1. Rooster Smith

    Rooster Smith New Member

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    Hey guys, hate to ask, but ... Is this site legit?

    Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by Rooster Smith, Jul 28, 2012.

    How's it going everybody! My name is Rooster Smith. I am an amatuer writer.

    I wanna start by saying that I get the whole 20 post, 14 days thing.

    And I am commited to reading other peoples work and giving people feedback. Not just posting my work. I am very active on writers beat and I post two reviews every day there. I'd post two reviews everyday here too, if this site works out for me.

    But I have a few questions before I commit to this site.

    I'm coming off a bad experiance with the writing forums. I followed every rule they posted and I still had my work taken down. In addition to that, they attacked my charecter via private message, called me the "N" word and worst of all, they told me that I didn't understand story strucure.

    That last one hurt the most. Although the N word hurt a lot too. I'm not even black and that hurt.

    And the main guy who was doing it actually owned the site!

    So I just wanna make sure this a real writers site and not some trap to mess with people on the internet.

    1. All my work has curse words. Every single one. Not in every sentence but it does come up. I have checked the rules of this forum before signing up and nothing was mentioned about it. However, in the registration form you guys mention something about obscene content. That's a little bit vauge.

    Am I allowed to curse in the short story section?

    2. I read that content of a sexual nature is not allowed? How far does that go? Do you not allow any mention of sex or are we using PG 13 rules, where you can include it in your story but can't be too detailed about it?

    3. What is your stance on violance? All my work is action based, sci fi, fantasy, horror. People aren't always nice to each other.

    cursing, violance and sex all have their place in storytelling. That's the kind of stuff I wanna write. If you guys have a problem with that I understand and I will move on but I don't wanna be participating in this site for two weeks only to find out that this isn't the proper forum for my writing.

    Sorry for the all the questions but the writing forum has left a bad taste in my mouth and I need to know this stuff from a real person, not the FAQ page.

    Really hoping this site is a place I can post my work, and again, I really do wanna be a part of a community so I will be posting way more reviews of other peoples work than short stories that I have written.
     
  2. Reptile Hazard

    Reptile Hazard Member

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    Well in my experience you will find none of the things you said here. This site is very strict about its rules and anyone attacking someone else's work will be dealt by the admins (this is just my observation though, so far I haven't had any bad experiences, nor seeing it happening to anyone else.) As for your work being taken down, that only happens if the critiques you gave were not descriptive enough to actually be helpful (such as: correct grammar, fix the formatting, or just being really vague about the idea you were trying to convey.)

    Your next questions should be answered by an admin, but I'll also give some insight based on my experience:

    1. As long as you keep it in your stories (not attacking other members, for example.)

    2. I'm not really sure on this one so I don't have much to comment.

    3. I haven't seen anyone's work taken down because of violence, but again, an admin should answer this.

    So, overall, this is an actual, helpful writing workshop forum. You will recieve quality critiques, but not outright bashing.

    And with that out of the way, welcome! I hope you enjoy this site as much as I have, because there are really nice people here who really want to help you and not just mock you!

    Note to admins: I'm not trying to be a "mini-mod" here; everything I just said is my interpretation of the rules and merely an opinion. If it was wrong of me, please forgive me, for my intention was not meant in a bad way.
     
  3. James Berkley

    James Berkley Banned

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    in before the lock, or the thread disaperance.

    this place is a little like sovit russia, robho disaperes.

    from what i see of the works submited, the keep it pg-13/ do the *** thing to swer words applies.

    this place is more rule, control, be nice, dont fight then pretty mutch any other fourm i have ever seen.
    mayabe the pm side is more nasty but i have never gotten into a pm fight
     
  4. E. C. Scrubb

    E. C. Scrubb Active Member

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    I've just been here a few days, but have found it pretty good. You'll get critiqued pretty strongly - I'm looking forward to posting my first work in a week or so to get critiqued here. As far as the swearing is concerned . . . check out my thread on "Why you should always check words you 'made up.'" There is a bit of swearing in that one, seeing as I thought I made up the word "salope" and then found out what it meant in French.

    The site is somewhat heavily moderated (again, just what I've seen in the last week) . . . but that's mainly because they don't want "story critique" turning into "arguments about the subject." In truth, I'm pretty glad it is too, so that the discussion can stay on getting a writer to improve.

    So hang around, check out some threads . . . I'm finding to be quite enlightening around here.
     
  5. I Am Vague

    I Am Vague Active Member

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    I think you can post swearing as you wrote it and violence as you wrote it as long as you give a warning before the reader sees it. You can't post sexually explicit scenes though. I think the farthest you could go with sex is implying it, maybe only a few short sentences and then moving on.

    The moderators on here are purty cool, I've never seen them hurt anyone, or give any malevolent critiquing that you couldn't handle.

    You'll like this place much better than the slum you inhabited before, I promise you.
     
  6. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Welcome to Writing Forums, [x]!

    I hope you find what you're looking for here, whatever your interests in writing.

    This forum aims to provide the best workshopping resources on the internet, and to that end we have a few rules which you should familiarise yourself with before you get stuck in. The main section of the site is the Writing Workshop, where members can post their writing in order to receive critique of their work.

    However, before we allow members to post their work, they must have met some basic requirments. Firstly, you must have been a member for fourteen days, and have made twenty posts on the forum overall (please note, posts in Word Games do not count towards this). This is so that members, when they post their work, have familiarised themselves with the forums and contributed to them (as well as hopefully learned something for themselves). Secondly, members must provide two constructive reviews of other people's work for each piece of their own that they wish to post. This is because we believe that the focus of workshopping should be equally upon giving reviews as receiving them, as they allow a writer to practice and improve their editing skills, which they can then apply to their own writing.

    Beyond the Writing Workshop, you will find that we have extensive forums for discussion of aspects of writing, as well as a community area for general discussion. We also run periodic short story and poetry contests, which are good for challenging yourself and expanding your skills.

    If you have any questions or problems, then the moderators (myself, Cogito, Lemex and Dante Dases) should be your first port of call. Any technical problems with the site itself should be directed to Daniel, the site administrator and owner. I would recommend you have a look over the rules so that you know what to expect, and what is expected. But aside from that, I hope you enjoy your time here.


    Banzai

    PS

    In answer to your questions:

    1) Yes, cursing is aloud, as long as you don't take the piss with it :p

    2) Yep, PG-13 is fine, but this is a family site so we don't allow erotica.

    3) Violence should be alright, again as long as it's not overly gratuitous.


    The thing to remember is that we want to keep the site accessible and suitable for as wide an age range as possible.
     
  7. Thumpalumpacus

    Thumpalumpacus Alive in the Superunknown

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    One of the better spell-check slips I've seen. :)
     
  8. chicagoliz

    chicagoliz Contributor Contributor

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    Hi Rooster!
    Wow -- it sure sounds like you had quite a bad experience at that other site. I'm not aware of anyone having such an experience here, although I wouldn't necessarily know. I like this site better than some of the others that are out there, because it does seem to stay focused on legitimate writing issues, rather than getting side-tracked on a lot of mindless banter (although mindless banter can have it's place). I've seen plenty of swearing here, so it doesn't strike me that it should be an issue. (Although, since I use them so much in my day to day life, they don't necessarily stand out to me.) But, if you have a lot of them in your critique piece, I'd put a warning in the title.
     
  9. Trilby

    Trilby Contributor Contributor

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    Hi and welcome to the forums.

    Sorry you've had such a bad experience elsewhere - All I can tell you is that i have been a member of this forum for the last two years and I am more than happy with it.

    When posting anything, I think it is a good idea to bear in mind that there are a lot of young people on this site - some as young as 13.
     
  10. E. C. Scrubb

    E. C. Scrubb Active Member

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    Thanks for the laugh. Maybe what was meant, was that since text can't be hidden, all cursing must be aloud as well (not hidden)?

    Okay, it's a stretch . . . it was definitely a spell-check issue.
     
  11. Rooster Smith

    Rooster Smith New Member

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    Hey thanks a lot guys. Good to hear positive things.

    If anyone has some work that they want me to check out, send me a private message on here and I'll post a review in your thread. Always looking for something good to read.
     
  12. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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  13. A.L.Mitchell

    A.L.Mitchell Active Member

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    Welcome Rooster to the forum. You may remember me through. I'm the member on the other site who written things like. "Mind Of A Madman." I hope I see you around.
     
  14. northernpsyche

    northernpsyche New Member

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    Hi im new here so unsure but i have similar content in my stories so i am reading your replies with interest. Lets hope its what it says on the tin. A place to improve as an author and contribute to a community.

    Hi Rooster, having caught up on the thread it seems fine as long as you note in the title. Which is what i would've done anyway. Happy to review some of your stuff when you have a posting. I like my Sci-fi.
     
  15. Rooster Smith

    Rooster Smith New Member

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    Thanks for the welcome, Andy. Hopefully we can get some of the other writersbeat guys on here too.

    Hey there Northern, thanks for the offer. I'd like to do the same with your work. Private message me a link when you post something. I should have my first work up tomorrow it think. Got my fingers crossed.
     
  16. Gigi_GNR

    Gigi_GNR Guys, come on. WAFFLE-O. Contributor

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    I've been here for years and never had any problems myself.
     

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