Last night, I floated an idea in the Discord about a fun thing that could be done for the season. My main resistance to setting dates and posting a thread is that participation on the site is way down compared to before across the board. The last contest was surprising in how many people actually submitted entries, but it still wasn't on the level of previous ones.

That in mind, I figured we ought to have a thread where we can bat around ideas for things like contests and try to gauge interest/potential engagement before committing. If you have something you'd like to see done on the site, toss it out there.

I'll keep my thing separate of the OP.

In the interests of keeping the recs thread clean and limited to recommendations, let's bring all other discussion of stories here. Want to have a protracted argument about why writer x is a faget who should die in a freak kitchen accident? Fire your shots here. Want to complain about story y not having enough (or too much, if you're a sissy) grimdark tentacle death blood rape? By all means, make your voice heard here. Just keep it germane to THP stories and we're all good.

I don't usually want to draw a lot of attention to myself, but that can't be helped in this instance, so I put on my name and trip and everything.

As it says on the tin, I'm primarily propping this thread up to promote a personal site of mine dedicated at least in part to talking about matters related to THP. Now, before you run away, this isn't meant to be a bunch of opinion pieces from some doofus who happens to be a janitor. Some who have been around might have heard me talking about a project to document THP for the benefit of newbies and otherwise. Well, this is where that project has ended up.

That's why the first post I want to present publicly is dedicated to a very important topic for the health of the site: tagging. You might have noticed that a lot of stories in the Story List are missing tags. There is a solution to this, but I can't promise it's a trivial one. Still, it's important that we get as many people as possible contributing to this cause, so I took the liberty of writing out a little guide to how tagging works in a rough fashion. I've also tried to explain a little bit of the rationale behind why tagging is important for the site. Check it out at the link below.

https://theonecalledmask.neocities.org/posts/2022-01-17-tagging.html

I will be periodically posting entries like this for the benefit of the community. There might also be occasional opinion pieces for the morbidly curious. Rather than trying to integrate comments or such Web 2.0 inanity, I'd prefer to use this thread for discussion and feedback. Feel free to tell me if I've got my facts mixed up or whatever. If there's something more private to discuss, find me on Discord or send an e-mail to the address on the front page of my site.

We used to have writing advice threads, but most 'advice' is either unwanted or unapplicable, so let's not do that anymore. Instead, let's just have a general thread where we can talk about the process and the mindset of writing. Pretty much anything goes as long as it's about writing; given that this is THP, it should generally pertain to writing on THP and about Touhou, though.

N.B. This isn't the place for pitching story ideas. If you have a concept for a story that you want to throw out, see >>16317 for that. However, asking for help with developing an idea and discussion thereof is fine.

Getting a jump on this for various reasons. Obviously, Nanowrimo doesn't start until 01 November and ends 30 November. What time? Doesn't matter, just as long as it's November in your timezone.

But, for the newcomers and slow-comers, what is Nanowrimo? For THP purposes, Nanowrimo is when we spend the entire month of November trying to either write thirty (30) updates OR thirty-thousand words total. This can be and often is taken to mean daily updates, but it doesn't matter how you get there. That's just the goal.

You don't even have to write a new story for this; you can enter an ongoing story if you want.

Why do this? Personal satisfaction and community engagement. If you want a prize, I dunno what to tell you; we tried that before. Badger someone into giving you one if you so desire.

Other than the above-stated goals, there aren't any rules as such. It would be nice if people who are participating indicated in this thread that they are doing so. Nothing fancy, just something like:

I'm participating in Nanowrimo. This is my story:
>>/[board]/[post]

It would be helpful for following anyone participating, and I imagine that would be desirable for those writers.

Either way, I hope folks do give it a go. It doesn't cost anything to try, and any value in success or failure is only what you ascribe to it.

Ladies, gentlemen, and all in between,

Many a time, (for a long time), has it been debated among our peers in the Touhou community to appraise and rate each and every hat in the series, but I ask,
"what about those who cannot qualify, those who do not wear hats?"

Many a time, (for a long time), they have been left alone, cold, hatless, and double–crossed for something beyond their control.

I daresay it is time to do something about it!
With your cooperation, we will determine the best hatlessness in the Touhou Project.

"How?" you might be thinking. Fret not! It is easy:
You shall choose a candidate who does not wear a hat (the best picks have never worn a hat*, unlike Udongein, for example) and explain how they are the best at being hatless.
To be more specific, tell us why this character is better off without a hat, and how wearing one would only weaken them, whether it be by design, or presence, or some other characteristic they would stand to lose.

Godspeed all, and have a jolly day!


*For those who's hattedness is ambiguous, be brave and make the best case you can. All will be scrutinized, and the hatted shall be shamed.

Since the old thread that was stickied at one point is seemingly just gone, here's a shiny new one to be largely disused in favour of shitposting on the Discord for talking over neato ideas involving 2hus that could be put into prose.

I look forward to the odd newcomer excitedly posting their 2hu x [insert flavour-of-the-month game here] crossover idea. Or I guess folks could seriously discuss ideas, too. Whatever y'all want. Anyway, doors are wide open, so come on through.

Man, it's a hot one
like seven inches from the mid-day sun

That's the sort of feeling everyone's having in Gensokyo right now. Is it the seasons acting up again? Are things on fire? Has Hell come to establish itself on the surface? Whatever's causing it, pretty much everywhere is hot and humid. That's why the theme for 2022's annual contest shall be a Red-Hot Day in Gensokyo.

Some of you may already be wondering what I'm on about, considering the customary yearly contests generally don't have themes. That's absolutely true in most cases, but in a (sort of) democratic process of discussion and exchange of ideas, it was decided that a narrowing of topics would help bring a bit of focus to potential entrants. Sure, there's the risk that some won't like the theme and not participate, but the flip-side is potentially having nobody participate because the range of potential subjects is too wide. After all, can you easily think up something contest-worthy off the top of your head? (Rhetorical question, do not answer.) Better to buck tradition and have slightly higher hopes of participation than be stubborn and probably get nothing, I think, anyway.

With that in mind, I think newbies and old-bies alike are on the same footing here. Thus, I'll go ahead and explicate everything:

* The theme of the contest is 'a hot day in Gensokyo'. As such, that should be the main topical focus of any entry. What that means is ultimately down to the entrant; it could be as much about a nuclear meltdown as 2hus cooling off by the river. Just keep it in mind when writing your piece.

* There is also a secondary (read: optional) theme of the colour red. Again, there is no set meaning as far as the sort of content that encompasses. There's also no pressure as far as its inclusion, so feel free to ignore the secondary theme if it doesn't fit your plans. That said, I will give extra kudos to

Whoops! Looks like the previous one is finally on autosage. Here's to another five years, I guess.

Let's not actually take five years, though it's most probable at this point.

Might as well take this opportunity to repeat my recommendation for From the Scarlet Moon Flows the Spring and add that Clever, Audacious, and Wise -- and most of Teruyo's stuff from the past couple of years, really -- is worth a read.

It seems like many people on here are very much interested in bees and beekeeping (very much so). Why is this a thing?