CALLING ALL WRITERS! What do you want from WC?

DM Cross

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I have been away for a while and in the time that I was gone, looking back, it looks like the Writer's Corner as dwindled in activity and even the users that typically spend their time here. So, let's get started on fixing that. I would like to know what the people of TheHelper.net would like to see added/changed to their Writer's Corner in order to make it a place you're more likely to spend time in/post more often.

Do you want...
-More content?
-Contests?
-More people to comment on stories?
-Some type of rating system?
-Novel/Book discussion?
-Role-playing to make a come back?

Also, please do not simply point out a problem. That does nothing constructive. Please, if possibly, supply what you think would help us incorporate whatever it is you tell us you'd like to see and I give you my word, I will personally look into whatever may help improve the Writer's Corner. I was a founding member of this forum on this site and I would love to see it excel now that it's been around for a few years. I would hate to see WC go the way RP did and get sub-forumed and eventually erased from the site. I don't think any of us want that.

Let the suggestions... BEGIN!
 

thewrongvine

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G - all of the above!

Simple things attract more people I think. When you have something like a contest, people that don't regularly come to the WC or who don't regularly read or write might not want to join (when, really, they should since they probably have some hidden writing talent, and it's just for fun).
Maybe have something like carousal writing. One paragraph each. So it's like role-playing without the commitment, :D

Thing with book discussions is that there are so many books out there, so it's not often you get a book that a lot of other people have read (knowing you people and your unique tastes in reading :)) unless it's popular. There could be like a group/"club" where the members decide on a book together; then everyone would go get the book and read it, so people are all on the same page (or book, rather), so there's actually something to discuss. Of course, the chosen book would have to be something that everyone could easily get, and be enjoyable to everyone.

Let's keep this alive, :) Go!
 

DM Cross

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The only issue I have with doing "all of the above" is that's a lot to implement at once. Also, some of these things we've done in the past but they've failed. We need new fresh ideas on how they will succeed.

Like Vine suggested the book club idea where we select a book and go and read it. That's a solution.

But with RP and stuff, how do we do it differently so that people don't leave it all over again? How do we get enough people interested in contests that we get enough contestants?

Etc. etc.

One of my old ideas is if the staff [me, really] was given permission to use the forum announcements more. I could announce contests and whatnot across the board, but I think the rest of the staff wouldn't like it in the WC and Tech Support areas...

I may have to bring that up. Does anyone else think that would help? I figure maybe some of our lack of activity is a lack of getting the word out well enough.
 

thewrongvine

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Well, lack of activity also comes from the fact that not everyone likes to read and write, :D

Does the WC look for only like, outside creative things? I mean, people could post literary things from their school/work too, right? We could get that point out, so people know, any literary things they want to discuss is cool, instead of just "what you write yourself" in your spare time. Or things they write, again, from school or something. So yeah, getting the word out would help I think. Just don't annoy other people so much so that they don't want to check out this section.

How bout' dem carousal writing?
 

DM Cross

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Pick a topic and post one. I'll go second :p

I want to take the forum away from "Writer's" corner as it is... This should be a place for discussion of all literature, but the "Literature Corner" doesn't sound as good :D Originally, yes, the idea was for people to post their own work. But let's expand on that idea now and talk about pretty much anything... Books, poetry [not written by members, if need be] but let's incorporate these things in some kind of organized manner... Not just "Throw something out there, see if it sinks or swims" because that method turns people away when things fail... Doesn't look very good on the staff/people organizing the forum in general.

Personally, I think a good place to start in the "all of the above" list is your "carousal" idea and getting anyone still interested in seeing this forum survive to start commenting on people's works... I'll start looking through the forum tomorrow after classes and reading the material and posting. I'd like for anyone else who reads this [because if you've read this, you must be at least curious about the WC] to do the same ASAP.

We don't need 20 people to make 20 posts all at once [though, a sudden +400 posts would be awesome as all Hell] but let's see if we can't get a person here or there to post once or twice... Don't forget, if everyone kinda pools their time, we'll see some activity relatively quickly. Don't assume it's all up to you; We're a community here.
 

Zakyath

Member
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I want contests that really demands something out of us writers, something else than just a vague theme... and I want the contests to keep coming, if there's always something going on it's quite more interesting to drop by...

And perhaps the writers corner should be nothing more than a sub-forum to a literature-part of th.net
 

Miz

Administrator
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@ More Difficulty with Competitions -
I am all for rebooting something like Writers' Challenge.

Probably with more elaborate challenges though. It will be easier to do now especially since we have Table Tags.

I am not sure about everyone's chat situation but we can also try something like that for a Book Club or Discussion club. It would allow more people to talk live time and get us in a better discussion I believe - Unfortunately we would have to worry about scheduling and timezones (The Cursed time zones...)

Edit - Another idea I also have had is if anyone is interested we can make a challenge thread where you write about whatever the last replier has stated. Similar to a regular forum game. (This one though has some practicality concerns)
 

DM Cross

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Here's my only issue with contests... Or rather, being in a rush to bring them back.

Last time we tried one, not a single person entered by the end of the MONTH. If we can find a few people who are already interested in joining, even if it means changing the way we did the contest, we can set it up ASAP and we'll give it a try. So if anyone is TRULY interested in a contest or would be if we changed something we do with the contests, POST HERE! We will work it out and move forward.

Scheduling is easy. You announce the time in the specific time zone and it is everyone else's responsibility to figure out what time that is for them and be there. People must be accountable for themselves. No one gets my ass up in the morning for PT or class, even though it's scheduled; I get my ass up at 0330 on PT days, 0430 on non-PT days and get my ass where I need to be. People need to do the same if they want to be a part of any club/discussion/RP/whatever we decide to do. Tracking? :)

Miz, I think I've seen threads like what you're talking about. Kinda goes like this?

[paragraph on last replier's topic]

[New topic for next poster]

Kinda like that?
 

Miz

Administrator
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Miz, I think I've seen threads like what you're talking about. Kinda goes like this?

[paragraph on last replier's topic]

[New topic for next poster]

Kinda like that?

Well like

First Reply

There Entry/Paragraph Thing

Then at the End they write out a Challenge/Theme/Topic to Write a Paragraph or so.



Second Reply

Entry based on that persons Challenge ^
Etc.
 

DM Cross

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XD That's more or less what I meant by my more compact version :p

Feel free to give that a go, guys. Name it whatever you want, I don't know what you call those chain threads, really... I used to see them around but I think we put them in Games and then put a rule against them there.

Thankfully, no such rule here :)
 

Ninva

Анна Ахматова
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We need more cowbell.

How about a write a novel month, write a short story month, write a poem month? Eh, just a thought.
 

DM Cross

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Who is really going to write a novel in a month o_O Really, Ninva? Really?!
 

DM Cross

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Have you ever done it, sir?


:p
 

Ninva

Анна Ахматова
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If you consider 60 pages a novel, sure... But it's more of a novella.
 
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