Reference Stacks
Why Content Gets Deleted
MASSIVE EGO: Author mistook him/herself for a celebrity and this website for his/her own TV show.
This is a catch-all category for megalomaniac behavior that goes beyond NO CHOICE or CAT PEE. To put it in metaphorical terms, I'm talking about users who set up storefronts in my living room and front yard and proceed to ignore that they're guests on my turf.
This includes...
Role playing as your favorite TV character in a Question & Answer format. This is the mildest form of the malaise. I'm only cracking down on it because such "stories" got out of hand in so many wrong, wrong ways. The Story Engine just doesn't lend to that kind of interaction. Chapters would sprout 100+ paths, some of which just said "Ask a question", some of which were questions, and some of which were just plain BBS chatter. Simply put, Q&As became breeding grounds for more site misuse. And the personalities got out of control in disturbing ways.
Taking requests. Massive Egotist would set up a story whose first chapter was nothing more than, "What [TV Show] character do you want me to write about?" Then the paths were lists of names. This fomented an environment wherein Massive Egotist encouraged his/her fans to think themselves somehow unable of writing their own stories, and wherein the paths multiplied as Massive Egotist's fans attempted to win Massive Egotist's favor by shouting out character names with lots!!! of!!!! exclamation!!!! points!!!!!!.
This kind of interaction should take place off site. Massive Egos should use their own web space or a BBS to encourage email requests, and then post the story - and only the story - to the CYOA Story Engine. The chatter that leads up to the story only clutters the site and ought not to take place here.
And then there's collecting fan mail in general. Feel free to post your email address to the "About the Author" section and let folks tell you offsite how much they adore your writing. Or get a paid account (when I make that available) so that your chapters will have a feedback form at the bottom. But I won't tolerate Massive Egos' encouraging their swooning fans to misuse the path entry forms or fishing for compliments in the chapters.
Again, I don't want to see anything but stories entered where it says "enter your story here." Even if you do think you're the next Stephen King. If you think you have a fan base, interact with 'em on a BBS somewhere, or on your own website. Here, if you want to be treated like a V.I.P., you have to pay for the privilege and play by the rules.
