Torn World is recruiting contributors!

[ellenmillion]

Firstly, a big thank you to ysabetwordsmith, minor_architect, padparadscha, and marina_bonomi, who have been invaluable in extensively beta-testing the site and providing feedback and worldbuilding assistance! Thanks also to ronswartz for all the coding tutelage and for the basecode for the site. I have warped and mutated it horribly, but the base genius is his. Thanks additionally to beta-testers and artists Alexandra K., Christopher Paul, Erika Harm, Heather Halliday, Jen B., Jenny Heidewald, Kir Talmage, Laura Melis, Lorna Cowie, Maggie Hogarth, Misti Turner, Ren Bail, Ruth Steinback, Sibylle Machat, Tiffany Toland, Wesley Sterner, and Tiziano Baracchi.

My gratitude!

What the heck is Torn World?

This question comes in two parts: in our world, and in their world. Part two, I will address in very gory detail starting tomorrow, but the 'in game' or 'in character' answer is that it's a vast, complicated fantasy/science fiction world with fanciful creatures and slight steampunk overtones.

At the real world end, it is a creative collaborative site for artists, writers and creative types of any sort to work on a shared continuity. We have a common shared world with extensive writer resources, a common timeline, and a database of characters and features to draw from for our own independent material.

Membership comes in many different sizes.

You don't have to register at all, and you can still enjoy the site - there will be some public stories, a limited supply of recent artwork, and you can browse through some of the character information.

Free registered readers get access to the archives of artwork, any stories filtered for adult content, and can read the non-canon material published on the site. (This material may counter our continuity, or simply not be of sufficient quality to be voted into canon.)

Contributor members have access to all of this material, our extensive Torn World wiki and extra areas of the forums where they can help with world-building brainstorming and they have forms to submit their own artwork and stories. Contributors retain all creative rights to their material! They can reprint them for free, or for profit, anywhere that they like. Torn World gets archive rights only - these stories may become part of our continuity, and we ask that we be able to share them with members of our site. Contributors may choose to have their work printed for supporters only, however!

Supporters are members of the site who are contributing financially. They pay to get access to extra work available only to them. But the money they put into the site doesn't stay in the site managment - they get most of their subscription funds back in 'credits,' which they can pledge to any contributor. Credits are actual, factual cash, which the contributor can withdraw at any time their balance is over $10.

In addition to the real-money credits, there is a second site currency called karma. All contributors to the site receive karma for their submissions, for promoting the project, for creating characters, for commenting on work and for being part of the site managment. Karma can be redeemed for character privileges, supporter access, discounts on merchandise, and you can give your karma away to someone else to show your appreciation. It’s an awesome way to give kudos when you don’t have any cash to spare.

(There is a lot more detail about membership, credit, karma, canon and lots of other things on the webpage: http://tornworld.net )

Now recruiting contributors!

After 12-odd years of development, 9 months of beta-testing and a lot of nail-gnawing work, the site is going into phase one of its public launch: recruiting contributors.

If Torn World were just me, it would probably get really boring. While I do have fifty-odd stories in various stages of finished, they are just a tiny, tiny part of the interweaving story that begs to be told.

Your obligations as a contributor are minor: you are expected to log into the site once a year. (Though, you will not be listed publicly on the site as a contributor until you have actually submitted something accepted for publication on the site.)

Your potential is limitless. If you want to join as a contributor and just lurk, that’s fine, but you may also find yourself inspired by the setting - as a whole, or by one tiny aspect of our very detailed background material - the world has been deliberately set up to support a number of isolated ecosystems and a vast array of backculture. If you’ve wanted to get involved in a world-building exercise, but didn’t have the staying power for an entire world of your own, you’ll find plenty of opportunity to get involved with the building blocks of Torn World. Unlike most work created in someone else’s sandbox, this isn’t ‘fanfiction.’ It has all the ease and inspiration of fanfiction, but you keep your rights.

You will also have the opportunity at this time to get involved as part of the management: our continuity board will be selected from active members during phase 1 of this launch. The countinuity board will be in charge of choosing which work is canon and which is not, and will keep order in the community.

In January of 2010, the site will start posting new work publicly.

You are invited to join us!

Tomorrow I will start posting details about the world itself... these posts will be public for 1 day, then put behind a contributor’s-only filter. They will be cross-posted to the Torn World forums for posterity.

ETA: We also have a twitter: http://twitter.com/Torn_World

Comments

[puffbird.livejournal.com]

I was kind of a useless beta-tester; I'm sorry! D: When I volunteered, I thought I'd be able to contribute far more than I ended up being able to. But I'm glad to see it up and live! :)

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Heh! Hey, you tested the site sign-up functions. That they worked without bugs is no shame at all! :P

Wheeeee!

[sibylle]

Thanks for the thanks, but all I've done so far is sign up earlier today and reading around ... if I do find something that does not work, I will report it, of course ... but so far, I've really not done much of anything!

It all looks suuuper cool and exciting though, and I can't wait to find out more about this world and the characters in it!!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I'm busted! I was just going down the list of member accounts writing the thank you list, and you were on there before I was done. :P Well, thank you for assuring me that the membership form still works! That counts for beta-testing.

[kittrel.livejournal.com]

I really love the idea of this... I've been wondering what this Torn World thin was all about for months and I was really excited for it to be unveiled!

I think maybe getting involved in a project like this would spark my creativity - it's been slacking lately. And I know since it's from YOU it's bound to be organized and well run and not another fly-by-night kinda thing that drops off the face of the earth within a week or two. May I contribute?

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I'd love to have you involved!! :) :)

I'm pretty excited to have unleashed it, too. My last 'fly-by-night' lasted 16 years, so... yes, I tend to have staying power. And I'll keep it going even if it's just little lonesome me, because I have the material to get it through a year or two. It would just be a LOT more fun with more people. ;P

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Do you know if there's an interest in creating non-human characters? Otherwise... man I think I'm going to join as a contributor! :)

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

At this point, there are no concrete plans for non-humans as characters, but the structure of Torn World allows for some very specific, isolated evolution, and I'm not adverse to the idea that they exist outside of our current 'known lands.' Having contributors involved who are interested in this angle will greatly increase the odds of it happening. :P

[melissad.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about this too, but after reading the site thought it might fall too far into the realm of non-Torn World magic?

I initially had an idea of a small band of shape-shifter type people loosely based off of Tlingit clan system. The thought that I immediately had was, if time can occur all at once, why can't there be something that can be many different things/creatures/what have you at once? I'll do some more research and see if I can explain this in a way that won't be too out of context with the world. Let me know if this may be at all feasible. I have some rules and quirks with the whole clan idea already in the works. Let me know if you want to see a more detailed outline of what I have in mind. :-D

[julseykit.livejournal.com]

I've been watching your progress for this with growing curiosity, and the more I see about it, the more interested I get. I'm always hesitant before jumping into something, but I think I might like to join as a contributor. Eventually. ^^; Can't wait to see more, Ellen!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Yay! I've tried to make it pretty low-pressure for contributors. If you get inspired, horrah! If you don't, lurking is fun, too. I'll be posting nearly-daily stuff about it to try to woo people in, we'll see if it works on you. :P

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yay! Congratulations, and let me know if you need me to do anything else. I'm still poking rather self-consciously at the language, but I'm having a lot of fun checking out the site.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Have you registered at the site? (It's possible I just didn't recognize your name on the members list >.>) I'd like to start attributing our various bits and pieces, and put your memberpage public!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I thought I had, but the site does not agree, so I'll register again.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

It's possible you attempted to register back when I was still breaking the registration page on a regular basis and something went wrong. I'll keep an eye out for your account!