NEW MEMBER QUICK START GUIDE 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: 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 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 Admins and Moderators The Admins are the Owner, NWOPD, and Big Soft Moose (Admin Moderator). The Moderators are EF Mingo, Lifeline, Homer Potvin, and Selbin. This list will change from time to time. We're an approachable bunch so if you're not sure about something just ask, any of us will be happy to help. Our main job is to make sure the forum runs smoothly and is an enjoyable and worthwhile place to talk about writing. From time to time we may have to ask for calm; move, edit, lock or delete threads, or warn or ban members. When that happens please accept our decision as final. If you really want to ask about something contact us don't start a thread. Threads like "why was this thread closed?" or "why was XYZ member banned?" are not allowed and will be deleted. All our staff are volunteers, giving up their time to keep this forum running for you to enjoy, so we ask that you treat them with respect. Anyone who is abusive or threatening to our staff will be permanently banned. 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. Although we will delete accounts on request*, 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 Big soft moose now before your name gets quoted or mentioned in forum conversations, posts, etc. Once you have started using your screen name we only change it while you are a new member; when you reach 14 days and 20 posts your name will be set in stone. Don't attempt to change your name by starting up another account. Unapproved double accounts may result in the permanent banning of both your accounts. *Note that if you request account deletion your name and identifying information will be removed - your posts will not, but will instead be assigned to a random user name. Also having deleted your account you cannot return with a new one, so think carefully before requesting this, as it is a one time thing. 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. Conduct You are expected to treat other members, and the staff, with respect. Of course there will be disagreements, but please play the ball not the man. That is it's fine to disagree with the opinion, but not to insult or abuse the person who holds it. Please treat the words "you are.." with the caution you'd usually reserve for the phrase "please castrate me." 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 purpose of 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 isn't something that will be tolerated for long. 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. Can I promote my work? We're very happy to see our members get published, but this forum isn't here to be a customer base. You can tell other members about your story/novel/play whatever, but please don't create spam-like posts saying buy my book, buy my book. Once you pass the Active Member threshold (90 days membership and 100 posts) you can have two links in your signature which may include links to your book on amazon or wherever. At that point you can also have one link per thread in the Success Stories forum. Please remember that these are the only places on the forum where you can post links to your sales pages. Also you should be aware that we have a no advertising rule, so you can't link to or promote any other kind of venture whether that's Viagra, false documents, writing services, or anything else. Posting spam will get you banned, so don't do that. But I want critique on 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 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 critique, 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? NOTE: The Writing Workshop is the only place where you may post your writing for critique! All writing that is posted outside of the Workshop (unless it's an entry in one of our Writing Contests, or finished work for display in the Blog section) will be deleted. Here are 7 questions you should answer before posting your work for critique. Note that we don't allow deletion of work, since it isn't fair to all those people who gave crit and helped you achieve brilliance. Once you've posted it, it's here for good. 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. You may also need to re-do any Bold Text, Italic Text, Underlining, Strike-throughs and text colours. 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. Creative Writing: The top section is where you can post questions concerning different aspects of writing, brainstorming, etc. 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 to do with writing? 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. By Writing Form- This is where you ask questions specific to the type of writing, i.e. novel, script, short story etc. II. Applied Writing: The second section. Insights and Inspiration - Please don't start threads here, its a best of the best kinda place Progress Journals- a place to start a diary about your WiP The Art of Critique - This is NOT WHERE YOU POST YOUR WORK. This is where we talk about editing and how to give good critiques. Collaboration - want to find people to work with on writer projects, beta readers etc? This is where you ask (after you have been here for 14 days and made 20 posts) Software - A place for questions and answers about writing software and web applications. Note that it's not for general chat about software unrelated to writing. Bear in mind the no discussion of cracked apps rule Success Stories - tell us about having got your work published. Links are allowed here, but it is not the place to spam annoyingly about your work or to try and sell it Writing Contests - We have plenty! Monthly Short Story Contest Monthly Poetry Contest Monthly Flash Fiction Contest NaNoWriMo - A discussion forum for National Novel Writing Month. III. The third section is the Writing Workshop. This is where you give and get critiques on works in progress, 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 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. V. The fifth section is the Community Interaction 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 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, please do not post long pieces of writing here. V. The final section of the forum concerns Site Information Announcements - Important news about the forum and our community Support & Feedback - ask for help using the site Articles - high quality pieces on the subject of writing or publishing
This is a great idea. I love the layout, the tone, the content... The overall presentation is a nice introduction. Kudos staff.
It might be better to have IV at the very top of the forum and to have the General Writing subforum at the bottom of I. Perhaps the Workshop section could go near the top as well. I guess we'll have to see what Daniel thinks because he's the only one who can make the changes.
My impression is that General Writing is one of the most - if not the most - popular forum. If that is the case, I think it should stay at the top of I, IMHO.
That's the problem, though. Too many members use that subforum to post threads that would better be suited for another subforum.
I'm not sure that changing the order would change the behavior. OTOH, changing the order would work an inconvenience for those who use it appropriately.
i have to agree with ed... besides which, 'general' just naturally makes more sense being placed before getting specific, doesn't it?
The problem is that a lot of new members post threads about plot creation, characterization, or grammar in General Writing without bothering to check the other subforums. The mods have had to move a lot of threads lately as a result.
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...
While I agree with Ed and maia's concerns, I also think moving General Writing down might be a good idea so that new members actually look through the other forums first. Then again, there is a chance that it wouldn't change anything, as Ed suggests. Members may see the other forums, but they may not be entirely sure of where to put their posts... Although, then I might question their reading comprehension since the forum names are pretty self-explanatory and one would think people cognizant enough to scroll through the whole page before deciding to post anywhere... Maybe it would be good to sticky this somewhere like New Member Introductions and/or add something into the rules (or here) about being sure to read the forum descriptions before deciding where to post new threads.
I will only make one other point - it seems that the assumption is that members post inappropriately in General Writing because it is the first category listed. But one can plainly see all the other subforums at the same time, which suggests that they post inappropriately because they either don't recognize that it belongs elsewhere or just don't bother giving the matter sufficient thought. If that's the case, I doubt changing the order of the subforums will make an appreciable difference. I'll keep mum.
That's what I was getting at in the middle of my previous post. Hence the section to to add a comment about the forum purposes in the rules, or stickying this in New Member Intros. Hey @Wreybies or @minstrel, is it possible to add a tag line or short blurb/description below each of the sub-forum titles. It might provide some clarification if members are actually confused and not being lazy. Otherwise, you might want to post a sticky of some sort to the Generel Writing forum providing a brief explanation of the purpose of the forum or type of questions that should be direct elsewhere. I mean it looks pretty self-explanatory, but you never know...
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.
This is a really good way of thinking about it. I also like Andrae's idea of adding a short description under each subforum title.
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?
Hi, New here and was just wondered if the was a critique button or how do we know when we have met that requirement? Does someone look out our post and judge if a particular comment was considered a critique. I just want to make sure I meet all the requirements.( by the way this is post number 4 for whoever is counting)
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.
Okay, how about this? I can see the problem with the General Writing tag. How about listing all the other categories first, then re-naming GW "Other Writing Issues." Or something like that. That makes it clear it's for things that are not covered in the other catgories?
Thanks so much for this wonderful information. Very helpful to those that are just getting started with the forum. Page has been bookmarked!
Did I break the rules with my introduction? I wrote very short story that seems to have been deleted. Is this not allowed?
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?
