#plotfactory

[little-shards-of-a-star]

The Plot at Plot Factory

I know a lot of people on Tumblr are closet writers and I know we all use a plethora of avenues and programs and spare napkins to write our stories but like, do any of you guys use PlotFactory? Better yet, have any of you used it recently? TLDR: Domain expired on Jan. 9th and so it has no host. So now its near impossible to access. Note that I said near impossible. A wonderful user on the discord server put together a fix and if you join “The Plot Thickens” Discord server, the community is slowly migrating there to get help on recovery of their works and what to do next. The community is AMAZING, so if you used PlotFactory and are now lost, we got you. That being said, I’m hella going to detail this whole experience here for anyone interested in the story or the whatever-loving-fuck happened. Because this has been a wild ride from start to middle and we’re not even at the finish line yet. Let me tell you guys a TALE in the making. So bare with me as I put this shit together.

[keebwee]

anyone that uses plotfactory know whats up with it rn?? its been down all day

[funke3]

I saw one note goal thing with book writing and remembered I need to get out of the planning stage of mine so let's do it

5 notes I'll get working on the book

10 notes flesh out characters

25 notes post updates

50 notes. write 10 pages (at 1 rn 😭)

100 notes I'll subscribe to plotfactory premium

250 notes post teaser of book

I'm posting updates RN guys ty for 30 notes in 2 hours 🤯

[alittledizzy]

https://www.tumblr.com/alittledizzy/728824523586240512/hey-there-i-loveddddd-burn-bright-god-it-was-so?source=share you didn't use plotfactory too did you? Because I used that until this year when the guy who owned it ended up in jail and the site shut down after there was no one to renew the site licence. It then reopened two months later (no idea if it's still open or gone again, didn't trust my writing not to disappear along with it again). I started to use campfire which I like much more.

Not the site I used, but that sounds WILD??

I used a site called Draftin (I guess it was just called Draft but the websit was Draftin) and the guy that ran it apparently just was tired of funding it and wanted to put his money toward other projects. ;_;

[kidsofdlsuvillage]

plotfactory fiction writing school campus%

[inscrutable-shadow]

(It has come to my attention that this post sat in the drafts instead of getting posted on Friday, whoops.)

Another text post from me, a writer, who is also not very creative. 

Strengths and strategies imply that I’m not just flinging letters onto a screen and hoping something looks nice. I would say I’m relatively adept at worldbuilding, the science behind my writing is usually rock solid (except for handwaving that magic exists and is a thing that works). My sentence structure is usually clear, I’ve never had an issue with grammar or punctuation, and my vocabulary is not as large as it used to be.

I don’t really listen to music or do anything special while writing unless it’s fanfiction, then I might use the soundtrack to the movie/show/game to write by. My process is mostly just watching movies in my head and writing down what happens.

I suppose this is a good opportunity to plug the writing software I use, PlotFactory. It’s free to use, though it has subscription tiers, and works for me better than any other software I’ve tried (including Scrivener). My stories are organized, next to their outlines/other planning materials, the interface is clean, and it’s easy to share work from (plus they have a feature where you can get an audio transcription of your work to listen to for flow). Try it out if it interests you! They also have a discord server with a lovely writing community.

[lordgriandreamslayer]

I’m having technical FUCKING difficulties with the stageplay. god is doing his all to stop me from completing this beast but i defy him. 

[archosauriansworld]

Here’s chapter 2 of GiantsVerse!

Again, the chapter can be found on Plotfactory here: 

https://plotfactory.com/stories/preview/917d936b-98cb-4d0e-9136-8679a04fc6d3   

      Within minutes of getting back Elsa had the man in the castle’s infirmary. A tall, wiry figure entered the room, upon hearing his footsteps Elsa turned to face him, “Dr. Noctus..”

            “Your Majesty,” he said with a small bow before going to the injured man’s side, “What happened here?”             “I-I don’t know,” Elsa lied. “I was taking a stroll and I came across him. He’s hurt badly. It looks like he was attacked by something.”             “Well, luckily these wounds don’t look too deep, but.. they’re deep enough that they’ll scar,” Noctus said turning to Elsa.“I’ll get to work immediately, I brought some supplies which should suffice. I will say you did a marvelous job on sealing his wounds with your powers Your Majesty, otherwise he’d likely be dead by now..”             As she listened, Elsa couldn’t take her eyes off of the shapeshifter. He was alive and had a high chance of surviving, but she also knew she was the reason he was in such a critical condition. She wrapped her arms around herself. Why had he attacked her? What could he have gained? Where was he from? She needed him to survive in order to receive such answers. Finally, she turned to the doctor. ”Thank you,“ she said. Her eyes darted back to the man. "Please, do what you can.”             Noctus nodded in return. “I shall do my best. The good thing is that he’s lost so much blood he likely won’t feel much if anything at all while I’m patching him up,” he said as he turned to pull some supplies out of his case.             Elsa gave a small nod and turned to leave him to his work. However she paused in the doorway. “Please inform me once he has woken, I’d like to speak with him,” she said as she looked over her shoulder.Looking back, he gave a smile.             “Of course Your Majesty. It may be a few hours until he’s conscious again, if not tomorrow.”            Elsa nodded and silently made her way out, shutting the door behind her. She closed her eyes and sighed, resting her back against the wall. A few moments later she retired to her private chambers to rest.                                                     ————

            A few hours later, Elsa was pacing the expanse of her quarters, waiting to hear from Noctus. A small knock caught her attention, looking back she heard the doctor’s voice from the other side of the door.

            “Your Majesty?”

            Elsa halted her steps and turned toward the door, “Come in.”

            Noctus entered the room, “Well, he’ll likely be bed-bound for the next several weeks but I expect him to make a full recovery. I’d recommend keeping him hydrated for the next week or so, he lost a fair amount of blood. There’s also a low chance of his stitches accidentally opening if he moves too much, so there’s that to keep an eye on as well.”

            Elsa listened intently and when he was finished, she gave a small nod. Though she wrung her hands and chewed on her bottom lip. The Queen sighed in relief and nodded again. “Thank you,” she said, a small smile gracing her features. “Is that all?”

            Noctus paused, “Well, I did notice some… intriguing things about your guest. It seems this isn’t the first time he’s been in this type of situation. His entire abdomen is well… for a lack of better words, covered in older scars, most are old and obviously done by the claws of some sort of animal. However he also has some scars that were done by bullets. Again, they’re fairly old, but I’d keep an eye out, if there were attempts on his life out near where you found him, they may follow him here.”

            Elsa frowned at this. She should have expected as much when she brought him back to Arendelle. Obviously he possessed some sort of magic that allowed him to shapeshift, and Elsa knew best how magic always comes with a price. “Very well,” she said with a sigh. Her composure fell with her weariness. “I’ll increase the guards at each post and inform the general to take precautions.”

            Noctus gave a small nod. “Alright then, you look like you’ve had a long day, perhaps you should get some rest,” he said with a small chuckle before turning to leave. “Have a good day Your Majesty, and if anything happens with him, please let me know.”

Elsa nodded. “Thank you doctor,” she said as she showed him out. Watching him leave for a brief moment before deciding to head back to the infirmary to check on the shapeshifter.

Upon entering she could tell he was still unconscious, however his skin had already regained some color and his breathing had become more stable. Noctus had been able to clean the blood from around his wounds, which despite being stitched up gave the area a slight pink tinge to the surrounding skin. However the myriad of scars that adorned his abdomen were almost pale, a stark contrast against his olive skin.

            The queen stood by his bedside and observed him for a few moments. The wounds she had inflicted on him seemed to glare at her, forcing her to shift her gaze to the floor. To her it didn’t matter that it was in self defense, she still hurt him. Her powers were and always will be dangerous. She wondered if she would forgive herself once he awoke.

            A small grumble escaped his lips as he started to stir. Slowly his eyes opened before he attempted to sit up, however as soon as he put pressure against his arm, a sharp snarl of pain escaped his lips. Despite this he still managed to sit up, winded from the ordeal he then looked around the room before setting his gaze on Elsa. His gaze wasn’t cold, it was something much more primal. “Where the hell am I,” he growled.

               Elsa started when he began to stir. She lifted her hands as if to steady him, but didn’t touch him. “In Arendelle,” she answered, her voice surprisingly calm. “You need to relax, you’re hurt. If you move too much you may open your stitches,” she urged.

              He rolled his eyes, “I’ve had worse..” he growled before glaring back at her, “Why do you care”

              Elsa frowned and pursed her lips. “I’m not allowed to care about the well-being of others?”

              His eyes narrowed, pupils turning to slits. “Why would you? I attacked you after all, why not finish me when you had the chance?”

              She lowered her arms. Her eyes meeting his, unwavering. “And what would I gain from killing you?”

              “A sabertooth skin rug perhaps?”

              Elsa crossed her arms and raised a brow, hardly amused. “Hm, I’m starting to think my garden needs a nice sabertooth ice statue. Don’t you think?”

              He rolled his eyes, unamused by her comment.“Be glad your cryomancy caught me off guard.”

              “Cryomancy?” she repeated. Elsa then shook her head and took a step closer to the bed. “And your attack caught me off guard.”

              A small snort escaped him, “That was the idea.. you take prey by surprise and they don’t know what hit them. If you’re lucky you can hide the body before scavengers come prowling around.”

              Elsa wrinkled her nose. “You were going to eat me?”

              “I view humans as a last resort. Too bitter. Besides, never had the chance and never will. I’ve heard the stories of what people do to ‘problem animals’, and it never ends well.”

              “Regardless,” she sighed, massaging her temple to fend of an oncoming headache. “You’re here because I don’t kill, much less want to harm a creature, and seeing as it’s my fault you almost died, you’re staying in Arendelle until you heal enough that the doctor feels comfortable in releasing you.”

              He rolled his eyes and gave a small snort of irritation before looking over to the window. From here, it was easy to tell how small the village was. Had he passed through here before? If he had, it would’ve been because he was just passing through.

              Elsa shifted on her feet uncomfortably at his silence. The snort was the only sound she could go off of that he had heard. Yet, she didn’t trust him to stay bedridden. The queen had to bet the moment she walked out, he would be gone by morning. “Is that understood?” she asked, fixing him with a hard glare; as if daring him to defy her.

              He looked back, obviously pissed, “Whatever you say blondie,” he grumbled before looking back out. He knew in his current state he wouldn’t be able to make an escape, but perhaps within the week he could sneak back out to the wild. After all, he’d been able to escape from Dira, a kingdom at least twice as large as here, how hard could it be?

              Elsa’s eyebrow twitched, her mouth opening and closing as if to retort, but the words were lost on the tip of her tongue. She could have sworn she saw red in that moment. “Blondie?” She sputtered, clearly offended. Her blue eyes flashed, following his gaze. “Don’t call me that,” she growled. “And don’t even think about any escape attempts, I have guards posted all over the castle. Inside and out.”

              He didn’t say anything, but merely looked back at her. If looks could kill, she would’ve been dead. At least he knew something that made her tick, if need be he could use that to his advantage later on.

              Elsa took in a deep breath to compose herself. Breathe in. Out. Again. It was merely a moment before she could look at the situation more objectively. “I have a couple questions to ask you.” She finally said.

              He gave an annoyed sigh. “What,” he responded with a low growl

              The queen ignored his temper and went straight to the point. “Who are you?”

              His eyes narrowed at her, what game was she playing? He looked her up and down, “What’s it to you?”

              Elsa rolled her eyes at his response. He was proving to be stubborn as ever. She didn’t answer until she pulled up a chair and seated herself, crossing her legs. “As Queen it is protocol to know about those in her kingdom,” she responded, unfazed by the hint of impatience in his voice. Elsa sighed. “I don’t want to treat you as a prisoner. You’re my guest and under my care. If you wish, for every answer you provide me, you may ask a question of your own.”

              His green eyes flashed with caution at the mention of the term 'Queen’, but after a quick glance around the room, he was slightly relieved to see there were no weapons in reach of her, then again given she was a cryomancer she could create one with a quick motion of her fingers, or just blast him outright. However she seemed calm enough, at least calm enough to give simple information to. “Fine. My name is Rhett.”

[little-shards-of-a-star]

Hey! Sorry to bother. I joined honestly because of the plot factory none sense and was wondering if you’d be able to send me a discord link.

I’m currently working on warning the writing community on Twitter about the mess while trying to save my own 55k words left to be abandoned lol

Absolutely! You're not a bother at all!! This is exactly why I made the post-- so I could reach out to as many people as possible and hope that someone who needed it would see it.

I need to update my post, but as of 1/13, it seems that our backdoor method ended up failing and we aren't sure why.

But definitely head to the discord: https://discord.gg/a4gw8kk5

Everyone in there has been amazing and so supportive of each other. It's a great community of people who were on that site and we've got people still checking to see what can be done, who we can contact, and what to do about making subscriptions!

(Update as of literally right now: we have some people who occasionally can get access to recover their work? It seems to be unstable but we'll take any and all hope we can get to retrieve things.)

[thehorrortree]

Reviewing tools: Plotfactory

[inopinion]

Day 4 - live writing session

https://discord.gg/DWTg86

>>> Me and my discord broadcasting Live as I write

Tonight’s project: Divergent Fanfic, and then probably some of my in-progress novel.

Writing in Scrivener, maybe PlotFactory, you know tools.

[inscrutable-shadow]

I personally use PlotFactory and it’s been a really good scrivener alternative for me (doesn’t do exactly the same things, in particular it doesn’t do the things that gave me anxiety about using scrivener). It’s free with some paid upgrade tiers and the discord server is really friendly!

Do you know of any writing applications that could help organize/keep track of writing/project ideas and aren't scrivener?

I know there are others, but cannot recall a name or recommend one to you since I don't use any such app. Do some shopping for Scrivner alternatives and see what kind of feedback they've received. It's good practice to check their TOUs too so you know what you're getting into.

[archosauriansworld]

Here it is! The first chapter of GiantsVerse!

Special thanks to these amazing people for their help with helping me figure out how to write certain characters and with help on expanding with my own @insectoid5 @rememberingmermaids @snowqueenofmyheart And special thanks to the amazing @wintermoonqueen for her help with Elsa, without you all I would’ve never been able to truly get my AU out there to everyone. Enjoy! Also you can find the AU here on PlotFactory! https://plotfactory.com/stories/preview/917d936b-98cb-4d0e-9136-8679a04fc6d3

            A pair of green eyes opened deep within the forest, massive paws slowly stretched, revealing curved obsidian claws. Within moments a large shape emerged from the cave, a beast very few had seen, his spotted pelt helped conceal him in the summer greenery of the forest. Looking around him he he could see the telltale signs that the greenery would soon change, prey would become scarce, as well as his chances of getting a meal. As he silently padded off, every sense was on high alert, every sound, every smell didn’t go unnoticed, for he was not the only hunter on the prowl in these parts. Out here, it was always a fight for survival, a fight in which only the strongest would survive. He’d been lucky enough to survive ten summers in this fertile valley, it was a surprise that relatively few had entered this part of the forest. In those years he had only encountered a handful of people, most of which were farmers, an even fewer sight were hunters, he’d manage to evade them several times, however he still had the scars to prove it.             Padding down to the river’s edge he glanced around, making sure he was alone, there were relatively few tracks of any wildlife around him, however he was relieved to see no traces of wolves or bears. There was still a chance of finding prey, most of what he hunted were medium sized animals, boars and reindeer being his most common targets. However as he started to lap up some of the clear mountain water a familiar, and unwelcome scent filled his nostrils, there was a human nearby, Green eyes narrowed, today the hunter would become the hunted.                                                ———————             “Anna?” Elsa called. She’d been wandering the forest for around an hour now, not entirely sure where she was, her sister had taken this game a little too far. “Anna this isn’t funny! You can’t just run off this far into the woods like that!” Elsa bit her lip and sighed. Her shoulders slumped, achy from keeping her back straight for hours on end. Just to keep up her appearance. It was exhausting to say the least. Upon noticing a small clearing near the edge of the woods she moved to investigate, had Anna gone over here? There certainly was a fair amount of places for her to hide. Her shoulders slumped again after no sign of her sister, and sat on a flat, yet leveled rock to rest her feet. She closed her eyes and sighed, taking in the fresh scent of the firs, if she had a choice she could spend hours out here alone.

                                                ———————

            Following his nose, the beast continued onward through the forest, as he neared closer and closer he could feel his nostrils start to tingle. Whoever had ventured here certainly smelled, he wouldn’t have been shocked if all the prey in the forest had vacated from the area due to the horrendous perfume. After a while it became too much for him to bear to focus on scent alone, he had to use his hearing to find his target, luckily her yelling had helped, it was almost as if she wanted to be hunted down. Slowing his pace, he started to creep closer and closer to the clearing.  Pausing at the edge of the clearing he slowly crouched down, the patterning on his pelt helping him blend into the surrounding foliage, judging from her yells she wasn’t truly alone, there was at least another human nearby, if she were to be killed it would have to be a quick and quiet one. Continuing his slow advance his pelt accidentally got snagged on a partially bare bush. Immediately hunkering down, he mentally cursed, if she knew he was there, who knows what the outcome would be? However.. he could use this to his advantage, she was looking for her companion after all.

                                                 ———————

            Elsa jolted at the sound of brush moving behind her, something was nearby. A small shiver raced up her spine, prompting her to sit up straighter, alert. Her wide blue eyes scanned the area, but when she found nothing, she relaxed again. The queen released a small breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “It’s alright,” she murmured to herself. “Just the wind.” She then nervously chewed her lip, she had to find a way back to Arendelle soon.

                                                ———————

               'Come on, turn back around’, he thought as he watched her every move. It was somewhat amusing to him that his little mishap had startled her. However with her likely expecting something from this direction, he needed to change position, which required him to move to another vantage point. He had to be careful. Slowly he stalked to a fir that was somewhat closer, making sure she couldn’t see him. However the small sound of a dry fir cone being stepped on prompted him to pull back, hoping he could otherwise stay hidden.                                                 ———————                                

              Elsa jumped to her feet when she heard more movement from behind her, but closer. She held her arms up, fingers fanned out at the direction of a possible threat. A deep frown crossed her face. “Who’s there?” she growled, feeling tendrils of ice on the tips of her fingers. “Anna, if that’s you, this isn’t funny.”                                                             ———————

             His ear flicked, he’d had enough, if she knew he was there, he may as well charge. She appeared unarmed, it’d be reckless but he’d have to take his chance, this could be the only one he’d get. Unless if he was able to injure her and escape, hopefully the smell of blood would outweigh the smell of her perfume so he could finish her off. Like a bolt of lightning he leapt from the bushes, a quarter ton of killer instinct ready to be put into action. This woman would be lucky to escape with her life.                                                    ——————— 

            Elsa whirled on her toes as the predator lunged from the bushes. A surprised gasp escaped her lips as a sharp blast of frost went in the animal’s direction. With her free hand she raised a wall of icicles from the ground. A spiky fortress of ice, risen to protect herself from the beast.             The great cat snarled in annoyance as the frost hit him square on the muzzle. With a low growl he started to prowl around the large structure before him before momentarily pausing, slight confusion adorning his face. ‘Ice?’ he thought before clearing the thought from his mind. Circling around he looked for a chance to tear her open. He wanted her out, one way or another.             “Stay away!” she shouted, blasting another wave of icy spikes at the feline as it prowled around her. She clenched her teeth and furrowed her brows in concentration. If this cat got the opening it needed, there’d be little she could do, no amount of ice or snow in the world would be able to save her. She eyed the great predator before her, she’d never seen any cat like this before, even in the castle’s library, the long, curved saber-like teeth, muscular build, it looked almost like a lynx crossed with a bear. Maybe she could use her knowledge (albeit limited) on those two animals to her advantage.            He watched as the woman eyed him, trying to figure out what he was and how to go on the offense against him. It somewhat amused the cat as he continued to a less defended side of her little ice fort.

            The cat lunged forward, teeth and claws bared. Instinctively Elsa created more spikes in an attempt to defend herself from the oncoming attack. A loud roar split the air as the spikes pierced the animal’s hide. She watched as is lost balance and land on the ground with a slight thud. She watched, uncertain of what it would do next.

            He steadied himself and rose to his paws, the hunt had failed, with a mere glance back the cat hurriedly limped away, the large wounds in his left side numbed from the adrenaline still coursing through his veins. As he left, a trail of crimson slowly dripped onto the grass and dirt in his wake.

            Shocked, Elsa watched the animal retreat and eyed the blood trail for a few moments. Curiosity swept over her once more, prompting her to follow the trail, she wanted to know what exactly attacked her.

                                           ———————              Farther up the trail, the large cat padded through the chambers of a large cave, most of which stylized with intricate paintings of local animals and plants, crudely made brushes of wood and furs were scattered around small wooden bowls filled with dyes of local plants. However there were more important things on the animal’s mind. Briefly stopping in a smaller, lower chamber he looked down at the deep wounds on his chest and upper arm. 'Damn’, he knew the amount of blood was becoming too much. If he passed out due to blood loss, he’d be an easy target for any predators, he needed to treat these wounds, and fast.                                              ———————             The queen continued on the blood trail, a deep frown etched onto her face. Her heart dropped when she caught a glimpse of the large cave between the surrounding foliage. With the amount of blood the animal was losing, it wouldn’t be long before it left this world.

            She paused at the cave’s entrance, taking in a deep breath. Frost lingered on her fingertips, ready to use her magic if need be, only for defense. Taking a step forward she looked inside, but jumped slightly when she felt her foot hit something, looking around she saw the entrance was littered with quite a few bones, reindeer, boar, and even elk, whatever this beast was, it certainly was powerful.                                              ———————             With all the adrenaline gone, the cat could fully feel the pain of his wounds, by this point his breathing had been labored and his vision was slowly starting to get blurrier and blurrier. Perhaps it’d be easier if he tried another way to get down. Slowly his body started to change, fur turned into skin, the massive saber teeth disappeared. Once his transformation was complete he kneeled onto the floor and briefly glanced over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of his pursuer before he collapsed onto the stone floor and all went black. 

            Elsa gasped upon witnessing what had happened in front of her, rushing to his side as he collapsed. Her heart hammered in her chest as she turned him over to inspect his wounds. Gashes crossed his chest and upper left arm, caking his tan skin in a thick layer of blood. The queen shook her head, murmuring, “What have I done?” She had to rectify this. She had to bring him back to Arendelle and have him treated. It was because of her someone got hurt, again. With shaking hands she froze over his wounds and conjured a way to carry him back to Arendelle.

[little-shards-of-a-star]

Okay, okay, okay. So here's the story as we know it and what we've got so far. I'm trying to write this as best I can while leaving room for a plethora of possibilities but, well, yeah. Just buckle up for this next part. Its a bit winded.

Proceed at your own risk.

If you don’t know, PlotFactory was this neat little website that let you write stories, create universes, plot and outline the story, and allowed you to add several scenes to a chapter. By the that, I mean, you could write a scene and then get an idea for a new scene and just click the ‘+' button and it’d give you an extra dialog box below to write that separate scene and you could do this as many times as you’d like. For someone with a brain full of sticky notes, this was a handy way for me to organize my thoughts and just get everything planned out and have visuals. It was so handy. 

Until it went down. And stayed down. For a while. And for a while, I mean *checks clock* about 3 days and counting from this post. Which, is a big deal. When it had only been down for a few hours, people were obviously annoyed but not panicked. A few hours wouldn’t be a big deal for maintenance because that happens right? But this was unscheduled and happened out of the blue with no notice. So, as customers are want to do, the writers who noticed first started contacting support and reaching out to the founder who generally stayed active on the discord for just these kinds of problems. 

And what happened? They got nothing in response. I mean, radio silence. No answers. Emails were ignored, DM’s left unread— the discord that the site had boasted about as a place for the writers to gather and share ideas was usually the best place to go for immediate fixes. Just @ the founder and he usually appeared like a magic genie and fixed the issue and then poofed out again. 

Except now, no one was appearing. No one was replying to anything. 

No one was active. It was like the support staff had gone on a max exodus and forgot to tell us about it. Queue authors doing what authors do best when they smell something afoot. They become private investigators with a vengeance. Half the community went on a hunt for answers and this is where it spirals. Because they did not expect the things they found when the looked behind the curtains. 

Here’s the deal. The site domain had expired so now there is no one hosting the website meaning you can’t access it. Period. You’ll keep getting the dreaded

Or something to this effect, depending on browsers I guess.

Which is far from ideal and begs a lot of questions— why would the domain expire? Unless the people behind PF weren’t keeping up and keeping tabs, there’s no reason for them to just forget to renew the domain. Add to that that the support staff haven’t responded in over 36 hours (now 3 days), it didn’t bode well for us.

Every single author on PlotFactory basically had our work locked up behind a wall. A wall that we, for the life of us couldn’t figure out how to get past. Queue the collective of authors panicking. Some with YEARS of work, over 350k of writings, out of reach and seemingly disappeared. 

And I know what you’re thinking. “Why didn’t you all have backed up copies? This seems like a failure on your part?” And you’re right. Hindsight 20/20, right? All the authors on that sight recognized that, but keep in mind, that even with backed up copies of all your work, its not always going to be an up to date copy. Sure, it means you’re now having to start from the ground up again, but still. 

You were paying for a service to do its job and it suddenly just decided to not do its job. We wanted what was ours. 

So, what does everyone do next? They go looking for answers. In a matter of hours, the community find the founders name, the founders email, social media— anything and everything to reach out to him and beg for just 5 minutes more to back up all out content. If this was supposed to be the end of days, that's fine, just let us grab our shit and get out.  

And with each new method of contact, we were met with silence. 

Which only encouraged more digging. And what did we find? Someone by the same name, who kinda looks like like the founder, being arrested a few months prior for two counts of attempted kidnapping. 

The person is question was sentenced on December 8th to a minimum five-year suspended sentence and was apparently supposed to be released on probation, but the county he’s held in apparently has him listed as still in custody with a bail set at 250k and due to be released on the 7th of April. That, IN OF ITSELF, is not what has everyone on the edge of their seat. It’s the fact that the day of his sentencing (Dec. 8th) coincides with the founders last appearance on the discord and social media. He was super active in November and then just vanishes at the start of December.

So while we don’t have concrete evidence that this is him, it’s pretty damning. He could very well just show up one day and have a perfectly reasonable explanation but its hard to ignore the coincidences. 

Either way, he’s not here, the site is in limbo, and you have an entire community of pissed off writers. A whole collective going “What the fuck, Dude?"

If its not him, what happened? Why did he suddenly disappear and why did his site suddenly expire without any notice or warning? Why did he suddenly go from being super active and responsive in the community to radio silence in the course of a month? And why was there no contingency plan in place in the event that he could not be there to fix any serious problems? 

Why did this all culminate into his site going down without any word of warning?

Another thing that boggles my mind is how come there was suddenly no more tech support. Was it just him managing the site all of a sudden? Another discord member made mention that there used to be a host of mods on the server and then one day, something went down, and he removed them all. 

The more I think about this whole situation, the more confusing it is. 

Even more bizarre is that some members made mention that they were getting double or triple charged by the site for no reason. Some had price increases to their subscriptions with no warning? Which then prompted the next question of fear— “Oh god, oh god, how do we fix this? How do we stop this? How do we recover ANYTHING??"

The light at the end of the tunnel is that one user managed to get us into the site to recover all our documents. So, if you’re reading this, and you need a way into PF to recover anything you’ve lost or cancel a subscription, we got you. The PlotFactory Discord has the information but it’s a mess since no one on there can pin information and a lot of the chats are of people appearing and asking for help and wondering what the hell is going on. A new Discord got set up where the community could take charge and make sure everyone gets as much help and support as possible called “The Plot Thickens”. 

There’s a step by step guide in there on how to access your account via the site host, though I’m not sure if that’s what its called. I’m not great with technical terms. Suffice it to say that all of us thus far have been able to get in, grab out shit, smash that ‘cancel subscription’ and ‘delete account’ button, and dip the fuck out.

So if you’re an author on this site and are having a panic attack, there’s a way! I’m not sure if I can detail the method here but like, if you need assistance, I’ll do my best to point the way for you.

Writers help writers. That’s just how we are. 

If this story develops any, I’ll keep y’all posted. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t snowball into something more. *Knock on wood*.

TLDR:

PlotFactory's domain expired and is not accessible, has been over-charging people, the founder might be in jail for kidnapping or he's got a doppelganger out there which is most unfortunate, a lot of pissed off Authors are in limbo trying to figure out what to do, someone figured out a way to access the site and allow people to grab all their work and cancel subscriptions because they're the hero we didn't even know we needed, everyone has a new discord server now to help others get the word out and reclaim there stuff and just have a writing community

The Plot at Plot Factory

I know a lot of people on Tumblr are closet writers and I know we all use a plethora of avenues and programs and spare napkins to write our stories but like, do any of you guys use PlotFactory? Better yet, have any of you used it recently? TLDR: Domain expired on Jan. 9th and so it has no host. So now its near impossible to access. Note that I said near impossible. A wonderful user on the discord server put together a fix and if you join “The Plot Thickens” Discord server, the community is slowly migrating there to get help on recovery of their works and what to do next. The community is AMAZING, so if you used PlotFactory and are now lost, we got you. That being said, I’m hella going to detail this whole experience here for anyone interested in the story or the whatever-loving-fuck happened. Because this has been a wild ride from start to middle and we’re not even at the finish line yet. Let me tell you guys a TALE in the making. So bare with me as I put this shit together.

[little-shards-of-a-star]

Update: (Jan. 12) It looks like the domain hosts replied to some of our direct emails and they won't be able to get the site back up unless the owner comes back to claim it. This is to be expected, honestly. However, the good news about them responding is we have an ETA on how long Plot Factory will remain 'online' (I don't mean accessible by usual means, but just existing). They said that it has a remaining 72 days before it completely expires and the site is wiped. To give some wiggle room for time zones and the like, I'm going to say 70 days. Which means, you have until March 24th 2023 to get in and get out.

This is assuming no one from the company decides to go in and terminate it early. So time is of the essence.

If you have not already figured out how to get into the site and reclaim your writings, I'm posting the instructions below-- this is direct from the discord server. So, if you have any trouble or need any help, I highly recommend you join 'The Plot Thickens' Discord channel. Its a great community and everyone there has been wonderful about helping out as much as they can.

Below is how we've managed to get in.

Step by step guide per the insights of Vim, the discord member who figured it all out.

For Windows:

Edit your hosts file in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc directory

you need to create a text file called "hosts", no file extension (you may need to set your explorer to show extensions)

Then add the following into it.

104.21.72.220 plotfactory.com 172.67.155.162 plotfactory.com

save the file and access the URL https://plotfactory.com/ (edited)

For Mac:

just fire up the terminal app from launch pad and type the commands below

sudo nano /etc/hosts *Then paste the following at the end of the file * 104.21.72.220 plotfactory.com 172.67.155.162 plotfactory.com Press CTRL + X, then select Y to save and exit, all done

IT HAS BEEN ADVISED THAT YOU ACCESS THE SITE VIA INCOGNITO MODE. I'm not sure if this is a requirement but I didn't take any chances.

Again, if you run into any trouble, the discord is where you'll get the most help. Boost this if you can or share this with your writer friends in case they are on this site!!

The Plot at Plot Factory

I know a lot of people on Tumblr are closet writers and I know we all use a plethora of avenues and programs and spare napkins to write our stories but like, do any of you guys use PlotFactory? Better yet, have any of you used it recently? TLDR: Domain expired on Jan. 9th and so it has no host. So now its near impossible to access. Note that I said near impossible. A wonderful user on the discord server put together a fix and if you join “The Plot Thickens” Discord server, the community is slowly migrating there to get help on recovery of their works and what to do next. The community is AMAZING, so if you used PlotFactory and are now lost, we got you. That being said, I’m hella going to detail this whole experience here for anyone interested in the story or the whatever-loving-fuck happened. Because this has been a wild ride from start to middle and we’re not even at the finish line yet. Let me tell you guys a TALE in the making. So bare with me as I put this shit together.