New Member Quick Start Guide

NEW MEMBER QUICK START GUIDE
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This is the quick and dirty to get you up and running in the forum. We will give you links throughout that will take you to the more detailed information.

First and foremost:


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Yes, I know… You didn’t click the above link. That’s cool. Continue on to the end and then come back to this one. Seriously. Come back.

Our Community

Admins are in Red
SuperMods wear Orange
Subforum Mods and Contest Admins are in Burgundy
Supporters are Green
Regular Members are differing shades of blue depending on how long they’ve been with us and how much activity they have had within the forum

Your Screen Name

There is more detailed information in the Forum Rules concerning screen names, but one important point that should be mentioned right now, before you get started: If you are using your real name (or some version thereof) as your screen name, you may wish to reconsider. WE DO NOT DELETE ACCOUNTS. EVER. If your digital footprint is of concern to you, using your real name is not a smart move. If you want to change it, please contact Wreybies, the Operations Manager now before your name gets quoted or mentioned in forum conversations, posts, etc.
Our Operations Manager, Wreybies, is currently only occasionally available (due to the state of Puerto Rico after the storms of September). So if you want to change your name please contact Komposten instead and he will see if he can get hold of either Wrey or the site owner to make the name changes.

Language

Though our membership is worldwide, English is the language spoken here.
We are NOT a G-Rated forum, but that's not license to swear like a drunken sailor.

We are a Xenforo™ forum

If you've not used a Xenforo™ forum in the past, please know that it handles broken, wonky or missing BBtags differently than other forum platforms. VBulletin forums and other platforms just leave broken or unpaired tags as they are rendering a "broken quote" or "broken tag" while Xenforo™ tries to remedy the situation when it can (sometimes it just leaves it alone) by adding the missing or broken opening or a closing tag at the beginning or the end, respectively, to even up the pairs. If you're that person who loves to explain to forum newbies the ins and outs of BBtags and this is your first Xenforo™ forum, the [noparse][/noparse] tag in Xenforo™ is the [plain][/plain] tag.

Bloggers

We're a writing forum. The venue is writing. If you're here to push and link your off-site blog in every post you make, this is poor forum etiquette and you're gonna' have a bad time.

Your Profile Details
If you want to change things in your profile, just hover your cursor over your screen name to the right of the forum and you will get the following pop-up window. Pretty self explanatory after that.



But I want to post my STORY!!

If you’re here, you probably have a work in progress that you’re dying to post to get critiqued, right? Of course! And we’re dying to give it a thorough critiquing, but our forum has some requirements that all of us have had to meet prior to being able to post in the Writing Workshop.

• 2 weeks of membership with the forum
• 2 constructive critiques given to items already in the Workshop for every item you want to post. This means 2-for-1 all the time. If there are 10 unique items you want to post for crtique, you need to have at least 20 critiques given by you. 2-for1. All the time. It's not 2 crits and then empty your hard-drive into the Workshop. Have I been annoyingly clear?
• 20 post minimum (other than the first 2 critiques, the other posts can be from anywhere in the forum)

Itching to post and can't wait to meet the requirements? Consider becoming a supporter, and bypass the requirements of 14 days and 20 posts!

If you're familiar with the critique process or want to hone your critical eye, perhaps our Reviewers Group is the place for you.

And here are 7 questions you should answer before posting your work for critique.

A word on Copy-Paste

When you meet the requirements and get ready to copy-paste your story into the forum, your formatting is going to go a little wonky. This is a common issue with all forums, all platforms, and has to do with the fact that different word processors, different kinds of computers, and different forums all use different formatting tags. You may need to add missing or remove extra line breaks. Also there will be no indents at the beginnings of your paragraphs. Don't try to cleverly include them with invisi-text, please.

I've met the Requirements and I still can't post!!

If, after having met all the requirements to post in the Writing Workshop, you still can't start a new thread in there, please PM a moderator (click here). We are happy to help you get your thread up and running.

So, where is this Workshop, you ask? So many subforums! Where is it?! Here’s a map of the forum to guide you:

THE MAP

I. The top section is where you can post questions concerning different aspects of writing, publishing, brainstorming etc.

• Publishing - Exactly what it sounds like.
  • Publishing Discussion
  • Query & Cover Letter Critique
  • Self-Publishing
  • Electronic Publishing
  • Marketing - We do not actually market in here, we discuss the ins and outs of the topic.
• Character Development - Fill in and flesh out those actors.
• Plot Development - Get help moving the story from A to B to C.
• Setting Development - Build that world!
• Word Mechanics - Slept during 6th grade grammar? It’s cool. We all did. Here’s where to get help with the nuts and bolts.
• Research - Have a question about a thing? Here's the place for the question about that thing!
• General Writing - For when your question doesn’t fit in the other areas. Don’t be lazy and dump all your questions here.
• By the Genre - For when you want to ask questions specific to your genre.

II. The second section is Applied Writing - This section is new and may undergo changes as it finds its place in our paradigm.

• Insights and Inspiration
• Progress Journals
• The Art of Critique - This is NOT WHERE YOU POST YOUR WORK. This is where we talk about how to give good critiques.
• Collaboration
• Software
• Success Stories
• Writing Contests - We have plenty!
  
  • Bi-Weekly Short Story Contest
  • Bi-Weekly Poetry Contest
  • Bi-Weekly Flash Fiction Contest
• NaNoWriMo - A discussion forum for National Novel Writing Month.

III. The third section is the Writing Workshop. Yes! This is where you give and get critiques on Works in Progress (WIP’s) including your own.

• Short Stories
  • Children’s Stories
  • Flash Fiction
  • Mystery
  • Western
  • Crime and Thriller
  • General Fiction
  • Romance
  • Young Adult
  • Erotica - This forum is age restricted and has its own rules. Find them here: Erotica Subforum Rules
  • Horror
  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Humor & Satire
  • War & History
• Poetry
• Songs
• Non-Fiction
  • Autobiography & Memoir
  • Essays
• Scripts
• Fan Fiction
• Novels

IV. The fourth section is the Leisure and Chat area

• The Lounge - Relaxed topics, enjoyable chat.
  • Entertainment - Specific to topics concerning TV, Film and Gaming
  • Debate Room - Not for the faint of heart. The 1st rule of Debate Club is that you don’t cry over a busted lip. You can't view or participate in the area when until you've been a member for 90 days and made 100 posts.
• New Member Introduction - Say hello and tell us about yourself.
• Role Play - Role Playing Games served hot and fresh.
  • Role Playing Discussion
  • Archive
• Book Discussion - Want to chat about your latest read? Here’s the place.
• Writing Prompts - This is our word games area.

V. The final section of the forum concerns site information

• Announcements
• Support & Feedback
• Articles

 

I absolutely agree with General Writing being dropped to last position in the upper quarter.

 

Add Introduction Threads to that list, @thirdwind. All the time...

Cleaning up General Writing is #3 on my daily routine of things to do.

#1) Check the Mod-Chat for any goings-on I've missed.
#2) Deal with reported posts that haven't been already taken care of.
#3) Move threads out of General Writing to where they should go...


It may not seem like much of an issue because I do try to stay on top of it, but one less mundane chore means more time for other things...

 

I like the idea of moving General Writing down to the bottom of the list. It's kind of like taking a multiple-choice test - the "none of the above" option is the last one. You look at the previous options before settling on "none of the above." I was, I think, the first to suggest moving General Writing to the bottom when @Wreybies started discussing it.

It's just too easy to select General Writing for a question when it's the first on the list. It almost begs people not to look at the other choices.

 

Thank you. Since this is meant for brand new members like yourself, is there anything you were hoping to come across here that was missed?

 

The forum software automatically counts your first two critiques in order to get the Workshop Guardian to move aside. That bit is automated. After that it's up to the mods, the Reviewers and the general populace to keep track of things. When it comes to giving a critique, just think about what you are hoping to receive in the form of critique. If you followed the link concerning constructive critique, you'll have at least a basic idea. No one is expecting anyone to write a doctoral thesis analyzing the social commentary made in any piece, but a genuine effort must be seen to have been made.

 

You may only post your writing in the Workshop (unless it's like a sentence or two that you have a question about) and the rules for posting there are the following: You need to have been a member for 14 days and have at least 20 posts of which 2 are critique on other peoples' work in the Workshop.
For any further work you want to post you need 2 more critiques for each.

Does that answer your question?