Rule Reminder: Story Guidelines

A lot of people have joined Mibba to either write stories or read the wonderful pieces that are posted here. To ensure good quality stories that uphold Mibba's reputation, there are a few story guidelines that have to be followed. They aren’t all that difficult to remember -- most of them are the basic foundation to becoming a well-rounded author.

Mibba has story editors to help monitor the story section of Mibba, making sure that the majority of the rules are being followed. Some rule breaking is inevitably missed as the influx of stories highly surpasses the amount of Story Editors that Mibba has available. To reach any of the story editors all you have to do is click on the Members tab and select Story Editor. They will be more than happy to assist users with any problems or questions.

In the event of a user not knowing the guidelines for posting stories, particularly for those that are new to the site, they can be found in the Knowledge Base. (The Knowledge Base is at the bottom of the Mibba webpage, second last on the blue toolbar). By clicking on the Stories link, users have access to a variety of helpful articles, one of which is the Story Guidelines.

General Rules

1. Stories must have correct spelling and grammar.

Chat speak is not allowed in stories, unless there is an actual purpose for chat speak. An example would be if your character was texting/skyping/e-mailing another character. The same applies to slang -- it is allowed when used in direct quotes. Mibba doesn’t expect perfection, but an effort should be put into every story. The staff also understands that not everyone has access to certain tools such as Microsoft Word which point out most of these errors, so if a user has any problems with grammar or spelling they can contact a story editor or one of Mibba’s beta readers through the Requesting a Beta thread.

2. Stories should be formatted correctly.

• On Mibba we do not indent stories. Instead we use block formatting and leave a blank line between every paragraph and after quotes from different characters. Example:

"What are you doing?" Sally asked Fred, as he climbed further up the tree.

"I want to be closer to the stars." Fred grinned down at Sally.

• Italics and bold can be great tools to help emphasize a word or a phrase. Sometimes italics are even used to indicate dreaming or reliving a past memory, which is acceptable. However, it is against the rules to bold, underline, or italicize the entire body of a story.
• Dialogue should not be posted in script format, unless the piece is actually a script or play.

3. Title rules must be followed.

• Titles should be properly capitalized. All words in a title should be capitalized with a few exceptions. Do not capitalize prepositions shorter than four letters (for a complete list you can check out this helpful blog Grammar Lesson from Marge).
• Decorations are not allowed in titles. Example:

**This Lovely Title**
~Even Prettier~~
#@!How Nifty Does This Look!@#$8*

• Tags are not allowed in titles - they should be put into the tag box that Mibba has provided. Example:

Twerking—A Miley Cyrus Fanfic
Unabashed and Unafraid—Original slash

4. Correct type, rating, and genre, must be selected.

For an exhaustive list, please read Story Types, Genres, and Ratings.

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

Tags do not belong in the title, as stated above, as well as being relevant to the story. For instance if you’re writing about an Ed Sheeran murder mystery, there should not be a tag mentioning Simba from Lion King, or Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance.

6. Layouts should be legible.

I know we can get a bit carried away with dressing up our stories with fancy layouts, but keep the reader in mind when going crazy with colors and font sizes.

7. Images used must follow Mibba guidelines.

Images cannot be pornographic in nature or show any illegal content. Character images are not allowed to be posted within the text of a story or linked to within a text of a story. Users can place links in the author’s notes or in the Characters section of a story. Relevant images (outfits, homes, maps, dogs, etcs) can also be linked in the author’s notes or long summary, but not the actual content of the story. Images that can be used in the content are: page breaks/dividers or story/chapter banners.

8. Links are prohibited within the content of a story.

Users can post links that are relevant to the story in the long summary or author’s note only.

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

This means that users cannot compile drabbles or one-shots under one story title -- they must be separated into their own stories. Users can use the collection feature to group one-shots/short stories together.

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

10. Only chapters are to be posted as a chapter.

This means author’s notes, messages to the reader, character bio/info, etc cannot be posted as a chapter in a story.

11. Users may only post their own stories to the site.

If a user did not write it, Mibba asks for it not to be posted. Plagiarism is highly frowned upon and will result in users being banned. To report plagiarism (of your story or someone else's) please notify one of the Mibba story editors.

12. Bashing, insult, or threads in story summaries, descriptions, or author’s notes is not allowed.

Bashing, insulting, or threatening others in author’s notes, summaries, or descriptions (and anywhere on Mibba in general) is simply not allowed. This means threats cannot be issued to or against: readers, plagiarists, would-be plagiarists, commenters, “silent” readers, or anyone else. If it is found, the threat or the story will be deleted.

Author’s Notes

1. Correct grammar applies.

As with your story.

2. Must be relevant to the story.

You cannot promote a blog you run, a social media network, or anything that does not pertain to the story. You can, however, credit betas, story editors, or anyone who helped with the story or layout of the story.

Long Summary

1. Long summary section of the story should include a summary of the story, a prologue, or any story disclaimers a user would like to share.

Long summaries should introduce readers to your story.

2. Images should not be included in the long summary.

Users can provide links to relevant images, but an image should not be displayed.

3. Character bios/images should not be included in the long summary.

This is what the Characters function is for. Do not put bios or images in the long summary.

Comments

1. Comments must be constructive AND respectful.

What is meant by constructive and remaining respectful is, it is perfectly acceptable to offer constructive criticism and point out flaws in a story, however it is not acceptable to deliver personal attacks or insults. Being obviously condescending is also not allowed.

2. Comments must be relative to the story.

A user cannot promote his or her story on another user’s story comments or post repetitive or silly things. Irrelevant comments will be deleted, and spammers will be banned from the site.

This was just briefly going over the story guidelines of Mibba. If any of these confused you please let me know and the next article will go more in-depth. Likewise, if something wasn't covered here that you wish to know about that involves story section of Mibba let me know by PM or a comment on this article.

Please remember, if you spot a user breaking any rules do not confront them. Report the issue to the proper staff member (Story Editor, Administrator, Board Moderator, Blog Moderator, Poem Editor, etc), they will handle the situation. You can report something by taking a screen shot of it or linking the problem directly to staff via a private message. Do not use the report button because, as of right now, that button is not functioning. Reporting will remain private and anonymous.

Special thanks to psychotic secrets; and Fandango for editing.