IMPORTANT NOTICE: Post Requirements Changed

In light of recent discussion over the rules of the forum regarding post length requirements, some changes have been made to the rules.

The rules previously stated that Advanced Roleplay posts must be at least four 5-sentence paragraphs in length. Most whose opinions were expressed on the subject felt that this was restrictive to the writing style of a developing author or roleplayer. While some believe that writing longer paragraphs is indicative of a higher level of skill in writing and automatically breeds greater detail and depth, the majority seems to agree that the same level of development and depth can be attained through a style that utilizes shorter paragraphs.

As a trade-off, Advanced Roleplay posts will now require thirty sentences and must be at least four paragraphs in length. In addition, the Casual Roleplay forums have been returned to requiring two paragraphs, and must contain at least ten sentences.

Any feedback on this decision is welcome. Note that all infractions incurred before the change will remain and the new rule will be strictly enforced starting on April 15th, 2010. I believe three days is more than enough time for everyone to acquaint themselves with the new version of the post length rule.

Thank you all for your time, and for the feedback placed in the thread discussion about the length requirement.

Edit: Also, if you would like to have one of your existing roleplays moved from the Advanced Roleplay board to the Casual Roleplay board, simply contact one of the In-character Moderators, or myself, and it will be taken care of. However, please do this only if you truly feel that your roleplay will be harmed by the alteration of the rules.

Also, any post made before the deadline will not be penalized for the new rule (i.e. If you made a post yesterday under the old rules, you do not need to change it.) You will not be given an infraction ex post facto.

May I ask why word count was ultimately dismissed? I'm just curious.

This sounds good. I know I didn't say anything in the feedback thread, because I basically felt I couldn't add anything new. This way you allow for a natural or very decided flow, while still having a way of measuring if the post is up to standard.

I'm actually impressed with the good compromise, or what I should call it. I had worried about advanced because I tend to do shorter paragraphs, or bind my sentences together. So to get actually five in one would have been very hard. But now I'm not worried anymore.

Thank you!

Well, a word count is pretty impractical. I mean, it's not a bad idea at all, in theory. However, it would require that we check every post that could possibly be too short using a word-counter. Plus, it doesn't account for grammatical insufficiency.

With a sentence requirement, we can browse through a post and see very quickly, "Oh, they should have used a period here to make that a new sentence. Then they would have met the requirement. I'll just send them a PM and ask them to change that." On the other hand, with a word requirement, we'd have to scan, word by word, each post to see if or how they could have changed their post to make it reach the count. Doing so would be far too much effort, so most likely it simply wouldn't be done.

In other words, having a sentence and paragraph requirement gives us more room to be lenient and forgiving if a user simply makes a mistake that causes them to fall below standard in an easily fixable way. A word count would mean that we would, by necessity, be more strict about giving out warnings, because there would be very little room for allowances.

That makes sense. I figured that if I didn't ask, someone else would.

You know, I'm sure there are add-ons and modifications for phpBB forums that include an automatic word count when making a post. If the word count is below the standard there is a message in red which informs the poster. However, once the standard is met the message turns to green.

These kinds of modifications tend to be free and easy to download and implement. I would suggest looking into it, as it would make life a lot easier for the IC mods and allow members to focus more on making good posts, rather than worrying about whether or not they're meeting the quota.

At least for me: I write and then basically check it. Usually if it's below standard, it's easy to see when you proofread and it's easy to find spots where you can add more info, without adding fluff. Essentially because it's hard to follow every thread when you first write it.

I personally don't like word counts. It instead is very restrictive to me. At the moment I write my posts in wordpad, and that doesn't have a word counter. I use it because it's barer than Word, and loads faster. But I guess we all work differently.

My first post has been edited to include a notice that roleplays that wish to be moved from the Advanced section to the Casual section may submit a request to the In-character Moderators or myself to have that done.

Sounds great. Thank you.

Good idea, Weiss.

While I have yet to participate in an Advanced Role-Play and really can't contribute much, I will say that I think this solution is a good compromise. Also, I think the fact that this issue even occurred is a symptom of a vibrant, healthy role-playing community. I'm greatly encouraged that the people here care enough about their writing to discuss this matter, and the fact that the mods actively check posts means that they are dedicated to maintaining the high quality of writing that distinguishes FOG amongst online role-play communities.

Well said, Silvan!

I'm prouder than ever of our stand-in Admin. (Hey, that rhymes! xD) We staff got off to a good start in our discussion when I suggested a compromise similar to this. With one thing and another, however, I soon rejected the idea in favor of championing and trying to understand Fate's original wording of the rule. After much deliberation, Weiss did an excellent job tying it all together. Hence we now have a very workable -- or, dare I say, perfect -- solution.

The main thing I was worried about was staying true to the principles and intents of the original rule, so this better wording has me both enlightened and satisfied.

I'm just going to add a comment that reflects my personal opinion regarding the required sentences in a post. For something like a One on One story, I think this is ridiculous. I can understand if certain rules apply to a marked Advanced Role Playing Game, but One on Ones are two individuals writing together. If the other person doesn't understand or needs clarification on some part of the story then that is brought to the attention of the writer in their OOC, but minor things like punctuation or capitalization where they were missed by accident or not having enough sentences is silly.

Now, if the partner that is writing complains to a moderator that the person they are writing with doesn't seem to be performing, that is a reason for a moderator to be involved. For a moderator to read every little thing someone writes and then say you forgot to capitalize the first word in the sentence is being overly demanding and critical of the pleasures involved with writing, this isn't a job... it's being free to be creative.

I love the people here, I love being able to work on stories all day long with my overwhelming amounts of free time, but I'm very prone to small grammar mistakes and punctuation all the time... it's not going to kill a story if something like that happens and I'm sure it's not going to offend people who read it, that is what the EDIT button is for... to fix our mistakes that we happen to catch. I think on the fly, I write on the fly, if I have to analyze every sentence I'm writing, I lose the creative flow that's coming out when I'm writing when it's supposed to be written. Please think about that and see that there's really no point to be so hypercritical about just how many sentences there are in a post. If people don't want to write with me because of how I write, they don't have to reply to interest checks, etc...

I hope that makes some sense. Please consider leaving the One on One topics free of such strict rules and leave that for the Advanced Gamers who WANT that sort of monitoring. Thanks for your time.

Emily

The reason the 10 sentence rule is in place is to encourage in-depth writing. This community exists to help writers flourish and grow. However, this is also an advanced writing community. We expect quality in everything we do. While long posts are not in themselves indicative of good writing, we believe that 10 sentences can be achieved by anyone who is serious about their craft.

As far as grammar and spelling goes... minor errors are acceptable; they happen to even the best of writers. If someone pointed out a mistake they saw while reading, do not take it to heart. They are likely just trying to help. I know that if I made a minor mistake, I would want someone to tell me.

At the same time, multiple and repeated mistakes are not what we want in the writing here. We strive for the best writing we can produce. Make sure you spend some time proofreading, if this is the case.

As you said, the 'edit' button is free to use.

I hope this helped you understand why we have such a rule in place. One-on-ones are the most varied and free-flowing form of role-play we offer. However, it is still held to our minimum standards.