What a shame..

Wow. Yesterday, only one story was submitted and approved. One story! Today, it's the same. I never thought the story section of TSR would be this deserted. Thoughts?

Could that be because a lot of young people have started school again and they submitted less stories?

Hello there, Rosaleena... my thoughts on this are one of two suspicions, other than the one Margo mentioned.

(1) Whoever works in editing/censoring on TSR works, ah, whenever he or she feels like it... ((I have had episodes pass inspection and go up at all times of day, from 1 to 5 days from submit or more, while very little went up at all on some of those wait days))

(2) Whoever works in editing/censoring in TSR holds stories back to keep them from --or to make sure that they DO-- compete for front page / feature... I swear, I have seen this too... one will go up and get featured, they post nothing else, next day a wave of five go up and one feature... I don't know, most of what I see makes no sense, but my last submission was held like 4 days and it seemed to me to be held to not compete with what else got featured in those days... dunno, I could be crazy on this idea, so I'm thinking my answer #1 is more likely.

But the suggestion of conspiracy in answer #2 is kinda fun.

I have had conversations with TSR over the ridiculous wait lengths - in fact one of the deciding factors for me to leave TSR was that two of my last three stories took 10 days to be posted. The reasonings I received were:

(a) The moderator works full time and gets to the stories when she can
(b) Whenever someone edits their story it needs to be re-read in full along with all new submissions, so some stories end up being read over and over while the new stuff gets missed
(c) If they want to feature a story and it is submitted on the same day as another story worthy of being featured, they will delay the approval process so that they can feature it.

.... *sigh* .... Stories and TSR... They brought it into the world, and somehow I feel they now wished they hadn't. They should really look into the story section and give it the same nurturing loving tender care they give their magazine, or the downloads... Or just get rid of it. I would have to find a new way to show the pictures in a united writers blog. Not a blog owned by just one person, because I think your personal blogs should contain your personal stories. Anyway... It is sad. One person is not enough. There are many volunteers who could help out and be very good for TSR and help them out in this area. This one person... cannot even reach her. I know I don't feel like reading all stories all the time, but there must be people who do. Bring a child into this world and you better take your responsibility and take good care of it. I also feel that today EVERYONE can just post a story... Let's talk about ambition. Ambition to write and create a story... not starting with..." oh well... I was really bored, and I don't know if I am going to finish this legacy, but here you are people... second chapter will be out if I get at least 100 views... DUH....." I will try again and when I am writing another story I will go for it at TSR. If it dies on me... (the story section)... well... I might just have to call on all the writer forces and start a new site... Sims 3 stories....... neh... don't really have the time.....wish I had....Frustrating it is....

Ugh, fred, their magazine. Don't remind me of that idea which was supposedly nabbed.

I agree with you totally, fred! What annoys me is that there is a lack of pride in peoples' stories now. Not necessary every single one, but quite a few people feel that they dont need to:
a) Add a title page
b) Write properly, and decide where captial letters are and are not needed
c) Check OVER their work, especially if they have not pre-written in a word processor

I'm not saying that mis-spelt words and the odd gramatical errors are awful, but it's like they don't care. Take this story for example;
http://www.thesimsresource.com/stories/details/title/a-true-story/category/sims3-documentaries/id/18762/

The whole story is in capital letters. There is no title page. I couldn't understand it.

I know that not all publishers have English as their first language, I do understand, but their is just a lack of effort here. I really don't mind if somebody doesn't have English as their first language, and they try hard, but can't get everything right, that's fine. I don't want perfection. English is a hard language, and it was my first language, so I can't really judge. But their are people who aren't English, who struggle with writing it, but make an effort. And for that, I admire them!

Oh, and as for a new Sims 2/3 story site.. I am in the process of creating one..

As a rule, if the first sentence of the story on TSR starts off as "I'll continue this if I get X readers and Y comments" I don't read any further. I find it quite insulting holding writing to ransom. They've obviously not doing it because they enjoy writing, they're doing it to build up their profile in the community or to get kudos.

Similarly if they start with "I don't know if I'll finish this or not". Good for them, but they won't be getting kudos from me - click to close.

You can set up a blog with multiple authors - I'm not sure if there is a limit to the number, but blogger does allow for it. It would be a simple matter of each person posting their chapters to the same blog and then just sorting the posts by using categories or the navigation pane down the side. I have already reserved a "Simmetry" blog so we could use that one if you guys wanted to give it a go.

Yeah, I set up a Joomla site on my domain so we could give that a go. It's so easy to use!! It's even got an intergrated user system. I've nearly got a story system like TSR's going..

I'm interested to know how that blog would look like Illandrya as well as Rosaleena's. Then choose which one suits better for storywriters. Anyway I doubt if we would be able to reach as many people as at TSR....

It's a different approach alltogether I think. Being an SA for TSR I will stay there and do my thing, I am a photographer for the Magazine too (LOL sorry Rosaleena... it is alot of fun) and I will continue post stories as long as it is possible. But I might want to make the switch and also post on a blog on a regular basis. We have Facebook to reach a lot of people, since I don't think TSR is going to approve of us linking to our new blog... But Facebook will be a good message carier I guess.

I understand you very well Fred. We mustn't forget that our first change to publish stories has been with TSR. Perhaps I see it wrong but I think if we would have a blog for different writers to publish their stories, it would be great if it would be here at Simmetry . I would continue writing some stories at TSR but if I know that a story would be for an older public than perhaps it would be an idea to publish it on a privat blog or here at a Simmetry blog.
I agree with Fred: We could use Facebook as well so that people get to know that we're here without making much noise. TADA...TADA...TADA....

Fred! Argh!!! You've fallen to the dark side.. haha joking

Well, Margo. People want story competitions, games, and more. If theres' a gap.. go for it. Like I am doing. Wouldn't it be good to have weekly storytelling competitions? Like 'create a story with these characters' or have themed stories (sci-fi, romance.etc).

Rosaleena wrote:

Well, Margo. People want story competitions, games, and more. If theres' a gap.. go for it. Like I am doing. Wouldn't it be good to have weekly storytelling competitions? Like 'create a story with these characters' or have themed stories (sci-fi, romance.etc).

That's not a bad idea Rosie but first of all you should have the people for that. I myself am not very fond of competitions because I feel there's much pressure. I just want to write my stories when I feel like it. Anyway, I know there are many people who like competitions and so on. You just go ahead and we will look afterwards what the result is.

martoele wrote:

I myself am not very fond of competitions because I feel there's much pressure. I just want to write my stories when I feel like it.

Meh, competitions are definitely NOT my thing. I agree with Margo - I just want to write my stories when I feel like it, how I feel like it, and about the things I want to write about.

In my experience competitions tend to bring quantity rather than quality. I would rather read through a couple of thoughtful, well-written stories than a multitude of stories that aren't very good and were written quickly to enter some competition.

That may sound pompous and snobbish, but it's just how I feel. I take my writing seriously, perhaps too seriously at times.

Okay, well, I shall post my end result soon!

About the story you linked to, Rosaleena...Did you look at that profile of lvrboy126 BTW? I loved Flatters'comment in his guestbook. The two screenshots he has in his gallery disturb me somehow... even his name... he seems like a bit troubled person...

fredbrenny wrote:

About the story you linked to, Rosaleena...Did you look at that profile of lvrboy126 BTW? I loved Flatters'comment in his guestbook. The two screenshots he has in his gallery disturb me somehow... even his name... he seems like a bit troubled person...

Yes Fred. I saw the guestbook of that person as well. It drew my attention because there were no dots between sentences. As for the screenshot.... I don't see any.... Am I missing something?

yes MArgo. He has 2 in his gallery

fredbrenny wrote:

yes MArgo. He has 2 in his gallery

(((Fred))), if he had a gallery he has deleted it because I can't find any.... O yes, sorry.... I went back again and then I saw that he has a gallery but on top so it was a bit hard to see.....
How ridiculous these shots. He really is nuts....!

Yeah, I looked at his page a couple of days ago. I didn't like his description.. it's so.. depressing?
Gonna look at the gallery now.

Edit: Ergh!!!! Omg...!!! Look at her breasts for crying out loud. That is NOT PG 13.. mind you, gallery pics aren't sent for approval, are they? lol
The vampire thing was, indeed, disturbing.

'Omg' about says it all where that er, author(?) is concerned... I knew exactly who you folks were talking about without going and looking at his/her minisite ((and at the moment, I don't plan to, not when I have Veronika Storm, The Drifter, the latest Gardener's Dream, and dozens of other slices of fabulous to catch up on !))... I think I read two of the earlier um, stories(?) from that guy and went ahhhh... no more of that. But in keeping with the 'is it PG13 or isn't it' theme, I remember thinking at the time "This passed submission? Guess I have nothing to worry about" lol... but as others have said, the censoring process is vague and probably contingent on the day and the mood of the one doing the censoring... if you 'read into' just about anything, you can come up with just about anything as crossing the imaginary line of 'inappropriate.' My first thought after reading that stuff was, "this is obviously written by someone closer to the actual age of needing PG13 censorship, and look here, TSR has proven they are young teenager friendly and allowed it through the submission process."

They don't monitor screenshots or blogs either ... just stories.

RatRaceRob wrote:

'Omg' about says it all where that er, author(?) is concerned... I knew exactly who you folks were talking about without going and looking at his/her minisite ((and at the moment, I don't plan to, not when I have Veronika Storm, The Drifter, the latest Gardener's Dream, and dozens of other slices of fabulous to catch up on !))... I think I read two of the earlier um, stories(?) from that guy and went ahhhh... no more of that. But in keeping with the 'is it PG13 or isn't it' theme, I remember thinking at the time "This passed submission? Guess I have nothing to worry about" lol... but as others have said, the censoring process is vague and probably contingent on the day and the mood of the one doing the censoring... if you 'read into' just about anything, you can come up with just about anything as crossing the imaginary line of 'inappropriate.' My first thought after reading that stuff was, "this is obviously written by someone closer to the actual age of needing PG13 censorship, and look here, TSR has proven they are young teenager friendly and allowed it through the submission process."

This lvrboy is in his 30's????

Hmmm... is that what he says, Fred?

*cleans whiskers, chews tail, thinks about it...*

Okay, I'm in my teens.

Margo did you find his gallery, it will be next to the index tab, the pod is missing but the tab is there. Odd, I have not read the story...hummm