Hi everyone,

I messaged horizon a couple of weeks ago about how this project is looking. As you know, life/health/2020 got in the way for both he and Aragon. To confirm what you probably suspected: while they still love the idea, this project is dead in the water and very likely won't ever be officially visited again.

The plan, as I understand it, was for each batch of entries posted to hint at and reveal a little more regarding Nightmare Moon and a cover-up by Celestia regarding everything that went down there. Making sure this was eked out bit by bit to unfold in just the right way would have required very careful planning and tight control, which was part of why all the entries were so closely coordinated by horizon and Aragon. Because this project stalled in its relatively early stages, and because the details of that overarching superplot would have become more explicit the more entries were released, not much actual written material exists relating to it at present as far as I'm aware. It might have been that that arc was actually the real story being told, underneath it all, and the reason for horizon and Aragon conceiving of this project in the first place. I am sad it won't see the light of day, as it sounded a fascinating but also fun way to tell a story.

However, some of the entries written for the first stage of releases do remain, if you haven't each deleted yours. I've had my own meagre 400-word contribution sitting on my hard drive for the last couple of years, completed and ready to go, and it seems a shame for it to expire that way.

So part of the reason I messaged horizon was to ask, as well as how the chances of resurrecting this thing looked, how he felt about publishing those entries that had been written as they were. The problem for publishing is that most entries fall under fimfiction's minimum word count, so my suggestion was to publish a compilation of what we had managed to get done, like a truncated version of the original plan.

horizon said to feel free to go ahead with pulling this together in some form, so, this is my question for you all: who would be interested in having their entries included in a compilation story to be published on fimfiction? Each entry would get its own chapter, with the author clearly indicated in the chapter title.

I wouldn't go writing anything new for this, or worrying too much about finishing entries left incomplete. This is just about getting the completed bits out there, so they have some fate more uplifting than lingering in a forgotten corner of your hard drive until eventually being deleted.

If anyone is interested in this, please comment below

I'm interested in my entry being included. This is a story that I've been wondering about off-and-on since the initial announcement and my submission to it. Interesting to hear about the plan for it, but sad to hear that that plan is now officially dead in the water.

Still, it would be cool to see what exists be published.

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Mmm, I already figured the project was resting in piece, and went ahead and published my own entry in a blog post.

I'd like to see how many say "yes, please" before committing.

I think I still have my entries floating around my harddrive somewhere. And while I might be interested, I do see a slight potential hiccup: haven't the site moderators lately (past year or so) been cracking down on the "each story can have no more than one author" rule? I think that even messed up a few big events. Do we have a plan to circumvent this?

7378298 Awesome, hopefully we'll be able to put something together!

7378300 Eeyup, can't blame you there, I'd probably be saying the same thing. Fingers crossed quite a few are interested.

7378312 Oh, that would be annoying. I will drop someone a line and double check.

Oh, neat. I never got the green light, but I'd love to check out what did.

I would be interested. I also wonder how the mods would complain about preferring these to be published separately when none of them are long enough to be. There are other ways around it, but I won't bother going through them until we know where we stand.

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As I recall, that rule had an exception for stories that had a fixed number of authors with all pieces written ahead of time. Did this change?

7378379 Awesome! I agree, the length issue makes it tricky. I messaged the mods a few hours ago, will let everyone know what I hear back as soon as I have an answer.

7378404 That would be a very handy exemption to have exist and be aware of, thanks for mentioning it.

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I think if that exception did exist, last year's Jinglemas would have fallen under it. Some authors didn't end up writing their prompts, so it may not be fixed in a very strict sense, but there would still be a maximum number of authors known who had signed up.

If there is a decent way to publish this I would be game.

Mine are still:

You've got my permission, assuming Horizon and Aragon give their okay.

I would absolutely be in on this. I worked very hard on that entry!

I'd love to be in this. My submission was pretty late, I don't think anyone got around to looking at it.

I'd be perfectly happy with my entry going up. It should still be on my google drive -- if you can't get to it for whatever reason, feel free to message me and let me know.

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I don't know that those authors are all still active or monitoring this group. It might be necessary to contact them directly and see if they want to be included still.

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Hi again! Sorry up front for using this message as a 'reply all' kind of thing, but it seemed the easiest way.

Ok, I've just heard back from the mods, I guess messages got missed over Thanksgiving or something. The exact wording of the most pertinent bit is:

Generally we discourage what you're describing, because it somehow almost always leads to drama even when all the participants swear up and down at the start that they're fine with it. But it's not outright banned or anything, at least if you actually had a hand in writing part of it.

So we are allowed to do it, and they'll be ok with it as long as we behave like adults. I find it hard to believe anyone here would agree for their entry to be uploaded to a profile other than their own and then kick up a fuss over it further down the line, but, I guess that's what everyone previously in this situation has thought too?

The remaining question, then, is where exactly we post this. While the entries are too short to be published as separate stories, we could all post them as blogs around the same time. But not nearly as many people will see them, there isn't such a neat way to show them all in one place, they pretty much disappear from view after a few more recent entries, and, I don't know, it just doesn't feel as published as something published here as an actual story. Likewise, we could put them all on the forums here, with a different thread for each entry, but then hardly anyone would see them at all.

So, to publish them as an actual story, they have to go on someone's account. I assume we're all ok with that, as the entries were written to be published on another's account in the first place? The options for that are:

• We start a new account just for publishing this story. This is what the mods called the fairest option, and I think it's the one least likely to cause any conflict. But the downside is that a new account will have no followers, so won't get as much exposure, either now or later. We could partly counter this by all promoting the story on our blogs. Again, not that many people read blogs, but hopefully enough of us will be doing it at once to attract a fair bit of notice.
• horizon or Aragon post this on their account. This is, at least in my mind, what the original plan was for the project, and it's those two who coordinated everything, so I imagine we'd all be ok with that? They also both have nice big follower counts, so lots of people should see it! The only downsides I can think of is if neither of them want to, since both are very busy, and this would take a bit of time to sort out. It might also be a constant reminder of a project that never got as far as they'd hoped.
• I'd be happy to publish it on my account, which horizon has okayed. Or, if anyone else would rather put their name forward, we can decide on who would be best.

What are everyones' thoughts on this? I messaged horizon again a week ago to say I'd posted this thread here, but he hasn't been on fimfiction since 18th November.

I would suggest, given the concerns the mods raise, that wherever we decide to publish it we also each post a reply to this thread along the lines of 'I consent to having my chapter posted on X profile,' which we can then screenshot.

7382914

So long as it's not for profit, I don't mind my work being part of an organized anthology (I got through Jinglemas perfectly fine). I promise I won't hypocritically scream bloody murder if this happens.

As for where to publish it, horizon or Aragon seems to make the most sense to me, as they were the makers of the project. Otherwise, my best candidate would be you. You certainly seem to know what you're doing just fine.

I've already published mine as a blog entry... but I won't object to giving it a second wind.

I don't mind my entries being posted under someone else's account. I'll probably post them in my minific anthology as well, but just as hot links to wherever they're hosted.

For the reasons you've laid out, my personal preferences in order would be:

1. Have horizon or Aragon post it on their account. Sure, they could see it as a reminder of something that fell through, but they could also see it as all the things they inspired other people to write. As long as it was all compiled and formatted ahead of time so that they only had to copy, paste, and publish, it'd be a minimal effort for them. If they don't want to, then maybe the contributor with the most followers, so it gets the most exposure? Or, failing that, just whatever contributor is willing to.

2. Create an account to post it, and have as many people as are willing signal boost it in blog posts.

3. Do it as a forum post here, also with people signal boosting it as much as possible.

In any case, I think the first chapter/post should be a copypaste of the group post horizon had originally made explaining the what and why of this effort.

I see that not many people have responded in this thread. It'd take a significant amount of work, but since all the idea pitches and approvals were handled in a group forum thread, it would be possible to track down everyone who contributed through that. It's probably the right thing to do to try contacting everyone who hasn't already responded, for two reasons. One, to give them the opportunity to opt out (I'm comfortable saying that if they don't respond or can't be contacted, it's fine to include their story, since their original intent would presumably have been to allow it). And two, to have as many of them as possible help out with the signal boosting, if it ends up being posted in the forum or on a new account.

Another feature, which will probably be too much work for any of the interested parties to take on, is that a number of the entries deliberately referenced other entries, with the idea being they'd have links to the appropriate chapters so you could wander through the story as more of a wiki walk than in order. I don't know how much of that actually happened (I did it in at least one of my entries), so I don't know how much work it'd ultimately take to make that happen.

I'm mostly going to echo what 7382917 and 7383041 have said -- I have no issue with my piece being placed within a longer anthology, regardless of which account that anthology is on, as long as credit is given in the appropriate chapter or whatever -- and I see no reason to assume that that won't be the case, so if you need a written proof of consent in case of shenanigans later consider this to be that.

My preference would be a single anthology story over blog entries, simply for visibility and because, as was said, blogs are not meant to be easily searched and become inaccessible pretty quickly. I would also prefer it to be hosted on one of the larger accounts simply because that will get it the most views. I'm willing to get with it being put on an account created specifically to host it, if that's what's felt best, but that wouldn't be my first choice.

Contacting everyone who hasn't responded here would also be important, of course, but I don't think that should be too difficult -- the old thread should be fairly useful for tracking people down, and I think the spreadsheet the stories were being sorted in also listed everyone by username?

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I consent to having my entry posted in any of those methods you suggested.

Whichever way you end up going, I think it would be a good idea for us to do a collective blog blitz when the story gets posted, to maximize its publicity.

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I also consent to having my entry posted via any of these options.

Posting them as an anthology story would seem best for accessibility's sake, rather than as a post here or as separate blogs. Horizon or Aragon posting that story would be ideal; if they're unwilling, then posting it on a new account or on forbloodysummer's would do just fine.

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I agree with what Pascoite said, in similar order of preference.

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I'd prefer to have one story with our entries over making separate blog posts. Among the options you listed for that I don't have preferences. Please feel free to use my entry wherever such a story might be published.

Ok, thanks for all the replies, it's good to know we're all on pretty much the same page. Having it hosted by horizon or Aragon sounds like everyones' ideal option, I've messaged horizon asking how he feels about that, I'll give him a few days to reply and then drop a line to Aragon if I haven't heard anything.

Will let you know how I get on!

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Righto, then. I think it might be a good idea to reply to us all en masse when that happens so we're aware of how this is progressing.

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I assume it ended up not happening.

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I kind of forgot! I did message back and forth with Aragon, but nothing really came after that. Is it something you're interested in resurrecting?