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There was a big argument about this in an unrelated thread last night, so if anyone feels inclined to continue, please do so HERE and leave the_quiller's poor newbie thread alone.

Just weighing in with my two cents, I don't think it should be happening unless the author explicitly invites you to read and review early. (the_quiller didn't seem to mind, but I know I for one would be pissed if random people started rifling through my unfinished work, especially if they then rated it down for being unfinished...)

It was suggested that leaving 'Sneak Peek' checked counts as an open invitation, but I disagree. All that does is let people see the title and description of the story you're working on. The fact that you have to manually type in the URL, or else go and use the EXP points exploit, suggests that anyone being able to read it by default was not an intended feature of the site. If it was, there would be a link to click just like a published story.

Anyhoo now that it's become a thing that we're arguing about I guess we need an official rule of some sort?

@jamescoker1226

@Madbrad200

You tell us to shut up, and, once we resolve to let it go, you try to bring the thing up again? That is very bold, Mizal.

Either way, I have made my points clear. Going to an unfinished game with less than 10 pages (I will remind you that Quiller hadn't even been writing 24 hours) and giving it a poor rating because it is unfinished is highly unfair to the author.

I told you to shut up and take it to a new thread. Because it really wasn't appropriate to be shitting up a 'hi I'm a newbie' thread with all that. Any dude less cool than the_quiller probably would have left the site in disgust by now.

But since it went that far already, I think it'd be a good idea to have some kind of consensus, or an official rule from 3J we can point to if it ever comes up again.

Regardless, what Brad did was unacceptable. Had he not called me out for doing the wrong thing (which was highly hypocritical), I would have let it all go a whole lot sooner.

There is a difference in leaving an honest rating than a fake one.

Definitely. If a story game is not yet publish that usually means that the author is not yet finish writing the story game. Reviewing an unfinished story game, and leaving bad ratings and comments before it is done is definitely frown upon. Also, sneak peak is checked on default, so those who have yet to know about them don't have the knowledge yet to uncheck them, therefore we can't blame the author for leaving an 'open invitation' to rate and comment on their story game.  

He did know about them because we had already told him about them.

Generally, Rating an Unpublished/Unrated story is considered a rude thing to do. If the story is unpublished, but already has ratings and comments, IE it was already published once and taken down, then rating it again really doesn't matter. If an Author rates and comments on his own unpublished games, then that sort of invites others to do so as well.

One thing you can do, if you want folks to be able to Sneak Peak your story, but not rate/comment on them, is to use a Link Restriction on all your End-Game Links. Set them so a Variable needs to be a certain value, before the links become active - then, before publishing, set the Variable value to activate all your End-Game Links.

*Don't forget that last part though, as a game without any End-Game Links will be Unpublished until fixed.

Yeah, but not anyone is good enough with the advance editor to do even that. I say we make it so that all unpublished stories with sneak peek on cannot be rated or comment on. 

Just leave out the "Endgame" link and it's fixed xD

In this particular case, a member left a poor rating on an unfinished game...partly because it was unfinished.

Definitely, that's a super shitty thing to do.

I don't think people who rate unpublished storygames care whether or not it's a shitty thing to do :(

Which is why, at the least, ratings made while a game is unpublished should not count against the game once it has been published. Of course, It would probably be easier to make it so that people can't rate storygames until they are published.

That actualy happened to me, my story was rated, even though it was a far way from actualy being finished(and it still is).

Official Ruling

Don't rate unpublished storygames. If they are no-effort crap storygames or storygames from inactive users, I probably won't notice/care but still don't do it. If it's an in-progress good storygame, then don't do it. No penalties this time, but if it happens again, there will be point penalties. Your argument that 'sneak preview was on, so I'm allowed' is akin to saying that it's okay to murder someone if they let you in their house. That's not a solid argument.

Authors, don't use sneak preview and wait until the end to add end game links if you do use sneak preview.

@the_quiller You're a cool guy. Sorry about that mess!

I rate unpublished stories once in a blue moon. It's by accident, I'm usually doing something else whilst reading it and I end up coming back to it just quickly enough to remember what's going on in the story, but I've been away too long to remember it's an unpublished story, so I end up rating it, sometimes leaving a comment, and then going off on my merry way like a drunken dumbass who doesn't realize he's just knocked a comedian off the stage by hitting him with a baseball bat and then spent ten minutes airthrusting the crowd to it whilst humming "Stayin' Alive". To everyone I've done that to, I'm as sorry as shit.