General Discussion : The Official TELEPORT US Discussion Thread

Thanks, guys. @Jonathan Riley, you actually hit the nail on the head; that was exactly why I asked, because I had lots of votes up, and positive feedback as well as constructive criticism, then a sudden down vote appeared from nowhere without explanation. Se la vie, I suppose.

Well I've put mine up, so everyone feel free to tear it apart.  Like everyone else says, I'm here to learn.

FYI - Myself and the other admins can view the votes and if there is a "troll" running around giving random down votes, or if you suspect that, you can let me know and it can be investigated and taken care of.

Thanks!

^^^ They put in far more effort than just walking in and picking on people. Everyone should be very reassured about that. Heh.

@Courtney Last I checked, it appeared that entries could be edited, including replacing the content of the document you submitted.  Now, if that was the way things were meant or supposed to be ... no clue.  But it appears that you can make changes ...

Thanks everybody for the feedback. And for taking the time to check out my story! It really is a cool feeling to know that people, strangers essentialy, take the time to look at something you've put so much work into.

And, even if there is a troll out there trolling it up, the population really is negligible beside the number of awesome people on the site.

I must say that I'm incredibly impressed with the community so far.  Even though i was bummed that my story received a few downvotes, the voters took much more time than I would have expected to explain their reason for voting. Much nicer than a form rejection letter for an agent or complete silence..  Thanks to everyone for reading and I'm loving all the great reads. 

we mean you can't have your narrator throw his shoe at the sun and make it explode into a unicorn army that feeds on human flesh. 

This made me laugh so hard. 

Whoops. Good thing you guys posted something about the rules as I didn't even think to look at them. I've been working on a sci fi story that does not have a non-human and it gots no untopian/dystopian future. 

But man-eating unicorn armies? Check.

Just out of curiosity ... is there anyway to kill the editor that wraps comment fields?  This thing is frustrating as heck!

It's cool the way that the topmost stories on the primary page cycle through naturally so that everyone gets a notice.

Got a first draft for this teleporting contest. I love it so much, it'll likely become a novel or novella project. I mean, so much outlining ending up with this whole universe, I just can't squeeze it in 1500-4000 words. BUT I'll revise the draft and try make it a standalone short. Or, rather, submit the work here before the words hatch. For your beautiful company, guisezorzers!

I just want to state for the record that the Teleport Us graphic has some sweet lens flare on it.

Oh, and Courtney, no, I didn't want to slit my wrists. Bang my head against a wall, maybe. 

There's only so many ways you can explain "non-human character" before you need a drink. 

@Rob - you're lucky I didn't muddy the non-human waters further by arguing that objects/things could still be sentient, like the talking toaster on Red Dwarf, or Sheriff Carter's house, Sarah, on Eureka.

The only reason I don't feel as bad for Avery and Utah is because, after all is said and done, at least they had a fucking picture and most people read through the threads before asking. Rob, though... not so lucky.

All these stickies are making my head spin, but I want a thread called "Let's worship our fearless leaders" where all we do is compliment you guys on your ceaseless dedication to mollifying us imbeciles.

I've posted my entry - A Way Out. This is my first Sci Fi story, so I'm really keen to get honest feedback for it!   Please and thank you.

This competition is great, but it could benefit from a more nuanced feedback scale. Five points, perhaps? The Emperor Commodus - style voting does not really work. Sometimes a story could be fundamentally good but have critical flaws that could be rectified with a simple revision. 

For that matter, I would have thought a subtle Holy Grail reference in my title would be a surefire way to get a lot of reads. Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.

One thing I wanted to clarify was how many stories are we allowed to enter? I have quite a few running through my head at the moment, aside from the one I've already posted.

BTW, if anyone is looking for epic writing music, try anything by Audio Machine, Two Steps from Hell, or Hans Zimmer - guaranteed to make the soundtrack to your life epic and grand.

I kind of forgot about my submission.

"Non Human" doesn't necessarily mean it has to be from another planet, right? A giraffe is "non human".

So tall wily neckfighters are aliens? If you can get into their heads that's alien, Martians had antennae didn't they? Wouldn't that also account for their tallness, they came from low gravity planet to settle on earth, maybe from the fifth planet now commonly known as the asteroid belt. And whales, where did all whales come from or where did the smart ones go away to? Some liquid moon basking in Jupiter's glow?

Well this is kinda cool, I'm new to the site and I got up the guts to make me first story post a competition entry, and I'm actually blown away by how much attention people here have paid to my story. I've been writing since I was 18 and I'm now nearly 30 and I've never had such comprehensive feedback. People actually posting my story back to me with added comments? I'd never hoped for so much, nor for it to be as constructive as it is. It's a great confidence builder to be reasonably well received (I think) and be getting feedback from people who aren't afraid to tell me what's wrong. I've never had that online before.

Tell me if you think I've got the wrong attitude here but I don't feel like editing the post of my story is the right thing to do. One, I don't think I can put all the problems right with just simple editing and two, I might as well accept that fuck-ups happen to even the best of us and not worry about whether my entry wins, that wasn't the aim of the game for me anyway - I just wanted to see if I could do it and how I'd handle what criticism I got. Based on what I've had I'd much rather do another draft once I've distanced myself from the story and workshop it later on for those interested. 

And it's nice to read short Sci-fi stories, after years of being a bit of a nerd who reads doorstopper space opera for a past-time. Reading everyone else's entires is giving me a whole new take on what I love doing. 

Carry on Chacron, you get what you get, mind the cannibals and other people expect the same in return so it's quid pro quo and the less you bugger up the less helpful people will have to be because not all are flaming writing geniuses in their real jobs as I said to someone else today, a pinch or two of salt and an integument enhancing cream will stand you in good stead.

Welcome.