The Official Unofficial Guide to YWS

VERSION: 3.10 [09.04.06]
Composed by Gannon

Greetings and Salutations

Welcome all new members who have taken an interested in both writing and this forum of young writers. This is a society that was started by none other than our fabled Nate--a man with a vision, a man with a tremendous heart, and a man with underwear worn on top of his pants. In November of 2004, this wonderful creation was given birth. As you can see, it has flourished with nearly 1500 members by August of 2006. With all forums on the World Wide Web, the members are what keep it alive. So, you the reader, have been given permission to pat your back just for registering under that unusual name of yours. The Administration and Moderators must also be recognized due to their infinite contribution to this forum as well as their wonderful moderation and well-kept order they have enstowed upon us.

The purpose of this topic is for all new members and to help them jumpstart their journey on this forum. This is an easy guide that you may briefly skim over to embue knowledge of areas and mechanics of the forum. So with that, enjoy the forum and we hope that you will stay.

Contents

POST ONE
• Greetings and Salutations
• The Young Writers Society
• The Eleven Commandments

POST TWO
• The Forum Boards
• Posting Topics and Replies
• Your Profile

POST THREE
• The Administration and Moderators
• Mentors, Instructors, and Greeters
• Usergroups

The Young Writers Society

Created in November of 2004, The Young Writers Society was developed as a website for young writers since other such websites were stagnating and quickly becoming obsolete. That is, young writers' websites were being neglected by their administrators and were facing a dearth of talent and new writing. Indeed, some websites had simply become places to chat while others simply disappeared.

The Young Writers Society strives to fix this problem by providing a clean and easy-to-use user interface, giving members the option of different styles for the website, and by having a forum where new work is added instantaneously. The Young Writers Society will also avoid the problem plaguing other similiar websites by having an active and responsive administrator as well as a large moderator base.

Today, The Young Writers Society has a wide variety of forums for any type of creative work from Art to Scripts and has a very active membership base.

We hope that you stay and become active, to critique others' works and learn of language and literature. With the addition of that, we cannot wait to read your very own work so we may help you polish it into a New York Times, a National, or even an International best-seller.



The Young Writers Society forum that has become so large, necessity of splitting it became a reality; thus spawned the Community and the Literary forums. So, as you may see, there are seven tabs at the top of the screen (there are no options if you are not registered or not logged in). The seven tabs are Home; Community; Literary; Usergroups; Search; Memberlist; Profile; Private Messanges; and Log Out.

NOTE: Those who are not registered or not logged in do not have these options and must therefore either register and/or log in to have access to them.

Home: The Home page is the location where important news is posted as the main body of the page. Underneath is important information that all members need to know and each has accessability to comments. Along the left hand column of the Home Page begins with your own information with the options to the current poll right below. At the very bottom, members may view who is currently viewing the site. Along the left column the Board Navigation makes it quite easy for you to move about the website. Below that are the recent topics that have been posted upon, and finishing the right hand column are the board affiliates which are websites that wish to be advertised by fellow members.

Community: This is the place where you can find information about the forum, where there is polls and topics members posted about themselves. If you have read a book recently, you can review it; there are contests available to open or participate in; writing activities are enjoyable activites to increase your skill with literature; and writing tips can help you in getting out of a writer's block. The Lounge is a popular place to relax and chat; Debates and Serious Descussions are conversed over; Entertainment and Recent News of current events and Randomness are included as well.

Literary: The Literary Forums are a place where one may post their works of writing; be it poems or fictional stories. They may critique other members' pieces as well as look upon the art of drawers and participate in storybooks. Scripts and lyrics are also included, and if you do think you are looking for something in another category, you may find it in the Other forum. Board Navigation is, again, on your left with the posting of a Random Member beneath it, with information about the people online.

Usergroups: The Usergroups forum advertises usergroups as well as the location where you can sign up to be in a usergroup.

Search: A simple, easy-to-use searching tool to which you may use if you wish to specifically find something that someone else has posted.

Memberlist: The listings of all members that have registered in the Young Writer's Society. There are various filters that you may use to make your search specific to your aim of interest.

Profile: The Profile is where you can edit your information for others to see what you are like, what your interests are, and if you use any instant messanger.

Private Messages: The Private Messange Inbox is yours alone so you can privately communicate to other members that you feel are not necessary on the forums or in a post. The Inbox keeps mail you recieve from others while the Sentbox is where your mail you sent to others is kept. The Outbox is where the mail you send out will stay until the person it is directed to opens up their inbox. And the Savebox is where you may save important letters that you wish to keep.

NOTE: Those who are not registered or not logged in do not have these options and must therefore either register and/or log in to have access to them.

The Eleven Commandments

As with any forum, there has to be some rules:

I. Thou shall not dismiss and/or defy the instructions of authorized personnel while on the Young Writer's Society forum.

II. Thou shall not use sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive language.

III. Thou shall not post or link to any sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive imagery or content.

IV. Thou shall not spam, flood, or make duplicate posts when posting in the Young Writer's Society forums.

V. Thou shall not impersonate any member of Young Writer's Society forum or their affiliates.

VI. Thou shall not violate any local, state, national, or international laws or regulations.

VII. Thou shall not market, promote, advertise, or solicit within the Young Writer's Society forum.

VIII. Thou shall not modify any part of the Young Writer's Society forum unless you possess specific approval from the Administration and/or you bear the title as one of the Moderator.

IX. Thou shall not organize nor be a member of any pledges or groups within the Young Writer's Society forum that are based on or espouse any racist, sexist, anti-religious, anti-ethnic, anti-gay, or other hate mongering philosophies.

X. Thou shall not provide false information or intentionally hide any information when registering for your forum account.

XI. Thou shall not upload or transmit on Young Writer's Society any copyrighted or trademarked content to which you do not own all rights without the express written permission of the author or the copyright or trademark holder.

The Forum Boards

Community

Welcome
The welcoming forums provides a medium for new members to become aquainted with the Young Writers Society. This very guide is posted within the welcoming forums. There are posts containing information detailing how things work in the forums and as well as major announcements that all should be aware of. Official Polls may also be found here as well as the YWS Columns. Members may post things about themselves at the About the Author forums.

Writing Resources & Contests
Forums about Literature are contained within this group. You may post book reviews and as well as host a writing contest. If you need help with homework, you may post a topic concerning your dilemma, or you can assist others. You may also post what you have found in researching a specific topic that may aid others with their writing. Other helpful writing activities and writing tips are contained within these forums and the YWS Novel Writing Year challenges members to write 40,000 words in 365 days.

General Discussion
The General Discussion Boards allow users to lounge around and post topics on entertainment and things happening in the world. Members are allowed to chat and relieve stress here, post the most random of posts and play around with words along with other members. If you are planning on applying for a given title, there is a forum dedicated to providing the information on how to do so and answering your questions and inquiries.

Literary

Poetry
These groups of forums divide the genres in poetry so you may better define what genre of poetry you are either interested in reading or posting. You may also indulge in the dicussion of poetry and provide your own opinion on the topics posted there.

Fiction
Fiction obviously has multiple genres and this group is divided into thus just like the Poetry forums. From Fantasy to Romance, from Teutonic Knights to a 32 car pile-up, read and review to your hearts content. And just like the Poetry forums, you may discuss them as you see fit.

Miscellaneous Work
The miscellaneous work provides members to post artwork and scripts that are obviously not prose or poetry. Lyrics and Storybooks where you can sing and roleplay all you want are available as well. And... if your piece of wonderful work does not fit under prose, poetry, art, scripts, storybooks, lyrics or even literature itself (crazy, I know...), then post it under the miscellaneous forum in the mescellaneous work group because it is a miscellaneous piece of work. (The forum is cleverly denoted with the letters O-T-H-E-R; I'm still trying to find the darn acronym for it.)

Posting Topics and Replies

Posting is imparitive to forums. Without posting, you basically don't exist to the other members. Obviously, if you are new to a forum, you need to know how to post. It is a rather simple procedure of finding the forum you wish to post at and from there, you may post a new topic or you may read an existing topic and reply to its content.

Refer to the Posting Tutorial (yet to be released)

We advice that you briefly skim over this FAQ to ensure that you are following all the rules. It is also a good resource if you have any problems. The standard forum FAQ that comes with most forums may also provide assitance.

Posting on the Young Writers Society uses BBCode to format your posts. BBCode is an abbreviation for Bulletin Board Code, the markup language used to format posts in many modern message boards. The available tags are usually indicated by rectangular brackets surrounding a keyword, and they are parsed by the message board system before being translated into a markup language the web browsers understands, usually HTML or XHTML.

Refer to the BBCode Guide if you have any problems or questions concerning the formating of your text.

If you have any questions, simply ask here. These question must, of course, relate to any technical difficulties you have with the forum and be sure to check both important information or news on the Home Page or in the Information Desk forum.

Comments and Suggestions may be submitted here. This is strictly your input to the forums and their maintenance. Demands are not tolerated and you are only doing suggesting with your opinion alone.

Your Profile

Your profile is a simplistic device that defines you and seperates your account from everyone elses. From your very name to your gender, it is all customizable (though you must ask an Adminstrator to change your name). It also allows you to customize the look and feel of the forums to best fit your style.

Refer to the Profile Tutorial (yet to be released)

The Administration and Moderators
The Young Writers Society has currently four Administrators; Nate, being the Head Administrator, and three Junior Administrators beneath him--Firestarter, Meshugenah, and Bobo.

Nate

Firestarter
His name's Jack and he's currently studying History at Nottingham University. He joined this site in November 2004 and some time after Nate invited Jack to be a Moderator. In May 2005, he was asked to be a Junior Administrator to cover for Nate over the summer but has kept the position since. Jack dabbles in poetry more than stories, and doesn't mind people requesting critiques through PM. His favourite writers and inspiration include David Gemmell, Neil Gaiman, W.B. Yeats, Ernest Hemingway and Italo Calvino. Outside of YWS, he enjoys reading, writing, watching Liverpool FC disappoint him again and again, history, crosswords, science-fiction, politics and everything else you would expect a 19-year-old to like.

Meshugenah
Meshugenah, more commonly known as Mesh, Bek or Bekah enjoys editing as well as reading and writing, being a grammar nut, playing her clarinet and watching the SF Giants beat the Padres (3-1 series, baby!). She is also willing to edit anything on request, and will concentrate in any area asked (dialogue, grammar, exposition, etc.). She has been a mod on YWS since April of 2005, a member since December 2004. Before the site was taken down in May, she was also a contributor to Squills, the YWS Blog. Mesh is always willing to answer questions, engage in Harry Potter discussions, or help with the odd history/chemistry/English/Spanish question. She recently became the Mod for the YWS Book Club, which she shamelessly advertizes everywhere she can. Join today!

Bobo
His name is Jordan Bobo (yes, that really is a real last name, you can stop laughing now). Bobo has pretty much always liked writing, as well as drawing, and made his first picture book (featuring Hunter and himself), "The Great Dino Invenchure," in first grade. Before then, he had numerous stories, recorded in folders created during class for one of their daily activities. Since then, he's started several other picture books and comics featuring "The Adventure Team," which also included Hunter and himself, as well as other close friends and, of course, his childhood crush. He wrote his first short story as an assignment in sixth grade, and began writing Pokémon fanfictions while Bobo was still interested and it was still a new thing. In ninth grade, Bobo started drawing seriously, and finally got into writing seriously in about tenth or eleventh grade, mostly thanks to Hunter's prodding. He's currently working on a sister trilogy to Hunter's Dhampir Chronicles entitled (title pending) The Chronicles of Arunia. He also began a sci-fi novel, Fabric of Space, which is about a page long after years passing since its conception. Bobo has recently spent more time drawing than writing, and spends a lot of his free time drawing avatar requests (hence the custom title "Avatar Vendor of YWS"), as well as drawing characters for his RPG-parody cartoon, "Final Sanity" (Coming Soon!) and other drawings. He will be starting college at Brigham Young University this fall, where he plans to study graphic design, 3D animation, and, of course, writing.

The Young Writers Society also has a Moderating group under the name of Big Brother and is commonly known to end with some sort of quirky statement.

Big Brother

Moderators

Areida
Areida, a member of YWS since February 2005, is the society’s resident princess. She is sweet sixteen (and dang proud of it!) and is the second of four girls. The oldest is a cadet at the United States Military Academy (whom Areida brags on frequently), the third is Addie, another member of YWS with plans to conquer the universe, and the baby is an up-and-coming inventor. She loves collecting quotes, Tae Kwon Do, the word “spiffy,” and Disney movies. If you need any help or just want to chat, feel free to PM her; she’s on YWS every day and is more than happy to help.

Via


Griffinkeeper
Griffinkeeper: Better known as “Grif”, Griffinkeeper is in the Mod Squad. He's obsessed with Griffins and writes about them frequently. Grif is a pioneer of Storybooks and helped create YWS Fan-fiction. Grif’s real strength is reviewing. After years of reading and writing, he has a good handle on stories. Also, Grif is in charge of the weekly points contest. If you need help just send him a PM.

Suzanne


Incandescence
In 1902, Brad escaped from the womb of a female trapeze artist. His parents, both loving and affectionate, despite their obvious obsession with the circus, experimented with strange chemicals on him and, eventually, sold him into slavery to a large alien colony. Once emancipated from the alien slave colony, he returned home and enjoyed a life of peanuts and mathematics. Tragically, his father died when he was only 8 (picnic, lightning). On the other hand, his mother, quite the lepidopterist, always told him she would die around his 15th bithday. And did.

Since this, he has occasionally been seen playing with chemicals in labs, stealthily running around college campuses with bookbags and a gradebook, and generally darting bullets and mad deans. He currently resides in Atlantis.

Matt Bellamy
Matt Bellamy is eighteen, female (though the screen name suggests otherwise) and lives in England. She writes poetry and has been published in a few anthologies, and would like her own collection of poems published in the future. She has tried a few times to attempt a novel but has never written enough for them to even be novellas, so sticks to poems and occasionally short stories. On YWS she is also moderator of Matt’s Happy Place, a usergroup where members can take a little time out and relax. As well as writing, music is a very important aspect of her life, and she is often seen and heard rocking out to Korn, Linkin Park, Slipknot and the like. Feel free to ask if you want anything critiqued, or need anything else

Snoink
Snoink joined YWS on April 1, 2005. Since then, she's been one of the biggest jokes that has happened to YWS. She loves writing perhaps a bit too much and can be found ranting about her novel in the hidden corners of YWS. She also likes critiquing and answering random questions about writing, from outlining to grammar to character development. So if you have a question, feel free to ask.

Sam

Adam_Atlantian

Junior Mods

Alainna
bubblewrapped
Cade
Caligula's Launderette
Cpt. Smurf
Doctor Kitty
Dream Deep
gyrfalcon
kitty15
Leja
Maybe
Meep
PenguinAttack
Riedawriter23
Sumi H. Inkblot
Sureal
Teague
TL G-Wooster
Trident
Writersdomain
JabberHut



If you are interested in becoming an Administrator or a Moderator, the Applications Forum in the Community will provide you with information concerning these topics.

Administrator Application
Moderator Application

Instructors and Greeters

Instructors
The Instructors were created to define those who go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to critiquing. They also regularly post in the Writing Tips forum and may even offer an online class.

If you are interested in becoming an Instructor, the Applications Forum in the Community will provide you with information concerning these topics.

Instructor Application

Greeters
Greeters are just as the name implies; one who greets member. There seems to be many new incoming members and the greeters provide guidance to the newcomers if they have any questions.

If you are interested in becoming an Greeter, the Applications Forum in the Community will provide you with information concerning these topics.

Greeter Application

Wow! Long guide! Is this the only official unofficial guide to YWS? Or are there other guides? Never seen you around here before. My name's Monki. *shakes your hand even though you're looking at me weirdly* And you are? Ahh.... Well, nice to meet you.