Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

WHY CAN’T I DO [INSERT THING HERE]?

How New Are You?

IT'S MY FIRST DAY

On your first full day, (defined as the first 24 hours after your first post, not the first day of your account existence), your account will have the following restrictions:
Number of Topics You Can Post: 3
Number of Replies You Can Make: 200

If it isn’t your first day, read on to see if it might be your trust level restricting your action!


What’s My Trust Level, and How Do I Change It?

There are 4 (technically, 5) “levels” you can have on Wacky Writers. These varying levels dictate how much autonomy you have on Wacky Writers (usually depending on either A) how long you’ve been with us or B) how you’ve interacted with the community). They are named as follows:

Trust Level 0: Egg

  • You probably literally signed up within the last hour. To make sure you’re not a spammer, your account will be pretty limited to what you can do the first day or so that you’re with us. Read the restrictions below.
EGG (TL0):

Number of Consecutive Replies: 5
Number of Users You Can Tag: 2
Number of Links in Post: 2
Number of “Embedded” Media Items (such as Imgur links): 1 ← We see these asked about most frequently.
Number of Uploaded Attachments: 0 (no uploaded images)
Number of Times You Can Post a Link to The Same Website: 3
Sending Personal Messages: No
“Reply As New Topic”: No
Adding Links in “About Me”: No (but they will become active once you hit Level 1(Hatchling))

Trust Level 1: Hatchling:

  • You’ve been around a bit longer than a day, maybe replied to a topic or two, and hung out with us long enough that the strictest limits have been removed from your account. See how to get there by expanding the information below:
"How to Get To "HATCHLING" (Level 1)
  • Open at least 5 Topics
  • Read at Least 30 Posts (replies to topics)
  • Spend at least 10 minutes reading posts

Trust Level 2: Fledgling

  • You’ve been around pretty frequently during the last couple weeks and we’ve gotten to know you a little bit! See what it takes to get to this level below:
"How to Get To"FLEDGLING" (Level 2)

Visit 15 Days (doesn’t have to be consecutive)
Liking at least 10 posts
Receiving a like on at least 10 posts
Replying to at least 3 different topics
Opening at least 20 topics
Reading at least 100 posts
Spending at least 1 hour (60 minutes) reading posts

Trust Level 3: Dragonling

  • Welcome to the big leagues. You’ve been around for at least a couple months, and you’re here a lot (we love that!). You’ve been a model user the last 6 months and are likely becoming a role model for the community. However, with great power comes great responsibility: Becoming a Dragonling takes upkeep - if you don’t maintain the necessary stats, you’ll get dropped back down to Fledgling again. Read on to see how that works:
Achieving Trust Level 3, DRAGONLING

In the last 90 days:

  • Must have visited at least 45 days.
  • Must have replied to at least 10 different topics (not PMs)
  • Must have viewed 25% of topics created in the last 100 days (minimum of 100, whichever is greater)
  • Must have read 25% of replies posted in the last 100 days (minimum of 500, whichever is greater)
  • Must have received 20 likes
  • Must have liked at least 30 posts across a variety of users/days
  • Must not have received more than 3 flags (as confirmed by a moderator)
  • Must not have been suspended or silenced in the last 6 months

Becoming a Dragonling differs from the other trust levels because you can lose this level and be demoted back to Fledgling. There is a 30 Day Demotion Grace Period (with the exception of a suspension or silencing)

Trust Level 4: Modder of Dragons

  • These users are handpicked by our leadership team and are either moderators or admins. They have varying roles within the community, but have been here for a long time and have shown qualities of leaders and role models (and gone through an application process to get here!). They’re awesomesauce and help keep our community safe and in line with our rules. If you have any problems with a user or the site, reaching out to one of these badasses is a great first step.

Where can I find out my current Trust Level?

  • Your current trust level is visible on your user page, and a summary of all trust levels within your community is presented on your dashboard.

OTHER ACTIONS WITH VARYING PERMISSIONS

  • These are a range of actions that you might hit a roadblock when trying to do. Review this list to see if any of these apply to your situation. A “+” sign means you have to be at least the listed level to do the thing.

Make a Wiki:
Dragonling+
Editing Wikis:
Fledgling+
Invite Others to a Topic:
Fledgling+
Make Group PM:
Fledgling+
Ignore/Mute Other Users:
Fledgling+
Recategorize/Rename Topics:
Dragonling+
Flagging a Post:
Hatchling+
Spam Flags Hide Post:
Dragonling+
Egg Users will be auto-silenced and hidden if a Dragonling or above flags a post.
Inviting Users:
Fledgling+


How Do I Change My Username?

After the first 30 days of membership on Wacky Writers, you will be unable to change your username yourself: you will need to reach out to the moderator team via private messages using the @moderator tag to request a name change. However, please note, you are only allowed to change your username THREE times within a rolling six-month period. If you use all three changes, you will have to wait till your first name change expires.

How Do I Delete My Account?

Visit this link and submit the account deletion request form. Please note that account deletions are final and permanent, and we will not be able to recover any information for you once the account had been deleted.

How do I change my profile picture?

Expand for Steps

Want to change your profile picture? Well, here is how you can do it! See that icon in the top right corner of your screen? That would be your current profile picture.

To change it, click onto the icon. It will bring up a range of settings and tabs.

Screenshot (27)

Click onto the last tab.
Untitled-2 .

When you click on the tab, it will bring up five options.
Screenshot (22)

Click onto Preferences.
Untitled-1

This will bring you to this page:

Next to the profile picture icon, there is an edit icon.

Screenshot (24)

Click onto the edit icon. It should open a tab that looks like this:

Screenshot (23)

From here, you can either upload a profile picture, use a Gravatar, or keep the profile picture that is autogenerated by our system. Once you have chosen, click onto Save Changes and your profile picture should update.

How can I change my theme?

Expand for Steps

If you are on the website, and are viewing from a laptop/computer - there should be an option displayed to you on the top bar of the forums.

Simply click upon whichever option that you prefer, and the website should automatically refresh into the theme chosen. If the website does not refresh on it’s own, please refresh your page manually.

If you are using another device, you can access your preferences and interface to change your theme manually.

What is a Flag?

Wacky Writers allows all users to help keep the forums clean, appropriate, and on-topic via the Flag system. When a topic or post is seen that does not belong, users and moderators can flag it for review.

If you see a post that does not coincide with the WackyWriters guidelines, you can choose to flag it for moderators. The flag dialog has 5 options: message user (does not cause a flag, simply opens up the PM dialog), off-topic , inappropriate , spam , and something else . Off-topic, inappropriate, and spam simply cast a flag, and that is all that is needed for you to do. Something else allows for a custom message and then casts the flag. Once a flag is in the queue, moderators and administrators will receive and review the flag upon further action.

How do I flag a post?

Expand for Steps

This is what a normal post would look like:

Click upon the Ellipsis icon to show all options.

From here, you can see an icon in which resembles a flag.

Once clicking upon the icon, there will be a pop-up which looks like this:

Click upon the option in which describes best what is wrong with the content you are flagging and click onto Flag Post.

This will automatically send the flag to the moderators of the forum who will review and assess the concern at hand. From here, you will see a red bubble next to the flag within the post you have flagged as well as a confirmation of your flag on the bottom right. This means that you have completed the task of flagging.

From here, the concern lies with the Moderators to take further action.

What happened to my threads? Did they get deleted?

Closed threads will be eventually moved to #the-necromancers-lair and only moderators have access to that section. This is done so that the site can save storage space as we currently do not have the funds to have every thread available for our users. If you wish to have a thread revived (and if it did not get closed for any COC breaks), feel free to ask the moderators here.

Can Moderators view my private messages?

Moderators cannot access or view private messages. However, the Site Administrator can. As stated in The Rules of Private Messaging (Code of Conduct, Section 4),

The site administrator (" Site Admin ”) can, at their discretion, view private messages between users. This is for safety and security (ie. user harassment via private message or solicitation of a minor), and for when a user needs assistance from an administrator.

What if I disagree with a moderator’s decision?

You can consult and talk to the Administrator, or Head Moderators if there are any concerns regarding decisions made by Moderators, as well as any actions - and this will be reviewed thoroughly.

As written in the Code of Conduct (Section 5/5.A), Moderators are users too and are expected to abide by our community Code of Conduct, and then some. Users have the ability to flag a moderator if they feel they are being targeted or harassed, or if the moderator has posted content that does not abide by the Code of Conduct.

10 Likes

If you do not see a question here that you think needs to be addressed, please post it. Thank you!

3 Likes

I have a question regarding the promoting of stories.

I started a thread about. “what you’re working on now” kind of thing and without thinking invited people to link their work in the thread.

I was reminded by another member about the rule about not linking works in that category.

So I’m curious as to the reason a chatters topic can’t have story links if invited to do so? How is it different from linking a resource or say a you tube video?

Is there the ability to do this sort of thread in the promote your work section? If so could you please recategorize my thread?

I apologize for inadvertently breaking that tenet.

2 Likes

In this case, it frequently leads to excessive linking of works which ultimately gets a little spammy after a certain amount of time. We like to keep the chatters category focused on conversation, not advertising, and we want to make sure we don’t turn into a forum where every post is basically just “hey go read my work!” It’s hard to draw the line where it might be acceptable and where it might not be for threads like yours, so to be safe, we just don’t allow it across the board so no one feels the policy is unfair in some way.

Yes we can move it if you’d like! We have a category “looking for book” where I think this would probably be acceptable in, mostly because you’re asking for people to provide links to their works for reference. I can move it for you.

No problem! We usually just send a reminder if we see it pop up, unless it’s chronic behavior. :slight_smile:

1 Like

Thank you for moving the thread and for your understanding.

1 Like