Fanfic Rules, Links and 101

[mistysakura]

Fanfic’s Rules, Links and Newbie Center

Before anything else you should probably look at the General Rules here at TPM. They apply in the Fanfic Forum of course.

Rules

1) ANY topic related to writing (fiction or non-fiction) or the fanfic board and its members may be posted here. This includes non-pokemon fiction.

2) Contests, Chain Stories and awards topics must be approved by a moderator prior to posting.

3) All chapters of a fic go in the same topic.

4) Post your fic on TPM, not a link to it, unless you are unable to post the fic on TPM (smiley fics for example). You MAY link to other fics related to the one you are currently posting.

5) Do not flame (insult or mock) other posters. This includes so-called "MSTs," fanfics that are designed to mock other fics.

6) Do not spam (make completely pointless posts). The following are all spam :
-Posting only to advertise your fic
-Starting a fic topic only to say you'll post your fic later in the main forum
-Posting many minuscule fics at once.
-Bumping
-Posting very short (one or two lines of text) unhelpful, irrelevant, and substance-less replies
-Making a post just to announce a new chapter (then giving the chapter in a second post); this means that the first post of any new fic MUST contain the first instalment of that fic and not merely notes or an introduction.

7) No gratuitous or overly graphic sex scenes.

8) Above all, NO plagiarizing (that is, using another author's plotline, characters, settings, dialogue or narrative) without their express permission. This applies to all fanfics and original works posted either on TPM or any other website. The use of characters, settings and plotlines from commercialized or published works is permissible, naturally, as this is the essence of the Fanfiction Forum.

What Goes Where? A Short Version

Briefly put, this (main forum) is for:

1) The rules topic.
2) Fics currently being written and/or short stories that you are currently posting.

The writer's lounge is for any non-fiction topic that would have been legitimate under the old rules. This includes the awards topic, though they will be announced in the main forums. Feel free to talk to your heart's content (about fiction-writing-stuff) since it no longer steals first page room from the fics!

The completed Fanfiction archive is for you to post your completed fics ALL in one go now. Do not post one chapter a day. Post it all.

DO NOT REPLY to fanfics in the archive (other than to post new chapters). The goal of that forum will be simply for us mods to move your completed fics there a few days after they are completed (See the Stickied Topic in the Writers Lounge).

Links

Here are some Links you may find useful in your time in the Fanfic Main Forum:

Poetry Corner -
http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5322
Got just one little, limerick, or Haiku or poem? Then post here and reply to others K

Archive Move Request
http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=11820
Post here when you want your fic to be moved to the archive.

Searching for a Fic
http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=11819
Looking for an old fic? Post here and see if you can help or be helped.

Fanfic 101

So, you’re new to The Pokemasters Fanfic eh? Perhaps you should look at this little guide of what we are about and some general information that should help you with our Fanfic Board.


Well you’re probably wondering what a Fanfic is? Basically it is a piece of Fan written literature, or Fan Fiction, usually shortened to Fanfic or fic. Simple eh? Here we like more than just Pokemon Fanfics and like nearly every single piece of writing you may choose to post. Whether it be a Buffy Fanfic, an essay you thought was quite good or even a poem or short story, we like it all here.

The Pokemasters or TPM’s Fanfic Board has been around since almost the beginning of time, or the creation of the forums. Back when the TPM site was at full power you could submit fics which would then be displayed on the main site once rated by some individuals most of which are no longer around TPM (Damien Silverblade, PIDGEOTTOS and Mew_Ryuu among others).

However due to the ever increasing popularity of fics and size we now only have this Fanfic Board.

The forums of TPM also had some downtime where we had a brief but highly undesirable move to an EzBoard. *Shudders* It wasn’t bad, we just lost a lot of regulars, gained popups and a temperamental system. But we thankfully got our UBB or Vboard back. In June 2005, the boards old server closed down, so we moved to a temporary board, and then got relocated to our new server, where we are now.

Fanfic is moderated by four longtime members:

classy_cat18

Gavin Luper

mr_pikachu

PancaKe

Basically we make sure that everything goes in the right place, organize activities and contests and intervene in various situations. There are other longtime members around too and they know their stuff.

We here at Fanfic are very lucky to have three forums, and at one time we were the only forum on TPM that had Subforums. Now, however, several other forums have stolen our ingenious and groundbreaking ideas. In any case, apart from Fanfiction Main Forum, we have The Writers Lounge and the Completed Fanfiction Archive as well and more detail will be discussed later.

So um now I’ll go through and list some information you will need during your stay here. It’s a good read so get to it.

Fanfic Main Forum

Here you post any and all of your literature whether it be fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, Pokemon Fanfics, Daria Fanfics, Poems, Song-Fics or Short Stories, it all goes in the main forum Mmmkay.

Now the thing to remember is Watch Your Isms. Basically that means, you’re posting on a medium where many different people of all walks of life can access it. Except for those people in 3rd world countries! Hee! Sorry. So um.. be nice and courteous.

And if your fic ain’t getting stellar replies, don’t fret and go to people saying “I read your fic now read mine!"or “WHY AREN’T I GETTING ANY REPLIES!!!?" Remember that every fic has “Closet Readers", people who read but will never reply. There’s not much you can do about them.

And don’t go advertising in other people’s fics -_-; Its tacky and cheap and people will think of you desperately grabbing for attention. Not a good look.

Another thing to remember, always give more than a 1 line reply. Try to talk about why the chapter was good, your thoughts, feelings, predictions and such because getting a 1 line reply is almost as bad as getting no replies. Also try to help people by constructive criticism, be nice and helpful.

So try to read people’s fics as such and reply. Common Courtesy? I’m done here.

[Lady Vulpix]

I've just noticed something about one of the rules... namly the one that gives examples of SPAM.
"Posting very short (one or two lines of text) replies in a story."
That's not necessarily SPAM. Sometimes valuable comments take simply one or two lines. I think it would be SPAM if people stretched their comments with meaningless words to fit three lines or more.

[dratinihaunter13]

hehe, not sure that was really even bothering anybody, but i'll clarify it out of respect for you lady v . thanks for lookin out.

[Phoenixsong]

You know, there's something I've been wondering for a while now:

Fanfics go in the Fanfic forum. Artwork goes in the Fanart forum. Comics/manga count as art, and so they also go into the Fanart forum.

...But where would an illustrated story go? You know, a regular fanfic, only with either hyperlinks to the illustrations, attached illustrations or especially illustrations coded right into the main text of the story? Is that Fanart, Fanfiction, or could it legally be posted in either?

Just curious, 'cause I've been considering doing an illustrated fic for a while now. And even though I know my own procrastinating self well enough to be fairly certain I'll never get it done, I just figured I'd ask.

[Mewfour]

What's the violence/gore limit, if any? Not that it's stopped me before, but just asking as things in Legends of Alternica are about to get pretty bloody pretty quick.

[Andrew]

Just as long as it's not porn and you give prior warning, I don't see why not. It's not like we're actually SEEING gore.

Oh, and Phoenix Song, either works fine.

I also want props for writing this topic!

[mr_pikachu]

You know, there's something I've been wondering for a while now:

Fanfics go in the Fanfic forum. Artwork goes in the Fanart forum. Comics/manga count as art, and so they also go into the Fanart forum.

...But where would an illustrated story go? You know, a regular fanfic, only with either hyperlinks to the illustrations, attached illustrations or especially illustrations coded right into the main text of the story? Is that Fanart, Fanfiction, or could it legally be posted in either?

Just curious, 'cause I've been considering doing an illustrated fic for a while now. And even though I know my own procrastinating self well enough to be fairly certain I'll never get it done, I just figured I'd ask.

Good question. I'll admit I'm hardly a regular in Fanart; however, to clarify, such works are perfectly fine in Fanfic. We've had similar works here before, and I don't see why we can't have another. Feel free to post it!

Andrew's also right about your question, Mewfour. Just be sure to warn readers beforehand.

...And yes, Andrew created this topic when he was a mod of Fanfic. Three cheers for Oz, I s'pose. ^_^;

[mr_pikachu]

Hey, all. Just want to mention an addition to the rules, as agreed upon by us mods.

From now on, posting an "announcement" right before posting a new chapter is considered spamming. As an example...


---
I Are A Bad Writer @ 7:30 A.M. today

Hey, dudez! I wrote a new chapter! Reply or I will eat your eyeballs!!!11
---
I Are A Bad Writer @ 7:32 A.M. today

"Ultimate Tunder Zap Canon Bomm Picachu!!!" whispered Ash.

Picachu did it, and Magikrp died.

"Yay! I win!" said Ash.


Reply now!! Praise me praise me prase me!!!
---


So, yeah, don't make needless posts to announce new chapters. Double posts are fine, as long as there's some legitimate reason for them. For instance, if no one replies to a chapter before you finish the next one, you can feel free to make a new post for the new chapter. Also, if you tend to take a long time to write chapters (several months or so) and you need to make a post just to update your readers and let them know that you haven't quit, that's fine.

This new rule is effective immediately. Also, we'll be going around and merging announcement posts into the chapters they announced, although we won't be penalizing anyone for doing that in the past.



...Whew! Sorry for the long explanation. To make a long story short, don't spam in the future and you'll be fine. ^_^;;

[Mewfour]

I liked the part where Pikachu killed the Magikarp.

That was AWESOME.

[Blademaster]

Yeah, it was cool.

Even if it was totally unrealistic: everyone knows Pikachu can't stand up to the mighty Magikarp.

[Gavin Luper]

OK, just posting to clarify mr_pikachu's point regarding the new rule. Under the new spam definition, this means that the first post of any new fic MUST contain the first instalment of that fic and not merely notes or an introduction.

And Evil Mewf0ur, Blademaster and darktyranitar: your posts all count as spam, however well-humoured or informative they were supposed to be. I won't give out infractions this time, but consider this just an unofficial warning for all of you instead. I don't want to have to get all grumpy or whack you guys with my Mod Whacking Stick, so try not to make unnecessary posts, ok?

[mr_pikachu]

And to expound upon Gavin's point, that applies to new chapters as well. You don't need to make an extra post to announce that you'll be posting the next chapter in, say, five minutes. If you feel the need to say something before the chapter, then just do it in the same post as the chapter itself.

[Charles Legend]

Say here is a rather stupid question when the rules say "smiley fics" are you Referring to Erotic Fictional altogether or just the the Erotic Fiction with gratuitous or overly graphic sex scenes?

~Charles Legend

[mr_pikachu]

Uhh... neither. "Smiley fics" are fics that are written using... well, smileys. Like , for instance. Sometimes those can't be posted because there's a limit on the number of images per post, so we give a little leeway when forum limitations create problems.

If a fic can't be posted here because of adult content... well, it probably shouldn't be posted through a link, either.

[Phoenixsong]

Neither, if I understand correctly. A smiley fic is similar to a script format story (i.e.:

Dan: Hi, Suzie.

Suzie: Hi, Dan. *smacks Dan upside the head*

Dan: What was that for?!)

but with smilies, usually Pokémon sprites in this context, instead of names. Smiley fics used to be very popular in Fanfic years ago, back when the Pokémon sprites were actually smilies and could be entered in using bbcode (such as :suicune: producing the Suicune sprite). However, this was also in the days before the image limit in posts; when the image limit was reduced to 8/10/whatever it was/is, smiley fics were no longer practical; it's hard to tell a story in only eight lines, after all. As such, they gradually fell out of fashion. A few people still wanted to continue, and so they set up offsite webpages to host their smiley fics instead. In that context, where posting the smiley fic itself on TPM doesn't work because of the image limit, linking to an offsite fanfic is allowed.

And, with that little history lesson over, I have to say that I've never heard of erotic fiction being called "smiley". D'what? D:

...Besides, if erotic fiction was allowable in Fanfic (which, for the most part, it's not), why wouldn't you just be able to post it directly but include a warning? Why would linking to it make it any more or less allowable under the rules?

I hope that answers your question.

EDIT: Dammit, Brian beat me to it because he can actually get his point across in less than a novel. Grr.

[Charles Legend]

thanks Brian and Phoenixsong, I guess were I got confused was that the really in death Erotic Fiction with gratuitous or overly graphic sex scenes are like written porn...

well see the thing is the Erotic Fiction part of my fic is seen yet not hevily tuched on and for the most part I was planing on using it both to show a some what deep relationship between Charles and Chaloch, and yet I am also plaing to have Andrew's Psychopathic jinx evolve in to a harpy and try to rasies an army Harpies to hunt down men and eat them then throw them up as women.

I would think it would make more since to have an Army of Psychopathic Harpies try to take over the world with girl power so that women can rule the world, then have like say the Greys invade Earth and factory farm humans both for sexual pleasure and as a food source...

So yeah I know I have some truly bizarre Ideas being a guy and all and writing about women to take over the world...

~Charles Legend

[Houndoom_Lover]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd read that! ^-^ *drinking apple juice from a carton*

You know, someone should go about and make a fanfiction rating system for the site. I mean, it's not nessisary, but it be kinda cool. It would have crazy abbvirvations, like; May contain MPG (Mass Pokemon Gore)!! ^.^

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Hm, if you aren't getting any replies, how is it with double-posting, triple-posting, and so on, I mean to add new chapters. I am very much afraid that I don't get any replies at all so I must perhaps post 2 chapters again, then post 2 more chapters a little later in a new post and so on. Can you keep up with me what I mean or is it my bad English?

[mr_pikachu]

If you're forced into double-posting your updates just because you haven't gotten any replies between chapters, that's fine. We don't force people to wait for a reply before they're allowed to post another update. The same does for triple-posting, quadruple-posting, and so on... I've seen fics with eight or so chapters in a row just because nobody replied at the time. So don't worry about it. We're reasonable when it comes to such things. ^_^

[Orange_Flaaffy]

Just a question, are you allowed to post in reply to a review or does that reply have to be only when you post another chapter?

[mr_pikachu]

Yes, it's perfectly okay to reply to a post in your fic before posting another chapter. (Some of us take months to write each new chapter, so it often becomes very necessary.) ^_^

[Orange_Flaaffy]

Yes, it's perfectly okay to reply to a post in your fic before posting another chapter. (Some of us take months to write each new chapter, so it often becomes very necessary.) ^_^

That would be me ! I take months to write a chapter..if I can write two or three a year I am lucky

[Blademaster]

You and me both, sister. Probably why so much of Fanfic hates me. :'(

[Shuppet Master]

Actually, Dark Sage replies to his reviewers to explani things in his stories even when he hasn't posted a chapter yet.

So, yes, you can put a message in your thread if you want, it doesn't have to update your story.

[mistysakura]

Aww, Fanfic doesn't hate you, Blademaster! In reply to the question, there aren't rules as to when you can reply to stuff in this forum; that applies to both writers and readers. It's even okay to have a bit of a chat in a fic topic as long as it isn't spam. Basically, as long as you aren't double-posting, it's all good. Welcome!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

8) Above all, NO plagiarizing (that is, using another author's plotline, characters, settings, dialogue or narrative) without their express permission. This applies to all fanfics and original works posted either on TPM or any other website. The use of characters, settings and plotlines from commercialized or published works is permissible, naturally, as this is the essence of the Fanfiction Forum.

I have thought about this for a some time, what if someone wants to do a parody fic which makes fun of another member's fic? Is that acceptable?

[mr_pikachu]

How would the "parody" work? People have used the characters, settings, plot devices and so forth of other fanficcers countless times (with permission from the original author, of course). That's perfectly fine. We've had some issues with other forms of parody, though, especially those that were especially critical of the original (such as MST fics).

As long as you're not flaming the original work, it's usually okay - with permission - but if you're using your piece simply to say "this fic sucks!" then it could be a problem. I and the other mods would likely have to discuss anything on that end of the criticism spectrum.

[mr_pikachu]

Hi, everyone. I just want to note that we've made a change to the flaming rule to include MST fics, as referenced in the last two posts in this thread. (If you need a more complete definition of "MST," consult Wikipedia.) MSTing goes against the welcoming nature that we try to bring to Fanfic. After all, many of the brightest writers here had glaringly flawed prose when they first joined, but they kept trying, largely thanks to the supportive community here.

It should also be noted that MSTs are somewhat plagiaristic, as much of the material in the derisive fanfic is not one's own work. As such, an MST technically breaks two existing rules. We're just adding it to the flaming definition to make it very clear that they're against the rules.

We actually made this decision well over a year ago, but for whatever reason it was never formally added to the rules at that time. Anyway, I'm just letting you know that it's official now.

[Houndoom_Lover]

We should make a slight exception for gift giving time and whatnot. Mistysakura surprised me with a wonderful tale that would have never came to be nor been a surprise if she asked for my permission...

Not really the same thing as an MST but it should be clearified, no?