Kommunity Chat Story Time Guidelines

Story Time organizational guidelines:

• Arrange and announce each story time well in advance on THIS discussion thread. Do NOT make a post in the general forums -- I, Lilian Brandon, will edit the existing post I first made in the KBE forum threads, since an existing post gains more views.
• Always specify time both in your local time and in UTC!!!!
  Convenient time zone converter.
• For a while before story time, hang around in kommchat to get people interested in storytime and to direct them to the off-site chat room.
• For a smooth story time, there are three roles main rolls besides the storytellers -- Master of Ceremonies/MC, messenger, and scribe -- see descriptions below. MC and messenger roles can easily be done by one person.
• When a story is being told, chatter should be minimal in order to make the story easier to follow. Reactions to the story ("oooh!" "oh no!" "What happened next?" or emoticons) are fine as long as they're not excessive.
• If people are reacting/commenting excessively, the MC will say so. Do NOT feel the need to shush people yourself.
• After each story there will be an intermission.
• Aim for a total story time of about 1 hr (roughly 4-5 stories), unless everyone wants to hear more.

Story Teller guidelines:

• Keep it relatively short (could be told in 15-20 min or typed in ~1-2pg)
• Keep it original and/or anecdotal -- no fan fiction, because that's no fun for people who don't know the original story.
• Make it interesting! If you're going to tell a personal story, embellish it some. :)
• Keep it family friendly.

MC guidelines:

• Start up the off-site chat room. (See instructions below; anyone can start it since it's not dependent on invites, but it is best for the MC to start it early so people know they've found the right place.)
• Take a "show of hands" a few minutes before official start time, both for storytellers and listeners.
• Explain story time guidelines regarding intermissions and chatting (see above).
• Decide storyteller order (either at the beginning or along the way).
• Announce the beginning and end of intermissions. (Feel free to be creative -- eg "dimming the lights" when the storyteller has the floor, and "raising the lights" when s/he is done.)

Messenger guidelines: 

• Announce the start of story time in komm chat, referring them to the forum post for info and telling them to PM you for how to get to the chat room.
• If someone PMs you asking about info on how to join in, relay the instructions below (see "How to join chat room").
• Once story time is underway, ping main chat at intermissions saying "Hey! A bunch of us MBs are telling stories real-time, message me if you want to know how to join!" or something to that effect.

Scribe Guidelines:

• Copy the story during storytime using the method of choice (copy-paste line-by-line as it happens, wait til the end of the story and then copy the whole thing, whatever).
• Clean up the story into paragraph format (get rid of usernames, icons, inserted remarks, etc).
• Correcting spelling and grammar is fine, as is modifying punctuation here and there to make sentences less choppy, but don't make major edits -- you want to maintain the original.
• After storytime, either message me with the body of the story and name of the storyteller so I can post it in here, or post it yourself as a new discussion. Posting guidelines (for consistency):
  • Discussion title format: KCST (insert appropriate number here): "<Title>" by <author (beast name)>
  • Begin the body of the story with "As told by <author>", with the author's name linked back to the author's page -- the reason for this is that some people change their username, so this is a more permanent record of who told the story.
  •  Tags: tag the story with the key words in the story title, the author's name, and the author's beast name.

Using the off-site chat room: 

The chat site we will use for storytime is mibbit.com. It does not require any account to use and works on mobile devices. Anyone can initiate the chat room, since it's dependent on the channel name only, not an explicit invite. To use:

• Our channel name will always be #KCST (hashtag must be included).
• On the front page of mibbit.com, to the right of the frog, you will see "Want to try Mibbit without an account?" with a "Launch App" link below it.
• Click the "Launch App" link.
• Enter your Komm name in the "Nick" box -- you may need to shorten it, but keep it recognizable.
• Enter #KCST in the "Channel" box.
• Click "Connect". You should then be connected with the chat room along with everyone else.