What additional forums/sections would you like to see?

Exactly!

 

I know what you mean, Daniel. On the one hand, I'd love a politics and philosophy discussion forum because it is really interesting and fun to discuss. But I've seen how these can very easily get out of hand, because some people start taking it personally, or it degenerates into name-calling, and it can create bad feelings between members who otherwise could really help each other out, writing-wise, but would probably be unwilling to engage with each other after coming to blows in a political or religious discussion.

 

Based on the voting, it looks like only a handful of people would participate in such a forum, but you can count me in if you ever decide to start such a forum.

At the very least, I'd really like to see a subforum for philosophy. Most of the philosophical discussions I've had with members here have been through PMs, and it would be nice to have an actual place to discuss such things. Maybe we could try having a temporary philosophy subforum and see how things go.

 

I don't see most 'philosophy' discussions being as problematic as many political or religious discussions.

 

You'd be surprised.

 

Hi,

Personally I'd like to see a forum dealing with e-pubbing in all its forms, simply because as an e-pubber myself I often have issues that come up and have to look for advice.

I'd also like to see a marketplace for writing services, but obviously heavily moderated. I'm not interested in scams and competitions obviously, but if members here are in to providing editing services, book covers, beta reading etc, that would be of interest. Perhaps those able to post could only be members with so many posts, and services etc in very specific areas.

And though I would enjoy sections on philosophy, religion, politics etc, I would say no. I think these matters are covered better on other fora, for example I'm on philosophy forum, and they would detract from the central thrust of this forum, i,e, writing. Also as Cogito says, they can and do get extremely contentious, and would need heavy moderation.

Cheers, Greg.

 

I'd also be against a politics, religion and philosophy subforum. It's one thing having The Lounge and other off-topic interaction areas which will inevitably attract some debate on similar things, but having a dedicated subforum would be to invite unnecessary discord and arguments which would distract from the purpose of this site: to help people with their writing. I'm not against some discussion of politics, religion, etc, per se, though, so long as people can keep things civil and argue with reason without things descending to a personal slanging match.

In terms of other mooted additions, I'd only be properly against a self-publishing subforum. That's more down to personal preference, however. I'm a believer in the traditional routes of publishing, and I think that self-publishing is an easy way out that doesn't encourage a writer to improve and undermines the quality of writing elsewhere. However, that's entirely a personal conviction, rather than a particular reason why the forum shouldn't look at adding the subforum.

 

While I have strong political and religious beliefs, there are enough forums dedicated to those if someone wants to debate. It isn't worth the risk to add it to this forum. I don't see any good coming from it.

I found this forum by googling because I wanted to learn to write better. It functions very well for that purpose. Stick to your knitting.

 

As I've mentioned before, I would be interested in a separate philosophy forum, and I'd be happy to help in any way I can.

For the market listings, I would suggest keeping out markets that require the writer to pay to submit, no matter how reputable/legit/well-known the market. I would also recommend keeping out non-paying markets.

 

I'd disagree with both of those. Why should a submission fee mean keeping that market out of the author's eye (like the Pulitzer)? There are also many respected literary magazines which are non-paying, yet give their authors a great deal of prestige. It should be the informed decision of the author whether to submit to those markets.

 

Totally agree with Shadow here. A nonpaying market might be a great place to start, also. And there are many competitive journals that require a submission fee, because there is a cost to putting out the journal, running the contest, paying the winners, etc.

 

I completely support all the proposed subforums. But I feel that politics/religion forum would need to allow free thought. No thought police who will use vague guidelines to shut up anyone they disagree with. No personal attacks, no trolling and overall respect for the forum rules are cool. But to delete posts and threads or repeatedly issue infractions just because someone was "sarcastic" would make the whole thing just a trap for punishment.

 

Ha! Well, it wouldn't be the first time ;-)

 

If I understand correctly, I think Daniel (or one of the mods) will be going through the markets to make sure they're legit. There are just way too many non-paying markets out there to sort through. I'm not against non-paying markets because there are a few good ones, but I would recommend starting with paying markets first.

I'm not against markets requiring a submission fee, either, since there are a lot of legit markets out there that do this. However, there are also a lot of scams. Again, I would recommend starting with markets that don't charge a fee and go from there.

By the way, I don't count the Pulitzer as a market. It's a prize for work that has already been published.

 

True, but it illustrated that simply charging a submission fee doesn't mean scam. There are many contests out there by university presses and literary journals which charge submission fees - that is a market.

 

Investigating every such post is difficult at best. In my opinion, the effort required to allow the legitimate ones and keep the scumbags out is not worth the minimal benefit of allowing the few reputable ones.

This site used to allow submission offer posts that looked more or less reputable. The scams were far more numerous, and some were quite good at looking innocuous. It was a real problem.

 

I'd like to see an "Author" section. There's a "book" section where people can discuss books but what about a section that's devoted to authors where people can discuss their work, their style, etc. So let's say someone starts a Stephen King thread so all the Stephen King fans can get together and discuss everything Stephen King. There could be a thread for Nora Roberts, a thread for F. Scott Fitzgerald, a thread for Mitch Albom, etc.

 

Book Discussion has many such threads. What, in your opinion, would be advantageous about creating a separate author-based forum?

 

I just figured that if there was a book forum than an author forum would be a natural complement. That being said, I haven't browsed the book forum too extensively yet (still relatively new here). If such threads already exist than no need I suppose.

 

With all the political threads in the Lounge lately, I think it would be worth reconsidering adding a separate politics subforum. This would keep the Lounge free of all the debates, and I would imagine it would also make moderating such threads easier.

 

I agree, and it would, and I agree.

 

If we must keep the political debate, at least quarantine it.