This site has meant so much to me over the last three years I have been a member. I console myself with the change that's happening tomorrow to know that the community is coming with me. I have great faith in @Homer Potvin and @big soft moose that they will make a welcoming new home for us. I want to see everyone in the first short story contest on the new site! Rally round and forward march!!
I wrote a blog entry entitled Change a couple of years ago and it seems kinda apropos on this occasion: Change is more than the coins in your pocket. It’s the only true constant. It’s the one truth. Change the world, change your underwear, change your mind, change your position. Change is difference, and you know what they say. There is benefit in variety. Challenge is borne of change, and growth proceeds from challenge. We change with change, hopefully in positive ways. And float. Let yourself float for a while. It doesn’t have to be all hard. But no doubt about it. Change must be handled—the novelty and lack of certainty navigated. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Temper the stress and take your time. I am a big believer in following your instincts. Remember choice is better than no choice at all. Change can paralyze or it can motivate. Slide to the right, shimmy to the left. Embrace it. There is nothing to be afraid of. Nothing is forever. As Virginia Woolf wrote in Orlando (1928) – “Change was incessant, and change would perhaps never cease. High battlements of thought, habits that had seemed as durable as stone went down like shadows at the touch of another mind and left a naked sky and fresh stars twinkling in it.” Be open to change. It keeps us fresh.
WF.org, for me, has been an exceptionally well moderated forum, and a community I have enjoyed participating in enormously. Unlike most other forums - including the one I'm a moderator on - I've never had moments when I've thought "I need to take a break from here". One of the thing I'm most impressed about is that the mods are, in public, the same people they are in private, and they respect their members - just like we should respect our readers. For the most part, the biggest ongoing disagreement I ever had with a staff member was with Wreybies over Lord Foul's Bane... And the lack of politics and agendas here make it a relaxing space. I can come here and actually talk about *writing*, not get into an argument about AI. And the quality of critiques, even though when they're rarer now, has always been worthwhile and helpful. Less of the two line "Nice story" type critiques. I have confidence the new place won't become full of itself. That, I'm told, happened to AbsoluteWrite, and now all that's left there is a clique that attacks and disparages anyone new. I will participate in the new contest, but I would need to be absolutely sure that the contest posts aren't visible to non-logged-in users, like they are here.
No, I meant, they *aren't* visible here, so that's how I want to be sure they are on the new forum as well.
yeah its very easy to do, we just click permissions off for unregistered members...its literally a 10 second task the reason there was so much shit here about getting it done a few years back was that daniel was trying to use the thread privacy tool and it kept undoing with every new post, and wrey didnt have the access to do anything about it... when komp took over as admin he had greater access and solved it with one click. daniel was never able to get his head round the fact that you either trust your staff or you don't...if you do you give them all the access they need to do their jobs, if you don't they shouldn't be staff in the first place we aren't going to have that silly shit on the new forum, homer's given me access to nearly everything
No silly shit. We'll get what we need. We'll make smart decisions. We'll fix shit when it breaks. We'll be transparent. We'll listen. It ain't hard.
talking of spam its weird we're absolutely over run in the last week... i'm still banning them curently so they don't get invited over to the new place, but as soon as i stop its going to be like a George Romero film in here 192 members on line in the last 24 hours of which 130 were spammers or spambots
I am honestly excited about the change. Yes, I will miss here, but I think I am more excited about the new space, because the mods of this place will able to shape it into something beautiful. I love the idea of a new slate and having the same kind of community. It's going to be awesome.
Please visit The Oral History of .Org thread in the new joint when ready. We need to record everyone's thoughts and experiences of the Writing Forum journey. It's a fascinating story that most people wouldn't understand... until we get it on paper.
Thank you, but no. No prompts or filters needed. Just everyone's unique story in your own words. What do you have to say about the experience?
I have a lot to say about my own story that I will share. Also, good to know that freeform is best for the collection.
I've been checking periodically to see what is happening here and I'm happy to see so much at the new spot and so little here.
It's like an old home you're moving out of. The more you take stuff out to move it to the new place, the more empty and lonely it looks. And like an old home, it has all these different issues that are magically starting to appear now that you're moving out. The spammer wave is one example of that. It is quite sad but it's getting more and more evident that this was a good idea. More and more people move to the new place and this one gets emptier and emptier. I'd say that this is actually good even if sad. But it's not the building that makes the community, so it's okay. I'm just glad to see that everyone is moving on with pretty much zero objections.
You should see the email queue. Loaded with porn spam. Daniel let the good spam filter license lapse so it's open season. We got out with like 48 hours to spare.
To anybody reading this - would you please consider voting in this month's short story contest - our last? There are only two stories, and only one vote so far. https://www.writingforums.org/threads/voting-may-short-story-contest.178444/#post-2049355
really I don’t see much point the forum could go down at any time and most people are over at the new site also there are only two entrants and one of them is breaking the no rape rule I’ll have to talk to @Seven Crowns but for my money we could scratch it
Yeah... yeesh. What if we just redo this contest/make the non-rape story auto-win as the other one is naturally disqualified.
That's so sad. But it makes sense. People are shifting their focus into the new forum, which includes me. I'm going to vote if it doesn't end up getting cancelled though. But @Gravy's idea might be interesting. That said, I have faith that these contests are great and always were. They just need the proper support and attention the current owner never gave them. I'm really looking forward to the new ones! And I'll have all summer to participate and contribute to them.
