering if it'd help to minimize the amount of stickies even further so attention could be drawn to the links thread and the beta thread).

On the other hand, if it's better off actually as a thread on the forums, sure, I can do that too. Just say the word, really.

Otherwise, the list looks ready to be posted, in my opinion. Personally, I think the list of addendum links Delusions is offering is a nice touch. While it might not encourage newbie writers to stop writing their fic in the reply box, it gives experienced writers (the people who most likely read stickies anyway) rather snazzy alternatives to using Microsoft Word (or whatever Mac users are into).

[Giratina ♀]

So who's going to launch the list? I'm assuming it's Dagzar, but Astinus may want to do it.

[JX Valentine]

Technically, the job to compile and post the list was given to Dagzar, so yeah.

[Astinus]

Well, right now, the only sticky we have is the Beta Finder thread. Imagine just one more thread stickied with it, and that's all we're going to have.

It's probably better than the six(?) stickies we had before, with two separate writing guides, the guide to a good fic, the FFL, and who knows what else there was.

[Giratina ♀]

Maybe we should just have a subsection titled "Writer's Resources" for all that stuff. After all, a large box with "RESOURCES" on it is kinda harder to ignore than a link in a thread.

[Dagzar]

Maybe we should just have a subsection titled "Writer's Resources" for all that stuff. After all, a large box with "RESOURCES" on it is kinda harder to ignore than a link in a thread.

Would there really be a point? While it may be more eye-catching, the subsection wouldn’t really be in use and it’d be much easier just to compile all the links in a single thread.

[JX Valentine]

Not to mention I'm not sure if anyone would go into a forum just for guides to read through them. The reason why we're doing a sticky of links is because we acknowledge the fact that a lot of people don't actually read guides or stickies or anything like that. Those who do might find the links handy or can at least find resources to link to in their reviews (if they don't just link to the massive list).

Also, to extend on something I think Dagzar might be implying, making a forum dedicated to guides would mean someone would have to write said threads. In which case, uh, raise your hand if you want to set aside hours of your life cooking up detailed guides and trying to get people to look over them for accuracy and whatnot. 'Cause I can't really say how many people would actually be dedicated enough to do that (although I can safely say I'm too lazy for it).

We could perhaps create a redirection link in the subforum list that directs to the resource list. (You can see an example of this with PC's rules.) That could attract attention to it, although, again, the thread's more for the people who would actually read stickies anyway.

Personally, if anything, I think we could try the redirection trick for the forum rules themselves -- but only if we're actually going to work on the subforums (read: prune them) anyway. Then again, how many people read PC's overall rules, either?

[Giratina ♀]

Considering we have a lengthy list of stuff already, I was just throwing ideas around. |D Or we could compile a lot of the smaller ones - the text itself, not a link - into a single thread or... yeah, I'm not helping, am I? Sorry I can't be more helpful. Hopefully with the quickly-approaching summer vacation I can get some guide-writing done. [goes to stalk to-do list since her project was presumably ditched]

[Dagzar]

Alright, I've posted the resource thread. If you see absolutely anything wrong with it, feel free to rip me a new one.

[Astinus]

Originally Posted by Giratina ♀

Hopefully with the quickly-approaching summer vacation I can get some guide-writing done. [goes to stalk to-do list since her project was presumably ditched]

Do we need guides though? I figure that pretty much any guide anyone could write has already been written before, and could just be linked to in the resources thread.

Because, well, to be blunt: it's either guide-writing or review-writing. And maybe if more reviews are written, we could see what guides could be added.

As for to-do lists, I'm finally going through and just doing plain clean-up mod work. The Poetry rules thread has been updated, the F&W rules have been fixed up to reflect changes made from this project, and now I'm going to update the Fanfiction Index. Because that hasn't been done in a long while. (Not blaming Bay at all, since she had, y'know, real life.)

[Delusions of Originality]

Hey, Astinus, while you're in the fic index... do you think Bay Alexison would be horribly offended if you removed that bright yellow background? I had to highlight the entire post to be able to read anything that wasn't quoted the last time I looked at it. The color is painfully bright on a dark style, and said dark styles usually have light-colored text, so... yeah. :/ It's not the end of the world, but it sure would be nice if it were universally readable without highlighting/changing styles temporarily.

[Astinus]

Already on top of it. Bay's the CSS expert out of the two of us (I only know how to make font blink), and we'll find colors that work well together to make the Index usable.

Because yeah, I'm using a dark-color skin and...my eyes!