Young Writers Society

Strikeout text is a must for writing forums (revision tools), and I know that it is possible because Proboards uses it. I bet you can even add it fairly easily, just find the html code for it and make a tag!

what is strikeout text?
I'd like to know so I can agree or disagree

text wid a line thru da middle yo

Okay, I've been thinking a little bit more, and I think the profile page needs to be tweaked. My understanding in PHP is limited, so I'm not sure how you can accomplish this, or even if it's possible, but these are things I think would be neat.

1. Top three works.

For the few of us who have many works on YWS, there are some works we desperately want critiques on and others that we don't really care about because it might be old, etc. So something which might be cool is allowing users to choose three of their stories or poems and putting them on the profile page. This way, if someone is interested in critiquing a particular person's work, that someone can easily look at what they choose to read and critique.

2. More information about critiquing styles.

It might be a good idea to have an area about critiquing styles. For example, what different genres a person will or will not critique. So then, if I want someone to look at my poem, but I see that the person doesn't like critiquing poetry, I can avoid that person and ask someone else. And that might make fewer critiquers frustrated at getting asked to critique poetry when they're TERRIBLE at doing that.

On a similar note, this information about a member's style of critiquing might have information about what he looks at in a story, poem, etc. For example, if I were to write about my critiquing style, I would say that, primarily I look at grammar and sentence structure. This area would include information like this.

3. A critiquing list

I'm really bad at keeping track of all the requests for critiquing, so I think it would be nice to have something to keep track of it. Right now, I'm using "My Favorites." What I think might be really helpful if we put the watched topics on the "My YWS" page instead of just providing a link. Or something along those lines. And, if it was possible, maybe we can have an option of NOT getting emails everytime someone replies? That would be good.

Anyway... that's what I've come up with. I hope I've made a little bit of sense.

Strikeout would be useful for showing authors what words can be deleted!

Snoink's ideas sound cool too.

I'd also like it if we changed the points system so that you could get a maximum of 100 posts. At the moment, I get the same amount of points if I write a five sentence critique or an 8 page critique. This would be a sure-fire way to get longer reviews.

I agree. I don't feel particularly motivated if I only get 50 points for a critique I worked really hard on.

Griffinkeeper wrote:I'd also like it if we changed the points system so that you could get a maximum of 100 posts. At the moment, I get the same amount of points if I write a five sentence critique or an 8 page critique. This would be a sure-fire way to get longer reviews.

I'm wondering if it's possible to award 50 points per 75 words, or something like that. Because as someone who writes obscenely long critiques — yeah, the fact that a 14-paged critique gets as much recognition (point-wise) as a 50-word critique/comment is not amazing motivation to slave 4+ hours on something like that.

Then you're punishing brevity and encouraging rambling. I'm not saying you ramble on your long critiques but 50 points every 75 words is extreme. I think we could have brackets, that progressively get larger:

0-75 words = 50 points
76-250 words = 100 points
251-500 words = 150 points
501-1000 words = 200 points
1001-2000 words = 250 points

I think this would be better. People who write larger critiques will still be awarded handsomely, and those that like to keep it short (but still pick up on a lot) get extra points too. Seems fairer.

A good idea, critique-rule reform... But I agree with Jack -- no need to reward gargantuan posts to the detriment of the concise.

I'm liking that idea. You've got my vote!

We also need new buddy and weblog buttons for the dark styles. In other words--Nate, if you have the PSD file for the buttons, send 'em over; if not, tell me and I'll take care of it myself.

Firestarter wrote:0-75 words = 50 points
76-250 words = 100 points
251-500 words = 150 points
501-1000 words = 200 points
1001-2000 words = 250 points

This seems a lot better than the points system that we have right now. Maybe we could employ that in just the literary sections? Would that cause more problems that employing it all over?

And Snoink's idea of having the top three works that you want critiqued listed in your profile sounds like an excellent idea to me. I'd love to see that one come about if it's possible.

I like that Jack. Now, would it work?

I'd like to second (third, fourth?), the strikeout code text thingy.. it makes crits a lot easier at times. So, could you do that, Nate?

Snoink wrote: And, if it was possible, maybe we can have an option of NOT getting emails everytime someone replies? That would be good.

Anyway... that's what I've come up with. I hope I've made a little bit of sense.

Go to edit your prefences under My YWS. The option has always been there. The other things you brought up are good ideas but unfortunately not possible.

i would like a chatroom but with two people at a time instead of loads (it could be in our profiles but it only works if there online)