Experiment: Flash Round Robin

[ohboy]

I really hope that I didn't scare everyone off... I apologize if I started coming on too strong . I guess I'll start. Believe me, I love hearing everyone's posts and I think that everyone that has come is very creative.

As Sam and Al were talking, a strange lady ran up to Sam. "Mirabella!" the woman yelled while running to her.

[Sam's Crow]

Sam turned around and slyly whispered to Al, "Who's this supposed to be?"

[ohboy]

As they stood on the deck, and as Sam watched the drunken Montalvo walk across the deck with his bottle, Al looked at his handlink. "Says here the woman is your other half-sister, and the real sister of one that died. Oh, and good luck taking his bottle away from," Al chuckled.

Don't worry about it, Systemcat. I think I was able to put tie to them together. And I brought the sister back, but in a different context . There is also a summary on page 4, for quick access. Two actually.

[Sam's Crow]

The chamber door appeared, Al step in and vanished.

[ohboy]

"Mirabella, there you are. I have my mother's wedding dress that I want you to try on." Sam looked at the lady, deciding to go with her to gather more information about Montalvo and the death of her half-sister.

[Sam's Crow]

A little while later, Sam comes out of her room and shows the woman the dress on him.

I reckon this should have quite a fair bit of humour in seeing as Sam has leaped into a woman.

[ohboy]

Feels good to back .

"Lookin' good Sam." Sam turned around to see Al looking at him, a goofy grin on his face. "Very funny Al", Sam mumbled.

[Sam's Crow]

The woman gasps, "It looks perfect!"
"Er... it feels a bit tight" says Sam fidgiting with the dress.

[ohboy]

"I wish there was someway that I could talk you out of this," the woman replied. "Don't you see the way he treats you. The way he treated your half-sister?"

[Sam's Crow]

The woman started adjusting the straps on the back of Sam's dress, "Better?". She had a look of shock and horror on her face.
"What's wrong?" asked Sam. He had no reply. He turned his head around as there was a mirror behind him and saw that there was two bruises just below his neck as if he'd been strangled.

[ohboy]

First off, happy 100th post, Crow!

"Oh my... my... Did he do that to you!". Mirabella's half-sister turned Sam around so that they were face to face. "Does he lay his hands on you!?!"

[Sam's Crow]

I just thought, Mirabella's other half sister has been in this story for quite a bit of time and we still don't know her name. XD

[ohboy]

Originally Posted by Sam's Crow

I just thought, Mirabella's other half sister has been in this story for quite a bit of time and we still don't know her name. XD

Your right. Someone could always have Al step in, and give us a bio. Of course, she could be like in the comic strip Dilbert, where no one ever knows the Pointy-Haired Boss's name, and they just call him the Pointy-Haired Boss. You do raise a good point, though. Someone'll have to slide that in.

(Looks at people viewing the post) <hint, hint>

[Sam's Crow]

What do you plan on happening at the end of this RR story?

[ohboy]

Originally Posted by Sam's Crow

What do you plan on happening at the end of this RR story?

To tell you the truth, I do not. I would think of a plot, but since this is a community story, where anyone can post a contribution, it may not go as I would have planned it. I figured that in the short amount of text people have to post, it would take a long time, and at least many pages. But you do raise a good point.

[JuliaM]

Originally Posted by Sam's Crow

What do you plan on happening at the end of this RR story?

No one person should have a plot line planned out for a Round Robin story. The point of it is that it's a group of people contributing to a story with no idea what the succeeding person is going to contribute and then adjusting and reacting to that. If there's a set plot line, it's lost the intent of a Round Robin. It's just one person dictating their ideas to a group of people with the expectation that they're going to write it.

[Sam's Crow]

Sam hesitated. "Err... think I better get changed now" says Sam trying to change the subject.

[ohboy]

Originally Posted by jmoniz

No one person should have a plot line planned out for a Round Robin story. The point of it is that it's a group of people contributing to a story with no idea what the succeeding person is going to contribute and then adjusting and reacting to that. If there's a set plot line, it's lost the intent of a Round Robin. It's just one person dictating their ideas to a group of people with the expectation that they're going to write it.

I would agree completely and utterly with that statement. If this thread were to be a government, it would be socialism (theoretical, anyways), in that no one is supposed to have more power than another over the course of the story. However, perhaps such a short amount of typing is losing people. I do find it hard to understand the plot as coherent with 1-3 sentences, and I think that we can't even get a main idea in with that short of length. Having to backtrack certain pages is getting very hard, and I think that this story should be started over on a new thread with longer postings, and not the "flash" ones. Opinons?

For now, though, I'll keep posting here, until I get some feedback.

After the woman helped Sam change back into his original dress, she left, saying that she had to hang it back up.
"Al, who is she?"
"That's Nina Furtavo, your half-sister."

[JuliaM]

The whole point of this Round Robin was to do something out of the norm. To quote the guidelines given in the first post:

This is a sort of modified Round Robin story, where each submission should fall within a range of 5-15 words and they don't necessarily need to be full sentences. (This allows some of the more long-winded of us some wiggle room in our descriptions and entries! )

That was the uniqueness of this Round Robin - that those contributing to it were restricted to using a minimum of words...where a thought or sentence would be stopped before it was completed for the next poster to come along and finish.

Unfortunately, since it seems some of the later contributers neglected to go back to the beginning to read the guidlines that were set out for this RR or even to read what had been added to the story previously, that uniqueness was lost...as was the coherency of the story.

Frankly, I've lost any interest in contributing to this story anymore so I guess my opinion doesn't really count. I would like to say, however, that in the future, if a RR is started, those contributing should take the time to see what kind of guidelines the originator has laid out and adhere to them as opposed to changing them to suit what they want. It would also make sense (and be courteous to those who are already contributing) to read what's been written already and make contributions that would continue the storyline as opposed to veering of in a completely different direction that makes no sense. Yes, it may mean taking time to read something first, but that's exactly what all of the previous contributors have also done...read what's been contributed before adding to it.

I had been enjoying taking part in this right up until it veered so totally off course because of the simple lack of reading what had come before. I wonder if that turned other people off of contributing to it as well.

[ohboy]

Originally Posted by jmoniz

The whole point of this Round Robin was to do something out of the norm. To quote the guidelines given in the first post:



That was the uniqueness of this Round Robin - that those contributing to it were restricted to using a minimum of words...where a thought or sentence would be stopped before it was completed for the next poster to come along and finish.

Unfortunately, since it seems some of the later contributers neglected to go back to the beginning to read the guidlines that were set out for this RR or even to read what had been added to the story previously, that uniqueness was lost...as was the coherency of the story.

Frankly, I've lost any interest in contributing to this story anymore so I guess my opinion doesn't really count. I would like to say, however, that in the future, if a RR is started, those contributing should take the time to see what kind of guidelines the originator has laid out and adhere to them as opposed to changing them to suit what they want. It would also make sense (and be courteous to those who are already contributing) to read what's been written already and make contributions that would continue the storyline as opposed to veering of in a completely different direction that makes no sense. Yes, it may mean taking time to read something first, but that's exactly what all of the previous contributors have also done...read what's been contributed before adding to it.

I had been enjoying taking part in this right up until it veered so totally off course because of the simple lack of reading what had come before. I wonder if that turned other people off of contributing to it as well.

(sighs) Your right. I can't believe I've been alienating people here now... Apparantly I ruin things where ever I go. If anybody wants to veer things on course again, I won't do anymore contributing to this story. I'm done...

Of course, I still stand behind my original statment that it is too hard for me to read one to three sentences and keep understanding the plot! Also, I am aware that I was a "later" contributer, and for that you could have just said my name. I must say, though, I don't appreciate being told all my shortcomings as such. You could have sent this to me in a private message that you think I was going too far, instead of this. (sighs)

[ohboy]

I apologize if I flew off the handle. I shouldn't have gotten angry like that. However, don't worry, I'm still not coming back to taint this post, so I'm still making everyone happy. I just thought that I should say that I was probably madder than I should have been, and I really hope that this gets better.

Of course, I would like to say that I did feel as though I was called a lazy, rude, anarchist.

I do apologize if I scared anyone off, and I started another Round Robin where the length is more comfortable for me. So keep the experiment, and bring it back to the fun, intersting, glory that it once was.

Apologies again,

ohboy

[Sam's Crow]

I don't think the Expeimental one will go on anyway, you and I were the only ones who posted after a while. Besides after a while I was only posting to keep the thread alive but no one else is anymore so why bother.

Don't worry about it ohboy, you didn't over react. I also got quite offended when jmoniz said "Unfortunately..." but it doesn't matter now.

[ohboy]

You know what... You're very right. We were just trying to revive the posts. I really did have fun before this. Besides, we weren't dominating this! I reread the entire thread, and two posts were 2 years apart at one point, and 4 at another. We didn't turn people off, because we weren't even members during the 2 and 4 year slumps. We were just having fun, and doing it daily. No one else wanted to do this daily, and I wasn't going to wait until 2010 for the thread was going to pick up again. I was beating myself up about this, but I also saw many threads besides mine that went above 15 words.

It didn't lose coherency! After all, wasn't the point of the Round Robins so that we would all get to have fun. I can use the aforementioned slumps as proof that people don't post very often. I thought that it was very coherent. Yeah, there were a few parts where things were blurry, but I thought that the plot summary would have cleared that up. Sam's Crow and I were the only people that did contribute, but that was because other people didn't. We were just trying to have fun, and revive it so that other people could come in. If you were to put our posts in one long, post, it would make sense.

Also, if people are just going to tell us what we are doing wrong, then why don't they contribute steer things around. However, I would hate to slander the original intent of this thread, so I am moving to my own. And if two people are going to be the only ones to post, and they are happy about it, then the thread was a success. I do hope that other people try the new thread, but I want to have fun! And yes! maybe it will be a back-and-forth type of story. But let me shout it from the proverbial rooftops when I say that "ANYONE IS WELCOME TO JUMP IN"!!!

And so, I say good bye to all. And if one person, besides myself, had fun on this thread, then this was a success. We were trying to keep this alive, but sadly, we lost. With that, I'm gone!

[JuliaM]

First, the only reason why I stated what I did here is that there was a request made for opinions. I provided my opinion on the matter. It's always good to remember that when you ask for opinions, you shouldn't expect that all will agree with you.

Second, what appears to be slumps are the result of data loss with a previous version of the messageboard about 2 years or so ago. A lot of data was lost from the board then including a fair amount of the posts from this RR. Leaper1 even alluded to this situation in the 24th post on the 1st page.

As to any other points when it seems interest was lost...not everyone can be posting at something all of the time. Sometimes interest is lost for a while then it picks up. When Sherdran picked it up again in March of this year, there were fairly steady additions to it from a number of different people until about mid-June.

[ohboy]

I would like to preface this post with the fact that I felt that you were suggesting, on many different times, that I was a major factor in the downfall of this post. Opinons were about rather the story should be moved, not rather I was a good member or not. I don't mind a difference of opinions, but I do mind when I'm being insulted. They should be done in a respectful way. I never asked if the posts were coherent or not. I felt that the barbs to both Sam's Crow and I were uncalled for.

Second, I am very aware that people cannot post all of the time. When the fall semester starts, I'll be very busy again. My reason for saying that was because it appeared to be a very long time between postings. I came about 1 1/2 months ago. I do hope that this story goes ahead, and that one day the ending is posted here.

However, I did not post this to continue a fight. I came here to say that I think the fighting is silly. I moved, and as a result, you have this, and I have a new Round Robin. It may not have a lot of contributors, but if only two people contribute, me as one of them, I'm happy. I wish the best in this thread; it must mean a lot to you for you to want me out so badly. I only ask that we can put this behind us, and that we can "agree to disagree".

Small feuds turn into snowballs rolling down a hill. They just get bigger, and bigger, until no one can stop it anymore until it collides into something. I don't want to get involved in that. Neither of us are right, and neither of us are wrong. We should just go on our ways, stronger from the experience.

All the best,

ohboy