Alicornutopia

So, this was mentioned on IRC but not everyone IRCs, we made an Intro to Glowfic Google Doc here. It's mostly complete, but if you have suggestions and stuff feel free to add them or edit or whatever. The idea is that this will eventually go on the Constellation.

This is a good thing.

Hi! The google doc doesn't seem to address the process of signing up? Which I think I'm missing some part of? I tried signing up on the constellation website a few times, but a banner just stared at me intimidatingly and said 'This is being Betad. Come back later.', and 'coming back later' doesn't seem to be working?

The process for signing up is actually addressed in the Glowfic Constellation thread on this forum. (The passcode is mentioned there.)

Thanks! I just knew I was missing something really obvious.

Do we still need a passcode lock, now that the memory issues are addressed? It might be time to switch to an open beta instead of an ajar beta.

Also, Welcome!

I feel like the passcode does help make sure the person signing up is at least passingly familiar with glowfic? There's not really a great place to learn the ropes and chat with other authors on the site itself, and I could totally see someone benignly assuming everything is an open RP because it all has "Join Thread" buttons at the bottom.

Well, the Intro to Glowfic thing will be there to introduce people to it, and the "Lock Thread Authors" feature does exist. Perhaps the sign up link could be at the bottom of the Intro page, or perhaps the password could be hidden in there, or perhaps we just deal with it :P

I think I would prefer to hide a passcode in the intro to gently discourage people from wandering in and benignly assuming everything is an open RP, because if randos started dropping their well-meaning nonsense into my sandboxes I would find that super stressful. Also, does the intro actually clear that up?

edit: oh hey, when did we get a Lock Thread authors feature? that's handy! But I feel like I would only end up using it when it was already too late.

The intro mentions this in the terminology part:

Author/Coauthor: unlike the parent RP tradition, Glowfic threads tend to not welcome any author that wants to join, and they usually have a set collection of authors (typically two) from the beginning. A thread’s authors are everyone who’s allowed to post to it, and if you’re a thread’s author then that thread’s other authors are your coauthors;

Perhaps the password could be hidden here so that people need to read this part? Although I think it might be better to mention this earlier in the intro rather than having this at the very last and presumably most optional part.