Guide to Logging
A few people are new to RP in this comm so we decided to put together a small guide to logging. Well...we let the "mods" explain what logging is. That is...the Golden Pair. Take it away:
Hey everyone! Kikumaru Eiji here! And I’m here to teach you all how to RP. There are a lot of different ways to listen closely, okay? I’m going to have examples to show you guys on how to do everything and if there are any other questions, you can always just come and ask either Oishi or me! We’ll be very happy to answer any questions. If you need any rules clarified or if you feel unhappy about anything you can direct all your questions to us Oishi as well. Okay so...there are a lot of ways to go about RPing and Oishi is going to demonstrate.
Aren’t you, Oishi?
W-why are all the questions being directed to me...?
Ah, well. The way we’re talking to each other right now is in “first person style,” which is the writing style most often used in our journal entry posts and comments. The journals function as an online blogging service for us, so it makes sense that we communicate using this style. There’s no need for quotation marks for dialogue or action descriptions, most of what we’ll write in this style will be direct person-to-person communication.
And occasionally, emoticons. d(^-^ )
You say that, Oishi but everytime I start an emoticon war with you, you get all “I’m not going to get into this with you, Eiji”.
Because there’s no point to having an entire conversation with nothing but typed faces.
(｡’▽’｡)♡
（；¬＿¬)
(ღ˘⌣˘ღ)
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
See? Oishi never keeps up with this kind of fun stuff! ┬──┬◡ﾉ(° -°ﾉ) There. Anyway! So like I was saying before. There are lots of different styles of RPing but before I get into that, let’s talk about the methods of RPing. There are ...as far as I’m concerned...three different methods used to RP. There are probably a lot more but these are the only ways I interact with Oishi.
-Email
-Instant Messenger (AIM, skype, Gchat, windows messenger, ICQ....etc)
-Google Docs ←-I like this one... when I’m at home. But lately... I’ve done email a lot too... hmm...
I thought I was being fun...?
Email is the easiest method for tagging back and forth without having to have any kind of special program or access on your computer or phone, and is easiest for those members in different time zones to communicate consistently. It does tend to be slower than other methods of communicating.
Instant messenger on the other hand is, well, instant. Though some chat programs limit character count, if both players agree to RP through a messenger, it tends to move a lot quicker and easier.
Google Docs is an application within Gmail that allows multiple people to have instant access to a single document they can edit and amend at any time. Like a collaborative Word document. This is one of the easier ways to tag because it keeps the log neatly organized in one document that you can copy and post to the community later without having to worry about removing timestamps or changing formatting.
Of course, there are numerous ways to chat back and forth between yourself and the other players, so don’t limit yourself! Whatever you and your partner or group members decide to use in order to log efficiently is acceptable. We don’t mandate any method of logging, it’s mostly worked out between players for certain scenes and outside of the community.
Ah, that reminds me! If you should ever want to log an interaction or have an idea for a scene with another player, just find some way of contacting them, either through livejournal PMs, email, or instant messenger, and request! We’re all very friendly out of character.
You guys can do what I did and post a quick post to the OOC community calling someone out. Oh and just in case any of you guys didn't know, if you click on the thingie to right of the google docs page, it opens up a little chat box so anybody who's editing at the same time too can chat with you. Then at least if it's a multiperson log then nobody's fighting to tag next. I know everybody wants to tag right after me, right? :3
If everybody isn’t online at the same time, that’s okay too though! Because all you need to do is go to File > Email Collaborators, then you can send a notification out to all of the other people saying that you’ve updated. If you’re playing with a lot of people you might want to tag to a specific someone but you don’t need to. I’m sure other people will catch on if they come in and see someone else doing stuffs. OH! And I forgot to mention too~ The blue share button is where you can add people to the document, just make sure they can edit too otherwise they’ll be able to see what everyone else is doing..but they’ll be like invisible ghost people. OoooOoOooOOoooh!!
Oh! You know what...? I lied up there. There is one more way that we all play together and that's in an open log! It's big and messy and everyone just sorta jumps in everywhere.
We don't really... need to explain an open log. Do we, Oishi?
We should explain everything, right? And open logs can get pretty confusing.
An open log is a post that’s open to everyone, usually based around an event or location. Hm, for example the latest open log is taking place on the island! There are also what we call “closed logs” which are log posts to the community that only certain members can play in. For example, the Seigaku reunion, and the Rikkaidai reunion were both limited to members of those schools only.
Each open log has a few different location headers, so there are multiple options for you to choose from. When you reply to a header, whoever is also in the area will pick up your tag and start a mini log with you in the comments. Other people might join in too, and it can get a little confusing with the overlapping-- some people prefer to carry on large conversations in a certain order so the other people know to wait their turn...
But I’m getting away from myself. T-the most important thing to remember about open logs is to keep track of your own character. Even if you’re switching threads and interacting with a lot of people, so long as you keep up what you’re up to, it should be fine. Sometimes time paradoxes happen, or characters are in two places at two different times within the same post... just... don’t let it bother you. I try not to.
Oishi... You're so long winded. I'm sure everyone knows what an open log is. We've played in them all before nya~? And they're so much fun when everybody is everywhere! For just that little bit of time you can all know what it feels like to seal step. Heehee. Feels good doesn't it? Now all you guys have left to experience is synchro.
Synchro is the most wonderful feeling. When you synchro with someone you---
Ahaha, I don’t think that’s relevant, moving on...
Oishi! You’re interrupting! I’m sure everyone out there wants to know what it’s like to synchro! Anyway, when you synchro with someo--
NOT relevant, moving on! We were going to explain that logs in the community are done third person, past tense, weren’t we?
Pfft. You’re not being fun. But okay. Third person logging is what everybody does by default. I don’t know why they do it like that but they do. It’s like multi-person fanfic writing where everybody controls their own character. And you take it in turns to write one paragraph or one line or however long you want to tag someone for and then the other person takes over. Then you keep alternating between the two or three or ten people until you’ve written out the whole story. Just remember that because you’re writing with a lot of people, you just need to keep a check on all of that boring stuff they taught you in school like spelling and grammar and blahblahblah.
The scene can be a quick two page scene or anywhere up to twenty pages even. I think there was one time Oishi and I played for like...a hundred pages...we had to split it over a few different google docs because it started to go really slow and crash on us. Haha. o(^-^)o Anyway...I’ll show you what I mean by third person past tense.
Third Person Logging
Eiji shifted a little in his seat and turned to the man besides him with a little grin. This was the most perfect time to take a break from the big long boring explanations they’ve had to do and do something fun instead. The redhead’s eyes glanced over at the drinks they had set up at the start of this demonstration and a familiar childish and very cheeky glint glimmered in those blue eyes. Before another moment had passed, he had scooped up two of the ice blocks from the bowl on the table in front of them and slipped them down the back of Oishi’s shirt. He then had to quickly cover his mouth to hide the laughter but caught it a little bit too slowly. Eiji sat there, laughing as he waited to see how his boyfriend would react to such an attack.
With a yelp, Oishi gritted his teeth and bolted rigidly upright as the ice cubes tumbled down the back of his shirt. He bent and craned his arms to try and catch it, flailing like a fish for a good minute before he gave the shirt a good yank and sent the cubes bouncing out the other end and into his awaiting hand. The frigidly cold water still stuck his shirt uncomfortably against his skin. He set what was left of the melting cubes down stubbornly on the table in front of him and took a seat once more. “That wasn’t funny.”
… Oishi should have just smacked Eiji on the back of the head for that.
~~~~~
Hahahaha. o(^-^)o So you see. One person does something and the other person reacts. Sometimes if you’re going to do something you’re not sure if the other person would like, you should shoot them an “[ooc:I wanna do something stupid]” just to make sure they’re okay with it. But I can do anything I want to Oishi. He’ll still love me. So here’s another example I’m going to show you.
The tension in the air changed subtly as the redhead turned to note the slight mood shift in the man that sat beside him. Blue eyes opened wide slightly as he watched the other man close in slightly and slowly but surely edge him up against the wall. Eiji felt his back press up against it as the other man’s chest came nearer until their bodies just about pressed together. “Oishi...?” The voice spoke very softly. “What do you....?” His own fingers moved towards Oishi’s shirt, grasping at the fabric lightly.
Oi, oi, oi!! I-I definitely wouldn’t do that!!
Eeeh? Hmm. I guess not. Anyway. That, my friends is an example of godmodding. Even if it’s through the eyes of your own character, you should never control what the other character is doing. Even if you think that’s what they should be doing at the time. So Oishi would never actually randomly decide to pin me up against the wall like that. But sometimes it doesn’t have to even go that far, sometimes people don’t like it if you even control their character to walk into the room because they want to do other things with them. It’s really up to how comfortable you are with the other person but just try your best to just keep your reactions to what you’ve seen the other person do without doing anything to them.
So that’s the main type of logging. There’s a few others that everyone should know about so...the second type of logging is kind of like that but it’s short tags. Action logging! I don’t know what else to call it. But it’s really good if you prefer IM logging or if you want to bust out a lot really quickly. It ends up looking something kind of like this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eiji: *turns to Oishi with a little pout* I’m sorry. *sniffs a little bit to show that he was sincerely sorry about the incident from just before.*
Oishi: *frown lightens up a bit* A-ah, well, it’s all right. Really. I’m not angry. *gives Eiji a wide smile in return.*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Action tags (sometimes called script format) tend to be in present tense, it’s just easier that way. And you don’t have to use asterisks, some people use brackets for actions [like this]. Hm, but Eiji, what if you and I were having a conversation in-character through a messaging service? Like, on our phones?
Hmm....? I think everyone likes to set it up differently, right? But the last time we did it...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eiji reached out to pick up his phone just off to the wayside and flicked it up. Quickly he punched through the phonebook until he found the right contact and clicked to message.
Eiji: Oishi! Look! I know how to use my mobile phone now. o(^-^)o
Oishi: That’s great. So when we’re done with this in-character conversation we can post it to the community as a chat log. It works the same for phone calls, right?
With that, the redhead tapped through his phone again and found that same contact. He hit the little green phone button and held up the phone to his ear.
Eiji: It feels kind of weird calling you when you’re sitting right next to me though...
Oishi: Because it is... It’s more for long distance conversations... I think this is sufficient for explanations though, right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That kind of logging works the same for if two people are sitting at computers and chatting through IM. The cute thing you can do with that is also post it like an actual chat log. See what your IM window looks like right now when you’re chatting to people? Yeah, just do it like that. One way of doing it also is to chat to the other person in character and then copy and paste the actual chat logs into a document.
Then all you have to do is paste it into Word or whatever program and use the find and replace tool to replace your own username with whatever username the person would have. But if you’re special like me and Oishi are...your username would be...relevant already anyway. o(^-^)o
I think we’ve covered all of the methods of logging. You’ve all seen how everyone posts logs to the community so just keep up with that, it’s been very awesome! And the easiest way to do logging is to just have a chat to the other person and see what they prefer. Then you can all go from there!
So...Oishi...speaking of logs. What’s the big idea about having a crash right when we were ab--
W-well that’s really everything isn’t it? We covered everything! If you have any more questions or need anything clarified, don’t hesitate to use the comments below!
Hey everyone! Kikumaru Eiji here! And I’m here to teach you all how to RP. There are a lot of different ways to listen closely, okay? I’m going to have examples to show you guys on how to do everything and if there are any other questions, you can always just come and ask either Oishi or me! We’ll be very happy to answer any questions. If you need any rules clarified or if you feel unhappy about anything you can direct all your questions to us Oishi as well. Okay so...there are a lot of ways to go about RPing and Oishi is going to demonstrate.
Aren’t you, Oishi?
W-why are all the questions being directed to me...?
Ah, well. The way we’re talking to each other right now is in “first person style,” which is the writing style most often used in our journal entry posts and comments. The journals function as an online blogging service for us, so it makes sense that we communicate using this style. There’s no need for quotation marks for dialogue or action descriptions, most of what we’ll write in this style will be direct person-to-person communication.
And occasionally, emoticons. d(^-^ )
You say that, Oishi but everytime I start an emoticon war with you, you get all “I’m not going to get into this with you, Eiji”.
Because there’s no point to having an entire conversation with nothing but typed faces.
(｡’▽’｡)♡
（；¬＿¬)
(ღ˘⌣˘ღ)
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
See? Oishi never keeps up with this kind of fun stuff! ┬──┬◡ﾉ(° -°ﾉ) There. Anyway! So like I was saying before. There are lots of different styles of RPing but before I get into that, let’s talk about the methods of RPing. There are ...as far as I’m concerned...three different methods used to RP. There are probably a lot more but these are the only ways I interact with Oishi.
-Instant Messenger (AIM, skype, Gchat, windows messenger, ICQ....etc)
-Google Docs ←-I like this one... when I’m at home. But lately... I’ve done email a lot too... hmm...
I thought I was being fun...?
Email is the easiest method for tagging back and forth without having to have any kind of special program or access on your computer or phone, and is easiest for those members in different time zones to communicate consistently. It does tend to be slower than other methods of communicating.
Instant messenger on the other hand is, well, instant. Though some chat programs limit character count, if both players agree to RP through a messenger, it tends to move a lot quicker and easier.
Google Docs is an application within Gmail that allows multiple people to have instant access to a single document they can edit and amend at any time. Like a collaborative Word document. This is one of the easier ways to tag because it keeps the log neatly organized in one document that you can copy and post to the community later without having to worry about removing timestamps or changing formatting.
Of course, there are numerous ways to chat back and forth between yourself and the other players, so don’t limit yourself! Whatever you and your partner or group members decide to use in order to log efficiently is acceptable. We don’t mandate any method of logging, it’s mostly worked out between players for certain scenes and outside of the community.
Ah, that reminds me! If you should ever want to log an interaction or have an idea for a scene with another player, just find some way of contacting them, either through livejournal PMs, email, or instant messenger, and request! We’re all very friendly out of character.
You guys can do what I did and post a quick post to the OOC community calling someone out. Oh and just in case any of you guys didn't know, if you click on the thingie to right of the google docs page, it opens up a little chat box so anybody who's editing at the same time too can chat with you. Then at least if it's a multiperson log then nobody's fighting to tag next. I know everybody wants to tag right after me, right? :3
If everybody isn’t online at the same time, that’s okay too though! Because all you need to do is go to File > Email Collaborators, then you can send a notification out to all of the other people saying that you’ve updated. If you’re playing with a lot of people you might want to tag to a specific someone but you don’t need to. I’m sure other people will catch on if they come in and see someone else doing stuffs. OH! And I forgot to mention too~ The blue share button is where you can add people to the document, just make sure they can edit too otherwise they’ll be able to see what everyone else is doing..but they’ll be like invisible ghost people. OoooOoOooOOoooh!!
Oh! You know what...? I lied up there. There is one more way that we all play together and that's in an open log! It's big and messy and everyone just sorta jumps in everywhere.
We don't really... need to explain an open log. Do we, Oishi?
We should explain everything, right? And open logs can get pretty confusing.
An open log is a post that’s open to everyone, usually based around an event or location. Hm, for example the latest open log is taking place on the island! There are also what we call “closed logs” which are log posts to the community that only certain members can play in. For example, the Seigaku reunion, and the Rikkaidai reunion were both limited to members of those schools only.
Each open log has a few different location headers, so there are multiple options for you to choose from. When you reply to a header, whoever is also in the area will pick up your tag and start a mini log with you in the comments. Other people might join in too, and it can get a little confusing with the overlapping-- some people prefer to carry on large conversations in a certain order so the other people know to wait their turn...
But I’m getting away from myself. T-the most important thing to remember about open logs is to keep track of your own character. Even if you’re switching threads and interacting with a lot of people, so long as you keep up what you’re up to, it should be fine. Sometimes time paradoxes happen, or characters are in two places at two different times within the same post... just... don’t let it bother you. I try not to.
Oishi... You're so long winded. I'm sure everyone knows what an open log is. We've played in them all before nya~? And they're so much fun when everybody is everywhere! For just that little bit of time you can all know what it feels like to seal step. Heehee. Feels good doesn't it? Now all you guys have left to experience is synchro.
Synchro is the most wonderful feeling. When you synchro with someone you---
Ahaha, I don’t think that’s relevant, moving on...
Oishi! You’re interrupting! I’m sure everyone out there wants to know what it’s like to synchro! Anyway, when you synchro with someo--
NOT relevant, moving on! We were going to explain that logs in the community are done third person, past tense, weren’t we?
Pfft. You’re not being fun. But okay. Third person logging is what everybody does by default. I don’t know why they do it like that but they do. It’s like multi-person fanfic writing where everybody controls their own character. And you take it in turns to write one paragraph or one line or however long you want to tag someone for and then the other person takes over. Then you keep alternating between the two or three or ten people until you’ve written out the whole story. Just remember that because you’re writing with a lot of people, you just need to keep a check on all of that boring stuff they taught you in school like spelling and grammar and blahblahblah.
The scene can be a quick two page scene or anywhere up to twenty pages even. I think there was one time Oishi and I played for like...a hundred pages...we had to split it over a few different google docs because it started to go really slow and crash on us. Haha. o(^-^)o Anyway...I’ll show you what I mean by third person past tense.
Third Person Logging
Eiji shifted a little in his seat and turned to the man besides him with a little grin. This was the most perfect time to take a break from the big long boring explanations they’ve had to do and do something fun instead. The redhead’s eyes glanced over at the drinks they had set up at the start of this demonstration and a familiar childish and very cheeky glint glimmered in those blue eyes. Before another moment had passed, he had scooped up two of the ice blocks from the bowl on the table in front of them and slipped them down the back of Oishi’s shirt. He then had to quickly cover his mouth to hide the laughter but caught it a little bit too slowly. Eiji sat there, laughing as he waited to see how his boyfriend would react to such an attack.
With a yelp, Oishi gritted his teeth and bolted rigidly upright as the ice cubes tumbled down the back of his shirt. He bent and craned his arms to try and catch it, flailing like a fish for a good minute before he gave the shirt a good yank and sent the cubes bouncing out the other end and into his awaiting hand. The frigidly cold water still stuck his shirt uncomfortably against his skin. He set what was left of the melting cubes down stubbornly on the table in front of him and took a seat once more. “That wasn’t funny.”
… Oishi should have just smacked Eiji on the back of the head for that.
~~~~~
Hahahaha. o(^-^)o So you see. One person does something and the other person reacts. Sometimes if you’re going to do something you’re not sure if the other person would like, you should shoot them an “[ooc:I wanna do something stupid]” just to make sure they’re okay with it. But I can do anything I want to Oishi. He’ll still love me. So here’s another example I’m going to show you.
The tension in the air changed subtly as the redhead turned to note the slight mood shift in the man that sat beside him. Blue eyes opened wide slightly as he watched the other man close in slightly and slowly but surely edge him up against the wall. Eiji felt his back press up against it as the other man’s chest came nearer until their bodies just about pressed together. “Oishi...?” The voice spoke very softly. “What do you....?” His own fingers moved towards Oishi’s shirt, grasping at the fabric lightly.
Oi, oi, oi!! I-I definitely wouldn’t do that!!
Eeeh? Hmm. I guess not. Anyway. That, my friends is an example of godmodding. Even if it’s through the eyes of your own character, you should never control what the other character is doing. Even if you think that’s what they should be doing at the time. So Oishi would never actually randomly decide to pin me up against the wall like that. But sometimes it doesn’t have to even go that far, sometimes people don’t like it if you even control their character to walk into the room because they want to do other things with them. It’s really up to how comfortable you are with the other person but just try your best to just keep your reactions to what you’ve seen the other person do without doing anything to them.
So that’s the main type of logging. There’s a few others that everyone should know about so...the second type of logging is kind of like that but it’s short tags. Action logging! I don’t know what else to call it. But it’s really good if you prefer IM logging or if you want to bust out a lot really quickly. It ends up looking something kind of like this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eiji: *turns to Oishi with a little pout* I’m sorry. *sniffs a little bit to show that he was sincerely sorry about the incident from just before.*
Oishi: *frown lightens up a bit* A-ah, well, it’s all right. Really. I’m not angry. *gives Eiji a wide smile in return.*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Action tags (sometimes called script format) tend to be in present tense, it’s just easier that way. And you don’t have to use asterisks, some people use brackets for actions [like this]. Hm, but Eiji, what if you and I were having a conversation in-character through a messaging service? Like, on our phones?
Hmm....? I think everyone likes to set it up differently, right? But the last time we did it...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eiji reached out to pick up his phone just off to the wayside and flicked it up. Quickly he punched through the phonebook until he found the right contact and clicked to message.
Eiji: Oishi! Look! I know how to use my mobile phone now. o(^-^)o
Oishi: That’s great. So when we’re done with this in-character conversation we can post it to the community as a chat log. It works the same for phone calls, right?
With that, the redhead tapped through his phone again and found that same contact. He hit the little green phone button and held up the phone to his ear.
Eiji: It feels kind of weird calling you when you’re sitting right next to me though...
Oishi: Because it is... It’s more for long distance conversations... I think this is sufficient for explanations though, right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That kind of logging works the same for if two people are sitting at computers and chatting through IM. The cute thing you can do with that is also post it like an actual chat log. See what your IM window looks like right now when you’re chatting to people? Yeah, just do it like that. One way of doing it also is to chat to the other person in character and then copy and paste the actual chat logs into a document.
Then all you have to do is paste it into Word or whatever program and use the find and replace tool to replace your own username with whatever username the person would have. But if you’re special like me and Oishi are...your username would be...relevant already anyway. o(^-^)o
I think we’ve covered all of the methods of logging. You’ve all seen how everyone posts logs to the community so just keep up with that, it’s been very awesome! And the easiest way to do logging is to just have a chat to the other person and see what they prefer. Then you can all go from there!
So...Oishi...speaking of logs. What’s the big idea about having a crash right when we were ab--
W-well that’s really everything isn’t it? We covered everything! If you have any more questions or need anything clarified, don’t hesitate to use the comments below!