I wish I could draw!
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I should be Shannii’s illustrator for a QoF comic? 
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Or I could with my rad stick figures
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Yusss
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XD lmao
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I’d love that but Loogie has more than enough on his plate right now!
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Stick figures it is 
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When I finish writing it xD I need to redo the stuff I’ve got right now >.<
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God I’d love it too. If I could just stop time and work on all the art I wanna work on. What a eorld that would be
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Just adding a couple tags
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Hello! 
I’m AllyJay from the Episode forums. I’ve been there since 2015 and been using their app since its launch in 2014. I created my first topic there in 2018, basically criticizing the cliché, badly-written stories flooding the app in the trending and featured section. Turns out, I became known for my long posts, often criticizing Episode and some of its lazy writers, sometimes being quite blunt, but always respecting the users. And I enjoyed many discussions with said forum users. One of them was actually Shannii herself. We had very common opinions, sometimes on controversial topics, and were just as open and vocal about them, which is why I was shocked to see that she got banned the way she did and many others got suspended for way less while I, for god knows what reason, got off scot-free. Never got an email from the Episode team reprimanding me for my “behavior”, never was suspended, I can still freely write on the forums, on the writer’s portal, and use the app. And lord knows, I got silenced and flagged many many times. Like her, many of the people I respected and/or was friends with on the forums got their accounts suspended without reason and it infuriates me.
I quietly left the Episode forums the same year, 2018, because I was simply tired of Episode’s antics and because I had discussed with a friend how shady Episode’s TOS were in terms of their ownership of what they called “Your content” (the users’ stories). Little did we both know, just a few months later, a lot more people started picking up on that and were rightfully confused and/or outraged. For those of you who are reading this and don’t know, this is what @ShanniiWrites talks about in her “Bye Episode” post as “the big fiasco about Episode owning stories” and article 11 under the title “Did any good come from this?”. And that is the part that resonated with me the most, here’s why:
My experience as a writer on Episode is very different from Shannii’s and many others. I did write on Episode and published stories, but I never promoted them on the forums or anywhere else. I’d get a few thousand reads without any promotion and as soon as I’d see them go up the ranks, I’d quickly delete them (or lock them, since once a story is published on Episode, you can’t technically delete it).
So when I read this particular part of Shannii’s post: “Did any good come of this?”, I felt very conflicted. I’m in a way so incredibly glad that:
- I never gave Episode all the time and energy that many writers did.
- I found a way to not give them any ad revenue when it was possible to block the ads before stories in the past. I believe they’ve fixed that “issue” now.
- I deleted the app when I did.
- I left the forums when I did.
- I became aware early on about their shady TOS regarding their ownership of their users’ content
- I never ever bought any passes or gems…
But although part of why I didn’t give Episode much of my time and energy is because I found them to be a shady company, which they are, I gotta admit, the main reason really was that I was simply ashamed of my writing and didn’t want to put it out there. On Episode or anywhere else. While criticizing so many problematic authors and cliché stories, can you imagine how critical I am of myself and my own work? So I commend Shannii and all the writers who’ve put their heart and soul into their work on a platform that frankly did not and still does not deserve it one bit. You had the strength, energy, and courage to put in the work in your writing and coding despite the unfair treatment from “the big boss” and show it to the world regardless, which is something I wish I had, even after knowing how it could’ve been taken all away the way it did for Shannii. It’s inspiring and something I wish to work on from now on.
All this to say, I stand by Shannii and all the people who got wrongfully suspended, banned, silenced, flagged, etc. I just went back on the Episode forums and created a topic asking for an explanation or some clarification on why so many people got suspended and what changed in the guidelines. Even moderators got suspended indefinitely! And users are scared. Some are messaging me only privately to explain their side of events, others responding to my topic and saying “just like my response so I know you read it before I delete it” then deleting it as to not get suspended themselves, I suppose. I’m glad I got out when I did and if I get suspended (which I’m surprised hasn’t happened yet, knowing how openly critical I am of Episode on their own forums), well at least I have this new forum to post on and talk about things that actually revolve more around creative writing and not just Episode.
You probably don’t remember me, @ShanniiWrites, but I remember you and many other amazing writers from there. I support you and I hope you’re doing ok
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Hey Ally! Sorry for my late reply! There’s been a lot going on with the Forums! I’m having some problems at home and COVID has struck!
Of course I remember you! I remember that we would rant on each other’s threads about crappy cliche stories and I remember you being supportive of my attempts to help people!
I’m really glad that you’re here! It’s amazing to see you again and I am so glad that you read my blog post on what happened! You were clever not to give Episode a single dollar of your money! You saw what it took a lot of us a long time to see.
The Episode Forums have become a police state, in my opinion, and it’s such a shame. There is so much potential in the app and I wish that they would realise that and harness the potential that so many people who were banned have. I’m not surprised that people are passing around information there like it’s on the black market. That’s the kinda oppressive atmosphere that they created and – I believe – they encourage to fester.
I hope we can get your awesome insight here! I know you’ve distanced yourself from the Epsiode community, but maybe we can be a new home for you?
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Summary
I can’t believe how toxic Episode has been to you, @ShanniiWrites and other forums users! 
I never realized how bad they truly are when it comes to their interaction with you guys, and I can’t help but feel bad for loving the app! I mean, yeah, I still hate the gem choices and problematic cliche stories that are on there, but this level of badness is just too much! I can’t say that I’ve been suspended or banned once, but I’ve been flagged once for “spamming/advertising” (even though I have no idea how sharing a chapter of a non-Episode story I wrote is an ad, but at the same time I do), and I feel awful. And I’m also concerned on what this means if I published my high school story on the app. Will people not read because they’ll assume it’s a cliche (which it kind of is but has a few twists and turn here)? Will Episode force me to give away my story so they can ruin it and own it for themselves? What do I do? Should I delete the app because of how shady and corrupt Episode truly is? (Sorry, this message was supposed to be my condolences for Shannii and many other users I recognize from the forums).
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The Forum God has spoken! Shannii~ It’s so good to see you again too! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw you and all my friends from there suspended indefinitely. And don’t you worry about the “late reply”, I’m the queen of those, I shall never blame anyone for replying late to me of all people.
I’m so sorry to hear about those home problems and COVID, please remember always to take good care of yourself and take a breather when possible and needed. I’m always just a PM away, just so you know~ (on this forum obviously, screw the other one -brrrr-)
Ah, the good ol’ days… Our exchanges and your support really meant a lot, especially on threads where we seemed to be the only ones bringing up good points and arguing in good faith with some users. Speaking of, I tried doing just that very recently on the Epi forums and my lord…! I did not expect the attacks and the Episode yes-men to gaslight me as hard as they did. Oh, and the disrespect they have for the people who got suspended, spreading absolute lies about the situation…! UGH! Again, people who supported what I had to say only messaged me privately in support and didn’t say a thing on the thread in question, which isn’t even about suspension this time. And my thread asking for an explanation as to what happened: yeah, got a polite but pretty ominous message to “please do not make any further content of this kind” after it got taken down and unlisted. Yikes. So yes, I know exactly what you mean about “the oppressive atmosphere”.
I might have seen it and gotten out early, but probably not early enough. And it was quite naïve of me to go back and think that it would be the same.
To call my insight “awesome” is a major overstatement but I thank you so much for calling it so and I will definitely come to this forum from now on. You’re amazing for creating it and I can see it has such a friendly community and overall vibe that I didn’t realize I was missing this much~
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Hey Dramatic~
You do not have to feel bad for loving the app. As Shannii said, there is so much potential in it. The people at the top just won’t harness it and will silence anyone who is critical of them and their decisions. If you know where to find the hidden gems, the app can be truly great, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for loving it.
You really shouldn’t worry about the reason you got flagged. We’ve all gotten flagged for no reason. People will just flag your post because they don’t like it. I barely posted anything on there since I went back and already got flagged for being “inappropriate”. And when you look at the post in question and the thread it’s on, it’s pretty ironic 
If you’d like my honest opinion, I would personally write anywhere else instead of Episode, but I have my reasons and I just don’t want them making money off my work. Sure, the graphics and animations are theirs, but the story and all the time and energy that you put in it is yours, therefore you choose what to do with it and who gets to benefit from it. Again though, do not feel guilty for using Episode or writing on Episode. That is your choice and there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. You’re not hurting anybody and I support you.
Concerning their TOS, I’m sorry that I cannot tell you for sure what could happen to your content. They know how to hide their intentions behind bureaucratic legal jargon, so it’s really just a blur for most people. The gist of it is that they technically own part of it but aren’t allowed to sell it for certain things, which they carefully list in their TOS. But who knows, who’s going to stop them if they do? What if they modify your story just enough so that they can claim it for themselves and do whatever they want with it while legally getting away with it? I would say, don’t take that risk, it’s really not worth it in my personal, humble opinion. But I’m also a chicken, so… You’re free to take that risk, and if they dare use your content in a way that you did not give informed consent to, at least we’ll be here to support you and help you if we can.
tl;dr: Don’t feel guilty, the fact that you like the good parts of Episode isn’t something anyone should hold against you. Don’t be scared, you are free to choose where you publish/upload your story and I’m sure many people in the forums will be happy to help and support you. And in the end, you can put all those worries aside for now and focus on your writing. It’s best to start publishing/coding/etc when you’ve got a finished script anyway. In the meantime, you can share with us what you’ve got and get all the help you need with writing in Shannii’s forums~ That’s what it’s for! Aside from pure fun, of course.
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Sorry for the late response, my phone would not tell me that you responded. But thanks, I needed to hear that. And I’m glad you’re supporting the fact that I still want to write my story on there! 
And I’ll be sure to share anything for my story that I need help with, thank you!
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Hey @Bloggers and @Episodians, were you here when Episode banned Shannii? Do some of you not know about it? Take a read of this and tell me what you think!
Remember that if you really enjoyed this blog, feel free to recommend it (it’s similar to liking it). This will help with it being higher in the results of search engines too.
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i knew she like stopped the episode stuff but iaint kno she got bsnned
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Yeah, there are a couple threads on here where she talks about it.
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