@Sapphire thanks a ton! Trawling the archives was gonna be a lot of work but I think you’ve saved me some extra time! I’ll probably end up reading this and then going through ant particularly interesting part of the forums too. 
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Good strategy @SabineBean. There’s LOTS of loreshadow (lore + foreshadow, I just made that up!), narrative, and interaction that’s too complex to make it into the wiki (or seems inconsequential at the time, and not worth wiki-ing, but becomes important later), and you’ll miss out on learning how immersion and interactivity works here if you don’t see the veterans doing it. 
Also, also, catching up on forum posts is one of the major ways to help increase your trust level.
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Yea! I’d trawl through the forums in their entirety if I could, but time is not particularly on my side! After all, what if the next big thing happened while I was struggling to catch up? That would be bad! Not that I’d provide much insight (I’m no puzzle master, just a soft lil illustrator) but I wouldn’t want to miss out on at least getting to see it in live time!
You’ve all made this big fantastic world! I wouldn’t want to be studying the bottom of the iceberg while fireworks were going off at the tip
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Haaaaaaa why not both? 
and 
!!
Regarding puzzles though:
One thing you’ll notice is that while traditional puzzles were a big part of The Monarch Papers they’ve become less and less a focus in subsequent “episodes” like The Secret Society and The Search For Magiq, because:
A) I’m not a puzzle maker and I found that I wasn’t able to create puzzles that hundreds of people working together couldn’t solve.
B) While the puzzles were fun, most readers remember the characters and the narrative more than how a bunch of arbitrary pieces fit together.
C) If you have puzzles in your story, then you also need someone or some thing in the world creating them. I don’t want every narrative to have some cryptic puzzle master testing the readers and characters.
D) I don’t think “puzzles” are as fun as unraveling mysteries, getting to know characters, and fighting dark forces.
E) When I do create something that borders on “puzzle” I now call them “complications” just so I don’t give readers the wrong impression. This is way less an ARG and more an immersive ARB (Alternate Reality Book.)
All that to say, I’m no puzzle master either, and you certainly don’t need to be to fit in here. 
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Time is the main constraint, I’m a sequential folk, but don’t worry, I won’t let that stop me!
And saying you’re no puzzle master? Don’t let yourself down! The puzzles I read in the books were complex and thrilling, it takes a master to work it like that, even if there’s whole groups working on them too! Puzzles are made to be solved.
It is a little relieving to me that it’s not so puzzle heavy from thereon out though, just for my own scatterbrained sake haha! As fantastic as TMP are, I couldn’t see myself providing much use and insight to such grand-scale doings. This is much more my thing!
You’ve got something fantastic in the works here, I’m excited to see how it all pans out!
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To add to this, I generally try to add references to the wiki pages so you can see the context…But it’s definitely difficult to add the full context to things while keeping articles concise. And it’s also difficult to fully express the weight of some interactions in a summary of events. So if you want to focus on the most critical interaction points, checking out the references can help.
Also, there is the summarize button at the top of every thread can be helpful in condensing threads. It’s a good way to cut out less essential posts.
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@Kaia this would be a great place to post your question! I am sure someone here will be able to help.
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Thank you! I’m having difficulty figuring out how to post in a forum sans replying to a post in said forum. I’m not very adept as using forums, sadly.
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I wasn’t either when I first arrived a couple months back so i’m sure you’ll get much better!
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So there’s a reply button in the bottom right corner of each post in a given thread.
If you go to the very bottom of the thread, there should be a teal reply button. That will add a post to the thread as a whole without it being a reply to a particular post above yours.
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Do you mean posting a new topic? You can do that from the homepage of the forums. On the right corner of the page, there’s a + sign with a button that says New Topic. On mobile, it’s just a + sign. If you click that, it’ll let you write the new topic. There’s a bunch of options from there, including a drop down menu that lets you select what category you’d like to post your topic.
You can also do it from each individual category. So, for instance, if I wanted to create a new topic in Meet, Greet, & Discuss, I’d go here.
If you mean replying to a pre-existing topic, then you have to scroll down to the bottom of the topic and hit the green reply button. I think you can also hit reply to the original post, and it should do the same basic thing.
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Ah! I see now, thank you!
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Hey I’m new here and I followed the instructions and now I’m curious where to go in order to learn and join my guild and stuff. Should I just read the free book? Should I read through posts and such and try to piece things together? I want to be able to be a part of this and learn but I’m not sure how
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I’d start by reading the books first as that way you avoid spoilers in here. As for joining your guild I believe there’s a post further up that shows you how to do that. Just to be safe though click the three lines in the top right and then click groups. Then find Gossmere and click join!
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how long does it usually take to move from trust one to trust two? I’m just curious because it feels like I’ve been here for a while and while I’ve read everything I can see in-world, I am still awaiting my entry into it.
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It’s not just reading threads, it’s the interaction. Post more, like posts, respond to specific posts, etc. You’ll get there!
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Ye you gotta post and participate a lot
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I feel pretty crazy asking this, but how do we post on our guilds welcome thread? I added myself to the guild, but it won’t let me post an introduction. 
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Hey! Great to hear that you’re wanting to introduce yourself! The forum operates on a trust level system. Your level allows you to access different areas of the forum, opening up as you spend more time interacting. It’s just our way of making sure you don’t have to jump straight in at the deep end not knowing what’s going on.
To access the Guilds threads, you need to be trust level 1. Stick around, do some more reading, and you’ll be notifed when you can access them 
If you’d like a better explanation, one can be found in the Forum Primer.
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