First off, if you don't understand how this all works, please check out our help page.
It should answer most of your basic questions.
- All authors are responsible for their own content. We don't write this stuff. You do. So feel free to use a little adult humour, but please don't go
overboard, or we'll have to flag the story as mature content.
- Second, if you're adding a branch to an existing story, make sure that the new branches you create are individually appealing. This makes it easier
to keep the storyline alive and kicking.
- When you're writing, try not to write more than one or two segments of the same story at a time. It keeps the story fresher and funnier if you let others
play along. :)
- Posts need to be at least 140 characters long. That's about three average sentences, not too painful, but it prevents spamminess.
- Finally, try not to kill off the main character in a story... at least, permanently. It can be pretty detrimental to the storyline — it's also useless, as someone is
bound to revive the character.
- If you find a problem somewhere, or see a bad posting, click the red report button on a story or user profile and report it to us!
- Note: Please be careful if you spent a long period of time writing the same branch. It's entirely possible that someone else is completing the same
branch as you, and in that case, since we don't lock posts while you edit, whoever posts first will "win" and you'll have to move your post elsewhere.
That's the idea -- those labels are supposed to be guidelines. I think adding half-marks, and not allowing people to rate their own stories (maybe...) would make for more consistent ratings. Might do that in the interim. Or I'll just tear it all out. We'll see.
Got a lot of other stuff on the go before I get around to a ratings revamp."
Me, I get more excited by the commentary than the ratings...
Oh, okay. I'm upset I'm not in the top-10. Gee, maybe if I actually wrote more often."
Like Jillian said, you can't expect everyone to pass a comment when they give you a rating. There is a reason feedback is usually collected anonymously. Most of us are not completely honest even to their best friends when it comes to criticism.
Also, remember, this is a "3-sentence-adventure", and one may not exactly be blown away in 3 sentences to say "spectacular". I don't know why some have got 4 while you have a 3.25, though. What is definitely wrong is deliberately giving someone a low rating, and I understand your frustration on that.
This 5-star rating system is good if we're all honest with each other and truly rate the content (and not the person). But, to err is human and to fix the system is Nick :)
So, keep up your good work with writing and try not to worry too much about this! :)"
I know it's frustrating but remember that people are perfectly within their rights to rate whatever they want without leaving a comment. I completely agree with you that if someone really doesn't like the post or has a problem with it, then they should explain why. But, they're not obligated so you should try not to expect them to.
You never know, maybe the person is just really uncomfortable leaving a comment or whatever. Could be any reason.
Anyway, the rating system is changing soon so hopefully we can avoid most of this frustration in the future.
Breathe in, breathe out...."
It then becomes incumbent on future authors to give validity to the "dream" segment and find some way to make it important to the ongoing story. This will be particularly difficult in a 3-sentence pace..."
Revised the story to still be fun. Sorry for being grumpy about it but I think everyone realizes this will probably get ugly if we don't head it off at the pass."
I'm going to tweak this post a bit, the concept sounds fun, but we'll make it a little less spammy. Hopefully no one will get too mad at me for intervening."
Do I need to require a certain number of characters per post, now?
Troublemaker of the week is definitely right..."
For someone with the name "Writer's block", you do write a lot! Wonder what will happen if the Writer's block was unblocked! :D"
And, whoever contributes will be able to boost their post numbers pretty quickly!"