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  1. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Project "Empty That Bucket!"

    Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Wreybies, Jul 23, 2017.

    As some of you know, I've been spending time reducing the size of the General Writing subforum in the upper quarter of the home page. I've been going through the threads and moving them to the subforums that more closely fit the topics of the given threads. And it's not just about me being a fussbucket. It's about having a better idea of what our forum citizenry is talking about, interested in, questioning, etc. That's the kind of data that helps us to know where best to apply the generous donations from our own members, not just on the basics like server costs, but also for new things in the future. Xenforoâ„¢ forums are all about the plugins, and like apps on a smartphone, the chintzy plug-ins are freebies, but the good ones cost, and we want to be sure that we spend future contributions from our members on things that actually bring benefit to the largest number of people.

    Here's my request:

    If you have the time, if you have the patience, if you have the homozygous representation of the tidiness gene in full swing, take a few minutes out of your foruming day and help me go through the older threads in that area. Thread titles are next to impossible to use as a search parameter because people rarely title their threads with verbiage that let's you know what the OP is going to be about. You actually have to read the OP. That's why it's been such a daunting task, even though I've moved easily upwards of 5000 threads from that subforum at this point. And the sheer size of the subforum gives it a kind of digital gravity-well that attracts posts to it that really should be somewhere else.

    It's purely voluntary, and all I can offer is my undying gratitude. If you want to pitch in, just go through the deeper pages of that subforum and when you find something that clearly needs a better home, report it (yes, use the report button), letting me know where you think it belongs. I'll take it from there.

    My thanks in advance,
    Wrey

    PS: If you're worried that reporting these threads is going to get someone in trouble or sanctioned, please be at ease. No one gets in trouble for this. This is just a little housekeeping, nothing more.

    [​IMG]
     
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  2. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    Report it with the Report button, or some other way?
     
  3. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    With the report button. From my end, it's the easiest way because the report gives a direct link and gives you a space to type in where you think it should go.
     
  4. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    How far back do you want us to go?
     
  5. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I've done about ten but now I'm concerned that

    a) @Wreybies will log in and go WTAF at the volume , and b) that these might bury other more important reports ( I started all of them Empty the bucket: so they are identifiable )
     
  6. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Feel free to travel back to the beginning of time!

    A little backstory: The General Writing subforum is literally the Mother of All Forums here in our little culture. It was the first forum to be created when Daniel set up writingforums.org. Everything else eventually branched off from there. It's only natural for forums to grow and diversify their accoutrement of subforums over time, though we have taken pains to keep ours to a minimum to avoid becoming too unwieldy to navigate for our members. Regardless, as you travel back in time in that subforum you'll come to points where certain subforums didn't exist yet, so suddenly you find a profusion of a given topic that really belongs somewhere else because we've since created a new home for it.
     
  7. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Apropos - do you think we should have an "editing/rerwiting" board ?.. looking through GW I'm coming across a lot of threads on how do i edit/re edit/ rewrite my WIP - alternately if not where would you say these types of threads belong ? ( I thought about art of critique but its not quite right)
     
  8. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I started at the front working back (i'm on about page 4) if you go back to the land time forgot we'll have a "Dr livingstone I presume" moment in the middle... watch out for hostile natives, and remember that a hippo is faster than a man on land and in the water (so if you are competing against one in a triathalon you really need to make up time on the cycling ;) )
     
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  9. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I added this to the OP, but just to bump the information as well...

    If you're worried that reporting these threads is going to get someone in trouble or sanctioned, please be at ease. No one gets in trouble for this. This is just a little housekeeping, nothing more.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Rosacrvx

    Rosacrvx Contributor Contributor

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    True. An "editing/rewriting" subforum would be excellent. There are tons of threads on the matter.

    On my part, I'll be sure to report whenever I find something that belongs somewhere else. I didn't know we were supposed to do that. :)


    Edited to add: @Wreybies, you read my mind. I thought the Report button meant serious trouble. Never in my life have I pressed it! (So far.)
     
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  11. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    It's not something I would really normally ask of members. It's just one of those things that kept getting back-burnered because there are usually more pressing matters to deal with. But it needs to get done at some point or another and I remembered old times in the military when all hands were on deck for a what we called a GI Party. :bigwink:

    Screen Shot 2017-07-23 at 9.49.20 AM.png
     
  12. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I was intending to go to the last page and work forwards. Since @Wreybies seems ok with this, I'll make a start when I get some time and need something to help me procrastinate unwind.
     
  13. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Good show, wot wot. ;) I've already moved the ones you flagged.
     
  14. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Thanks! It's harder than I thought to do this. Are you checking them before you move them? Some of them are a bit ambiguous as it isn't really clear what the OP is asking.
     
  15. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Sorry @Wreybies, I somehow found myself in the plot development forum and was reporting threads to be moved to... the plot development forum. Apologies!
     
  16. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Yes, I'm defo looking at them before I move them. Sometimes it is a little ambiguous. A question can be something like: What should my character do at this point in the story after these things have happened? and I have to weigh whether that's plot or character. It'll be one or the other, for sure, but I want to be sure it goes in the correct bucket. Lots of threads genuinely belong in that subforum because they simply don't fit anywhere else, but there's a lot of chaff to go through to find the grains that want sorting. o_O
     
  17. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    No worries. :) I've done the same thing in the past. "OMG look at all these plot threads. Oh... It's because I'm in Plot Development...." o_O

    You may already be doing this, but just in case, what I do is leave one tab as my working tab and right click the thread I'm going to look at and open it in a new tab, that way I keep my place in the original tab.
     
  18. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Yup, that's what made me realise what I'd done ;)

    Actually I'm using the "Next thread" link to click through them. I think maybe one got moved after the link was created, then when I clicked it it took me to that thread in the plot dev forum, so then subsequent clicks took me to the next thread in the plot dev forum. I'm in the habit now of just checking I'm still in general before reporting :)
     
  19. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I'm using two tabs open at once , one to work through GW and one to look at the forum list to remind myself of the options for destinations
     
  20. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Same here - I can't remember all the forums ;)
     
  21. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Just a note on the Workshop: The only threads that will go in there are actual segments of written story wanting critique. You may well find some of those in the very earliest pages of General Writing, so don't be surprised, but general questions or anything that isn't an actual excerpt of writing won't go to the Workshop.
     
  22. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I don't think I reported anything to go to the workshop unless it actually contained an excerpt for critique. Apologies if I did, it wasn't intentional.
     
  23. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I think that was me I refferred something to non fiction, forgetting that was workshop only ....
     
  24. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    There were some really weird threads in 2006.
     
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  25. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    We were new. We were rebels breaking away from a vast Empire that had grown incestuous and corrupt. So, yes, sometimes a little strange. ;)

    [​IMG]
     
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