I spent like, multiple hours last night trying to see if I could fix the user permissions problem. It seems that I can't and it's a Jeff thing, so with nothing better to do I might as well put some more attention here. I'll be giving my general thoughts and stuff and maybe see what general consensus there seems to be.
the Vision.
The WL needs to attract new members of all fields, accept new members, cultivate them, involve them, and turn them into senior members.
The way to do this requires several precise adjustments, but focuses on one key point -- Content.
1) Organization. The WL forum is a pitfall of shitty organization, and which makes tons of material get lost with time (an inevitability with forums, but worse here) and can intimidate new members and make them feel as if their work would not be appreciated. The best way to organize will be as follows:
>>>Forums for the Scribes Table, wRHG, Olit, and Academy.
>Subforums for Scribes Table: The Bulletin Board (General WL rules, news, etc), Events (The official threads for competitions, events, etc), Draftboard (Personal threads for competitions, WIP Olit pieces, etc).
>Subforums for wRHG: Universe (rules, guidelines, canon elements, etc), Characters, Clans, Battles, Events (wRHG writings like Secret Santa that function in the wRHG universe but don't take the battle format).
>Subforums for OLit: Think Tank (references, interesting articles, recommendations, social writing, etc, as well as the Rules), Series (Threads by single owners for series of posts/stories that go together), Individual Works (Poems, stand-alone short stories, etc).
>Subforums for Academy: Lessons (Obivious, only Academy Staff can post here), Discussion Board (anyone can post here. Allows people to ask questions, discuss lessons, etc.), Challenge Tests (the place for active students to write up their tests and receive feedback/CnC/"grades" from Academy Staff)
-So what exactly is the Scribes Table?
-At moment, a drastic increase to how many subforums we have may be a bit much. Without more activity to fill all the new areas, we'd just acquire a whole bunch of new inactive ghost towns. What do you folks think of taking it a bit slow, and increasing complexity if/when activity rises? I can think of how to fit most proposed new sections into a much smaller area already.
2) Engagement.
>>>We need to have a staff of "rovers" that ensure new members get CnC, interaction, comments, welcomes, advice, etc. These people should have their names listed. They are not mods, but regulars/senior members that are willing and qualified for this roll.
I like the idea of something which encourages and/or recognizes people who do all this. Crank has a good concern that we don't want to discourage people who aren't in this list of users from also doing all that.
What if you could become accepted into this group by doing good CnC, interaction, comments, welcomes, advice, etc. as a normal member? And then once you were a "rover" or whichever the name's decided to be, you only remained one for as long as you continued doing that?
And also, here's an idea for organizing such a thing. The thread which listed the current "Rovers" and such could be a thread where discussion about them happened. Discussion such as nominations by people who think others (or themselves) have been doing good work, and discussion on rovers who haven't been posting much lately. And then once a month, the list of rovers got updated based on the most deserving users at the time.
3) Competitions.
>>>This is a long-standing hope of mine since joining this site. Get Competitions rolling like we have for the Animation side. Judges are appointed by Admin/local mods. Said mods are automatically judges unless they have chosen to participate.
I also love the idea of competitions. Errorblender's genre thing was amazing, although that faced the problem of burning out when it lasted for too long. Perhaps competitions could be once a month or once every few months? And while endorsed/ran by the admin or mods, a user-run competition being the official one for the month also seems fine to me.
4) System of member handling.
>>>What I mean by this is that whenever we have really, REALLY bad writers come in and try to do stuff, we need a way to help them improve that doesn't chase them off. Unfortunately the idea of CnC is new and offensive to many new members (and some old members :P). Ways to handle this better:
>Use the Academy. If someone is doing poorly, reference the appropriate academic lessons. Put them in contact with Academy Staff. That is a way to say "hey, your XYZ fucking sucks" without saying it. Instead, just say "Hey, XYZ was bad. Why don't you check out this lesson here? I think it might help you improve in this area."
>Set up a system of "Professional" advisors. Again, the Admin and Mods would automatically be in this, but they could appoint qualified members as well. These would be people who have proven they are good at working with cringe-worthy new members and offering help and advice. Because this is OFFICIALLY their role, it takes off the edge of "I'm giving my superior opinion" and converts it to "Hey, this is my job on this site. How may I help you?" kind of feel.
>See Point 2: Engagement. Have Rovers that ensure members get good, quality interaction on this point.
>Clear rules. Rules need to be set and be quite clear, and regulation of them needs to be firm. If we start sliding around the measure of what's acceptable and what isn't and making exceptions as always then shit hits the fan and everything falls apart. Rules need to be loose, but there. Again, having established leadership to take this stance is really helpful, as most members can just appeal to the admin/mods/officials and let them do the less enjoyable part of their jobs (getting flamed by angry noobs they regulate).
-I also like the Academy lots. And I'll be trying to contribute to it :o
-This system of professional advisors are basically aforementioned Rovers, right?
-Having strict rules on what is and isn't allowed is something that I disagree with and seems like a dangerous thing to try and do. Writing is about creativity and doing what you're inspired to do, so having "regulations of what is and isn't acceptable" sounds like a dystopian nightmare. Rather than that, having a way to make things work either through Power Rankings or any other solution would be better than a person of authority telling them "you can't do what you're excited to do. Do this thing that seems boring in comparison or else." If they don't change and nothing else works, no one's forced to battle them.
5) Image.
>>>With the former four points in place, the WL needs to actively engage people from other communities. I know Jeff wants to get writing onto Stickpage Site itself, but we need to do our own work. Spread the word of the SP WL as a place not just to do wRHG. That's just one element and a way to keep people actively writing. Rather, we need to present ourselves as a place to come as a new writer, find helpful people and helpful lessons, practice your skill and post your work, get feedback and viewership, compete, have fun, and eventually become a much better writer than you were
I like this :o
First order of business should probably be a new layout forum wise. Right now we've got everything dedicated to wRHG and any other kind of writing is thrown on this big pile underneath. I know I'm kinda rechewing what other folks before me have been yelling for a while but we kinda need our Olit back in a way, shape or form. I don't know what's possible of course, but a few things I feel wouldn't be misplaced are a section for practice so we can throw stuff like the academy in there. Second, perhaps some kind of thread where we can showcase the best writing folks make around this here parts (be it wRHG or not).
I also want OLit back. It'll be one of the first things that happens.
As for the rest, these are just ideas, but I feel like we could also be helped by a place for events and discussions and things of that ilk. Olit has to come back too in a way shape or form, but making it one big subsection might be too broad. Perhaps divide stuff amongst genre? I don't know.
Lastly, perhaps also make a subsection for wRHG writing that isn't a battle and such.
Those are just my two cents before I head off to bed. Kinda wanna see what other folks have to say first.
A subsection for non-battle wRHG... sort of like where people posted "what if" threads if their characters got stuck in a train or some such?
What I really, really, really want to see changed is the Clan section of the lounge. Right now we only have 2 semi-active clans putting out semi-active shit, which is upsetting because I really like some of the clans that have been built and, eventually, died as a whole. So, I thought about it for a while and came up with some possible ideas that could make the wRHG clan section more appealing.
1. Adding a clan ranking system much like the Hall of Warriors so people are encouraged to do more clan vs clan stuff.
2. Add weekly or bi-weekly projects that any clan can do so people don't have to constantly come up with their own shit, thus making it easier for clans to stay active due to their leader's lack of project creation.
I'm having trouble remembering my other points so I'll bring em up later
More clan stuff would be great, but are clans perhaps this inactive because there's just not enough activity at the moment?
It's also sort of the job of clan leaders to give their club things to do. Maybe there could be changes that allow clans to pursue a greater goal, though for now a hall of warriors type thing might not work because there's too few members. People will just join the higher-ranked clan if they care.
Yeahhhhh I have no idea, haven't posted in a while.
I would like more clan support/more clan wars as Pitch said. I feel like the others have more to say than I do.
I'm fine with anythin. Gonna have to revive Blade one day as well.
I would love to have a whole discussion on what should be done for Clans.
As far as organization goes, O Lit does come off as secondarily. A part of me wouldn't mind seeing wRHG completely separate from it in it's own area, like with RHG, but with teaching, it feels odd to separate. Maybe if it was:
OLit
wRHG
Sandbox & Academy
This much seems like a good spread of sections to begin with, with all the potential sub forums turned into official threads/stickies until activity grows enough to give them their own sections. Thoughts?
Without all of the wRHG sections overpowering the number it would seem more balanced. Lit could be broken between shorts, series and pre-split, unless someone wants to go through that whole beast.
Academy could be things like the academy, Friday Funks, the Proving Grounds, or experimental stories. Maybe games?
Examples of stuff that may be better as threads rather than sections for now.
With feedback, the thing that worries me is if we identify people who have to CnC, others may be discouraged from it, feeling they aren't good enough to do it.
People just need to know what they write gets read
This is a fair point in regards to what Alph suggested. And like I brought up: thoughts on "rovers" being a non-permanent monthly thing that you achieve by doing that as a regular user in the first place?
