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Since I'm one of two members to be active on both sites simultaneously, I thought I'd write a brief comparison between the two.  Although DEP and I might disagree on a few points, he can always add input.  I'd like to make this clear first.  Its opinion based, not fact based.

THE EDITOR

CYS:
Pros: Great features, including variables, scripting, items, restrictions and customiseability. Co-authoring. 
Cons: Picture placeability, page linking in basic editor.

IS:
Pros: Adding onto a published work, great picture placeability tool and text wrapping.
Cons: Very small writing box, no formatting (except maybe html?) and no cool features.  (Granted they aren't needed for writing)

Advantage: CYS

THE FORUMS

CYS:
Pros: Lot's of catagories (I like this, although some don't), moderators, more active posters.
Cons: A bit too much censoring, alot of spam, annoying 12 year olds sometimes. Its also a bit difficult to see who is replying to what.

IS:
Pros: Very mature (sometimes) and interesting (sometimes) discussion.  No censoring.  Adult atmosphere. Great community spirit.  Protect's eachother. EDITING POSTS AND POLLS.
Cons: Not as active as it could be.

Note: Both sites have a great core member base.

Advantage: Slightly IS. Would be totally IS if they could get more members on there.

THE STORIES

CYS:
Pros: Featuring.  Great idea guys, its nice to showcase good games.    Mommy can I go out and Kill Tonight.  Lots of commenting.  Great game games, like 23 and 6 goals.
Cons: So many dumb and immature games.  Not enough feature worthy games.

IS:
Pros: Amazing amount of stories (2300). Massive Stories (like 2500 pages), way, WAY more users with stories (1400) and some really amazing games.
Cons: No really cool scripted games, no items to pick up, Way too american dominated (jk jk)

Advantage: IS

Any other catagories you'd all like? What would you say DEP?

OH AND!!! When DEP Was talking about how Ducky Park was average on our site and it was so small etc... Its actually MUCH LARGER then average on their site.  The average pages per story over there is just over 20 (like 20.6)

There is formatting at IS, but you need to type the coding in yourself as opposed to the handy dandy auto format features here.

IS used to use html formatting, but it got transferred over to BBCode a few months back.

I’ve made a few of my stories “game like” over at IS. I suppose if I got REALLY motivated I could do a better job of it over here given the tools.

I noticed some people around here liked the video game Fallout, so the biggest one I’d try is my Ground Zero story which is 197 rooms long of post apocalyptic fun!

I mean 196 rooms. Either way it's a lot of damn writing.

a friend of mine loves fallout. please write one.

nate

Well okay, I'll try to get around to translating Ground Zero to over here. It might take awhile though and I'll probably just keep it basic at first too.

I might as well explain a bit about it.

The story is influenced by Fallout since I do use some pics of Vaultboy for effect, but the story of course is vastly different.

The first part of the "game" doesn't even start off after the bomb. You have to survive the initial nuclear attack before the real problems begin.

There's "4 major endings" and several "other endings" ranging from death to just disappearing into the wasteland. Assuming you're surviving, years do pass in the story. Several in fact.

years pass? not many, if any stories on here have ever tried to go for a long period of time. usually a year is the max. a day is the overwhelming standard.

nate

Yes, decades will pass assuming you're on the "right path".

Get one of the 4 major endings and you'll get a special Epilogue ending where 100 years have passed after you're long dead.

id love to see it. we need depth around here. longer storylines and bigger journeys need to be made on here.

nate

FnB: Yep, working on translating it right now.

JJJ: Yeah I’d agree with most of the points. The small writing box doesn’t really bother me though since I typically write everything on Word and then just copy and past it in the box anyway. That’s the only real problem I have on here since doing that little trick on here usually results in a whole lot of messy reformatting and it’s a real pain. So I have to copy and paste from Word to Notepad THEN copy and paste from Notepad to here. (It comes out looking right when transferred from Notepad for some reason)

I've been trying that with a couple of stories.  Wordpad is what I'm using, and that seems to work just fine.

You know, I purposely avoided comparing the sites so as not to offend anyone, but since the thread was opened... (remember, these are just opinions)

THE EDITOR

CYS: 
While variables is a grame feature for games, this detracts from the inclanation to write a quality story. Still though, the variables can be used to a great effect, so the option for variables is a nie touch. But again, it makes these stories geared more towards games and some people are certainly more apt to focus on the game aspect and forget about the importance of the story. I don't care much for the pop-up aspect of the editer(s) either. Being able to just hit control + b to make bold text is a nice touch and makes the writing very user-friendly.

IS:
The use of BBC coding in the "editor" allows the creator complete control over customization. There are practically no limits to what you can do, though you may have to do a little research on how to use the BBC codes (thankfully, the info can be located in the forums). The drawback to the "editor" is a minor drawback : You have to type [b] and [/b] for bold. While there are no variables, anything you can do with variables on CYS can be done in text format on IS, though it may take a bit of work.

Advantage: TIE (though I prefer IS, I can see the advantages CYS has)

THE FORUMS

CYS:
Active community, warm welcomes, a generally cool group of people, and plenty of categories, lots of people. Without the ability to use a quote function, it is up to the members to quote hit "reply" to the appropriate post. But it seems like I am the only one who hits "reply" to the topic post, and everyone else just hits reply to the most recent post. This causes a ton of confusion as to what everyone is talking about, and the ability to see who is quoting whom by checking the indentation of the post is rendered useless.

IS: Less kids (no offense to the kids), zero filtering of content, but not as active as it could be, the member base who is active in forums is somewhat limited (but they're all cool). The ability to quote is a very big deal.

Advantage: IS. Forums are forums, for the most part, but the ability to say whatever I want without the fear of it being deleted is a huge advantage to me. Sure, you might think this would lead to more flame-wars, but flame wars are not that commong over there. For the most part we're pretty respectful of one another.

THE STORIES

CYS:
Pros: There are very few stories on this site. Everything is a damn game. If someone wanted to play a bunch of games, they would go to one of the thousand free game sites on the net and play them. Don't get me wrong, you guys have  a lot of great stories, but there seem to be too many that are more game-oriented than story-oriented. The best combination of game/story on here is Mommy can I go out and Kill Tonight? There are two HUGE advantage that you guys have, by the way; the moderators delete the shit stories; and all of your stories are completed.

IS: Very few games , which is a huge advantage as far as I'm concerned. This allows people to think more of the story than how the game works. Don't get me wrong, we have some utter crap stories on IS, but there are some amazing ones as well. IS does not have a lot of games that are finished, there are stories with a ton of writing in them, high quality and all that, but they don't all have endings. (EndMaster is about the only exception to this) The ability to have collaborative stories is much easier on IS, you can select that "anyone" can add, you can select that anyone can add but you have to approve the page, you can select that no one can add, or you can select a group of specific users who are allowed to add.
Cons: No really cool scripted games, no items to pick up, Way too american dominated (jk jk)

Advantage: IS - Almost made it a tie because all of your stories have endings, but again, story VS game was the determining factor for me.

Sorry, guys. Hope this doesn't piss the lot of you off, but I definately prefer IS. I love you guys too, or else I wouldn't participate, this is just my opinion.

JJJ said:  "OH AND!!! When DEP Was talking about how Ducky Park was average on our site and it was so small etc... Its actually MUCH LARGER then average on their site.  The average pages per story over there is just over 20 (like 20.6)"

The 20.6 room/page per story average was taken from the statistics page. That is a very misleading statistic. Reason being, the statistic uncludes the bajillion* stories that were started by people who only wrote one page. Tons of one opr two page stories is going to bring down the average. Stories are not readable on the site unless they are at least 20 rooms/pages long.

Also, I was comparing to my other stories (the ones I wrote), and Ducky is the 3rd shortest of them.

                 I think this is a very informative forum. Hopefully this will bring up new Ideas for Alex and March and me. Time is a major factor on why this site is not better. I think March and Alex's contests really help out this site and also the other major  fringe benefits Alex has in store once he reaches a million dollars ( and he's already half way there).

                   The forums on IS, I can't tell if ther active or not, maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. It does seem a lot easier to jump right in making a story on IS.

              The Censoring thing is partially my fault.  At the time me and Alex were concerned with fighting and people just being nasty. We had one story where this one guy just kept posting disgusting disturbing porn (like the worst stuff you can think of). The thing was I thought it made every story on the site look bad, like we all must be a bunch of perverts. I still like the idea of not scaring away people, but maybe the censorship is doing more damage.

     Plus may I bring up a point, some of the biggest flaming war starters are now some of our favorite writers. JJJ use to pick fights all the time when he got on here. I see some other trouble makers writing has improved greatly.

the best thing to do here is add this post to the feature wishing well. that way alex will see it. he doesnt always frequent the other forums. i can move this part to the FWW for you if youd like or you can just make another thread. your choice, either way, i support the idea.

nate

I dont pick fights anymore? How sad....  I'll get back to that. (I guess im losing my touch )

I think that this is a great thread and I have a few more things to contribute.

1. Forgot to mention contests. ZOMG THEY ROCK. IS has a similar sorta deal but a WAY longer deadline and NO prizes.

2. Censorship: Ditch it. I think that with our current member base, we wouldn't see too much in the way of cussing anyway.

3. PLEASE NO AUTO CENSORS....  They're easy to bypass and will just piss EVERYONE OFF.  (All you do is go into the basic text editor and put [b][/b] in the middle of the word... so Fu[b][/b]ck and it appears like Fuck with no censorship.)

One more comparison

Private Messages

CYS -  a little image at the top of the page appears, letting you know you have a private message.

IS - Pay close attention to the number of messages listed in your inbox on the forums, otherwise you'll miss out on the message. Outside of the forums a huge, almost banner-like notification appears at the top of the page announcing that "You have recieved a private message".

advantage - CYS. If infinite-story didn't have the vague message notifier in the forums it would probably be a tie, but the forum message on IS is a pain because you can miss out on a message for days before you happen to glance at the little black text in the top right of your screen.

DEP, I'd like to protest your "tie" on the editors.

The only thing the infinite story editor can do that the chooseyourstory one can't is: well nothing.

You can switch to the plain text editor (instead of the rich text editor) and type in all those codes yourself.  I know that my dad decided to screw around with a profile using the plain text editor.  Find the user diedaily

(You can do this by going to any user's page and replacing the username in the adress bar with diedaily)

and you will see what I mean.  Pretty sure this can be done in the editor too.

Now on the other side, CYS has all these great features and your argument that it makes people write games and not stories is null.  That's the member bases choice and definintly not the editor's fault.  It merely gives the tools to the author.  The author decides what to do with them.

Naw, naw naw.  You found a very small bug with the CYS editor.  Picture placement.  By your own logic its all about writing and storylines... Pictures are alot like graphics which in turn are alot like 'games'.

So lets say that your little bug and the item thing balances out... What about variables, etc.  Also if your going to include the small error in picture placement then why not include your inconveniences in scripting, bbc codes, etc.

This is far from a tie.  Give me a table of pro's and con's and youll see what i mean.

Again, variables are not a factor for me. They take away from the inclanation to write stories VS games. Whether the option to not use them is there or not, it is an option that a lot of people take. So lets remove variables. The BBC codes is not an inconvenience at all, you just have to know the codes. And knowing these codes is something that is useful all over the internet, not just on infinite-story.

This is a tie. You asked my opinion and I gave it. I'm not justifying it over and over again for you. I prefer IS. Perhaps I shouldn't have made it a tie and just said that the IS editor is better because it doesn't give me a fucking pop-up "clipboard" message everytime I try to copy/paste through use of the mouse.

Now, I haven't attempted to alter your opinion on things, kindly leave mine the fuck alone.

Meh, whats wrong with a friendly debate as long as things remain friendly.  I didn't mean to put you on the defensive there...

Hmm, i think march needs to ease up on the "derogatory" comments rule. if people wanna swear, let them do it on their own accord. the above instance is okay, now if someone randomly posted obscene words, then i would say that that would be unreasonable...

Hmm, this is my opinion. Swearing should be avoided on a writing site. There is no room in the English language for swearing. But if a member swears, then as long as he does not go overkill, he can do it. I think i just repeated myself...

Avoided? I disagree completely. If anything, I would expect there to be no restrictions on vocabulary on a writing site. Negative connotations that are associated with a word (or several words) shouldn't have any impact on the use of the word(s). In fact, the negative associations of such words only add to the impact such words can have. Banning a list of words from use on a writing site is like banning a color on an art site. Everything should be available to a writer.

In stories, curse words add to the flare of some characters. It gives the reader a feel for the narrator, or the internal dialogue of some characters. If a certain character only curses while in the company of a specific other character, this can lend the reader some additional insight to the relationship(s) between these characters.

It should not be avoided, but rather embraced. Fuck restrictions and constraints, they do little for the advancement of any art form. Can you imagine where art would be today if the members of the impressionist movement had listened to the critics who claimed that their art work was of poor quality and should not be considered art? Where would music be today if the Beatles and Elvis agreed that Rock and Roll was the devils music? Where would civilization be if the Wright Brothers had agreed with those who said that "if man were meant to fly, he would have been born with wings,"?

Curse words are not just something to spit out in order to offend people, they can also be quite effective in driving home your point. "Get off of my property" does not have the same effect as "Get the hell off of my damn property". "Shut your mouth" doesn't carry the same weight as "Shut your fucking mouth." Sure, the inclusion of these words can add to the anger of the statement, but that's exactly the purpose of their use in the above examples.

I would much rather see a banning and deletion of all 1337 speak and chat talk than a restriction on curse words.

I am gonna put my two cents worth into this. I dont care which sites wins this competition because the CYS people will say CYS rocks and the IS people will say IS rocks, what I want to point out is that regardless of which has "better" features, the two sites are geared for two different audiences, and cater to each taste. Its easy to compare Google and Yahoo, but its hard to compare McDonalds and Pizza Hut, Google and Yahoo are in direct competition, whereas the latter are in indirect competition as fast food places, they cater to a different crowd (ie burgers and fries vs pizza and wings).

Anyways, im just glad that there are so many ways to write stories on the internet!

Fanfic, CYS, IS, and that writing site that Nate showed me (forgot the name)

This I agre with. You guys have a game-oriented audience and team of writers, and IS has a more story oriented audience and team of writers.

I've said it before, and I guess I'll have to say it again. Both sites are good. If I didn't like this place, I wouldn't hang out here.

True. When this was MAG, I had no interest in the site (though I was a member back then).

You may have that opinion because you are used to this site.

I find the interfaces on infinite-story to be far simpler and more comprehensive that this one. Perhaps my opinion on this will change in time as I use this sites things more often, but I doubt it.

I try to keep a realistic and level head on things and think I did a good job at it here. Having not experienced both site, I'm not sure how you can claim anyone was being biased in anyway.

There are three users who can really contibute to this.

Me, DEP and Endmaster.  Since we both use both sites fairly regularly.  It could also be said that DEP and End have better comprehension because they have stories on both sites.  However it could also be said that I do because I've used both sites as my "#1".  March has also used both sites, althouhg IS minimally.  (Choco too?)

Well I started one then clicked a button that had something to do with one of the links (dont remember which one it was) and erased about 5000 words... 

I probably will, but expect copy+paste.  Anytime I write a game without features, I'll prolly copy it over there.

OOOH - that one hurts.  Low blow Endmaster.

It hurts because it's so true.  Though we DO have a lot of female lurkers - we have very few that have become part of the actual community. 

march

I want to delete anubis's post so bad, its the reason why chicks are not joining, too many guys getting hyper over the word "chick'....

Anyways, what type of society would you be creating, end?

I'm not some random jackass who hates on people for no reason.  Contrary to public belief

Err... I might no what IS is, but my mind has gone blank. So what is IS?

rep down by 100.

AHHHH!!!

shhhct**** Infinate-story*****shhhct

nate

He's an infinite-story traditionalist and he just insulted you. Don't worry it happens to the best of us. Like me for instance. Rofl, jk.

I really like CYS/MAG better. hands down. no question.

The stories on here are all completed, we have a very nice mix of stories and games (Text based games arent that bad, they worked in the 70's and 80's), We now have games being deleted if they aren't up to standard, and anyone who thinks we don't write stories should look at tsmpaul (except the dice game)