Writing.com's okay, but I haven't been on for a while since you had to pay for some things--chatroom, groups, ect.--but it's pretty good. Not very many reveiws, but you just have to be bold and make offers around the site for some crits. Yws beats it by far, though.
fictionpress.com is where I got started... I still post regularly too...
Personally, I think fictionpress is a good writing site to get started on, even if the feedback is not always that great... it amazes me how many reviews I get that do nothing to help me grow as an writer...
I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned it yet...
"Assert your right to make a few mistakes. If people can't accept your imperfections, that's their fault." - Dr. David M. Burns
I like fiction press a lot, and sometimes I'll spend some time just browsing it.
On TYWC ->> It's too bad that site is pretty much gone. David keeps on saying he plans on bringing it back one day, but I hope at least that he doesn't delete the site. Seeing as YWS is the successor to TYWC, maybe we should do another TYWC classics...
On Young Writers Guild ->> I didn't know that place was still around! I knew that Angie had started a successor to the original after Hakue disappeared, but I didn't think much became of it.
On The Writer's Cafe ->> That site really interests me. There's a lot of functions there that I would love to do on YWS but I just don't have the technical know how to pull it off. But, there's also some things that I like about YWS (stories on the front page, Bartemius quotes, chat room, the e-zine, the resources section, the forum, etc.).
By the way, if you know of a great writing site, check to see if it's in the Online Resources section. If it isn't already, then please add it!
Of those choices, I chose NaNoWriMo.org, because people are pretty helpful there, and next to YWS it's a place I pretty much visit daily (especially now that they'll be able to keep the NaNo board/site up all year! Maybe it'll stay active all year now). I've been to some of the other sites in the poll, and have definitely been to the sites mentioned in this thread.
I was there in the early days of Fictionpress, back when the original stories/poetry were just a section on fanfiction.net. I haven't posted anything there in years because I haven't had anything that I haven't wanted to someday publish, and since Fictionpress is a site that anyone can get access to, I haven't put anything up in recent years.
I've had accounts at writing.com and the fact that you have to pay some ridiculous fee throws me off from wanting to stay there. Not to mention that it doesn't seem to be very...organized in terms of site desine. It's kind of cluttered.
Now, if I wanted to toot my own horn, even though it still hasn't been all that active, I would add my Inspired Writers board to that list, although it's not "official" in the sense of having a .com or .org url.
Another site I would recommend to fantasy writers would be fantasy-writers.org. I haven't been too active there, and I haven't posted much, but the people are friendly, helpful, AND you can't see the writing without being logged in. I've been to The Writer's Cafe, too, but didn't stick around long. There've been a lot of sites I didn't stick around on...and one that I wish I had (although I don't currently remember the name of that particular site, sadly) when it was first around, because it eventually died and then it got brought back...and then the moderator took the site down again because they ran out of time or something, not long after the site was brought back.
I tried lots of other Writing sites before settling in with YWS.
And honestly, YWS beats them all. Here people are friendlier, more helpful, and just generally, I dunno, better?
I like how YWS is kinda a very close-knit community. I've gotten to know lots of the users who are online regularly, whereas on other sites no one cared about anyone else.
I also like it here because the Admin and Moderators (especially you Nate!) actually interact with everyone else. I've been to sites where the Admin are just faceless shadows who everyone hates blah blah blah, you know. I really appreciate that the Mods and Admin actually answer my questions that I PM them and are friendly. It just really makes a difference.
Does anyone remember the web site MyWriterBuddy.com? I think it was something like that. Basically, it was a site for finding writer buddies/mentors, but also much more than that. I really wish I had taken more advantage of it than I had when it was around. The people running it took it down, and it's such a shame. I would love to see that kind of site brought back again. If I had the resources, money, and web site knowledge I would be very, very tempted to bring it back myself. x.x
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