New Moderator for creative!?

[The Zig]

Ooh! Wow!
We seem to have gotten ourselves a moderator specifically for Creative now! When did that happen?!?

Welcome to TheElf!



Good to see ya. Does this mean this forum will finally get a little cleaning up? Not meaning to add to your in-tray right away, but there are a few lingering things a few of us would like to see fixed.
One word: stickies. To quote myself in another thread...

There's a competition that's closed, a fiction foundry that's 5 years out of date, a book that sold out years ago and doesn't even seem to be available on Amazon any more, rules, and a list of fanfics now more than two years out of date.
Real useful.

There's a sense that the stickies are just there gathering dust. Based on my experience here over a good few years, the one people would most like to see back is the fanfic list.

I appreciate that it's time intensive. Although I'm pretty sure some regulars would be quite willing to help out. I'd definitely be willing to pledge some time to this - though right now I certainly don't have the time to take this on single-handed.

But this is something, it'd really be good to see return.

[stephenhealey]

Where did you get this from Zig?

I hope your right but,

His name has shown as a mod in the main forum index page under creative for a long time. Also, checking his postings, it seems he primarily posts in another language forum (German I think), and even then his last post was on January 18th.

Still hoping you got better info than that though!

Stephen

[The Zig]

Sorry... No.
That was all I had. The name on the list of Mods.
Seems he/she moderates specifically the English/German creative forums. Maybe I did see it before... But when I saw that yesterday, it struck me as new.

I thought maybe we had a real live mod who'd look after this little corner.
Guess not.

[eladan]

He's been there a little while now.

There isn't anyone specially looking over creative as far as I know - the general mod group has responsibility for it.

To quote your quote:

There's a competition that's closed, a fiction foundry that's 5 years out of date, a book that sold out years ago and doesn't even seem to be available on Amazon any more, rules, and a list of fanfics now more than two years out of date.
Real useful.

The competition thread does state that it has closed, and has all those nice links to videos in it. I have considered it before, but the vids seem a good reason for leaving it there.

For the others, if we don't hear about problems, then things are unlikely to change. The fiction foundry being 5 years old isn't an issue though, as long as what it contains is still useful. It did have some broken links - I've tidied it up now. The remaining links should still be useful. The book, I'll check about. Anything else, is reliant on people here letting us know what needs to be done!

[stephenhealey]

Eledan,

Thanks for posting.

I've not been around this particular thread very long but the quote The Zig had referred to was in answer to a question I had asked.

I asked if visitors to this forum tended to just jump in, go to the first sticky with the links to completed stories and download or copy/paste etc from these. I had noted that that particular sticky hadn't been updated in a long time. I think what this forum is screaming out for is someone who can add to that original post within that thread or make a new one so that stories written in the past two years are easily accessable to anyone who visits without having to trawl through multiple threads. Can you do this? If so, how should people ask for their stories to be added? pm? replying on the thread? I don't know the answwer as like I said, Im new to this particular forum. Maybe some of the 'auld hauns' could add to this?

Stephen

[eladan]

Best would be if there are enthusiastic people here willing to devote time to getting things like the fan fiction sticky up to date and keeping them that way. Obviously there will be a fair bit more work required to catch up in the first place, but that would hopefully quieten down once it was.

I'm discussing it with the other mods, but I don't know that anyone will volunteer - the rest of the forums tend to take a fair bit of our time.

Anyone care to volunteer? The Zig? Can I take it that you are one such person?

[The Zig]

Anyone care to volunteer? The Zig? Can I take it that you are one such person?

Sure.
I did try to get this rolling again back in the pre-fatherhood days when I had something I vaguely remember calling "free time". A year ago I could've done this single-handed.
Now I just don't have that kind of time. (I'm still waiting for a good chance to start X3TC!). I'll do it. But if it's just me, it may take a long time for me to bring it up to date.

As I said here, and elsewhere, I can give time to this. If we want it done in a reasonable time, either:
(a) I'll do it, and others (particularly people who want their story featured) help out by sending me links/URLs, and generally digging through the forums for stories.
(b) Someone else leads, and I'll be one of the helpers/diggers.


Another thing that would save time is if you (eladan) could give us either:
(a) access to modify the original post (dunno if the forum would allow this)
or, more likely:
(b) the code from the original thread, to kick start a new one.

This'll save having to duplicate all the work therjw put in.

[eladan]

Another thing that would save time is if you (eladan) could give us either:
(a) access to modify the original post (dunno if the forum would allow this)
or, more likely:
(b) the code from the original thread, to kick start a new one.

This'll save having to duplicate all the work therjw put in.

Yep, b) is the one - when ready, we can simply unsticky the current one and sticky yours. You can get the current formatting yourself - just do a quote reply on his OP, and copy the text out (without replying, of course!)

[The Zig]

Well, okay.
Given the utter lack of other people clamouring for the "honour" of doing this, I'll get on it.
FYI, I certainly won't have any serious time until the weekend. I'll try to post something then.
(note I don't specifically say which weekend! )



Until then, could I use some feedback.

One problem with the old list is stories were basically added onto the end as they came out. That was perfectly good THEN, but given the number of stories now, I'm thinking some kind of order might be good.

I'm thinking:
a) stories in alphabetical order (pros: easy to find / cons: stories by the same author get split up), or
b) authors in alphabetical order and stories sub-sorted chronologically (pro: good for sequels and finding stuff by the same writer / cons: to find a story you may need to know who wrote it)
Unless anyone can think of something better.

I'm considering a few other changes to improve functionality and to generally tidy it up. I intend to include everything, but I'm currently pondering how to elegantly include the mass of incomplete dead stories.
Please feel free to make any suggestions as to how the list could be improved.

When the new thread's up, I will appreciate help digging out and adding stories. As far as I can see, therjw last updated in Jan 07. Looking back, this coincides with about 2/3s down page 11 on the forum. Everything since then needs indexing.

I can/will do it - but help will speed things along.

[stephenhealey]

Your the man Zig

Option B would work better I think as it keeps sequels etc together and after all, the 'name' of the story will still appear under the Author so it incorporates choice A anyway.

I'll do some digging for you too if you let me know what you need.

Stephen

[Rapier]

When the new thread's up, I will appreciate help digging out and adding stories. As far as I can see, therjw last updated in Jan 07. Looking back, this coincides with about 2/3s down page 11 on the forum. Everything since then needs indexing.

I would suggest something like the Ultimate Guide thread arrangement from the main forum: when someone wants their story added, they post a link to it in the thread. Someone with 'the power' (the author of the first post or a moderator) can check it meets the criteria and add it if it does. That way there isn't a burden on one person to search things out and add them and, if it doesn't get updated for a while, at least there is a ready made list of what needs adding.

[The Zig]

Had a pretty awful weekend with family stuff (message to anyone considering a family: kids are simple - adults are the ones who've had years to hone their neuroses!)

Aaaaanyway... long story short: no progress on this yet.

[JanusTN]

I would say sort it by Author. I liked it when I could jump from one story to another by the same author, espically if it was a sequel.

Also, what do you think about including another post for things like backgrounds & pictures as well as one for music? Normally it seems I have to dig for those and there's some really good ones out there.