THIS FILE LAST UPDATED: 23 September, 1992. IF YOU HAVE AN OLD COPY OF THIS FILE, PLEASE REPLACE IT WITH THIS COPY. This is the welcome to the net.fiction.story. The net.fiction.story is an ongoing project in which a group of authors write successive chapters of a story in rotation. The current story is in the fantasy genre and is being posted to the USENET newsgroup rec.games.frp.misc. Here is the full list of writers currently involved, in order. If your name is not already on this list and you wish to take part in the story, please notify me at once. (Also do so if your name is on the list and you want it taken off.) Paul-Michael Agapow agapow@latcs1.lat.oz.au * * * David Mar mar@astrop.physics.su.oz.au K. Mencher unixwiz@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu Dan Johnson Flash@ac.dal.ca Jim Vassilakos jimv@ucrmath.ucr.edu Steve McKee mckee@csd.uwo.ca * NB. Currently on vacation. Skip over these people until further notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following list consists of people who have written for the story, but who have now stopped doing so. Jeff Gostin jgostin@eternal.chi.il.us ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would prefer to use people's real names, but am not particularly fussed if you only supply a pseudonym. What you do when it is your turn to write a part is up to you - it's your story! You will be expected to develop the ongoing plot, using the established characters and perhaps introducing some new ones. Other than that, you are free to do as you wish. There is no advance plot outline for you to follow - only the previously posted parts. There is a separate file which contains continuity information - brief summaries of the characters, places, and things in the story. See that file for further information. Each part of the story should be about 1000--1500 words long. You should not write any more than 2000 words - people tend to lose interest if they have to read more than that much in a single post. There is a two week deadline for the production of new parts of the story. This means that, when your turn comes, you have two weeks from when the previous part is posted to post the next part. When your part is done, you post it directly to rec.games.frp.misc. You should also mail copies of your part directly to me and to the next person on the list (cycle back to the start if necessary). This eliminates the need for me to notify people to get working, especially if the post is somehow missed in r.g.frp.misc. I will do formal notification of deadlines, and enforcement of same. When a part is posted, I will issue the next deadline notice, including the name of the next author, to everybody on the list. This will enable you to keep track of how soon you might be expected to write your next part. I will also mail out an updated list when necessary as new authors decide to join up, or old ones drop out. This file will always contain an up to date list of authors, and can be found as the file 'INTRO' in the anonymous ftp directory rpghelper/net.fiction.story on suphys.physics.su.oz.au (129.78.129.1), along with all previous parts of the story. If you miss your deadline, you lose your turn until next time around. This will be _strictly_ enforced, to ensure that this net.fiction.story does not die of apathy like the last attempt. If your deadline is missed due to Circumstances Beyond Your Control, you may be promoted up the list afterwards to compensate. When you post your parts of the story, you must use a subject header of the following form: Subject: STORY: net.fiction.story Part When you post, you must include your name (indicating that you have written the part). You may also include a copyright notice if you wish. This is to ensure your legal rights to what you have written. If you decide to include a copyright notice, it must have the form: Copyright Note that the pseudo-symbol (C) has _no_legal_meaning_. At the end of each part, please append this trailer: ---- The net.fiction.story is a communal effort to create a great story. If you wish to take part (Please do!) send mail to mar@physics.su.oz.au for more info. Talent not required, but appreciated. Previous parts are up for anonymous ftp in ASCII and compressed format in the directory rpghelper/net.fiction.story on suphys.physics.su.oz.au (129.78.129.1) (You can extract it directly from this file.) If you wish to drop out of the story for any reason, including vacation or loss of account, _please_ e-mail me so that there will be no delay to the story's production. If you return after a vacation, I will try to place you further up the list if you have missed any turns. Every three parts, I will edit a collection of parts for an archival edition to be posted to rec.games.frp.archives. I will correct any obvious spelling and grammatical typos, and reformat the physical layout to make it look nice and consistent, but will not change anything else. If you have any objections to this, please contact me and we can make arrangements for you to approve/disapprove any changes I may want to make. Small revisions can be made by each author to his/her own part at any time before I post the archival version. I will do the posting of the final version to r.g.f.archives. If there is anything else you'd like to know, at any stage, or if you have any suggestions for updating this file, just drop me a message. David Mar mar@astrop.physics.su.oz.au