Hopefully, I won't cause confusion by commenting here, but Sol, I think Mrs. Piddles was asking if she should include "version 2" in her name for the chapter. If that's the question, then the answer is no. I haven't used the versioning feature since last year, but I believe there was a separate version link on the page to click and choose a version number.
Dirk
This has probably already been mentioned, but in case it hasn't, when I double-click a word while giving inline feedback, it usually selects two. Just a nit, but an annoying one.
Thanks.
Dirk
Is chapter 14 up yet?
Perhaps there is some way to warn reviewers who are reviewing free members' work that the latter can only see regular reviews. While inline reviews are an awesome feature and may attract more premium members, it will be frustrating to both reviewers and free authors if the time has been wasted in doing a review that the latter can't read. Unless there's a message, every premium reviewer will probably run into this limitation at least once when reviewing free work until they've learned not use inline for free members. Also, will premium members be able to tell if an author is free only?
I'm not sure if this is part of the system yet, since I'm in premium, but it would probably be best for free members if they could see the inline review (including the closing comments at the bottom), but not get access to the inline comments (e.g., if they click on an inline comment it tells them they have to be a premium member). This gives them no more functionality than a regular review, but entices them by showing them what they could get if they pay up.
Regards,
Dirk
Not sure if this is on the list yet. When I receive forum emails on my Android phone (using the default email client app), the link isn't highlighted and there is nothing to click on. I have to navigate to the forum to see the new post(s).
Thanks.
Dirk
JP, if you choose Read->Groups Content and leave all of the filters set to All, you should see all work posted to any group of which you are a member, which presumably includes TNBW Premium and TNBW Free. The only stuff you wouldn't see is works posted solely to groups of which you are not a member. I'm not sure why someone would exclude posting to Premium and Free when they can do so, but someone may decide they only want reviews from people interested in the same genre.
I'm a Premium member, so I'm a little fuzzy on what you can/can't do if you're a Free member. I've seen that some people choose not to publish to Free, although I do. You never know where an agent might be lurking. :-)
Regards,
Dirk
A further advantage to reviewing is learning how to write (or not!) by reading other people's work. I've gained quite a bit of experience that way.
Dirk
I wouldn't worry if I were you, Jill. With rare exceptions, it's a great community of people who try to help each other improve their writing and get published. I've been a paying member since 2012 and have several reciprocal author/reviewer relationships that have been invaluable to me. Some very experienced, published writers on the site have taken a great deal of their time to provide me with detailed feedback, more even than I can give them, since their writing is much more mature than mine. I picked up another big-picture/detail-oriented reviewer just a few weeks ago.
Welcome to Premium.
Dirk
Ideally with the cursor already active in the text box. Saves a click for each inline item.
Sol, several people have created groups that require points to post.
If we wanted to post to Premium AND to one of those groups, would it require twice as many points to post?
Also why would some create groups requiring points to post? What advantage is there to creating such groups?
Thanks.
Dirk
One comment to what Janet Taylor-Perry said about free reviews/reviewers. Their lack of reciprocating may be due to a lack of understanding of how the site works.
I received two early reviews on my first draft, one from a phsychologist and another from a theologian, both of whom gave generally positive reviews even though my book has the potential to offend people in both of those fields (not intentionally, it's just the nature of the material). At the time, I didn't realize that reciprocating was the best way to get them to continue reading. Unfortunately, I eventually took down those chapters when I started posting v2 of my book and no longer know who those two people were. I'm holding off broadcasting a request for new reviews of v2 since I already have my hands full reciprocating with authors who are reading my latest posts.
Bottom line, lack of reciprocating was due to a simple lack of knowledge about the site when I first joined, not a reflection of the reviewers's own material. I suspect other new users may be in the same boat. Some of the free stuff I've read hasn't even received a reply yet.
Regards,
Dirk
I'd be curious to know how many people are posting to genre specific groups without also posting to Premium/Free. I post to both of those as well as sci-fi to get the widest possible audience.
You're welcome to use any of it, Sol. The main reason I used the forum for this is that I think more users will find it there, hopefully encouraging a discussion back & fourth among multiple participants. Are you suggesting we use regular reviews as a means of back and forth discussion rather than the forums? That would require users to click on each chapter in a book and scroll to the reviews to find a discussion like this one.
I'm not sure if I understood you.
Dirk
Linda, for new works, why not use the Read->Groups Content page? From there you can see all works posted to groups you are a member of, and filter by genre or story type. You can also see which works pay points. Admittedly, if someone posts to the Horror or YA groups, for example, without also posting to Premium/Free, then I won't see it.
Dirk
Oops. I justed cross posted this from your Premium thread. Ah well. Can never have enough links to a resource that good.
Thanks.
Dirk
Following is from a link that Janet Taylor-Perry posted at the end of an unrelated Premium thread. I didn't want this to get lost, so here it is:
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-edi … ou-in-2015
Dirk
As a way to encourage people to use forums, it would be useful if they could automatically post to forums associated with public groups without having to join the actual group. That might go a long way toward getting more people using the new forums without running into the max group limit of ten and without the extra step of joining the group.
Thanks.
Dirk
As long as I'm busy telling Sol what to do, I'll add this. :-)
On the forums screen that I hope you implement, you could have a filter called Classic, which would show just the old TNBW forums, leaving out the rest of the groups from that particular filter. It would require adding a field to each group's database record to flag if it is a classic forum or not. You could populate that field automatically once, indicating which groups/forums are part of the classic list of groups. There then should be no need to provide an interface to all users to flag a group as classic. We already know which groups are classic. It would require creating groups for all of the old TNBW forums. so tha the classic filtered list showed all of the group forums we want from the old site. If you won't want to mess with the database records to add a Classic flag, there are other ways to implement the classic list (e.g., a manual hard-coded query for all groups that correspond to the old forums).
I really hope you don't create separate forums when the new forums are so close to what's needed for backward compatibility and a simpler implementation.
Hope that makes sense.
Dirk
Writing Tips & Advice is probably the group/forum to use for Writing 101 type of information. I believe that's how the old site used that forum. Sol is working on bringing back the old forums, although he and I are debating how best to implement it in the Premium group. Feel free too join us there and give your feedback.
Regards,
Dirk
I didn't spend a lot of time in the old forums so I'm not familiar with everything it could do, but there's nothing stopping someone here from reading your post if it's in a public group, like Writing Tips. The limitation is they have to join to post, and they may not both browsing to Writing Tips very often if they're not an actual member. Sol and I are busy trading posts in Premium about how the "new" forums view should work. Please join us. I'm sure you can be of help.
Dirk
I was actually referring to whether my forum posts should be posted to Premium, Free, or both. If non-paying members can't see what's in Premium, then they won't know what they're missing. A lot of my recent posts in Premium and elsewhere have been to try to help the new site get off the ground. I want to include free members in that too. If they can't see Premium, then I need to post in both.
Dirk
From the looks of the web page/link, that will duplicate functionality that already exists in the new system. There would be two places to put Writing Tips & Advice conversations, for example. Ditto for other groups/forums.
Although I understand that it's not possible to give everyone a view of all that is private/invisible, presumably you could do a query based on what's public and what isn't? It would have to include all public groups + all groups a member is already part of. If that list is too large, split it over several pages, and add search/filters to allow members to find those groups/forums their most interested in. Ideally, the most recently active groups would be at the top by default.
Otherwise, how are you going to combine the proposed view's front end with the corresponding groups/forums in the back end? Will the new front end link to the new groups with the same purpose, like Writing Tips & Advice or Additional Feedback, or will these be two separate repositories of similar information? I hope it's not going to duplicate functionality. That'll make the new site even more complicated, especially for those unfamiliar with the old site. They'll see two nearly identical places to post and not know which to use.
There must be something about the implementation complexity that I'm missing if you're planning on simply duplicating the old functionality side-by-side with the new group forums that already do most of what people are asking for. They just need a filtered view of all forums available to them, minus the big graphic icons that eat up valuable screen space.
And, when we're in a specific forum that we're not already part of and want to post to, an Apply button would be needed that duplicates the current Apply button function in the group view. If the group settings allow a user to immediately join the group, a single click on Apply would be all that is needed before a user could post, all without leaving the forum. If Apply requires permission, then user has to follow those steps and return later to post to the group forum once they're a member.
It seems like that would give you one back end with just two different front ends.
Thanks.
Dirk
Sol, can you please clarify the difference between Premium and Free? Is the Premium forum only available for paying members to read and post to?
I'm wondering if I should be posting my threads in both groups to include non-paying members as well.
Thanks.
Dirk
I can't recall if I posted this announcement yet, so apologies if this is a duplicate.
After some back & forth with Sol, we've decided to keep the Writing Tips & Advice group permanently as a replacement for the old site's similarly named forum. The new group's forum is open to anyone to read and you can post simply by joining (a single mouse click).
I found the old equivalent forum invaluable to me when I first started writing and would love to see it resurrected here. So far, activity has been very limited and not all original users of the old forum have signed up to the new group.
Perhaps this post will drum up a few extra members and some activity.
Sol has posted a tutorial book to the Writing Tips group, and I've commented, but it could use other's input.
Thanks.
Dirk
Or post it to the Writing Tips & Advice group that's already here on the site.
Dirk
