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POSTING FORMAT |
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Posting
Format Subject Headings Mailing lists Quotes ON/OFF, OLD/NEW =/\= & The Computer Locations and Time Back-posting Posting (Kinds of Posts) Thoughts & More Thoughts Speech & Action Writing Readability GM Stuff
Your posting format is the most important thing you learn in the academy. This can make or break you. Sure, you have to have a character that is believable, but if the crew can't understand your post, then your character would be left out of the game. I need to know when the action is taking place, where it is happening and with whom. You need to know the same thing about me. This is an easy one on the Pioneer. When the Captain makes the subject, no one changes it. A few goof up when they start playing the game, but it is easy to correct. We number our posts as well and that # changes with each post. When you post, you look at the last # on the post and you add one. So, if the last post was "Don't shoot me #7" then the next post would have to have the same subject, but the # will have changed to "Don't shoot me #8" If there's a Re: or Fwd: that is fine. If you want have a topic to your post you can do a OFF: <This is it, my first post!> ON: and your post. I sometimes do that if it is a funny one or if it is going to be a joint post. This is where we all post so we can all read the story. Ours is USS Pioneer Yahoo Group When you are accepted on the ship the CO will send you a welcome letter as well as letting you know your rank and position. Then you are added to the mail list and will receive a greeting to welcome you. You can then go to the group's site and read up on the mails and what has been happening on the ship. Do not use the list for anything other then posts to the game. If you have need of information or you need a LOA or you want to quit the game send a mail to the Captain and he will help you. If you want to quit the game and use your character somewhere else, that is not a problem. If you need help posting we love to help. Please don't send advertisements of any kind. No spam is allowed, and do not give out the addresses to others not on the ship. etc. IF you quit a sim, do it off post by sending a letter to your commanding officer. When you write your posts, you can reply to the last one if you like, but since we use the # system it is not necessary If you are saying something yourself, please put whatever it is you are saying in "quotation marks". If you are quoting someone else within your own remarks, use 'single quotes'. All of these have their uses in the game
and should be used in the following manner:
OFF is used to signify something out-of-character. Materials that follow an OFF are not
known by the characters in-game. I could divulge every secret about every character on
the ship, and as long as it is in an OFF, that info is not known by the characters.
Material in OFF is not used to determine XP.
ON is used to signify something that is happening in the game.
Anything that happens in an ON is known to the players and
characters involved with the post. Material in an ON is used for XP
purposes.
OLD is used to provide a lead-in into current events. While it is
not required, it is quite helpful to use OLD. Material in OLD is not
used for XP purposes.
NEW is not really all that useful. Rather than using NEW, just do ON
and go about the business of your post.
You should sign your post at the very end, after the last OFF: The
acceptable signing is:
Captain Ethan Hawke
By putting in my Yahoo IM, etc., it makes it easier to message me and do
joint posts. =/\= is the official notation for tapping one's com badge.
The computer will TYPE IN ALL CAPS when speaking. Because of the informational nature
of the computer, players should use the computer only when such things are obvious,
such as where so-and-so is. Other uses, such as the results of a scan, or the answer to a
direct question put to the computer that is not obvious is restricted to the GM. We will use the following to note time and
location in the USS Pioneer sim most of the time:
(( Deep Space 7: Turbolift 4 -- Stardate 58101.7 ))
When we are on a mission, the way we keep track of time changes a bit. Instead of the Stardate system, the Captain will set the time at Mission Day #1 and at a time between 0000 and 2400 hours, like so:
(( Deep Space 7: Turbolift 4 -- Day 1: 0300 hrs))
Players are responsible for including the location tag in their posts, and they are responsible for making sure that their posts are in chronological order...that is, if one player posts a post set at Stardate 58101.7, the next post should be set at that stardate or later.
The *CORRECT* stardate can be found at http://www.obsidianfleet.net/index.php in the upper right-hand corner. Please use this. Excessive problems with the stardate or location tags may result in a loss of XP.
Back-posting is when a player posts something that details events out of chronological order. Often this will happen because a player takes time off from the SiMM and figures he or she needs to post about what the character has been up to during the off-time.
This is a no-no. Part of taking a Leave of Absence (LOA) is that your character will not be involved with the events that take place during that time. Because of this, characters do not get the opportunity to go back and fill in the time. Simply find the correct stardate or mission time, figure out what your character might be doing at that time, and start from that point.
Posting is the name of the game here. It is the way in which we all tell the story of life aboard the ship. There are a number of ways in which posting is done...
Single Posts
This is basically one person writing about what their character is doing. They control their character and any NPCs they run into. Single posting is fine if you are moving your character from one place to another to perhaps do a post with someone else, or for single scenes. However, generally, single posts are frowned upon because there is little opportunity for other players to get involved.
TAG Posting
This is where a player starts a post, then signals, or "tags" another player where that player would be able to say or do something. This form of posting is frowned upon because of real-life schedules that may conflict...your TAG may not get answered for hours or perhaps DAYS...and in the meantime, not only do other people post, thus mucking up the chronology, but whatever you did to TAG the other person gets drawn out. For example:
'Where am I?' she thought silently as she stared blankly at the
currtains around her. She then reached over and picked something up
that looked like a pin of some sort, laying neatly on a pile of red
and black cloth. She threw it, in hopes of getting someone's
attention....
The above entry waited for DAYS as the player was away from the Net, and no one paid much attention to the post. Eventually, it was reposted back into the storyline, and another player picked up on it.
Joint Posts
Joint Posts are when more than one player collaborates on a post. Both names are put at the bottom of the post, and both players get credit for the post in terms of XP. There are two kinds of joint posts. The first is where two or three people get together, usually on an IM system of some sort, and they roleplay the scene. One member of this gathering then edits the post into a readable form and posts it to the Yahoo Group. The advantage here is that most of the time, these kinds of joint posts are arranged in advance, so that all of the participants can be there to get involved.
The second kind of joint post is one revolving around a major event in the storyline. Generally what happens in these cases is the GM sets up a plan to have a certain scene done at around a certain date. Please note that this may or may not go according to this plan. When the time for the event comes, or when a large number of players are located, the joint post may be run. More often than not, this is a spontaneous act, with not much in the way of planning beforehand. These sorts of conference joint posts usually result in a joint post with five or six people involved, it results in a message transcript that is very long, and it will take the person editing the transcript anywhere from several hours to DAYS to edit the post. These sorts of posts are really good for moving the storyline along, and they are terrific for creating sweeping and action-oriented posts. However, the down-side is that if you do not show up online when these joint posts are happening, your character will NOT be able to become involved. The GM can make some exceptions, but these are rare.
We will use "<" and ">" for thinking to one's
self, and "<<" and ">>" for telepathic conversation.
Players should use the third-person form of speech in their posts. For example, use:
Bolting up in his bed, Lieutenant Tanner instinctively reached for his phaser.
instead of:
Lieutenant Tanner bolts up in his bed. He reaches for his phaser.
Senik sat at his desk
running over the transporter logs. Star fleet had asked him for a
full analysis of the tycho effect. So far he had only these facts:
the tribble was in the pattern buffers, and the person that it switched
with had similar brain waves as the tribble, therefore providing a place
for the tribble's mind to go. The Captain and the XO were not
affected by the tribble because there brain waves where not
similar. He had also found out that there was only a
234,678,234.12341 percent chance of two living things to have similar
enough brain waves to switch places. As soon as he found out what
had happened in detail he would give a lecture to the transporter techs,
and any other interested officers. Right now he had to talk to Lt.
Tycho about what he remembered from the accident.
Then he might say
something, so it would follow with: To show tapping and
using a
commbadge, the =/\= symbol is often used.
ADMINISTRIVIA is a term I am bringing over from Vassilakos VTrek,
and it is used by the GM to make announcements of any sort. Usually
I will remind players that the XP has been posted by posting it as a
note to the Group, but also as an ADMINISTRIVIA inside a post by the
Captain.
RP SCENE is a term which states what is going on in the environment
around the players involved with that particular post. Basically, if
you see a "RP SCENE: Galley is still on fire", in a previous post,
you would not post a scene where your character walks into the
galley and orders a cold Romulan Ale as though nothing was out of
the ordinary. Likewise, if there is a "RP SCENE: Bridge hit -
CHECK", you should act as though your character is in some way
affected by whatever the effect would be where you are. The CHECK
means to check the Status Board (which I will be assembling and
adding to the site soon) to see what damage has been taken. If you
are in an area where damage has been taken, ROLEPLAY IT! This can
include anything up to and including your untimely demise.
Please make every effort to use
standard capitalization and punctuation. See, while I'm not going to punish anyone for bad
grammar, because that would not be fair to those who don't live in
the US, posts that do not use proper standard English will probably
be deleted, corrected, then reposted. See, I have this little
English teacher in my brain that can not resist correcting things...
This means capitalizing the first word of a sentence, proper
spelling, and capitalization of ranks, titles or names. It also
means knowing when NOT to capitalize something.
WARNING!
This can get you
a strike!!!! You
are not to change the actions of someone else's character by predating
your posts!!!
I.E.
If you are told to be somewhere by the captain and you really don't
want to be there, don't try predating your posts to get out of it. That
will mess up the posts. You CAN write a post that explains why your
character cannot remain where they are. For example if the doctor
wants you in the sickbay for a check up and posts you in the sickbay you
can continue the post by saying that the check up was done and you then
went somewhere else. There is always a way to move your
character. You just have to think a bit first!
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