It's mostly been used as a dumping ground for side material to (at the time) ongoing stories or attempts at centralising discussion thereof. That seems about as close to a purpose as I've ever seen.

It's just a text board. No more purpose to it than that. Created just because I could. In a way it's mostly similar to /blue/ and its sister boards in that users were supposed to make whatever they liked out of them. Make of it what you will that /words/ is dead and the most popular threads on /blue/ are (were?) rage threads.

Incidentally, a pet peeve of mine is that the writing advice threads are here and not on /gensokyo/ but I'm not fussed enough to unilaterally do something about it.

I've been wondering, to expand an image in this site you need to click the file name above it, while clicking on the image itself will open it in a new tab. It strikes me as odd because most other chan boards have it the other way around. Any reason why it is different here?

>>22351
Well other things are different as well, such as the catalog, the absence of auto-update of threads when they're open or of the option "do not bump", etc. I think it's because THP runs an old version of the chan's software, but I'm not sure. So I'll wait for someone to confirm this.

>>22351
Board software initially had it set that way. I changed it once (and also added image load on hover over) but a few people complained so I undid it. People here generally don't like change. You could probably do a simple userscript that toggles the function dormant in the javascript that the site loads.

>>22354
Not really a different an 'old version' but there's several imageboard software implementations out there. This one is kinda out of date because the project is more or less dead but it's been somewhat modified mostly by me. Honestly, I'd do a purpose built custom implementation for our needs from the ground up if I had the time or help from other programmers. Not exactly a web wiz either. Limits of running the site as a hobby project, I guess.

>>22350
>Make of it what you will that /words/ is dead and the most popular threads on /blue/ are (were?) rage threads.
Don't be so negative. I for one post in that as a general chat thread, sometimes severely exaggerating my 'rage' just to have something to talk about. I'm sure many others did the same.

I've got a question. What the devil was the point of /coriander/?

>>22357
You could do anything at /coriander/.
Anything at all.
The only limit was yourself.

>>22350
Rage is exaggerating it. It's not like the board's early days where they were a mob with torches and pitchforks and being a shitposting containment board.

These days it's more a place to post so other boards aren't cluttered.

So for real, how soon is "soon"? The mystery of the Mystery Box is killing me.

>>22362
"soon"
Working on it requires both me having time and being in the right state of mind. Though having a few nice drinks to help reach the Ballmer peak sure don't hurt.

>>22360
>>22356
No need to be defensive. Like I said, make of it what you will. The whole point of boards with no purpose is to see what the community does with it. I don't need the history explained to me because I've been here since the start and have been involved in running things since the switch from the original domain. It's why I'm posting with my tripcode instead of anonymously.

>>22359
>>22357
No one ever remembers the third board ;_;

>>22365
Teruyo I have a culture question.

Where did FIFTY YEARS come from?

>>22367
That's stretching the concept of culture a bit. It's not a THP thing, but one of the Touhou Love Stories Bad Ends thing you can find on the wiki. Involves Reisen not catching a break yet again. It's the kind of thing that was semi copy pasta on /jp/ and probably here back in the day.

Years later and still no Reisen route. Shame on everyone.

>>22368
Oh my.
Reverse image search gives nothing, might I inquire where this came from?

I need to know for, uh, science.

Have a Rumia cropped for Pillars of Eternity.

>>22365
Incidentally, is posting on /coriander/ disallowed? I have no intention of doing so, but the question has been nagging at me a bit.

>>22371
Board is locked - can't post on it unless you're a mod/admin.

>>22370
Sorry m8, I crop stuff from things I look at but I don't make a note from what it's from. If reverse image search doesn't do it, you'll have to hope that someone else knows the source. It's not actually Flandre though

So THP has a lot of dead stories, where the writers decided to never update again for one reason or another. Has any random writefag ever tried to necromance a dead story by taking it for themselves, and continue the story where the original writefag stopped? Would doing so be in bad taste?

>>22405
There have been some instances where dead stories got unofficial endings and the like, but I can't think of any instance where someone actually fully took over a story. Most writefags hang out on the IRC, including those long thought dead (HY, Deme, etc.), so you could ask them if you could take over.
I'm not sure about the writefags that are actually the whole way gone, like Owen or Scorn though. That'd be a thing to ask the IRC.

>>22405
It's happened in a couple of cases. There was the Reimu story on /at/ that was started by somebody, abruptly dropped, and then picked up by another writer before it petered out somewhere down the line. I think somebody else even took over for a single update, but I'm not sure what happened there. The other was on a different board, but I can't remember who it was or who did the original story. I just remember a brief argument in the IRC over it because the original writer wanted it to be perma-dead or something.

As to whether or not it's right or wrong, I think that'd depend on who you ask. I say feel free if the story's truly dead and gone. There'll always be people who object, but that's no reason to not do it if you're dead set. Though I would try to be as clear as possible about the shift to mitigate possible shitstorms.

>>22407
ahahahaha good thing I have five years worth of logs. The story in question was X-Communist.

>>22408
Since you have the logs, could you give us a summary of what happened during this necromancing escapade.

>>22408
Ah yes, I remember this in great detail.

>>22410
TL;DR: The story was a originally a collaboration between Rabbit and Demetrious. Clear Your Sights (now known as Clear Sights) decided to take it over since it had gone completely inactive. He consulted with Deme and got an okay, but he didn't talk to Rab. As soon as Rab found out, he took it as a major slight and banned Sights from #THP and ragequit. There was some back-and-forth in the actual thread, and Sights ultimately decided to drop it. Rab un-ragequit, Sights was unbanned, and everybody went back to talking about dicks. The end.

>>22412

Can confirm, that's how it went down. I loved X-Communist, wrote an update for it for kicks, called Demetrious up, showed him what I wrote, and he was all "THIS IS GREAT" and I was "I'M GONNA POST IT" and he was all "OKAY" so I posted it.

Then I showed Rabbit the post when he came onto IRC and he was all "what the fuck did you do" and it turns out he was the dude who wrote the majority of the thing, when I thought it was a more even split between them, so things escalated from there until he banned me and went on a tear.

Past that, well, I missed out on anything Rabbit did while I was out, but things did quiet down eventually.

I honestly wanna see the logs of what happened after I was banned; Rabbit took my 'yay, internet drama' as hostile to him when I meant it more as a "aw great I cocked it up" and then he slew me before I could clarify, so I missed out on all the fun stuff.

>>22412
>>22416
So the moral of this story as I understand it is: Don't necromance any of Rabbit's dead stories because he despises necromancy, but Demetrious and Clear Sites would be totally cool with necromancy.

Did any other writefags get in on this IRC argument, because depending on whose side they took we could see who would be cool with a necromancer reviving their dead stories, just in case anyone ever decides to try it.

>>22417

>Demetrious being cool with necromancy

Eeeeeeeh, nah, nah, that's not the moral of this at all. After all, I went and specifically told him "YO I WANNA DO THIS THING WITH YA" and he was "OKAY" instead of me just going "YO I'M GONNA DO THIS THING AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME" in which case I think he too would have ripped my shit apart.

So basically, if the author's around on IRC or anything, ask before you do anything necromantic. If not, still think very hard on whether it's a good idea or not (it probably isn't, let's be real).

>>22417
The moral is to make damn sure you know who was actually involved in the story before jumping to pick it up.

Anyway, the reason I'm asking about this necromancy stuff is because I thought it might be a nifty way to increase activity around here.

Are you an anon who wants to become a writefag, but are not clever enough to come up with your own CYOA idea? Revive a dead thread, the road is already halfway paved for you.

Are you a writefag that had your story die because you wrote yourself into a corner and can't figure out where to go from here? Let anon get you out of the corner, then take the reins back if you like the results.

Are you a writefag that started writing a story, but it died because it ended up turning out like taking a crap on some paper? Let anon redeem you by polishing your turd, or doing an even crappier job than you did.

Are you a writefag who would love to write, but your stories all died because your life is too busy now for magical girl fanfiction? Let anon continue your stories so your legacy can live on.

Are you a writefag who wants to continue their story, but are having difficulty with writers block or burnout? Go find your favorite dead story and write a few updates for it to get your creative juices flowing again.

So what do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? Any writefags willing to let necromancers revive their dead stories?

>>22420
I don't have to be a veteran to tell you that this shit will backfire hard when anons who don't know how to write butcher lots of abandoned stories just for the sake of it.

>>22420
Honestly, the site needs more readers than writers -- and participating readers at that. Reviving a dead story may or may not pull some people out of the woodwork, but a lot of the principle audience is probably long gone unless it went inactive recently. Not to say that I, as a reader, wouldn't enjoy seeing certain stories continue, but as a writer I do think it's a misguided effort.

That said, it's not like anybody is stopping you in particular from doing it. If you want it to be done, lead by example.

>>22420
I have a few stories that, in one way or another, stopped working for me, so I dropped them. People are totally allowed to resurrect them though I doubt that anyone will. That said, as >>22422 pointed out, we have plenty of writers around, but not many readers. Your idea is awesome but it would not do much for the reader count, unfortunately.

>>22420

I don't want to sound insensitive, but I really don't care who writes a story as long as it's fun to read. If there's a dead story out there your spirit compels you to update, then I say go for it.

>>22422

>needs more reader

I dunno about that. Some stories can see 10-20 votes for some choices, which is pretty amazing. If some stories aren't getting votes, it probably because the choice/story isn't all that interesting.

Either that or the author updates his story to fast and alienates readers who don't religiously check the site that story is on. Sounds pretty far-fetched, but I've seen it happen.

>>22430
I think that kind of mindset puts too much blame on the author. There are countless good stories on the site that don't get a lot of readers. It's pretty discouraging for writers.

>>22431

Another thing is that some Touhous just don't have as large a fanbase as others, so basing a story around such a character isn't going to garner a lot of reader attention. That theory still kinda falls under the overarching theme of "not interesting".

It does take the blame off the author though, so there's that.

I don't even think it's a matter of character popularity in a lot of cases, honestly. Some people just don't stray very far outside of one or two boards, leaving a very scattered reader base for some.

>>22355
The only feature I would love to be integrated is the auto update of threads like on 4chan. That will let a lot of people's F5 keys to last a lot longer.

>>22439
Until Teru implements that, use this: http://www.peteburgers.tk/updatescanner/

You can add each individual thread to it by right-clicking -> scan page for updates. You will be alerted whenever it updates through this.

>>22421
Yeah as there's the matter of gap between original and replacement as it'll be a certainty. Most of the active corp of writers aren't at the same level as those that founded the site.

That and there's some things in stories that the original got away with due to their ability to tell the story. Someone less talented that tries such a thing would fail.

>>22422
If people actually finish stories that would go a long way towards sparking the reading spirit. We got to this point because of constant story droppings, especially by talented writers.

>>22433
And the loop of /th/ which is "It has the most readers" causing people to write there causing "it has the most stories" causing people to focus there.

But they don't consider the sheer clutter, difficulty of writing a /th/ story, and how stories there tend to die by two threads.

The other factor is that not all writers can spread the word of their story compared to others.

>>22477
>If people actually finish stories that would go a long way towards sparking the reading spirit.
If people would get over themselves and read stories regardless of a guaranteed ending, maybe writers would actually have some motivation to finish.

>>22477
>>22478
I think the best curse of action here is both. Readers need to stop just lurking and start voting more, and writers need to keep up with their stories.
We can always meet in the middle right?

>>22477
>If people actually finish stories that would go a long way towards sparking the reading spirit.

Not to be rude... but I call bullshit. I finished my story only a few months after starting it and I was lucky to get more than five votes per update. When I started my second story, I barely got more than two votes per update. So yes, I've literally finished a story (thus proving my motivation to finish), but that didn't change the fact that my second story was pretty much ignored.

>>22481
Was it on /th/? If it wasn't, that was half your problem right there. People seem to barely venture into boards other than /th/ half the time.

>>22481
It'd help if you said what story you finished.

>>22482
/others/, which is almost as popular as /th/. (Or at least, it was back then.)

>>22490
I'd rather not implicate myself or put my work under the microscope.

>>22496
There are only like 2 stories in /others/ that have been completed, so it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out who you are via process of elimination alone.

However, entirely leaving aside who you are, I feel like I must say something to you and every other writefag on this site. What exactly is wrong with only having 5 votes? What exactly is wrong with only having 2 votes? You are writing magical girl fanfiction on an English speaking website dedicated to writing CYOAs about a series that is almost entirely unknown outside of Japan. This website is kind of niche. You are probably not going to be getting double digit vote counts very often. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Fanficiton is an art, and like all art the only person whose enjoyment of it matters at all is the person making the art. As long as you yourself enjoy writing your story, it shouldn't matter how many votes you get. Even if you get zero votes, as long as you yourself are having fun writing it, just convert the CYOA into an actual story and keep enjoying yourself.

If you are writing your story for the sole purpose of getting an enormous amount of votes in order to achieve fame and glory, then the story is doomed. I can tell you right now, massive amounts of votes will not magically make you enjoy writing the story more. There are several stories on this site that were dropped despite having massive amounts of voters. Just look at what happened to Gensokyo High.

Now that's not to say that votes aren't awesome. A whole lot of votes can make a writer feel all tingly inside. But even 1 or 2 votes should still make a writer feel good. As a writer, your story managed to move the hearts of the voters enough to make them want to let you know that you are actually a pretty good guy. Even if you only manage to get one vote, you know that your writing was good enough to brighten at least one person's day, and that should be enough reward for anyone.

But even if you get zero votes at all, it still shouldn't matter. At the end of the day, there is only one person's vote that matters at all. YOUR vote. After every update, there is a very special vote, that only applies to the author and that no one else can ever see or answer. That vote is:

Am I, as the writer, having fun?
[ ] Yes
[ ] No

If you vote yes, then it doesn't matter how many other votes you get or what they voted for. As long as you enjoy what you are writing, then continue to write, no matter what anyone else says. However, if the answer is no, then it is your right to drop the story right there on the spot, even if your story was getting millions of votes. Its your story, and as long as you are having fun, then nothing else matters.

So if you are having fun writing, then keep writing. Even if everyone hates your story and no one ever votes, keep writing. Even if your story is so offensive and terrible that a shitstorm brews up after every update, keep writing. Even if your writing is so ungodly awful that you get permanently banned from posting anything on THP ever again, keep writing with a pencil and paper if you have to. The only reason you should write is for the enjoyment of writing. If you get votes then great, its a nice little bonus to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Just remember, that the only vote that matters is your own. If you yourself vote to keep writing, then keep writing, because you know that you enjoy writing, and that is the most important vote you can ever get.

>>22416
I probably have the logs somewhere if you want them.

>>22417
I actually picked up something else from that experience- and the lesson I learned is to chillax and not get my jimmies rustled due to THE INTERNET.

In unrelated news, I actually also had a sequel kinda-sorta planned for Favors Owed, and it was going to focus on Kisume and the fact that she essentially got framed by Reisen.

I was going to call it Bucket List.

>>22498
According to the story list, there's more than 2. If one isn't willing to reveal their name or story then they don't have much right complaining about it.

A good question: how do you even out your choices so one doesn't sound outright better than the other?

>>22501
I don't know you or your story, nor am I an established writefag, so the following advice is probably garbage should be taken with a grain of salt.

I think that if there's one option that's so much better than the others, then it shouldn't even be a vote in the first place. Find a different point to stop, or consider rewriting the scene to give yourself more room to have a variety of attractive options.

Personally, the majority of the choices I've written boil down to "which touhou do you want to spend more time with/ingratiate yourself to". It's nothing revolutionary, but its something I think anyone can vote on without being up-to-date with the story — like if they don't want to take the time to read the whole update at the moment, but still want a say in the vote before it closes.

I also think that voters can be unpredictable. I've had ties that I didn't expect, and landslides that I should have expected but didn't. Some vote for what's easy, and others enjoy seeing characters struggle. Some choose the simplest or quickest solution, while others speculate and pick something less direct. My point is that different people want different things out of a story, so don't just assume everyone will pick one option because it's the safest, or the smartest.

Hopefully some of that rambling helped you. If not, maybe you could provide some example choices?

>>22501
That's more a question for the writing advice thread, but...

Honestly, if it's a choice of any meaning, you might have to resort to less than subtly hinting at what the consequences are. One thing I tend to do is make sure the lead-up to the vote addresses the choice itself, which often gives me the opportunity to drop such hints. Other than that, try to consider what anon would think is the "safe" choice. If there's something that jumps out as "anon will probably dogpile this", that's a good sign that it probably shouldn't be an option.

>>22501
>>22502
>>22504

I agree with what these two said. If I can add anything, avoid indistinguishable options like "go left" and "go right". If you can't care to make the options more interesting, than the voters won't care to put much thought into it. Unless, of course, that is your plan, and you're writing a lightning fast short update-type story, in which case less-detailed esoteric votes work just fine.

I have heard people joke about a "call out for Tewi" vote, and how doing so is a bad idea. What is this and where did it come from?

>>22533
My memory on the why is hazy, but I'm pretty sure the source of the joke could be Deluge of a Lunar Fantasy.

>>22534
No, it's older than that. If you go back in the archives, that joke appears in 2008/9 threads, and Teruyo's story started later than that. I think. It's been a while since I've looked.

>>22533
Comes from Kira's (hope you're chilling with Yuyuko, man) Misadventures in Gensokyo, wherein calling out for Tewi at one point resulted in being surrounded by hostile Tengu ninja, with expectable results.

>>22536
This is correct. Somehow calling out for a character when you're sneaking around was a bad idea. I wish we'd gotten an explanation for most of those fuck ups. Like, what else would have happened and why.

>>22535
I was contemporaneous to MiG, Forest LA and all that stuff. Among the first non-WuiG story writers. Can't take credit for that meme, though.

>>22533
>>22534
>>22535

I'm pretty sure it's actually from the first run of Misadventures in Gensokyo by Kira.

This thread in particular, if you don't mind a little lack of context: https://www.touhou-project.com/th/res/21967.html#22106

>>22536
>>22537
>>22539

Double ninja'd, appropriately enough.

>>22537
>I wish we'd gotten an explanation for most of those fuck ups.
Let's be realistic. We were both there in those days, and we know those stories were made up as they went. They weren't exactly well-planned. Or at all, in some cases.

To be perfectly brutal, neither are many stories these days. At least going by the meandering and drop rates you can witness around the board.

>>22541
Yeah, I concede the general point about planning. But Kira had plot structures in place and some things he thought up beforehand. At least, going by the couple of times I spoke to him on IRC when #mig was a thing. I vaguely recall a conversation we had when Medicine showed up after the ninja bit which made me believe it wasn't that random. Sadly, we'll never know what was up with the goddamned box.

>>22542
>Sadly, we'll never know what was up with the goddamned box.
As things are wont to be with boxes.

>>22542
"soon"

>>22536
>>22539
Oh, derp. I knew as soon as I posted that I was probably wrong.

I've never read anything that early that carefully, so lord knows I get those stories mixed up all the time.

>>22544
I'm still alive. Unfortunately with Kira it's "never".

>>22544
Not the mystery box on the home page, there was a box plot macguffin in kira's story. Kira is unfortunately no longer with us, as he perished in a car accident on June 8th, 2010.
http://m.nwherald.com/2010/06/08/fatal-harvard-crash-victim-identified/av8dc34/

So no, not "soon".

>>22533
Nice to see people remember such things. I half fear such references would go over people's heads.

So, reading through the writing advice thread, there was mention of a "year long snowball fight" near the end of the thread. Apparently it was an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. What's the story behind this?

what are some of the most influential/legendary stories/events/writers on this site?

>>22711

A difficult question to answer in a way that would hold meaning or value. However, I think

Gensokyo High
A Wizard Is You
Being Meiling

Would be a good starting point that most of us could agree on.

>>22713
Scorn's Forest LA could be added to that list I'd think.

>>22711 To add to this, if you can add some backstory or reason why you think so too.

>>22713 I've actually already read that one. Though I just need to finish Tengu of Misforune at this point.

>>22711
You Wake Up in Gensokyo as the one wot started this entire shitshow.

Misadventures in Gensokyo as the one that showed us that "You can be GM too!"® Also the one story to be officially, irrevocably, irreversibly stalled forever.

And of course your favourite story as the prime example of how not to do a CYOA, you filthy, dumb, shit-tasted newfag. Fie! Fie!

>>22710

I'm just a lowly member of the archive diving club, but since none of the actual veterans seem inclined to answer... read Flight of the Lost Soul. You'll know it when you see it.

It was actually a really good story before Mode dropped the Quantum Leap gimmick, IMHO. We need more of that shit.

Tenshi Is In This Story seems pretty old... But maybe that's because I'm vaguely new here (<1yr) and the style is really old school.

Otherwise, Keymaster's stuff was good. If you haven't read Tengu of Misfortune, read Pleasant Meadows first. They're set in the same universe and there's a bit of continuity I didn't understand in MoF because I hadn't read PM to start with.

>>22717
Was that the one where everyone passed on the Prismriver harem and went boring Yuyucow route?

>>22711
In terms of personal influence, it'd be down to The Game, Fairy on Scarlet Lake, Favors Owed, Forest Mix, and (more recently) Scarlet Tycoon.

Site-wide? What a lot of the others have said: the really early, game-y, full-on CYOA kind of stories. They set the tone for a lot of stories long afterwards. If we're talking more recently, A Wizard is You inspired so many obvious (and many of them short-lived) knockoffs at one point that it started getting irritating. In fact, it's probably the most influential story in recent site history if you look at it from that angle.

...I kind of wish I'd paid more attention to the site a couple of years back.

>>22719

That sounds more like Hakugyokurou LA. But like I said, I've only been here two years.

>>22711

Keymaster is the reason I'm here. YAF, Sukima, EZMode, Hungry Youkai, Patchwork, Lion, Owen/Tepes, S.L.D.T. and Serial ATA are/were all very prolific. And I'd personally consider Fell, Klaymen, Thirty Terawatt Satellite Cannon and Clear Sights to be pretty influential.

>>22719

Why would you do this to me? I've been trying to forget about the lost prismriver orgy for years now.

>>22541
>>22542
MiG was a sort of in the middle, in between a truly freeroamig CYOA and a more story based thing like SDM LA. Naturally, problems came up on both sides.

>>22711
HY must be mentioned as SDM LA influenced and brought alot of people here. But well it's hard for mortals to do a god's job.

>>22718
Not that old, its style is uniquely modern YAF's

>>22721
SerialATA is still writing, just taking a
long time due to A) sort of limited computer access and B) WRITING 5 STORIES AT ONCE!