The Nightstar Zoo

Welcome to the Fish Stories forum! Feel free to post any stories you may have locked in your brain here! Fanfiction (any genre) and original fiction are all welcome, as well as any fanarts anyone wants to draw. But first, a few ground rules:

1) Criticism is nice, but no flames please. If you like a story, say so. If you don't, say why. Constructive criticizm helps a writer improve so you don't have to read something bad again later.

2) Warnings for explicit content required. If you're going to write a lemon (strongly depicted sexual content), a lime (mildly depicted to implied sexual content), or anything with extreme violence, make sure to put a warning in the title line.

2b) If you're going to write explicit content, make sure the original author approves (If possible). Most of the fiction I've seen around here is based on a webcomic. I'm not sure Willis would approve of a lemon about Joyce and Walky (despite the fact that we all want to see it happen). If at all possible, ask the original author.

3) Write the fiction to the best of your spelling and grammer abilities. There are many different word processors available that offer both spelling and grammer checks. This makes for easier and more enjoyable reading. You might have a good idea, but if it's hard to read, most people won't bother reading it.

4)If your story is a fanfiction and not original, include a disclaimer at the beginning of the story refuting ownership of the original idea. This way, your butt is covered in case some lawyer comes along, reads your story, and decides you need to be sued.

5) Put in labels to briefly describe what is in the content of the fic. Lables should be abbreviated if possible, and should include if it is original fiction (OF or FF for fanfic), the story it's based on (CRFH, IW!, R1/2, etc.), and some warnings about the content (WAFF, Lemon, Lime etc.) Plese try to abbreviate if at all possible to keep the title of the thread concise.

Example: Insomnia - FF R1/2 WAFF

If you believe that the title it is based off of is too hard to guess (does anyone know what I mean if I say GitS?), then include a basic summary in the first paragraph of the post.

These are the first hew rules I could come up with. Obviously they are very few. In this thread, we should discuss what kind of content can be posted (should lemons even be considered?)I will edit this post as new rules are established for ease in reading.

So, no art?

I never said that. It was suggested in the request thread that art could go here, so why not? Same rules apply though, anything of a graphic nature should have a warning in the title line (SWOW may not be nessecary in the post if proper warning is given in the title)

Should fanfictions be restricted to Nightstar-related webcomics? Or is a fanfiction of just about anything okay?

I would like it if there was no restriction on what kind of fiction was posted. I would even go so far to say that it shouldn't be restricted to fanfiction, but to allow regular fiction as well. Perhaps we should put it to a vote. I'll start another thread.

New rule added

Are links to off-forum websites acceptable, as an atlernative to posting a story here? I know a couple of Star Wars FanFic websites that I'd like to recommend...

Nice Mike

Sure, if you start a links thread, I'll sticky it for ya.

I'd suggest a set of contracted labels to say exactly what kind of fiction the story is.

For instance, FF for FanFiction, PFF: Participation FanFiction, FFLe: FanFiction Lemon, OF: Original Fiction, OFLi: Original Fiction Lime.

Also labels for FF sources: CRFH: College Roomies From Hell; IW: It's Walky, etc.

See my FF Basket Case for an example.

I'd suggest a list of official labels, so that everybody uses the same contractions.

--FreeFlier

Excellent idea Freeflier. Implimented.

Now to go change the title on my fic...

I have doubts that there are any labels or stickies that WILL stick. Here's my label theory;

<Comic or anime fic is based on> Title of fic.

<Original> Title of piece.

And then tags in [ ], such as [Lemon] etc...

And that's enough for me.

_________________
Reader of It's Walky! since May 17, 2002
Member of the IW! community since around October / November 2002
Survivor of the Great Keenspot Forum Crash (Febuary 2003)
Father of IW! Fanfiction

Does anyone have a list of what all the tags mean?

Thanks

Trying to taste the difference 'tween the lemons and limes
The pain and the pleasure and the church bells softly chime

XTC, Senses Working Overtime

You seem to specify fiction and fanart, but I was wondering if maybe other creative stuff could be posted?...such as poetry or such...If not, that's okay, I'll just try to get a poetry forum or some such made.

Don't mind poetry. It's all good.

But here's something that everyone should keep in mind; you post Original material on this forum, it becomes public domain. If you don't know what this means, look it up. In other words, if you want to post it, fine, but it's at your own risk and don't bitch about what might get done with it.

You've been warned. 'Nuff said.

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Reader of It's Walky! since May 17, 2002
Member of the IW! community since around October / November 2002
Survivor of the Great Keenspot Forum Crash (Febuary 2003)
Father of IW! Fanfiction

I don't see why the act of posting a story to this forum should remove the copyright from the author... Seems to me that even if it's posted to this forum, the copyright is still held by the author...

I mean, Howard and Willis post their comics on their websites, but does that mean the comics are now in the public domain? No... So how is this place any different?

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You've hit the reason right there, Oggy. Howard and Willis post on their websites. Stories here are posted (and archived) on our website. I'm not weighing in on the copyright issue (I ain't no lawyer), but that does make it trickier. How much liability / legal responsibility does Nightstar have if the original author suddenly decides to publish their story?

Guys, I have a degree in Creative Writing from BGSU, technically, all three of us are right. See, this is how it works. Copyright is established when the work is created, but if said work is distributed on an open medium where there is no said retention of copyright, then the medium is declared public. Most standard net TOS's contain a little something that says that you guys retain the rights to the name NightStar and the site, blahblahblah. That's fine. But most TOS's ALSO go on to say that YOU get the rights to anything published on your site, which means things that are posted.

This is the reason that more original fiction / poetry whatever doesn't spread on the net. The authors don't want to give up copyright, and I agree with them. I don't either. Because, there's nothing to say that someone can't come along and filch whatever you've done for their own nefarious gain. And, once public, there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it.

So, unless retention of copyright is somewhere in NightStar's TOS (not that I remember reading one, but that was a LONG time ago), then the Zoo is public domain. Willis posts through Keen, which I would imagine have quite a healthy section about copyright and retention. And, if they don't, it would be quite shocking to me.

In conclusion, Originals can be posted here, but "watch your ass" is the name of the game. I won't be posting originals here, just fanfiction. And, if I feel like torturing anyone, fanart.

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Reader of It's Walky! since May 17, 2002
Member of the IW! community since around October / November 2002
Survivor of the Great Keenspot Forum Crash (Febuary 2003)
Father of IW! Fanfiction

So...If I put something on Fictionpress, but post a link here, I still have the copyright?
It'd probably be more complicated if I posted a link to something I put on Fanfiction.net...

fanfiction.net and fictionpres.net Are different, I am a member of both, originals posted on those sites are copyrighted to the poster. If you give a link from this site to the copyrighted work that is all it is, a link. If you would like to keep your copyrighted as suggested doing exactly that, place a link.

Don't know. How does Fictionpress handle copyright in their TOS? For that matter, how does Fuckmyfiction.net handle it? If there is retention of copyright and you ONLY post a link, then yes, it's still yours.

And, I would like to say that I am not a complete lexicon for information on the topic, okay? It's that, as a writer in a college program, there is information that is taught. Now, whether it's changed recently (last year) or not is another issue.

This is as I understand it.

_________________
Reader of It's Walky! since May 17, 2002
Member of the IW! community since around October / November 2002
Survivor of the Great Keenspot Forum Crash (Febuary 2003)
Father of IW! Fanfiction

I know I've read some things on fictionpress that had a blurb on the bottom of the page saying the content was copyright of the author. There isn't one on fanfiction.net, but that makes sense since we're using copywritten material for inspiration.