1. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Project Resource (Your forum needs you !)

    Discussion in 'Announcements' started by big soft moose, Sep 13, 2017.

    Hey everyone, for the last couple of months I've been working on sorting out and building up the resource section, and I've now reached the point where we really need your help.

    The Writing Forums resources section should really be a the go to place for the community when members are looking for ideas, inspiration or help, but to reach that point we really need as many of you as possible to submit resources

    So what makes a good resource ?
    Really it could be anything that you as a writer found useful. It could be your favourite writers podcast, a blog site, a link to your critique group, or a thought provoking article you've found online. It could be a book you found useful, an online magazine, or even your own finished manuscript. At the end of the day if it was useful to you please share it so it can be useful to others. A look through the resources section will show you the sort of stuff we are looking for, and a glance at the left hand side bar will show you which sections are desperately short of resources

    Is there anything I shouldn't put in resources
    Resources is not the place to post a rant, or air your views on xyz writing issue (we have the forum for that). Whilst the posting /linking of opinion piece articles or podcasts is fine , we would ask you to try to make sure that they are reasonable and tempered with facts, rather than having a high polemic content but little factual basis. The posting of affiliate links (links you make money from) is also not allowed. Plus of course the forum rules still apply so nothing racist, sexist, homophobic, pornographic, illegal or otherwise contrary to the forum standards

    How do I upload a resource ?
    Don't worry, its easy and quick, follow the how to here https://www.writingforums.org/faq/how-do-i-submit-a-resource.81/
    Apart from that all I'd ask is that you check your chosen section to make sure you aren't duplicating something that's already there.
    If you are a new member, member, or senior member your resource will have to be approved before it goes live... I'll be keeping an eye on this but if you think it's been missed please pm me.

    I don't have time to upload a resource /the upload isn't working for me ?
    In that case please pm the link/file and resource text to me and I'll upload it for you

    Hang about, I didn't submit that ?
    As part of the “Empty the Bucket” project, forum volunteers identified a lot of stuff that would make good resources and I moved it over. Because I don' want to take credit for anyone else's words where possible I have reassigned these resources to the original author

    Is there anything else I can do to help?

    Yes – the flip side of the resource section is that resources can be given a star rating and reviewed to help other people pick those that are most useful. Reviewing is even quicker than uploading and i'd really encourage you to help out with that if you possibly can. Again forum rules apply so please keep it nice, and remember you are reviewing the resource not the resource owner/uploader so play the ball not the man.

    I need help ???
    Any problems feel free to pm me – I'm British so if you are stateside you might need to make allowances for time zones but I'll get back to you asap. Or you can ask @Wreybies or any of the other mods
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2017
    Simpson17866, Lifeline and Komposten like this.
  2. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Just to add: One of the things I think has kept our forum from fully realizing the use of the Resource area is that there aren't many paths that lead to it currently from the general forum area. In some of the Resource categories when a new Resource is added this produces a discussion thread within a corresponding area of the forum. The Software subforum is one such area where you will find many threads that are the result of the creation of a new Resource. The Book Discussion is another area that I recently linked in this fashion and a number of the new Resources that Moose created gave rise to discussion threads therein. I will be creating more of these kinds of connections in the coming days so that the Resource area is a more intrinsic part of the forum than it currently is.
     
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  3. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    This
    Doesn't jive with...
    Very little, if anything, is objective in writing, especially not podcasts, blogs, critique groups, thought provoking articles, and our own manuscripts.

    The verbiage of the Is there anything I shouldn't put in resources header needs to change. You've completely negated what you've asked for on the header above it.

    EDIT: And this is not meant as an attack on you, Moose. I just wanted to point out that it will be difficult to acquire resources when there are contradictory messages.
     
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  4. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I'll change it - but what I meant was its not a place for members opinion pieces ... its not the place to write a diatribe about why you hate xyz, or why abc is wrong .... if its quality writing that could go in the articles section, but the resources are not the place to post a rant
     
  5. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    If I were you, I'd just stay away from the words "facts" and "objective" when writing this kind of thing up. :D
     
  6. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I actually lifted that bit from Daniels original write up ... of course that was written in 2006 when podcasts and such weren't really a thing
     
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  7. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    The new version is much clearer. :superagree:
     
  8. Lifeline

    Lifeline South. Supporter Contributor

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    Okay, I'll give it a go when I find something that can go in there, from my own part of the woods :D
     
  9. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Yay :friend:
     
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  10. Lifeline

    Lifeline South. Supporter Contributor

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    :friend:
     
  11. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    One other point occurs to me. One of the biggest gaps in our resources section is research resources - that is site, books, data bases etc that have been useful in your research or have the potential to be for others.

    Currently there isn't a category for that , and even the wise all seeing all knowing @Wreybies can't create new categories, so if you want to upload anything like that please put it under 'General Resources' (which is a child forum of writing websites) and we'll sort out where it belongs later, when we finally succeed in our quest to locate and capture the elusive lesser spotted @Daniel
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2017
  12. Lifeline

    Lifeline South. Supporter Contributor

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    Thanks @big soft moose , that was why I didn't upload it into resources right away :)
     
  13. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Also if its Youtube videos, facebook pages/groups, twitter feeds, pintrest boards etc use the category titled "new media" - when we depth charge Daniel to the surface we'll ask for that to be changed to'social media' (these categories were put together about 10 years ago and things have moved on a bit since then)
     
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  14. Laurus

    Laurus Disappointed Idealist Contributor

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    I have an article on voice I'd like to add that helped me when I was first starting out, but I'm not sure what category it fits into. What do you think? Here's the piece.
     
  15. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I'd say that's a writing blog...

    As a general point don't worry about putting stuff in the wrong place, it can always be moved later .... in fact if we every managed to capture the elusive lesser spotted @Daniel we may be changing some categories names anyway. The main thing is just to get as many quality resources (and that piece absolutely qualifies :agreed: ) uploaded as posible
     
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  16. Laurus

    Laurus Disappointed Idealist Contributor

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    Thanks, Moose.
     
  17. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    At the risk of seeming egocentric, I am going to put myself up as a reference on a wide number of topics, mainly because I probably have a book on the topic in my library: Naval aviation, WWII, electronics, communications, physics, languages, Rome & China, aeronautical engineering, navigation, celestial mechanics (that's orbits etc). If anyone wants details, just give me your scenario, and I will try to find something specific for you
     
  18. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    I can also help beginners through the navigation of publishing on createspace.
     
  19. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Wonders how to load this into resources ( I have a plan , so cunning you could put a tail on it an call it a weasel)

    ETA now created as a resource here https://www.writingforums.org/resources/lew.363/

    if anyone else would like to create themselves as a resource follow this model and put it under general... when I depth charge daniel to the surface we'll look at creating a specific category for them "member skills"
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2017
  20. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    I find the resource interface sort of puzzling, because it seems to strongly assume that the resource is a download, when most resources will be URLs. I'm not sure if it's possible to edit that screen, so I'm not sure if there's anything to be done about that.
     
  21. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    You just tick the bottom option "does not have a file"

    That said I do agree it could do with an overhaul (that's another one for the rare and elusive @Daniel if we ever capture a specimen in the wild) , I guess how we use resources has changed significantly in the last ten or whatever years The original resource rules banned the linking of Urls in the text - the concept being that members would write the resource articles themselves which seems like a big waste of time when there are so many high quality resources already written)

    Wrey and I removed that earlier this year although resources has had url links for much longer
     
  22. crappycabbage

    crappycabbage Member

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    Hi. I wanted to upload a book suggestion or two into "Resources" and the "books on writing"-section, but couldn't find the add resource button. It's not where it should be according to the "how to upload"-post, so I was just wondering if new members have to submit somewhere else for moderation first or if something is just wonky. Thanks.
     
  23. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I don't think new members can upload resources ... if you'd like to post the link and text in this thread i'll upload them and assign them to you

    (incidentally you'll be a new member until you've been here 14 days and made 20 posts - you've got the posts already and you've got about a week to go on the time.... its nothing personal, just about stopping spammers)
     
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  24. crappycabbage

    crappycabbage Member

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    Okay, I figured it was something like that. Thank you so much for answering. :)
     

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