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What is FoldingStory™?

FoldingStory™ is a game in which players write one line of a story, fold the paper, and pass it to the next person. Write. Fold. Pass.™ It’s as simple as that.

What are those words on the top of the page?

Start: Write the first line of a new story
Add: Add a line to a current story
Read: Read all the finished stories

Tips for Getting Started

Leave your lines open ended (“He opened the box to find”) to help the next person more easily pick up where you left off.
You only have 180 characters, so you have to be succinct.
You only have four minutes to write a line, so you also have to be fast.
You only get one line per story, so make it count.
If you see a line you like, click on it right away before someone else does. Only one person at a time can add to each story.
Add a few elements from the previous fold to keep the story on track.
You can read other finished stories and vote on lines you like. Write something compelling and perhaps you’ll get on the leaderboard!

What does the yellow bar mean?

This bar shows the progress of a story. Check up on the progress of stories you’ve started or joined, or see which stories you better add to before they’re finished!

Why can’t I see all the open stories on the “Add” page?

You will only see stories that you are still able to fold. All previous stories that you’ve folded are accessible via your user home page or Profile page.

What is the deal with following and followers?

Following another user allows you to quickly and easily keep track of that user’s folds. When you click the “Following” tab on the Add page, the list of stories will be filtered to show only folds by those users you are currently following. On your Profile page you can view the people you are following as well as your followers (users who have chosen to follow you) by clicking the corresponding number in the sidebar.

How do I follow another user?

There are two ways to follow another user:

Go to the user’s Profile page, click the “Follow” button in the upper right-hand corner; or
Go to any fold the user has written in a finished story, mouse over the line, and then click the “Follow” link that appears below the line.

How do I stop following another user?

There are three ways to stop following another user:

Go to your Profile page, click the “Following” tab, and then click the “unfollow” link next to the person’s username;
Go to the user’s Profile page, click Unfollow in the top left;
Go to any fold the user has written in a finished story, and then click the “Unfollow” link next to their name

How do I get on the leaderboard?

By folding great lines, of course! The users with the highest scores will appear on the leaderboard.

What is my score?

It is the sum of the votes for every line you’ve folded in finished stories.

How does scoring work?

Every line in a finished story has a score, which appears on the right of the fold text. If you see a line that you like, give the author a boost by clicking the up arrow that appears to the right of the fold. The score is the sum of everyone’s votes for that line. A few notes:

You must be logged in to vote.
You can’t vote on a line that you wrote.
If you’ve already voted on a line, you can change your vote by clicking the arrow again.

How is the score of a story determined?

A story’s score is calculated based on the scores of all of its lines and the length of the story. The shorter the story, the more each line’s score affects the total. For example, each vote on a ten-line story contributes one point to the story’s score, while each vote on a fifty-line story contributes only one-fifth of a point, since that story is five times as long. Why so complicated? This gives an equal chance to stories of different lengths. Otherwise, the longer stories would have all the high scores! Still looking for some actual math? Here you go:

(story score) = 10 × ( Σ (line score) ) ÷ (story length)

What if I see a fold that violates the Terms of Service or Rules?

FoldingStory is community moderated. There is a flagging system that allows members to identify folds that violate the Terms of Service or Rules. After a fold has been flagged a sufficient number of times, the entire story will be temporarily removed and the fold reviewed for potential violations. Once any violations have been addressed, the story will be made available again. How do I flag a line? 