Nolafus
Aspiring something
- 5,724
- Posts
- 11
- Years
- Lost in thought... again
- Seen Mar 4, 2018
Okay, this is going to be honest, blunt, and possibly harsh. I don't mean to hurt feelings, but if this offends you in any way, please know that it is not my intent.
Right now, FF&W is in a slump. Activity is low, and no new members are showing up. People aren't reading other people's work (myself included), and people aren't really contributing to topics. In other words, the section is terribly slacking as far as activity goes. I have some ideas, but none of them are going to work without your cooperation. Together, I think we can lift FF&W out of this hole and bring it back to its former glory.
Here, I have some ideas that I want to hear your opinion on:
I would really like to hear your opinions on these and hear what other ideas you have for the section. However, that is a secondary goal. The main goal, is solving the problems that keep us from attracting new people.
There is one real problem that I'm having right now. No one is interacting with each other. People are posting and going without discussing with each other. I don't even know if you guys read other posts. Of course, I'm talking about the Writers' Lounge. Every post in there is just you guys stating your opinion. That's it, no interaction whatsoever. Even when your views on the same subject conflict, you guys aren't debating. I'm having to go around and whip discussions up manually and it isn't enough. Please, don't be afraid to question people on subjects that you might not agree on (just don't insult each other). If you're wondering why I'm pushing this so hard, here's why:
When people discuss ideas with each other, they learn, grow, and really start interacting with everyone else. When people interact with each other, people become friends. When people become friends, a sense of community starts to form. When a sense of community starts to form, that's when this section is really going to start taking off. Do you know why? Friends read friends' stuff. Well, at least they're more inclined to.
Guess what starts happening when people read more? More reviews happen. When I was searching for a forum a few months ago, I was judging whether or not to join by the activity in their writing section. Let me tell you, if I didn't already have an account here, I would have never come back. the point I'm trying to make is that if we keep with the same trends that we've been keeping, several potential writers will move on towards a more popular writing forum. And that's definitely not good.
All this starts with simply interacting with each other. Sometimes it's like we live in our own world and just expect people to come and read our works simply because we want them. No one is entitled to reviews, you have to go out and earn them. Trust me, the best way to advertise your story is to get up, and review other people's work. We're all here to get better, why not work together?
I realize a lot of you don't have the time. I'm in that same boat, right now I'm finishing up my first quarter and registering for new classes for college. All I'm asking is that you read through one or two stories a week. It may not seem like much, but if we all pitch in, it will make a huge difference. People will see our active section and come join. I look over at the new people's introduction threads and it seems like over half of them come for ROM Hacking. It's no coincidence that we have a very active ROM Hacking section. If we want new people to come, then we have to work at it.
Anyway, there's my big speech about boosting activity. I really can't do it without you guys. I know we have the community here, we just need to come out of our shells and interact with one another.
A few people have asked me why I have certain rules against generic comments. Well, there's quite a few reasons, but I'll try to be brief. The first main reason is that these generic comments really don't help the writer at all. My rule of thumb is that if the comment can be copy and pasted into just about any story and make just as much sense, it's too generic. Anybody can barge into a thread and say, "Great work, keep it up!" without actually reading the story. If you haven't, read my announcement about this as I go into (what I think) a lot more detail.
The second main reason is that I really don't want this section to turn into Fanfiction.net. When I first visited there, I was honestly appalled. Never before had I seen so many unintelligent people trying to sound superior by putting down the writer. It was full of personal advertisements, outright flames, and just generally bad comments. It was chaotic, VERY intimidating, and very harsh against new writers. Some people thrive in that kind of environment, and good for them. However, it's not a type of community I want here, so that's why I have the rules against general comments. To keep all comments constructive, and somewhat informative.
If you have any questions, ideas, and/or opinions, please voice them. I appreciate all feedback.
Right now, FF&W is in a slump. Activity is low, and no new members are showing up. People aren't reading other people's work (myself included), and people aren't really contributing to topics. In other words, the section is terribly slacking as far as activity goes. I have some ideas, but none of them are going to work without your cooperation. Together, I think we can lift FF&W out of this hole and bring it back to its former glory.
Here, I have some ideas that I want to hear your opinion on:
- Writing competitions
- A possible rule change to the month old rule for reviving threads to 2 months in the main section? (possibly no limit?)
- Story of the week (sticking a random story/poetry thread for a week)
- Review challenges (not entirely sure how to go about this one)
- More thread prefixes ([Poetry], [Other Fanfic], [Other Original])
I would really like to hear your opinions on these and hear what other ideas you have for the section. However, that is a secondary goal. The main goal, is solving the problems that keep us from attracting new people.
There is one real problem that I'm having right now. No one is interacting with each other. People are posting and going without discussing with each other. I don't even know if you guys read other posts. Of course, I'm talking about the Writers' Lounge. Every post in there is just you guys stating your opinion. That's it, no interaction whatsoever. Even when your views on the same subject conflict, you guys aren't debating. I'm having to go around and whip discussions up manually and it isn't enough. Please, don't be afraid to question people on subjects that you might not agree on (just don't insult each other). If you're wondering why I'm pushing this so hard, here's why:
When people discuss ideas with each other, they learn, grow, and really start interacting with everyone else. When people interact with each other, people become friends. When people become friends, a sense of community starts to form. When a sense of community starts to form, that's when this section is really going to start taking off. Do you know why? Friends read friends' stuff. Well, at least they're more inclined to.
Guess what starts happening when people read more? More reviews happen. When I was searching for a forum a few months ago, I was judging whether or not to join by the activity in their writing section. Let me tell you, if I didn't already have an account here, I would have never come back. the point I'm trying to make is that if we keep with the same trends that we've been keeping, several potential writers will move on towards a more popular writing forum. And that's definitely not good.
All this starts with simply interacting with each other. Sometimes it's like we live in our own world and just expect people to come and read our works simply because we want them. No one is entitled to reviews, you have to go out and earn them. Trust me, the best way to advertise your story is to get up, and review other people's work. We're all here to get better, why not work together?
I realize a lot of you don't have the time. I'm in that same boat, right now I'm finishing up my first quarter and registering for new classes for college. All I'm asking is that you read through one or two stories a week. It may not seem like much, but if we all pitch in, it will make a huge difference. People will see our active section and come join. I look over at the new people's introduction threads and it seems like over half of them come for ROM Hacking. It's no coincidence that we have a very active ROM Hacking section. If we want new people to come, then we have to work at it.
Anyway, there's my big speech about boosting activity. I really can't do it without you guys. I know we have the community here, we just need to come out of our shells and interact with one another.
A few people have asked me why I have certain rules against generic comments. Well, there's quite a few reasons, but I'll try to be brief. The first main reason is that these generic comments really don't help the writer at all. My rule of thumb is that if the comment can be copy and pasted into just about any story and make just as much sense, it's too generic. Anybody can barge into a thread and say, "Great work, keep it up!" without actually reading the story. If you haven't, read my announcement about this as I go into (what I think) a lot more detail.
The second main reason is that I really don't want this section to turn into Fanfiction.net. When I first visited there, I was honestly appalled. Never before had I seen so many unintelligent people trying to sound superior by putting down the writer. It was full of personal advertisements, outright flames, and just generally bad comments. It was chaotic, VERY intimidating, and very harsh against new writers. Some people thrive in that kind of environment, and good for them. However, it's not a type of community I want here, so that's why I have the rules against general comments. To keep all comments constructive, and somewhat informative.
If you have any questions, ideas, and/or opinions, please voice them. I appreciate all feedback.