Kortney's Guide to #NaNoWriMo

Proudly helping aspiring authors since October 2006! Last updated August 29, 2008.

IMPORTANT: If you are under 13, you can't be here. Seriously. It could get both Goodchatting.com (who graciously hosts our channel) and NaNoWriMo into quite a bit of trouble. If you are one of those kids who is responsible and capable of handling themselves among adults - sorry. You still need to leave.

Also, English is the primary language of this channel. We will try to understand you if you don't speak it perfectly, but please be aware that if we can't understand you, there's really no point in chatting here.

This FAQ has become so large that it's hard to see what's changed between updates. Therefore, new items will be marked with a (hopefully obvious) New! marker. This is to save you from having to read this whole thing over again.

Before anything else: the #NaNoWriMo FAQ!

Q: I need help with BattleJesus!

A: That's not a question. I'll forgive that just this once. BattleJesus does have a manual. It's located at http://jesus.thewrigro.com/, it's quite comprehensive, and it should answer your questions.

Q: BattleJesus? Huh?

A: That's for me to know, and for you to find out.

Q: Who do I contact if I have problems with the channel or questions about a specific rule or guideline in this FAQ?

A: Talk to a channel operator. If you've got a problem that you can't resolve in-channel, drop a note to chatting@nanowrimo.org.

Q: Talk to the ops? Who are the ops?.

A: So glad you asked. A reasonably current (and fairly complete, though I make no guarantees) list as of New, or at least updated!11/1/08 runs like this:

• Max
• Phil
• Phoebe
• Jude
• MaW
• TMH
• engelein
• sugarfalls
• carrotbat
• pherring
• reliantfc3
• juliebug
• curiosity
• katie
• Marius
• ianmcorvidae
• Kortney
• Durandal7
• dream_weaver
• Talec
• Xmolder

Q: Are there always this many people here?

A: There's always someone here! If it's getting too fast-paced, just wait until you can jump in again.

Q: Do you all know each other?

A: No. What gave you that idea? There are people from all around the world - it would take serious effort for me to meet them all.

Q: How old is everyone?/Where is everyone from?/Are you all guys?

A: No ASL, please. See here.

Q: So, this channel is for talking about writing, right?

A: Probably, but we almost never use it that way. We talk about whatever.

Q: The conversation's starting to get pretty...mature. You know there are kids on here, right?

A: We assume that everyone in the channel considers themselves mature enough for these conversations. If you don't want to wander into potentially adult conversation, #NaNoWriMo isn't the place for you to hang out. (But see the discussion regarding #elsewhere.)

Reference links to common questions:

How do I make that purple text? - here

How do I change my name? - here

What is a Word War? - here

First of all - welcome to NaNoWriMo, and the NaNo channel. We hope that you have a great time not only writing your novel, but chatting with the rest of us as we work alongside you.

There are a few things you should know, however. Some of these things are basic IRC knowledge that most Internet users haven't ever learned, and some are things specific to the NaNo channel.

IRC Knowledge

Here are a few tidbits that may help you to keep from looking like a newbie to chatting, even if you are!

• To change your nick, type /nick newnick, where newnick is whatever you wish to change it to. IRC doesn't allow nicks with spaces, so a nick like "The End" will simply show up as "The". If you need two words in your nick, either capitalize them (like our resident bot BattleJesus) or use an underscore (like dream_weaver does). A few things about nicks:
  • It is perfectly acceptable to change your nick to indicate status. For example, I used to have the habit of changing my nick to Kortney|f00d when I was getting things to eat, but intended to rejoin the conversation when I was done.]
  • It really is not all right to change your nick for a cheap joke. We once had a long and very stupid conversation where we all changed our nicks to things like "You", "Me", and "Nobody". It was confusing and irritating. Now I've warned you. Do not do the same, please. Also, although it's perfectly fine to change your nick if your previous choice doesn't suit you, don't go changing it all the time. We want to know you as one name. Just because you know who you are doesn't mean we do!
• You may see people saying things that appear differently than normal statements. For example, you may see "Kortney snuggles Vixen." We call these actions. In the chat applet available on the NaNo site, this text shows as purple. You can do this yourself by typing /me actiontext, where actiontext is whatever action you want to do. For example, to make the action "Kortney snuggles Vixen.", I typed /me snuggles Vixen.
• If your client is all fancy and special, you can probably send private messages (messages that only you and the recipient can see) to people by clicking their name, or by some other reasonably obvious device. Failing that, you can always send them by typing /msg person message, where person is the person you're messaging and message is your message (bet you would never have guessed). As an example, to send Phil the message "Hi! How are you today?" I would type /msg Phil Hi! How are you today?
• In many IRC clients, you can do something known as "tab-complete", where you only have to type the first part of someone's nick and then press Tab for the program to finish it. This isn't supported in every client, however, and I only include it because it gets mentioned a lot on the channel (when it confuses Phil for pherring, and mat for Max).
• There are many other channels out there besides #NaNoWriMo (though none of them are quite as cool as ours). If you find that you want to join another channel, just type /join channel, where channel is the name of the channel you want to join.
• If you want to be sarcastic, please mark your remark with a ;) or something at the end. Sarcasm doesn't transmit well over text, so please be explicit about it, or we'll assume you're being a jerk.

#NaNoWriMo Hints

These are a few things that will help you keep from getting yelled at on the channel.

• No racism/sexism. Really, does this have to be explicitly stated?
• No excessive AIM-speak. This is a writer's channel - we speak English here. So saying things like "so wat iz ur plot plz tell me !!1!" will not make you any friends. For further clarification: we don't do this (thanks kennethlove!):
  
• No excessive leet. This goes with the previous statement. Really, it's just irritating. We're all intelligent people here.
• Please, no dying. It sounds stupid, but I think most of us have had about enough of all this /me dies stuff. I know that it irritates several operators and many of our chatters, and it actually disturbs at least one person. We are all authors here. We should have better ways to express our frustration (or exhaustion, or irritation, or fatalistic-ness).
• We're starting to see more and more multiples in the channel. I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but we're getting into the same silly "heated discussions"/arguments over and over again about this topic. So please, in the words of one of our most senior ops: "I ask that multiples don't make a big thing of it, and people who have an issue with multiples also don't make a big thing of it. Either that, or don't hang out here." In other words, play nice, kids. OK? Thanks! Pro tip: There is a #nanomultis channel where discussion of multiplicity and writing is a-OK! Cool people (including myself) hang out there, so please take advantage of this!
• Please don't yell all the time. For those of you who don't know, THIS IS YELLING! YELLING IN IRC, MUCH LIKE REAL LIFE, SHOULD BE RESERVED FOR VERY SPECIAL OCCASIONS! JUST IMAGINE THAT YOU'RE IN A COFFEESHOP SOMEWHERE TALKING TO A BUNCH OF FRIENDS - YOU DON'T WANT TO BE YELLING ALL THE TIME, NOW DO YOU?! IT LOOKS REALLY STUPID! So...thanks.
• No ASL. For those of you who don't know, that's asking for people's age/sex/location. Some people find it intrusive. When every newcomer asks, it gets repetitive. And just so you know, this rule isn't against asking all of them together, it's against asking any one of these. "I was just asking how old everyone is" isn't a defense against the "No ASL" rule.
• If you want to know someone's personal details, take it to private messages.  This includes asking about NaNo usernames, email addresses, LiveJournals, MySpaces, personal websites, Facebook accounts, and anything else a fairly paranoid person might not be willing to share in the channel.  (Not sure how to PM people?  You must have missed it!  That info's right here.)  Also, no means no, folks.  If the channel ops hear reports of people badgering or pestering others for information they don't want to share, the pesterer is likely to get kicked, and probably banned.  We take privacy seriously here, for those who want it.
• You may talk about whatever you like in the channel. However, if your discussion is making people uncomfortable, or seems inappropriate to #NaNoWriMo in some way, you may be asked to move your discussion #elsewhere. We're not just being snarky; there really is a channel called #elsewhere for you to carry on conversations that the main channel doesn't want. (Of course, private messages work just as well if there are only two people interested in the conversation anyway.) Join it by typing /join #elsewhere.
• Speaking of other channels, there is now a channel for fanfic discussions. If you would like to take part in these conversations, just join #NaNoFanfic by typing /join #nanofanfic.
• Don't be a jerk. Seriously. Most of us come here for fun, and we generally try to keep the channel fairly pleasant. If you do want to be part of a heated discussion, then take it to private messages or another channel altogether.
• If you want to talk about sex, it's perfectly all right. However, a general guideline has been proposed that it might be a good idea to pay attention to. Acknowledging that people have sex is not inappropriate. Details about how they have sex can be. Please be sensitive to others.
• No unauthorized bots. Talk to TMH, mat, or Phil before bringing your bot into the channel. It will make life easier for all of us.
• Do not flood the chat with randomness. I mean, honestly, this should be a no-brainer.
• Watch what you copy and paste into the channel. If you spam the channel with tons and tons of text, regardless of how well-intentioned it may be, you will likely find yourself on the wrong side of a kick. If there's something you want us to read, please link us to it, or find some other way to give it to us without flooding the channel.
• Speaking of links, no link spam. Please only link us to something once. Repeatedly trying to get people to read the same LiveJournal entry or FictionPress story will probably just irritate them into not reading it, which sort of defeats the purpose. To summarize: if you have a link you want us to read, only put it in the channel once, please.
• Excessive whinging/whining/complaining/"emo" will not be tolerated. If people ask you to stop, whether they be ops or not, do so. We're sorry that your life isn't perfect. Neither are ours. An overabundance of "My life is so horrible!" kills the channel faster than a serial killer on speed.
• In the same vein, no drama competitions. The only thing worse than whining is competitive whining, where everyone tries to prove that they have the worst life of anyone in the room. No one wants to hear this. If you can't see that this is extremely self-centered and also has a tendency to kill all conversation and make people stop liking you, then you should probably look again.
• DO WHAT THE MODS SAY. Let me say that again. DO WHAT THE MODS SAY. Please. DO WHAT THE MODS SAY. Don't give them crap, just do what they say. If they tell you you're being annoying, stop. If they tell you to drop an argument, do it. If they tell you to move a conversation to another channel, go. They're here to ensure that everyone enjoys the channel as much as possible.
• No bananaphone, All Your Base, or (shudder) badgers. This should need no explanation. "We all suffer greatly in the name of poor art." -AdamNegral

Now, to the more pleasant stuff:

• I know a bot. His name is BattleJesus, BattleJesus is his name. And he can ban you...no, wait, he can't. Sorry, I've got a certain Scandinavian dance tune on my mind. </inside-joke> We've got a bot named BattleJesus, who arbitrates Word Wars and remembers stupid quotes, among other things. He has an instruction manual at http://jesus.thewrigro.com/. This should be the first place you turn to when you have BattleJesus questions. That said, there are a few things I'll mention regarding BattleJesus.
• BattleJesus arbitrates Word Wars. Word Wars are timed writing events. The premise is simple - write as much as you can in a limited amount of time. BattleJesus times the contest, announces time remaining, and gives the cut-off. You can start a Word War by typing !startwar pause length, where pause is the length of time until the Word War starts (maximum 15 minutes) and length is the length of the war. If you have a BattleJesus problem, talk to mat.
• Something to note: if BattleJesus seems to ignore you for some reason, it's probably because you've used up all of your "energy". You can only do so much in a limited time with him - that's to keep people from flooding the channel with bot-generated garbage. Just wait, and try again later.
• Sometimes we play a game called Worldbreaker. Rules are available at http://thenexusproject.org/non-canon/projects/phil/rules/creative/worldbreaker.html. It's an incredible way to generate a setting. Got questions? Ask Phil or myself. You should probably talk to Phil, though, since he's the creator.
• Have a good time on the channel! Really, it's quite possible to enjoy yourself without being a dick, and you start to forget that the rules are there.

Let me know if this guide's been helpful, or if there's anything you feel needs to be changed or added. I'm Kortney on #NaNoWriMo, and I'm there often, so I should be easy to contact. Happy chatting!

ŠKortney