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I'm with Janet--learn to temper your posts. This is the way it is everywhere in the virtual world. Posts made to most any social media, forum, or website are there for the world to see, and perhaps judge.  I think if you are concerned about spoilers, or dissecting large portions of a novel, it is probably best to do so privately. But that doesn't mean the entire group & it's forum needs to be that way.

Another thing to consider is using a pen name in the virtual world so comments made around the internet aren't so immediately attributable to you under your chosen writing name (be that real, or otherwise).

Charles, your frustration is warranted. It's something all of us have been through, especially when we were newer to the site. The point system is far from perfect, and most of us, myself included, have fought valiantly over the years to get Sol to consider tweaks. I carried that torch around for years. Loudly contributing to the discussion every time it came up. But as time went by, my priorities shifted. When it happened, the point system, with or without flaw, became a distant undercurrent. I don't know if it will happen for you, but I hope so because it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

It was simple: I finally recognized that the spirit of this workshop site is to invest in helping each another improve our writing. How that process is packaged matters little when you begin to see how it translates: The more time invested, the more significant the fruits. For me, the time invested equaled a drastic improvement in my writing skills. And not only that, but as I grew as a writer, my earnest desire to give back grew exponentially with it. And so did my points......which I could give a fiddlers fart about by that time. 

As a former torch carrier, the last thing I'd want to do is put a damper on your enthusiasm to suggest improvements. But if I could take back the time I invested in such things, I would. This is why I chose to comment, and probably why pretty much everyone commenting on this thread keeps bringing up the value of relationship building.

There are plenty of how-to articles and books out there, but I don't think I've ever seen one dedicated solely to handling group dialogue. Other than having to employ more speech attributes, constructing it is no different from a two person conversation. You don't need to highlight the nuances of every speaking person unless doing so is vital to plot. You choose the characters who have the largest stake in the conversation and focus most heavily on what they have to say. The rest is color. 

You might try creating the scene with only the key characters first. Get the vital part of the conversation constructed before adding comments from the color characters.

If your issue is formatting not holding from Scrivener to here--in Scrivener, compile the work to a manuscript preview. Then copy the compiled text that shows up in the preview box. Once you open a project here, you can utilize the word icon and paste into the the box as usual and the formatting will hold, and show up correctly.

Bostonian's would call that canned beef.

What Vern said--plus, if he's from Boston, a popular term for sugary canned drinks is soda.

My simple answer is yes. So far I've worked with 2 agents--both of whom are quite sticky about chapter length because the publishers for that genre have stringent range criteria. Minor variations aren't an issue. They aren't going to reject a good work because a few chapters run below or above the range criteria. But on more than one occasion, I've been asked to split, trim, or enhance a chapter based on this criteria. I'm not saying I necessarily agree with it in each instance, but it a practice widely considered 'norm' nonetheless.

Hey Jack, nobody is suggesting there are hard and fast rules but nearly all agents and pubs have their expected norms for a given genre. All I was trying to point out is that if you want to work with them is a goal, then paying some amount of attention to those expectations is a wise course of action.

Hey Danielle,
There is no hard and fast 'rule' about chapter length, but if you are writing for a specific genre with an eye on publication of some sort, there are expected norms for each category. I don't even think about any of that when I'm drafting however. I let the chapters tell me when to stop and fix it, if necessary, during the rewrite.

Big congrats to Paul!!

I can't speak for others who have commented here, but my post wasn't meant to be disheartening. I love much of the new design. I think there are tools far more powerful than much of what we had on the old site. I think the change to bring the site up with the times is a very positive step. Perhaps some of us don't say that enough. And perhaps we're beating a dead horse too much. But you've asked for feedback, and this, probably more than any, is the one topic that keeps bringing passionate discourse. At least consistently. Personal feelings aside--I believe the reason it keeps coming up is because it WAS such a powerful tool. We relied upon it to get to know each other, to challenge each other and to help each other. That is a very difficult aspect to do without.