Well the blogs on here will be networked together with the current user ids, so it's much more easy to comment on each other and such. You could blog about whatever you want. It can be your personal blog, but you could also make it a blog on anything. Some might, considering the topic of this site, decide to make a blog based on writing (i.e. tips and advice).
I'd produce some of my uninformed opinions and vague waffle about writing on a blog, if such a thing were available. So you might want to avoid giving me one.
I fail to see what a blog will do that isn't covered between the Lounge, the User Notes, and the writings each member produces. This is a writers' web site. If we try to be all things to all people, we will lose focus. As it is, we've found that it's easy to lose focus in the Lounge and the Word Games. Getting to know one another is beneficial, and important. But this is still a forum for writing, and most of the activities should be directed toward improving writing and exercising creativity.
Cogito I think that blogs would be a great idea to be honest. I don't know if I would use them but I know that there are a few people around here that would and I use one on another writing forum that I moderate and actually find it rather good to be honest. I don't think that it willl make people lose focus at all, but it could encourage people to not post up ridiculous threads in the lounge that really have nothing to do with anything other than the fact that the person was bored. There are a lot of advantages to blogging. I think that the forum may just benefit from and addition and it is always good to see a forum change and grow.
Current post count in total: 85,282 Top five forums by post count: Word Games 28,704 (33.6%) The Lounge 20,986 (24.6%) Poetry 8,352 (9.7%) <--- actually about writing New Member Introductions 5,864 (6.8%) Short Stories 3,659 (4.2%) <--- actually about writing (This is a gross oversimplification, of course. If we ranked the posts by word-count rather than simply by number, I think we'd find that there are a whole lot more words in the "short story" forum compared to the "word games" because word games are usually quickie little posts. I know the analysis is flawed, as are most analyses; it does help highlight my point.) We're good at welcoming people, and we're good at giving them entertaining and social things to do while they aren't writing. So good, in fact, that what we have is a site that's primarily not about writing. It's a site for people who self-identify as writers, but don't seem to post very much actual writing. And what they do post is quite often unfinished, unedited first drafts. I don't think you can usefully critique such a thing; and I think the reason it's posted is usually a quest for validation. I suspect the poster wants to hear: "Yes, don't worry, this is fine, it's worth finishing." For the critiquer, this is like looking at a foetus and trying to decide if it'll grow up to be a genius or a normal human being or a drooling moron. But blogs could help change that, provided they were basically about writing. I think it would be nice to have part of the blogs devoted to goal-attainment. Perhaps something you could write in the sidebar, like: Progress through novel: 50,000/90,000 words Short stories finished this month: 3 Short stories sold this month: 1 Target next month: 2,000 words a day ... or something similar.
I'm inclined to agree with you, Weaselword. If the bogs are given a writing tilt, then they could be very beneficial.
Those statistics are in fact connected to the problem. They reinforce the perception that this is not a writing site. There is an ongoing effort to nudge members back toward the writing-related segments of the site. But the statistics are indeed skewed. Word games, as you point out, are generally posts of few words, as are most of the threads in the Lounge. But the posts in the Review Room, even the poetry postings, tend to be quite a bit longer. We also have quite a few forums that fall outside of the top five, that either contain writing or address writing issues. The way the forum statistics are partitioned deemphasize their significance. There will always be a certain quantity of writing that is posted without having been proofread or revised, and some of it will be from writers looking for approval and validation rather than a critique. But that is also why we emphasize learning to critique, so that writers can learn to do a better job preparing their work for viewing and reviewing. We still have our share of new arrivals who slap down the required number of perfunctory reviews just so they can post their masterpieces for thunderous applause, then leave when the applause doesn't come. Of course, they don't consider that members are fully aware of what they are doing, and tend not to put much effort into reviewing under those circumstances. What I don't see is how blogs address these issues. What makes blogs superior to the focus forums or the virtually unused User Notes in that regard? What keeps them from simply becoming another distraction? Perhaps I am missing some crucial quality of blogs that makes them superior for the purpose. I am not much of a blogger, so I certainly may be unaware of unique advantages of blogs.
In all honesty, blogs and the writing-relatedness of this site don't have any direct correlation. However, if people used the blogs for writing related topics, I think it does have potential to create more of a writer's atmosphere. The usernotes, IMO, simply don't cut it. They're to primitive and standalone to be compared to blogs. Perhaps they will simply become another distraction. Perhaps not. But I think it's worth the chance. Honestly, it's a bit of experiment. I'm curious to see how it affects the site, if at all. If nothing else, I think it will do at least something to help distinguish this site from others.
To tell the truth, I just tried the User Notes feature for the first time a few minutes ago. I think I successfully added one, but I'll be damned if I can find a way to view my user notes, much less see anyone else's.
Well, let's take that apart and see where you're going with it. There's this thread, which I encountered when I first posted on the site: Writing Forums It says why critique. It doesn't say how to critique. The reviewer's left needing to come up with their own formula. Some go through line by line looking for typos. Some post their general impressions of the piece; some just post "yeah, I liked it" because they think they ought to post something. Maybe it would help to come up with a review template. For prose fiction, that might look like: OPENING -- Does the opening of the piece draw you in? Why? TECHNICAL ISSUES -- Comment on viewpoint (first person, third person limited, third person omniscient, other) and transitions between viewpoints. Comment on language and vocabulary. Is the spelling and grammar up to snuff? Are any sentences too long or too short? Is the vocabulary simple and clear, or does the piece possess the verisimilitude of extreme edification? Is the dialogue formatted correctly? CHARACTERISATION -- Are the characters well-drawn? Does their dialogue ring true? Are any of them trite or cliche? Do the characters change or evolve during the story? STRUCTURE -- Does the piece have a beginning, a middle and an end with at least one significant event to narrate? Are there any passages that don't support the plot? (If so, do they show character, elaborate on the theme or serve some other useful purpose?) Where are the scene transitions? Could any of the scenes be deleted? Are important scenes left unwritten? (And so on; you can surely see where I'm coming from!) That way we'll probably get fewer reviews. But I know that I'd think harder about the reviews I write and they'd be more helpful to the author.
Actually if anyone had noticed in the creation forum under short stories there is a sticky with a link to a decent guide to critique for short stories and novels as well I think. Here is the link to the thread. Hardcore Critique Guidelines - Writing Forums I should know as I posted the link there myself. And there was one placed in the Lyrics forum and one in the creation forum for poetry as well I am fairly certain, but there is already a simple guide in there to poetry critque if people simply look.
They are a feature of the forum software, but they seem to have some serious usability flaws, so it's probably best to avoid them. Apparently everyone except the author can view them once they are created, and the author can neither edit nor delete them.
There is also this which suggests the topics to cover in a review. Believe it or not, we're working on a system that will actually eerily similar to what you have just outlined. It will have the fields such as Spelling/Punctuation/Grammar, Plot, Characterization, etc by default. As for the usernotes, I made some changes to them.
You must also think about the difference in effort it takes to respond in those different areas... then the fact that not all people write stories/poetry... etc. Though I get the point.
Let's see how it looks when it appears. I doubt any part of the template will be mandatory, but it will serve as a reminder or checklist when posting reviews. I personally tend to focus on different aspects depending on the condition of the work being reviewed - if it needs major work for SPAG, I usually concentrate on that rather than on narrative flow. On the other hand, if the overall structure of the story is where the bulk of the work needs to be done, there's not much benefit in pointing out word usage issues or missing commas that probably won't survive the revision. There is a fundamental concept in communication, that human beings do not absorb more than 3-5 major points well at a time. It is better to limit the focus of a review to the 3-5 areas that can result in the greatest improvement. Regardless of the template that is adopted, I will continue to follow that principal when writing reviews. In any event, reviewing is every bit as creative as writing. The mindset is different, but as with writing, reviewing is a continual learning process. As with writing, you learn by looking at the reviews written by others, and then practicing with reviews of your own. For that reason, I have some reservations over how effective any template can be, but I will keep an open mind.
Its strange 12 on the voters poll are for it and 8 against and 4 are unsure. Hmmmm I would say unsure is a fair assumption. Myself I’m not sure what to make of Blogs. I've never been drawn into the idea. But then I have my own website. However. WF.org is growing everyday and the number of regulars visiting day by day is growing. And the number of members is really growing. The site has potential. And in another year I think we will equal WF.com. if not we'll not be far behind. I think the blogs would be a good strength and a great idea for each individual member to use. But Cost wise, well there’s the problem the site is worth the effort in my opinion, but the question you need to think about is how deep are you prepared to go in those pockets. This is a really good community here. But we all have lives and some of us are getting busier and busier including you Daniel the older you get the busier life becomes. Though now you will always have a regular set of members visiting daily though the names may change the site will retain those regulars. The question you have to consider is this forum a hobby or are you hoping to turn it into big things.
I enjoy expressing my thoughts and feelings in blogs, but find I often say or reveal too much about myself in them and end up deleting what I've written which is why I said 'unsure'. On a writing forum I would probably be more inclined to use one, but I've never enjoyed using them on other sites.
Well in fairness we're a little different here. We have a good community who work together for bigger goals. And on forums thats very rare indeed.
Well, that's exactly my point I would be more inclined to use one here than on another, less 'intimate' site.
