Posting and Etiquette Guide

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credit for this guide goes to the staff of GOTHAM; LOST!.
Permission has been granted by the staff of NWF for this to be posted.

Even if you've been RPing for a long time, sometimes it's good to have a little refresher. We're looking for high quality posts here at NWF; we want this place to be about fun, friendship and f*cking amazing storytelling.
So the STAFF of GOTHAM, LOST got together and worked out a guide for everybody, a little refresher course for old hands and help for newbies, to help you be the best you can be and write brilliant posts for us all to enjoy.
So without further ado, I give you;

The GL STAFF Guide To Good Posting

Part One; Before You Post

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1. Read through what the other person has written. Make sure you understand everything that's being said and know exactly what's going on. Take note of all their actions and speech - remember these are the things your character needs to react to.

2. If they've included their character's thoughts and feelings, read them but do your best to set them aside before you start writing. Consider how much of their internalization your character will actually know, particularly if they specifically state that their character is or isn't showing their emotions plainly.

3. If you prefer to let your character's reactions just happen as you type them, go ahead, but otherwise you might want to stop and think about it. Consider what your character is like, what they would be thinking and feeling in that situation, and make sure they react accordingly. Characterization is everything.

4. Never be afraid to message someone and work things out BEFORE you post. If you'd like to post something that might be slightly god-moding but don't want to break up the flow of your post, message the person you're posting with. It's perfectly okay to send a quick message saying "would my character have had time to do *action* without your character noticing?" or even "would you mind if I had my character notice that *action*", and much better than irritating or offending people by just doing it.[/blockquote][/justify][/blockquote][/size]

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Part Two: Writing Your Post

1. Take your time, don't rush it.

2. Make sure to stay in the character's head-space and do exactly what they would do in that situation. Would they fall for a ruse? Get irrationally angry? Misunderstand a joke? They might all be bad things but don't forget that sometimes people make mistakes, sometimes things are misinterpreted, your character does not have to be all-knowing and always right (in fact it's better when they aren't, at least some of the time).

3. Remember that IC=/=OOC, your character can do whatever they want and the other person should not get offended - and vise versa. If you don't like what somebody's posted, but your character wouldn't mind, you shouldn't mind.
(Also bear in mind that if you're going to do something or post about something that the other player may find personally offensive and/or upsetting, please clear it with them first, but more about this later)

4. Think very carefully about what your character would actually be able to do, and what their character would be able to do, it's easy enough to post that you snuck up on someone unaware without considering it god-moding, but it is. You're telling that character that they haven't been able to detect you. Consider their abilities as well as your own. For example, posting that you snuck up on Batman would be out of character, and leave Batman to have to explain why he hadn't detected someone.

5. Also consider the other player's wishes. If a player doesn't want their character to be unmasked, or for their secret identity to be known, it's not fair of you to know it. If it's logical that your character would have worked it out, message them to discuss it - however, consider whether or not they ever worked it out in the comics/cartoons. This is still storytelling, and for plot reasons we don't always want things revealed.

6. DO NOT FORGET THIS IS STORYTELLING, you're not just imparting information here, we're working together to create something, so remember this while you write. Consider and share your character's motivations, how they're thinking and feeling. Don't rush into things, let the story flow naturally. Take your time, and really think about the moment and how it would go; even the littlest action or detail can help paint the bigger picture of the scene.

7. Give the other character something to work with. Unless you're reaching the end of the thread, make sure you always give the other player a way to respond. This can be very difficult if you have a particularly terse or stand-offish character, but there's usually something you can do. Ensure that whatever your character does or says leaves room for a reaction. The term often used when describing this is 'Open Ended Actions or Questions.'; if your thread is primarily dialogue, make sure you're having a conversation. Ask probing questions. Make sure your character is saying things that the other character can respond to. The same can be said for threads based primarily on action; sure, a fight scene is fun and all, but not when it's over in two posts. Take it slow; react accordingly, give your partner(s) things to react to.

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Part Three: When You're Finished Writing

1. Brilliant. Now read it. Twice. Really I cannot stress this enough, re-read your posts and make sure they make sense. If you're unsure, try getting somebody else to read it, or going away for ten minutes and then coming back to it and seeing if it still makes sense. Make sure it flows properly and that you can understand what's going on.

2. Double check your spelling and grammar. It may help to write your posts in a word processor that has a spell-check, but make sure your post is fully legible and grammatically correct. Punctuate properly. We don't mind if you use a different color when your character speaks, but please, please, please, always put them in "quotations". Also, don't be afraid to use all kind of punctuation, if applicable.

3. Also please make sure you understand sentence flow; run on sentences can be annoying, as can sentences that are prematurely ended. { For example; 'Ace liked Frisbee. It was fun. Especially with Terry.' } Instead, be more descriptive, use adjectives. Don't be afraid to be detailed! The best performances / actors are the ones who not only can look like the character, but get down their mannerisms too- even if it's something as small as looking to the left as they lie, or that they bite their nails. { For example; 'To say Ace liked Frisbee would be an understatement; there was something about the way the green grass felt under his paws as they hit the ground hard, carrying his large frame across the field of the park. Overhead, the sky was blue, speckled with various white clouds, and to his delight, the red disc flew overhead too...' } Details, details, details!

4. Break up your paragraphs. Each time your character starts a new section of dialogue, hit enter twice to properly section off the paragraphs. So, do not leave them as walls of text, and do not overly space them out. Remember that generally five to seven sentences make up a paragraph. Based on this, space them out accordingly, please.

5. Put yourself in the other character's shoes for a moment and imagine how they might react, does it give them plenty to go on? Does it shoehorn them into anything? Imagine if you were receiving that post instead of writing it, as a player would you be happy with it?

6. Post it!

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Part Four: General Hints, Tips and Guidelines

1. Trigger warnings

. Some subjects can be quite delicate, make sure to check with your threading partner if there's anything they might find offensive, and post warnings on threads that may contain triggers (extreme violence, sexual violence, abuse, drugs, anything like that). If you find something upsetting or offensive, please message a mod and we will warn the person to be more cautious in future and use warnings for those subjects. If you are in a thread with someone and they find something you have posted upsetting or triggering, please find a way to change it.

2. Assumptive plots. If you have an idea for a really awesome storyline, it is generally best to discuss it with someone before you post with them. People don't like feeling pushed into things, and it can be very irritating if you're forced to go along with something just because you still behave in character even though it's something you don't want to happen. If you want a thread to go a certain way, it will be much easier for everybody if you discuss with your thread partner the best way to get that outcome. That way you can avoid disappointments if they say it would be out of character for them to do something. People should always be able to say (politely) "I'm sorry, I feel it would be ooc for me to do that, could we find a different way?" and you should never take offense at it. Characterization is very important, please don't ask people to compromise it.

3. Thoughts, motivation and emotion. Be very careful how you deal with what people have said in the description of their post. If a character is lying to yours with a straight face and you have no reason to believe they're lying, your character should believe what they have to say. People like to write about how their character is feeling and it makes that very difficult and annoying if another player has their character magically read into it.
It can be a very fine line, because some characters are very adept at reading body language or generally very observant, but just take care, think carefully about what your character can or can't do.
Similarly, not everybody can lie convincingly or hide their emotions with ease, so remember when writing that your character isn't always going to be able to hide what they're really thinking.
---As an addition to this, it's better to have an environment where people can write their motivations without having to worry about this, because if they start hiding them you get situations where they claim a character was lying several posts later, and we have no way of knowing if that was planned from the beginning or just pulled out of nowhere because things weren't going as planned.

5. Timing. NWF runs roughly to real time, give or take how long it takes for a thread to be complete of course, so just remember to be realistic about how long things take. Don't rush plot lines. Things like relationships, injuries, getting to know people, all of those things take time and they are a lot of fun to play out, so don't throw away all the good stuff just because you're in a hurry to get from point A to point B. In RPing, there's no point saying 'character a and character b have met, now they are in love, now they are married, now they are having a baby, the baby is born' because for a start that skips all the interesting in-between story, and it also throws everything off-kilter for the rest of the site.
Imagine if your friend had met somebody got married and had kids in the space of time it took you to go on one date with a girl you kind of like, or had got injured and recovered fully before you'd even finished a fight, you meet up with them again and you go 'wow, it's been ages, I've done all of these things' and they go 'it's only been two weeks, I've barely tied my shoes'.
Character development does take place at different paces, but not such radically different ones. It's like the tortoise and the hare, we're aiming to be the tortoise here.

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Part Five: Summary

1. ALWAYS STAY IN CHARACTER. Everything else comes much easier if you focus on your characterisation. What your character can and would do in any given situation. Character is what RPing is all about, so it's the most important thing to consider.

2. Be considerate of your fellow players. Make sure you consider them when you're posting, make sure they're getting just as much out of the experience as they're putting in. Make sure they can work with what you're giving them. We're telling a story, yes, but we're telling it together. We're a team.

3. Grammar, grammar, grammar. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, spacing, sentence structure, flow. All of this is so, so important. Just paying attention to a few simple writing rules can improve your posts a hundred fold, it makes them easier to read, easier to understand and all around better. Good English is important, boys and girls.

4. When in doubt; communicate. Never, ever be afraid to message or speak to anyone, whether it be mods or threading partners, to talk about what we're doing. Discuss plots, plan threads, share ideas. Talk to each other!

Here Ends The Lesson.
I hope you've enjoyed and/or learned something from our little guide. We look forward to seeing what you do with it.
Go forth and post!