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The Ultimate Guid
Chatterbox: Chirp at Cricket
The Ultimate Guid
The Ultimate Guide to the CB
Okay, okay, I know that there have been a few of these in the past, but I think that there are a few things that aren't in the older ones that new CBers need to know about, and I'd rather not comment on an old thread. Anyway, feel free to add on terms, shorthand, and rules. Admins, you too, if you have anything.
Glossary
CB (noun, abbreviation): Chatterbox!
CBer (noun): Anyone who goes on CB. Ex; Somebody, Joan B. of Arc, St. Owl, Esthelle.
Admin (noun): The amazebubble people that run CB, post all are comments, and make this all possible! Three cheers to Admins!
AE (noun, abbreviation): Alter ego. An alternate name or personality that some CBers have and post as for a little fun or a different way of expressing themselves. Ex; Shifting Sands, Devil Owl, Puck. Note: AEs should be used in moderation and only on threads where it is appropriate.
RP (noun, abbreviation): Roleplay. A story in which multiple CBers participate. Each participant has a character which they create based on the topic and then everyone works together and writes a comunal story from the prespective of their respective character. Usually written in first person, but it's not a requirement. Ex; "Magic RP" by Hermione Granger (also the longest thread in the Inkwell!).
Charrie (noun, shorthand): Character, often used in a RP. Ex; "Anyway, here are my charries."
Charrie Sheet (noun, term): A sheet in a RP that one uses to introduce/create one's charrie.
RR (noun, abbreviation): Round Robin. Like a RP, multiple people work together on a story. However, more like a standard book, everyone takes turns writing "chapters", not nessecarily from different POVs. For example, CBer A might write: Jane fell into the pit. Then, CBer B might continue: In the pit was a giant snake. Usually, the posts are longer than this, they are of no specified length. Ex; "Anything RR" by Echo.
CBer Story (noun, term): A story in which one person writes a story in which CBers are characters. Usually the writer will ask for applications to be in the story. Ex; "CB Camp" by the Camp Manager (AKA Abigail S).
Ski Lodge (noun, term): A type of CB story in which there is a secret murderer and all other participants die. Participants guess the murderer as the story goes on. Commonly written under an alias for added spookiness. The originals took place in ski lodges, but they do not have to. Ex; "Hotel L'Faye" by the Teller of Tales (AKA Shadow Dragon).
CAPTCHA (noun): The little spam box at the bottom of a page when you submit a post or a comment. Some people name theirs and post what they see. Ex; Sir Galahad, Meox, Fruity.
Character RP (noun): I don't really think there's a name for this, but this is when one participates in a roleplay in which you comment as your character as if you were them. Bad definition, sorry. I don't really know how to explain it. Most of the old Warriors threads are like this. Ex; "Welcome to LakeClan!" by Secretleaf.
SI (noun, abbreviation): Secret Identity. A game in which every player takes on a name usually based on a theme (for example, in a Food SI one might be Fried Chicken) and then tries to guess who others are and avoid being guessed. Ex; Disney and Pixar SI by Mulan. In fact, let's have a mini one now. Try to guess who I am!
OP (noun, abbreviation): Over Powered or Over Powering. When a character in a RP is super-powerful and it's not fun for other people to RP with them because they sort of can do anything and take of the RP. One example of an OP character could be in an Element RP. The OP charrie could have water, ice, frost, and be able to read minds. Sometimes it's easy to get carried away and not realize your charrie is a bit OP. The others in the RP can gently remind you.
Basic Roleplay Ettiquite
1. Use proper grammar and spelling at all times. (This goes for everywhere on CB too.)
2. If you join a RP, make sure to post frequently. If you absolutely are too busy, say you are dropping out and don't just drift away and assume nobody will care.
3. Obey the rules of the RP maker. Ex; If they say, "No magical powers" do not make a charrie that has magical powers.
4. Avoid god-modding. This is when one "uses" another person's charrie. Obviously a little bit is nessecary so that there can be dialouge and plot, but do not make huge desicions or events on behalf of another's charrie.
5. When you post, write a sufficient amount. "I fell off the stairs and broke my leg." Is NOT an acceptable post.
6. Okay, this is really important. (New CBers, pay attention.) Do not join a RP that has already started unless the maker says it's OK. If a RP is nine pages in, on page 39 of the Inkwell, and from 2012, don't join it!
7. Have fun roleplaying, guys!
Areas of CB
This Month: An center to talk about things from this month's issue of Cricket! (If you don't get Cricket this one might not make sense.) Did you like the cover art? Want to know more about one particular author? Fangirling that you got into the Letterbox? This Month's the place for that!
Chirp at Cricket (CaC): Supposed to be used for talking to Cricket, Ladybug, and all those other bugs. But nowadays we CBers fill it with silly games, sillier announcements, and other supercalifragalisticexpialadocious things! (Like this thread!)
Blab about Books (BaB): Well, the name sort of speaks for itself, doesn't it? Do you love books? (Who doesn't!) Come on down to BaB and chat, play trivias, and fangirl over y'all's fictional crushes!
Down to Earth (DtE): A place to talk about things in the world around you, like the Presidential Election, school, Global Warming, and anything else! You can also stuff it to bursting with the like of CaC's fare! Plus, a great place for surveys, chatting about NaNo, and announcements.
Puddings Place (PP): Those of you who read Cricket will know that Pudding is a theatre-loving firefly. Thereby her area is for anything and everything theatrical! Looking for audition tips? Loved that musical you just saw? PP is the place for you! Also, feel free to add Ski Lodges, SIs, games, and CB stories here!
Inkwell: The writing center! Looking for RPs? RRs? Need advice on a story? Stuck with writer's block? This area is full to bursting with creative people! The busiest place on CB!
Kyngdom: (If you don't get Cricket, you'll be seriously confuzzled here.) Kyngdom is hard to explain... to find out about it, go to: http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/kyngdom/about
How to Post a Picture on CB
Just use the file attatchement feature! (Thanks for that, Admins!) But if you want to do it the long way (and post multiple at a time), do this:
1. Search Google for "Image Hosting Site". You should get a result called Postimage.org. Click on it.
2. Follow the directions on the site to choose a photo. Click "UPLOAD".
3. There should be a little link to your image. Click on that, too.
4. Now your picture will be on the screen by itself, big and beautiful. Copy/paste it onto CB. Voila! You're done!
So that's about it, everybuggy! I'll add stuff and you can, too!
submitted by Maker of Guides, Handbookland
(March 7, 2016 - 12:17 pm)
(March 7, 2016 - 12:17 pm)
Awesome post! Here's some more:
Thread: A page on the CB, listed in the Areas of the CB (Pudding's Place, Inkwell,ect.)
Top: when you want a thread to be listed at the top of one of the areas of the CB, you can post "top" and the admins might post the thread on the top!
Alias: Rarley used term for a CBer's name, usually not their name in real life. example: Air, St.Owl, Regina, Somebody
NaNo: short for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. I'm not on it and don't really know much about it. It's one of the 3 sites that Admins allow links to. The other 2 are Pottermore and the CB itself.
(March 10, 2016 - 7:51 pm)
History Terms!
Nostalgia War- Some of the older CBers left and it was depressing for some of the CBers who had known them forever. A popular explaination is something along the lines of; "Imagine your best friend moves away and you have no way to contact them again". Because of this, some of the newer CBers thought they were being paid less attention to, or there was less respect for their generation, and hence the war.
Resolution to Nostalgia War: It's mostly over now, and some of the CBers who left came back.
AE War- Admittedly, I was not there. I think it was a war where people started using AEs everywhere, and then other CBers got frustrated.
Please note that oldie, newbie, and middly are VERY controversial terms and if you use them you will be stampeded by a herd of multi-colored winged buffalos (hence buffalo wings). Just kidding, you won't be stampeded, but you may have some offended CBers (Chatterboxers plural) on your hands.
(March 23, 2016 - 5:55 pm)
That's a good description, Bibliophile; again, I'm gonna add on to it.
The AE war was a big controversy (yes, I was there) where there was a very, very large arguement about AEs. Apparently, they had become overused and showed up everywhere, and most of the CBers who didn't have AEs became very, very frustrated. It became a whole thing but was eventually resolved with the solution that threads had to specify AEs were allowed before an AE could post there. This rule is slightly lax, but it's pretty obvious now where/where not AEs should post.
The war became something that we quite literally started an RP during (taking place in a crumbling CB) and of which quite a few people threatened to leave. Post-AE war, Somebody got rid of her AEs DNA and Agent Nightcat and replaced them with Shifting Sands (the Returned of the Continuity) and Volcano Flame (the Ignited of the Fire Realm), and I replaced my AE Saint Owl with Feather.
(March 24, 2016 - 11:34 am)
Wow, I didn't know about the AE War.
(March 25, 2016 - 4:00 pm)
I knew about it, but I wasn't there. I was here for the Nostaligia war, though!
(March 31, 2016 - 6:57 pm)
The Second AE War- More recently. There was a lot of intense controversy over how many AEs someone can have, how developed their personalities should be, etc. It eventually faded away as more people called for peace. We cam to an unofficial agreement of these rules, suggested by Abi:
Abigail's Suggested-And-Totally-Unofficial Alter Ego Guidelines
Alter Ego: An alternate personality one sometimes reverts to usually to show a different side of oneself; i.e. sarcasm, nastiness, insanity.
a. Amount of AEs should be from one through three (1-3) per person. Recommended amount is 2.
b. Take time to develop your AEs. Create slowly. They're more fun to write for if they are developed and human. (On a similar subject, avoid OPness.)
c. Use common sense on which threads to bring your AEs onto. The subject is usually a good indicator, and the tone of the writing.
d. Read AE posts and get information about existing AEs prior to making one.
e. Be unique! Try to make your AE singled, seperate, and memorable from the rest.
f. If you do not want AEs on a certain thread that you created, state it clearly.
Note that a) said "should be." You're not going to get in trouble or anything if you really want more than three.
(August 6, 2016 - 1:29 pm)
TOPPING: Because of a glitch in the system, the first comment on a NEW POST sends the post to the back pages. To find it quickly, go to the section where you posted the post (e.g. CaC, Inkwell, etc.) then sort the "Submitted by" column to most recent by clicking on the actual words "Submitted by" (usually twice is enough). To send the NEW POST back to the front pages, WAIT UNTIL THE FIRST COMMENT APPEARS, then make a second comment. This is called topping a post. Anyone can top a post by making the second comment on the post. If the second comment is made before the first comment is visible, the post remains in the back pages. :(
(September 27, 2016 - 5:51 pm)
How to avoid the dread "..."
Ever had that moment where you make an amazing RP thread only to have its title appear as "..." and rarely be clicked on? In my (albeit brief) study of this phenomenon, here a few theories to how to avoid it. It seems to happen to some people more than others and follow few real patterns, but these are some suggestions.
1. When you begin a post, don't press enter and then start writing. In other words, if there is an extra space before your text it is almost certainly not going to have a title-- the computer will look at the first line, see a blank line, and as a result put nothing as the title.
2. Don't start with an emoji
. The computer will most likely not know how to render it as the title.
3. Perhaps you shouldn't write the first line of your post in bold or italics. Doing so has worked many times for CBers, but if you are cursed by the "..." it may have something to do with your particular computer not understanding how to analyze such text.
In other words, try to make the first line of your new thread as plain and boring as possible... in formatting, that is, not content. Also try to avoid using quotation marks because they sometimes show up as random punctuation. But I'm not guaranteeing anything.
Hope that helps!
This sounds to me like good advice. I've especially noticed no title with comments that do not begin at the top of the text box. That's 1. above.
Admin
(January 23, 2017 - 3:15 pm)
(March 13, 2019 - 10:50 am)
A note about topping:
I'm 90% sure that Admins can't control what threads get topped. Admins, is this true? Thanks!
All we do is post comments as they come in. We don't specify where they go. They go wherever the program is set up to have them go.
Admin
(April 3, 2017 - 4:01 pm)
While looking over the Ultimate Guide, I noticed that in this post, Bibliophile says that the Admins post the thread to the top. Please note that this is incorrect; the comments themselves are bringing the thread to the top.
(January 24, 2019 - 5:45 pm)
(March 10, 2016 - 9:29 pm)
To add on to Bibliophile...
NaNo: NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. This is where users have a month to reach a word-count goal that they set in YWP or 60,000 words on NaNo. There are three that will be referenced: Camp NaNo, the NaNoWriMo that goes on in April and then July (I believe); NaNo, which is for people 13 and older; and YWP, or the Young Writers' Program, for users 18 and under.
(March 11, 2016 - 7:18 pm)
(March 20, 2016 - 10:12 am)
To add on to the etiquette:
Many people, sometimes when they are not proud of what they are posting, post under a name that is not their CB name. This is very annoying and you should not do it, unless it is an SI. If you're not proud of your post, then don't post it.
(March 20, 2016 - 10:20 am)