Story Forums-Rules/Changes

[surendar]

Hello everyone,

There is something which we have been discussing for a while in Feedback thread, i.e the way which story forums works - ups and downs. It was good to see some quality readers/writers posting their opinions.

Alright, based on those opinions we are going to slightly change and suggest few things.

For Writers :

Story line :

Please do fix proper story lines. Any new story starters wondering what a story line is? Well, it is the way/path in which you are going to take the story. Story without story-lines won't be of any success.

Just browse through STORY FORUM INDEX thread and you will find some benchmark stories there. If you read some of those, you are sure to get a grip over what a good story line is.

For example, If you are starting a Ashes thread & you are playing as England in EA Cricket 2005... Just because you are so comfortable with C05, you cannot simply hit 6 Sixes in a test match and end up with some total like 700-800 in a day & bowling the CPU out for 20-50 odd runs.

Drawback of the above scenario is - a) Very unrealistic b) Simply invests 0% interest among the readers. We should give the CPU team also a fair chance and take the game in realistic way.

I am sure, everyone here who are going to start a story/started stories of late, would be aware of what a general story is! Atleast in our young ages, we would have heard stories from others. That do have a story line. Without any storyline( introduction, happenings & proceedings, climax, end ) can there be any story or movie? The same applies here too.

Take the story in the story line which you think that it would be interesting to take it. Can't Ashes be exciting, if the final run to win is taken down to last wicket & last ball of the day! But oh wait, that doesn't mean you do have to bring the exciting matches in story always. It's just realism factor along with some unique ideas that comes out from every writer.

How to Make an Update in Story :

Still making updates with only pictures and scorecards without any writings? I will strongly advise to stop such things. What is the whole point in displaying the scorecards alone without any writings? This is nothing but a story book with full of screenies so that a baby can understand from those visuals in-front. :rolleyes:

Do spend some of the efforts in writing and describing the events of happenings that is being involved in one's story. The writer can describe the update in ' n ' number of ways,

1) The writer can just describe what's being happening in the match.
2) The writer can also include his own creative thoughts & put feelings into it and it will attract the readers for sure. Writers' expressive thoughts put into a story is an useful tool to cultivate interests among readers.
3) Writer can describe even out of story things like, cricket chat shows or reviews/previews or something similar to these.

As I said, go through some of the BENCHMARK STORIES in the STORY FORUM INDEX THREAD & you will get many such ideas.

There is a good old saying, " Pen is mightier than Sword! " & yes, the writings are indeed powerful. So lets not make the mistake of going with scorecards alone without any writings in it. Stories do have to involve some efforts spent in writing, otherwise, it won't make full sense & readers won't be bothered to read too.

Frequent switching between stories :

Does it make sense, when you sit in front of a TV and just tune with the remote different channels alone without watching any channel for not more than a minute? How annoying it would be for the people watching TV along with you? It is the same case here too.

What is the point of starting 3-4 different threads in a month without any commitments and dedications to it? If that is the case, why bothered to create a new thread?

This is mainly due to lack of storyline. The story writer is just clueless what to write in it or tend to loose the interest in the game. I saw one of the threads like, " please close because new version of the game is out! " :rolleyes: Does it make sense?

One more thing which I want to bring into attention for the writers, Never bother about what AI patch you use or what Game you use. However easy the game may be, we should try to cultivate realism into our story line and take the story line accordingly. It is of waste to say, " The AI in which I played was so easy that I scored 1000 runs in 50 overs and bowled CPU out for 10 runs! ". If that is the case you want, then the right section is " Cricket Records Section " and not Cricket Stories section. Atleast former will earn you a ' Record Holder ' tag.:rolleyes:

When you are not interested to continue the story which you started some days ago, that doesn't mean that you have to start another story and switch to the third one in the third week.

This will, inturn chase all the readers away from story forums. Consistency is the important factor in which every writer has to pull up their socks and bring it on!

Story presentation

As I said before, the story line is important. You can find many stories which have been successful with feeble and minimum graphics and it is because, they did have a good story line.

Graphics is just an extra portion. i.e utility! This can be added to get better/best attraction of the readers & even storyline has that power to pull the readers too!

What I can say about presentation is, " Invest some effort in the update with good writings & story line to get the better reward which is, the hearts of readers! ".

For Readers :

Readers Coming forward to encourage :

Yes, we do understand that many of the above factors have lead to some serious annoyance among the readers. But it's us who have to correct the story writers and take it in right way.

As much as we can, we will try to spot the mistakes which a writer makes & encourage them when the writer is putting his best. After all, we are like family members here.

Like, when a story writer starts his second story in a short period of time, we will spot him and ask, " Are you sure to continue this for a long period of time? Then later don't feel for noone reading your story! ".

Though we have good quality readers, it would be nice if they come forward and express their opinions about that story. We are having " Thank you system " now and we can utilize that atleast if we don't have time to post the comments.

Incentives for readers :

Well, this is the part which we story mods have to discuss that first & confirm with the admins. I am having some thoughts in my mind & I will let you know on moving forward!


Changes From Now :

1) No Story writer will be allowed to manage more than 2 stories(including the combined stories) at a time.

a ) If the writer exceeds the two stories within 3 months, the threads will me merged and closed for 2 weeks time. After two weeks, if the writer is still interested, the thread will be reopened with the latest title for continuing, else, it will go as closed one.

b) If a writer wants to start the third story so desperately, the writer should contact the story mod team. His past story or stories should have been consistent enough & atleast 3 months old OR he did not write any story for the period of more than 3 months. OR the story mod team should have a belief that the story writer can manage 3 stories at the time.

2) The story participating in the SOTM should be atleast 2 months old & efforts for the the last 2 months should be worth for the nomination. There is no point in putting some efforts during the first 20 days & going inactive after that. Efforts applied for writing the story matters a lot!

3) The lonely replies like, " Keep up the good works ", " Well done ", " looking forward to next one " etc will be deleted on sight. We strongly advise the readers to use ' Thank you ' system if the readers want to convey only those one line messages.

4) Thank you system is also suggested for the busy and quiet readers who doesn't come forward to reply but have the habit of reading regularly.

5) Weekly Story Tips from different story writing experts & benchmark story of the month(decided by Story mods) would be additional inclusion. This is mainly for the feedback, " After good story writers went busy, there was none to guide the newbies! ".


This will be effective from August and it is where SOTM also restarts with new rules. For SOTM August, the efforts spent in June/July will be considered and consolidated for the nomination. The next 20 days are for the writers to fix their thoughts as per the rules/suggestions above & fill the necessary gaps!

Discuss this in http://www.planetcricket.net/forums/...ons-55793.html

Feel free to drop your opinions always. You can do this either transparently in Feedback thread or privately in PMs.


Thank you,
Suren
Story Mod team.