Bulk Fanfiction/Wrting section

[Dracos]

There's been some requests to merge all of the fanfiction sections into one forum board.

Opinions?

[Brian]

My personal thoughts are: merge everything but the writing section.

[thepanda]

Seconded

[Anastasia]

Sure, why not? What could possibly go wrong?

[Brian]

Also suggest we expand it to generic 'media reviews' (outside of games, since we have a separate forum going on for that).  We've got books, movies, we could add webcomics that we like, etc.

I should start reviewing the movies I see almost every week, for example. >_>;

[Halbarad]

One suggestion I might make if the writing section is used for prereading would be to make it visible to registered users only. That way if authors want to toss chapters out for review before publishing them elsewhere, they're less likely to be leaked.

Not that this is a -huge- concern, likely, but it takes basically no effort to set it up that way.

[Brian]

I wasn't sure of the overhead on that one, but that's exactly what I'd suggest.  I think we have enough interest, and the amount of time devoted to the project should be well within allowances for the quarter.

In that case, the merged board should be the base, and the writing section becomes the (pre-readers only) sub-board?

[Dracos]

I waver on that.  The overhead seems steep and I've seen a lot of those things die.

What's wrong with simply posting drafts on the forum directly, labeled draft?

[Brian]

Mmph.  Direct linking?  Wanting things to be visible to pre-readers and not the general public?

[Halbarad]

Overhead is actually pretty minimal - all that's needed is unchecking one box in the board configuration menu to disallow access for guests. If there was a specified group that people had to request access to in order to gain access sure, but I was just thinking of a fairly minor barrier that keeps non-registered/not-signed-in folks from seeing the board.

[Brian]

And that's really enough.

[Olvelsper]

Don't make it closed to unregistered users. The only way you encourage growth is by letting everyone be able to see it. I've seen lots of people register on other forums (Spacebattles) just to be able to comment on things like that.

[Brian]

Then, can we have the option of making attachments invisible to guests?  I don't mind if commentary is public, but I would like to be able to present one draft primarily to people who are already more likely to post feedback.

That compromise might actually end up drawing in more interest, if it's not too much technical trouble.

[Olvelsper]

I'm fine with that. That allows us to prevent growth while letting there be something more to entice people into registering.

[Dracos]

I shall investigate.