Hello folks. (I am trying to be peculiar). My name is Vladimir Milanov and I am not a writer. I am photographer. However, I came here, to writer community and I hope you will not chase me away. English is not my native language, so I apologize for the huge number of mistakes that I will make (this is a forum of writers, and I am sure that you are never mistaken). Also I love summer, swimming, taking pictures, never getting sunstrokes and my hair is brown.
Welcome! I'm Iain, one of the mods here. If you haven't had a chance to yet, be sure to check out New Member Quick Start and Forum Rules, and don't be shy about contacting me or one of the other mods (jannert, big soft moose, minstrel, and EFMingo) if you have any questions or problems. I'm not sure if you want to offer writing for critique, but if you do you'll need to have two weeks' membership, twenty posts (which include two constructive critiques of others' writing) before you can post in the Workshop for critique of your own work, but until then, feel free to poke around and jump into any one of the numerous discussions that are ongoing here. Those initial requirements will fly by. In the meantime, we have a) a number of members who aren't native speakers of English here, and b) a number of native speakers (myself included) whose English is far from perfect. We're very tolerant of mistakes here and will offer gentle correction pretty much only when they impede comprehension (Can you tell that I teach English as a Foreign Language? ) I'm not going to vote in your poll because as a general rule I approach new members from the perspective of "I like you" and let their actions afterwards decide where they'll end up on the scale, but I certainly hope that you'll continue to be someone that I like as a minimum.
Hi Vlad. So far you seem like you'll fit right in here. I can definitely 'hear' the Russian accent. It's in the dropped a, an, and the. Interestingly, you did use the a before writer. But then you became totally Russian with 'I am [a] photographer' and 'to [this or your] writing community'. That accent sounds cool though. Unless you want to sound pretty professional or formal in your writing, you could keep doing that.
To Xoic. Russian spy was uncovered at the very beginning, literally in the second post. I got to tell you that I cannot write differently simply because I don't know how. But always I am glad to read any your attention. Really, very appreciate. Thanks for the greeting!
To Iain. Thanks for the welcome. I didn’t come empty-handed; I have something to show. These are photo albums, and for now I’ll be thinking how to present them here. I am glad that this is a very active community and I hope I will continue to be liked by you. As for voting, this was done mainly for fun, and in order to test how polls work. I do a lot for fun. Feel free to joke with me, even if you click the last option, I still won’t go anywhere.
There's a section on the board called the Xenforo Gallery, where you can upload photos. But that gallery will not be around for much longer apparently. They're planning an upgrade to Xenforo2, which doesn't have a gallery, so any pictures posted there will most likely just disappear when that happens. I don't know when it will, apparently it's been in the works for a long time, like a year or two? You could create a blog and post them there, or post some to a very popular thread called Tavern's Member Picture Gallery. There's also a thread called Pictures You Like. If I can find them I'll magically turn those into links. DONE.
My photo albums are still not just pictures that you like. I approached a photo album as a work of art, for a long time choosing photos that fit together, that create a whole, with which I tell a story. I have a Facebook, I publish photos there, but a photo album is still a little different.
Ah ok, so as a photographer you're serious. I don't think there's any way on this message board to post a photo album in all its integrity. At best you could put up a few pictures now and then, maybe with a link to an online photography site if you have one.
Wow... This just occurred to me, but your written "accent" could be a useful tool for me to study. I have a WIP (Work In Progress) which features a couple of Russian characters speaking English. One critique I got was that they sounded like a Hollywood screenwriter's parody of the mistakes a Russian might make. Now I have a real live Russian to study. <Iain gets a big net>
To Xoic. Thanks for the advice, I will still think about how to announce photo albums. But first, I need to write some critical review (2 reviews) in order not to stop being liked by moderators.
As a side note with my mod hat on, this is primarily a writing forum. We don't mind people sharing photos, but offsite links to professional ventures aren't allowed no matter what the subject. So feel free to show off bits of your work, but save large-scale photodumps for sites that cater to that sort of thing.
To Iain. Wow, someone will study me, how a mouse in a laboratory. I will be useful. I love to be of useful. Of course, feel free to ask me something. ok...
