Story Guidelines

This article provides basic information about the story section rules on Mibba. If you need assistance with stories, please contact a story editor.


General Story Rules


01. All stories must have correct spelling and grammar. Chatspeak is not allowed in stories, unless done for a purpose (i.e. text messages, e-mails...)

If you need help with grammar or spelling, contact a story editor and they'll help steer you in the right direction.

02. All stories must be correctly formatted.

Formatting on Mibba consists of several things:

  • We do not indent stories. Instead, we use block formatting and leave a blank line between paragraphs.
  • The entire body of a story cannot be bolded, underlined or italicized. Sometimes italics are used to indicate a past memory, and that's acceptable.
  • Dialogue cannot be posted in script format, unless the piece is actually a script or play. Here you can find an article on correctly formatting dialogue.

03. Title rules must be followed.

Titles must be properly capitalized.

Both Chicago style and AP style capitalization for stories are acceptable. This means...

  • capitalize the first and last words of a title, all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions
  • Articles a, an, and the should be lowercase (unless the first or last word of the title), as well as the infinitive to (again, unless the first or last word of the title)
  • Prepositions smaller than four or five letters should also be lowercase

If you're unsure of your title's captialization, you can use TitleCapitalization.com.

Titles cannot have text decoration.

**My AwEsOmE sToRy** is unacceptable.

You cannot include search tags in a title.

My Awesome Story /Edward Cullen/Jacob Black slash/ would not be acceptable.

04. The correct type, rating, and genre must be selected.

To learn more, read Story Types, Genres, and Rating.

05. Search tags must be relevant to the story and placed in the tag field.

06. Layouts must be legible.

07. Images used must follow guidelines.

Images cannot be pornographic or show illegal content.

Character images cannot be posted (or linked to) within the text of a story. They can be linked to in author's notes or posted in the Characters section of a story.

Relevant images (character outfits, pictures/illustrations of character homes, maps, etc) cannot be posted (or linked to) within the the text of a story. They can be linked to in the author's notes.

Images that can be used within the actual content of story are limited to page breaks or dividers, or story/chapter banners.

Cover images cannot contain nudity or excessive gore.

08. Links are not allowed within the content of a story.

Relevant links can only be posted in the author's note of a story.

09. Something submitted as a story must be cohesive. There must be obvious relation between the chapters.

This means users cannot compile drabbles or one-shots in one story but must separate them into their own stories. Users can use the collection feature to group their one-shots/short stories together.

All one-shot/short story compilations will be deleted. This includes group pieces that do not create one cohesive stories - these kinds of pieces can be posted as a thread in the appropriate sub-forum.

10. Only actual chapters of a story can be posted as a chapter.

This means character bios/info, author's notes, messages to the reader...cannot be posted as chapters in a story. If there's any information outside of the narrative that you'd like to get to the readers, please do so in the appropriate place.

11. Users can only post their own stories to the site. Plagiarism is not allowed.

Plagiarized pieces will be deleted and plagiarist will be banned from the site. To report plagiarism, contact one of Mibba's story editors.

12. Bashing, insults, or threats in story summaries, descriptions, or author's notes is not allowed.

Bashing, insulting, or threatening others in author's notes, summaries, or descriptions (as with any part of the site) is not allowed. This includes threats or insults against readers, plagiarists, would-be plagiarists, commenters, "silent" readers or anyone else. If this is found in your story, it will be removed or the story will be deleted.


Author's Note


13. Correct grammar and spelling is required.

14. Author's notes must be relevant to the story.

All links in an author's not must be relevant to the story. You cannot, for example, promote a blog you run or a share your profile on a social media site. You can also use your author's note to credit editors.

Story Comments

15. Comments must be constructive and respectful.

This means that while it is acceptable to offer constructive criticism and point out flaws, personal attacks and insults are never allowed.

16. Users cannot promote their story on another user's story comments, or post repetitive or silly things.

All comments left on a story must be related to that story. Spammers will be banned from the site.


Long Summary


17. The long summary section of story should include a summary of your story, a prologue, or any story disclaimers you'd like to share.

Think of the long summary as you would the story summary included on a published book's dust jacket or the back of a novel. This section should be used to introduce readers to your story.

18. No images should be included in your long summary.

If there are character or setting images you'd like to share, you can provide links to those images in the long summary or the author's notes of individual chapters.

19. Character bios/images should NOT be included in the long summary.

If you'd like to include character information outside of the context of the story, you can do so by using the Characters function. Do not include character bios or images in your long summary.

Story Editors

If you need any help reguarding stories on Mibba, please contact Mibba's Story Editors via private message.

Story Editors deal with all story related inquires. They help to enforce Mibba's story rules and keep Mibba's story section up-to-date and accessible to all Mibbians.

If there is an error in your story's title, rating, genre, type, content, etc. Story Editors will fix what they can and message users when needed. Be sure to reply to PM (private messages) from Story Editors as soon as possible.


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