APT (A Pointless Task)

### What it is/was

APT was a official (earlier, unofficial) chatroom on Storybird. The letters 'APT' stood for 'A Pointless Task'. Some people also called each APT book , 'APartmenT [number of the book]' in the earlier APTs.

The tradition was to get 10,000 comments on each APT book. Occasionally, a number would be skipped if the comments went over 10,000 by 10,000 (this occurred rarely in the earlier APTs, the few times being when APT skipped APT 23, and APT 27). Later, at APT 36, the comment count's highest point was roughly 60,000 comments.

Cookie54Lover started the series with a picture book called, 'A pointless task! :)'. The book had 2 pages and no specific comment goal. Users requested a second book and Cookie added 'A pointless task 2.'. The third book came along under the name 'APT3.', the first time the book series began with acronym. It was also the first time a goal was specified.

APT was continued by Cookie until APT 30, when the comment count eventually went up to roughly 60,000 comments. Then, on the following book, APT 36, it was announced that Storybird\_Official would be continuing the series (it is presumed that SkyBluePurple is behind writing the books, but this hasn't been confirmed).

### The Comment Goals

The comment goal for most APTs was approximately 10,000 comments.There were two times that the number hit about 20,000 comments and this resulted in Cookie skipping a number in the consecutive line (these two times being APTs 23 and 27).

Excluding the 60,000 comments on APT 30, the comments did not escalate beyond the normal goal until APT 50, when the book announced, in honor of the 50th APT, the goal would be 50,000 comments. At APT 55, the goal was set to 20,000 'to keep it interesting (APT 55's words)'. However, the comments escalated past 60,000 and the next APT was APT 61. This pattern continued with APT 61's goal being 40,000 comments but reaching approximately 70,000. There was no specified goal for APT 68 or 75.

### The Memory Books

Every 10 APTs, APTers held an election to vote for someone to write a Memory book. A Memory Book is a picture book filled with important comments from the last 10 APTs and how the writer felt about APT and what it meant to them. This election usually happened along with the Presidential Election.

The first memory book was written by user and CP Deepfried\_freak, the second by user Luminiere, the third by user and CP Figment68, the fourth by user Pandaactress, the fifth by user Cookiedragon22, the sixth by user Kali\_Panda, the seventh by user SugarRush\_22, and the final book by user Starry777.

### The APT President Election

The APT President Election was an election held by APTers to elect a president and vice president of APT (like the memory book, this happened once every 10 APTs). There has been about 7 vice/presidents over the APT decades.

The President and vice President's job was to make new users feel welcome and happy and basically be constantly active, friendly, and supportive during their 10 APTs.

### APT - Closing the Book

On June 12th, 2018, a book was published by Storybird\_Official. It marked the end of APT, due to privacy laws in the real world. It allowed APTers to continue talking on APT until the end of June. At midnight on June 30th/July 1st, all APTs were taken off SB momentarily. They were later put back up with their commenting feature disabled. The last comment on the final APT (APT 75) was a reflective and sentimental comment from Sky(BluePurple).

### A Note From One of Our Users

*APT: Closing The Book.*

*Hey guys, Jassy here.*

*Announced today, June 12, 2018, APT will no longer be a part of Storybird due to the new privacy laws (GDPR). As these are quite complex and hard to explain, I would recommend looking them up if you want to know more.*

*APT has been such a big part of my life and it's so sad to think that it's going away :( Because this won't go through moderation on Storybird, I just wanted to say that there have been so many memories and I've made so many good friends and I just love y'all so freaking much it's not even funny :( I hope everyone can stay in touch- to help with this, Kookie and I are putting together a list of APTers so we can keep an eye out for everyone. I encourage you to do the same once the list is released on here <3 If you aren't included in the list, pleasepleaseplease let me know so I can add you. I want to stay friends with everyone on APT so you'd better mention me in alllllll your books xD All other things aside, you APTers are amazing and even through these hard times, I know we'll get through because we are strong and we are amazing and we are a family.*

*And family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.*

## APT: Re-Opening

Around May of 2019, mightydragoncrumbs left the first comment on APT since staff member SkyBluePurple's final goodbye message: "I can comment! I CAN COMMENT! Oh. My. Potato."

The comment feature had been disabled on APT for nearly a year before finally returning as a result of a more intense comment moderation system being implemented. This moderation system was a part of Storybird Version 2, which had drastically changed Storybird's user base, user interface, story moderation systems, and payment plans. Unfortunately, the payment and story moderation changes had driven many old, well-based users away from the site. SkyBluePurple later elaborated on the new moderation system:

"When Storybird first started, we manually moderated every comment, and we did that for years... First once a day, and then a few times a day. Then we got software which let some things through automatically and flagged others for moderation. It also gave us the mute feature and things like that.

We have since made the decision to go back to manual mod for all comments. That allows us to monitor everything that is said more carefully, which, in turn, allows us to provide an even higher level of safety for our users, and it will cut down drastically on spammy, not nice, or trollish posts. \*YAY\*
The downside is, it actually requires a live person to read all the comments."

Old users slowly began rediscovering APT and contacting other friends via comment mentions, google hangouts, and the Unofficial Storybird Discord. By August of 2018, APT was up and running again, albeit with a smaller group of active users and far slower moderation. However, many users were just happy to be back.