thebrinkoftime

I don't know where I read it, but I seem to remember that somebody said that the forum software does not currently allow for likes on Stories reviews, and that the software is different for e-books vs. stories. But then in another place, somebody asked about editing reviews and replies to reviews and I believe I remember reading that it was something that might come in an update to the forum software, so maybe along with that change, there's a possibility once the forum software is updated, but not until then?

I'm no good with horror games either. People are all like, "You should play Amnesia: The Dark Descent!" And I'm all like, "No, you should play it...and I'll watch." When I say I love the Resident Evil series, what I mean is that I love playing the not-so-scary bits and leaving the rest to other people who can hold the controller more steadily than I can while being eaten to death by zombies. I remember trying to get through the first Fatal Frame/Project Zero/Rei game and all you have to do is enter a house and start exploring as The Guy from the Prologue who Will Clearly Meet His Doom Before the Real Main Character Comes In and all I'm doing is walking down a dark corridor. But the atmosphere is just too thick. It's dark and grainy and the noises are unsettling and I feel like I'm walking down the corridor to hell. There was no combat. No ghosts. No monsters. Just me and a hallway. And I couldn't hack it. Had to quit not 5 minutes in. I'm even worse with horror movies. Other people will be laughing or shouting, "Go downstairs, dumbass!" and I'll be there with my hands over my eyes squirming and writhing around like a beaten snake. Has anyone here ever had the super-unsettling experience of playing The Dark Eye? Edgar Allen Poe stories told with freaky wax dolls who have no pupils in their eyes? Here was my reaction to that.

It seems a shame to limit it to seven participants though. Maybe there should be some other guidelines on length and such as well? I have a prompt story I've been working on for a while that has a spooky/Hallooweenish theme to it that would work under "Curse." Seems like a good idea, but maybe a little more organization and information is needed?

I remember one time when I was reading a Calvin & Hobbes strip, I mused that I wanted to fly a plane into the clouds at supersonic speeds to see the origin of lightning with my own eyes. Also, why on earth is there a law that you must have a tree in your yard? And why is that law bisexual?

I'm glad to hear you were able to get into the story, even if it took a little bit -- I was hoping that would be the case for most people. I'm not actually a creative writing major, but I majored in literary and linguistic history and criticism. So my stories come about as a response to things I like or don't like in other stories I read. That's why I found it interesting to say it reminded you of the Japanese novels your daughter reads, because that was my primary inspiration, at least on a conscious level. The Snoopy bit is based on a real-life friend's Snoopy obsession and my own fondness for Snoopy (I have about ten different Snoopy shirts). A hearty thank you for taking the time to review, sir! Much obliged!

Thanks for the comments! They are definitely appreciated. When you say I am in dire need of an editor/beta readers, I'm still curious. Originally this story had around 5000 more words to it, but for some reason whenever I copied it in, a lot of it would disappear, so I had to anchor my word processor in one window and re-type all the words into the other window to get it all in. In the process, I cut a lot out -- details on the sisters, as well as Yuki and Kaede's relationship, the nature of the Yakuza families, other rooms they venture into and a subplot about a surly robot. I'm wondering if the story comes off as disjointed and awkward without all the extra details or it was ultimately better that I ran into those problems? I hate sloppiness with a passion and usually always leave enough time to take a step back and re-edit my work several times with fresh eyes on different days. Unfortunately this story only got five or so drafts. So as a punishment to myself I told myself I wouldn't perform a thorough edit on all the new typos and mistakes that resulted from re-typing it until a week later -- to take all the lumps that came from rushing it to submission. It's mostly edited now though. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I must confess I don't watch much anime, but I do read a lot of manga alongside regular literature, so it's interesting to read how people saw some of the unconscious influences on my writing choices.

That's a really cool way of interpreting it! Though I had IF in mind, I definitely welcome and encourage other ways of seeing stories and this is probably the most surprising I've seen! Thank you for sparing a moment to review!

Thank you so much for reviewing! I thought it might be a breath of fresh air to read a differently formatted story, so I gave this a try. And the sisters really are terrible, aren't they? While writing, I was kind of surprised as well that they turned out so nasty; it was pretty spontaneous.

I like these ones that begin with a line or a piece of dialogue so much. The story just springs up in my mind instantly when I read those. Friday the 13th is also a fabulous theme for a prompt! Unfortunately, I'm still working on a series of prompt responses from four weeks ago, because my tendency for perfectionism won't let me post them yet, but I hope to get around to both of these someday, somewhere, on some planet.

Lively little Pacari, a port town by the knolls, And a stop down the long wagon road, Is known to be cheerful and bright A place to settle for a good sleep's night The inhabitants are ruddy, shapely and rude Honestly, traveler, they mean no harm Their spirits are fillered with the wind and the breeze Their shocking vocabulary? No cause for alarm! But of late the citizens of this city Were upsetish, irate, really quite busery Infernal storms hemmed, hawed Circled skies, brought forth m

When the good people of the fishing town Pacari are beset by endless storms and their livelihood ruined, an unexpected guest brings surprising news, a possible solution and an invitation to adventure. It does contain gay themes, but these take a while to appear, so I ask for your patience.

"There's your boat! Go left! Go left!" "OMG! This controller's so gross, why is this controller so gross?" "That's me seven times a day in my car." "He's got a life expectancy of eight seconds." "Who needs Wade? Has he contributed anything so far? Toothless meth tweaker." "How do we get to the strip club?" "It just looks like she's having some sort of insulin shock seizure." "You know what, my erection broke my fall." "Wait I just got shot and I went to the hospital? This is sort of a pro-Obama Care message. He just got shot and went to the crappiest-looking hospital in the world and an hour later he's walking around." "Kick me out of the strip club and I come back with a missile-firing chopper."

Respectable fathers and mothers, respect your respectable sons and daughters. Respectable daughters and sons, respect your respectable mothers and fathers. To all the people who can't learn to respect or become respectable citizens, we can ship them off on big rockets to Mars fend for themselves. They can either drink while watching Fox News and complain about their children, trade One Direction memes on tumblr all day while ignoring their parents, both generations dying off in great big circles of iniquity and flatulence; or they can decide to eat carrots and forge their own moon colonies together for the greater good. Meanwhile, we'll be safe on Earth without them.

Really? There's many that are much weirder. Also, it's certainly an interesting trend that all the Harry Potter stars tend to appear in adult comedy situations like these:

Sounds like a topic I could make for a blog post: "How I Learned to Relax and Love the Hiragana." I'll give it a good thinkthrough and perhaps make a post on it in the near future.

Hmmm, I guess this wouldn't be so much politics as it is history. Well, I can't give you much of a consensus on what the thoughts are on the royal family, because it varies as much as it might be on any other public figure, but the general image I have is one of my respect and interest. If the Emperor and his family do anything, I find I am interested in it slightly more. Though the current crown prince set for succession is kind of a goofy guy and it kind of feels like...never mind, I shoudn't go there. Of course I know who the current Emperor, crown princes and princesses are. You can find tabloid stories about them running all the time. I never read tabloids, but they have advertisements for the new issues that hang from the ceiling on trains with big red letters ("The young princess is being bullied at school! See the shocking news and how her mother is handling it!" and so on and so forth). I was recently quite touched by Princess Takamado's speech (she's not the daughter of the current emperor, but rather the wife of the son of the Taisho Emperor) at the assembly for the decision of Olympic Games, and it seems I wasn't the only one. I remember many years ago when a new member of the royal family was born, you could stand in line to get a chance to see them at the old royal police in Kyoto and my parents made me go with them; I was excited about seeing real royalty in person, but it was boring for a kid to wait so long, so I played Gameboy most of the time. And of course with the earthquake two years ago, they were pretty instrumental in helping drum up hope and morale for the victims.

Meet Bella and Bubbles, aka my heroes. Apparently, they are best friends. Bubbles the elephant was rescued when her parents were killed for their tusks and now she lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in a park effort which seems to be dedicated to endangered animals. Now she lives with her best bud, Bella, and the two have their fun in the sun playing their lively game of catch. Rumor has it that Bubbles is a famous element, having appeared on screens silver and otherwise before, but as you can see, she doesn't let it go to her head.

I eat sushi nearly every day though and usually the stuff I can get from convenience stores or the supermarket for less than the equivalent of five dollars. I do have to say the average cheap sushi here tastes better than what I have in the US, but that's probably because it's in higher demand over here so they have more incentive to compete on taste. I was thinking of translating kuri as chestnut, because that's what I'd learned. Then the editor in me made me look it up and I saw that the type I know seems to be native to Japan and Korea only, so I hesitated to translate it that way. I've never had chestnuts from other regions, I wonder what the difference is?

As of the time of this entry, they say that our little rock in the cosmos has somewhere between 192 and 196 countries on it, apparently, depending on how you argue it. It is tricky to know what it's like to be somebody living in any of these countries, especially if you haven't done it yourself. My country has enjoyed a rather infamous history since it became more widely known to the world. Some people say they love it. Some people express less enthusiastic thoughts. Some people like the way it is today. Some people like the way it was yesterday, better. Sometimes I'd like to ask them how they make their decisions. One thing that doesn't seem to change though is that certain reliable images and stereotypes come to mind whenever we talk about people from countries different than our own. And to an extent, that's cool. Without those old reliables, it might be tricky for our minds to deal with the complex task of coming to terms with the different aspects of different cultures, or so say some social scientists. To another extent though I feel like there's a lot of room for someone to come in and talk about all the many things that don't seem to catch anyone's attention outside our country -- about the jazz, the news, the laughter, the balconies, the food and the gas station attendants who aren't very popular and don't seem to be widely known by any people other than other Japanese. I feel like if I introduced these things from my perspective, it might give people with little familiarity (or even a lot of it in a certain area) a different perspective. So unfortunately, this blog won't be about the usual things you might hear about like samurai and ninja, yakuza and geisha, crazy fads and wacky TV shows, anime and video games, or cute J-Pop idols. What will it be about then? All the many other things one can talk about! For instance: -What's it like to be a fluent speaker of English and Japanese, and how it tends to change the way I think when I switch gears from one to the other, the niggling problems I find in communicating certain ideas when I'm not speaking Japanese -What's it like to grow up in Japan as a Japanese boy -A little elucidation on what I feel is some misinformation about the gay experience in Japan, though with help from friends who are living it -Entertainment and art you usually don't see shared or introduced outside of non-Japanese sites -Explanations of ideas you might find rather different from the ones you might be exposed to daily -Introductions to Japanese literature I find enticing and translations of selected excerpts from these Among many other things. The focus will be on positivity. One thing it will not be is a place for me to talk about international or Japanese politics or economics. These are great weak points for me. I have no idea what I'm talking about whenever I'm talking about these things, so I feel it best to let them be. One goal is to create an image for you of what one type of Japanese today looks like. If I can be helpful in expanding your image, I hope even to be helpful to writers who like to incorporate ethnicities into their stories for which they have little real life experience in knowing. So if you have any questions or requests for topics you would like to cover, I'm happy to oblige. However, I am just one Japanese 20-something male. I can't claim to be an expert on anything. (Other than children's literature, of which I have devoted an obscene amount of time in trying to be an expert on, but to which I feel like I'm still far from expertise level.) So that's the point. In a kuri shell. What's a kuri? It's a nut, here take a look: In the autumn, it is popular to eat many themed dishes and sweets based on these. You can sometimes get kuri-flavored potato chips, or pastries with kuri in them, or salads with kuri. Some of the best kuri are said to come from Ibaraki Prefecture (roughly translated as Thorn Castle Prefecture) in Mito City (again, roughly translated as Water Door City, because it's close to the sea). If you are a nut addict and ever come to Japan, it would probably be the best place to hit up nutty delicacies and is about an hour or two eastbound train ride away from Tokyo. This autumn, I hope to eat many delicious kuri! With that I'll leave you with one more image: It is a work by an artist at Pixiv, the popular Japanese art-sharing site. The title of the piece is Hitogoto or "Somebody Else's Problem" or even "Not My Problem." I like it very much and I was going to use it as my avatar, but it doesn't scale down well. If you want to see it and the artist's other works, you can go here. Though if you want to see it in much larger, more detailed form, you must sign up for the site as a user. (When you click on the image to enlarge it at the site, if you can read the options that say Facebook or Google among the gobblydegook you do not know, those are the options to sign up using those accounts. If you want to join pixiv, and need help understanding the process, go ahead and ask in the comments.) Be careful of places that have the numbers "18" on them, however. Pixiv is not an adult-oriented site, but it has a lot of adult content. That's it for now! See you again later! Good night and good luck!

If you read a story with a chapter called Dear God on a site called Gay Authors, three possibilities come to mind. 1) It's a story about a child speaking to God. 2) It's a story about a parent speaking to God. 3) It's a story about a confused and angry person speaking to God. (I'm sure there are others, but those are the three I can think of.) Whatever the possibility, a character speaking to God suggests that they are at their wit's end, and are relying on, or striking out against a power they believe to be either far stronger or much falser than they, to help them. So, because I am at my wit's end at thinking of how to write a review to do justice to this story, I will mimic the author. Dear God, Thank you for giving us the writer named Graeme. Many writers forget what's it like to be children and create sneaky, false youngsters who do not resemble the real thing at all. It does a disservice to children and adults alike. That is why I'm thankful for Graeme. Certainly, this writer remembers what it is like. Thank you also for inspiring Graeme to keep the limits of the child's understanding at a child's level, but at the same time not underestimate how wise that limited understanding can be. Thank you for the clever way he points out the hypocrisy of people who preach hate in the name of love, without making them out to be demons doing it on purpose. Thank you for the wit invested in the power and glory of people devoted to deluding themselves and what a powerful effect it can have on the mind. Thank you for helping writers like these understand that God Himself isn't the bad guy, it's the way people interpret His intent that brings us problems. Thank you for the compassion and diligence shown by the author in approaching the other side of a deep abyss, without the anger or rancor that only deepens that abyss. I wanted to let you know, God, that I thought it awfully nice how you inspired Graeme to think of a little child who humorously believes they need to repeat their doubts to both God and Jesus (when an adult might criticize the little one for being redundant), or fervently believes in the power of the word "amen" to end prayers. I really like how you guided Graeme's hand to deftly touch on a number of issues without coming across as preachy or pretentious. Thank you, God, for protecting the ears of the little on in this story; it's better to misunderstand words like that than it is to learn their true meaning. But last of all, God, I wanted to ask you to help more people, whether through this story or others, or any number of other means, to tilt their ears, bend down and listen to a child's voice more often. Guide their hearts and minds to open both ears and hear the words that are spoken out of a desperate desire for the truth to be known. But more than all of this, I ask you to help reunite the Mummys and the Daddys with the Tommys and the Brads, or the Catherines and Julies, so that they can do their natural job as mentors to people who are searching for love, no matter the human vessel that may contain it. Amen!

That reminds me of some past internet adventures I've had. *hum this next part to the Star Wars scrolling blue text theme, it will make it better* Long, long ago, in a forum far away, somebody found a peculiar political discussion site. Everyone there had really bizarre political views and nobody used proper grammar, so terms like President Bush just became "bush." A young and reckless thebrinkoftime registered there to screw around with the residents. He called himself lolzpowermysoulz. This young rapscallion would post clueless things. Like in the aforementioned bush threads, "y u hatin on woman's anatomy, not their fault they like it thick" or "the burning bush is a + image in the bible, respect god's word, god dammit." Or in rather scandalous gay threads, he would post using the old meaning of the word like, "want to have gay time at bbq 2nite, pls advise" or "gay experiences in movie thtr, what's urs?" and not one single user would pick up on it. And then there were the times when it way over their heads and hit a dart board behind them, like in gun control topics where he posted things like, "pc mouse or dual analog, even waggle, all can be valid, respeck others, peace out." As people became suspicious, lolzpowermysoulz used the "I'm 12 and what is this" tactic to defer suspicion, which galvanized the residents into a sympathetic effort to indoctrinate the young one into their views. But even the strangest customers can sometimes catch on and although it was a long time before they found out the true meaning of a username like lozpowermysoulz, when they did, it started an interforum war that would be a tale for the ages.

I didn't understand this one myself. Could it be that people are embarrassed by how much they post or they think people will put undue weight on the poster's opinion if they have more posts compared to a "noob"? If so, I don't think the latter problem exists here and the former doesn't strike me as something to be embarrassed about. If you had 10,000 posts on the forums of a specialty shopping site for bouncing, flashing dildos, maybe I could see being slightly embarrassed, but here? Nah. For my part, I always like putting in joke suggestions that aren't meant to be taken seriously (like the 420 suggestion) and I fully intend to always post a "Mann Ramblings is a sexy, sexy man" joke in all of these types of topics.

No sir, I don't like it. "Specifically, how does an author relate history in a story of another character that isn't the main POV? This was especially important, as he wasn't known to the main character at the point where his actions impacted the plot, and the story was written in third person limited. So there wasn't a logical way to simply introduce him to the reader by showing a scene in the present timeline." Eh? Depending on the story there are myriad ways of doing this. Subterfuge: Diaries, letter correspondence, snooping on their cellphone. Dialogue brought about by the character who would stand to know something about them. Depending on the genre, police reports, crystal balls, captain's logs, investigation notes, psychic visions, Pensieves, news articles, people gossiping about them. And then there's the simple option of keeping it a mystery and letting the new character reveal it, or force the reveals to happen as the new character interacts. There is also the option of changing the narration with some sort of drastic plot device or prose trick, which can be gimmicky, but also can be ingenious and fresh for the readers. For instance, you could advance the time many years into the future where the character is already familiar with the new character and it gives a hint of how their relationship progressed, as well as information on what our main character knows now that they didn't when the main timeline progresses; this has the added advantage of introducing a layer of dramatic irony when it goes back to the main timeline.There are plenty of logical ways to incorporate this without using flashbacks. I think the recent distaste toward flashbacks tends to come from their overuse in movies, TV shows and video games. However, the reason they seem to be so maligned is because many critics are bemoaning the fact that in a visual medium there are much richer ways of conveying character information and increasingly more and more directors are "cheating" with flashbacks, which stunts their growth as directors and cheats the viewer out on a richer visual storytelling experience. This is not a problem at all in written fiction. The problem in written works seems to come entirely from shifting character perspectives in genre fiction. That is, many readers don't appreciate being thrust suddenly into somebody's elses story or perspective when the reason they started reading is for the main character. It is often overused as a means of creating suspense -- leave on a cliffhanger and switch to another character. While it's true that a story could possibly mean little without readers to read it, it's also true that being slavishly devoted to only pleasing your readers is frequently not the best way of creating the best stories. Simply thinking it through and weighing the pros and cons, and getting a second opinion before it goes public, are the best remedies to this situation, that I've found. I also disagree intensely with all three of those rules. But this is not surprising for me. There are very few storytelling rules I agree with in the first place. In the case of number one, I vehemently disagree. One of the strengths of using a flashback is their use as a means to disorient and confuse the reader, at least at the beginning. This can keep the narrative fresh and exciting, preventing it from entering a slump in longer works, if you will. As the flashback continues, the reader begins to understand that A) it is a flashback and B ) where the flashback is coming from. Requiring it to be linked would spoil the surprise. Some of the greatest literary flashbacks I've ever read are when it is not clear at first that it is a flashback until you run into some detail that contradicts the current timeline. Also, personally, I find linking it to a device often comes off as chintzy and tacky and is hard to do well. As for number two, my personal reaction to that is a strongest possible no! No, a thousand times no. Another reason the flashback has probably fallen out of favor with some is this. It only seems to be used lately to forward the plot. It's not creative usage of a flashback. There are many other great uses that have no function on the plot or story. Sometimes a flashback simply provides a contrast with which the reader can compare the setting or mental state. Sometimes it is simply there to add to an element of the surreal or the bizarre to the narrative -- most infamously used in the "life flashes before your eyes when you die" sequences. Sometimes it is there to help the tone of a sequence, to give it a nostalgic or lyrical quality, this would be the flashback as prose device, not plot device. Sometimes a flashback is used to reveal something that is only relevant to that character's theme, but not important to the plot. Sometimes it is simply there to reflect and further enforce the character's unstable mental state. Sometimes it is used in a particularly ingenius way wherein we don't have the slightest clue why we're having this flash back until many, many pages later when it suddenly becomes blazingly clear why it is relevant and why the character had the flashback at the time. Sometimes the best parts of a novel or a piece of written fiction are areas that practically nobody understands why they are there and argue endlessly over whether they are necessary or not. As for number three, I find myself shaking my head at that as well. It's simply not necessary and may be a boon to the originality of the storytelling if it isn't used. Say the person has a flashback at the mall, thinks about it the entire way home in the car and we pick up when they enter the house, with a character saying, "Something on your mind? You've been quiet ever since we left the food court." There's nothing particularly wrong with that. Say the flashback is simply the end piece to a long series of paragraphs of internal thought by the character as they cool down on the weekend and when it's over, the story picks up again on Monday. I see no reason to follow this rule, because it doesn't avoid anything particularly bad in storytelling, other than some misguided sense that we need to coddle readers along because they can't think for themselves. The best usage of this is when you're thrown into a flashback and it turns out that flashback memory is actually in the future of the narrative, that the character's future self was just flashing back for a moment. These scenes are particularly tricky to pull off, but they are so wonderfully rich and full of writing pleasures when they are done well. The only advice I would give any writer about flashbacks don't have any rules attached to them: 1) If you're writing a piece where suspense (what will happen next) is the only thing keeping the reader from stopping, because your story has no other redeeming elements, and you're afraid of adding flashbacks because they will ruin it, consider rethinking the whole thing before that, so that there are other redeeming elements to your story. 2) If you're concerned flashbacks will slow down the pace you've set for the story, pay particular attention to their length and the ease of which we slip and slide out of them. 3) If you find yourself wondering whether you use flashbacks too often, ask yourself why you're putting them in. If there is no answer, it might be prudent to simply set your story in multiple time periods and ditch the constant flashbacks. And I don't mean to be a Grinch, but I find the example above to be in bad taste, because it sounds like some in-joke or meet cute from a third-rate romantic comedy that flops at the box office and only your babysitter who smells of cat litter ever watches. It also violates the author's own rule, in that I can't see how it forwards the story at all (not that I think it needs to, but if you're going to write an example...). If you write the same scene and let the reader knit their eyebrows at why anyone would laugh at such a corny line, and it becomes obvious later that the couple enjoys repeating corny lines they've used in their relationship as part of their character portrayal, that's a classier way of approaching the same subject matter, at least to me. To me, there should be very few writing rules. Flashbacks need not be used sparingly, or with any particular adherence to any kind of rule or guideline. Doing so can remove the fun and spontaneity of the device.

Well, there are lots of things one can draw on to write about experiences they aren't familiar with. I used to be quite scared of spiders; I still am, but I've gotten braver. Many times, I have approached and killed a spider with a heavy book, then picked it up with a wad of paper and threw it in the trash. The first few times I did it were when I started living alone and could not rely on anyone else -- these were the hardest and took the longest. I even bribed my neighbors -- paid them to do it for me a couple of times. Nowadays I see a spider and unless it's incredibly ugly and huge and crawling toward me, trying to eat me up and spit me out, I try to ignore it until it goes away or else kill it quickly. I don't feel nearly as much fear or trepidation. I use my memories. I remember when I used to dash through the dense forest, running after my friends and suddenly plunge into a mammoth spider web and have the thing crawl all over me. I remember finding eggs underneath someone's couch and poking it, when to my dismay dozens of little spiders came running out. I remember being in the bathroom when I was fourteen, when a spider straight hopped into my underwear as I was putting it on. I compare that to my experiences in the last few years and whenever I have to write something that the character's are afraid of, something they desperately do not want to do, about something that makes them uncomfortable, about somebody they find who is disgusting, about getting used to their fear and becoming braver, I reflect on my experiences with spiders. It doesn't matter whether I'm writing about a character confessing their love or a character afraid they won't have any ice cream left to gorge on when they get home, I transfer my feelings in one kind of experience to help me write about something I've never experienced before. So when it comes to gay characters coming out I feel like I have to remember many things. The feeling I've had before when a secret of mine gets found out. How angry I can get when a child in one of the classes I've taught almost puts themselves in danger. The strange emotion I feel when I talk in a group of friends and bring up something important to me and they seem to ignore it, caught up in another conversation. The weird arguments I've seen on the internet where people religiously debate who could beat up the other, Superman or Goku. All of this comes in handy to me when writing a coming out scene.

I participate in this one other forum and it gets really ridiculous, people hang on to their vendettas against you (whether they are based on reality or their mistaken impression) and others just neg you if you express an opinion even slightly different from theirs. These functions can be ludicrous. Like a certain pop star? Well, I don't! Neg! Use an expression that irritates me? Neg! Didn't laugh at your joke? Neg! That's not a healthy way to act. It also might promote elitist behavior. It's easier to fall into than you'd think. I don't think anyone wakes up one day and says, "I'm going to be an elitist from now on." The transition can be kind of subtle. Long time forum members in any place know the unwritten social rules of the place (one of those shows up in this very thread) and new members don't necessarily, unless they are newbies who have lurked for a long time. If newer members don't follow these rules and get negged for it, what can happen is that members who are used to the atmosphere here assume everyone should know these unwritten social rules. Some members will be clever and courteous in letting the new ones know, others might just use the neg button and the person would have no clue what they're supposedly doing wrong, giving them mixed signals, so to speak. I felt this in real life when I didn't have a clue about a lot of gay issues until I found myself drawn in the world. For instance, I assumed that gays being just as human as anyone else, there would be conflicts among them, but I had no idea there were problems that arose about your level of "gayness" or whether bisexuals were "truly" bisexual -- I assumed that homosexuals had too many other problems caused by their sexual identities to get into stuff like that. I'm pretty sure that more and more members are catching on to the fact that I love to joke around and in real life, my humor has no boundaries, so there's always a shaky period where I'm trying to get used to just where the boundaries are in a new place -- to me and my circle of friends it's always obvious it is a joke because very few decent people would ever say something like that. If I hadn't known about these issues, I may have made a joke I thought I was harmless, something potentially insensitive like, "Are you sure you are bi or are you just cheating to get more action?" Another example is the plight of transgendered people or those with gender identity issues. Especially in Englsh, it's really easy to use terms like "Stop being such a little girl about it!" or "Man up!" or "Grow a pair of balls!" and not realize how those terms came to be or how potentially damaging they can be to people's psyche. Many many just assume that such expressions are nowhere near damaging because they've not swear words or insults, per say (those three in particular are often used to encourage someone to do something) and they've never encountered a situation that pointed that out to them. I'm thinking GA wants to be welcoming even to people who aren't yet very informed about gay experiences and act as a pleasant place where they can get informed without being harassed. So my point is negging people for insensitive or ignorant behavior won't go very far in ameliorating the problems with that behavior. In fact, it just seems like an open invitation for problems. I can't imagine that the mods and admins have to deal with complaints about likes very often. ("People aren't liking me enough! Discipline them!") Also, no I haven't been here very long, nor do I read all of the forum threads, but I don't see a whole lot of behavior that would truly warrant giving negative feedback for. And in the small amount of cases where I've tilted my head and thought, "What was that?" I can imagine that leaving that to the people in charge is a much better idea. In each case, I'm not sure what went on behind the scenes, but each thread got back on track and everyone was quite civil. So if we did re-implement a negging system, then I would be for it only if it was at the sole direction of the mods and admins. Maybe it would show up in the user's status bar as a replacement of the warning system. "A mod/admin negged your post in this thread." (Maybe anonymously for them too, so they don't have to deal with angry users who try to PM them every single time it happens.) That way the user could reflect and use their own discretion on what the directors of the forum's behavior guidelines thought objectionable. (Maybe I'm using too many swear words lately? Maybe I'm being too aggressive? Maybe I should more sensitively state my opinion in a debate thread? Maybe I need to stop policing threads? Maybe I need to put on more deodorant in the morning?) And the mods could save themselves a bit of time. But we already have the warning points system and it seems to me (I don't know, I'm just guessing) that the purpose of that was to keep reputation as a positive indicator and the warning points as the negative one. That seems like a good way to do it to me.