Why did you pick Writing forums as your writing forum?

Yes, I get it Obsidian. I understand what you mean. Finding a friendly place where one can learn a thing or two. That brought me here as well.

 

Hi Iain, good balance between coffee-shop and good critique sounds fine to me.

 

Thanks, I also signed up here because of the design and the layout, Komposten. The individual forums and threads can be found easily. Search function works too.

 

You work as translator and/or writer, Wreybies? Do you translate Spanish English? I am asking this because I noticed that you are in Puerto Rico.

 

Yes, as an interpreter and translator for the US Federal Courts, District of Puerto Rico. Spanish/English. But I started life as a Russian/English interpreter. @Iain Aschendale, with whom you were chatting above, is a fellow alumnus of the same language school I attended, the DLIFLC.

 

Monterey. Nice.

 

I looked through the posts that involved scientific questions to see what kind of answers were being come up with. Lots of people on forums will post something, then defend it to death even after shown to be wrong, or simply get belligerent. The members here seems more like adults and were happy to be shown to be wrong or participate in real debate.

 

A forum, first and foremost, needs to be active and regularly updated. A lot of forums these days are dead places, killed by Facebook. This seems to be fairly active.

I am only interesting in non-fiction, the writing of, the promoting of etc. This seems to have an element of that, whereas many forums are solely fiction-orientated.

I have set up my own Facebook group Historical Non-Fiction Authors that I hope in time will become a support and advice group, but in the meantime you can't beat a good old forum. I want to learn, dammit!

 

When I started writing I googled "writing forum" and this was the first link. I had a very nice welcome and came across many knowledgeable and kind posters in my first few days, so I stuck around.

I did try out a few others and occasionally post on AbsoluteWrite when I need agented/published authors to talk with, but I only check in there once a week or so when I'm particularly bored. The community here is much warmer and the mods aren't mental (well, on the whole ).

 

I picked this as my primary place because it's an active community. Lots of threads rather than stuff that just sits unresponded - fun stuff to respond to, plus when I post questions, there are always responses. That and it's a knowledgable community without being intimidating - it's a welcoming place for total newbies, includes a lot of experienced and level headed people who've written a lot (regardless of whether they're published), and there are enough published people to keep the rest of us honest. So, it's friendly to all skill levels - and there are both people newer than me who I can help, and people way ahead of me who can help me.

 

Facebook and similar mega-venues have made it hard to keep venues like ours on track. There's a constant bleed-over from the way people engage those venues to the way smaller, more enclosed communities like ours require in order to maintain the peace. It's a never-ending battle to resist allowing the forum to become just another suburb of Facebook City.

 

Where else are you going to finally, once and for all, settle the issue of italics for thoughts?

 

I picked these forums because it was the first hit when I looked up "writing forums" on Google

 

@Wreybies - based on other replies, it looks like you are interested in language translation for Russian/English. That is a high interest point of mine and frequently delve into Russian literature translated into English. Do you happen to have a recommendation for stories written by Chekhov? I've heard Robert Payne does a good job in addition to Ann Dunnigan.

 

I like the range of different voices here. There're people who know what they're talking about, but the board's not suffocated by pretension. Moderation seems to be doing a good job, and the way that every board develops a culture or tone, that's a really hard thing to define, but I really like this one.

A lot of general discussion as well as practical feedback at all different levels. Enough activity to keep things always interesting, but not the kind of overwhelming numbers that drown out the individual voices.

And my god, the website itself is quite elegant and intuitive, and not a lot of boards get that right. (I'm kind of surprised how many big writing forums don't seem to grasp the basic principles of design that make you want to actually read something.)

Can't think of many forums on any topic that have compelled me so much to keep coming back, continuing conversations and seeing what's new.

 

Hi truthbeckons, thanks for that summary. Good reasons indeed to come back here.

Actually, the design, easy to read and post, is the first thing that attracted me to this forum.

 

I noticed much of that too, Seven Crows. Thanks for your input!

 

Awesome, Wreybies. I assume you grew up with English/German as your native language and learned Russian as your 3rd language?

Do you have time to write fiction by being a interpreter and translator?

 

True, Commandante. I am rather green writing fiction and got kind and helpful replies.

 

Me too, Nathen. Learning new things is fun and helpful. And it is wonderful if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg!

 

English and Spanish are my native languages, and yes, I learned Russian at DLI as my third language.

Depends. I work as an independent contractor, so the work comes when it comes. Luckily, where I live, the work is pretty much never-ending because of the unique situation between Puerto Rico and the United States. But on the whole, it makes or stretches of time when I don't have time to scratch my own butt, and small stretches of time that are completely my own.

 

Interesting observation, New Jersey runner. Thanks.

 

I haven't really used this in about two years, but I mainly used this to become a better writer from other members here and learn how to grow and prosper from it. It's sad to see this place mostly dead now.

 

Because it's damn good (platform, topics, politics, etc) and the people here are also fun. The best I found. Didn't bother with the rest. No, I'm not kissing anyone's ass, I mean what I say.