Long Time No Post

It has been awhile, indeed! I have fallen behind with the riggers of life, college, work and more- thought that is not to insinuate I have much of a social life! Just been a busy duck of late (not that I am a duck, either).

Vividus is still trucking along, but as the benchmark to one year inches closer, so does my desire to start crafting Vividus into the golden community which I envision it to be.

The overall focus of our forum is to create a connective community for members to branch out and connect with others, share their creative works, inspire others and in turn get inspiration from others, too.

This blog post won't be long because what I am really aiming to do is start generating the name of Vividus on the web once more.

I'm not interested in creating a forum with masses of people, I am interested in creating a community of people with like interests.

So the question is, do you want to be part of our creative community?

Regards,
Sk8

Check us out at Vividus Connect,
http://vividusconnect.com/

Short Stories Are Coming!

Introducing the Inagural Vividus Short Story Contest!

Many of us have been members of forums which have had a short story contest. Vividus has not had one yet. Until now.

As the man who has died over 25 times said, short stories are coming! In this month of September, we are going to be holding our very first short story contest over a five week period! Interested? Then keep reading!

Who can participate? All members of Vividus are eligible! So get writing! Oh, and did we mention writing isn't the only way you'll be participating? *foreshadowing*


When is it? A thread titled September Short Story Contest Submissions will be provided in the short story section starting September 2nd. This thread will be open until 11:59pm Central Time in the US on September 23rd, after which the thread will be closed and no more submissions will be taken.


How will the winner be selected? This is where you are able to participate in addition to writing. You, the Vividus Community, are going to play a big role in helping us determine our winner!

When submissions end, a discussion thread will appear with a poll listing all of the submitted stories. You guys will then be given an entire week to discuss and vote on the stories you like and dislike. Keep in mind people can see who you voted for .

After a week, the polls will then close. The three stories with the most votes will move on to the fifth and final week of the short story contest, where the staff will discuss behind the scenes not only who they think has the winning story, but break down the things they think work in these three displays of literary art. At a later date, an announcement will be made saying the order of our top three, along with a breakdown of their stories in which other members can learn from as well!

If the staff determines the winner between the final three, can they write stories too? For this contest, the Vividus staff can submit stories. However, if they make the final three, they will not be included in the deliberation process.

What is the prize? Here at Vividus, we have to work on college budgets.

1st: Story featured in the winner's announcement, custom title, story linked into select staff's signatures.
2nd+3rd: Story featured in the winner's announcement.

If I do not place, will I get feedback on my work? Due to our limited time, we will only be doing a breakdown of our top three. This is why when we are doing our examination of the top three stories, we will do our best to look for things which can apply not just to our winners, but to everyone. But you are more than welcome to post your story in the short story section after the contest so that you can get more feedback on it. In addition, FTAK has been kind enough to offer to give feedback on your stories if you ask him nicely.

Alright, I want to get going! What are the rules? What is the theme?! Hey now, where did I say there was going to be a theme?! There is none. You can write about love, life, death, zombies, any theme you want, so long as your follow these two rules.

1. Your story does not exceed 3000 words.
2. Your story must have one of your characters commit an action that leads to their death. This moment can be a huge event or small event in the story, or even just explained and be off screen. Just make sure it's in there! If you need inspiration, I heard Sean Bean's mastered this art quite well .

If you have any questions or have one that wasn't answered, feel free to ask in this thread. Otherwise, get writing! Good luck and have fun!

Seeking RP-ers!

Dracorex, on 07 June 2012 - 07:01 PM, said:
As everyone has no doubt noticed, the Role-Playing Games section is becoming extremely lively, with seven games in the running, old faces showing up once more, and people waiting on inspiration for their character sheets (myself included). 

This is all very well and good, but we wouldn’t want to bite off more than we can chew, do we? It would be quite sad if anyone had a shiny new idea they wanted to share, but it doesn’t take off due to other RPers being busy with already established RPGS. 

So, Ever and I would like to ask all budding game masters not to start any new RPGs for now .
We will notify everyone when we think the danger of over-saturation is past, which will probably be when the current RPGs have stabilised, and new members make their presence known in the section. 

Keep having fun, people ^__^.

Now allow me to add to what Rinn has stated. I will not lie, I am always a proud and boisterous proponent of the RPG Section, I was on Be Creative and Hortorian and I still am for Vivi. I’ve text-based role played for the past seven years, its what got me into foruming and its what kept my interest in the net. Its also, vicariously, the reason why I’m now the owner and admin of this forum. You see, I originally joined Be Creative because I wanted to better my writing, but in actuality I had been eye balling their RPG Section.

 The poor thing was so dead and pathetic and … Sad. So before I knew it I caught myself writing up a guide, then helping, then I was promoted to RPG Moderator and totally energized the section.

 I’m proud of the forumers that have come out of that project, and I’m proud of the strong unit of RPG Community BC, HF and VC have maintained. I’d like to see it continue to grow. I’m 100% behind this initiative, I know how RPGs cycle, how they work, how they can lose steam so quickly, and one of the causes is lost interest when something else, something new comes about.  We have AWEsome games in the work at present, let’s focus on continuing to build the section, promote the close-knit community we have, and continue having fun.

Let’s either bring in our fellow rp-ing pals, or perhaps I can persuade some of you non rp-ers to take up the art. I’d gladly make the argument for taking it up, I’d love to talk to anyone one-on-one or in this thread to persuade you to join an RPG, so just ask.

Rambling aside, this initiative to prevent further saturation is actively in place, so if you’ve any questions feel free to ask. As you’ll note, I’m actively spreading the word.

 Check out Vividus Connect today!

AFB Is Back!

AFB What?

All Forum Battle, that's what

For the scant few of us who hail from Be Creative will remember this tricky battle of creativity well, and for those of you who are second generation from Hortorian will likely remember the version of the AFB we use now. But, for those of you who are new to our community all me to explain. This forum, relatively speaking, has a long history. Originally Be Creative was created by Fiachra (DarkRaven) and ran a good little stint until it unfortunately died, however rallying his spirits and a new troop Fiachra opened another forum, one most of you are familiar with, Hortorian. Now Hortorian lasted for over a year, it built a strong establishment for its particular niche, but unfortunately was laid to rest last summer.

However, what both of these forums had in common was the AFB. What this was comprised of, originally, two major teams: Homer's Legion (led by Angelic Night) and the Opposition (led by Matty Lee). Through their efforts the AFB was formed, yet it died with Be Creative. With Hortorian's creation many members continued to inquire of the staff if they would be bringing the AFB back, and through the efforts, and contributions, of Jsquared, Kari and myself it was retooled and reintroduced.


Now, of course, there are surely those of you that are new to our community and never had the pleasure of participating on the former sites, Be Creative or Hortorian. AFB stands for All Forum Battle and initially was a forum wide contest between the two teams - Homer’s Legion and the Opposition. However, this division of rank was restrictive because it prevented members from challenging their own teammates, and ultimately prevented them from truly testing their creative ability.

The goal of the AFB is to provide a productive and encouraging environment of what some call an ultimate Creative Contest - participants are able to join up in the AFB and choose their own battle rank which decides what contests they can participate in. You have the following Ranks to choose from:

Artillery (The artists)
Infantry (The writers)
Magicians (The poets and lyrical sorts)
Commanders (Those who dabble in the arts, writing, and poetry/lyrical works)


Members choose their rank and then issue challenges to participating members, its quite fun. The AFB will be coming out shortly, and because many maybe unfamiliar with the AFB registration and the rules will be opened before the official launch of the contest to allow for members to browse though the rules and guidelines and ask questions beforehand.

The AFB will officially launch June 25th to July 25th, registration shall open June 22. Questions? Feel free to ask, comment or the like!


Soon the creative battles shall begin, and the stakes will be raised.

So come check us out at Vividus Connect today, [Coming Soon] - The AFB

Two Weeks and a Few Days! What's Happening Now.

Hello there wonderful, lurking ladies and gents! More news on Vividus Connect here today! We are just barely past the two week mark of being open with a total of sixty members, verging on three thousand posts and buzzing activity in areas of the forum! The RPG Section is hot afoot, with seven active games currently going, not to mention great activity abuzz in our Battle Literature arena in Essays & Short Stories located in the Writing Section. So, what's this all mean?


Encouragement! I encourage you to check out the forums today! Writing, art, discussion and more, Vividus has it!

I know this is a little bit shorter of a post than previous ones, but sometimes short and sweet are best because they get to the point. So, yes, come check us out, ^^

Come visit us at Vividus Connect today, ^^

What's Going On At Vivi!

So What's New?

Good question

Vividus is currently booming, we've over fifty members and surpassed two thousand posts, we're on the up and up! Anyway, RPGs are getting momentum and active, individuals are posting their creative works up (writing and art), and not to mention discussion is going good on the level of discussion be it art related, writing related, or just general discussion. We're open and active, our community is bustling, and we're looking for new members to join the community as always, =] 

Into video games? Come check out Vividus. Television, movies, manga or comics and the like? Come to Vividus, we do have discussion topics for a reason. HOWEVER! We also want to encourage you to post up and pursue your own creative talents and avenues - join up today and check out art work and written pieces already posted, browse about and comment. 

So. What's new? Everything is new, so come check out Vividus Connect today!

Click here to visit Vividus Connect Forums, =] 

So What's This All About: The Explanation

Vividus

What's it all about?

Fair question, some random blog on the internet pops up detailing about the unveiling and reveal of some random forum on the internet ... so how does that impact you random viewers? Easy. Vividus is Latin that has been butchered up a bit, it means something along the lines of life/living, rather fitting for a forum focused around the promotion of creativity. 

We as humans live life either vicariously or in some sort of orderly fashion. Life is chaotic, its a mess, yet we all seem to live through it in some way or other. We find methods of expression, either through writing, the arts or intellectual, or otherwise physical, pursuits in life. We have hobbies and passions, things we tinker with in our spare time or wholly devote ourselves too, and that's what Vividus is focused on. 

If any of you randomly browsing this recalls a young writers from which extinguished its existence almost a year ago by the name of "Hortorian - A Young Writers' Forum", then you may vaguely know me. I'm former head administrator Sk8, and I'm here heralding the news of its predecessor - Vividus Connect. I have a goal, an ambition - a vague semblance of a dream. I want to great an online creative networking system for artists and writers a like, for musicians and debaters and online role players. A diversified, strong knitted online community that is welcoming and fun for all as well as pushing in means of progressive advancement and development of our creative members. 

Now, everyone dreams big - or at least secretly dreams big, but my bigger picture is currently set on the side. I want Vividus Connect to be just that - a connecting point for the creative, but first I want to focus on our development and growth as a community. Even so, I'll still be pushing our forum name and scattering it throughout the internet to gain some interest/familiarity on the net. 

But I'm rambling. 

Vividus is composed of four primary sections - Writing, Arts, Role Playing and General Discussion. The fifth section is the informational hub of the boards, dealing with announcements, member introductions and tech support. But allow me to give you a blip on the overall, my next update will be focusing on small details about each section and their personal attractions: 

Writing Section - An area on the forums for novellas, short stories, essays, poetry and lyrics - its also home to a section for Battle Literature where members can go head to head against other members to test their literary prowess, lastly the section holds a discussion forum for all writing-related discussion. The latter of the   areas also is for brainstorming, character development, plot direction, diction and more. 

Arts Section - Digital, traditional, photography and graphics are housed here in, we even have a section dedicated to Music within the art section. Anything expressively creative in other mediums outside of written words go herein. 

Role Playing - the art of text-based role playing, think of written video games interacting with other characters .. Very fun. Very interactive. Very helpful for individuals wanting to practice some of their skills as a writer ... or even text-based D&Der. 

Lastly, General Discussion - Yes, I know, this is actually titled "Off-Topic", but I have to admit that its topics in general ranging from diversified discussion topics. Discussions can get interesting, therefore I cannot count out Off-Topic as uncreative because there is certainly creative discussions that go on here. 

So that's the wrap, the little promotional bit this round ... I'll be back with more, probably tomorrow ... Or maybe the next day. Meh kitteh is now sleeping on my hands, so tis my que to stop blogging and feed her. 

Oh! Right, check out the forums today, Vividus Connect! 

-Sk8 out. 

Welcome: The Great Reveal!

Its Here!

The wait is over

You have all been patiently waiting for the release of what was promised to succeed Hortorian, and the wait has been long and tiring wait, but the time has finally come. The reveal of Vividus Connect is here today this twenty-first of May! We've progressively been working behind the scenes, collaborating and discussing not only the direction we want to go with Vividus, but also our aims and goals. Starting with grassroots cultivation of our community, we aim to promote the creative growth and ambitions of artists and writers.

Forged with the prospective hope of promoting artistic flourishing, the forum has been under development. Slowly coming together and forming its territory in a hope of retaining the spirit of Hortorian, but at the same time becoming something wholly its own. Much hope has been held for this new forum, and much anticipation. Anxiousness has edged away and given way to expectations and excitement for the launch, and the time has finally come. I thank you for your continued patience, but the wait has finally ended. Finally, the pendulum is swinging once more.

That being said, I welcome you to Vividus Connect! Competitions and more are soon to come, welcome because the forums are finally open for business. And, since its open for business, allow me to explain the format of the forum:

You can see the basic format is similar to Hortorian, but different. We've the Vividus Forums, basic layout of most forums informational hub. Following that we've the Writing Section, Arts Section, RPG Section and finally Off-Topic.
We have some differences, you'll note within the Arts Section the mots notable changes with an array of options available. Showcases, requests, contests and more, not to mention an entire forum dedicated to music within.

However, you'll also note some changes within the Writing Section. Fiction encompasses all longer works, twenty pages or more, whereas Essays & Shorts cover any written works twenty pages or less.
Within Essays & Short Stories is also a new option for Battle Literature, a training/practice grounds for the AFB or general brush up of your literary skills.

Note that Vividus does not have an advertising forum, this is true, but we're not anticompetitive or the like. A thread in General Discussion is dedicated to hyping, discussing and promoting your new found forums, links, blogs and the like. Our helpful mascot, Gryffin, has obliged us with posting it up.

Speaking of which! You'll notice the whole of Tech Support is posted up by Gryffin, Vividus' forum mascot and helpful companion. Speaking of Tech Support, you'll note member's are unable to create threads, however, all threads are postable and meant to be so in order to maintain conciseness of support, help and answers.

Last, but not least, a wonderful introduction to Vividus' staff!

At the lead we've the owner/administrator, Sk8 ... which happens to be me. Moderators of the Writing Section include Silver Random and Ananda, Arts Section is covered by Thor and Snoop, RPG Section is the ever lovely duo of ladies Ever and Dracorex, and the Off-Topic is commanded by our diligent general, General Assembly.

Thanks and honorable mentions of assistance for formatting the forum goes to Snivelili and Joshua (Pompoon/Josh) for their contributions to the Art's Section, Kari, Kris, Riss, Regitnui, Mithiri, Loki and Fiachra - not to mention all of you who have been patiently waiting for the forums to open. Including Day Star, for her continued interest, the whole of IF's Staff (you know who you are), Jared (Jsquared) and of course Matty Lee. Not to mention Tyler and Ada for their continued support via Facebook, Blair, Aria, Michelle, and everyone. You know who you are, and you have my utter and complete thanks.

Not to mention I'd love to thank my girlfriend, Stormfire, for keeping me in line, so on behalf of the staff, and Vividus, I welcome you (again) to the forums and thank you. Go forth and prosper in your respective creative areas, ^^


So come visit us at Vividus Connect today!