New Warstory Section

[TheStarRapper]

The main thing that got me into competitive battling was reading warstories (I think I've read nearly every one in the archive). However, since the site was restructured the Warstory section was eliminated and combined within each tier page. However, it is apparent that outside of the VGC channel, warstories are few and far between nowadays. I am sure that there was a decision high up to consolidate the forums, but I would ask admin to reconsider making a home for what I consider to be one of the best parts of Smogon. With a dedicated Warstory section in the forums, inexperienced battlers could have easy access to a psuedo-tutoring program, where better players post Warstories that reflect the playstyles of the times. I believe there are a lot of benefits to this decision, and the only negatives that I can think of are a bit more forum clutter and the actual programming of the channel. All in all, I want Warstories to come back in full force, and I'd love if other people felt the same way and gave them a good home.


Humor for an otherwise serious decision:

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Don't you want warstories to go in their home? Are they too good for their home? GIFSoup

 

[alkinesthetase]

i totally love reading a good warstory, but section or no section, nothing will change if people don't write more stories in the first place. with so few warstories being written, i don't think we can justify a whole forum section for something that's not very common right now. to bring back the practice of publishing warstories requires more than a new forum section, and i have not been on smogon long enough to know what that solution was.

 

[Jellicent]

Before a new subforum is created, there needs to be enough interest to justify it. While most people are interested in reading some good warstories, no one's really posting them anymore. If this suddenly changes and warstories become commonplace once more, then a request for a new subforum can be warranted. Until they come back in style, however, this isn't going to happen :(

 

[Zacchaeus]

Before a new subforum is created, there needs to be enough interest to justify it. While most people are interested in reading some good warstories, no one's really posting them anymore. If this suddenly changes and warstories become commonplace once more, then a request for a new subforum can be warranted. Until they come back in style, however, this isn't going to happen :(

I think your point works against itself. While it does make sense to wait for interest to create the subforum, creating the subforum piques interest. I honestly think if a few people initially prepared some warstories of various types in preparation for the new subforum, it would go swimmingly

 

[TheStarRapper]

Not that I have ever taken psychology, but just based off of how my simple mind works.

*Scrolls up and down mindlessly on smogon forums
*Sees Warstory Section
*Hur-dur i stupid caveman, i make my own warstory

Something like that.

I can only use past precedent as my evidence. Back in the old days, with the sub-forum, perhaps 2 new Warstories were posted a day. Now we're lucky to get two a week. I think it's as simple as that.

 

[Jellicent]

Just because a subforum exists doesn't mean people will post in it frequently (see: Giveaways, Translation Projects, Local Tournaments, etc.) The Warstory Archive got moved to Thread Cryonics because warstories (especially good ones) were becoming rare, not vice versa. To my knowledge, good warstories can still be moved into the archive; the problem is just that no one's written one deemed good enough since last December.

You can still make great warstories and they can still be archived. Even though it's in Thread Cryonics, it can still be updated (kind of like Greatest Hits). If you want to see a subforum created just for hosting warstories, they need to drastically pick up in activity first. The best way to do that is to start making quality warstories. If you set a good example with one or two solid warstories, others will follow suit ^.^

 

[Solace]

I don't think a new subforum will be necessary. If you'd like to see more warstories posted, start with some good battles you have yourself. Maybe your story will inspire others to post their own!

 

[Oglemi]

Confirming that Jellicent is correct, if you want to see more war stories, you'll have to set an example.

The reason for the fallout of warstories imo was the creation of Zarel's PO Replay Viewer. Warstories were first created as to not make reading logs so boring; it was much more personal and you got to see the thought process of the battlers with the warstory.

With the replay viewer though, you get to see the battle almost exactly as it happened in real time (and usually quicker). While it takes some of the personality out of it, you can watch an important/interesting/fun match in under 5 minutes, instead of taking an hour+ to read a log/warstory.

Not to mention writing a warstory is a pain-staking process in itself >.<

 

[v]

if it takes you an hour to read a warstory you either suck or it's a bad warstory S:

 

[Birkal]

Hiya! I just wanted to put some closure on this thread. I was one of the users who worked with past-administrator Synre on moving from DST to the new Smogon Metagames category that we've all grown to know and love. One of the changes that we agreed on was to ditch the Warstory Archive because it simply wasn't receiving enough love. While I love the concept, it was really the right thing to do; a dead subforum doesn't help anyone. There was no new content coming in and nothing was being maintained.

As a current Overused moderator, I have to say that I'm thrilled whenever a warstory comes through our forum. It seems like we've having a bit of a "mini-Renaissance" with them as of late, so that's cool. If you are serious in getting a Warstory Archive back, there are two ingredients that are absolutely essential:

We must have a consistent amount of quality warstories being created on a regular basis. If people are only creating terrible ones, then we can't really have an archive. We need to actually have new content to put in the archive.

We need someone to lead the Warstory Archive. This means that we need someone who is willing to keep up with what goes into the archive (probably with a judging panel to assist) and general maintenance of the archive. This person, ideally, will be leading the charge with making warstories popular again by commenting on others, writing their own, and encouraging others to write. If you're interested in leading this charge, you're more than welcome to fire me off a PM; I'd love to discuss it with you.​

So yeah, that's the basic idea of it. We're gonna need more activity and a solid leader if we are to ever bring the Warstory Archive back. I sincerely hope that we can since it is an excellent resource (I remember referring to it often when I first started posting) in getting new users involved in competitive battling.