Writing Forum Rules

These rules were modified from another forum rules from this link.

When posting in this forum, members are expected to understand and follow the rules and guidelines presented in this topic. If any member has any specific questions regarding any of these rules, feel free to send a private message to myself or any other moderator or administrator.

Thread Ownership

1.) Define Your Post Well
If you are posting a request or looking for help, then please say so in the topic title. Please keep in mind that this is a forum for general writing; if you're looking for someone to help you write a storyline for RMXP, post in the Recruitment sub forum of Project Discussion.


2.) Observe Good Writing Habits
We're not all perfect, but it helps that you check your grammar and spelling before you share your writing with us. If you have a beta to do this for you, run it through them and THEN post. If someone calls you on poor grammar and/or spelling, don't flip out on them; instead make an effort to try and find where you messed up.

3.) Do Not Post Material You Wouldn't Share with Those Close to You
Chances are if you wouldn't want to share it with someone you know in real life, then you'd probably regret putting it up on here. Only post if your confident in what you're sharing with us.

4.) Do Not Plagiarize
Plagiarism will not be tolerated, and is an automatic ban. In addition, do not steal part of another's work and pass it off as your own. If someone helped you with something, and you decide to use what they suggested, credit them.


5.) Post your Writing HERE
Do not link to an outside .txt file or website. Post your writing on this forum, using spoiler tags if your writing is really long. If it's so long that it's too much for one post, split it between two posts; double posting would be allowed in this case.

6.) Non-English Writing...
It probably doesn't need to be said, but just in case: this is a primarily English-speaking forum. Please do not post stories in other languages; if you wish to, use a translator like Google Language Tools and then post here.



Posting Constructively

1.) Do not Spam "Empty" Feedback
Saying something to the effect of, "That looks wrong, but I can't help you," is a waste of forum space. Please tell a person why something looks wrong, even if you're not entirely sure what it is. A response like, "I'm not sure what's wrong, but I think you switched tense in the second paragraph." is much more helpful.

Other posts that are considered empty feedback would be, "good story", "this is bad", "I don't like it", ect.

2.) Do not Spam, Period
This pretty much goes without saying, as it's a general rule of most all forums. We encourage intelligent, thoughtful feedback here. Anything that is pointless spam will be deleted to save the topic creator and everyone else some sanity.

What is considered spam?

* Non-essential phrase and one word posts (eg: "lol", "kewl", "omg dis is gr8!", ect.)
* Blatant flaming (eg: your story sucks, ect.)
* Acting like an idiot for the sake of getting attention
* TypInG l1Ke d1S

3.) Do not Double Post
If your post was the last, and there was something you forgot to add to it, MODIFY YOUR POST. Do not waste the forum space by making another post. The only exception to this is if you're the topic creator, and have a brand new update for your thread. However, use this responsibly; if you just posted your topic and it's still at the top of the forum, you don't need to make another post saying you've added stuff since your last post.

4.) Do not Necropost
Never, ever, ever post in a thread that hasn't been posted in for a month or longer. This is considered necroposting. The only exception to this rule is if you are a topic owner and you have new material to share with everyone.

5.) No Flaming
To reiterate, flaming is spammy, rude, and not to be tolerated. We all have different opinions, so differences are bound to happen, but this does not give anyone the right to go out of their way to be a troll.

This is not to say that harsh critique is not allowed. The difference between flaming and harsh critique, is that the critique does point out things that could be wrong or need to be changed, instead of out right saying that something sucks.

6.) Do not Beat a Dead Horse
If you see several posts informing a topic creator of how horrible their grammar is, or if their characters need work, or anything else that's been mentioned several times, there's no need for you to make yet another post stating as much. The topic owner can read; there's no need to pelt them with spam.