04-14-2007, 01:22 AM
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Banned
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: 2934′7″N, 951′21″W
Age: 35
Posts: 3,000
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Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
Preface
We, the community, would like to say "Hello" and "Welcome to Flash Flash Revolution". Now, Before you continue on with your stay here at FFR, they are, however, some current rules that you must need to know and will be followed as you read on. Chapter 1 As veteran members have noticed recently, FFR is expanding rapidly, yet the number of forum regulars shows a indirect relationship. One of the main reasons as to why this is occurring is due to the fact of the shunning on new members (aka newbs). It is not entirely their fault as some users are new to forums and do not understand the best way to present themselves to a site. Listing is a compiled list that includes the main rules of the site, and expands and applies them into the current community's standards: 1. Read All The Forum Rules This is a must-do. I realize that many new members don't read the stickies nor the announcements, but reading the rules is extremely important. It will give you a basic understanding of how the board operates and how you should behave. FFR has a fairly standard set of forum rules, but reading it won't hurt. 2. Does Your Post Contribute? This is where a lot of new posters get burned. They find a thread, such as "DDR SuperNOVA". They think, "Wow, I like DDR", and decide to post in it. Before you do this, think to yourself, "Will my post contribute in any way to the thread?". Example: "Wow, I love DDR, it is so much fun". While this may be true, it doesn't really contribute to the purpose of the thread, which is discussion of the newly-released DDR machine in arcades. An example of a model post would be something along the lines of, "Yeah, my arcade just received DDR SuperNOVA as well. I played it and enjoyed the song selection, even though I didn't like the new graphics". This post is clearly better. It contributes to the purpose of the thread by keeping the subject of the sentence DDR SuperNOVA (The topic at-hand), and giving your own personal opinion on the game, with pros and cons, that may affect others' opinion on said game. That is a worthwhile post. 3. Type Coherently I can not stress this enough. Even if you follow the above mentioned rules, but you type in such a way that makes you appear unintelligent, or just plain silly, your opinion and you will not be respected, and there is a chance you may be flamed. Example:"o, ddr suparnova is teh shiz yo, i played it this mornin, i din't lik duh gfx, but duh songs wer 1337!!!!!!". That, my new friends, is a very bad post. Although it does follow the rules, and contributes to the thread, it comes off as unintelligent, lazy, and hard to read. An example of a coherent(or easily able to understand using correct English) sentence would be,"I played DDR SuperNOVA yesterday. I greatly enjoyed the diversity of the song selection, ranging from pop to IDM(jk). Although the newly-rendered graphics were not of my liking, as they distracted the senses away from the game, making it hard to focus". This post clearly states the intent of your opinion, while making it enjoyable to read, and explains in great detail, which leads me to my next point. 4. Use An Educated Vocabulary Here at FFR, the more intelligent you present your opinion, the better it will be received. The example I gave in the last step:" Quote: "I played DDR SuperNOVA yesterday. I greatly enjoyed the diversity of the song selection, ranging from pop to IDM(jk). Although the newly-rendered graphics were not of my liking, as they distracted the senses away from the game, making it hard to focus." is a great example of an educated vocabulary. Using intelligent adjectives adds a distinguished meaning to the noun. It makes your opinion look well-thought out, and will be received better by the reader. Examples of an uneducated vocabulary include: netspeek(1337 Speak, 3117 Haxxorz etc) aim lingo(hey was ^, yt? brb, lol, g2g). Stay away from shorthand. Type everything out. Also, punctuate correctly. This makes a huge impact on your post, it signifies coherency and organizes your thoughts into easily separated ideas. Always capitalize where necessary, and use all periods, commas, and apostrophes. 5. Respect Veteran Members If you attack a veteran member, you can pretty much kiss your chances at being accepted good-bye. Rarely has a member ever insulted one of the Vets(Vet can be defined as been active for 1.5-2+ years) and been re-accepted into the community. Respect your elders, and all will be well. Common courtesy is all anyone needs. Chapter 2 FFR AVATAR/SIGNATURE GUIDE How to get an avatar: An avatar (av) is like a buddy icon. It is a picture that shows up below your name when you post. One way to get an avatar is to find a picture that you want as your avatar. Then save the image to your computer, by right clicking and hitting "Save Picture As" Once it is saved to your machine go into your user control panel. The "User CP" button is located up at the top left of your screen. Once you get in click on "Edit Avatar" on the left hand side. There you will see a checkbox that says "use a custom avatar" check that box. Then the second option under the custom avatar spot you will see " Upload an Avatar From Your Computer". So you browse for the picture and then you hit the save changes button, and BADA BING you have an avatar. Also, you can upload an avatar from a URL. If you want to upload it from a URL then you have to find a picture you want on the internet, right click the picture, go into properties, and copy and paste the URL into the first line in the custom avatar section thats says "Enter Avatar URL". Then you want to save changes and you have an avatar. Also, if the file size is too big (it can be no more than 29 kb) you need to go into Photoshop/Paint/Paint Shop Pro and save it as a .jpg and then lower the quality of the picture. Also, in the rules it states Quote: Originally Posted by lightdarkness Avatars must be no more than 200 pixels in height, and no more than 175 pixels in width. Please obey those size restrictions for avatars. Enjoy! How to get a signature : A signature (aka sig, siggy) is a picture or some words that go below everything you post. First, find a picture or a qoute or whatever you want to put in your signature. Then go into your User CP and click on edit signature on the left control panel. There is a 255 character limit on your signature. To enter your signature type what ever you want to put as your signature in the blank space. If you want to put a picture there then right click on the image you want, go to properties, and copy the URL/Location. Paste the URL in the blank space in your profile with image tags. Obviously, you insert the URL where it says "INSERT PICTURE URL HERE". Once you are done creating your signature hit the save signature button. BADA BING, you have a signature. Also, in the rules it states Quote: Originally Posted by lightdarkness Please keep your signature to a maximum width of 500 pixels, and a maximum height of 250 pixels. Please obey those size restrictions. Enjoy! How to get an FFR Stats signature: CLICK HERE A good place to host any images that you want for your signature or avatar is imageshack or photobucket. Chapter 2 THE BASICS OF FFR -Table of Contents- I. Introduction II. Main Screen III. FFR shop IV. FFR challenge room V. How to play VI. Difficulties ///////////////////////// I. INTRODUCTION /////////////////////////////////// This guide is made to help you new members have a great time while playing Flash Flash Revolution (FFR) The Game. Next is What is FFR? Well its simply just a game with arrows and music. FFR is like DDR (Dance Dance Revolution), but the only difference is that FFR was made using Flash. Another difference is that FFR doesnt give any letter grades at the end of each song, but the differences gives FFR its uniqueness. ------------------------------------------- Updates: 1.0: Finished the guide. May have errors in it. 1.01 Fixed it up a bit. Added color to scoring section. 1.02 Made sections easier to see. 1.03 Put in sample video. 1.04 Corrections made by eagleboy on scoring section. 1.05 Put up difficulties section. 1.06 Updated some things. Changed the song list. --------------------------------------------- /////////////////////// II. MAIN SCREEN /////////////////////// 1. This is the quality button. Click this to cycle thru the qualities. If you have a slow computer, you may want to put it on low quality so it runs smoother. 2. These are the buttons which let you choose how your arrows are going to be moving. Its pretty self explanatory by just looking at the pictures. For example: The 2nd button would make the arrows go from right to left. The basic one that most people use it the 5th one which makes the arrow go from bottom to the top. 3. These are the arrows that you use to cycle thru song genres (explained later). 4. Okay, this is the song genres. The big words that say dance tells you what genre you are on. The green circle is which genre you are selecting. You can use the arrows (#3) to cycle thru the genres and choose the one you like. The genres are:
Token songs are a new section to FFR. To get songs in this section, you must find tokens around the FFR site. Once you find one, you'll unlock the song the token unlocks. Dance 2 is also a new thing. This is to make looking for a song in dance easier. Instead of flipping to the 6th page everytime you want to play a certain song, just go to Dance 2 and perhaps its on the 1st or 2nd page! Songs in Dance 2 are more difficult than songs in Dance 1. 5. These are the settings and the news buttons. You can click on the settings to see what you can change to make playing FFR more fun. For example they have one that makes you arrows appear only at the last second. Thats the sudden one. For the news one, just click it to find new information regarding the new songs put in or other things. 6. This is where the FFR shop and Challenge room is located. (I will explain this in the FFR shop and Challenge Room section.) 7. This is your total credit count. Its very useful to know how much you have. 8. This is your grand total score. Its every score you had, all added into one number. 9. This is your overall FFR rank. Its mostly determined by how high your grand total score is. 10. This shows who your logged in as. If it doesnt say your username on it, then your either not logged in, or you have someone elses user name. 11. This is the total number of games you played. Pretty simple. 12. Okay, this is the character buttons. You can select a cartoon character to have. The face will only show after a song is over. I dont have one because I dont really like those characters. If you dont want one, dont choose one. That concludes the main screen. ////////////////// III. FFR SHOP ////////////////////////// This is the FFR shop. Here, you can buy song or give your friends credits. 1. This is where you can give credits to your friends. First, type in the persons username that you want to give the credits to in the username box. Then type in the amount that you want to give in the Box under that. After everything is set, click TRANSFER. If done correctly, it should say success. IMPORTANT NOTE! Never send credits to yourself! It may lead to you having no credits! 2. This is your credit count. You cant give more credits than you have. 3. This button is to leave the FFR shop. 4. Here you can buy new songs that you might want, using your credits. The songs you buy can be found in the Purchased genre. To buy it, click on the song, then a pop up will show. Click buy song. /////////////////////////////// IV FFR CHALLENG ROOM /////////////////////////////////////////////// Okay this part is pretty self explanatory. If you still dont get it, press the help button (#1). 1. Help button. It tells you about everything you need to know about this room. 2. This is to exit the room. 3. After filling out all the information, you may now issue your challenge by pressing this button. ////////////////////// V. HOW TO PLAY ///////////////////// A. This is your "life." When the bar runs out of color, the game will end. To increase the bar, you must hit the arrows correctly. To decrease it, you must get a boo or miss the arrow. B. This is the GOAL arrows. C. This is how much points you have. (ALL OF THIS IS EXPLAINED MORE BELOW!) This is the FFR game screen. Now if you look on your keyboard you can see four different arrows right? Left, up, down, and right right? Now you see on the screen there are also four different arrows in box B. That box is like your goal thing. The arrows are your GOAL arrows. You have to try and hit every arrow that goes up within that area. You get scores determining by how close you hit it to GOAL arrows. here is how it works: Perfect= you hit it exactly on the GOAL arrow. Good= you hit it pretty good on the GOAL arrow. Average= you barely hit it. miss= You missed the whole thing. boo= You tapped the arrow key when no arrow even got to the GOAL arrows. Here is how your score is calculated. Written by eagleboy Below are the corrected formulas for the scores.(SOME SONG MAY HAVE A DIFFERENT SCORING SYSTEM!) The AAA Score For Any Given Song is the following: 1550 multiplied by the Max Possible Combo of the song. For Example, The AAA score for Kick It is 911400. because 1550 * 588 = 911400. Your displayed Score while playing is as follows. 50p + 25g + 5a - 10m - 5b, where p is perfects, g is goods, a is averages, m is misses, and b is boos. The Total Score, displayed after the song on the results sheet, is as follows. 550p + 275g + 55a - 310m - 20b + 1000c, where p is perfects, g is goods, a is averages, m is misses, b is boos, and c is the highest combo achieved during the song. Here is a sample game by scarab81:http://youtube.com/watch?v=nvrtQtADyNA ////////////////////// IV. DIFFICULTIES ////////////////////// Okay this is an extra thing that I put in to help you pick the right song for yourself. Here are the difficulties from easiest to hardest:
These are the songs for beginners FFR the game currently has as of 1/16/07. Genre Song name Author Difficulty (1-Very Easy 9-Gurus Only) Song Time Length Classical Moonlight Sonata Beethoven 3 1:38 Rock Resistance ZAO 4 1:49 Rock Stay With Me (Unlikely) celldweller 3 2:00 Rock For Who I Am Excluded 2 2:03 Arcade Bubbleman Stage Theme CAPCOM - Remixed by Project X 4 1:20 Arcade SuperMario 8bit Eighties Remix Injury & SquareSoft 1 1:52 Funk Funk in G Carl Burnett 4 3:46 Funk Cat Walk 2 Tomo Fujita 4 2:12 Funk Too Tight Leroy Watkins Jr. 3 2:53 Hip-Hop Shag ToneDeff 4 3:36 Hip-Hop The Return F SuperDouble Braille and J5 4 3:02 Hip-Hop This Beat is For Tha Streets! DJ KANKAOH 2 1:42 Hip-Hop Freak Out Azim 2 3:20 Hip-Hop Love You Anymore DJ KANKAOH 2 1:20 Hip-Hop Seattle's Finest (Parental Advisory) F.T.S. 2 3:03 Dance Story of Snowman and Sunshine Girl Digital Explosion 4 2:51 Dance 136.6 Chuk and Gek 4 2:55 Dance Get on the Move Antinomie 3 3:09 Dance Terror From Beyond Digital Explosion 4 2:53 Dance Salad for Your Tuesday Jewpinthethird 3 2:46 Dance Come With Me CanBlaster 3 1:50 Dance Euphoria Antinomie 3 3:06 Dance RainDrops Toby Emerson 3 3:10 Dance SkellyBones Analog Boy 3 2:25 Dance Soul Shift (ffr edit) SGX 3 1:52 Dance Falling Into You Square Bear and Yana Kay 2 2:27 Dance Activity Unbroken SGX 2 1:40 Dance Dance 2 This DJ KANKAOH 2 1:36 Dance {Rose} cornandbeans 10 2:27 Dance I Can See The Light Pyroshock 5 2:10 Dance Be Princess DJ Sharpnel 10 1:38 Dance CIA Rave DJ Acsent 9 2:00 Dance Beethoven Virus Banya 7 1:40 Dance Breaking the Common DJ Kankaoh 5 2:09 Dance Alpha Helix For Great Justice! 5 1:54 Dance The Color of Battle SGX 3 3:31 Dance Spontaneous Hydroxide DJ Destruction 3 2:10 Dance Computer Dreams Nina - Goddess of Dance 2 1:40 Dance Halcyon SGX 2 1:44 Dance Trip to the Moon (Club Remix) Nina - Goddess of Dance 1 2:00 Now all you have to do is play FFR!!! Chapter 3 How to get better at FFR First and foremost: PRACTICE!This cannot be stressed enough. How do you get better at football? How do you master the game play of chess? How does one become a rocket scientist? You practice the trade and learn about what you want to get good at. 1 ) Scroll the screen so you only see about half of the total screen. C300 (The speed of EVERY song on FFR is not the best way to read many of the harder songs.) By scrolling up the screen your reaction time is less thus making it SEEM faster and easier to read. 2 ) Try to hit ALL the arrows. Don't worry if you get averages, they still keep your combo going. Your total score heavily depends on a high max combo so hit every arrow at all costs. 3 ) After being able to Full Combo (FC) a song (or not get any misses), work on your Perfect Attack (PA for short). It's relatively easier to get perfects on FFR than the standard Step Mania difficulty and the more perfects you get the higher your total score. (Keep in mind that you'll want to keep your combo over getting more perfects as the max combo has more weight to the scoring system.) 4 ) Finally once you've gotten a decent PA (Perfect Attack) and can FC (Full Combo) a song, go for the AAA. This is where you get all perfects, thus getting the highest possible score for the particular song you are playing. To most players, this is the only way someone can say that they've mastered a song. Every song has a difficulty we can work on if we've never gotten a AAA. Well, there you go all you new players. I hope this can be of some help to getting you on your way to becoming a better player. Remember you have to practice in order to be good, but if you can make your practice more effective, then you can become better, faster. HOW FFR SCORES YOUR SONG 550 for each perfect 275 for each good 55 for each average -310 for each miss -20 for each boo 1000 for each step in your max combo Advice from fellow FFR Players: Doug31: Find a direction that fits your style. (I.E. having the arrows scroll up or down basically.) I've found that playing down is easier than up and I've been playing up for a long time. LinkisDoomed: My suggestion: don't just play once with one finger style and keep playing that way. I'm stuck with one hand and I don't want to transfer to 2 handed methods because I'm gonna suck at it for a while. Test yourself for a while on different styles of playing. We know how hard it is to join forums and not get the proper basic information to make your way through and introducing yourself. This thread is dedicated to help all of you newcomers and any problems you have. The list will grow as soon as we find more FAQ to add. Until then if something is not there and you need to know PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO ASK ANYTHING. IF WE FIND YOUR QUESTION IS QUITE INTERESTING AND MIGHT CONCERN OTHERS WE WILL LIST IT. Q: Is it possible to even beat YOSHI Bonus or like one of those insane classical songs? A: Yes, easily in time. Also, FFR isn't the only source to playing this type of game if you would take the time to go to www.stepmania.com and download Stepmania. Read the instructions how to set it up and play. Then go to www.bemanistyle.com/sims for songs. Also, read the Stepmania guide on how to install songs or click here How to get songs on Stepmania This is also a great way to improve your skills,try playing Stepmania for a few hours or so and go back to FFR Q: Where can I get some of FFR's cool music and stuff? A: Well, before playing the song, look where it says "Song Artist". Then you have the artist's name, try a www.google.ca search or browse into the forum called Static Jungle Gym. Q: Do you play with one hand or two hands? How the hell do you play with two hands? A: Depends who the person is. Most people prefer one hand because it's how they started and that's how they like it, but if your going to be more competitive, you will need to use 2 hands. Asking how to play 2 hands is basically asking how do you play this game at all. All you have to do is find how your comfortable playing two handedly and continue doing so for a few weeks and then you can make a decision of whether two hands is right for you at this time or it's back to one handed. Q: What is FC,PFC,AAA,AA, etc... A: Well these are shortened terms we use that comes from DDR and Stepmania. Here is how they work: FC = Full Combo (no misses playing a song) PFC = All Perfects in a song SDG = Single Digit Greats SDP = Single Digit Perfects AAA = Same as PFC. AA = Where you get a really high score where you end up with no misses no boos and no averages. Q: How do I get my siggy to to work!!!!!? A: Click here Q: What is PA & MA? A: Well MA is "Marvelous Accuracy" only used on Stepmania; a term used to determine whether your MA is poor or good after a song. PA is in both Stepmania and FFR; PA is said to determine how well your "Perfect Accuracy" is after a song. Q: How do I sign up for FFR League? A: Right now, you can't. We are in a middle of a season right now, and league sign ups will be posted on the main page when the next season begins. Q: Which is better; Stepmania or DWI? Why? A: Stepmania 100%. Why? Because the timing system is more accurate and it's too easy to increase the accuracy rating on DWI. Stepmania is your best bet if you can run it on your computer. If you cannot, then your best bet is DWI. Q: Where do I find songs for Stepmania or DWI? A: Click here Q: I want to create my own steps to a song I have. How do I find the gap BPM or even create steps? A: Click here,tons of links and guides Q: What's wrong with Ball of Malt? Why don't the scores update? A: The song is temporarily glitched. FFR Administrators don't exactly know what's wrong. For further information, search the Bug Report forum. Q: How do I get an avatar? How do I change my avatar? A: Well simple. Click on Profile right at the top of your page and go down to the bottom and choose an avatar. Chapter 4 Accepting and Sending Challenges on FFR The Game 1) Do not challenge someone with a credit amount over the total amount of credits you currently have. This should be a given, but for some reason is not. If you do so, and they win, your credits will go negative, and you will not be able to play FFR with a negative credit total. This is your own fault and should be common sense, do not whine if you are guilty of this. Chances are, you won't get sympathy. 2) If you have spent most of your credits on a challenge, do not purchase any songs until you have recieved the email with the challenge results. If you purchase a song, and then they win your challenge and it is over the amount of the credits you have at the time of challenge acceptance, your credits will drop to negative and you will be screwed. 3) Most of the time it will not let you, but there seems to be bugs for this as well. If someone challenges you for more than the total amount of credits that you currently have, do not accept the challenge. Either decline it or wait until you have the correct amount of credits. It should tell you that you do not have sufficient credits if you try to accept, but apparently this is not always the case. Just don't try, it's in your benefit. 4) If you buy a song, only buy it once. If you do not recieve a popup saying that the song has been purchased, for Christ's sake, go look and see if it is there, do not buy it a second time. Sometimes it takes a moment or two to register, just like when you get scores the credit amount and your ranking pertaining to the high scores after completing a song. Chapter 5 In order to help out both us and you, the forumgoers, the staff has devised both an explicit set of rules and an explicit set of punishments for breaking each rule. Please note: the judgment of the staff is final. FFR has no appeals court for bans. If a staff member says that you broke one of the rules, you broke one of the rules, and arguing about it is not going to help your case. Accept your ban, learn from your mistakes, and move on. We reserve the right to ban for any reason for any length of time. By posting on these forums, you agree to abide by and follow all the rules, and you agree to be subject to any penalties incurred by violation of the rules. If you have a problem with any of the following rules, please contact a forum moderator or administrator. If you see a post that you believe breaks one of these rules, please click this button (  ) in the post and follow the instructions on that page.That button will notify a staff member to investigate the post and take necessary action should there be anything to do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***For people who are new to forums in general, some terms are defined at the end*** Warning/slap on the wrist: ------------ Bumping an old thread. Postwhoring. Light flaming (Teasing is acceptable; light flaming isn't. Light flaming is still flaming; it's just weak). Frequent use of text speak (omissions and substitutions of letters in words in order to shorten them; excessive use of Internet acronyms). 1 day: ------------ -Any of the above, after being warned. -Bumping more than one old thread. -Excessive breaking of the swear filter. -Making a nonsense post. -Postwhoring. -Making a ton of topics at one time. -Requesting illegal content (MP3s/roms/warez/etc.). -Posting a thread in the wrong forum. Some of these will just be moved, but posting "wat happned 2 my secrt songz?" in CT is just plain inexcusable. 2 days: ------------ -Advertising your site or any other outside of your signature (unless it's within your first few posts, in which case it's perma). -Trolling/flamebaiting (intentionally provoking an angry response or mocking site rules). 3 days: ------------ -Arguing with the judgment of staff (Includes creating "free <banned person>" threads). -Disrespect of staff. -Posting where to find illegal content. 5 days: ------------ -Moderate flaming outside the Gbin. -Ignoring a GBin ban. -Ignoring a BB ban. -Spamming. 2 weeks: ------------ -Offensive remarks about race, religion, sex, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. -Minimum punishment for ban evasion. -Heavy flaming. -Scant pornography. "I can see a hint of a nipple" or "crudely-drawn breasts/genitals" images. 1 month: ------------ -Barely censored pornography (Like taking a pornographic image and putting tiny black boxes over the "naughty bits"). -Posting illegal content. Exception: I think we can turn a blind eye to simfiles of copyrighted songs. 2 months: ------------ -Staff impersonation. -Evading a ban of 2 weeks or more. 3 months: ------------ -Very heavy flaming. Really going all out. Especially if it's in repeated posts. 6 months: ------------ -Barely censored hardcore pornography. -Evading a ban of 2 months or more. -Linking to pornography. 1 year: ------------ -Pornography. Permanent: ------------ -Hardcore or really vile pornography. -Child pornography. -Hacking/DoS. -Vandalism. -Evading a ban of 6 months or more. -Posting how to cheat on FFR, or telling people where to go to find out. Repeat offenses: ban length doubled, rounded down (in terms of the increments of time VB lets you ban for). Statute of limitations on a week-ban or lesser: three months. No dice on anything more. Baiting: If it's obvious that you're posting just to "test the rules" and see what you can get away with, or if you're very obviously trying to get yourself banned, expect a ban length much much longer than the one listed for your offense. Ban evasion: permanent ban on the evasion account, doubled ban length on original (exponential growth). Evade three times and it's a permaban. Avatars and Signatures: please keep your signature to a maximum width of 500 pixels, and a maximum height of 250 pixels. Avatars must be no more than 200 pixels in height, and no more than 175 pixels in width. Glossary of terms: Bumping: Bumping occurs when a post is made in an old thread. A thread is generally considered "old" if there have been no posts made within two weeks. There are very few instances where bumping is acceptable. One is when new and relevant information is being brought into a thread discussion. Another is when someone who was not able to partake in a discussion before notices the thread and adds his or her own input into the thread. Keep in mind, if a post that brings an old thread back to the top of the page has no relevancy to it, the thread will be locked and action will be taken against the offending poster. Spamming: Posting the same message multiple times. Postwhoring: Posting for any reason other than adding content to a thread. An example of postwhoring is looking up the list of most recent threads and adding "yeah" or "i agree" or "lol" to every single thread. Another example is double/triple posting (consecutive posts one after another) multiple times. Posting relevant information into each thread you come across is acceptable. Otherwise, it is considered postwhoring. Simply put, postwhoring is posting simply for the purpose of posting, not for adding anything to the discussion. Flaming: Flaming is a personal attack against another user. Name-calling and insulting are examples of flaming. Attacking another user's opinions is perfectly acceptable, but calling them names for writing their opinions is not. Trolling: Posting for the purpose of inciting flame wars (back-and-forth posting of slanderous comments between two or more users) or inciting malicious replies. A good example of trolling is posting "ffr sux" somewhere in a topic. The general way to handle trolls is to simply ignore them. Replying to a troll post is exactly what the person who posted it wants you to do. Just report the post to a staff member and continue on with your life. Chapter 6 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Acronyms Chapter 2: Apostrophes Chapter 3: Punctuation Chapter 4: Common Misconceptions Chapter 5: Same sound, different meaning? Chapter 6: Difficult Misconceptions Chapter 7: Subjects and Prepositions by Guido Chapter 1: Acronyms Who knows what an acronym is? I'll tell you all anyway just so it's made known. An acronym is simply: Quote: Originally Posted by Dictionary.com A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging. Alright, we've got that much down. Congratulations. That was the first part of the lesson for acronyms. On to part two. How can one pluralize one of these acronyms? It's really quite simple. Most of the time, you know what the acronym stands for, correct? All you need to do is pluralize the acronym as you would pluralize the last word in the acronym itself. For example: PCed. While this looks incorrect, it is very much proper. As you can see, Perfect Comboed is the correct spelled-out form of this acronym being used in the past tense. Another example is RPGs. To pluralize Role-Playing Game, you simply add an "s" to "game". There are but a few exceptions to this rule and that exception is not even necessary. It has become proper to pluralize an acronym whose last letter (of the short form) is "s" with an apostrophe. An example of this is SOS's. SOSs is also acceptable, but the crazy people that continue to make rules up about our language prefer the apostrophe. Another such exception is the use of numbers and letters of the alphabet. Credit to footfairyman07. EX. Sara got 3 A's and 2 B's on her report card. EX. John can now count by 2's, 3's, and 4's. (Although I'd say "A"s instead just because the letter grade isn't part of the sentence structure and deserves to be set apart from the rest of the sentence.) Which brings me to my next point. ---------- Chapter 2: Apostrophes No, not "apostrophe's". In fact, you NEVER pluralize a word with an apostrophe. Let me re-state that in italics on the next line. You NEVER pluralize a word with an apostrophe. I cannot find of any good examples of this occurring here off-hand, but believe me, it happens. Even in the real world, as THIS link proves. The only time you need to use an apostrophe is as a contraction or to show possession. Keep in mind that a contraction is not limited to 40 or 50 examples you learned in English. Almost any noun can become a contraction. Examples of contractions: "I'm" = I am (I'm posting a message). "They're" = They are (They're not listening). "That's" = That is (That's really horrible). "Lawyer's" = Lawyer is (Your lawyer's dead) (Thanks for the example, LD). Examples of possessives: "Computer's" (The computer's RAM). "Earth's" (Earth's trees). "Game's" (This game's graphics). **** This entire section was written entirely by GuidoHunter. Obviously, he knows what he's talking about. This should help you immensely. **** APOSTROPHES IN POSSESSIVES Squeek touched on part of this, but the rest is not the most well-understood of subjects, so mistakes of this kind are often overlooked. I'll try to clear some of this up. Case 1: Singular possessives that do not end in 's'. Everyone knows how to do these. Add an apostrophe and 's', e.g. "chair's legs", "Mary's face", etc. Case 2: Plural possessives that do not end in 's'. Like with singular nouns, these are often quite obvious. "The children's homework," "the deer's meat," and "the feet's smell" are all examples. Case 3: Singular possessives that end in 's'. Unlike with plural possessives, these WILL NOT terminate in an apostrophe simply because they are singular. "Chris's hand," "Tyler Jones's room," or "my boss's job" all end with an apostrophe and 's' just like the other singular possessives. Case 4: Plural possessives that end in 's'. With these nouns is the ONLY time (save for the two exceptions that will be noted below) that a word terminates in an apostrophe. Examples: "The Millers' house," "the students' homework," and "the rabbits' down." Also note that regardless of the structure, surnames will take the apostrophe after the pluralization. This can look especially awkward with -es names such as with Jones, but the dog belonging to the entire family is still "the Joneses' dog." Case 5: Exceptions. Obviously, as Squeek has said, "its" is what you should use to denote something belonging to whatever "it" is. It is a singular possessive that does not take an apostrophe, so it is an exception to Case 1. Moses and Jesus. These are the only two singular possessive nouns that terminate in an apostrophe. For some reason, philologists saw fit to let these two figures be special, so don't flip out if you read about "Moses' staff" or "Jesus' word," because they are completely fine. I have also seen books that say the possessive of any singular noun whose last two syllables have an 's' sound should be marked by just an apostrophe. Moses and Jesus fit that description, but I can't think of another word that does, so you're probably best off just adding 's. That's all for now. I think I'm going to have fun writing these. --Guido **** End Guido's awesome guide to apostrophes **** I thought I'd just add something here. When you want to say a specific time period (say, a decade) and want to cut off the first two digits of the year, the apostrophe takes the place of those digits. The correct usage for referring to the 1950s is the '50s. ----------- Chapter 3: Punctuation Ah, the joys of punctuation. When to use it? What do certain symbols do / accomplish? You're about to find out. Note that apostrophes are in their own section because you people butcher those most often. We'll begin with end marks. These are the marks that appear at the end of a sentence. Period This is a period. That last mark there. It's just a dot on a screen. It denotes the end of a sentence. When reading a period aloud, you would start to lower your tone near the last few syllables. The meaning of the period is to bring the sentence to an end and ease into the next sentence. Question Mark A question mark - ? - looks like that and is used to tell the reader that you are asking a question. This could be something simple like, "Would you like fries with that?" Generally speaking, a question begins with one of the following words: Who, what, where, when, why, how. There are many times when those words are not going to be in there, much like my example. When reading aloud, you would start to raise the tone of the last few syllables when ending the sentence. Exclamation Point An exclamation point - ! - looks like this and is used to tell the reader that the sentence is bringing some form of emotion to you in a "shocking" way. It's an emphasis on your sentence. The one thing I hated about grammar lessons in school about this mark is that their example sentences ALWAYS sucked. I recall seeing "What an exciting day this is!" or "What a gorgeous painting this is!" all the time. It was never proper. Nobody talks like that. It's always "This is an exciting day!" or "This painting is gorgeous!" nowadays. The tone of this sentence when read aloud is much higher throughout. --- We now move onto inner-sentence marks. Comma I hope all of you know what a comma is. It's a mark that, when used properly, can make all the difference in the way a sentence sounds. If abused, it will destroy you. A comma has one major purpose. It is used vocally to tell the reader, "insert a pause here." Of course, the way I just used it is slightly different, but I'll get to that. Commas for pauses: I just used an example of this about three seconds ago. When you start your sentence with some specific words (ie: For example, of course, however, etc) you need to set them off from the rest of the sentence with a pause (comma). This is to make the sentence flow better. When reading the following sentences aloud, just tell me which one sounds better. Of course, there's no right or wrong answer here. Of course there's no right or wrong answer here. In fact, the meaning of the sentences completely changes! The first sentences says to the reader, "There's no right or wrong answer." The second says, "What is wrong with you? OF COURSE there's no right or wrong answer here!" Commas for sets: I'm not even going to get into the lengthy argument in favor of or opposed to the Oxford comma. I just love the Oxford definition and will continue to abide by it. Commas in sets work in a way that places a pause between each set of items greater than three. "I want this, that, those, and these too." (By the way, the British would write this, "I want this, that, those and these too." Which I just think is silly. There's no pause after "those" to tell the person that the last two terms are separate. They just run together.) It's just that easy. You place a comma after every term except the last. There is no comma after the "and", "or", or "but". Commas for pairs: This is the other most commonly used comma. While this is basically the same thing as the first comma I mentioned, I put it separate for you all. The notion for this is to place a form of an "aside" within your sentence. For example, you might say, "I went to the store, which was very far away, for some eggs." Or something to that effect. I don't care. I hate commas. Let's move on. Colon Colons are easy. Use a colon to tell the reader, "I'm about to say a one or more things that I was talking about before." For an example, you could write, "I'll tell you what I hate most: morons." Or, better yet, "There are only two kinds of people in the world: those that understand binary, and those that don't." Make sure that the items listed after the colon are set off by commas. We also use colons for time (8:45) and other stuff, but that's irrelevant, really. I read someplace that the best way to test for colon usage is to insert the word "namely" where you'd want to put the colon. It almost always works. Quotation Mark I HATE THIS MARK. I honestly HATE it to death. I want the inventor of its usage to make up his mind on what to do with it. It's a horrible mark. Now that I've gotten that out of my system, let me explain my hatred. Consider the following (correctly punctuated) sentence. I told the guy that I wanted a "foot." I don't think he caught my drift. It's so wrong! I swear! The quoted word should not have a period in it. It doesn't fit in there. The word belongs in its own quotes and deserves freedom from the sentence break. Ugh. Luckily, the British know my feelings for this and use my method of quotations. Therefore, if you want to say, I told the guy that I wanted a "foot". YOU CAN. Join me in doing so. Anyway. You use a quotation to quote direct material or to put a word that might not mean what it's supposed to mean inside. Another use is to mention a word that doesn't belong in the context of the sentence itself. Here're the examples. He said, and I quote, "I hate you." - Note the period INSIDE. Quoted phrases need it. I get that. He told me that I was a "greenhorn". I don't know what it means. I commonly see people putting the letter "a" where it doesn't belong. There you go. I will end punctuation there since nobody on a public forum uses dashes, hyphens, semicolons (sadly), etc. ----------- Chapter 4: Common Misconceptions Please call this chapter "common mistakes" if you wish. Here, I address common problems occurring in everyday posting that must be made clear. Let me state my theory as to why these problems occur in the first place. Simplicity - Shortening or slightly editing a word to create a small "shortcut" while typing, only to find out that the entire population has also conformed to that method and the original word is lost. Speech - A very common problem. People want to write words the same way it sounds when it is said. This is a problem when spelling and when writing phrases. I will point out a few of the most prevalent. Lack of Information - If you never knew how to use something properly, go with what everybody else says. They have to be right...right? Well, that's just about it. Speech and simplicity are the biggies. Here are some examples. "Should of". I see this often, along with "would of" and "could of". The only reason you type this is because you say it like this. However, this is incorrect. The correct spelling of this word is "should've". The contraction is taking the place of "have", thus making the complete phrase "should have". "Alot". Yeah, this is wrong. The site says, Quote: If you can't remember the rule, just remind yourself that just as you wouldn't write 'alittle' you shouldn't write 'alot.' That just about does it. "Could care less". Boy do I hate to see this. It makes me want to pull you aside and mention to you that you're really telling the person, "I care some, maybe even a lot, but now I might care a little less." What you MEANT to say was, "I don't care. I never cared. I will continue to not care." Case and Point. Qualy sent this one in. It's "Case in point." Insert big explanation as to why this is later. COMMONLY-MISSPELLED WORDS. The order goes: right spelling, wrong spelling(s). Sequel - Sequal Wednesday - Wednsday, Wedsnesday, Wensday Basically - Basicly Awesome - Awsome Challenge - Challange, Chalenge, Chalange Separate - Seperate Definitely - Definately (I hate you all), Definitly (Hate you too) Forty - Fourty February - Febrary, Febuary Light - Lite Through - Thru Night - Nite Dialogue - Dialog (Same goes for Analogue. I don't care though) Paid - Payed Lied - Lyed Lying - lieing (HOW COULD YOU THINK THIS IS RIGHT?!) Congratulations - Congradulations (Jewpin, I'm looking at you.) ***AMENDED INFORMATION!*** Chardish has written a lovely article to be amended into this document. I found it fitting to go here. ---------- I'd like to recommend a section on commonly misused phrases. I can think of a few. "For all intensive purposes." This phrase does not exist. The correct spelling is "for all intents and purposes." E.G. vs. I.E. vs. A.K.A. Global rule: All of these acronyms always have a period after each letter. At the beginning of a sentence, all letters are capitalized. Anywhere else in a sentence, all letters are lower case. E.G. is short for the Latin exempli gratis (a free example). It means "for example" and can be used anywhere that you could use the words "for example." It is a dependent clause, which means it should be separated by a comma from the main clause of a sentence. Example: "I need you to write a paper on a natural science of your choosing; e.g., biology or physics." I.E. is short for the Latin id est (it is). It means "that is" and can be used anywhere that you could use those words. It is typically used to give further explanation to something. It is a dependent clause, which means it should be separated by a comma from the main clause of a sentence. Example: "We didn't think he was doing a good job, i.e., we hated his guts and wanted him fired." Example: "She was a lady of the night, i.e., a prostitute." A.K.A. is short for "also known as" and should only be used literally, in that sense. Do not put a comma after it anywhere. Example: "The place was known as Red Herring's Bar and Tavern, a.k.a Big Red's." Example: "She was a lady of the night, a.k.a. a prostitute." You'll notice that "a.k.a." and "i.e." can be used interchangeably sometimes, but not all the time. The first examples for each of those cannot be interchanged. Take care to pay attention to what the acronyms stand for to differentiate the meanings. ------------ Chapter 5: Same sound, different meaning? But Squeek, some words sound the same and are almost spelled the exact same? How can we tell the difference? If you ever run into that problem, here's a nice list of the proper uses of the most commonly mistaken words. accept / except affect / effect bare / bear carat / caret / carrot / karat cite / sight / site dual / duel fair / fare for / fore / four its / it's passed / past sense / since their / there / they're then / than to / too / two weather / whether whose / who's who / whom your / you're (Be glad I'm not going this far : http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html ) Let's begin. Accept / Except (More information) Accept - Accept is a verb. Its meaning is "to take something in". Accepting something is receiving something. I accept this Grammy award on behalf of such and such. Except - Except is a special word used in order to exclude something from a previous statement. Everybody here is smart except for such and such. Affect / Effect (More information) Affect - Affect is a verb. To affect something is to cause it to do something it may not have normally done. I affected the thermal reactor by throwing in some candy. Effect - Some like to explain effect as what comes after an affected item. It is what HAS happened to the item. What effect can drugs have on your mind? Bare / Bear (More information) Bare - Bare means raw, or down to nothing. People often use the phrase "bare minimum" in this case. We're down to the bare necessities for survival here. Bear - Almost always associated with an animal. For some reason, there are two special cases. "Bear with it" and "Bear children" are those two special cases. Winnie the Pooh is a bear. Carat / Caret / Carrot / Karat (More information) Carat - The measurement of weight in a precious stone. Can be used as "karat" as well when referring to gold alloy. This is a solid 15-carat diamond. Caret - Carets are your friends. A caret is used so many times and is misused so many more. This is a caret -> ^ . It is used as an exponential display device, an insertion device in proofreading, and to make some annoying anime-esque faces. ^_^ / 2x^2 = 2x squared. Carrot - So simple. A carrot is a vegetable. It is nothing else. It is that nice orange vegetable that we all seem to enjoy eating. Bugs Bunny loves carrots. Karat - Used to measure the proportion of pure gold in an alloy. Also used alongside "carat" to display gold easier. 24K gold is really hard to find. Cite / Sight / Site (More information) Cite - To cite something is to reference it. You must use citations when quoting somebody else in order to avoid a call of plagiarism. Cite your sources to prove your worth! Sight - Vision-related. Sight is your sense of seeing things. You can also use this term when referring to a rifle with a scope on it. That's a sight for sore eyes! Site - Location-related. A site is a place. A website is also a place. Very easy stuff here. The construction site was off-limits to most people. Dual / Duel (More information) Dual - Two of something. I have a dual monitor setup on my machine Duel - A two-person battle. I challenge you to a duel! Fair / Fare (More information) Fair - A description of the plausibility of something or an event. You can say that something "is not fair", which means it is one-sided or just not according to your standards. I did not think it was fair that the fair closed early this year. Fare - Money for a ride, or how someone handles something. They did not bring their fare money. I hope they fare well without it. For / Fore / Four (More information) For - This word is used to allocate a location to which something is going. When you do something, you do it FOR something. I'm raising money for the children. Fore - Golf term. It is what you shout when you hit the ball and realize there's a possibility somebody may get hit by it. Also used to describe something in front of another thing. Careful attention must be taken to present the foreground as well as the background. Four - Alphabetical representation of the number "4". There is no other purpose. Please note that adding a "0" onto this makes it "forty", not "fourty". I can count to four. Its / It's (More information) Its - Showing possession of an object that is not a human. "The dog's bone" becomes "its bone." Rule of thumb: replace with "his" or "her" and see if it still makes sense. You don't want to mess with its stuff. That thing will destroy you. It's - IT IS. Simply that. The only exception is that sometimes it means "IT HAS". There's no other time to use this. Rule of thumb: replace with "it is / has" and see if it still makes sense. It's a shame so many people confuse this rule. Passed / Past (More information) Passed - Showing something is following the action of passing. Hard to explain, but you would use this with passing gravy, or passing an exam. Billy passed the gravy. (Whoa, so creative) Past - Time / distance. The opposite of "future" is "past". When something just moved ahead of you, they got past you. When using in the form of action, usually a verb comes before it. We drove past his house, but all the lights were off. Sense / Since (More information) Sense - A sense is one of the five things you can do to identify something. It is also a form of expressing intellect. It's common sense that the sense of smell is the best! Since - Generally a replacement for the word "because". Since you're here, why not clean the (whatever)? There / Their / They're (More information) There - If it's not "their" or "they're", it's always "there". Generally expresses a location of an item, but means other things. Just remember the first line I said and you'll be fine. There goes the neighborhood... Their - Only one thing: possessive. This is to show a group of something's something. Very simple. I can't believe everybody left their backpacks here! They're - They are. Only they are. Nothing else, ever. If you cannot replace "they are" for "they're", you're wrong in using it. What are they doing? They're destroying private property! Than / Then (More information) Than - Comparison word. That's all. Why are you not smarter than I am? Then - Used both to express a non-specific time and the second+ item after something else occurs. If x=9, then y=17. First you add 5 to x, then 14 to y. To / Too / Two (More information) To - If it's not "too" or "two", it's "to." Usually used before a verb to have it in base format. We're going to go to the mall. Too - Also and excessive. One or the other and nothing else. You can include something in something (also, as well) and use "too". You can say something is "too much" of something. I, too, think that at 10% sales tax is far too much. Two - Alphabetical representation of the number "2." This is the only use for this word. Now I've forgotten how to count to four and can only count to two. Weather / Whether (More information) Weather - Climate in a specific area. Describing rain or snow is describing weather. The weather outside is sunny with a low chance of rain. Whether - Used to determine if something is one way or another. I can't decide whether to vote for Bush or Kerry. Whose / Who's (More information) Whose - Possessive. When used as a question, it is asking who some item belongs to. Whose hat is this? Who's - Who is/has. There is no other rule for this. Who's been eating from the cookie jar? Who / Whom (More information) Who - Subject form. Explained by Guido. Who are you? Whom - Object form. Explained by Guido. To whom are you giving this? Your / You're (More information) Your - Possessive. Many other meanings, but the simplest way to remember to use this is if "you are" doesn't fill in for the word. It's your time to die. You're - You are. Nothing else. If it doesn't fill in, it's "your". You're going to regret that. Fin. ----------- Chapter 6: Difficult Misconceptions Amount / Number (More Information) Amount refers to a quantity of something. You use words like "little", "less", and "much" when referring to amounts. Number refers to the number of something. You use words like "few", "fewer", and "many" when referring to numbers. Basically, "number" is used for things you can count. Bring / Take (More Information) You bring things to events you are coming to. You take things to events you are going to. This is hard, I know. Read the guy's site. Good / Well (More Information) Good is an adjective. Well is an adverb. Use them as such. Read his site. Itch / Scratch (More Information) Quite simple, really. You cannot itch something. It just isn't possible. An itch is a feeling you get that makes you want to scratch. So simple. Set up / Setup (More Information) A setup is like a configuration. My computer setup rules. DJShox's musical setup is quite nice. You have to set up the setup at one point. That is to say, you need to put everything in place during the set up. That / Who (More Information) Generally speaking, "that" refers to an object that is not human and "who" refers to a person who is human (see the example here?). It's impolite to refer to a person as a non-human. That / Which (More Information) This is a difficult distinction, but it is generally assumed that "that" will not be preceded by a comma and "which" will be. I have nothing else to offer on this one. ----------- Chapter 7: Subjects and Prepositions by Guido Okay, let me start by discussing the simple sentence structure of the English language. We have an SVO system in English, that is to say, a simple sentence will begin with a subject, then have a conjugated verb which may or may not be followed by an object (Japanese, by contrast, has an SOV system). The sentence "I hit the ball" has those three parts. "I" is the subject, "hit" is the verb, and "the ball" is the object. I have a chain of logic with this, so please bear with me; I know y'all aren't first graders. Now, when it comes to people and the words that represent them, there are often two different words that represent the same thing. Such words are I/me, we/us, he/him, she/her, and they/them. Obviously, these words, although they represent the same things in their respective pairs, cannot be used interchangeably, so there must be a difference. That difference is that the first word in each pair is the subjective form, and the second is the objective form. As you may have guessed, the subjective form is used when the idea represented by the word is the subject of the sentence, and the object is used when the idea is the object. Example: I hit the ball. The ball hit me. This is why it's incorrect to answer a ringing phone and, upon the other end asking for you, say, "This is him." You should, in fact, say, "This is he." Also, you can now understand why it's so wrong use the common phrase in its original form of, "Woe is me." Read: Woe is I, by Patricia T. O'Conner. Now that that's been said, we're now ready to cover the differences between "who" and "whom." Simply put, "who" is subjective and "whom" is objective. But there is one more thing I need to add. When you have a prepositional phrase (a preposition followed by a noun or a noun phrase), the noun part is considered the object of the preposition. Because of this, one of those personal subjects will always take the objective form when it follows a preposition, as will whom. This also applies to whoever and whomever. However, the object of a preposition can be an entire clause (a phrase with both a subject and a verb). Because of this, you can have the subjective form of a word following a preposition, as in the sentence, "He was before whoever was last." Ordinarily, you would use the objective form because "before" is a preposition, like when you say, "He was before me," but since the object of the preposition is a clause you need a subject, like in, "He left before I arrived." This leads me to a VERY common grammatical error regarding comparisons. WRONG: You are better than me at Stepmania. Whenever you use "than" for comparisons, you need to realize that you will often leave out a verb that is understood. RIGHT: You are better than I at Stepmania. It is understood that you are saying "You are better than I am at Stepmania, but just because you don't say it doesn't mean it's not there. Just think: you wouldn't say, "You are better than me am at Stepmania," would you? The last thing I want to cover is regarding prepositions. Technically, it is illegal (in the grammar sense) to end a sentence with a preposition. Now, this is one of the less-respected rules simply because being completely compliant with it can make for some extremely awkward sentences, and sometimes even I can't figure out how they should be worded. However, most of the time they make sentences look much better. For example: WRONG: She is the one I gave the present to. RIGHT: She is the one to whom I gave the present. If you pay attention to this rule, you'll start to notice how ugly the former sentence looks and sounds. Of course, there are some sentences which are just obscene even though they are correct. If I can think of one some time I'll put it up here. As a closing point, I'll leave y'all with a relevant quote: "Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put!" --Winston Churchill And thus I end my second entry. Chapter 7 FFR Video Chat Rules No spamming in PM's, main chat, channels, or elsewhere. (Such as text, gibberish, links, failed kick attempts, blank spaces, or lyrics) No unsuitable links to pornography/gore/virus/spyware websites (Such as anything visually disturbing, nudity, anything that messes with anyone's computer) No flaming, harassment, or disrespect (Such as racism, being overly rude, or general disrespect to another chat member, especially for race, religion or sexual orientation) No sexually inappropriate behavior (Such as asking someone to flash, flashing, cybering, or anything that can be thought of as sexual harrassment) No illegal behavior (Such as doing drugs/illegal activies on cam, talking about doing drugs/illegal activites) No exploiting the chat (Such as using any glitches in the chat, or hacking) No rude joking (Such as if you're mean to someone in a joking way, but they don't know it, or think you're being serious, saying "jk rofl" doesn't make it all better. Joking about someones race, sexual orientation or religion is usually not funny and is not going to be allowed.) No disrespecting staff (Such as challenging mod/admin decisions, imitating of staff members, or just generally being rude to staff) **Please note that there is NO such thing as mod/admin abuse.** You are not to challenge mod/admin decisions. If a moderator or admin has done something you think is wrong, please report it to another admin/mod so they can be evaluated. Any of these rules can be enforced by the following ways (and some secret ways we wont tell you about): kicking, gagging, binding, penning, moving, banning. The FFR video chat is meant for people 13 years of age and older. If you're under 13, you will be removed by a moderator/administrator. Please do not use channels as a secondary chat, it is for help/questions, and that is all. Please try not to spam the chat with "user has left/entered the room." Please do not attempt to kick people in a room that you cannot. (This means all green rooms) Also, if a moderator/administrator makes a decision, it will not be challenged, no matter what. If you're kicked/banned/whatever, you've most likely done something to deserve it. This is a guide on how to use FFR Multiplayer. It's divided into the following sections: The Basics, The MP Level System, Etiquette, and Rules. The Basics To play FFR Multiplayer, you'll first have to get to the game by clicking the "the game" button in the top menu bar. Once the game loads, scroll down to see the Start Screen:  1. If this bar says, "You are now Connected to Multiplayer", you're all set and can enter the MP lobby. If it says "Connecting" it's still trying to connect, so be patient until it changes. If it says "Can't connect!" that means there's was a problem connecting and you'll have to try again. 2. If the bar at #1 says, "You are now Connected to Multiplayer", click this button to enter the MP lobby. This button won't do anything otherwise. 3. This button does nothing. Once you've clicked the "Go" button, the playfield at the top will automatically switch to the "M" one at the far left. You'll then find yourself at the Lobby  The lobby is the center of MP. From here, you can chat with other players, send private messages, and create or join rooms. 1. This is your MP Level. This is displayed whether or not you're in the lobby (or in MP at all), and is explained in greater detail in the MP Level System section of this guide. Basically, MP level is a measure of how well you've done in MP against other players. The green part of the bar tells you roughly how far you are to the next level. MP level is gained or lost based on MP EXP, which goes up or down depending on how you do when playing. 2. This is MP Chat. Use this to chat with other MP players, or to look for opponents if you can't find them. Next to each player's name is his or her MP level in brackets. If the level says "MOD" that means that person is a moderator. Private messages can also be sent here by clicking on a person's name in the User List. Private messages are shown in screen: green. Messages to you display that person's name, and messages from you display your name. Levels are not shown when using private messages. Note that there is a swear filter that will censor swear words. If you get censored too many times, you are automatically kicked, so be careful. 3. This is the User List. This displays all users who are currently in the lobby (and not the ones who are in rooms). Names are displayed in reverse alphabetical order, starting with lowercase, then going to uppercase, and ending with names that start with non-letter characters. Click a name in this list to send a private message to that person. If you accidentally click on the wrong name or change your mind about sending the message, do not click the "cancel" button. This will cause a glitch to occur and you will have to refresh and re-enter MP. Instead, just say "wrong PM" or something to that effect. 4. This is the Room List. All currently active rooms are shown here. Rooms are displayed in the following format: [MP Level of Room Maker]Room Title (Number of Players)-(Number of Spectators) So, if a room reads "[16]Level 12+ Only (1)-(2)", that means the room was made by a level 16 player (and probably contains one), is called "Level 12+ Only", has one player, and has two spectators. When you click on a room, you will have the option of joining as a player, a spectator, or canceling. If the room is a private room, you'll need to enter the correct password in order to go in, as a player OR spectator. Rooms always have a maximum of two players, and can have a max of anywhere from zero to five spectators, depending on what the room maker set the spectator number to. Rooms are listed in order of the level, by the first digit. So rooms of level 1, 2, 5, 10, and 22 would be listed in the order 5, 2, 22, 1, 10. 5. Click this button to leave MP and return to the Start Screen. 6. Click this button to create a new room. When you click this button you'll see this screen:  1. Type in a room title here. 2. Set the maximum number of spectators here. Don't make this number higher than 5. 3. If you want your room to be a private room between you and other specific people, you can set a room password here (note that the password is CASE SENSITIVE), and anyone who wants to join the room will have to enter this password. If you want your room to be public so that anyone can enter, leave this blank. 4. When you're ready, hit this button to create and enter the room. 5. If you change your mind about making a room, hit this to cancel. Once you've entered or created a room, you'll find yourself in this screen:  Rooms are where FFR Multiplayer is actually played, and where MP level is lost or gained. 1. These boxes are the Stat Boxes, and show all information regarding what's currently happening in the room. Each player has their own stat box, and the player's name is displayed at the top of the box. Player 1 has the left stat box, and Player 2 has the right one. The boxes also have Song Circles, which change color based on the song loading status of that player: -If the circle is clear or gray, that means no song has been selected. -If the circle is yellow, that means a song has been selected, but either hasn't started loading or is not completely loaded yet. Selecting a song in the game area (#3) will make the song circle turn yellow, and make the stat box display that song's name. Players must select the same song in order to start playing. -If the circle is green, that means the song is loaded and the player is ready. When both players' song circles are green and both stat boxes display the same song, the game will automatically begin in the game area--be ready! -When a player finishes a song (by either failing or completing the song) his or her circle will turn blue. When both players' song circles are blue, either player can hit the "Try Another Level" button to turn make both circles gray, and they are now free to select another song. Note that hitting the "Try Another Level" button won't do anything if there is exactly one blue circle--so if for some reason your opponent fell behind, you'll have to wait for him or her to finish the song before you can select another one. Below the Player 1 Stat box are two small symbols, labeled "UP" and "DN". If you want to play using reverse scroll, click on the symbol that says "DN". 2. This is the chat area for the room, where players can talk. Spectators can also talk here (only between games; it is considered extremely rude to talk as a spectator in the middle of a game, as it causes lag). 3. The game area. A few things to remember when you're in the game: -No matter whether you're player 1 or 2, when the game starts you'll be on the left, and your opponent will be on the right. -Only your opponent's life bar, accuracy and combo are displayed on his or her field--the animation of arrows just reflects what's happening on your side. So if you miss, it will look like your opponent did too, even if he or she actually didn't. You can tell if your opponent misses by his or her combo breaking. -Since there are more arrows, there will be more lag. If lag is a problem, try playing on low quality (by clicking the small Q button at the top left of the song wheel screen of the game). The following two situations can occur in a room when there aren't two players present, and here's how they work: -You're the only player in a room: You have to wait until another player shows up. There will be TWO "Cancel" buttons, which are identical and will both exit you from the room. You cannot chat with spectators until another player comes in. -You're spectating in a room without two players: A box will pop up giving you two options: you can either join the room as a player, or you can leave the room. If you want to keep spectating, just wait; the box will go away when someone else enters the room as a player. Just remember that you can't chat in a room unless there are two players present. Another thing: If you quit in the middle of a game, you're forfeiting it and it will count as your opponent winning it. If you go into a room when someone is already playing a song and then leave, the game thinks that you quit and will award them a win from you. If someone is already playing when you go into a room, just wait till he or she finishes the song, and his or her song circle will automatically turn gray. Well, that's it for the basics of MP. One more thingevery single game ever played in MP is recorded in the Multiplayer Scores Database, which can be found in the Main Menu on the front page. Here you can see your winning percentage, the most recent games played, the top 50 active players, and the scores and stats from all your games or the games of any other player. Click UP to switch back to up scroll. The MP Level System Here, I'll explain the MP Level system in full detail. There are two values that each account has that are related to MP: MP Level and MP EXP. When you first make an account at FFR, your MP EXP will be 0, and your MP Level will be 1. You gain and lose MP EXP based on not only your wins and losses, but the MP EXP of whoever you win or lose against. You gain EXP from a win simply based on how many levels above or below you your opponent is. Your level - opponent's level: EXP gain from win 9 or more: 0 8: 20 7: 30 6: 40 5: 50 4: 60 3: 70 2: 80 1: 90 0: 100 -1: 110 -2: 120 -3: 130 -4: 140 -5: 150 -6: 160 -7: 170 -8: 180 -9 or less: 0 So if you're a level 14 who wins against a level 10, you'll gain 60 EXP. When you lose in MP, you lose EXP based on two factors: The difference of levels between you and your opponent, and how high your current level is. Your level - opponent's level: Base Loss Value 9 or more: 0 8: 180 7: 170 6: 160 5: 150 4: 140 3: 130 2: 120 1: 110 0: 100 -1: 90 -2: 80 -3: 70 -4: 60 -5: 50 -6: 40 -7: 30 -8: 20 -9 or less: 0 Your level: Loss Factor 1: 0.05 2: 0.1 3: 0.2 4: 0.35 5: 0.45 6: 0.55 7: 0.6 8: 0.65 9: 0.7 10: 0.75 11: 0.85 12: 0.9 13: 0.95 14: 1 15: 1.05 16: 1.10 17: 1.20 18: 1.35 19: 1.45 20: 1.55 21: 1.6 22: 1.65 23: 1.7 24: 1.75 25: 1.85 26: 1.9 27: 1.95 28: 2 29: 2.05 30: 2.1 31: 2.2 32: 2.35 33: 2.45 34: 2.55 35: 2.6 36: 2.65 37: 2.7 38: 2.75 39: 2.85 40: 2.9 41: 2.95 42: 3 43: 3.05 44: 3.1 45: 3.2 46: 3.35 47: 3.45 48: 3.55 49: 3.6 50: 3.65 To find out how much EXP you lose from a game, multiply the Base Loss Value by the Loss Factor. So if you're a level 13 who loses to a level 17, you'll lose 60 * .95 = 57 EXP. If you're a level 25 who loses to a level 17, you'll lose 180 * 1.85 = 333 EXP. Note that two players cannot affect each others' EXP unless they are 8 or fewer levels apart. Your MP Level is simply based on your current EXP. The following tells the minimum amount of EXP needed to be at every level: MP Level: Minimum total EXP needed to attain that level 1: 0 2: 101 3: 201 4: 401 5: 601 6: 901 7: 1201 8: 1601 9: 2001 10: 2501 11: 3001 12: 3501 13: 4001 14: 4501 15: 5001 16: 5501 17: 6001 18: 6501 19: 7001 20: 7501 21: 8001 22: 8501 23: 9001 24: 9501 25: 10001 26: 10501 27: 11001 28: 11501 29: 12001 30: 12501 31: 13001 32: 13501 33: 14001 34: 14501 35: 15001 36: 15501 37: 16001 38: 16501 39: 17001 40: 17501 41: 18101 42: 18901 43: 20001 44: 21501 45: 23501 46: 26101 47: 29401 48: 33501 49: 38501 50: 44501 With the current system, no one has ever reached a level higher than 28 (you might see some higher levels than this; these were all gotten using a different system). Etiquette These are guidelines about how to be a good MP user. You don't have to follow these guidelines (and won't be punished for breaking them), but not following them might make you look like a jerk and lose you respect, so it's strongly suggested that you do follow them. 1. Don't type in all caps. This is annoying, not to mention that it makes you look really dumb when you do it. 2. Alternate picking songs--don't try to hog all the picks, it's not fair to your opponent (unless they say you can have all the picks). 3. If a room title specifies some kind of requirement, expect to abide by that requirement when you go into the room. For example, if the room title is "Difficult or Under", don't go in and pick Flight of the Bumblebee. Also, if the room title is "Levels 10-17", don't go in if your MP level is 3. 4. If you go into a room and the room maker tells you to leave, LEAVE. Don't make a fuss about it, or say "just 1 song c'mon", or flame them for it. If he/she doesn't want to play against you, there's probably a good reason (like you being outside of the level requirements in the room title), and you won't accomplish anything by staying, besides angering him/her. 5. Don't talk in a room while other people are playing and you're spectating. It often causes lag for the players, and it's very inconsiderate. Spamming a game to intentionally cause lag for players is considered a major rules violation, and will get you banned. Rules These are the rules that you must follow in order to play FFR Multiplayer. If you don't follow these, you'll get in trouble, and repeated or serious offenses will get you banned from MP. Punishments usually go like this (any can be skipped depending on the severity of the offense): Offense #1: Verbal warning/kick Offense #2-3: 24 hour ban Offense #4: Temporary addition to the Ban on Sight (or BoS) list, which means you'll be immediately banned by any mod who sees you for some period of time (anywhere from two days to a week). Offense #5: Permanent BoS. This is the equivalent of a permanent ban, and if you're on the permanent BoS list it means you're not welcome in MP anymore. If you continue to come back to MP and break rules repeatedly while on the BoS list your IP will be blocked from the entire site. With that out of the way, here are the rules: Don't spam. Spamming means, basically, posting something utterly meaningless over and over in a way that disrupts that chat. This includes, but is not limited to, text, gibberish, links, empty spaces, and lyrics. Don't post links to inappropriate or harmful websites. Porn or "shock" sites with disgusting pictures all fall under this, as well as any site that gives you a virus or spyware. Don't disrespect other members. It's okay to make fun of people as long as no hurt is intended or received on either side, but big flame wars or nasty insults, especially racist ones (or similar insults based on qualities such as race, religion, or sexual orientation), are not tolerated. Don't ask people for cybersex. FFR isn't the place for this, and it will not be tolerated in any way. Don't use exploits (like "clearing", or packet editing to spoof usernames). If you find an exploit that you think the admins don't know about, tell a moderator or Forum PM an admin describing it, but do not use it. Alsodon't talk about the "secret code box", it can get you in trouble. Don't cheat in the game. Feeding (intentionally losing repeatedly to your other account in order to get a higher MP level, or getting someone else to lose to you intentionally to give you level) is considered cheating and is not allowed, as well as any way of intentionally using unfair methods to win games (secret arrows, freeze cheating, having someone spam the chat so the game lags, somehow playing a different song that has more arrows, etc). If you cheat, your MP level will be reset AND you'll get warned/banned/whatever the moderator feels is appropriate, so don't do it. Don't disrespect or impersonate staff. This includes flaming or harassing moderators or admins, or making names similar/the same as them ("Shashakir0" or "Tasslefoot" are examples of names not to use). This also includes trying to argue about an action taken by a moderator. Note that there is really no such thing as "mod abuse" or "admin abuse". You are not to challenge mod/admin decisions, and they are final when made. If you really have an issue with a moderator's actions and feel that you have been kicked/banned/reset for no reason, take it up with them or another moderator in a reasonable manner. Flaming them about it will get you banned. Don't reveal token locations publically. It's also against the rules to make up your own hint and tell people that--you can repeat a hint a staff member has given, but you can't givegive your own hint. One more thing...Don't ask mods to kick you for no good reason. It's just annoying. We will ban people who request to be banned. That's it for the guide and rules. Have fun playing FFR Multiplayer!       vbmenu_register("navbar_search");* vbmenu_register("usercptools");* Search Forums Show Threads Show Posts Advanced Search Quick Links Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Open Buddy List User Control Panel Edit Signature Edit Profile Edit Options Miscellaneous Private Messages Subscribed Threads My Profile Who's Online Go to Page... |
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04-14-2007, 01:42 AM
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#2 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 367
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
congratulations on making one of the longest threads out there.
Also good job on moving all the individual info stickys into one. |
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04-14-2007, 01:57 AM
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#3 |
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Falcon Paaaauuuunch!!!!!!
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Washington
Age: 36
Posts: 6,811
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
We don't need all of the stickies as one huge sticky that's so big, no one would bother to read the entire thing.
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04-14-2007, 02:37 AM
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#4 | |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 367
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
Quote:
Doug let's move here http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ad.php?t=65153 You need more critical thinking in your life anyways. |
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04-14-2007, 06:39 AM
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#5 | ||
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FFR Player
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Scarborough, ON, Canada
Posts: 3,325
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
Even if somone allowed a sticky that contained all the stickies you would need something like... A table of contents.
Because noobs probably want specific info and not a very, very long eassy to read.
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04-14-2007, 06:55 AM
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#6 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Age: 37
Posts: 815
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
There should be a sparknotes version of this. Summarize all of that in one sentence.
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04-14-2007, 07:17 AM
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#7 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 360
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
im still confused, cant u be a little more detailed?
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 [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence..." - Vince Lombardi |
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04-14-2007, 09:46 AM
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#8 |
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Icarus Moth
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NYC
Age: 28
Posts: 2,064
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
this is to much, but he does have a table of contents. I think it was great that he did this but totally unneeded. theirs already stickies and even a video at the bottom of R1 to show you how to maneuver ffr.
Last edited by midnghtraver; 04-14-2007 at 09:49 AM.. |
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04-14-2007, 09:53 AM
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#9 |
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Hookers and Blow
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: You heard the robot. No fun.
Age: 34
Posts: 4,981
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
This has to be the hardest fish for a sticky in FFR history. At least he put some effort into it though.
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04-14-2007, 10:00 AM
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#10 |
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FFR Veteran
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Age: 33
Posts: 8,592
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
a lot of effort. too bad almost all the noobs aren't going to take the time to read all that.
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04-14-2007, 05:06 PM
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#11 |
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A car crash mind
Join Date: Aug 2005
Age: 36
Posts: 9,788
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
So can I ask, is this basically just all the stickies put into one thread? Because if that's the case then it really is a bad attempt at a sticky.
If a lot of this is original material then I'd be more impressed. So, can someone detail it to me please. |
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04-15-2007, 02:49 AM
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#12 |
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Banned
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Apex, NC
Age: 33
Posts: 2,618
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
tl;dr
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04-15-2007, 03:18 AM
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#13 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Planet vegeta
Age: 33
Posts: 531
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
Add some more information on tokens.
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  <- Support!"Dumbledore returns from the dead and declares it to be hammertime, Harry proceeds to break it down, Voldemort is unable to touch this." Evilcowgod is not amused. |
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04-15-2007, 07:59 PM
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#14 |
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Nothing can stop me now..
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: CT
Age: 33
Posts: 722
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
Haha, I read the entire thing. =/
Am I pathetic? |
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04-15-2007, 08:03 PM
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Falcon Paaaauuuunch!!!!!!
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Washington
Age: 36
Posts: 6,811
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
Quote:
I read about 5 seconds of it, then realized it was copied and pasted, then scrolled down through it really fast only to realize it was just all (well, most) of the stickies copied and pasted into one thread. Yea, it would be a great thread if it weren't just a copy and paste, but that's not the case.
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06-5-2007, 03:37 PM
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#16 |
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Digital Dancing!
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: 80 billion club, NE
Age: 31
Posts: 12,981
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
thanx for the grammar lesson. =D I need to brush up on my english.
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06-5-2007, 03:38 PM
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#17 |
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FFR's Buizel
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Connecticut
Age: 33
Posts: 3,120
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
No bumping old topics. How many times do we have to say this.
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12-28-2007, 08:11 AM
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#18 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
I know i'm an idiot... however where can I find the "Purchased items" or what ever it is. I bought 2 songs and I can't find them.
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12-28-2007, 08:23 AM
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#19 | |
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cohoooooon
Join Date: Aug 2005
Age: 30
Posts: 6,980
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
Nice bump, there.
rofl anyways, refresh and they'll be in purchased.
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12-28-2007, 12:23 PM
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#20 |
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FFR Veteran
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 2,118
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Re: Everything You Need To Know About FFR. Well...Almost Everything.
I only read it for a moment and laughed because {Rose} was a suggested song for beginners.
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