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So yesterday, a 400 page fiction discussion thread was moved into Forum games with no explanation, leaving quite a few people sad, confused, and wondering if we’d done something wrong.
For context, it’s the “OOC Crusade of Fury” topic, where people discuss progression of the story.
Because CoF has multiple contributors, that thread is used to coordinate storytelling and comment on the pieces submitted. As a group we decided to try and keep discussion out of the CoF fiction thread as it makes it very hard to follow.
It's not without flaws - OOC has in the past veered of course, but currently is used for intended purpose.

In terms of disruption.. There are topics on the front page of the Fiction forum from June. We’re not pushing anything fresh off the page, or stopping people from seeing older work.

The post rate in OOC has also slowed to < 10 a day on busy days recently. There are many days it doesn’t get any posts at all.

There are several pieces of fiction in the OOC thread. Every contributor posted their introductions in there for feedback and editing. There are side scenes that never make the main cut. People run ideas past one another constantly.

If it's a matter of staying on topic, I don't feel this is being equally treated as other threads would be. If varied conversation was taking part in the main fiction thread, we would perhaps have received occasional “stay on topic” warnings, but it wouldn’t have been moved. Almost all discussion in OOC is currently about the actual fiction.

The OOC topic is also a tried and proven way of getting new contributors to join. About once a month someone will come and discuss and join. This is pretty unlikely to occur in an unrelated forum section, buried under the forum’s other most active series of threads.

So what I’m saying, is can we please have it back where it was, or some firm guidelines as to why discussion of Dakka fiction is isn’t and allowed in Dakka Fiction?
I'm going to stick my neck out here and say after 400 pages, and two of Dakka's largest works of collaborative fiction, we would like an answer. (Please)

if we please could avoid having multiple people pile in on this thread that'd be awesome. I'd have PMd this but we have no idea who moved the thread.

I've no idea what that thread was about, but I was told it was more of a 'forum game' than a work of fiction.

From my admittedly quick glance at a few posts/pages, it did appear to be more of a 'game' than a 'work of fiction' - though the lines are...blurry, I suppose...

So, what exactly is it?

EDIT2: nope I actually am right, it is a chat room so people can discuss what's going on in the actual work of fiction, Crusade of Fury, which is in the Dakka Fiction section; while they're out of their selected characters they can give input to the story and add sidenotes, comments and general discussion, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong Buttery (for the third time)

 Alpharius wrote:
I've no idea what that thread was about, but I was told it was more of a 'forum game' than a work of fiction.

From my admittedly quick glance at a few posts/pages, it did appear to be more of a 'game' than a 'work of fiction' - though the lines are...blurry, I suppose...

So, what exactly is it?

Apologies if I was unclear with my initial post.

CoF, Crusade of Fury, is a fiction with 5-15 people contributing at any given time, as a collaborative story. Think like Wildcards, but with less superpowers, and more 40k.
To write in it you need to work closely with the other writers, and negotiate, as it takes place within a shared world.
The OOC is a discussion of the CoF itself, because there is no discussion in the CoF thread. Because it has so many writers, the discussion is very long and kills the flow of the story whenever it happens.

There is a small element of "game" which is that is two writers want to do something in the story, a neutral writer allows both to pick a number and whichever is closest to the one the neutral writer picked, gets their way. It's a form of balance as opposed to first come first serve.

OOC basically allows for people to say "I'm going to write about going to this continent.." and such, because of the time writing takes.

Very well put, Buttery.

General Annoyance, if I may add onto on your point:

When the first CoF was created, there was no OOC. This killed the flow of the collaborative work of fiction, and we eventually set one up to discuss said fiction. The idea of Fiction is more integral to it than a Game of some kind. It's written about Fiction, and in many people's eyes, should be near the Fiction it was created for.

A point that was raised was that if the two threads are seperated, it's a lot harder to locate one or the other. In the CoF, we pride ourselves on being fairly open and willing to take on new users and encourage new ideas. If the CoF was seperated, it would be a lot harder for prospective new users to sign up.

But yes General - it is a chat room of sorts, dedicated to actual fiction. It is many things, but I would assign it closer to Fiction, that being what it was created for, than a Game. If a Mod could answer why:
1) It was moved now, 400 pages in.
2) Why Games was chosen, when the OOC has very little Game aspects
that would be appreciated.

I'd understand if a Mod asked for the discussions within to be more focused, seeing as sometimes we can be carried away, but at it a core, it exists as a place to discuss about the CoF Fiction, and welcome new users to it. Both would be harder to do in a seperated subforum which I and many others feel is unrelated to the ideal of the thread.

If you also look on page one.

That used by the gm to host maps, objectives, rule scaling and more besides.

It was a planning document as such for the main thread.

 jhe90 wrote:
If you also look on page one.

That used by the gm to host maps, objectives, rule scaling and more besides.

It was a planning document as such for the main thread.

Those were in place to create a more cohesive story. Can't have everyone writing about a different planet because we never made a map now, can we?

Sorry to bring this back up, but there's been no word in here for a bit. Is the OOC going to remain in the Forum Games section?

back in fiction.

apologies.

Thank you, my good man.

Thanks man, you're a star.

Cheers Reds8n, much appreciated!

But make sure it stays on topic, as much as possible, of course.

Will do, Alpharius.


And thanks for moving it back, it means a lot.

Definitely will endeavor to.