Young Writers Society

Yes, it has changed. But it isn't necessarily bad... just different.

When I first came here, the only chat room was a lame chat that nobody in their right mind used because it sucked so much. It was really bad. I did use it, but only to talk to smaur and tell her about my writing projects. I think she was freaked out about giving her IM accounts to me. So this community became a community of editors and writers, which was lovely. There were several cliques, of course, though none of the cliques consisted of the chatters. Mostly because the chat was HORRIBLE. And storybooks? PFFT. The storybook forum was dead. That is, sometimes people posted their stories accidentally in there, but otherwise it was dead.

There were dynamic avatars that, if you had a lot of points, you could change, but if you didn't have a lot of points (such as me) then your avatar was condemned to wear underwear forever. Of course, at that time, Firestarter had the most posts and the most points and also had the best looking avvie. Nate's was bald... I wondered whether he was actually bald. It was rather confusing. I finally decided, after seeing him get attacked by a monkey in one of those pictures that he has up that he wasn't, so he was doing false advertisements. Anyway, I desired points, so I constantly critiqued. And then Nate removed the dynamic avatars. Before he ended up pulling the plug on YWS the first time, I had about 80,000+ points. Ohhhh yeah. Critiquing is good.

When I first joined, I did so because I couldn't read any of the literary works. I remember that Nate had done a website called Quills or something, but because of the name, I thought it had to do with poetry and since I hated poetry, I didn't join it. When I saw the Young Writers Society, I thought it would be similar and, if it weren't for Shadow Knight, I probably would have dismissed it. But noooo... he wanted me to critique something, something that was only on YWS. And he wouldn't send me a Word file. So I joined it. And then I got hooked.

One of the things that struck me funny, when I first joined YWS, was how young the mods were. I mean, EBM was like... 14, maybe? Yet he was considered a mod. So the first thought I had was basically that YWS was going to be this out of control place that everyone would go crazy and it would be poorly moderated and I would be here for a couple of months before getting ticked off at the immaturity of the people and leave. But that... didn't happen. Now, as a moderator, I see that some of our best mods are the younger ones. So it's rather thrilling, actually.

The usergroups were there, but... they were also very different. First of all, the usergroups forums were DEAD. In fact, one of the reasons why usergroups could have points was because it was so dead that we wanted to boost the talk. Back in the day, before I was ever a mod, I had the most active usergroup around, also known as SPEW. We terrorized the site with thorough critiques. It was great. ^_^

Haha... oh yes, YWS has changed. Or maybe I have. But whatever. It's still as much YWS as it ever was.

I think YWS has changed for the better. I've been on here about two years, I think and all I've seen is improvment after improvment!

I don't know why people are so upset about the chat. I mean, yes, its a shame for the people who used it regularly, but why would you leave the site just because you can't chat? This is the Young Writers Society not Young Chatters Community. Just get over it people

I know that with the chat on, it felt like a community, which was great. I rarely ever went on to chat, but for me, YWS still felt like a community. I don't think we have lost that community, I haven't, at least.

I'm not exactly a Legend of YWS, like Snoink, Suzanne or Incandescance, but YWS has made me feel that I'm part of a community, that people can like you without even knowing you and that you can get stop using cliches

So, to all those upset about the chat: You haven't lost this community, YWS hasn't disappeared and don't leave this site because you can't get your own way

Upon seeing this topic, I thought it'd be a good idea to actually check how long I've been here. Wow. I must have the lowest post per day count of anyone.

I actually don't remember a lot about what the site was like when I joined. But then again, what I remember isn't a lot different from what we have here now. You can reel off a bunch of changes in appearance, size, features and whatever else, but I've been lurking here long enough to say that there hasn't been a lot of real significant changes. People post their work, other people tell them what they think, and sometimes they'll talk about other things besides writing. People still do these things, right? I'm sorry, I show up every now and then to see if Nate hasn't been overthrown and this site run by Eastern European militants. I mean, this no chat thing is entirely news to me.

Saying this place has changed is like saying one of your friends has changed because they're wearing different pants.

LOL.

That's kinda true, and kinda not. Its like seeing one of your friends after they've had a makeover and bought shiny new gadgets and things.

Lol, Legends of YWS, haha, that should be a group XD

Things change. I don't think YWS as an institution has changed, just the people in it, and that's how things are. People come and go over time and of course everyone thinks of their newb/regular period as the [whatever] when in fact it is always in flux.

Also, for the people complaining, I really don't think there is a better forum for young writers out there, so.

Also-also, for the people complaining, Starluck (who admin'ed my first forum) on her forum, which applies here, too:

Starluck wrote:"Our money, our board, our rules."

It's Nate's site, and that in mind, he's extremely democratic about the way it's run.

I really haven't been here that long, so I can't speak for much time, but I remember the chat, which I suppose counts for something.

Actually, I didn't even notice that the chat was gone until I read a few posts (in blogs and around) with people either whining or rationalizing about it. Then I did a little hunting and realized that "zomg! the chat is gone!" I didn't care much, mostly because I didn't chat all that often and the thing kicked me off so many times that I had all but given up anyway.

I don't know if YWS has changed much since I've been here, but I do know that I have changed. I've gotten more involved in the actually community lately, rather than just sticking to critiquing and thus not really getting to know anyone. I'm realizing just what an awesome group this is. It's not just a great place to read and review, but it's a great group to foster your love of writing and find other people that love it too. And of course, kick back and relax with sheer silliness at times.

Hmm... So how should I vote?

~GryphonFledgling

Ooer, Legends? That's a scary thought ><

But! Snoink, SPEW is still terrifying. Lemme be the first to tell you that. And the biggest change for YWS? Its size! As it keeps growing, there's more members and old members don't leave, they just seem quieter by sheer numbers! That's what's so cool! At least I think so! I mean, seriously! We always have new blood running around for a fresh perspective and to remind us how cool this place really is, if you think about it!

So yeah, it has changed, though a lot has also stayed the same, which is partly what keeps me here, too -- no matter how big, there's still those amazing critiques and the people who will debate the merits of a rather nonexistent Giants/Diamondbacks rivalry to physics to "cross-Atlantic spats" (as someone, I think Imp?, called the "discussions" Jack and I used to have) to politics in one breath. And that is what's so cool about this place, and that hasn't changed as long as I've been here.

I dunno, man. I'm kind of glad the chat's gone. This kid named Snoink (I don't think you know her) kept talking to me. It was CRAZY.

I've only been here since May but there have been little changes that I've noticed. More usergroups have been added, more people have joined, more people have disappeared then come back, Nate took away chat. All of those are good things. Sure, I miss talking to people there and asking for help if I'm stuck on a review but there's MSN, AIM, Yahoo! and all those other messenger devices that I can use for help instead. It was Nate's decison, not ours. Without chat, I can concentrate more on my writing, reviewing and participating more. Whoever said that once chat was gone, it weeded out all of those people who were only there to chat, I completly agree with them. I don't get in trouble for being online til three am, which is a bonus. I still feel there's a sense of community here and that's one of reasons I've stayed at this writing site.
Once school starts, people will probably be busy. I'm one of them but I plan on being as active as possible and since I have one computer class in both of my semesters, I'll probably get on during school hours. I did that a little last year. I was reading Character Development posts in the middle of Business and Marketing while people behind me were playing Uno for their free time. I'm guessing that YWS will change a little then or at least the Homework Help forum will be crowded.
In my opinion, its changed for the better but I don't really count as I have no idea how it was before I got here.