Trial Membership
If you have just received an email from the moderators saying you have just started your trial membership - congratulations! It means that they have looked at the character biography and found it good enough to get through (we get a lot of terrible ones, but we are also very picky about who we let in!).
You are now in your trial period. You have 1 month to impress us with your writing. After that time if we think you are good enough we'll let you become a full member!
Don't feel pressured, this trial period isn't just to make sure you're not a crazy person. It is also a way for us (the moderators) to help you understand how we do stuff. We're open to any questions so feel free to email us!
What do I do now?
Now you do what you signed up to do. Write some cool stories!
If you're stuck for ideas, ask a moderator to help you. Read up on the latest things that have happened on the messageboard. We don't expect you to read the entire history since 2000 so ask a moderator for a brief summary of interesting stuff that's happened lately.
Write your introductory post, this could show your character coming aboard the Blue Dwarf, or meeting some of the crew if they are on an away mission. Or you could simply assume that your character has been there all along but was never mentioned.
Email your finished post to moderators@bluedwarf.co.uk
We'll check it over, and give you helpful hints if you need it.
Then we'll post it to the rest of the group.
Trial Membership Rules
Rule 1
During your trial period, you must post a minimum of FOUR times. The trial period is usually one month, so this works out to just under one post a week. You can of course post more than this if you like! After the trial, we won't be so strict, but we need to ensure that we're not filling up spaces that others would like, with people who have no real interest in participating.
Rule 2
You must sign up to, and participate in the Parrotts Bar forum (www.bluedwarf.co.uk/forum). Here you can stop by the "Welcome to the JMC BLUE DWARF" thread and introduce yourself to everybody, (most of them don't bite).
Whilst there you can take a look at the "posting guidlines for the group" thread, this is a collection of ideas and suggestions from well established community members to help new members get to grips with how Blue Dwarf works and what we expect. And of course, on the forum you can join in any of the threads that you like and take part in all the banter! And even if you don't finish the trial, or decide Blue Dwarf's not for you, you're always welcome in the community forum. All we want, is for you to feel at home, if you can't interact with the members, then Blue Dwarf is not for you.
Rule 3
Before we give you full access to the group, any posts that you write must be sent to the moderators. We will screen them, and if we feel that they really capture the mood of Blue Dwarf will happily forward them onto the group for all to see, and react to. If we feel that any thing may need to be changed, or any work might be needed, we'll reply to you with feedback. Please don't be offended should we do this, it's all part of getting the 'Dwarf to work together like a well-oiled machine and make it fun for everyone!. Don't worry, we're not bothered about poor spelling and grammar, all we want is a good, interesting story that we can all enjoy, and that crosses paths with other people, and events aboard ship.
Sending your post
The email address to send your posts to during you're trial period is moderators@bluedwarf.co.uk you can also use this address to contact the moderators for any reason during, and after your trial.
If you stick to these rules, and your stories really reflect what Blue Dwarf is about then you'll become a full member in no time and you'll be signed up to the Yahoo group, and your characters profile added to the crew roster at our main website at www.bluedwarf.co.uk , if at the end of the first month we feel there may be a little more work to be done, we may decide to extend your trial for a period determined at moderators discretion.
You can read the latest posts on the yahoo group here: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/JMC_Blue_Dwarf (click messages to get a larger list)