New Member Quick Start Guide

Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by Writing Forums Staff, Apr 27, 2014.

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  1. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    I'll keep that in mind for the next one. I'm still trying to figure out how to use the site the way the site-owners want me to use it, so please be patient with me.
     
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  2. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    No, no, no.

    No, no.

    No, no.

    The mention of 1500 words is not a rule or a guideline or anything like that at all. It's just a heads-up as regards what history has shown us concerning average member attention span. ;) Much longer than about 1500 and it starts to get harder to get crits. But that's all it is. It's not a rule.
     
  3. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    Thanks for clearing that up.
     
  4. yellowducky

    yellowducky Banned

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    Hello Im new I like stories and animation (drawing cartoons on flash) Im only new to storys and I want to know if you like my storys :p
    I have no idea about paragraphs I just go by chapter to chapter.
     
  5. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    If you want critique i'd strongly suggest breaking your chapter up into bits with line breaks whether thats paragraphs or just spacing as the 'huge wall og text' approach is very off putting
     
  6. Likas

    Likas New Member

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    I just have a quick question. Why is it not recommended to use the quotation button when you post some writing, in order to kind of fix the missing paragraph breaks. I recently started on blogger and this was the only way I could find to make my writing look better without regular indentions.
     
  7. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I'm not sure how the quote function in a forum platform such as ours would remedy missing paragraph breaks. Why would you not just insert a blank line? Also, you mention paragraph indents at the end, which is a seperate issue. For whatever reason, forum software platforms simply are never created to take indents into account. We are a Xenforo™ forum and we've been a VBulletin™ forum in the past (the two biggies of the forum world) and neither has a clean remedy for paragraph indents. One just learns to overlook it.
     
  8. Komposten

    Komposten Insanitary pile of rotten fruit Contributor

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    Posting the entire story within a single quote "bubble" would mean that the text would be smaller (not good), and the background a slightly different colour. Nothing else would differ compared to a normal post.

    If you're referring to using one quote bubble per paragraph (example below) the reason why I would advice against it is that it would add unnecessary clutter to the post. Just posting the story in plain text, black on white, with blank lines to separate paragraphs is simply the most clean, readable way the forum has to offer.

    _________________________________

    Vs.
    _________________________________

    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur feugiat aliquam volutpat. Nunc id ornare ligula. Etiam suscipit rhoncus molestie. Ut dignissim congue risus, vitae lacinia sem dictum auctor. Vestibulum pellentesque nec mauris a ultricies. Quisque non consectetur enim, quis imperdiet nunc. Sed ultricies tincidunt dui. Nulla pretium massa risus, ac euismod est porta interdum. Proin at erat eros. Phasellus sodales pellentesque velit non dictum.

    Nam tristique, justo ac eleifend hendrerit, tortor tellus semper lorem, a iaculis mauris risus eu massa. Fusce consectetur neque eu dolor iaculis euismod id sit amet ante. Curabitur id ipsum ac metus feugiat efficitur. Aliquam elit risus, semper eget placerat at, blandit quis odio. In sed libero vitae nibh vehicula sodales non non odio. Donec egestas quam a scelerisque iaculis. Donec commodo hendrerit neque at euismod. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Maecenas consectetur erat at ultricies mattis.
     
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  9. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Also - at least in our forum, with our configuration - if a member were to quote the OP when giving a critique, the items that had already been in quotes prior will not carry down to the new quote because we do not have the nested quote function turned on. Note that in the above quote, only the second plain text example shows up. This is by preference of the owner. We did have it turned on long, long ago and it made for conversations that were often difficult to parse and follow, especially when members were unfamiliar with the nature of bbcode tags. Deeply nested running quotes, littered with broken quote tags... mess!

    The software will handle nested quotes...

    ... but you have to create it manually.
     
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  10. Komposten

    Komposten Insanitary pile of rotten fruit Contributor

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    That is true as well, yes. Good that someone thinks about stuff I forget. ^^
     
  11. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    If you put the tags around the first line, you'll get an indent. It's just a matter of figuring out​
    how far into the line you need to end the indent tag so you don't indent the entire paragraph.
    It's a bit of a pain, I suppose, but if people are really that adamant about indenting rather than​
    just skipping a line, it will work.
     
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  12. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Interesting. For anyone not familiar with the ins and outs of bbcode, @Steerpike used the [indent] [/indent] tags to create that effect. I mention them because unless you put your reply window into BB Code Editor mode, those tags remain invisible, unlike quote tags, which can be seen for what they are. Unfortunately, even if you spend the time to measure out the wording so that it looks right, it will also depend greatly on the size of browser window the reader is using (on a computer) or if the reader is making use of a portable device. Those factors can't really be accounted for.

    IMG_0876.PNG
     
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  13. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    Good point about screen size. My post looked right on my laptop, but if I went to my larger screen desktop it might be messed up.
     
  14. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    Actually, it looks fine on my desktop, it's just that the lines don't extend all the way across the screen. So inputting the text in a smaller screen looks like it will be viewed fine on a larger screen, but the reverse is not true.
     
  15. writingone

    writingone New Member

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    I just found out two new things, one, my war with the word grammar just ended when I found out sentence constructivity is grammar, and two I used the word, chat one as my user name. Please forgive me. writing one
     
  16. gus d

    gus d New Member

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    I am new not only to writing, but also to forums, so please excuse if I am not approaching this correctly.
    I was hoping to find a sub-forum on Writing Good Dialogue. After reading the rules it seems I would find this in the Top or 1st section under the heading General Writing - For when your question doesn’t fit in the other areas. Am I on the right track?
    Thanks for the walk through on how to use the forums, I'd be lost without it.
     
  17. Zack

    Zack Member

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    Forgive me if this has been addressed as I've only read the original post. In the rules it says that the Writing Workship requirements are 90 days of membership, and 100 posts of participation. But here in this thread's OP it's different. Which one is it?
     
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  18. Komposten

    Komposten Insanitary pile of rotten fruit Contributor

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    The 90 days and 100 posts requirements are for the Collaboration forum (for larger collaborations such as beta reading an entire novel). The Workshop reqs are 20 posts, 14 days and 2 written critiques (for each item you want to post).


    I assume that the following is the part that confused you?
    What it's saying is that if you want to use the Collaboration forum you need to satisfy the Writing Workshop requirements and 90 days of membership and 100 posts of participation. I'll rewrite it a little to make it a little bit more clear so no one is confused in the future. :)
     
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  19. Zack

    Zack Member

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    Ah my bad, I read too fast and missed the point. Aha. Nah, it's worded just right.
     
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  20. Werner de JOng

    Werner de JOng New Member

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    Great introduction to the forum. Thanks for explaining it in such clarity. :)
     
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  21. Que

    Que Active Member

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    Thank you for posting the rules. One of the clearest and most complete I've seen in web forums. Reciprocity!
     
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  22. ArchSirius

    ArchSirius Member

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    This was very informational. Thank you so much!
     
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  23. Hugo Trevelian

    Hugo Trevelian New Member

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    Thanks for the rules, very informative :supersmile:
     
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  24. CoffeeBoy

    CoffeeBoy Member

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    Silly question, I know, but when we are to post critiques, are we supposed to comment on different authors' works, or can we choose one author and critique two of their works? And can we post critiques for fanfictions?
     
  25. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    The rules do not specify that you have to comment on different authors' works. If you want to critique two different works by the same author, that counts as two critiques. And you can comment on anything in the Workshop, fanfiction or not.

    If you want to post your own work for critique, the rule is: for each work you post for critique, you must have posted two critiques of the work of other members.
     
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