Maya
Regular Contributor
Queen of the Damned
Posts: 542
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Post by Maya on Feb 17, 2009 17:06:27 GMT -5
Do you think we should start inviting people of similar interest to participate on this forum for reasons other than writing for subversify? This could lead to a larger reader base. Participants can also be involved in watching the growth and development of Subversify while it's still in its progressive phase.
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Post by karlsie on Feb 17, 2009 19:22:36 GMT -5
I hesitate at the idea of a general readership having access to the forum, although if the quality was one of discussing topics and issues, the feedback might be useful. If the readers joined in the interest of hob-nobbing and creating social diversions through "look at me" tactics, it might be detrimental in trying to seriously create an effective magazine. The other problem i see is that the finished product of a submission is not always the same as the initial posting. Sometimes the writer is encouraged to develop more on the piece. Sometimes there are a number of editing errors that are corrected first. Would our guest writers be as willing to submit if they knew their potential readers could see their draft, and would the magazine itself hold any mystery to the reader who has seen the previews?
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Post by The Late Mitchell Warren on Feb 17, 2009 20:35:51 GMT -5
Why not just make some rooms private, for staff members, moderators, and then create more rooms for general readers and writers to throw suggestions around?
Not sure what you mean by "reasons other than writing." You mean expand the head creative team? The most important thing at this point is producing regular content not adding a bunch of senior editors to strut around and look important. Unless someone was just beaming with brilliance and could bring something special to the magazine, I don't see the need. Otherwise, it's just like hiring three dozen cooks to serve one meal a week.
Unless of course you mean just people submitting ideas and such in a general room. As in marketing this forum to new people? I guess...however the main intent is to focus on the magazine and not detract attention from it by starting a social club.
I must say personally, having a bunch of people complain, request or suggest what articles we should do probably wouldn't affect me much. I wrote my own stuff and bitch at my leisure.
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Maya
Regular Contributor
Queen of the Damned
Posts: 542
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Post by Maya on Feb 17, 2009 21:21:37 GMT -5
Extra editors? Yeah freaking right. We don't need that. I am not recommending extending the staff by any means. I was simply suggesting that we have people besides writers participate in this forum; intellectual ramblers. Just an idea towards attracting more readers. They can observe subversify in its initial phases. But after a long chat with Karla, her points made sense, we don't want to lose the writer's forum appeal, where our current contributors acquire insight for their pieces. She feels it will only be a distraction towards writing. Good point. I have been doing some research and prying, all for the cause of Subversify gaining a larger audience. Expect some ideas thrown this week.
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Post by grainnerhuad on Feb 18, 2009 11:27:19 GMT -5
My feeling is the "intellectual ramblers" could and should be rambling in the comment section after each article. How we can make that happen should be discussed. But I think this should be a safe place for contributors. As far as having a larger readership, I am constantly inviting people and some of them even come. My problem so far is that they come back to me to comment. I need to coax them to comment and participate on the magazine site. It is set up to handle that and we should be encouraging it. With such incredible talent and available writers I think we will eventually have a place where readers can feel like they are interacting with greatness. Or as Mitch so eloquently put it. Strutting peacock editors (paraphrase) I vote no to general readership in here. In addition, it makes us look less professional.
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Maya
Regular Contributor
Queen of the Damned
Posts: 542
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Post by Maya on Feb 18, 2009 12:09:23 GMT -5
I'll keep spreading word the way I've been doing. It's time consuming. But possibly worth it.
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Post by karlsie on Feb 18, 2009 12:30:20 GMT -5
Considering the competitiveness of the Internet, with god only knows how many web sites, the grape vine is currently our best approach. The more people who visit and find they like the site, the more we'll have that not only return, but invite their friends. We could begin putting up notices at free lance sites, although then, we may have our hands very busy with submissions while we are still trying to attract a larger reader base. I still like the idea of circulating the site address among colleges and Universities. This is probably where we would find our largest reader base.
Since we are striving for a complete break-away from media represented ideas of news and literature, our site will take a little getting used to for the general populace. The avant garde rarely takes the field by storm. It usually patters in subtly, slowly altering perceptions until all at once, the radical becomes the norm.
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Post by Mr. Subversify on Feb 18, 2009 17:00:10 GMT -5
This forum is open to everyone. I can make as many private threads as we wish for mods and others who wish to stay out of the public fray. But I think growing the message board has merit, I've seen other online web-based media have their message board become the primary content. I've even adopted a fail-safe of pointing subversify.com to this message board should my server blow up ( or get smashed in a fit of rage). Building a community around content can have a beneficial effect for all involved.
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Post by karlsie on Feb 18, 2009 20:12:33 GMT -5
See? I knew you were passive/ aggressive. Don't kill your computer baby brain! It only learns what you teach it.
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Maya
Regular Contributor
Queen of the Damned
Posts: 542
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Post by Maya on Feb 18, 2009 22:05:18 GMT -5
At least someone agrees with me. When I first started onlining back in 1997 as I like to call it, I registerd with a company called ivillage.com. At the time (based on memory) it was focused mainly on simple articles and catered mostly to women. I was an avid reader, I enjoyed the message boards, weekly updated 10 easy startup businesses category, health articles, stupid advice columns etc. One year into the free membership, I received a gift from them by mail; a t-shirt, it stated something like "I am an ivillage.com first 100." They were thanking me for being one of their first one hundred members who continued to support their site by logging in and participating. My point is that they made me feel important. Like I contributed to their success. Me the reader, the commentator, the big mouth that had to throw her two cents in even if it was about positives to breastfeeding. Their site was very vague at the time, but nevertheless it appealed to me.
Commenting on articles and participating in a forum are two different things. We are not looking for critics, nor asking for them. We are merely supporting our readers the same way that they are supporting us. We enjoy their feedback and gain ideas on what to write about based on their discussions. We are giving them an opportunity to be subversive, speak their mind, lash out, vent and offering them the bliss of enjoying our articles. No I am not suggesting that this turn into a Charlatan advertising terminal. Guest standards are a must. I am sure that we can figure something out. You have to give in order to receive. The incentive would be the message board.
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Post by karlsie on Feb 19, 2009 2:09:54 GMT -5
This could work i think, as long as we kept submissions for members only. This way, writers could work leisurely on their craft, without a lot of confusing chatter that might not have anything to do with the subject on hand. Suggestions could remain open to the public, as of course, the lounge and general announcements. I became pretty burnt out on forums that were initially to be writer's workshops, but that turned into credential carrying blow hards, and a politically correct banshee wagon that had no real talent for writing, but touted a lot of personal opinions; all of which, of course, stemmed directly from their favorite mainstream reading sources, which meant no opinions at all, just a choral ascent for the spokesperson. Such forums as this often break down into back-biting, name calling, nit-picking and other useless skills. I would not like to see this happen to Subversify.
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Maya
Regular Contributor
Queen of the Damned
Posts: 542
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Post by Maya on Feb 19, 2009 13:52:51 GMT -5
We need to think this one through and devise a plan that would allow us to wisely deviate from all of the possible problems. Look at the discussion regarding the Gaza conflict and the outrage it caused between ahem staff members. That in itself is a model that screams caveat emptor. It was a pretty heated debate, and most of us were involved; exciting too.
We would need to setup a list of rules, and participants would have to follow specific guidelines.
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