Hello everyone! This is Cosmic posting some general guidelines on using the forums for this group. If you’re unsure whether or not that post or thread you are about to add is okay, just refer back here!

So, with that being said, here are the simple rules and regulations:

1) Don’t spam threads
Posting irrelevant information on a thread is deemed spam. We will ask you to remove your post or ask you to take it up on the threads made specifically for spamming. If you and another member start talking on a thread and it goes off topic, take it to the private messages or the spam threads. We won’t be upset if we see you move your conversation elsewhere (actually, we’ll be both impressed and grateful) and if you create a thread that shouldn't be there, have no fear, no one is looming over The Writer's Group with the ban hammer primed and ready! We'll ask you to move your post into the correct thread, and we'll take down the post!

1.1) Don’t spam threads.
Posting threads that have no purpose, such as “I was Bored so I made a thread” will be taken down without warning. This will not count against you and, again, no one is readying the ban hammer. Continued posting of irrelevant threads will not be taken lightly; however, we hope to resolve the issue without banning. Threads that also are specifically against the admins and moderators or other members here may result in harsher action.

2) We are not your personal blog
Regardless if it’s about My Little Pony or the Writer’s Group, if it’s a personal achievement it should stay on your blog, not ours! If the topic post (Original Post) reads like a blog post, it probably is. Advertising your story or someone elses is something you’d do in a blog post, so don’t do that either.

2.1) ”Has this idea been done before?”/ "Is this a good idea?" threads are not allowed.
They take up space and are useless. There are plenty of ways to see if an idea has been done or to research a story with a similar idea (the Fimfiction.net search bar is one and groups that may pertain to the topic is another) and after some heavy forum spam here, we’ve disallowed it until further notice.

3) Do not link people to malicious websites
If you are found doing this you will be kicked from the group immediately. We don’t care if you somehow perceive it as a joke; sending people to X-rated sites, virus infested webpages, and gut wrenching fetish-pages will not, under any circumstances, be tolerated. The last thing we want is one of our members hurting or scarring another; love and peace people!

4) Keep all threads Mlp:Fim and/or group related
This one is pretty simple to follow. If it doesn’t pertain to the show or the group in any way, it doesn't belong here!

4.1) If you are unsure if your thread is safe for posting, ask.
Sometimes the line gets fuzzy and we understand that. That wiggle room is there for a reason because sometimes exceptions need to be made. If you feel something you’re going to post may go against our rules and you have a valid reason why it should go up, come talk to us admins via PM. You can be sure we’ll listen and possibly allow it to be posted.

5) Listen to your Moderators and Admins
If a moderator (otherwise known on fimfiction as a contributor) asks you to cease something, then you better. The same, obviously, applies to Admins.
If you feel that an action has unfairly taken place against you from any one of any rank, please talk to an Admin about it through the private messaging system. Please do not argue about it on a thread!

6) No X-rated pictures and keep swearing to a dull roar
Let’s face it, pictures can be funny. Some with swearing are funny too (in fact, most that are funny have swearing… but I digress)! But the moment you post something with an exposed body part that should stay unexposed… well as the expression goes, “it’s no longer fun and games”. As for cursing, yeah you can swear, we honestly couldn’t care less (just please, don’t go overboard with it. We might dock it as spam then and upset Mr.Ty).

6.1) Swearing/ insulting other writers/users is not allowed
Even if we can tell that you meant to call that person an ass in a tone that was purposefully shown as sarcastic, we don’t want to see it. If they call themselves an ass, however, feel free to agree with them!

7) Give assistance, but do not seek it
Hey, there are some of us in this group that are charitable with their time and that’s something we’d like to encourage. If you would like to tell people in this group that your services are available, we’re absolutely fine with that. If you need assistance, please go to the groups that offer pre-readers and editors.

7.1) If you need help with an idea or pre-reading, please look for an appropriate thread or group first
We understand that you want help with your idea, but making a personal thread about it isn't the way to go. We've created threads for specific areas of assistance to avoid mass thread spamming. If that were to happen, then no one would be noticed! We do patrol our threads on a regular basis, so if you post, you will be noticed. If you're not helped within two to three days, then we're clearly not doing our jobs. Send an admin a message and we'll see what we can do to assist.

8)Please have clear and concise forum titles
As we gain more members, we gain more threads. We’re going to attempt to minimize inactive threads as much as possible and make sure important threads never disappear. Should you feel your topic title is too vague or you want to clarify what your thread is about one step further, please use a forum tag:

-Game:

-Discussion:

-Challenge:

-Guide:

8.1)Game:

Game threads are for fun and challenges. Go ahead and Roleplay, fight with numbers, or have a picture posting fight. Game threads are for multiple authors to get together and have fun.

8.2)Discussion:

Discussion threads are for ideas, plots, or group related things that require more than one person’s input. An example of a discussion thread would be “Jack of All Trades Vs. New Powers as the Plot Demands”. Typically, a compare and/or contrast is a discussion thread type, or one that tries to delve into a deep metaphor (from a kids’ show, no less) would be acceptable too.

8.3) Challenge:

You can give other authors in the group a challenge. The two types of challenges are Timed Challenges and Free-Think Challenges. Timed Challenges can be anything from writing an essay within the allotted time about a prompt, or having to solve a question/ series of questions. You can even have tests in Timed Challenges.

Free-Think Challenges are meant to poke at the author’s mind and make them think a little. These are not for offering prompts to make people write your story for you. Force them to use an upper-level vocabulary Mad-Libs, have them make sentences that makes another sentence when the words are reversed in order, question whether or not they’d really want to go to Equestria in a trade-off for something of equal or greater value.

8.4) Guide:

Threads solely designed to offer assistance to other authors/readers on a certain/ small range of topics.

8.5) Do not backseat moderate when a thread title is too vague.

If it's vague, please let them know but keep to the topic to avoid being penalized. You will receive two warnings and then a temporary ban followed by a permanent ban if broken after that.

9)Backrub moderators have your back:
Backrubbing is a legal and practiced sport in the TWG community. These are the leaders, first and foremost, of backrubbing. All those who find themselves aching in the vertebral column from hunching over their stories for too long, wildly reacting to people/internets, or contorting to hide their shame can seek their aid. They do, however, respond to moderators and Admins first and foremost. Wait your turn, please.

Cheers
~The Writer's Group Admins and Mods.

P.S. Should any issues arrive in the future, we may add amendments to keep the rules flexible so they do not intrude on your fun. If you would like to suggest rules or add specific amendments to a rule already shown, please post below or contact an Admin. If you do suggest a new rule, please give an explanation as to why you think it should be added. As much as I'd love rule:

Rule 10: CosmicAfro is best Admin.

There's no ethos to back it up.

Do you make these rules out of whim or are you talking to Tytyvm over 'em? Just curious.

293404
It literally went like this.

CA: Oh hey guys, we should probably post rules or something. I'll make a mock draft.

*30 minutes later*

Ca: ok here it is.
TYtyvm: *insert small amount of changes here*

*LE POST*

But a lot of thought had gone into this before hoof before I actually wrote this.

Bumping, oh and adding a perma post to the front page. HUZZAH!

295180
It's not actually a rule, so there's nothing to ignore.

TL;DR

304203
Cute. Take it to spam :3

7.1 has been added.

316081
Regarding rule seven, shouldn't there be something about not being rude or snotty towards other editors and pre-readers when providing service? Also, do not be rude to the person you are working for? Or is that too redundant?

316387
If they're being rude or snotty, I seriously doubt they'd pre-read for you. That's just common sense. I don't think it warrants a specific rule about it.

thanks for the rules, just joined the group

but i do have a question; do you allow M rated fics (not troll fics just M rated)?

390573
Anything allowed on the website is allowed in TW'sG... Though i'm not sure where we stand on clop material.

390573
You're allowed to post gore- and clop-fics in the writers group, but in the boards and events like the monthly challenge, you should restrict it to R-rated at worst. You can filter away mature fics if you dont like it after all, but you can't filter the forum posts, so it makes more sense to try and keep them suitable for everyone.

316479
Question:
Erotic fiction (Which is just about all I've written to-date) Allowed or not? If so, which category does it go in? Is there a specific one, or would it fall under a sub-category after that? I.E. Adventure, Comedy, etc?
Or is there another thread with rules on this I'm missing?

432046 If you read just a few posts above in the thread, you'll find a post by me explaining it:

You're allowed to post gore- and clop-fics in the writers group, but in the boards and events like the monthly challenge, you should restrict it to R-rated at worst. You can filter away mature fics if you dont like it after all, but you can't filter the forum posts, so it makes more sense to try and keep them suitable for everyone.

As for your second question, I assume it'd fall under Romance nine times out of ten, comedy if its closer to Ribaldry than erotica, and if neither of those categories apply, General is as good a place as any, I suppose.

432047
Hrm... I put one in gore, I suppose two would fall under adventure, and the last one...
O.O
I haven't the slightest. I wrote it almost solely on request basis...

1 minute, 31 seconds.

We understand that it may sound backwards that we only accept threads that give and do not seek, but chances are the people giving assistance are already in those groups and might be expanding their help to us. So placing a thread looking for help here would be redundant!

.... Forgive me if I appear ignorant here, but how would it be redundant?
First, let me explain my reasoning here.

How would this affect the group negatively? Unless there is an issue in the past that I am not aware of, I don't see how asking for assistance would impact this group negatively. I do understand the need to enforce the policies in place, but this one just baffles me as to why such an odd rule is in place. Yes, there is the other groups, but why not ask for that assistance here? Had there really been such a problem with stories spamming the thread to such a degree that a new policy had to be form to counteract it? If that is the case, then I suppose that could be consider reasonable. (Albeit very much a way to anger such a short fused individual such as myself, which I apologize for being rude in.)

Again, I respect the authority of the admin and moderators here, they have their reason for such and such, plus so and so. After all, it is THEIR group, so it is only natural for them to have others follow their established rules. It feels that this rule contradicts the goal of this group.

Like I said, some solace on this rule would be nice, if only to offer some clear explanation that properly justifies the rule

Now, forgive this young troper for being an intrusive, hostile prick. Just very irked and irritated at the oddity of this rule.

Ciao!

This

Oh god please don't ban me.

Advertising your story or someone else's is something you’d do in a blog post, so don’t do that either

Isn't that a contradiction as it says on the main page to promote ourselves

868679
Sorry, cleared up a little once again. If the topic post (original post) reads like a blog post. You can still advertise your story in the thread, but it should be done afterwards when discussing the actual topic at hand.

868788 okay glad that was cleared up

295180 This may break a rule, but I noticed your avatar and just had to say, "We meet again Samaru..."

Feel free to ignore this though, I did it on a whim.

Just to make sure I understood rule 8 completely 100%

Once I feel a question I've asked in a question topic has been answered to my satisfaction or 48 hours have passed since it's creation I delete it. Or ask an admin to delete it.

Does that sound correct?

916953
Wow, missed this question a while ago. My apologies. So many posters, it's hard to keep up with it all.

Yes, that is correct.

943579 No worries, I have been an admin on a forum before myself. I know how busy it can get. I'm glad I got the rules right

Are story challenges allowed? The rules seemed vague on that.

1015585
Much apologies for the late response. What do you mean by story challenges, just for clarification?

1016826 Err, well they could also be counted like story requests. You see, I have an idea for a story but I don't think I could pull it off. So I wanted to know if someone else might want to use my idea instead. But I wanted to make sure I wasn't breaking any of the forum rules before I posted it.

1017219
I would typically deem that as story promotion which is something you might do on a blog... which is something we don't allow here.

1018386 Hmm. I don't know if it would be story promotion since I want somebody else to write it instead of me, but I see what you mean. Thanks for letting me know.

Why are we not allowed to seek help, yet are asked to give it? Wouldnt it be easier if there was a thread for finding editors/proof-reader/grammar-nuts?

Temporary bump, just in case.

Legit rules.I respect that and I will follow them. Thank you

I'm new here and have some questions...

293383
Huh.
This isn't stickied.

2518566
Yo, what up?

2519007 hello, some people already helped me

2519010
Ah, okay.

Kind of getting irritated with people in this group. I'm almost inclined to leave.

If I need help coming up with a name for a fic, would that be ok to post a discussion thread for?

293383
Are threads like 'please can you help me think of a name' allowed?

-Lightning

3233138
Hrmm, it's technically asking, but we've had a few threads before so I'm not entirely sure. It's a simpler matter than asking for an editor or artists. With that in mind, I'd say yes.

3233362
Thanks! I've been having so much trouble trying to name my Elder Scrolls crossover.

-Lightning

293383
2519007
I find it funny that this still isn't stickied, even after Deluxe mentioned it sixteen weeks ago. And it's been around for 105 weeks.

So were not allowed to swear. Well I like that! Only since I just joined. :)

3470720 Just to clarify a little: Actually, you can swear here, but you just have to do it in moderation, and try not to swear at other people if they don't want you to swear at them.

3470857 Well at least that's okay.

3480472 Done.

293383 Rules are for faggots. I'd rather smoke weed.