The Pub Discussion Board

Mark Twain comes to mind.

That was posted as a news item on EWP's main page on December 6th, not the 12th, and retracted a day later. There's no new public information to suggest that EWP's management is pulling the plug.

That said, I think continuing to report the vital signs of EWP in this forum is inappropriate. People who are interested in developments at EWP can visit EWP.

TransVader:

While I disagree with Imagineer's desire to not mention EWP here, I disagree with you posting inaccurate information, as well.  The post you mentioned was posted on 2006-12-06, not 2006-12-12, as you reported.

The latest news from EWP is Julian's post, on the 7th, which reads as follows:

Julian wrote:

I will delete all authors who wish to be removed but i will continue to keep it open and allow people to post. if anyone has the will to do the day to day operations please send me an email and i will consider you for the position.

Also, I should report that some authors who requested removal, have not been removed.  If you requested removal from EWP, you need to check to see if your wishes have been carried out.

Net Wolf

No offense taken. Determine away. And you're right, there are people here who have an interest in what happens to EWP that don't want to visit. I didn't do a very good job of expressing my opinion. I'll just say I think it's easy to dwell on the past and depress and distract from the present.

Thanks CSquared. I made my request more clear to him through some posts, since he couldn't take the time to read through an e-mail. So, my stuff is removed.

J.A.W.:

Okay, here's the thing:

1) I don't want anyone getting overwhelmed with the running of The Pub.  That's why I am limiting the number of authors vs. webmasters.  However, as you might notice, there are no additional qualified webmasters stepping forward to help out with the project.

2) When I opened the site with the current look of the contributor sections, I never intended them to be a permanent condition.  I fully expected to customize them beyond merely the color schemes.  However, it's been seven months, and you can see that I haven't managed to customize a single one of them, including my own.  I'm beginning to wonder if people even *want* customization, or if they prefer the standardized look of things.

If I'm going to customize sites, then I really need to do it to the existing contributors before I add any new ones.  On the other hand, if people would prefer that I spend my efforts on site features other than custom appearance, then I could probably stand to add a few more contributors now.  There is still a limit to the number I will accept, and that number is based upon those contributors' activity levels.  Ten really active authors are much harder to keep up with than 20 authors like... um... well, say like Black Rose, who has admitted in this thread that she doesn't write anything anymore. 

Right now, I know that most of the authors here are semi-active at best, and I've heard pleas to add some more active authors to the roster.  I'll need input from people, though, about what it is they really want from this site, before I can decide on a direction to go.  I do not want this to turn into another EWP: That site grew out of control, and the sense of community shrank in direct proportion to the site's speed of growth.  I don't want that to happen again.  Having said that, I know that a stale site is a site that no one visits... so it's time for the readership to speak up.

Net Wolf

How new authors would be chosen for this site has already been discussed in a different thread.  All I can say is if you want to have a strong voice about who is posted here and who isn't, you should volunteer your time, or donate your money to the site.  (Okay, that was pretty shameless, wasn't it?  Eh, screw it, I need the help and the money.  )

Net Wolf

The customization was actually supposed to look as if they HAD designed their own site... only better.  Most people don't know HTML, and they can't design their way out of a wet paper bag.  My original idea was that The Pub would provide that design service for them, while also making them part of a community.  It was ambitious, and I'm not sure I'll ever have the time for it, if I want to get any writing done.

I agree that we do not have enough activity on the site.  My writing is picking up (VERY SLIGHTLY), but it's not going to be enough to keep people coming back.

As to choosing contributors, this was discussed elsewhere.  When a contributor opening is available, the donors to the site will make their recommendations.  Then the forum visitors will vote on those recommendations.  The staff will look at the result of that vote, plus the quality of the works involved, and make the final decision about who to add.  While I am all for helping out new authors who show promise, I'm looking for a certain level of quality to the site, so the popular vote may sometimes be overridden by the staff if we feel the popular author isn't up to snuff.  Also, I hold the power of veto, as there are certain authors that, I don't care HOW popular they are, will never appear on this site, due to the attitude I have seen them display.  I will not make a list here, because I may forget to include someone.

There is no way a site with any form of "membership by invitation" cannot be seen as exclusive... because it IS exclusive.  Anyone who is not invited is excluded from publishing here.  However, the criteria for who gets in is what matters. 

Net Wolf

Um... simple answer:  Because it destroys any sense of community.  I have less than zero interest in forming "the largest repository of erotica on the InterWeb".  I form websites to create communities, because I have no communities in real life.  If the authors and readers aren't interested in talking to each other and socializing, what the fuck's the point in having a website at all?  If all I wanted was to get stories out to the masses, I could just post to Usenet.

Net Wolf

*sigh*

Yes, what you're missing is the understanding that a community is not spread to Hell and back again.

You're suggesting the notion of a "community" that is barely aware of the site that hosts it.  Why would I use up my time and resources to support everyone else's website?  I mean, it's one thing to allow someone to promote their website using a post on our forum.  It's an entirely different issue to provide them with forum services.  What has The Pub gained by that?  I can guarantee you that, were we to do such a thing, those authors would have a link directly to their forum threads, not to the forum as a whole, and not to The Pub.  It would be totally counterproductive to promoting THE SITE.

All of you seem obsessed with the number of authors available.  If all you want are numbers, I suggest you visit either SOL or ASSTR.  In either case, you'll have more authors than you can possibly read.  But you won't find a community there.  Forums alone do not make communities, either.  There has to be familiarity and interaction.  People who visit here frequently were probably already aware of how I was going to react to your suggestion.  They were probably shaking their heads going, "Oh, Guardians is he going to get it now..."  That's because people KNOW me.  And while some may not like me, others do.  Point is that they stay with me because I'm trying my best to promote a place where socializing is promoted and considered a good thing.  I am not striving to create a site where you can run in and out, grabbing the story you want along the way.  This is not the Erotica version of 7-11.  Yes, I've tried to make finding things convenient, but I honestly hope that people will stay here, read here, and TALK HERE.  I understand that the site needs more activity, but adding authors just for the sake of adding authors puts us right back where EWP was when I left it in 2005: an archive of stories with no one giving a damn about anybody.  That's *why I left*.

Net Wolf

Hell, Net... I kinda half expected that, too. I mean, honestly I do remember what you were like before. I wasn't absolutely sure, as the understanding of what, precisely, you meant by 'community' wasn't quite clear in my mind. And your reasons - so far as I understood them - for limiting the number of authors was more related to reducing workload for the admin staff, so I thought a (possibly) valid solution which incorporated Unworthy's suggestion would be welcomed. Somewhat.

Obviously, somewhere along the line, there was a disconnect between reality and my understanding of it. My bad. Sorry.

Okay, purposes of The Mystic Wolf Pub, in order of importance.

1. To foster a community between authors / artists (hereinafter called "contributors") and their readers / fans (hereinafter called "viewers") through communication and socializing.
2. To help contributors improve their skills through constructive feedback from both viewers and other contributors.
3. To give the contributors here resources to help them with their projects.
4. To give the viewers content.

Notice how far down the list the amount of content is?  Content is not my priority because the acts of establishing points 1, 2, and 3 creates point 4 almost automatically.  The difficulty is that without point 4, there aren't any viewers, so points 1,2,3 fall apart.  But if you have too much of point 4, points 1,2,3 become impossible to achieve because there is no sense of familiarity between the people here.

What I would ultimately like to achieve is to add about one contributor a month.  I think this would give enough time for everyone to get to know them and start recognizing both their work and their forum posts.  I would love it if we could get the current contributors to show up in the chat room for something like a scheduled chat, but I don't know how willing the current contributors would be to participate in such things.

I'll be honest: the project I was going to form when I left EWP back in 2005 was a writers guild.  It's still the thought that drives me.  Making writers better is my real interest.  Giving the public something to read...  there's no way I can compete with the other sites out there; they are just too big.  I never got the writers guild off the ground, but I am trying as much as I can to incorporate the ideas of a place where writers can have the tools to become better, into The Pub.

Net Wolf

IRc dosen't work very well on macs in my exp

BTW net once i acctually am able to sit down and learn java and bring my CSS back to snuff i'll be more than happy to help w site issues