Challenge 1: Guys, gals, and fellow humans. @Claire and @Vela Nanashi do so much for this forum, it would not be possible for this place to run without them. Take some time to thank them for all the hard work they have put into keeping this forum alive. All it takes is less than 5 minutes to send quick PM or a user wall comment.
Challenge 2: Rate and comment on one of the short/flash stories in the Popular Stories board! If we have another story above a rating of 50 two weeks from now - that is by the end of Wednesday February 18 - then everybody who contributed to that with at least one rated feedback post and one rating will get 500 RC from us, making sure they get to unlock the next 5 Community Favorites.
(New) Renowned Writers and Community Favorites:
- @Claire with Record Chaser
(New) Accomplished Writers and Popular Stories:
Reading Recommendation:
One Month of Project Relaunch - Is It Working?
Exactly one month ago, we started Project Relaunch in an attempt to breathe new life into our dying community. And while we have some successes to show for our efforts, we are still dependent on you to turn the small momentum we do have into something bigger. Over the course of the last 7 days almost 200 registered users were online, most of you to read a story here. But only a tiny fraction actually supported the authors whose stories they enjoyed. You want to see this community survive and flourish in the long term so that you get more stories to read? Then you can take part of our community challenges for the next two weeks:
Challenge 1: Guys, gals, and fellow humans. @Claire and @Vela Nanashi do so much for this forum, it would not be possible for this place to run without them. Take some time to thank them for all the hard work they have put into keeping this forum alive. All it takes is less than 5 minutes to send quick PM or a user wall comment.
Seriously guys, @Claire has seen problems that no one else would have seen before the problems became catastrophic and brought them to my attention. There's so much work that goes on behind the scenes that I don't even fully know what all @Claire does to keep this place alive. So please, let's do whatever we can to give her a positive boost because she both needs and deserves it.
@Vela Nanashi works on coding and a lot of behind the scenes stuff while also having significant medical problems. It's honestly inspiring to watch her take the time to do things when anyone else would probably not even logon. A simple thank you to her can go a long way. Give her some positivity as well, she needs and deserves it too.
Challenge 2: Rate and comment on one of the short/flash stories in the Popular Stories board! If we have another story above a rating of 50 two weeks from now - that is by the end of Wednesday February 18 - then everybody who contributed to that with at least one rated feedback post and one rating will get 500 RC from us, making sure they get to unlock the next 5 Community Favorites.
Here are the stories that fall under that category sorted from longest to shortest:
- Sorceresses Surprise - ~5000 words, ~20 minute reading time
- Mother Knows Best - ~4000 words, ~16 minutes reading time
- Fugitives - ~3700 words, ~15 minutes reading time
- One Morning in Potaissa- ~ 3250 words, ~13 minutes reading time
- You - ~3100 words, ~12 minutes reading time
- The Infinite Rape - ~1800 words, ~7 minutes reading time
- Milk Run - ~900 words, ~ 4 minutes reading time
Where we are now
Contests
The Ravished in a Flash tournament is nearly over. Out of originally 13 contestants only two remain for the final starting tomorrow. @YellowSnowDotCom will face off against @Two Stews In a Pot. The final will feature two stories for the theme:
There Can Be Only One
Take the 10 minutes to read both stories and then vote for your favorite! The winner of the tournament will also take the first lead in this contest season.
Just one week after the end of tournament, the Kristen's Board Memorial contest will enter the voting phase. As of now, you have 11 days left to enter your story.
And finally, writing for our community contests will begin on February 15 when writing for the aforementioned regular season contest ends. Community contests are build around three prompts decided by the Pillars of the Community. Gain 50 reputation points yourself to become a Pillar and then you can suggest prompts and vote on the list of suggestions! For the first contest, it currently looks like Milkshake and Cleanse will join Park. But there are still 11 days left to vote!
Popular Stories and Accomplished Writers
We got a second Popular Story from @Shocker. The community took our reading recommendation from last time to heart and pushed this gem above the 30 reputation line:
Milk Run is not only @Shocker's second Popular Story, it's also the first piece of Flash Fiction in the Popular Stories board. If you haven't done so yet, check it out. It will be 4 minutes well spent.
And don't forget that the story is part of the challenge for the next two weeks. So there is an opportunity here to earn some easy reputation points.Congratulations again to @Shocker!
Community Favorites and Renowned Writers
You guys met the challenge of our last Project Relaunch status update and gave the Academy its first Community Favorite and Renowned Writer. Record Chaser by our @Claire made it past the 60 reputation threshold. This was a monumental moment for the Academy as this finally put the Community Favorites board into action 10 months after the launch of the forum. Now our Academy can finally work as intended.
Shortly after, our @Vela Nanashi added a new feature to the forum. Now you can earn RC, Ravishment Coins, to unlock stories in the Community Favorites board. Each reputation point you gain for feedback you leave for our authors gets you 100 RC, the exact amount necessary to unlock one story. You want to read @Claire's magnum opus? It's simple. Leave one comment on one other story and gain a single reputation point. And every story that you comment on will stay unlocked for you even when it becomes a Community Favorite.
If you want to make suggestions what else RC could be used for or have a better name than Ravishment Coin in mind, please suggest so here:
Unlocking Stories - An Update to the Reputation System
Congratulations again to @Claire and a big thank you to @Vela Nanashi for making the story-unlock feature possible!
A reading recommendation
Our reading recommendation for this announcement is:
Amy's treatment is a bit of a deviation from @skuttrusk's usual stories. It goes for a less comedic tone and tells the story of a female psychotherapist and one of her male patients retraumatizing another patient of our protagonist. As it turns out, our psychotherapist has a rape kink as well and very little interest in seeing the rape victims who come to her for help actually heal.
The story currently has a rating of 26 and is @skuttrusk's highest rated story on the forum for a reason!
Updating Post Reactions
We also asked you for your input when it comes to updating our post reactions but so far not many of you have chimed in. Your suggestions are very welcome and we want to include you in updating the forum bit by bit!
See you in the next two week update!
That's it from us for today. Show us that you care about the forum by engaging in our challenge and voting in the final of Ravished in a Flash. We made some progress, but the way to becoming a forum that's attractive for authors to publish their stories on is still very long and needs your comments and ratings! With the launch of the Community Favorites board we have the chance to turn this around, but we can't do it alone. Thank you!
