Rules and F.A.Q. About The Plothole

Gebohq · PostApr 18, 2019#12019-04-18T21:41+00:00

Rules for the Plothole

The Plothole strives to act as a home for amateur, collaborative, and inclusive storytelling where everyone feels welcome. In order to do this, expectations need to be set for the community to abide by to meet this goal. If you read them over and try to understand why they exist, I'm sure you'll agree with the fact that they're necessary. As part of the Plothole community, please comply with the following rules:

To foster a space for amateur storytellers, please refrain from unsolicited harsh criticisms, particularly on a technical level. When provided, criticisms should aim to be constructive.
To foster collaborative storytelling, please specify at the start of a story thread any expectations for writers, particularly if they differ from the standard, such as limits on the number of writers.
To foster an inclusive community, we will not tolerate personal attacks, insults, flames, or discrimination based on race, gender identification, creed, nationality, class, etc.
Please add disclaimers to either your thread or a given post if it contains graphic or otherwise adult content, language, imagery, etc. ("R-rated")
The Plothole welcomes storytellers who wish to promote their work outside the site. Please refrain from advertising more than once, however.
No obscene ("X-rated") material, regardless of content. This means pictures, sounds, animations, etc.

In general, please practice being a decent human being.

PostNov 24, 2019#22019-11-24T00:48+00:00

About the Plothole

Q. What is this site?
A: The Plothole aims to be the home for amateur, collaborative, and inclusive storytelling.

Storytelling: This can take the form of traditional written narratives, roleplaying games, visual narratives, and so on.
Amateur: The community supports stories told by people of all skill levels, especially those who consider themselves amateurs. Professionals are predictable, after all.
Collaborative: We tell stories together. There's typically no single author dictating how an entire story unfolds.
Inclusive: All types of stories can be told here, and all types of people can tell those stories, regardless of who you are.

Q: Who runs this crazy place?
A: As of the start of 2021, Al Ciao and the Britt are the administrators of The Plothole.

Q: Where did this whole idea of the site come from?
A: I've personally been involved in collaborative storytelling since about the summer of 1999, and I've been a part of many great stories and met many great people. I, Al Ciao, and the Britt thought was about time that a home on the internet specifically for this endeavor was made, and so the Plothole came about.

Q: How might I get involved in an existing story here?
A: A great place to start is with the featured story on The Plothole, The Never-ending Story Thread 3-D. The writing is very amateur (we embrace plotholes there), extremely collaborative (and improvising on the spot), and most definitely inclusive (just jump right in!). Trust us, it's not something you can mess up; we've tried and it only got better. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, you're more than free to post them on the NeS workshop.
For any other story on the Interactive Story Board, expectations that deviate from the norm should be spelled out in their first post, and if necessary, reach out to whomever started that story.

Q: What if I want to start my own story?
A: Great! Just spin it up in the Interactive Story Board. Please note any expectations you have if they are different from the norm on the site. For example, if other writers are expected to work out plot ideas with each other before posting them, or if you're only looking for a limited number of writers to collaborate for a given story.

Q: How else can I be a part of the community apart from storytelling?
A: As a reader, you can post ideas, thoughts, and requested feedback in threads like the NeS workshop or a new thread of your own about whatever it was you read. Stories such as The Never-ending Story 3-D could also use whatever help it can get for things such as its NeS wiki and providing artwork. The Plothole still needs a lot of love when it comes to its site and forums from a technical side of things, so any help that can be offered there is greatly appreciated as well.
Regardless of anything else, helping to spread the word about this site to grow the community is the most important thing any of us can do!

Feel free to post any other questions here about the Plothole in this thread!