They're not dumb at all! These are exactly the kind of questions that this post is here to help answer, since all of them made me go "oh yeah, right," haha!
1. Not lame at all! Though you've pretty much got it! The way intro logs came about (since they're actually a relatively recent development!) is to give new players and characters a way to integrate with the setting and the current cast of characters. The intro log is your foot in the door, so to speak—You're building your first tidbits of CR and getting your character their introduction to the setting so that you have things to explore and use as a plotting or CR point later.
So after the intro logs are posted, the types of posts you're going to see are basically divided into two types: event posts and logs/network posts (depending on the individual game). Event posts are those logs that are posted by the mods with a bunch of prompts, and people reply to these entries, or depending on how the mods structure their game, it may just be an OOC post describing the event, and from there, people make their own logs. The second type are the more in between types of logs, where say you want for Character A to meet Character B, so you're setting up a post to do that (the Closed logs) or maybe you want to get more CR, so you have your character doing something or talking to the network, at which point anyone who's interested can reply (Open logs).
The event posts tend to be easy to jump into because they have prompts included, so unless you have more questions, I'll gloss over those, but I never realized that the open/closed posts is a bit confusing! So to focus more on them, basically the idea is that you're creating your own prompt(s) for people to reply to. So let's take Kasen for an example. I could make a log where I just want him to meet certain swords that he hadn't in the intro log, which would be a closed log, because it's catered to a particular set of people. Alternately, maybe I want him to tell everyone about the virtues of poetry, so I might want to either make a log where he's pulling random people in for demonstrations (an open log), or maybe making a network post to ask people what their favorite poems are!
However, if you don't have any ideas on how to do this yourself, that's also totally okay. To be honest, it's better to tag around, especially if you're new to a game or to the format in general! Tagging around to those open posts or network posts you see will get CR going that you might not have expected, after all, which is the big fun of RP as far as I'm concerned. Just keep an eye out for any posts or prompts that interest you, and if you're not sure about whether you can tag or not, just send the player a PM to ask! Even if it's not, usually people are super excited to play in general, so they'll probably make a prompt to accommodate you anyways because you expressed interest!
2. This is also why I'm glad I made this post, because this is one of those things that I realize is super not obvious, wow...
Basically, you have two options to consolidate keeping up with everything!
1) Reading Page. You'll hear people refer to this as their Friends List, since this is what it used to be called back on LJ, but under Read at the tabs at the top up Dreamwidth, you'll see an option for Reading Page. This will take you to a link that will show you the entries from every community you're subscribed to. So for me, since I play a lot of different characters in a lot of different games, I tend to just subscribe to the communities of my games, and this way, every time a new post comes up, I'll see it on this page. Mod journals you don't really need to track, since mods will inform you when there's a change to something in those, but you can if you want to!
2) Tracking. If you go to a community, on right right where the join/subscribe options are, you'll also see a little bell labelled "Track." Click this and you'll get a bunch of options, but generally, you'll want to pick the one that's labeled "Someone posts a new entry to [community]." If you do this, also make sure to click the box in the lefthand corner to notidy you by email if you don't really use the DW Inbox (like me). This will end you an email notification every time a post is made to the community, and it'll show you basic information like who posted it, the tags it was posted with, and the subject title, but it won't show you the contents of the entry.
I use a mixture of both personally, since one of my games (Tanagura) is locked, so I can't follow it on my friend's list/read list. I tend to prefer the Reading List version since it's an easy way to chronologically follow when posts happen, but now that I'm used to it, Tracking isn't bad either. Basically just mix and match and see which one appeals to you!
3. LMAO THIS ONE IS TOTALLY FAIR LORD... As you saw in your plurk last night, even we get lost trying to find anything, ugh... I don't actually change many settings unless I need to, so here are the only ones you'd probably ever need to worry about:
- Entry Page: Account Settings > Display > Entry Page Default: Your Journal > uncheck "Show my journal's entry pages in my chosen style instead of the site skin"
This one you've already found, but it just makes a nice, easier to read format in the default Dreamwidth skin instead of whatever your journal layout is. I forget to do this sometimes, but if I'm using my journal a lot, this is the one setting I change immediately.
- Other People's Entries: Account Settings > Display > Entry Pages: Shown to You > Click the dropdown box and set it to "Site skin"
Similar to the above, but if someone forgot to do the above themselves, then this will basically do it for you and you alone.
- HMD Settings. If you have a HMD on your journal for constructive critcism, there are a few settings that need to be changed to allow for these to work, all under Account Settings > Privacy.
1. Enable Comments — Change this to allow comments from everybody. 2. Comment Screening — Screen anonymous comments. You don't have to do this, but that's my preference. 3. IP Address Logging — Log IP addresses of nobody.
There are like three million settings for DW, but honestly, these are like the only ones I ever use... If something else comes up, it's usually a one time thing and I have to dig for it! Sometimes I even have to ask my plurk like "okay how do I do this," so really. No shame in not knowing where settings are hiding, since we don't always know either LMAO.
4. This one is a little harder to answer because I'm an oldbie, so first, a journal RP history lesson, laughs...
When I started RPing, everything was pretty much boomerang tagging, though we didn't call it that back in the day. There were some games that didn't have this expectation, but for the most part, everything was boomerang tagging in the sort of minimalistic style that we call ECATS today. If you're not familiar with that acronym, don't worry about what it stands for, but it's basically shorthand for a lot of the tags that we see at shiptrap for example (Ivan's tags are always an example of this). Dialogue-heavy, not very focused on the thoughts of the characters, more like getting a thread done. So boomerang tagging is basically how I started RPing, so the technical answer to your question is "not very long" because it was way more common back when I started out.
That said! It's a lot more selective now in the sense that the expectation (generally speaking) for boomeranging threads is that it's for threads that are either 1) time sensitive and need to get done or 2) threads you really personally enjoy. Our pace has collectively slowed a lot since I started RPing, so boomerang tagging tends to be done at a player's preference rather than as a requirement.
That said, there is a sort of unspoken etiquette with boomerang tagging that even if you are boomerang tagging a thread that fits either of those criteria, you should also be mindful of other threads too. How a player chooses to handle this depends on the individual, but my approach is to get as many tags done as I can, and then boomerang at my leisure. That way it minimizes the chances that someone is going to be hurt that I'm not paying as much attention to their thread!
So with all that in mind (and this is a weirdly long answer just because the actual answer is short, so I'm trying to explain some other stuff with it), I also don't like... consciously boomerang tag either. I don't sit down and decide to do it, since usually I'm in category 2 for those threads! And in that case, I'm just really excited about the thread in question, so I'm super enthusiastic about responding. As soon as the notif appears, I'm ready to tag again since I'm really enjoying it! And that's the basic idea of how we boomerang tag today, at least in my experience!
no subject
1. Not lame at all! Though you've pretty much got it! The way intro logs came about (since they're actually a relatively recent development!) is to give new players and characters a way to integrate with the setting and the current cast of characters. The intro log is your foot in the door, so to speak—You're building your first tidbits of CR and getting your character their introduction to the setting so that you have things to explore and use as a plotting or CR point later.
So after the intro logs are posted, the types of posts you're going to see are basically divided into two types: event posts and logs/network posts (depending on the individual game). Event posts are those logs that are posted by the mods with a bunch of prompts, and people reply to these entries, or depending on how the mods structure their game, it may just be an OOC post describing the event, and from there, people make their own logs. The second type are the more in between types of logs, where say you want for Character A to meet Character B, so you're setting up a post to do that (the Closed logs) or maybe you want to get more CR, so you have your character doing something or talking to the network, at which point anyone who's interested can reply (Open logs).
The event posts tend to be easy to jump into because they have prompts included, so unless you have more questions, I'll gloss over those, but I never realized that the open/closed posts is a bit confusing! So to focus more on them, basically the idea is that you're creating your own prompt(s) for people to reply to. So let's take Kasen for an example. I could make a log where I just want him to meet certain swords that he hadn't in the intro log, which would be a closed log, because it's catered to a particular set of people. Alternately, maybe I want him to tell everyone about the virtues of poetry, so I might want to either make a log where he's pulling random people in for demonstrations (an open log), or maybe making a network post to ask people what their favorite poems are!
However, if you don't have any ideas on how to do this yourself, that's also totally okay. To be honest, it's better to tag around, especially if you're new to a game or to the format in general! Tagging around to those open posts or network posts you see will get CR going that you might not have expected, after all, which is the big fun of RP as far as I'm concerned. Just keep an eye out for any posts or prompts that interest you, and if you're not sure about whether you can tag or not, just send the player a PM to ask! Even if it's not, usually people are super excited to play in general, so they'll probably make a prompt to accommodate you anyways because you expressed interest!
2. This is also why I'm glad I made this post, because this is one of those things that I realize is super not obvious, wow...
Basically, you have two options to consolidate keeping up with everything!
1) Reading Page. You'll hear people refer to this as their Friends List, since this is what it used to be called back on LJ, but under Read at the tabs at the top up Dreamwidth, you'll see an option for Reading Page. This will take you to a link that will show you the entries from every community you're subscribed to. So for me, since I play a lot of different characters in a lot of different games, I tend to just subscribe to the communities of my games, and this way, every time a new post comes up, I'll see it on this page. Mod journals you don't really need to track, since mods will inform you when there's a change to something in those, but you can if you want to!
2) Tracking. If you go to a community, on right right where the join/subscribe options are, you'll also see a little bell labelled "Track." Click this and you'll get a bunch of options, but generally, you'll want to pick the one that's labeled "Someone posts a new entry to [community]." If you do this, also make sure to click the box in the lefthand corner to notidy you by email if you don't really use the DW Inbox (like me). This will end you an email notification every time a post is made to the community, and it'll show you basic information like who posted it, the tags it was posted with, and the subject title, but it won't show you the contents of the entry.
I use a mixture of both personally, since one of my games (Tanagura) is locked, so I can't follow it on my friend's list/read list. I tend to prefer the Reading List version since it's an easy way to chronologically follow when posts happen, but now that I'm used to it, Tracking isn't bad either. Basically just mix and match and see which one appeals to you!
3. LMAO THIS ONE IS TOTALLY FAIR LORD... As you saw in your plurk last night, even we get lost trying to find anything, ugh... I don't actually change many settings unless I need to, so here are the only ones you'd probably ever need to worry about:
- Entry Page: Account Settings > Display > Entry Page Default: Your Journal > uncheck "Show my journal's entry pages in my chosen style instead of the site skin"
This one you've already found, but it just makes a nice, easier to read format in the default Dreamwidth skin instead of whatever your journal layout is. I forget to do this sometimes, but if I'm using my journal a lot, this is the one setting I change immediately.
- Other People's Entries: Account Settings > Display > Entry Pages: Shown to You > Click the dropdown box and set it to "Site skin"
Similar to the above, but if someone forgot to do the above themselves, then this will basically do it for you and you alone.
- HMD Settings. If you have a HMD on your journal for constructive critcism, there are a few settings that need to be changed to allow for these to work, all under Account Settings > Privacy.
1. Enable Comments — Change this to allow comments from everybody.
2. Comment Screening — Screen anonymous comments. You don't have to do this, but that's my preference.
3. IP Address Logging — Log IP addresses of nobody.
There are like three million settings for DW, but honestly, these are like the only ones I ever use... If something else comes up, it's usually a one time thing and I have to dig for it! Sometimes I even have to ask my plurk like "okay how do I do this," so really. No shame in not knowing where settings are hiding, since we don't always know either LMAO.
4. This one is a little harder to answer because I'm an oldbie, so first, a journal RP history lesson, laughs...
When I started RPing, everything was pretty much boomerang tagging, though we didn't call it that back in the day. There were some games that didn't have this expectation, but for the most part, everything was boomerang tagging in the sort of minimalistic style that we call ECATS today. If you're not familiar with that acronym, don't worry about what it stands for, but it's basically shorthand for a lot of the tags that we see at shiptrap for example (Ivan's tags are always an example of this). Dialogue-heavy, not very focused on the thoughts of the characters, more like getting a thread done. So boomerang tagging is basically how I started RPing, so the technical answer to your question is "not very long" because it was way more common back when I started out.
That said! It's a lot more selective now in the sense that the expectation (generally speaking) for boomeranging threads is that it's for threads that are either 1) time sensitive and need to get done or 2) threads you really personally enjoy. Our pace has collectively slowed a lot since I started RPing, so boomerang tagging tends to be done at a player's preference rather than as a requirement.
That said, there is a sort of unspoken etiquette with boomerang tagging that even if you are boomerang tagging a thread that fits either of those criteria, you should also be mindful of other threads too. How a player chooses to handle this depends on the individual, but my approach is to get as many tags done as I can, and then boomerang at my leisure. That way it minimizes the chances that someone is going to be hurt that I'm not paying as much attention to their thread!
So with all that in mind (and this is a weirdly long answer just because the actual answer is short, so I'm trying to explain some other stuff with it), I also don't like... consciously boomerang tag either. I don't sit down and decide to do it, since usually I'm in category 2 for those threads! And in that case, I'm just really excited about the thread in question, so I'm super enthusiastic about responding. As soon as the notif appears, I'm ready to tag again since I'm really enjoying it! And that's the basic idea of how we boomerang tag today, at least in my experience!