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Hi Mosha:

Not sure if this is the right place to put it but here goes...

I was thinking if we could perhaps form a "review" committee for people's writing.
Reviews, especially constructive ones are the best motivators for writers to keep coming back to the site. A few loyal and attentive readers is much better than the "impassive mass" that shows up on the hit count next to their posts.

Could we perhaps form a review group with the following regulations:

1. A set review format - Firebrand has an excellent post on this in the "review game post"
2. Minimum number of reviews published - I'll leave that for you to decide
3. Set a maximum number for the review board - allow for new applications and rotations between the existing members
4. Taking review requests - members may appeal to the board for their work to be reviewed (within reason of course)

I think this can be really helpful in stimulating a small, but tightly-knitted community that can attract more authors into our circle.

Those are interesting thoughts, thanks for bringing it up. As a side note, Firebrand was the first person who mentioned this with a plan and that's why he set up the Firebrand Coffee House, I want to give him credit for that.
My corcern is that the purpose of Fiction Master is to promote reading novel series online for the public and so I am hoping we can create activities that can engage readers to be a part of the forum.
Obviously I haven't achieve that yet, visitors of our forum who became members are mostly authors who are interested in joining us. Which is a great thing by the way, but I have being trying to get readers to register and engage here without much success.
This is your forum and so I hope we can all share our opinions on this.

First to bump!

I think the idea is but an extension from Firebrand. What I would like is a "formalised" way for works to be reviewed (kind of similar to your publication requirements for authors).

I think it's worth a try.

While this seems like a good idea, I fear that having a heavily regimented requirement for reviews would turn off some people from doing. The Review Game exists for people who crave structure for reviews, and are willing to exchange in that format.
A structured review type would benefit authors, yes, but we should not alienate coming reviewers who want to just come, read stories, and then leave a little snippet of feedback.

I'm of the opinion that some forms of "regulation" is needed for quality control. I think the requirement for weekly updates and a minimum word limit are good rules for better writing. Therefore, I think it would make sense to have a review board of similar standards. If we can build a reputation for giving out constructive feedback at great regularity, then we can attract more authors to the site.

I don't think this "board" would potentially alienate other reviewers who leave small snippets since participation is optional. We could perhaps give this idea a trial run. If we can't involve sufficient number of members however, then the thing is off. How does that sound?

I will have a chat with JackKu, another Admin, tomorrow and see what he thinks.

I think the site would grow more if there were a few more threads for the general readers. I think an official meets and greets would be great. Maybe a My pets section, folks love to talk about their dogs and cats, horses etc.

The more of a. . . this is home feeling . . . you can create, the more readers and authors you will have returning. We need to create more interaction with our readers too. Is it a no no, to comment on our own threads, a couple of times trying to get readers to speak to us. Something like. Oh come on, didn't you just love the scene where Mike road in on his Harley.. or I just love Romance what did you like best about this chapter?

I've bounced around reading the rules, and not really felt that I understand what the rules are for posting on your own thread.

You have a great start to a forum, it just needs a bit more personal interaction to make people feel invested.



Samantha Lovern

I saw this on another forum I frequent: a "Post a Scene" thread.

Basically, it's a place for writers to showcase a scene they've written that's shorter than a chapter. They can get feedback on it, or maybe attract a new reader or two with their short blurb. A writer just posts a scene that's a page or two (or maybe even only a few short paragraphs) and other people look it over. That, or it can just serve as a "trailer" for a particular story.

It would also give us writers a chance to showcase work that we post elsewhere. Though I post Sin here, I have plenty of other stories that I post on Fictionpress and beyond.