How to Get Reads: A Social Experiment |
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Lulumacmac
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 28 Jul 2021 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 3844 |
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Ah, so maybe just gremlins in the system then! The forum is gloriously stuck in 2001 😂
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I will return overdue reads (so sorry!) I promise but I just need to take a break from NYCM for a bit. I will be back! Big love.
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PickyNikki
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 06 Feb 2018 Status: Offline Points: 670 |
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Because I like to give specific feedback, do most of my forumming on my phone, and have shoddy detail recall at times, I find it more difficult to provide feedback on those who post a link vs their story. I love being able to view the story while writing my response, so I’m definitely drawn to stories that are visible and don’t require an extra click / toggle. Anyone else feel this way?
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Silverlock
NYC Midnight Regular Joined: 22 Jan 2022 Location: Brocéliande Status: Offline Points: 352 |
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This is a classic feature of the special social niche that is The Online Forum. Twenty years ago, in the heyday of online forums (before those darn kids came long with their Facebooks and their Twitters) this was almost universal. A typical online forum was an incredibly insular tribal community, with its own hierarchies, wise elders, taboos, sacred texts, etc. Newbies were inevitably regarded as children and fools whose initiation into the group had to be gradual. Obviously, it was entirely possible that the new person might actually know a lot about writing (or gardening, or Dungeons and Dragons, or WWII history, or what have you) but acknowledging such expertise in a newbie was rare. This probably says something profound about the fundamental ways in which the ape species homo sapiens sapiens forms social organizations.
Edited by Silverlock - 30 Jan 2023 at 3:34pm |
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"The third is the maker's drink, no bottom limit to quality guaranteed, and no top specified."
-- Silverlock by John Myers Myers |
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Bridget
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 22 Apr 2020 Location: NZ Status: Offline Points: 1826 |
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Super interesting post, thank you!
I remember very well when I was brand new on the forum. Giving a read almost always resulted in getting a read, and some of the feedback was truly invaluable. The reminder that forum 'points' have no correlation to how good a writer or story is is also important. When giving feedback, I try to have the same attitude toward someone who joined the forum yesterday and someone who's been there 10 years. I also like when posters specify what kind of feedback they want (i.e, be gentle/be ruthless or somewhere in between). Regardless, I'll always put something positive in the feedback. On a side note, there is an underlying feeling that some people act like they own the forum but what can you do...
Edited by Bridget - 30 Jan 2023 at 3:52pm |
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taaaylor
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 14 Jul 2018 Location: Idaho Status: Offline Points: 6946 |
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I don't think this is a fair characterization of this forum. I grew up in the forum age. I cut my teeth on early writing forums and the brutality of mid-2000s "suck it up buttercup" mentality. This forum is absolutely nothing like that. It's actually been shocking to me how *different* it is compared to most of my writing forum experiences. If it was what you're describing, I wouldn't have continued engaging to get to this level of posting I only have so many posts here because it's such an excellent community and I feel a strong call to contribute and keep helping writers here. Tbh, I find it pretty frustrating to see this characterization continue to be carried out without any evidence. Especially when there are critiquers here who spend SO much time helping out new members and going out of their way to make them feel welcome, like Lulumacmac, jhenn, timmytimtimothy, Camsyn Clair, WhistlerCrowe, manifestlynot, alelha, Barbara_FL, catnamedeaster, cford, Freefallr, Draiglas, Janetinputney, Sheri M, jimiflan2, NMiller, popsiclecrows, lisafox, pondsandfrogs... literally more than I can name. Like, just look at this list. Six pages of people in the highest forum rank available: https://forums.nycmidnight.com/members.asp?SF=&GID=9&PN=1 It's SUPER uncool that this thread has invited random, unfounded criticism of vague unnamed people when there are so many excellent contributors here who don't deserve that at all. :/ ETA: Just for kicks, here's my first-ever NYCM story thread: https://forums.nycmidnight.com/ch1-gr-61-an-early-retirement-spy_topic18436_page1.html Sure, this was 5 years ago. But the feedback was overwhelmingly kind and constructive. It has been the defining characteristic of my experience from the very start.
Edited by taaaylor - 30 Jan 2023 at 4:09pm |
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CHartman
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 08 Oct 2021 Location: BC, Canada Status: Offline Points: 2526 |
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Definitely this!! I recently received a very detailed comment outlining exactly what they would have done with my prompts - creating a completely different story while at the same time not acknowledging any thing they liked about my actual submission only that they dislike EVERYTHING. That type of critique is decidedly unhelpful and would have scared me away when I was new here. I believe if you don't have anything nice to say... just move on to another story.
Edited by CHartman - 30 Jan 2023 at 3:51pm |
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Deschain
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 18 Nov 2022 Location: Baltimore, MD Status: Offline Points: 689 |
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There's a trick I used last time that works pretty well. About 2-3 weeks after the round, when activity on here has died down, you'll start seeing the same person review 5 or 6 in a row (first 2-3 weeks there's too much activity to see a pattern). For instance if you go back a day you can see a block of 5 or 6 entries where MelaneeJ is the last commenter. If I saw someone like that I would read their story. Wasn't a guarantee that they'd comment back, but if someone sits down and does 5 in a row over the course of 40min (which you can also see), they'll likely review your story.
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jennifer.quail
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 07 Feb 2018 Status: Offline Points: 7931 |
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Yeah, I've found with the new "master list" I don't review nearly as much---I'm more likely to check out ones from people who reviewed mine if they have it in their sig file, I will usually try to hunt down other people in my heat, but I'm much less likely to "browse" and review at random. I also tend, if I see a story very rapidly has four or five pages of reviews in the first few days it's up, to not bother with that one unless I'm returning a review. If that many people have already reviewed, I'm probably not going to come up with anything new to add at that point. |
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nod1v1ng
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 26 Jul 2016 Location: ChillybytheSea Status: Offline Points: 12497 |
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I 100% agree that the new ML is not as convenient and probably impacts how stories are read. Although, as someone who has spent literally hundreds of hours (wo)maning Master Lists (as a volunteer), I don't miss those days nor do I wish that work on anyone else...
Edited by nod1v1ng - 30 Jan 2023 at 4:53pm |
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Silverlock
NYC Midnight Regular Joined: 22 Jan 2022 Location: Brocéliande Status: Offline Points: 352 |
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Yes, we have evolved since the early days of the Web. People on this site are friendly and welcoming, and I should have said so. I am sorry if I caused any offense; the quality of discussion here is the reason why this is the only forum I am a member of. The positive attitude here might possibly result from the bullying and nastiness having migrated to the big social media sites like Twitter. A special interest forum like this one is now relatively rare compared to the old days. Maybe people value it more because it feels more special? Or maybe the forum setup naturally filters out people who only want to write 280-character hot takes, now that there are more convenient venues for that?
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"The third is the maker's drink, no bottom limit to quality guaranteed, and no top specified."
-- Silverlock by John Myers Myers |
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