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Good to know thanks.

 

What tag would i use for something based after the fall of the first order?

 

Thanks

 

@Mira_Jade

Do i also post the forums in before, saga and beyond

 

Thanks for your help

 

How do i get people to know about my forum?

 

Put it in you're signature.

 

Thanks

 

I was curious why are you only allowed to post in your own fan fict every 24hrs?

 

Thanks for bringing this up, @Kato Sai, because I've had a related question and I wasn't sure where it should go. Since I've found myself in the unprecedented situation of having multiple fics on the go(!), I'm trying to be more mindful of not crowding other writers off of the front page. Lots of people write one-shots or wait a long time between updates, and I want to give them a chance to shine. I assume this is why the mods are asking us to wait a minimum amount of time before posting updates (though please correct me if I'm wrong).

I'm curious about what others think is good etiquette for prolific writers. I've started delaying updates or replies to comments until I have no more than two of my own fics on the front page, and I'm trying to reply to two other stories for every time I up my own thread.

So, onto my questions...

1. To prolific writers: what do you tend to do to be good fanfic citizens?
2. To writers who do one-shots or update at a slower pace: do you have any thoughts to share on this topic?

 

@Kato Sai This is a rule that dates back to the time when the fanfic boards were super-busy and a story would get pushed off the front page in a matter of hours. It isn't a major concern now that there's much less traffic, but like Ubersue said it's good etiquette to leave "space" for other writers to shine.

@UltramassiveUbersue Like you I try to be mindful of the number of threads I have on the front page. In general, I do replies only when I post the next entry in my thread anyway, but in the particular case of fast-moving challenges like the KR or the Olympics, I certainly wouldn't do replies and updates on separate days. I mean, if you (general you) are posting a decathlon over a period of two months, you'll be updating more than once a week, so between your updates and the reviews you get chances are that the thread will be on the front page pretty much all the time. That's the nature of the challenge and it's unavoidable; but speaking for myself, with two Olympics threads going right now, I won't be doing replies to my other threads until the Olympics are over.

 

@Chyntuck
Thank you. I knew there is a reason for the rule, was just curious what it was. Having to wait has made me a better writer, learning to make my posts matter.

 

So the rule actually came about sometime after the boards were split up by era in 2003. Before that, when what is now the "Classic" forum was the only fanfic forum, "upping" a story (yours or another person's) was common and accepted practice because of how insanely busy and fast-moving the boards were. For most people, that was the only way to get a story on page 1 long enough for anyone to see it, as most fics would fall off the first page within hours. That's why, if you ever wander into one of those old truncated fics on the Classic board (or even many of the older stories in this forum that were posted after fanfic was split into era-specific forums), you're likely to come across many, many posts that say "Up!" or some variation of that. (We used to get creative in how we "upped" a thread. ) This practice didn't actually stop when the boards were split in 2003 either; the traffic was still pretty crazy even after the split, and most people were used to upping or bumping their story for a few years after that. (For example, I just skimmed through a multi-chapter fic I was posting from 2003-2009 in the Saga forum, and found an instance in 2005 where my story had fallen back to page 28 in the course of 3 weeks , and my readers and I were still upping the thread at that time.) Toward the end of that story's posting, I only bumped it to keep it from being locked. (Is that still a thing? I haven't noticed any of my inactive stories being locked, so I'm guessing not? It used to be that your stories would be locked if they weren't posted on for six months.)

Anyway, I can't quite remember when it became an official rule not to "up" stories; I noticed that after 2005/2006, there are very few, if any, ups in that old thread of mine, so maybe that's when it was. And that was likely caused by the decrease in traffic once RotS had come and gone; the boards weren't moving as fast anymore, so upping became obnoxious rather than necessary. For my part, from about 2006-2012, I remember standard practice being that you generally waited until your next update to do reader replies, or if it was a one-shot, you waited a few days (or at least 24 hours) before posting reader replies. But I'm sure there are others who were active during that time who would remember better than me.

(edits for clarity)

 

Thank you very much for the in-depth explanation, @ViariSkywalker!

@Chyntuck - I appreciate your input, thank you!

 

*puts indexer hat on* The first mention of "upping excessively" in the Fanfic FAQ comes in version 4 (August 2005) but it's phrased as a request for courtesy towards fellow authors rather than a rule. It became a rule in version 5 (November 2007) where it's phrased as (and I quote) "don't do this!". By version 6 (July 2009), the no-upping rule had become the first item on the FAQ. Funnily enough, the guideline to wait at least a day for replies didn't turn up in writing until after the move in version 7 (May 2013).

I may be wrong about this but I think an important reason for the rule was also the introduction of a search function on the boards. I seem to remember that there wasn't any back when people posted "up" again and again and again to bring a story to the front page, but I was a lurker back then, so maybe I couldn't see it because I didn't log in?

At any rate, since I'm here I might as well post a reminder that I still have the magical spreadsheet to find old threads on the Wayback Machine, so if anyone wants to know if a truncated story is available there just shoot me a PM

 

Yep, that makes sense! The Saga and Beyond forums especially were still very busy even after the split in '03, but that traffic slowed down a bit after RotS was released, and those repeated "ups" became more of a nuisance. The changes in the FAQ seem to reflect the changes that were taking place among users at that time, as we gradually weaned ourselves off of "upping". You'll still find that people upped their threads during this time - upping itself wasn't considered wrong, but doing it repeatedly was frowned upon. So if your story dropped back a few dozen pages (especially if it didn't have any replies), it was still considered okay to up the thread for the purpose of putting it on page one. It was also acceptable to up your thread to keep it from being locked at the six-month mark.

So it actually looks like there's no difference between those two versions of the FAQ as regards the "upping" rule. Both versions feature a definition of "upping" (along with other fanfic specific terms) in section I, "Fan Fic lingo", with a mention that incessant upping will earn a ban; and then in section XIV, "General Fan Fic Etiquette", the rule against incessant upping is restated. In any case, by late 2007, "upping" had fallen out of general use; there wasn't a hard and fast rule about exactly how many ups were too many, and with fanfic traffic slowing down anyway, people eventually stopped doing it altogether. (It was still okay to up your thread every six months to keep it from being locked... which I had to do a few times. )

I imagine this was a codification of what was already general practice at the time. The idea of waiting to reply was very much ingrained in me from my first ten years on the boards, so much so that I still feel vaguely guilty at the thought of posting reader replies when I don't have a new update to post, or of immediately responding to a more conversational reader comment.

It's very possible. I don't recall ever using a search function before Xenforo, but then I don't use the search function much now, either.

I know this thread probably isn't the place for more in-depth discussion on this subject, but I do enjoy reading first-hand accounts from other users who were active back then. Everyone has different experiences and areas that they focused on in their time here, and it's neat from a historical perspective to see how all of those accounts align. Fan fiction archaeology is fascinating.

 

I was wondering and hope this is the right place to post the question whatever happened to the stories with truncated posts and does anyone know where you can find intact copies since some of them like Up to Our Neks remain some of my favorite Star Wars stories but don't appear to have been posted anywhere else on the web?

 

Thank you for your explanation.

 

I've been gone for a long while, so please excuse the dumbe question: If I'm writing up a fanfic that's Legends but is also a crossover. Are there tags for crossovers as well?

 

Thank you. I'm rediscovering resources on this forum after a years long absence so it's good to get feedback.

Eras, really I'm mostly writing Legends and some canon pieces (in flashbacks). Still in the process of research so things I put up here may be very brainstormy...