Comments Sought On YWS

Ever since I've joined YWS, what I loved about it most (though at first found difficult to navigate. ^_~) was how uniquely it was set up. I was used to forums that looked like Teenagewriters.com or Writingforums.com, so I came here, and it was so strange! Sure, I had to beg Snoink to tell me how to find my way around, but I think with the changes you have made to the navigation in the past year and a half or so have helped a lot. Even if it is old, the set up, organization, and style of YWS is elegant and superb.

I don't think I would ask for an update unless I knew what I was getting YWS into!

As for problems, I don't really have any. Just general whines and complaints, which are silly things anyway, and don't actually change my enjoyment of the site, haha.

YWS better stay the way it is now or I shall be so lost =P. I like how YWS is set up. Other forum sites are so confusing and take forever to navigate around. Plus this is the Young Writers Society. When the younger kids come here I think the first thing they see is how simple and self explanatory this site is. If we had this huge modern site with all of these useless things it would be chaotic.

Personal Verdict: I think YWS does not need a makeover. Perhaps some improvements here or there once and a while.

~Lupe

I think this site is brilliant. A choice of skins would be nice, but thats just me being picky

I think what JFW said about giving the author a way to say "I'm done with this. No more critiques" would be good. This bumping up of old threads is getting kind of out-of-hand. Old stuff getting bumped up bumps down the new stuff, which is bad.

Other than that, I think it's great. Not out-of-date at all and pretty easy to figure out, as many above me have pointed out.

I think this site is brilliant. A choice of skins would be nice, but thats just me being picky Razz

There is a choice of skins, actually though I suppose that could be expanded. If you go to 'My YWS' and then 'My Preferences', there's a choice of four different skins (board styles) for the site.

Thanks all for the comments. Eventually, I am going to have to do the update, but it's good to know I can take possibly years to do it.

The Random Story idea is one that I couldn't do when it was first proposed, but maybe I could now.

Anything else that needs to be improved, or you would like to see? I just thought of this, but how come the Resources area is seldom visited? Is it too clunky, confusing, or something else? Or is it just that it's an area that really only needs to be visited once a month or so?

Heheh. I rarely notice the buttons right of the "Writing" one. If you move it between the "YWS" button and "Community" button, maybe people (or, at least, long-time users who habitually only use certain buttons and are tunneled-visioned to everything else) will notice and use it? That's just based on my experience with it, though.

As for the rest of the site, I agree that it's great as-in. Of course, if you could ever find it somewhere deep down in your heart of admin hearts and knowledge to bring back the noteboard theme....9.9 Too bad that's never going to happen. *le sigh*

I have noticed that the True Blue and Light board styles don't have drop-down menus and are harder to navigate.

The only beef I have with YWS is that some of the layout is cut off with my screen resolution. I can't see usernames or user informations at the side of the posts. My screen is set at 800x600 pixels by the way.

We have a Resources section? *goes to hunt for it*

Crysi ->> You're joking?

Hellodaydream ->> Unfortunately, the only thing that can be done about that is if you change the resolution on your computer to something else. It'll improve your browsing on the web in general for as websites go, YWS is probably one of the friendlier ones to those with an 800 by 600 resolution.

Perra ->> Haha, I'm guilty of that as well.


Anyhow, it obviously appears that something needs to be done with Resources. Once upon a time, I saw that as the key to turning YWS into a portal. By the way, it's great for checking up on writing opportunities every now and then; we usually get one publisher added something every month. Plus, the knowledge base has articles on practically everything.

I think I also may do a survey. It'd be pretty in-depth (might take as long as 30 minutes to complete), so would people be interesting in doing it? It'd be kept anonymous, and the questions would be on stuff ranging from the trivial (how many times per week do you visit YWS) to the mundane (if you have five apples, and two are taken away, how many apples do you have left?).

Perhaps Resources could be advertised around the site? Like we have the random user box, we could have a box advertising Resources. A sort of promotional campaign? The contents of Resources could be advertised, too. Like:

Got excess commas or a sentence that just wont work itself out? Can't figure out what's wrong with your character? Don't know how to make your latest poem work? Check out YWS's Knowledge Base: articles written by young writers, for young writers! Found in YWS's Resources.

Unrelated to the above: do we have a YWS site map? An easily-accessible and readable one may be helpful to newcomers. Heck, even oldcomers.

Hmm, if the survey would help YWS, I'd take it.

P.S. YWS has a throwpillow?! Whoa!! *discovering YWS's hidden secrets, a.k.a. everything not in the Groups, Writing, and Community boards.*

I just thought of this, but how come the Resources area is seldom visited? Is it too clunky, confusing, or something else? Or is it just that it's an area that really only needs to be visited once a month or so?

It's a sleek setup, but it's so different from the rest of the forum that I tend to forget about it, especially since updates aren't included in the posts lists. I wasn't aware that new things were being added, but I'll start checking now!

I'd be glad to take a survey on the site, Nate.

I'd take the survey!

I agree with Perra with the ads, but I think that it should link to a certain aticle, and switch when you change pages, so more get visited. (Like random member.)

I still like the 'I'm done with this' button...

And I think the text in the resources page it too big. O.o

Maybe there could be contests for the resources page? Get people writing more in there? There isn't too much to add, which is the problem, but maybe we could start doing things where you wrote on a topic, like an animal or ships or something? So if someone wanted to write something on wolves, they'd have a resource right here, plus Google. ;P

Please don't change the order of the buttons, Nate! It'll get me confused! ;P

~JFW1415

I wouldn't mind do a survey.

And i argee with everyone else, the forum is great as it is. Fast, efficient, i really cant think of anything wrong with it.

Though a new skin would be nice