Well, this will probably be the -shortest- FAQ/rules on the Forum.

First off, I'd like to point you in the direction of the Marine Backstory. It's the background for part of the universe in which NS exists.

For more background and setting, visit Flayra's Personal Site.  Look around the site and read all the news posted.  There's a wealth of information and overall ambience to draw from in writing your stories.

If you want to go into more detail with the TSA Marines, read up on US Marine speak on the Ready Room here.

Links to stories can be posted here. We -highly- recommend that your story be on a webpage, and you link to it from there, rather than uploading a zip or doc or txt with the story in it. People tend to read the ones in webpages a lot more often than files they have to download.

Please do -not- post stories longer than half a page as a post! Link to them, or upload them as a file, but don't put the story in the body of your message!

Also, if you want your story announced on The Hive a community resource for fan-created works, send a link (not the story itself, JUST a link) to hivefiction@readyroom.org.

Also, if you are replying to a story, and you're about to mention an event that occurs within the story, please put a line similar to '***SPOILER***' at the very top of your post.

Thank you everyone! And remember, constructive criticism is good. Destructive or pointless criticism will get your post fed to Bob, and possibly get your -account- fed to Bob as well. All depending on how ugly you get. (Bob likes eating ugly things. Bob likes eating pretty things. Bob likes eating. Call Bob a goat though, and you're liable to get eaten.)

One more thing, don't get discouraged if people don't reply or comment on your story.  You should only ever stop writing if you don't want to write any more.  Even if no one says anything, there's still probably people reading your story.  Also, some people only have time to read the fan fic every couple of weeks.  Keep that in mind.

--Moleculor, Spyder Monkey, Rob6264, Comprox and Greedo386, your NS Forum Moderators