Comedy Discussion and Planning Topic

[25K Now!]

General consensus appears to be mostly in agreement, but still, nothing's really happened.

 

Which is expected. Merging three largish forums isn't something done willy-nilly.

[Phovos]

I was surprised to come back here after a 3 month haitus to find that my only remaining comedy was on the second page and not the fifteenth. I wondered whether maybe the staff would just archive these forums and create a new generic stories forum, simply adding tags and moving threads that are still active.

[25K Now!]

The Library forums are pretty inactive these days, really.

[Voltex]

The Library forums are pretty inactive these days, really.

 

Epics has been rather active within the past month, I feel, but not nearly to the extent that it once was.

[fishers64]

I'd rather wait and see if things will pick up.

[MetaStriker]

My last comedy I posted in, only seven months back, is only on the third page. Wow.\

 

fishers: I wouldn't get your hopes up, unless one of us oldies comes back (and even then, L011 is regularly posting and things still aren't back to normal.) Perhaps with BIONICLE's return a new influx of content could show, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

Phovos: seconded.

 

-SS16

[25K Now!]

Unless we end up with the horrible dearth of terrible quality that once plagued Comedies.

 

That would be bad.

[ShadowBionics]

My last comedy I posted in, only seven months back, is only on the third page. Wow.\

 

fishers: I wouldn't get your hopes up, unless one of us oldies comes back (and even then, L011 is regularly posting and things still aren't back to normal.) Perhaps with BIONICLE's return a new influx of content could show, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

Phovos: seconded.

 

-SS16

 

 

"I... still function..."

 

 

Okay, yes I admit I'm a terrible writer. And before anyone asks, yes I was a writer. You might not remember very much of me. From 2006-2010 I was a decent one until Bionicle ended and people chased me out of the comedy forums. And BZPower in general. I guess I'm an old has-been and most people don't remember me. Also considering most of my friends from the old days are gone, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

 

Wow, I've missed out on a lot of stuff. I guess going back to what I mentioned about Bionicle ending, a lot of people sort of left and lost interest in the story altogether. Heck, puffie40, the guy who made the very first "Ask Tahu!" comedy is apparently out there talking about how much he hates the story and the toys (either him or someone who stole his name). We've lost a lot of good writers from here, including a few who even inspired me to join and become a writer on here. So without them and so many others it seems as though things have been empty. And since there hasn't been too much activity with Bionicle as a whole, can't say it's a huge shocker. Without any happenings in the Bionicle universe, there might not be so many people online to talk about and discuss like there used to be. Everyone sort of drifted off once things quieted down. But with the new Bionicle G2 on the way, there's a good chance we might see new life coming into the forums once again with new fans and to that extent, new members wanting to talk/discuss the happenings in Bionicle.

 

And while they're here, they might look through the forums. Oh, hey, cool, a library forum. Maybe there's some cool fan-fics to read. Oh, wow, lookit that. Epics and comedy with some short stories to boot? Wow. At least, that's kind of how I ended up here. Discovered BZP, looked into the forums, saw people talking about Bionicle, took a small look around the forums, saw the library forums, and fell in love with a number of fan-fics and short stories to the point I wanted to contribute to said forums. Granted depending on who you ask they might tell you I contributed bad fan-fics, good fan-fics or become confused and ask you "who is ShadowBionics?" But the point is, in time with this new Bionicle, we might get new life into the forums. Time will tell.

 

I'm still shaky about the idea of joining the whole library forum together, in the sense of mixing things together. Call me compulsive, but I just like the organization of the stories on here. If I want to look for more serious works, I know where to go. If I'm in the mood for humor, I know which place to check out. Maybe I'm not fully understanding the situation and how it's going to work in putting it all together into one super-forum, but that's just my thought. 

 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to my Kellum-like state of being not noticed by anyone.

[Lewa0111 Nuva]

Hi everyone, thought I'd chime in on all of this. Most of you probably know who I am, but for those who don't, I've been around BZP since early '06 and have been writing comedies almost as long, with some interruptions here and there (real life does that to ya ). I will be the first to say that the Comedies forum has definitely been declining in popularity lately.

 

Still, I don't necessarily think combining the Library forums into one is the best idea, especially now with BIONICLE on its way to a return. I've dabbled in the Epics and Short Story forums before, and they have a very different "feel" to them (not just the stories themselves, but the reviews, the formatting, the community, all of it) than the Comedies Forum had even at its peak. I get the feeling a lot of comedies would be faced with flaming and general complaints when the solid Epicsgoers (that's a word because I said so, ha!) start seeing these less serious works cropping up. A lot of things we take for granted here in the Comedies forum may not be so well-received elsewhere.

 

I do hope to see a resurgence in the Comedies forum soon, though, especially with BIONICLE's return (one of the biggest factors behind my own return, in fact!) Better promotion for our own and others' comedies could also help, such as with quotes, banners, etc. in signatures and blogs. Future Comedies Contests would also help in this area. But of course, that's up to the moderators!

 

Lewa0111 Nuva

 

P.S. Another thing about combining the forums--reviewing style. The Epics forum uses separate topics for the stories themselves and for the reviews, while the SS and Comedies forums do not. That would just be another complication to deal with.

[MetaStriker]

ShadowBionics...no..stop..you're cool (please do a Smash 4 parody)

 

Regardless, agreed with your statement about G2 hope. But if anything, if we want to keep humor and seriousness separate, maybe we should ask SS to consider merging with either Epics or us. I'm not sure though.

 

L011: Perhaps we should introduce review topics too, then. There's several ways to loop around said complications. We'll see, though. Perhaps we should ask a moderator on what they think should happen.

 

~SS16 

[Lewa0111 Nuva]

The problem with introducing review topics here is that Short Stories also does not use review topics, and having a review topic for a one-post short story (and one-post Comedies, for that matter) makes very little sense. Not to mention that if we DID introduce review topics here, when the forums are merged the moderators would have to go through and edit every single existing Comedy topic to move the reviews out into a review topic. Can't imagine too many of the mods would be keen on a project like that...

 

Lewa0111 Nuva

[ShadowBionics]

So then pretty much, it would be an utter nightmare to organize every post, topic, and review topic. And then as Lewa0111 pointed out, it'd be almost redundant for one-shot comedies and short stories. And considering how many comedies exist that already have mixed posts together from author and readers alike, that sort of complicates things. 

 

Time will tell if this rebirth of Bionicle might bring in new members and interest. I hadn't been with BionicleZone or KanohiPower since they began but I've been around for a pretty long time after the merge to BZPower to at the least to see the growth from 2003 to when I did finally decide to join, and then after. I'm not saying it'll be overnight "BOOM BABY!" kind of growth, but it'll happen gradually. I hope. I can't speak for the future since it hasn't happened yet, but it's just an idea. There's always going to be new fans of the series and with that in mind, there'll always be places for those fans to gather and speak about their common interest. I actually met this young lady who just got into the story a little over a year ago. She's a pretty amazing artist who has grown to love a lot of the characters. Granted, she never got to actually own the sets but she loved the story and she's equally as happy as the rest of us to know it's finally back. 

 

I guess that's another thing to probably consider. Make sure that for these new fans, maybe make them feel welcome and they'll feel comfortable to share their artistic talents, whether it be visual art or written art. Admittedly, when I first joined, while I wanted to put out my ideas, I was nervous to do so. I was even nervous to actually join at first (I was a very weird 11/12 yr old, put it that way). Took me a while to feel comfortable and confident enough to actually get out there and write. Compared to how I wrote in 2006, I'd like to think I've gotten better. And then I did have a lot of people to give me constructive criticism on what to do and what not to. And then there was Schizo Kaita to point out the rules and guidelines to me and expand on some of their main points. I did get a lot of posts from him, especially when I didn't follow the 300 word rule... 

 

Point is, maybe once these new members feel comfortable enough and know what BZP is really all about, then they might jump in and share their talents with us. Maybe someday we might even have the next Bionicle Guru or ToaNuva007 or GaliGee on our hands... or maybe not, but seriously maybe someday we could get to see new and great stories from new minds.

 

 

(Also, I wouldn't know how to go about a SM4SH parody, I did try a Brawl parody way back when ,and it didn't work too well, but I'm definitely open to ideas)

[Voltex]

Several of you are misunderstanding the merger idea. The proposal was not to merge everything into one library forum; the proposal was to merge it into two. The longer comedies would shift over to Epics, the oneshots over to Short Stories, and the comedy forum would therefore cease to exist, since the genre would then be just like any other genre within the other two library forums.

[Lewa0111 Nuva]

Several of you are misunderstanding the merger idea. The proposal was not to merge everything into one library forum; the proposal was to merge it into two. The longer comedies would shift over to Epics, the oneshots over to Short Stories, and the comedy forum would therefore cease to exist, since the genre would then be just like any other genre within the other two library forums.

 

Okay, this does make slightly more sense. The only issues I have would be these two: 1) Review topics for the longer comedies. How difficult or easy would it be for the mods to go through every multipart comedy and separate out the reviews into a new topic? 2) The aforementioned different style Comedies have compared to Epics and SS and the potential for flaming and unfair criticism from regular Epicsgoers who are not accustomed to the feel of the Comedies forum. The first issue is probably a bigger concern than the second, but both should be considered.

 

Lewa0111 Nuva

[ShadowBionics]

okay, well that makes more sense then. From the sound of things I thought everyone meant to merge it all into one whole library forum. 

 

Either way, I still have my own doubts about it as I mentioned before (with the exceptions of when I thought short stories and epics would be thrown in as one). While one-shot comedies could probably work in the short stories forum (I've never really seen a humorous short story ever posted), I'd still be unsure about mixing comedies and epics together.

 

With that said, I think if that were to happen, perhaps a change of name and venue would be in order. For so long, epics referred to longer stories (versus the short stories) with more action and serious tone (versus the humorous tones of the comedy forum), or at least that was more or less how I went telling them apart. So in other words, it wouldn't really be "epics" anymore once you introduce the comedies to the mix. At least, it wouldn't be the same. And then as Lewa0111 pointed out, then there'd be the rule of having the review topics and main stories separate that could very well hold up things. 

 

Those are just my personal thoughts, so not like anyone needs to agree or disagree with me. 

[GSR]

Okay, this does make slightly more sense. The only issues I have would be these two: 1) Review topics for the longer comedies. How difficult or easy would it be for the mods to go through every multipart comedy and separate out the reviews into a new topic? 2) The aforementioned different style Comedies have compared to Epics and SS and the potential for flaming and unfair criticism from regular Epicsgoers who are not accustomed to the feel of the Comedies forum. The first issue is probably a bigger concern than the second, but both should be considered.

 

Lewa0111 Nuva

To respond to these points:

 

1. Most likely, we would not split existing topics into story/review ones, simply because - as you noted - that would take a very long time. (Indeed, just dividing old stories into epics/short stories is enough of a task.)

 

2. Flaming, as always, would not be permitted. That said, comedies generally do have a different style to them than the usual epics fare, so you're right that it could lead to friction with existing epics-goers. That said, given 2015 is just kicking off, and that the library is only starting to come out of a period of extended low activity, new members without pre-existing notions of what epics is "supposed" to be like would probably help alleviate the issue.

[MetaStriker]

Oh...now that you mention that idea it's an even better plan (epicomedies do exist, after all.)

 

I agree with GSR, it can work, but it'd have to happen pretty quickly, and that likely won't happen. Sigh.

 

We'll figure it out, I guess.

 

~SS16

[Ghidora131]

From what I randomly just read, someone somewhere proposed the idea to split up the comedies forum and place the remainder into two sections, the shorter and the longer, into the Epics and short stories categories.

 

This would not work.

 

For one, it may compact space for the Mods running the site, but Epics are Epics. Comedies are Comedies. If you have a funny epic, it becomes a comedy. It isn't an Epic anymore. I know because a while ago, I tried it. My epic was deemed too funny and shut down because I wouldn't have it moved. And an Epicomedy I have is The supposed quest for the mask of hype. It's been predetermined to get incredibly in-depth, adding in a huge storyline with comedy holding it all together. And it's a Comedy. I would never refer to it as an epic off the bat. So the connection fails there, at the most important point.

 

The second thing is the fact that the users are used to it being this way. I haven't seen any ranting about how the comedies are terrible and the whole thing should just die, even in the lightest sense. Only once have I seen that, and it was by Tyler durden (GSR, you may remember that). Anyhow, The comedies forum exists for comedies, and not tampered with, we've seen some really great ones on here. Is it worth the risk to try and tear it in two(literally), hoping if you glue the halves as far apart as possible it'll all work out?

[25K Now!]

The difference between an "Epic" and a multi-chapter "Comedy" can be pretty arbitrary really.

 

I mean yeah you can have your serious stories that rarely stray from that tone which you would definitely put in Epics, and then you have your satires and crackfics which can't really be found outside of Comedies, but what about everything inbetween? I've seen stories that are amusing, off-kilter and generally comedic, but always have a serious undertone, strong character development and in general ... what's the word; solidity? to them. Do you put them in Comedies or Epics? Is it as many refer them as, an Epicomedy? Who knows? But that's exactly the problem. Someone might lean towards it being in Comedies, but it's still legitimately a contender for an Epic.

 

Take the Discworld series for example (RIP Terry Pratchett); they're off-kilter and absurdist at times, but they're serious. They take themselves somewhat seriously. Thud! for example, is a story about racism, political conspiracies and murder. But it's got a lot of moments of humour in it, as expected of a Discworld novel. Would you put in Epics or Comedies? It can be both.

 

The majority of stories will have humour in them. Unless it's an overly absurd piece (one of those old Ask Comedies of the "good old days" [blatant lies], or TBTTRAH in its early years before it went serious and into the realm of "Epicomedy"), or Ulysses, they can't be constrained to one or the other very well.

 

By keeping Comedies and Epics together, it's unhealthy. It divides the Library into "Plot" vs "Laughs". I want both. I want to read a story that I can laugh at but still take seriously. People who want to write something with plot go straight to Epics. People who want to write "laughs" go straight to Comedies, which is the reason why this place is actually pretty lacklustre in terms of writing quality (not to mention humour quality) and holds a rep of being absolutely terrible. Which is also emblematic of the unhealthy division.

 

Epics/Comedies is an artificial constraint on writing here on BZP (how many people will continue to ask themselves: "is this too funny/too serious for Epics/Comedies?"). So I'm definitely pleased to see the Staff are going through will the Library Merger sometime in the future.

 

Which is noted here.

[Voltex]

Yes, I was very happy to see that the Library is being merged. I almost blogged about it, but I figured I'd leave it be until the merger actually occurs. It'll lower the chances of people jumping down the staff's throats about it.

[fishers64]

I really could not consider myself a fan of the merger plan, but I could never drum up any great opposition to it either. At least I probably won't have to fight to get a review topic for my epicomedy. 

[25K Now!]

Yes, I was very happy to see that the Library is being merged. I almost blogged about it, but I figured I'd leave it be until the merger actually occurs. It'll lower the chances of people jumping down the staff's throats about it.

There'll always be people jumping down the staff's throats.

 

Always.

 

Wait. What does this mean for the CCC? Does it just ... hang around to review more comedic stories?

[TinkerTech]

So the merger is One Hundred percent going through? Interesting. I like the idea; I may not have minded when I was younger, but now that my writing skill has extended to the point where I write longer stories, I want to be able to branch out into longer epics and still keep my trademark humor in my works. 

 

As for the Critics club... Well, neither Epics or Short stories even have a critique club right now. I would suggest turning the CCC into the BZP Library Critique Club. It would still serve the same function, but would cater to all stories instead of just Comedies. All types of reviewers are welcome, but maybe some specialize in a specific genre of writing. (Former CCC members, for example, would specialize in comedic works, while Another reviewer may specialize in longer epics, another in single-shot stories.) Just maintain the same level of openness, critical thinking, and constructive criticism we've always had.

[25K Now!]

What happened to the other two critique clubs anyway?

[GSR]

They were disbanded a year or two back for a variety of reasons, most of which boiled down to "not serving the community as well as they should be."  (I should know; I was in the ECC.)

 

We're definitely looking at getting a new, unified critics' club or writing group up and running in the library in the future, so by all means keep brainstorming the idea!

[TinkerTech]

Oh, I will-I'm great at brainstorming ideas. Now, following through with them, that's another story...

 

If we could figure out a way to hold workshops on a forum, that would be really cool. Have writing workshops every now and then for people who want to improve their writing skills. Covering topics such as Plot, Character development, planning.... it would be a big help for new writers. 

 

And for the Critique club... The way it would be set up, there would be two topics, but the same people (depending on how this merger goes down; Is it just merging into Epics and Short Stories?) The Critics could work in either one, but each sub-forum would have a topic for that style of work. 

 

Or.... Have a separate subform altogether, that would hold the Critique club and contests (Original topic and entries) and workshops and stuff, as well as discussion topics such as this. It would make finding important information a lot easier, as well as keep the Epics/SS forums cleaner.

[Ghidora131]

Combining the library would still be a bad idea. For the lucky people who go ahead and get a featured comedy, they would find it lasting for three days before being drowned down by all the other things put together. Makes the "featured" aspect a little not worth it.

 

And If you merge Epics and short stories alone, that's fine. Simply because then all the humour is sent over here, where it belongs, and we get some simple plot for a quick read. If you combine short stories with comedies, there won't be a short stories area left. Eventually, everything anyone posts here will be some attempt at humour and we lose the chance to just make a simple, serious story you don't want to spend the next month on.

[Voltex]

Combining the library would still be a bad idea. For the lucky people who go ahead and get a featured comedy, they would find it lasting for three days before being drowned down by all the other things put together. Makes the "featured" aspect a little not worth it.

 

And If you merge Epics and short stories alone, that's fine. Simply because then all the humour is sent over here, where it belongs, and we get some simple plot for a quick read. If you combine short stories with comedies, there won't be a short stories area left. Eventually, everything anyone posts here will be some attempt at humour and we lose the chance to just make a simple, serious story you don't want to spend the next month on.

 

Comedies is a single genre vs. the multiple genres represented by both Epics and Short Stories. It makes more sense to merge Comedies into them than to merge the other two into each other, and will make things less confusing for writers with more lighthearted stories that could fit into multiple forums. 

[Lewa0111 Nuva]

So, regarding the merger, do we have a consensus on the policy for reviews going forward? Since Epics are done using separate review topics, and Comedies are done with replies in the topic itself...Will it be the author's choice? Will the divide by genre stay regarding reviews? Or will all the comedies topics have their reviews deleted (I hope not; I rather like my reviews )?

 

Lewa0111 Nuva

[25K Now!]

On the Spacebattles Creative Forums, where I sometimes spend my time, there's an Archive subforum for where people post their Story Post Only Threads.

[TinkerTech]

On the Spacebattles Creative Forums, where I sometimes spend my time, there's an Archive subforum for where people post their Story Post Only Threads.

 

 

Oooh, now there's an idea. Just for archival purposes, rather than feedback? It's an interesting concept. 

 

I suppose feedback and response depends on now the topics currently in comedies are split up. I kind of like the set up now, though. It's cleaner, especially for long-standing works, where as one-shots don't need to worry about multiple chapters in pages and pages of feedback.

[25K Now!]

I've always seen having separate review and story threads to be a bit unwieldy.

[fishers64]

I've always seen having separate review and story threads to be a bit unwieldy.

I like review topics - they avoid reviews disrupting the flow of the story.

[25K Now!]

Sometimes having the reviews in the same topic makes it easier to get at problems, and sometimes an author might want to get snippets up for review and feedback before fixing them up into one chapter.

[TinkerTech]

How individual stories will be divided up and whether or not they will have the replies in the posts will, in part, be caused by the nature of the stories and how they are sorted. 

 

Personally, I am amendable to either method. I like the idea of having a separate topic for responses for longer works. It may not seem like it now, but It's a huge help for the longer stories and epics. Although I don't know how a story like Kanohi Force would be, considering it's a collaboration work...

[Voltex]

I've found myself enjoying having separate review topics more than the current approach for multi-chapter works here in Comedies. It allows the story to retain flow, and makes chapters easier to find.

[fishers64]

How about an "allowed, but not required" policy on review topics, allowing everyone to have their preferences?

[Voltex]

A bit of a messy solution, but it might keep all parties happy.

[Naota Takizawa]

How come there isn't an epics planning topic? I think that would come in handy.

 

I love how I posted an idea and got ignored. Don't you love it when that happens?

Edited June 1, 2015 by Liuth

[The UltimoScorp]

So uh.... a few of you probably recognise me, but I'm new to this sub forum, so..... do I just post stuff as a new topic? or does it need approval?