Preprise Posted December 28, 2009 Report Posted December 28, 2009 I love the idea of having one of you thespians read my work on youtube. I would totally go for that! Also, video would be a good way to incorporate more boobs in the site. Who hear has nice boobs would and read poems? I'm an idiot. Here are some more of my thoughts. If you look at other successful "forums", what do they do that creates success? One, the forum is just a part of the project. Two, they offer something very few others do. Three, they keep it moving. Why not make the forum just a part of the community. We've got a start with what's been tossed around already. The facebook and youtube ideas for instance. But I think the Pen could become a Website. I mean the full rigamaroll. With one of the main links of the site being the forum, another being video, others could be blog, where a newsletter relating to different aspects of writing is posted regularly, sometimes written by members. Subjects could have a narrow focus at first so that the brand is clear and then widen afterward. I would suggest articles about improving one's craft of writing, or stories of empowerment through self-expression. No need to be expert advice, just amateurs discussing with amateurs. It might sound like a lot of work, but once set up that sort of thing isn't more work than a forum I'd guess. That way we'd be casting the net wider. Facebook (and other social networking sites) would help create connections. Whereas the blog and forum would help keep people around. Wordpress provides excellent user-friendly software from what I hear and nice customizable templates are easy to find. Being the person that I am, I view this as a branding exercise. And clarity and consistency are key. Let's pick one or two clear objectives and hammer away at only those for an extended period of time. Set realistic goals and achieve them and keep it rolling. In cyberspace anything that stops, dies. Now, I'm not saying let's turn this thing into a corporation, but I think it has lots of potential. Here are some things I think would help us distinguish ourselves from others. A poetry incentive for national poetry day (, does that day exist? We could coincide it with a pre-existing "holiday" to maximize chances of us getting hits), anyone can participate, we carpet bomb the internet with links to the Pen's website where the incentive is described. All participants write a short poem. We then film ourselves reading the piece in a public place. Then on a set date we carpet bomb the internet with links sending to the pen's youtube channel where a dozen people. You spin the whole thing as "self-expression for self-esteem" or something catchy like that. Blog articles ensue. You know something quirky like that to fit the philosophy that "The Pen is indeed mighty" and to show that this is a site that encourages creativity. Which brings me to another idea. One of the links of the Website could be project ideas. Anyone can submit an idea for a project and everyone can vote on it. The top ideas get featured on the front of the site. The other ideas don't get smothered, folks can participate as they like but the popular ideas get an extra push. At a design forum I frequent, they have two categories for posting work. One is "show and tell" here, folks post their work for show and folks are required to say something or say nothing. Then there's a separate one for critique. If you post in "critique", you agree to the possibility of being grilled, fried, toasted, crushed, trampled, skewered cooked and torn apart. This clears up any confusion as to who is willing to have what kind of feedback. Does the pen do NANOWRIMO? I know some folks who do it every year and might enjoy discussing it with other writing nerds. It is my conviction that people just want to feel important. There's nothing wrong with that. So anything that gives people that feeling of importance will translate into success. Anyway, my brain explodes omni-directionally when confronted with something like this so... uhm... Finally, I'm might be willing to lend my graphic design brain to this thrust. But I'd need it back for thinking about boobs and superheros. Re: "Write the lyrics" Singing each set of lyrics submitted would be more work than I can handle at the moment. And voting could cause awkward situations to arise. I would suggest that I simply pick the one that "clicks" the most and make a video with credit provided. I could do that quarterly for sure. So, I'm gonna go ahead and do that. Look for it soon!
The Portrait of Zool Posted December 28, 2009 Report Posted December 28, 2009 (edited) In cyberspace anything that stops, dies.Wow. THAT RESONATES. I think this is exactly the thought we need to keep foremost in this discussion! Set realistic goals and achieve them and keep it rolling.Step 2; Accomplish! I like the way you think Jason. Okay, I've got some projects I have been thinking about - getting back into writing and the Pen is definitely going on my New Year's resolutions for 2010! Edited December 28, 2009 by The Portrait of Zool
Patrick Posted December 28, 2009 Report Posted December 28, 2009 Watch this space: http://files.themightypen.net/Patrick/ (and excuse the incredible uglyness, it only took five minutes...)
Wyvern Posted December 29, 2009 Report Posted December 29, 2009 Wyvern finally locates his lost piece of geld, which is lodged firmly in a floor crack undoubtedly formed through one of his many schemes gone awry. The overgrown lizard tugs at the currency with tooth and claw before finally prying the floorboard up with his tail stinger and breaking it in half to retrieve it. Wyvern breathes a happy smoke ring as he fondles the coin, rubbing the geld piece on the front of his tunic as he stands with one foot in the broken floorboard and turns to troubled sleep. To answer the question that may have been troubling you in your sleep: the Almost Report was discontinued from a combination of its staff abandoning ship and a lack of actual news items to report on. I've considered reviving it and hosting it on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, and have even spoken to an interested party about collaborating on it, but the loss of personelle occured rather abruptly and it was never made clear whether they were eventually planning to come back or not. Since I don't want to step on any toes or hurt any feelings, I've refrained from putting any plans into action until it's all been clarified... though I will say that there's still not a terrible amount of news to report on! And I couldn't agree with you more about Pen RP events like the Fall Ball being the most memorable to me. The freeform RP threads of the Pen and their cast of many reoccuring characters have always stood out to me as something very unique to this site, and have always been my favorite thing about it. The style of approaching the Pen in-character doesn't seem to be too popular an approach any more though, which is a shame... I've often considered whether it'd be a good idea to enstate a policy in which every person who joins the Pen must create a character for the site, regardless if they ever plan to use that character or participate in collaborative threads. Just the ability to reference and play off of Pen characters is an inspiration to my writing, and the drastically decreased number of said characters present has likewise decreased my amount of writing here, I think. That and the lack of boobs, of course (God bless Elvina's recent Cabaret reappearance... where's my Almost Dragonic Brand Disposable Camera Golem when I need it?!) Carry on then. Wyvern seats himself on a Cabaret chair near Zool's painting, leaning his neck back and yawning as his tail swooshes idly back and forth.
The Portrait of Zool Posted December 29, 2009 Report Posted December 29, 2009 (edited) Zool peers down at Wyvern from his perch on the wall, somewhat nervous at the proximity of the almost-dragon's heated exhalation to the portrait. Satisfied the chances of accidental ignition were minimal, but still keeping a wary eye, he spoke in turn... What would be great is if there was a way to dynamically categorize a post. For example, I would like to see a forum dedicated to RP, with it's own collaborations, stories, and poems sub-forums. The problem with that, of course, is then you would have two collaborations, stories, and poems sub-forums - one for in-character narration and the other without. It would be great if there was just a group of check boxes at the bottom of the posting screen where one could choose 'In-character' and 'Collaborations' - and make them default if you wanted (and also be editable) - to have the post correctly categorized. In reading mode one could select on the profile page how one wants to see the various forums - also with a default configuration, but editable by the user - in how one wants the various forums presented - whether to separate or combine the various (in-character versus out-of character) forums and sub-forums. But I suppose that's for another generation of forum software. In the In-Character forum one MUST make a character and speak in-character, with minimal OOC posting. In the other forum, not required. A multilingual forum we already have. We could also make an AV forum, for AV uploading, viewing/listening, and discussion, and link to it if we use an AV piece anywhere else in the other forums. Well, something like that.... Edited December 29, 2009 by The Portrait of Zool
Preprise Posted December 29, 2009 Report Posted December 29, 2009 [ What would be great is if there was a way to dynamically categorize a post. Pop ups would be cool.
The Portrait of Zool Posted December 29, 2009 Report Posted December 29, 2009 Now that we have made a Facebook thingy, I wonder how many other writing and creative type Facebook thingies we could 'Friend' with, to spread the page out and make ourselves known?
Preprise Posted December 29, 2009 Report Posted December 29, 2009 Now that we have made a Facebook thingy, I wonder how many other writing and creative type Facebook thingies we could 'Friend' with, to spread the page out and make ourselves known? Doesn't facebook have a search feature. I recommend twitter as well. Then you can follow authors and stuff. This would help those who are looking for news tidbits. I do it for comics.
Preprise Posted January 4, 2010 Report Posted January 4, 2010 (edited) I noticed that the threads in the banquet room increase in views dranatically when they increase in comments. What causes this you think? It looks like folks hesitate to comment if others don't. Maybe if one you could quickly preview the thread content without opening it. Like a hover pop up function... I dunno... Edited January 4, 2010 by Jason Newcomb
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