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Beta Version: 0.1
Note: This was made to aid VuTalers on their path to glory. This is un-official, and so follow at your own risk.
Again, suggestions are welcome.
Some technical jargon out of the way first:
Vusys is the site’s owner and administrator. You may contact him via
PM.
If you haven’t already, visit the help page. It explains everything technical about VuTales including the rules, etc.The Unofficial Guide to VuTales
Technical
On every post, there’s a + symbol. Clicking on that gives you the following interface:PM | Edit | Quote | Permanent Link |
PM -> PM directly the person.
Edit -> Edits the comment
Quote -> directly quote the person
Permalink -> Show link extension (this isn’t quite fully working)Advice
Getting Started
Blogging on VuTales is not restricted to gaming, contrary to popular beliefs. VuTales is much like
WordPress, or Blogger, or can be even considered an extended version of FML.What does this mean?
It means that you can blog about virtually anything, as long as it’s clean of obscene material. 😉Do note that there are also
fan-fiction writers writers. For a “guide” on writing fan-fics, refer to here.To get started, you’ll need an account obviously, which I’m sure you already have. On the navigation headbar, there’s the
New Blog page, which will allow you to submit a blog. Choose a category, these can range from general to gaming to rants. What’s this QoTW that I keep hearing about?
QoTW stands for Question of The Week. It’s a question selected from this thread, that VuTalers can blog about and gain awards. The awards are stored in your VuTales ID. For example: David’s VuTales ID.More info:
HereOn Being a Blogger
Your blog is only limited by your passions — what do you have to say? Perhaps you want to share your insights on politics, gaming, freelancing, or being a college-bound student that’s under a lot of stress? Or do you just want to rant about something that’s been bugging you lately? It’s your choice.
There are a few things you should know about writing a blog, though. While there are examples of every conceivable style of writing on blogs across the Web, there are a few qualities which blog writing tends to share:
A good title and a good headline: A bizarre title like PIRATEBESECOND are attractive, but might not get the audience you want to reach out to. A headline is basically the first line of the blog that immediately catches the reader’s interest. You do NOT want to bore your audience in the first sentence. It’s short: Reading on the screen isn’t as enjoyable as reading on paper, so people tend to shy away from really long pieces. 2,000 words is long for a blog post; 1,000 words is a excellent goal; short pieces of 300 words or so are perfectly acceptable, as long as they are well written. For a quick word counter, check here. Paragraphs are shorter: Because you have to scroll a lot when reading on a screen, paragraphs tend to be shorter so a whole thought can fit in a browser window. Important points are highlighted: Online readers tend to skim through pieces, so web writers often put key points in bold type so their readers can easily pick out the crucial stuff. Bulleted lists are common: Bulleted lists are another way that skimmers are accommodated, making all the main points easily available. To do bullets, simply type [.*] without the dot. It contains links to other sites: Blogging tends to take advantage of the ability to link to toher work, either to offer up references (e.g. a link to a definition of a difficult word or concept on Wikipedia) or to continue conversations started elsewhere (e.g. a link to a post on another blog which you’re responding to). It’s conversational in tone: Blog writing tends to be a little more personal than most writing. What readers tend to respond to is the writer’s unique voice, their personality as expressed through their writing. That means you can use “I” and “you”, you can use slang, you can even swear if it fits your blog’s purpose.All of these “rules” are, of course, broken repeatedly.
Keeping it going
Once you’ve become a blogger, it’s time to assimilate yourself into the VuTales community.
Comment on other people’s blogs: Be an active part of the blogging community. People will see your comments and clock the link to find out more about you. Plus, you’ll make friends in your area of interest. Link to other blogs: When other bloggers see you’ve linked to them, they’ll check you out — and may link back to return the favor. Write great content: I’ve saved the most important thing for last. Nobody will read your blogs if you write poorly, or if it’s boring. You won’t feel motivated to write when nobody pays attention to you, because you’ll feel like nobody is reading you, and because you feel unsatisfied with the quality of the work. You don’t have to be Hemingway, but you do have to develop an authentic, engaging voice. Take Vicelin for example. Make use of the BBCode. BBCode makes your blog more lively, and you can put images and videos to emphasize your point.Making small talk
If you aren’t really satisfied with long blogs, try micro-blogging. Fragments are composed of short messages limited to 140 characters. Make use of it.
Never be discouraged.
Sometimes, it may seem that you had about at least 30 views. However, no one posts a comment, nothing.
Do not think that no one cares, they do, but if there is no action, keep on editing them to make them better!ArcImpulseI’s Guide to Peer Reviewing
This is mostly focused on people who read and comment on the multitude of stories that are popping up around here. Heck, some of you may even find it interesting and *gasp* helpful. Others of you, eh, Anyway, onward!
The main purpose of this guide is to hopefully help peer reviewers give more thoughtful and/or useful feedback to a story or writing. Now, when I used to write, I liked the “it r great!11 kep going!1!” as much as the next person. However, comments like this weren’t exactly helpful in finding out what I could improve in the story, such as style and structure. So, I ended up having to use trial and error, and that certainly isn’t fun when you have to use it over and over again. I know I definitely would have benefited from some informed peer reviewers like I had in my writing class last fall. Thus, my goal is to possibly help both writers and readers by taking some trial-and-error-strain off the writer and perhaps get the readers a bit more involved in the reading process. (Yay for college-sounding stuff. Stuff!)
Well, first off, you need a story (duh). Before you start reading the story, clear you mind of bias. You don’t want to include thoughts such as “this story is about a guy and a girl, so they have to fall in love” or other assumptions. Remember: each story is written by a different person, so there’s a really good chance they’re not going to have the same story assumptions as you. You want to try and keep your mind as free of bias as possible so you can include better feedback. Also, you may not want to believe it, but every original plot has been taken. All anyone can do now is take an old plot and rehash it with new ideas, characters, and other such things.
As you’re reading the story, take notes (on paper or in your head, either work). Look at how the style of the writing fits with the content. Also note how well the story seems to flow; typically, writers try to achieve as smooth a flow as possible. There are some really good exceptions, though (“The God of Small Things” is a story that comes to mind; the flow is intentionally choppy, yet stylistic). Make sure to mark continuity, spelling, and grammar errors. Marking problem spots helps the writer find them more quickly during later revisions.
I’ll get this out of the way first. Never, ever just say a story is good or bad. Say why you like or dislike the story. If you can’t find anything glaringly wrong in the story, just say “I really enjoyed this story.” or “I especially liked the part where (fill in the blank) or “I really like your style/sentence structure/word choice/etc.”
Make sure your review is structured. Sure, it’s easy to write ideas as they come to you, but it’s also harder to read that way. Perhaps try paragraphing your review, or separate it into sections with bolded headings. I personally like the format of:
Script said:
The Good
Good points, points that need little/no improvementThe Bad
Bad/distracting points, points that need improvingThe Main Issue
The point that needs the most workThis makes it easy to plug your thoughts into one of the categories.
When tackling the bad and main issues of a story (see quote above), make sure you include ways to fix the problems. “ur doin it rong!” really provides no help. Instead, try “I noticed quite a few fragments through the story. Make sure that each sentence is a complete thought (has a subject and a verb). Also, try combining sentences to help get rid of some of those fragments.”
Also, never say a story is stupid without good reason. Contrary to popular belief, just not liking the story is not a good reason. Most times, the writer put a lot of work into his or her story, and seeing someone flame it for a stupid reason (such as above) hurts. If you want to comment that you didn’t like the story, say why. That little extra effort helps immensely, and really makes everyone happier in the end.
One last point: please, please, please use some form of grammar in the review. You may have a well-thought-out review of the story, but if no one can understand your 13375p34k, no one will care. Also, is sounds really hypocritical to see someone criticizing someone’s grammar when they themselves can’t seem to use it. Remember to be polite, as well. No one likes a rude troll (well, almost no one).
So, if you’ve made it all the way through this (boring) guide, I salute you. Honestly, I really don’t expect this to make much (if any) impact on the reviewers here. Hey, at least I can say I tried. If you actually did find this helpful, I’m glad I could help in some way. If you thought it was a waste of time, well, I’m sorry, but I don’t give refunds. ~_^
Happy reading/reviewing!
IndigoLove’s Guide on becoming a Popular Writer
Have fun
You are not a professional writer. You are simply writing these blogs for the heck of it. Don’t stress :3 If you don’t have fun from merely writing something, then you’re taking this too seriously.Don’t Change
Be yourself, IN A SMART WAY. If you’re changing how you act, who you are, how, why, or what you write just to appeal to the masses, then. . . Don’t! I’d be personally disappointed if you did, and once again, you’re taking this too seriously.
Trust me, it’s easier and more fun to write what YOU WANT rather than what some random kids want.Don’t ask for attention
Don’t do anything rash to get attention. This guide is for getting POSITIVE attention, not negative. Following this guide will (hopefully) guide you to EARNING positive attention, while doing anything like ASKING for attention- be it begging, stalking, plagiarizing, flaming, et cetera, will result in NEGATIVE attention, which is of course bad.
DON’T DO IT! People who flame, are rude, make harsh comments, et cetera are NOT welcomed in VuTales. Please think before you do something stupid.About beggars
What about beggars?
It’s understood if you want your blog to be read, and a note here or there won’t help. However, don’t beg for things to be read. If you’re this desperate, once again, you are taking this too seriously, and I suggest you read on to more of the guide.
Think about it this way- In MS, when you deal with begging noobs. Sure, it’s okay to give a couple thousand mesos to someone who asks nicely, but. . . Well, society generally doesn’t like noobs who are obnoxious and feel that they will die without mesos.
Are you a begging noob when you post that forum complaining about how nobody’s read your stories?Stick out from the crowd
If you want to be noticed, then everything about you will have to be noticeable.Don’t be shy
Everyone is crazy.
That’s all.😀
Full Guide may be found here.FAQ
I’m having problems/bugs with the site. How do I tell Vusys? And how do I suggest new features?
First, check this thread for a list of known bugs. You can also suggest new features there.Does VuTales have a IRC? (Internet Relay-Chat)
Yes. Check out this thread and this thread if you’re having problems. Funniest quotes can be submitted here. We have a MSN group as well, simply click here.What’s with the HTTP password?
It’s for security reasons. Right now, it’s still in Pre-Beta, and is thus not available to the public. Username is VuTales, Password is imwithvusys. They are CAsEseNsiTive.How do I search for a blog?
Refer to here.How are we keeping track of updates?
Vusys’ Change Log.How do you pronounce Vusys?
Vusys is pronounced View-Siss.Got suggestions?
If you have suggestions for this guide, post. 🙂
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