Alterations to Character Counts

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SOME BACKGROUND
Sorry, this isn't a "surprise lols we're re-tiering Minior and Cosmog" joke thread. Eventually, some systems become outdated and need a little tweaking to match the modern era. Particularly, it's come to our attention that character counts for the Stories sections are outdated. Posts, not characters, used to be the initial metric for story length, as older forums had limits of 10,000 characters per post. Even after years of forum edits and that limitation eventually being removed, the Stories section continued to use a character-based metric to assess length/effort in a story.

In hindsight, though this was necessary for the Stories section to function, especially when our main hub, PE2k, still had character count limits on posts, we've found this to be somewhat restricting and confusing to newcomers, who often measure story length in words, chapters, or even less tangible metrics. Story length is a guideline, not a rule; longer stories can always fail and shorter stories can still pass.

As such, we've chosen to migrate away from this model and into some new and exciting stuff!

CHARACTER COUNTS 2.0
Graders as a whole have spent years trying to figure out what it means for a story to be "good enough". Raw emotion, tightly-written plots, and beautiful description are all exciting elements in a story that aren't conveyed through a quantitative character count. At the end of the day, a good story can be any length. Determining quality through length is unrealistic. Even Pokemon Fanfiction can be subject to the warm-fuzzies. Rejoice!

!!

But Ely, you say, glancing at the absurd length of this thread, what are you using instead of character counts? Understandably, there will be some sticking points as we move to the new system of: CHARACTER COUNTS 2.0. Lol, you say, but what's the difference? Let me tell you.

So instead of counting characters, like Twitter, we'll now be counting characters. Having three-dimensional, fleshed-out characters is ultimately the biggest indicator of the quality of a story. In this vein, graders will now be assessing how many well-developed, dynamic characters are incorporated in your work. This in turn will be used to determine what Pokemon you are eligible to capture, based on the following scale:

• There are named characters in the story: Easiest-rank/Simple-rank
• Having some level of character description in a story: Medium-rank
• Really beginning to pick up the pace here, with well-described initial characters and hints at an arc: Hard-rank
• Even more character development, with at least two characters in strong focus: Complex-rank
• Arcs of dynamic development for at least two characters: Demanding-rank
• Dynamic development, pivotal character hinging, and substantial change across at least three characters, including antagonists: Merciless-rank
• Stupefying work: Stupefying-rank

FINAL NOTES
read the first letter of each non-bolded sentence tbh
i was gonna make a joke about spelling it out for you but my head hurts from acrostics

 

Stupefying.

 

What of stories that have lots of fully fleshed characters and mentions of one-off characters that eventually fade into obscurity?

Like, say, I make mention of a certain Melinda Bobbin...


P.S. Congrats on becoming a Judge, Seppe! Now you can enjoy the privilege of op wages.

 

same

 

Bullshit?

 

SuBo not impressed elysia. Grats Seppe tho!!

 

Seppe I am proud of you for this achievement. Everyone should strive towards positions in URPG that will help them and others grow. Never give up and be persistent. Dream big. Nobody can tell you how to live your dream. Unless you break down and give up, you'll keep going forever. Don't let anyone tell you different. Especially not those who would want to see you fail.

Someone will realize what I did here.

 

More people should strive to follow Seppe's footsteps. Other members often give up on their dreams. Dream big, people, and work hard to achieve your dreams. Seppe did just that, and it paid off.

 

Alolan Husnain captured.

I sometimes wonder whether we should have a rank higher than Stupefying.

 

Reading that was way more effort than it was worth.

Congrats, Seppe!

 

Ah, Seppe is a grader bullshit.

Grats. Still writing my stories based on the old system or is this new system an actual thing?

 

You didn't read the bullet points.