Wtf?!

[Mike]

I worked my @ss off all day and all week, and I come here to visit the Quill and chill you know. And now look what happened! What idiot messed it up?!

Well... Me.

The place has been upgraded, a bit before it should. You can blame me for not paying attention, for being insensitive, for being an idiot, and a lot more. I just did some things I shouldn't have and then figured whether we should go back to what we had or use this as a new start. I think I chose that last option and learn to deal with this new thing as we go.

if you miss anything, let me know.

The layout is certainly an issue....

[sir archely]

I'll try to keep my itchy hands from pushing any buttons until it's more completely transitioned. :)

I'm definitely looking forward to playing with the articles though.

[Mike]

Go ahead and play. It's learning on the go anyway. The articles thing is the main thing why I didn't revert back, by the way. I'm interested in ideas people have. The current stuff on the frontpage needs to go asap!

[AquaFizz]

It won't let me update my picture. Is this just me having a blonde moment/life or is something wrong?

Also, to the left, there is that list of categories (pretty sure they have a different name, but I've forgotten it already). How do you make things fit into those categories? Is it just based on the tagging system? If you put them in there will it remove them from where they were originally posted or can they be in two places?

[Mike]

The pic may be an issue. My pic disappeared completely.

The category thing is just limited to admins right now. That's something we have to work out. Who can do what and where and when...

[Malcor Sylverwood]

~frolicks in genericness~

:D

[Anita Blake]

ha! turns out the change also messed up my bookmarks for the quill. I kept on getting 404 errors until I dropped everything past .net. (i had the forum page set up as my bookmark). Even though the address doesn't seem to have actually changed (enchantedquill.net/forum.php), my old bookmarks just don't cut it. Weirdness.

[AquaFizz]

Hey! Chat is gone?!

[Mike]

My plan works! Can you image the Blakester, sitting behind her shiny new computer, tapping the F5 key frantically in an attempt to get passed the 404's. I will sleep like a baby tonight :halo:

[Amelia]

Im glad I found this post cause I come on here and its all different and I finally found the forums and nobody was talking about how different the place is so then I thought it was just me.

You still rock, Mike but you did scare me. Maybe I shouldnt get on the internet until I wake up completely.

[Corvus Corax]

ha! turns out the change also messed up my bookmarks for the quill. I kept on getting 404 errors until I dropped everything past .net. (i had the forum page set up as my bookmark). Even though the address doesn't seem to have actually changed (enchantedquill.net/forum.php), my old bookmarks just don't cut it. Weirdness.

Had the exact same thing. Luckily behind my brother's computer, so it got most of my static instead of my own computer.

Soooo, I really seem to miss parchment.....

[Anita Blake]

haha! I'm too clever for that. (OK, actually, is F5 the shortcut for refresh? I had no idea!) I just clicked with a worried frown on my face, and then did some fancy select-and-delete until something happened. Then I got really confused when it was like... not the Quill. But sort of was. Then when I clicky-clicked on the forum button, all was revealed to me, and life was much better.

[SonoftheSands]

Nicely done Mike. love it.

[Amos]

~taunts~

Quill you are so uuuuugly!

(not that she wasn't before but I was used to it :p )

[Mike]

Okay, I sort of recreated the Quill layout, but really really really fast. It's still a huge mess, but at least it's Quilly. The mess is gonna last forever as everything is quite different, and layout and page building is not my thing.

[Amelia]

thank you for making it more quilly, Im less traumatized now.

**toussels and gooses Mike**

[Buck]

The white/silver/brightgrey parts are making my eyes bleed.

*starts stabbing*

[Anita Blake]

oh, it looks a billion times better already! You're a hero Mike!

[Mike]

Weeeee! ~puts on mask and cape and an indecently tight suit~

[Apoc]

Weeeee! ~puts on mask and cape and an indecently tight suit~

In the wise words of Edna Multz...."No Capes!"

[Amelia]

I like my superhero men with capes.

[AquaFizz]

sigh. I can't find my user cp. I feel so lost and confused and idiotic.

Oh, but it does look WAY better!

And, I think all superheros ought to have cool masks too. Zorro or Batman versions are acceptable.

[Mike]

~points up~ There, all the way at the toppest top of the page, there's your username, and a Facebook connect button, and profile, and settings links. The settings link is the ol' user cp.

~flies off into the sunset~

[Buck]

Mike, the Quill looks much better now, you the man!

*walks out of the thread making swooshing noises with a kitchen towel wrapped around his neck*

[ChronoDmin]

wow so skynet came in and finally took over the Quill

Nice work Mike, I think it looks great

[Mike]

Dunno about skynet, but there's this weird dude saying he'll be back.

Wish I had time to work on the looks ~sigh~

[Amelia]

Im OK with it now, it looks more like the quill so I can now handle the different things now.

Im also not hungover and can think. unlike the first day of the changes.

[Apoc]

Has anyone tried the facebook connect? I don't get it and am unsure of linking it with my fb account, what will it do? Will it make the quill like a group on facebook or something? Is that something that may be getting scrapped anyway so no point it setting it?

[dark fuschia]

i don't want fb people knowing about the quill, because I like to complain about some of them here.

[sir archely]

Will it make the quill like a group on facebook or something?

As I understand it, basically it's this. ^ People can login using their facebook names, news feed is put on their wall when they reply to or start threads (as if they were replying to someone else's wall), it will fetch data from facebook for their profile on here, and it'll give you facebook notifications to your email when stuff happens on here. Among other things. Like I said, I haven't tried it myself, mostly because I hate letting facebook have control like that.

[Apoc]

So with mike mentioning a site clean up i just wanna give my two cents...Our Arena I think should be scrapped. The War the only thing worth keeping and i think that could be moved into the inkwell. Theories and Spoilers should be scrapped too. Yeah the Crimson Heretics Brigade I think should be scrapped too, hidden as a subforum like that doesn't work, i think it'd work better as an article rather than a forum anyway. I think the rep system needs an upgrade and i'd like the front page to be sorted out with it worked out exactly what we want up there and who we want to do it. I like the idea of subgroups but we have nothing for them to actually be of use.

I like the idea of an entertainment subforum, we already have quite a few active threads for film, tv, games and music. I think that should replace the theories/spoilers subforum. Totally redundant, inactive threads i think should be moved to archives or something.

But yeah, anyways, i like that the quill has put some make up on but i think it needs a facelift.

[AquaFizz]

This may be irrelevant but I just want to say that I hate change. I never really realized it, either, until you started talking about scrapping things and giving special people permission to do special things. THEN, I began to freak out with questions like, "What?! What if something I like gets scrapped" and "How come I'M not a front pager" (Followed, of course, by: "What do you MEAN my life isn't interesting and my jokes aren't funny?!"). I realize we've always had those people but somehow I've been able to ignore it and think of it more as a Mike-power...deciding what's good enough for the front page. And, also, I understand the need to scrap threads that aren't being used. But, still. I'm slightly weirded out by all the change. Let's not get too drastic all at once, please!?

Edit: ALSO...why is my post all squished in to the left side of the posting space for me, but other people's spread all the way across the posting space?

[JEDIWAN]

i don't want fb people knowing about the quill, because i like to complain about some of them here.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[sir archely]

I think the point of the front pager stuff is that if you have a good idea, and want to commit to writing something of decent quality for the front page, give us a pitch, and there's a good chance we'll give you the permission. Even moreso if you write up a few articles to preview. That's not to say we're going to approve everything.

Also, if people are worried about a long term time committment (like it was with the old system), the new front page system is great. If you want, you could potentially take a weekend day, write up 12 articles, and we could publish them once a month over the course of a year with very little effort, and no effort on your part. It might not work for, say, reviewing current movies, but for a lot of things, you don't have to worry about getting something in "on time."

With the scrapping of certain things... a)feedback about what portions of the site are important to you is great for us to have. so don't hesitate in letting us know. b)anything we "scrap" is likely to be archived, not necessarily deleted, so if it turns out something you like is missing, it's not that hard to retrieve it. That said, it's a good idea to save writings you want to have for yourself on your own machine anyway. The Quill isn't impervious to file loss. Personal backups are a good thing.

[Apoc]

I think the point of the front pager stuff is that if you have a good idea, and want to commit to writing something of decent quality for the front page, give us a pitch, and there's a good chance we'll give you the permission. Even moreso if you write up a few articles to preview. That's not to say we're going to approve everything.

Well I think you guys need to tell us then what you want for the front page. I don't know about other members but in my mind it's going to be hard enough getting articles up, the quill is not exactly a massively active site with a large membership or readership for there to be a professional bar set for article submission.

At present i think it would be a stretch to get even five writers to commit to writing just one article per month with this thought that if even one of you dislikes the work/idea presented then it would be dismissed.

Why take your time to do this when it could just be thrown away or rejected? To me, i'd very much like to write on the frontpage but at the moment why commit to it if it could be dismissed when i could just write it without pre-post admin review on the forum?

Yes i'd like to make the frontpage better but at the moment the only difference with writing on it and on the forums is for the poster to commit to writing something of higher standard constantly that could be discarded....and to me that seems a waste of time. I agree that the frontpage should have a good standard, but for a good flow of articles i strongly feel you guys need lay down what you want and for members to write toward that on the forums if they so choose, not for members to write ideas and articles and submit them to you for approval.

The new frontpage could be very cool but by restricting it i think it could be very empty.

[Buck]

I'm going to agree with the points apoc brings up.

Why bother writing something if the likelihood of getting it posted on the front page is only "a good chance"? Writing something worth submitting would presumably take a bit of work, and the potential of it being for naught is not appetizing nor coaxing. More so, like apoc said, we can just post it in the forums and not worry about it at all. While I do understand wanting to adhere to some standard, without laying out the specifics of where the bar is set, it's not very fair to people actually putting in said potential effort.

Might be a good idea to start with one single themed section, with open submissions for everyone and post what you get. And take it from there.

[sir archely]

I think, what we'd like to do have the front page be is not simply an extension of the forums. And when I'm talking about the "good chance" you both hooked onto, it was in reference to the permission to have front pager status, not permission for each and every article. And at this point, like I said, even a good pitch for an idea is likely to get you permission. Writing an article or two would just be gravy for us, and I'd say the best way to actually make a pitch would be to just write the first article.


Yes i'd like to make the frontpage better but at the moment the only difference with writing on it and on the forums is for the poster to commit to writing something of higher standard constantly that could be discarded....and to me that seems a waste of time. I agree that the frontpage should have a good standard, but for a good flow of articles i strongly feel you guys need lay down what you want and for members to write toward that on the forums if they so choose, not for members to write ideas and articles and submit them to you for approval.

Okay, for starters, there is nothing stopping us from "promoting" a post from the forums to an article on the front page. It is, in fact, what Mike did with Anita's movie review post on Daybreakers. So if you want to be part of the system where you just write things on the forum and they may get promoted, then you're already doing that. Having people who have permission to write articles on the front page and are committed to doing so just makes it that much easier for us, and ensures a flow of content. The fact that articles go by an admin before they are "published" mostly ensures consistency in location and timing.
The problem with establishing hard and fast guidelines for what qualifies for a front page article is that it's basically impossible. Word count? won't apply to a comic or poetry, among others. Factual? Fictional? Serious, silly? whatever works. I think if one tried to put a finger on a standard, it would be to say, is this something that would appear in an extremely amateurish newspaper with lazy editors? If the answer is yes, it'll likely be a front page article.

For example, apoc, the article you submitted. A sentence or two and a rating about a single movie. Not likely to be published. Expand that to a sentence or two and a rating about a five or ten movies (possible themes even: new releases, old gems, movies to avoid, action flicks, etc), I can't (http://www.enchantedquill.net/threads/93-Movie-Review?p=102738&viewfull=1#post102738) imagine (http://www.enchantedquill.net/threads/93-Movie-Review?p=102754&viewfull=1#post102754) this would be a very difficult task for you. Apoc's Movie Bites.

[Amos]

Also agreeing with Apoc up in here. Your "open-door but talk with the inscrutable receptionist first before being admitted to the office" policy is clearly not helpful for people who want to contribute but don't know where to begin. I think that more people will respond if you make some specific requests for specific pieces. A poem on the theme of tigers, a weekly column about winged monkeys, a portrait of a city where you live or the kennels you grew up in.. Being arbitrators of what is suitable and what isn't is not good enough if you frighten away people with romantic categories like "whatever works". The front page is a publication as opposed to the toilet-wall scribbles of the forums, and while both represent the community they serve different functions. The function of the former, the "chosen" content, is a formal representation of who we are and what we are about, and it's up to you lazy admins to decide more explicitly what we need in order to best communicate our extreme amateurishness.

That said I wouldn't mind writing a column myself since I'll be gleefully out of work soon, and I'll be happy to submit a proposal but wouldn't exactly balk at suggestions either since I have no clear intentions about what subject/s I want to write on. I can offer my services as an editor as well as far as punctuation and grammar and other tedious matters are concerned, although everyone here seems to be fairly well-written anyway, so there likely wouldn't be much to do that you sods can't handle yourselves.

[Apoc]

For example, apoc, the article you submitted. A sentence or two and a rating about a single movie. Not likely to be published. Expand that to a sentence or two and a rating about a five or ten movies (possible themes even: new releases, old gems, movies to avoid, action flicks, etc)

See, that is good to know. Although I hereby rule myself out of being the quills movie reviewer. But yeah, that kind of outline and example is what i think you guys need to provide for members to commit to and start to write. Maybe a thread for idea submission and feedback?

[sir archely]

Here's the thing though, I think the inscrutable receptionist is only such because they don't have all the answers and don't exactly know what they're doing either. I think the point is that we have a great group of core members here and we're looking to tap into those skills and creativity. Instead of specific direction for submissions, the idea is more to see what people come up with. I also think people are far more inclined to write and create about or for something they personally are interested in. Sure, we could put out calls for this and that, but we'd never come up with as many ideas as people around here may have on their own. I think you guys are thinking our "standards" are much higher than they actually will be or are. I mean, check out the poem that's up there now, and some of the old front page stuff, and it's enough to indicate our standards aren't really that high.

If the front page is supposed to be a sort of polished reflection of the site, it's got to be a reflection of the users. If we as admins just say, hey this i what we want, that's not going to be the case. I would say, especially at the beginning here, as long as whatever you come up with is something you'd find cool, and you're willing to put in a tad more effort than you would for your everday forum post, it'd probably be fine. There are literally an infinite amount of possibilities here. Some ideas I have had in the past...

series of short stories (themed, or genred maybe); episodic novella (or even novel); monthly/weekly silly/amusing/comical horoscope column; comic, movie/book/game reviews; cooking column, recipe of the week or something; a host of environmental themes (interesting flora or fauna, wild edibles, species identification, environmental issues/ethics, tips on how to improve your impact); technology/gadget news; travel journal/experience;

I think a key is to consider what you're interested in, what hobbies you may have right now. For example, I am just getting into gardening, if i weren't already sort of blogging that, i'd maybe consider doing a column about my experiences as a new gardener.

We have made specific requests in the past, and not gotten very far. What do you all want to see on the front page?

[Buck]

Some ideas I have had in the past...

series of short stories (themed, or genred maybe); episodic novella (or even novel); monthly/weekly silly/amusing/comical horoscope column; comic, movie/book/game reviews; cooking column, recipe of the week or something; a host of environmental themes (interesting flora or fauna, wild edibles, species identification, environmental issues/ethics, tips on how to improve your impact); technology/gadget news; travel journal/experience;

I think a key is to consider what you're interested in, what hobbies you may have right now. For example, I am just getting into gardening, if i weren't already sort of blogging that, i'd maybe consider doing a column about my experiences as a new gardener.

We have made specific requests in the past, and not gotten very far. What do you all want to see on the front page?

You guys would accept tech articles? That I was not expecting.
I'll need to think on it a bit more, but I'd love to do a tech column of some sort.

[sir archely]

Heh, it's maybe at this point that I should mention that another problem with the admins coming up with standards is that we are not always on the same page. While we have had a bit of discussion in the admin forum about the new front page, it has not been extensive, and the discussion is rather taking place out here in the open (a good thing, I think). I think a tech column would be cool, but I honestly don't know how any other admins would react. Though, there's also the "speak now or forever hold your peace" rule in play. Any other admins want to jump in and contradict me?

I did think of one hard and fast rule I will not budge on: It must be primarily original material you have written for the Quill specifically, and any unoriginal material must have citations or be in the public domain or otherwise have free use indicated. Generally in this format, a simple link citation would suffice.

oh, and here's a few more ideas: photo/art series; original poetry series; classic poetry series with dramatic reading recordings attached; new to ______, where the blank could be anything from pet ownership, parent, driver, roleplaying, college student, profession, etc; choose your own adventure story (this would be more difficult, but fun i think); ask ____ or advice column (hard to do without submissions, but then, it also might be amusing to write a fictional advice column as well);

[Mike]

I'm not contradicting ;)

[night faerie]

LOL you guys are so funny. arch, perhaps you should just have said, "All articles submitted for front page will be approved for front page use and will be coordinated by a secret appointed coordinator for timely posting." (the secret part is just so he/she doesn't have to field complaints. Ok, maybe also because I just have to taunt you guys, hahahahaha!) We can always just veto later if we really need to and likely the only reasons would be dumb stuff noone would do anyway like excessive use of pornography or like you said, plagarism or something. How come I can't spell tonight?

ok that's not what I was gonna say in this post, what was it??? oh yes! I adamantly oppose the facebook linking. Can we get rid of it? I know, I'm currently mildly addicted to facebook (stupid games! Can we get stupid games for the Quill I can get addicted to?) but there's too much traffic on Facebook, too many viruses being passed around and I'd rather keep The Quill pristine. ~fluffs Quills pillows~

[Apoc]

So where then should members submit ideas/articles for admin approval/feedback? I still think you should provide a rough guide, coz you do know what you sort of want...one guideline that you seem to think was evident but to me wasn't was that reviews should be more than say 200 words and I guess something else that you want is for reviews not to be personalised but to be an actual critical review, yes, no?

This is just my opinion but I think the readership/target audiance for the front page would be for non members but a reflection of what the quill's most common interests are and something members very much want to read too. This is to say that personal interest articles like say, for me i like spanish football but it's not a reflection of the common quill interest and not something your random guest would be interested in either so that's not an article wanted on the frontpage....if that makes any sense? Bare with me though...

So what are the quills common interests? Well to me they are films, books (specifically in the fantasy genre), games, tv, music, writing (poems/short stories/comic sketches), photography, art and deep thoughts (philosophical/religious/world news/politics etc). And it is to these topics that I think articles should be written.

I think on the forum there is great personal stuff like reflections, highs and lows, what are you doing....topics about the members, but i think these things should be kept to the forums and not the front page. So, and this is just my opinion, personalized things like hobbies, personal interests and fields of knowledge i think should be kept to the forums, do i want to know why "insert members name"' loves sporks so much or spanish football or biology or whatever so much, well yes....but do i want to see it on the frontpage? If I didn't know the member would i really be interested in the article...well no, not really.

I hope that's understandable....basically that's just my opinion on what i think should roughly go on the frontpage, a kind of guideline...I just want to know if that's what you guys want, something basic like that as a template- common interest non personalized article yes, personal interest article no.

I think you could get alot of articles from the deep thoughts topic's and at the end of the article link a thread in deep thoughts for folk to discuss the article's topic.

[Buck]

I don't know about that. I think setting a limit to common interests sounds nice and all on a thematic level, but it doesn't let us explore other possible interests. A writer should indeed tailor their work toward their audience for sure (and good writers do this). However, just b/c you don't have any interest in X or Y, it does not mean other quillers do not either. I'm sure not every quiller finds gaming interesting, and I know for a fact that your definition of 'games' is very different from say NF's. I can say with much confidence that an article about basketball would be a definite skip, and one about hockey would elicit a opinionated response from me if the article glorifies the Flyers.

While I can like and dislike any possible writings, I know my tastes are not in 100% overlap with others on this site. Limits on expression are bad. At worst, no one will read them. Big deal. At best, you found out you are interested in something you never were before.

[Apoc]

With the example of games, i know at least five other people on the quill play games and thus i think it's a topic that could have an article. My argument is that, taking the example of sports, i know of only one other person who has an interest and follows football (soccer) and thus that is not really suitable for an article for the front page. As I said, it's just my opinion of what should go on the frontpage, i'd like to know what the admins opinions are as it's them that will accept or reject the articles. I think topics that you may start in deep thoughts would make a good article as you are likely looking for a response, so an introductory post to a deep thought topic with a link to discuss further on the forums i think would be good. A self contained article on how shit your day was or what you ate for dinner i don't see as something that should make a frontpage, not just on our site but any site for that matter. An article on the amazingness of neutrinos i think would also go over alot of peoples heads as your average reader probably won't understand even a fraction of it.

[AquaFizz]

...I demand that you care about the shittiness of my day!

I agree that there should be some faint topic guidelines. Apoc's right-I'm only vaguely sure I even know what neutrinos are (to be fair, though, I'd probably still read the article). And I love watching soccer but when he and Eyre start throwing names out, I think a lot of us are immediately lost. Movie & Music Reviews, Books, cool techie gadgets..those are all great. But, we are insanely silly and I think that it's important that the front page represent that. I LOVE Arch's idea for a fake advice column. It's such a great idea! Especially if all members are encouraged to submit "Questions or Problems" (that are supposed to be silly, obviously) and one person has to give them insane (and, hopefully, bad) advice. I would gladly do that and have much, much fun.

[Buck]

So by your logic, FIFA is off limits next month? :eyebrow:

[Apoc]

You mean the world cup yeah? I'll mention it in absnot and probably with eyre over a few different threads but on the front page? No, the quill to me is not a site for footy chat. I think my point is why write an article for an audiance of one? Why write an article that doesn't really represent the quill? Would non-members visiting the quill look at the front page and go, "oh this site is interested in that" and join and go to the forums and find that there is no chat on that subject except maybe a small mention in absnot.

To me the frontpage should be a reflection of what is on the quill, so each article should at least have one thread dedicated to that topic on the quill that the article is relevent to. The Deep Thoughts forum opens the possibilities for articles loads imo...but yeah, it's not for me to say, it's the admins say.

heh instead of us arguing all this, maybe we should just start throwing article ideas at the admins and from their responses maybe we'll find out what they actually want and their reasons for rejecting things and from that maybe we'll get our guidelines.

[Buck]

So no footy chat b/c soccer isn't what the quill is about. And yet games are ok?
I fail to see the distinction aside from a bit more interest. Neither have anything to do with literature or the arts in general. Where do you set the limit? Three quillers or less is no good and four or more works? Topics by popularity only? What happens if two of the four quillers who liked gardening all of a sudden don't care anymore, or aren't around anymore. Does that topic suddenly become taboo?

I think you're drawing a line in the sand where you can't fairly draw one. Like I said, at worst, one or two extra quillers don't read the whole article. Is that really a terrible thing? How many of us took interest in arch's gardening? Does that mean he shouldn't have posted his thoughts on the subject?

If quality and broad subjects is what the admins want, that's grand. If the admins want only stuff that qualifies as arts, that's grand too. I really don't think non-arts items should be included or excluded due to quiller majority interest alone. Quality yes, limiting it to certain themes, sure. But limiting things to what the majority likes is stifling and reminds me of high school immaturity.

[Apoc]

So no footy chat b/c soccer isn't what the quill is about. And yet games are ok?

Yes. Footychat will be gobbldigook to near all readership. Game reviews would not.

[night faerie]

lol you guys crack me up, have I mentioned that? This discussion is reminding me of when we were creating The Quill and fought tooth and nail for like a week trying to decide what color the buttons should be. :D

ok no complaining about anything on the mainpage, that would rule out the "shittiness of my day" posts (sorry, Fizz) but honestly I think it would be fine to have an article on the mainpage about futbol. Just not every article at the same time about sports (or any topic for that matter). I think you guys are overthinking this whole thing. The length is a minor issue, arch can clarify a good guideline as far as that.

Should we appoint someone ~cough-arch-cough~ to coordinate? Everyone who has an idea can send it to arch (for example) who can post it in the admin forum for review & then we can give everyone who's submitted a thumbs up. Is even this making it more complicated than it need be? Are my eyes still open or am I writing this in my head? :umm: I think I need a hug. :umm:

[dark fuschia]

oooh sweet I need one too *hugs nf*

[Apoc]

woah two of my favourite luvely ladies need hugs? And i'm thousands of miles from both of them...

~head explodes~

[Mike]

Should we appoint someone ~cough-arch-cough~ to coordinate? Everyone who has an idea can send it to arch (for example) who can post it in the admin forum for review & then we can give everyone who's submitted a thumbs up. Is even this making it more complicated than it need be? Yes, this is making it more complicated. We can make this permission thing so that people write the stuff in the proper context without having all the hops in between. It's hardly more advanced then writing a message on the forum, and when it's published, it gets published in the right section. Admins can see those articles, and approve them for publication and perhaps even make it appear on the front page. In fact, I'm even thinking of giving publish permissions as well. For a specific section (or any section to begin with), except for the front page. I doubt there'll be more articles then we can handle. Or we can distribute publish permissions to a select few so they can coordinate what other people submit to a certain section. At least minimize the hops in between.

Length is a minor issue. Well, size doesn't matter, but two or three sentences for a movie review is too short. Unless you make the sentences really long, but that could lead to another issue, because really really long sentences are hard to read and when it's hard to read people stop reading half way through a sentence or perhaps even in the middle of a word, leaving the entire article for what it is and nobody will ever know the greatness of the next sentence or the brilliance of the ending.

I also think that The Shittyness of My Day is in potential great reading stuff.

And I think we may need to review this thread and ... ummm... ~whacks brain~ anything in there?! ... shees... put all the highlights together before we forget them.

[JEDIWAN]

Can we have articles about writing articles? ...and someone get NF something for that cough.

waitaminute...I'm posting s/t instead of just reading and chuckling......CRAP!

[Anita Blake]

um... i just noticed that spoiler text isn't around anymore. I [ spoiler ] ... [ /spoiler ]-ed some text, and it just showed up as normal. When I went to edit the post, the tags were still there, but nothing was happening. I changed the text colour and left the tags, but, um.... I thought someone should know. :)

[Apoc]

Don't know if an admin fixed it or you worked out a new way to do it but the part you spoiler texted in your hitgirl...i mean kickass review was blanked out...to my eyes a little too well, i only knew you had spoiler texted it coz i knew you wouldn't end a sentance midway through heh..but yeah, it's hard to tell that spoiler hidden text is actually there..coz well it's completely hidden.

ps: i noticed arch is playing with the frontpage, is intrigued but unsure of the "article" titles.

[sir archely]

Looks like we lost the spoiler font class on changeover? That's something Mike has to change, i think.


ps: i noticed arch is playing with the frontpage, is intrigued but unsure of the "article" titles.

Heh, if you're referring to "sir archely's book society", that wasn't me, i think Mike did that. and yeah, how about just book reviews?

Also, as far as I am concerned with the previous discussion, most things are game. I wouldn't say a porno column would be recognized, but a fútbol column would be a welcome addition. There is the admitted problem of not being focused enough for an internet in which there are speciality sites for everything under the sun, but I guess I come down on wanting the original content (almost) regardless of the topic. More of that generated is a good thing, and even if only two people here are interested, maybe more people would stop by and also be interested.

And yeah, I think part of the huge draw and improvement of this system over the old is that it doesn't require as much babysitting. We can essentially give it rules for publishing and it will follow them. Maybe not very complicated rules, but its leagues ahead of the old system. I don't think each and every article needs to be reviewed before it is put it. It's just the initial step of getting someone permission the first time for an idea, and then they go from there.

[Anita Blake]

no, apoc, I changed the text colour to "wheat" to make it a little more spoiler-y. (it's not much of a spoiler, but still). :)

[Mike]

I've noticed the spoiler tag before, and sort of let it be until enough people complain about it. Anita Blake applies as more then enough people :p
Same as with those annoyingly ugly new smilies that have taken over, by the way.

Content, well, I'd rather have something then nothing. Same as when we started the Quill. Not all was clear. Not all needed to be clear. Sometimes it's just a matter of throwing something together and see what comes of it. Let it grow, let it grow. Let it blossom, let it flow.

The frontpage sections is all my doing. The way I see it right now is that we're going to have something like:
Books
Movies
Inkwell
Travel
Games
Tech/Gadget stuff
Art stuff
News

News maybe serious or less serious. I'm still contemplating putting Shittyness in there...
Anyway, that's what sort of emerges from this thread. But with names like that it's utterly boring, so I've named them a little differently on the frontpage in an attempt to Quillify it a bit.
If you can come up with better names and ideas, speak freely. if you think you can write stuff for one (or more) of those sections, just yell. If you think you can help and inspire others to write good stuff on one of those sections just yell too.
Arch is more or less the book king here. And anyone with the title Sir can have nothing less then a society.

[Amelia]

We still have this: :toussel: so Im happy.

**toussels Mikes hair**

[Eyreplenh]

I guess, once I finish my exams, I'd be interested to give some of this a go. Bookreviews or something for the Society ;)

[Mike]

Ok, well, consider this demo stuff! Need to try out things.

If you go here: http://www.enchantedquill.net/profile.php?do=editusergroups
You'll see groups you can join. Two groups are important:
Buck in the 25th Century Author
Sir Archely's Book Society Author

You can join one of those groups (or both), and that'll give you permission to create stuff in those sections.

Group leaders are Sir Archely and Buck. And nope, neither of them applied for the job and know about it until they read this. If it's not okay, it's not and I'll change it. You can also apply for the group and post here. Any admin can deal with join requests.
Sir Archely's Book Society is mostly obvious. What's not obvious is what's in archely's mind, I haven't got a clue.
Buck in the 25th Century is, well, tech stuff. Gadget stuff? Twiki?

It means that people who'll join one of those groups can publish content in that section. Obviously it has to be your writing, no stealing, no copying, no illegal stuff, no bad shit, nothing of that, etcetera.

This should tell you a tiny bit of how to get going:
http://www.enchantedquill.net/content/44-How-to-Create-a-New-Article
In short: browse to the section and click the Create Article button...
Maybe we'll need to improve that article, but ok...

[Apoc]

Do you know the post layout is still messing up? Posts here and there go up something like...

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, two
jedi knights became gay after not
being able to love the ladies
and thus became sith and
where pronounced evil by the jedi
order and hunted down coz they where
different, but they returned and lay slaughter to the republic blah blah blah

and not as they where intended like this...

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, two jedi knights became gay after not being able to love the ladies and thus became sith and where pronounced evil by the jedi order and hunted down coz they where different, but they returned and lay slaughter to the republic blah blah blah

just sayin' as it is fairly annoying.

In other update news, are you gonna ever consider doing something with the rep system, upgrade it a bit?

[Mike]

Which browser and which post layout? I have no troubles anywhere

[Apoc]

hmm maybe it's just my rubbish laptop messing up.

[Mike]

Well, unless you give me more info that guess is about as good as it gets. I don't know where to look if I don't know what goes wrong where and when and with what :p

[Amos]

I've noticed that the links to recent posts on the front page always take me to the first post of the thread rather than the last. Including when I click the "Go to last post" button". This is a huge problem that will eventually destroy the site if left unfixed, I fear.

Also I tried to change my avatar to an animated gif of Uchiha Itachi but found that it was too large by about 10KB. Is the old standard of 100X100 or 20KB really a good upwards limit? And by good I mean it hereby sucks.

~traps Mike in a genjutsu and forces him to do pointless chores~

[Apoc]

Well, unless you give me more info that guess is about as good as it gets. I don't know where to look if I don't know what goes wrong where and when and with what :p

Well anitas post at the top of this page is shuffled into shorter lines as is your first post in this thread...i'm using firefox but i think somethings very wrong with my comp as whenever i use any search engine it takes me elsewhere and into rubbish ad sites...but my bookmarks all work fine, except for these weird happenings on the quill...i'm also experiencing the first post jump rather than last post that james mentioned...my AVG picked up that i got a few trojans the other day and ever since, even though they've been sorted, my internet has been all messed up...but yeah my comp is very laggy and experiencing many problems, think i'll get a new one to take to NY...so maybe it is just me.

Oh and james...i mean amos...lol in my head i associate random anime characters with people and itachi is so YOU! Wendy is def misato and it cracks me up that thats her avy...chrono and gwen are kenpachi and yachiru to a tee.

[Buck]

It's definitely your computer, as I use Firefox and haven't had any issues save one. Bring your laptop with you to NYC and I can fix whatever issues you have with the infernal thing within a day. No need to get a new laptop unless you absolutely must, since you don't game on the thing.

Chrono/gwen being kenpachi/yachiru would be the most awesome halloween getup. We should all do a bleach theme for it this fall... :|
Dibs on Hitsugaya >..<

[Apoc]

dude i'm not going to be movin' to new york til august but i'll be over briefly for gwens bday and maybe a festival should nf be up for it...that's still a month away, meh i think it's about time for an upgrade in laptop anyways...so it's cool, plus i have a few computer wizzes over here that could take a look at it and probably tidy it up, i just can't be fcked.


Chrono/gwen being kenpachi/yachiru would be the most awesome halloween getup. We should all do a bleach theme for it this fall... :|
Dibs on Hitsugaya >..<

I know right?! how awesome would they be, oh man i'd die just seeing chrono going "where's the fight grrr?" and gwen directing chono about saying "that way kenpachi!" and pointing in random directions hehe lol a quillfest anime party would be sooo awesome, not restricted to bleach coz james would be itachi, wendy misato....lol Lyle could be Chad ahhahahahahah and there's only one character that i could play and he ain't in bleach yo...

[AquaFizz]

Dude. My firefox is doing the super short lines thing, too. I said that weeks ago. Everyone ignores me. ~is surly and bitter today~

[Amos]

I'm using chrome. Lines are fine. Don't count on me dressing up in a cloak, dying my hair black, and flying over to NYC just to look and feel like a lame Itachi fanboy.. :umm:

[Mike]

~traps Mike in a genjutsu and forces him to do pointless chores~
Doing that already. Every single day.


I said that weeks ago. Everyone ignores me.
Correct. It's my job deformation. Whenever someone complains about a shared service I tend to ignore the cry for help.
When a second person complains about the same, I remember there's a first person. And then continue to ignore the problem.
When a third person complains I guess something's up and I go check it out.

~thinks~

[Buck]

I'm using chrome. Lines are fine. Don't count on me dressing up in a cloak, dying my hair black, and flying over to NYC just to look and feel like a lame Itachi fanboy.. :umm:

So what you are telling us is that you don't love us, and have no wish to see us ever again. Gotcha!



I know right?! how awesome would they be, oh man i'd die just seeing chrono going "where's the fight grrr?" and gwen directing chono about saying "that way kenpachi!" and pointing in random directions hehe lol a quillfest anime party would be sooo awesome, not restricted to bleach coz james would be itachi, wendy misato....lol Lyle could be Chad ahhahahahahah and there's only one character that i could play and he ain't in bleach yo...

Well if it will be any anime character, switching to Vash the Stampede would be a must for me. Remind me a couple months ahead of time to grow out my hair so I have something to dye.


edit -- The main reason I posted here was to point out that I published my first article. Heckle away :)

[Mike]

The main reason I posted here was to point out that I published my first article. Heckle away :)
~sheds a tear~
I'm so happy...