PRACTICE: Jolie comes to the beach

By Allen Samji on 02/04/2012 @ 7:06am

OK, so here's something that I wanted to address, so I'm glad you did it. (And don't fix it, because we want people to see the issue).

Putting people that aren't even in the Holodeck yet in a Joint Post makes it overly confusing and adds post counts to people who likely may not even post in the Joint Post.

What you should've done was introduce your character and then decide who of the people here you want to talk to. Right now, there's Samji and Niomo. Whoever you want to have a conversation with, you can put in a Joint Post with you. Either Samji, Niomo, or both. However, Samji and Niomo have not even spoken yet as Niomo decided to start setting up a party rather than talk to Samji. Therefore you should pick one or the other.

OR introduce yourself with a "Hey everyone!" like you did as a singular post. If everyone in the room can hear your "Hey everyone!" then it is a linear event that everyone can react to. Therefore, a Joint Post is unnecessary.

Now, a scenario: Say you had not said it out loud, but instead approached Samji with a more private conversation. In that case you could include Samji on a Joint Post. Then if a 4th person enters they can choose to introduce themselves to ALL with a singular post, create a Joint Post with Niomo, OR create a Joint Post with Samji and Jolie.

Also, if you're the author on a post, NPCs can always be added later if you decide to include them in the conversation.

By Allen Samji on 02/04/2012 @ 7:07am

Also, please remember to put "PRACTICE: " before all these practice posts.

By Niomo Lire II on 02/04/2012 @ 7:17am

Huh, this is more complex than I thought.

Ok, what about this then? Assuming Jae was talking to everyone, do I now edit her post (Since I'm an author), or do I just make a new post?

By Allen Samji on 02/04/2012 @ 7:20am

For the sake of this overview, we're going to pretend she made the post with just her as an author, so if you want to talk to her, make a new Joint Post with you and her.

By Allen Samji on 02/04/2012 @ 7:39am

It's not really too complicated... for the most part you want to post just as you would in our old Forum-based RP.

Except for if you KNOW that you're going to be in a Joint Post with just a limited amount of characters from the RP (i.e. if you're having a private conversation in the corner of a room, or if there's only a few people in Engineering), then you might as well add them in to a Joint Post so that the posts don't get mixed up with other things happening. However, you should know that those other people are in Engineering (through some other posts that put them there) before you actually add them in... don't assume they'll show up just because you added them.

I'm not really trying to make a whole lot of strict rules or anything for this. Most of it is common sense. Making the story flow nicely from one post to the next is the ultimate goal.

By John Adams on 02/04/2012 @ 7:51am

Hello everyone. This is my very first post...Im still trying to get used to the system. I have checked out the CMS used for this site and find it quite interesting.

Anyways, I dont actually think that the post was bad by assuming people were already in the holodeck, as the holodeck can make NPC that we all can invent and play if we so choose. At the same time it would probably be a good idea not to be over general not for the actual players who will be cooperating, but more about quality of the story. Put a little more detail into it. What did the mug of drink look like. Perhaps describe the cold condensation running off of it and onto your hand contrasted to the hot weather. Are you sweating? Is the sand cool to bare feet? If not then is she hoping around and slighlty spilling her drink in the process (adding mild comedy to the story) or is she wearing sandles?

This is less of a "game" Role playing and more of a "shared novel" story telling.

Chime in if you agree.

Otherwise I think the post was a pretty good start.

By Allen Samji on 02/04/2012 @ 8:15am

But John, the intent of this is not to practice our literary creativity. As indicated in the summary of this story, it is not important how good our writing is in this specific case. The whole point of this is to practice the mechanics of the site. Save your creativity for the real thing!

I appreciate your perspective, but no, it is not really that good to include every single person in Fleet RP in the same Joint Post. Because if you do that, then there's no point at all to having multiple posts within a story. If you're going to include every RPer, why not just have one single huge post that just goes on and on and people continue to edit? That's not the point of a Joint Post. It's not there to contain the entire story, the functionality is there when you want to separate a conversation or discrete event from the entire flow of the overall story.

Why not join in with your own post and we'll continue to practice and perhaps you'll be able to more easily see what I mean?

And remember, this practice story is not about the story itself. It is about the mechanics of making it flow well and be read easily from one post to the next.

By John Adams on 02/04/2012 @ 8:48am

Sorry about that...I clicked the summary button before I even posted and found it blank, so I came in not knowing anything.

By Allen Samji on 02/04/2012 @ 10:56am

Sorry, I meant the description under the Basic Info (first tab you come to when looking at the story), not the Summary.

And no need to apologize, we welcome all honest answers and opinions! At the same time, just don't expect me to walk on eggshells in my response, as we are all here to learn and I will say exactly what my opinion is on the subject.