Seconded, Tracer. Expect a substantial post from me too, team - I'm just pinned down with exams at the moment.

More hoorays! Good luck with your exams, TLTE!

Aww, Tracer, you edited out one of my favorite parts of your post! Something along the lines of--

Also, I knew those hero watches were good for something!

Do you think that's a better way of putting it than what I changed it to?

I just found it highly hilarious that someone would point out that it's not a big deal because they have (normal-type) insurance, and then Cris cries "not PIRATE insurance!" Oh, of course, what idiot DOESN'T get pirate insurance?! The way you have it now just seems a little less comic for some reason to me... not sure why either. I think maybe I like seeing you write Cris in hysterics too, which the edit seems to tone down there.

....and back we go. Also, I've got a new exciting idea for Cris B.

Yay!

And yay!

I also made more progress on the novel tonight, but it's painfully little in the long run. Mid-July (which si when I presume I'll be done my lenses and attempt to write for the novel daily) is looking uglier by the procrastinating moment.

You certainly have a way of appealing to my love of dark comedy, TLTE. Poor announcer -- hahahaha--aw.

Cris is leaving? :o! And the Janitor Bob phone number part was hilarious!

Important news: Geb tells me that NeS has an actual reader now so we need to step it up, people. More crazy antics, more romance, more action, more explosions. Hurry before our single fan loses interest!

And I'm back! Which means...

1) I'll be doing what I can to wrap up the current story-arc and hopefully get this place a little more lively again. Just remember, though, I can't do it alone!

2) I got enough of my secret-ish project done, so I'll be hitting all you up soon about the details on that.

So, for those still here -- where do you think we can get more writers?

Here's hitting up on #2, for those who manage to miss it!

To all the past and present NeS writers:

First off, If there is someone you know who should see this but otherwise won't be able to, please send this message to them.

With that said, I'll try to keep this short.

After over 11 years, I'm finally aiming to kick off on writing a novel in the spirit of the NeS. I currently have a third of the first draft done, and I'm looking for at least two co-writers to help complete it. If you've written for the NeS, however small, I'm asking you to consider co-writing for this novel. The process will be hard, but the product will be worth it.

What I am requiring: people who will actually write diligently, enthusiasm, and effort in spirit.

What I am NOT requiring: "enough" understanding of the NeS, writing skill "worth publishing," or seriously, the two things I just said.

If you have ANY interest, please contact me and I will go over details and confirm your entry, as it were, before sending you the draft. This will essentially be a first-come, first-serve basis; the first two people to send me their contributions will likely be the co-writers for this novel. Otherwise, it will be forever before I get the "perfect drafts" from the "perfect writers" for this project. I will decide on a case-by-case basis if there actually happens to be an overwhelming number wishing to be co-writers.

If you do not become a co-writer but still have a great interest, don't fret! There's a good chance you may still be able to help out yet in editing or other related projects, such as building a wiki, a game, a comic, some music, and so on! And, of course, the best way to always help regardless is to write for the Never-ending Story Thread itself!

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Long live the NeS!

Most of you are likely aware already, but I'll reiterate, since the news is the topic of this post:

The Never-ending Story Thread is concluded until further notice.

This is not a prank; I only pull those on April 1st. This is not a stunt; this is the result of various situations coming together. This is not easy for me to do; concluding this thread, even with the intention of bringing it back, disheartens me, but I believe this is the best course of action.

Some of you may be asking why I have done this. The reasons, in no particular order, are as follows:

• Al Ciao, probably the only writer in the past year who has remained dedicated, happened to write a post (see here) that made concluding the NeS simple and appropriate to do so. He is an unwitting catalyst in this turn of events, and for that, I apologize to him.
• With the exception of Al Ciao, we've not had much in the way of writing for at least the past year. Many of the core writers have either left or drifting away, and those who have retained interest I have likely had turn their attention to our attempts at a NeS novel. Without the writers of the past, there is no one to write with what we have to work with at the moment.
• We haven't had any new writers in at least the past year. Without new writers, we have little means of rejuvenating the NeS spirit and taking place of old writers who have left.
• Related to the previous note, the story and community of the NeS has reached a point where it cannot continue on its own. Without venues such as a novel and wiki resource site, even I have found it too difficult to hook in new readers and writers. Even my more immediate plan to bring in new readers and writers for the next story-arc will take some time to put into place, and that plan was honestly fairly last stand-ish.
• For some time, I had considered that, if worse came to worse, I would write the story on my own for as long as I could. However, analyzing the NeS through both my thesis and design lenses have brought to my attention that doing so would mean that it would cease to be the NeS. Collaboration and improvisation are at the heart and soul of the NeS; five dedicated writers (and perhaps 3 dedicated readers) are a likely minimum to keep the NeS truly alive. I will not have this story faded and forgotten.
• Real life is getting the better of me, as it has with most of the writers I suspect. Namely, I'm in need of a new job, and if I'm to be responsible, I need to shift my focus to make that search my primary goal. I cannot provide the time and effort the NeS needs, and I suspect what community in the NeS we have cannot either.
• Relating to the previous point, I have wanted to address reality as an antagonistic force in the NeS on par with plot (the Ever-ending Plot) and true tradition and righteousness (Thand) for some time now. To that end, I was initially aiming for a story-arc where the Posters would pull a con on everyone to believe in a false representation of Reality so as to establish true Reality as something uncertain and, well, real and threatening (instead of "this is the avatar of Reality let's all punch it in the face to make everything better!"). However, now seemed an opportune time to encapsulate everything I was aiming for -- reality as the truest threat to the NeS.

I thank each and every person who has, past and present, supported the NeS in all its forms. This may very well be the end of the story -- I am treating it as such, and my intention is not to continue it until I feel a strong enough community has been built to fight against the reality of this situation.

HOWEVER!

Having said that, I dearly hope this will not be the end of the community itself! As of now, we have enough people for such to simply exist. What can we do to grow, foster and strengthen our community? Again, in no particular order:

• Encourage each other, and potential new readers and writers, to actually read the NeS! A table of contents can be found here, and an (un)official spin-off set in the late 19th century can be found here. Post comments, criticisms, questions, and whatnot in the workshop thread, which can be found here!
• Read and respond to my thesis and further analysis on the NeS! You can find those here and here respectively.
• Introduce those who are unfamiliar to the webcomic! It can be found here. To that end, encourage each other and new readers and writers to make art! I'm considering using the webcomic as a place to post such art, thoughts?
• Encourage side projects based on past material. Perhaps the NeS radio project, which can be found here, could be revived?
• Use the ISB character profiles thread, which can be found here, to make new profiles and edit old ones. Readers and writers alike have found these very useful, and it'll help immensely when the wiki site is off the ground!

I do ask that you all NOT do the following:

• Try to continue writing for the story itself. I have locked the story threads, but please do not have them unlocked, create new spin-off threads, or otherwise try to get around this request. Until I've been proven that we have a strong enough community, I firmly believe such efforts will only drag the spirit of the NeS into the ground. If you MUST write NeS material, I suggest writing short "what-if" posts on PAST material in the ISB Index and Appendices thread, which can be found here. Please do not post a "what if the NeS wasn't concluded?" post -- this is exactly the kind of attempt to circumvent my request that I do not wish to have, and I will be very disappointed if such is done.
• Plead for me to reverse my decision. If you want me to change this, please help build the community needed.
• Forget the spirit of the NeS or let the community die. I will do everything in my power to help make building the community easier, but only you can help bring in new readers and potential writers.

Again, thank you for everything. Long live the Never-ending Story.

Sincerely,
Scott Gajewski
as known as Gebohq

EDIT: I have failed to talk about this with the community. I am hoping to organize a group chat of some sort in the near future to discuss the matter.

So I was going to attempt to gather as many people as I could into some sort of chat, but 1) nobody's gotten back to me on when they're free, 2) it'd be a logistical nightmare to get any significant number of people together at the same time anytime soon and 3) it'd be rather pointless. There's already been the following turnout:

Against closing:
CoolMatty

JediKirby

The Last True Evil

Al Ciao (I don't need to hear back from him to know this.)
DrkJdi82 (he sent me a "revival" post which I'll post at the bottom)
Cris B


For closing:
Grismath

Semievil


Unspoken from people who posted since the last story-arc:
Tracer
Krig the Viking
JM
Benjamin Majir (MIA)
Sam Reyom (stepped out)
Ford

If I have misplaced you, or you wish to add your voice in the matter, please do so, as I consider each person who speaks up about the NeS, for good or bad, to be of vital importance. However, even in my most critical of examinations, I feel the majority of the community who have spoken up have made it clear that the NeS needs to be reopened.

However, this does not change my own feelings on the matter. As far as I'm concerned, the NeS is dying for reasons I've stated above, and at best, its hopes of recovery are grim. I felt my previous course of action was the best as the alternative would be for it to fade forgotten, which is far worse. As it is, though, it could only ever be ended if its active community collaborated together to do so, and since it does not wish to do that, I have to abide by the community's decision.

I will return to continuing to do my best in keeping the story and its community alive. Thank you all for speaking up.

Sincerely,
Scott Gajewski
a.k.a. Gebohq

EDIT: CoolMatty has started a contest for the person with the highest word count in the month. You can find the details here.

Jim's "revival" post, which CM will likely collaborate on when he reopens the thread:

now i had the idea shortly after it was closed thought if the NeS is to be revived it should be made to look as if it was reopened by CM's admin powers and i typed up a quick reset button plothole post that i though i should run by you

...

After the worst traffic in the history of bad traffic Jim7 the Writer opens the door of the darkened office, turns on the light, and looks around...

Jim7tW: Where is everyone?

Jim7tW walks to his desk and notices a number of notes from GebohqtW begging for posts each one with an ever thickening layer of dust

Jim7tW: yeah yeah stop bugging me about it I'm here now...

Jim7tW turns on his computer and heads to the ISB scrolling through the NeS

Jim7tW: to hell with reading this **** i'll just pull something random out of my a... WHAT THE **** IS THIS ********!? THREAD CLOSED?....

...

Jim7tW: YOU HAVE MESSED WITH THE WRONG FALLEN ANGEL...

Jim7tW a blinding firey glow to his eyes spreads his bloodsoaked wings... a look of pure blackened hatred for all things he lets out a yell

LucifertW: MATTY!!!

A flash of flame and a wisp of smoke are followed by a bewildered CoolMatty

CM: WTF? HOW? WHERE? WHO?

LucifertW: You know who I am CM I have helped you rise to power and now it is time for me to ask a service of you... *pointing at monitor* unlock the thread...

CM: I would love to but Gebohq will just lock it aga...

LucifertW: NOW!

CM: ok...ok

CM uses his +5 finger of admin to reopen the NeS

LucifertW: good... you may now return to your masturbation

LucifertW snaps his fingers and CM vanishes in the same way he appeared

LucifertW: now to get posting...

...

Meanwhile in the black nothingness of the NeS...

Lucifer: Ghfthagnlth dshioa gasdflkug kgshasidfghjhg

Voice: Who calls upon me?

Lucifer: It is I who call you... that which cannot die that which is the only one who can undo the terrible damage here

Death: This is not my area...

Lucifer: Do not play dumb with me Death... we both know you are more powerful than you choose to let on... and how persuasive you and your younger brothers can be with my father

Death: but...

Lucifer: save it... call to your brothers and have them bring father here... NOW

Death: you dare to speak to me with such a tone?

Lucifer: YES I DARE!!!

Death: very well... but know one day you will come to respect and fear me

Death vanishes into the blackness...

Lucifer: I shall fear him when Justin Bieber starts making death metal...

A few hours later Death, accompanied by his brothers War, Famine, and Pestilence

Death: He will undo what has happened here but he will not speak to you directly he has no desire to ever let you stand in his presence again

Lucifer: I care not

Death: He is also worried... the destruction of this world was clouded from him... he suspects a darkness like no other is at work here... he will undo it's destruction but it is up to you and the others to find out what has happened...

Lucifer: We shall try...

... It was raining at the Arena and one lonely man was sitting in the stands apparently asleep

Lucifer: GEBOHQ!!!

Gebohq looks around the Arena with shock and puzzlement on his face and sees Lucifer standing in the middle

Lucifer: Gebohq... EXPLAIN YOUR ACTIONS!

Tune in next week for the next dramatic thread closing

I guess the issue's settled, but I could go either way. Everything has to end sometime, and I agree that without new writers to take charge things have slowed to an absolute crawl. None of us are kids anymore, we can't just do forums all day.

So if I'm hearing you right, we need to institute some child labor. I like your thinking, Tracer.

A'ight, so I went ahead and posted more or less my previous work/plan anyway. Part of the plan is to try and minimize characters as of starting on page 31, so I'm hoping to set an example that I hope the veteran writers will follow: attempt to appeal to the first time NeS reader and limit introducing to a maximum of 3 characters per writer for the time being. To encourage this, I will attempt to illustrate whichever characters the writers do introduce (which I may soon regret). So, for instance, if Tracer introduces Cris B, I will attempt to illustrate him and attach said illustration to his post. At this point, I intend to sit back and let other people lead the way. We'll see where things go.

I thought that ending was pretty good. I can see this sudden resurgence of interest tailing off in a month or so's time, and the story will be right back where it was just before Geb "killed" it, except without the opportunity to give it a conclusion (of sorts). Shame.

If the NeS is such a Massassi institution that people can't bear to lose it, why haven't people been posting on it?

Well, I don't know about calling it an institution, but it's a shame to see it go even though I haven't written in a while. The main problem for me is just finding time to write and staying caught up...it usually takes me about an hour to write a post. I started writing for the NeS when I was in high school and I just live a different life now.

I agree with Tracer - now that we are grownups it is difficult to find time to write and to keep up with it all. I was unemployed for about 9 months when I started writing for NeS - a crap time financially but the best creative time of my life and one I look back on with some fondness. NeS and my NeS characters were a huge part of that.

That is why I killed off Calimalith, Granny Cal and Caspian back in 2008 by sending them to the real world. No-one else really had picked up on the characters and I didn't want them just to fade away, sadly and forlornly. They really meant a lot to me (sniffles a bit).

I have dropped in on the NeS from time to time to read posts - not as often as I should but I will miss knowing it is still there.

Actually feels really good to post here again ...

It is very much a truth. What more does one have when all that they have is submiting resumes. It is a double edged blade... for once, you can acomplish everything that you want to creatively and as a storyteller, but IRL... things are not as pleasing. Every post is a wasted minute that you could have used towards another application. Massassi is a social forum in the most literal sense. The ISB specifically is like a black hole for those of us who wish to do more but have nothing better to do.

It's a Cali! Thanks for dropping by!

Giraffe: You're probably right, but it doesn't matter. I aim to uphold the NeS as first and foremost a story of collaboration and improvisation. If the active community wishes it to ultimately fade forgotten, then that will be its fate. So long as the NeS spirit of collaboration, improvisation, and good will isn't violated, the wishes of the majority of the community should be upheld, and I will do my best to do that.

In regards to what Tracer, Cali and Lib posted: I'm not blind to this problem. It was the root of my attempt to end the story, among other things I've already rambled about before. Related to that, I find my own life at a crossroads: pursue a career in my passion for video games and find my life consumed by developing commercial productions I enjoy (a career which would demand a lot of overtime, relatively little pay, and possibly desensitize my passion for games at best), or find a bearable, stable, well-paying 9-5 type job and use my free time for my passions, such as NeS. Currently, I am attempting the latter, which is one of the reasons that I aim not to lead this story-arc.

So far, the story-arc seems to be going great! Lib, you're doing fantastic right now, and I hope the other writers will start working in your material soon! JM and Cris, you're tickling my funny bone. I had planned on actually attempting to illustrate Lib's character, but I'm grateful you went ahead and did it yourself, as I'm trying to do one for Geb and Cris. Right now, though, I have a cold, so I'm not going to really be able to do jack for probably a week. :'(

The only other thing I'm hoping to finish up in the immediate future is a temporary "for new people" basics on the NeS wiki and drum up a sort of flyer people can print out to sneak onto the bulletin board at their job, school, church, whatever. It'll be made so anyone can throw it up anonymously, since I have the feeling most people don't get new people involved because they're somewhat embarrassed.

P.S. For those of you who expressed interest in helping on the novel, I would highly suggest focusing solely on that and giving the NeS thread a break from your efforts. It'll be hard enough to write for the novel as it is without trying to write on this thread as well!

Get well soon!

Thanks! Sadly, what takes a couple days for most seems to take closer to a couple weeks for me. Stupid immune system fail.

EDIT: And yes, I realized I said a week before. That's because it started Monday, shortly after I made the attempt-to-end-the-NeS post. There may or may not be a connection there.

What's the etiquette on posting in the NeS? Meaning... Do I have to wait for another writer to post an entry or can I post another one after my own?

If the latter, is there a limit on the time I have to wait in order to post again?

Nope, you can lock and load all the way.

Just don't burn yourself out.

I'll also be adding 3 new drawings to previous posts soon: Cris B, Citizen Rex and Gebohq.

I think we're about to find out how HighEmporer became AlCiao.

Well... I'm going to wait for someone else to post now. Like Geb said, don't want to burn myself out. Besides, I got to get back to this other project now that my buddy finally finished his chapter.




Sorry I didn't put any scantily clad women in this time. I debated, but didn't want it to be too long. Besides, Geb... you're already working on three more drawings. Don't want to make it too hard on ya.

Hey, y'all. Referencing JM's post - if y'all want to know how Highemperor became Al Ciao, you can always read the bio!

Of course, that doesn't go into much detail, because I haven't created a detailed thing, but basically: My post, after which I stopped writing for four and a half years, was in November/December 2004. It had Highemperor landing in front of a citadel "beyond Eternity". So when I came back, I made a backstory as to where he's been - in the Stronghold of Powerplayers, of which he became leader.

Of course, back in 2004 and previous, I was something of a powerplayer myself. So when I came to my senses, I made a backstory where Highemp came to HIS senses and abandoned the Stronghold of Powerplayers, disavowing powerplaying himself - thereby became merely Al Ciao.

On page 30, Hero Force One coveted the power of Highemp (which still lay dormant within Al Ciao), and essentially converted Al back to Highemp, except they renamed Citizen Rex.

I swear I'll be posting something soon. I've had to take a break from a lot of things to kick my job search into high gear, prompted mainly by my severe lack of funds. Unfortunately, time spent on Massassi was one of the things struck down, lol. I have already started working on another post, just taking more time than usual.

Also, any word on the one thread game idea you had Geb?

No problem, man. These things happen, and you're still posting well as it is.

As for the game thread, I'm afraid that's fallen by the wayside. I couldn't get enough players, so it flopped.

*does happy rain dance because Liberius is lurking about*

*succeeds only in drenching himself*

Just as a side note... I am working on the character sheet for Captain Von Trufflesnout... Just taking a bit of time considering everything going on at my house right now. Since I start the new job tomorrow, I'm definately going to try and get it done before the end of the day.

Funny enough, I wanted to introduce something similar to Capt. Von Trufflesnout, though when I was playing around with the idea, I wasn't sure who it would be associated with, nor did I consider the dog would talk. However, it would have had some sort of story power, as Capt. Von Trufflesnout does, and it was going to be a plott hound for obvious reasons.

I'd like to write some more posts in the near future, but I've been thrown onto an 8AM-4PM shift, which is a bit of a change and throwing things off for me. On the plus side, I'm hoping to have the temporary stuff up for the new NeS resource site, NeS Notes, soon!

That's Captain Von Trufflesnout, Junior, The Third, and don't you forget it.

That's great about NeS Notes, Geb! Finally! I thought NeS would die before-- Oh wait, it did.

Well, I think it high time to point out the good work done by our current set of writers: Geb, Liberius, Crisp, and Cool Matty. Also, hopefully we'll hear back from JM, too!

Liberius, you are a strong writer, fluent in NeS, funny, and with lots of good ideas! I love it when you make long/multiple posts! More gristle for the grill! ...am I mixing metaphors there?

I quote your most hilarious segment yet:



ROTFL!!!

-----

Crisp, you don't post too often, but when you do, it's great stuff! I hope you'll be able to post more often!

I quote:





AND:



Very deep. Followed by:



Haha! Also, I quote:



LOL

-----

Cool Matty, you are only able to post rarely, but I look forward to every new post from you. I quote:



Pretty much describes the NeS... >.>



LOL

-----

Geb, you are hilarious. As always. I quote:







ROTFL

Keep it up, guys!

So I finally have a weekend... sort of. I actually work all weekend and tuesday & wed. are my days off...


Since I have a couple days, I'm going to see if I can get any writing in. lol

Hooray!

I'll continue to post responsively when the opportunity presents itself. In the meantime, I've been postponing my work on the wiki (the first temporary stage to have a landing page for new people) because I feel I should work on more detailed character profiles and a proposed ending for the novel first. Unfortunately, it's a rather time-consuming process, as I'm only on the 3rd of at least 8 profiles I intend to cover.

Ok, so I finally posted something. A lot actually. Not too thrilled about my last one but I was being rushed off the computer and I had to switch the pair back real quick.

I'ld love to do that one differently but hey, I don't feel right going back and editing a story post with anything major. A directional error, mixed up word or character speaking... sure, I'll fix that real quick if I hit the submit button before I had a chance to go back and change it and before anyone has the chance of reading it. But nothing major. So hopefully I don't get railed by you guys too hard for it, lol.