Wacky Wants Your Suggestions!

The Important Stuff
47

This could be easily implemented, we can set categories to be only visible to certain groups, so if that’s something everyone wants, we can make that happen.

I’ve just installed some new functionality that will allow rating of users and topics, so that’s available however we decide to do it. We also have this new points system and I can create leaderboards for different things (We have the “all forum participation” board right now, but we could make one specific for reviewers).

I looked at this for a better understanding of how they have their beta profiles set up, and this looks really cool. I’m working on setting up something we could do to mimic something similar.

I think we could figure out a way to do either/or, whatever the reviewer’s preference is.

Yes, we’d want to implement something that wouldn’t make anyone feel left out.

Again, I’m not sure how the Wattpad book clubs worked, so I’d probably need some pointers to implement, but understanding that I have zero knowledge how those worked, if it were me, I’d set up a club to have book sign-ups, then a book is picked at random (by a true randomizer, not a human) each week, and everyone reads…idk, 3-5 chapters or 5000 words or whatever the baseline is by say…Wednesday, then discuss/give feedback/critique or however that goes, and then pick another random book Sunday night/Monday. But again, I have no idea how the Wattpad book clubs may have differentiated from traditional IRL book clubs, so what I have in mind may not be what everyone is used to.

Edited to add: participation would be required by other members and let’s say hypothetically someone doesn’t participate on three of the eight books submitted or something, that would mean they wouldn’t meet the basic requirements for club membership and would be removed (with some kind of recourse and “task list” to offer them a chance to join again).

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48

This means you have to wait forever for your book to be critiqued and the admin has to apply huge efforts to keep people from dropping out after their book had their turn. Plus, between each time each book comes up for critique everyone forgets what the previous chapters were about. That’s just not a great way to do an internet-based club. Too little accountability or ways to enforce. Not to mention that random book might make you want to go off the grid rather than read another paragraph of it.

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49

Wait, we might get a book club? :open_mouth:

50

On Wattpad, the bookclubs I entered usually had two things:

  1. Your assigned partner - you read their chapter (or 2 or 3, whatever the agreement is) and they read yours. I’ve seen these as rotating partners or as a steady partner. There were usually requirements what type of feedback was to be given.
  2. A weekly book that everybody in the club was expected to visit a chapter of and leave comment spam on.

@DomiSotto is a bookclub pro so she might add if there were other formats.

For me the pro of a club like that is that you’re guaranteed that you’re getting someone to read your stuff. This works great when you’re just starting out and no one reads your books. However, as a feedback source, I’ve had spotty experiences. It really depends on who you’re paired up with. Ideally, I’d like to have more control over that, I’d love to vet my partners.

Outside of Wattpad, I’m in a NaNoWriMo critique group and the rules we have is that we send in our submissions (initial limit was 2000 words at a time but we break that limit all the time now) and then once a week we meet up and give in-person feedback. When we had a larger group, the group leader would choose which submissions we’d do at a time. I think we did 3 at a time maybe or 4. Nowadays, we’re a much smaller group so we just send stuff in whenever we can if we have something to send in. We still attend even if we don’t and if we have an emergency, we send in our feedback in writing to the submitters. Our leader went awol a while back so we self-regulate and it works wonderfully. We’ve been doing it for 3 years almost, talking to each other on discord every Tuesday. We’re friends. <3

I would love to see this type of group on Wacky’s. Clearly, we’d have to separate all users to limit how many we have in rotation and it takes time to build trust. But really, an honor system is so much healthier than the rigid Wattpad rules.

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51

Yeah, which goes back to me not knowing the first thing about internet-based clubs lol. So like I said, if anyone wants to provide direction (or even go so far as to volunteer as a club admin), I’m all ears lol.

(I’m testing a new thing for fonts, so bear with me lol)

It is definitely on the table.

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52

Great! :smiley:

If I ever figure out how to design apps, maybe we could also have a WW app, if it ends up expanding a lot. That would be amazing.

53

So is it more like a kind of group R4R thing? Or am I oversimplifying that?

I agree with the honor system bit. I’m trying to work out what the challenges are so we can come up with a system that addresses them.

So far, the issues I’m seeing are:

  • Being passed over frequently in a pool of books to choose from (being left out/overlooked)
  • Feedback can be spotty/unequal, so vetting reviewers would be nice
  • Accountability can be difficult to enforce depending on the implementation

For the forum? I use the Discourse native app. If I have time, I can look into a branded one, I know they offer it in some instances.

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54

I meant the whole site, like Wattpad used to. The forums and all. But that sounds cool too.

55

It’s definitely a challenge but that’s why small permanent groups matter so much.

The fact that my group meets for a voice chat weekly is HUGE for the accountability. You have to show up to the meeting if you want to get your feedback and you can’t show up without having read the other assignments. It’s hard sometimes to do it every week. Everyone’s always busy but carving out the time to do this as a routine has been awesome in my experience. You have to put in the work to get something out of it but the feedback on the voice chats is so much more valuable than a random note on an online document. You can ask for clarification, discuss alternatives, state your case why you’re doing what you’re doing and hear the rebuttal.

56

The writing site too? Yeah, that would be a dream come true lol. Honestly, I need the main site to be more stable as it exists currently, though. One day, I’ll have a really really talented developer make us something really amazing when I have like a million dollars :joy:

This is definitely a different twist on others I’ve seen/heard about. I’m not sure how comfortable everyone would be with a voice chat, but I’ll consider the psychology of this to see if there’s a way we can translate it to something everyone on the forums would be comfortable with.

Honestly, I think the new chat feature could be really beneficial for something like this. I know it’s not quite a voice chat, but it’s still more “real time” than traditional forum responses, so there’s still the timeliness aspect to be considered, and adding pressure to complete an assignment on time so you can participate.

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57

Yeah it would be cool. Yeah fair enough. Making sure that the site is stable is a wise idea. Haha yeah. If I did have a million dollars I would invest in this website though. But I don’t haha.

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58

Well, it’s the thought that counts. :joy: Appreciate it anyway lol

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59

No problem haha.

If I had a billion, I’d also buy Wattpad back off Naver and make it a good site.

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60

Then we could merge the two and make it a conglomerate! Haha

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61

Haha yeah. One can dream. But you never know what might happen in the future. :flushed:

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Well, for now, we work with what we have and keep things in mind to strive for :joy:

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63

I like this idea, but forcing a synchronous element means that you’d have to worry about time zones/scheduling people. There are going to be some people who genuinely want to contribute, but for whatever reason can’t make the time everyone else can.

With reference to the previous ideas about how to structure the club itself, one I saw a very trustworthy reviewer try to set up has the proposed format of every week going through a few chapters of a single book, more so to discuss things like craft than make sure everyone gets their chance at critique. So instead of doing a few chapters of Domi’s book, then my book, then Rowan’s book, you’d decide beforehand that discussing Rowan’s book would provide the most interesting discussion and we spend a few weeks going through that before moving onto the next one. The idea is that by being forced to engage with what another text is doing well or not well, people learn lessons they can apply to their own books without having to rely on others’ good grace. So definitely closer to your more traditional book club idea, just with one book at a time instead of a rotation.

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64

Personally, I am too shy to do anything requiring a conversation. I am purely text based. No showing my face and I don’t want anyone to hear my voice/accent.

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65

I do get where you’re coming from and there are definitely people out there who aren’t ready to face social anxiety. There should always be a platform for them.

I’m a total introvert. I prefer to write than speak by a long shot. I also have an accent and considering that I often grab a bottle of beer to go with my critique time, that makes it even harder to speak in coherent English. :sweat_smile:

I’m pushing for the voice chat option though because I’ve seen the benefits of it and no amount of written words can make up for them. It allows the exchange to be a literal conversation vs a business transaction.

Writing can be such a lonely endeavor. Hearing people live makes so much difference, especially if your writing is not the best and all they have is critique and not much praise. Seeing all the things you’re doing wrong can discourage one from writing.

When you deliver that feedback live though, you can listen to how it’s being taken, you can modulate your tone, ensure to deliver some good news along with the to-be-fixed list. It’s harder in writing because you don’t know what the other person’s reaction is. They choose what to let you know. You exit the exchange thinking all’s well when on the other side your feedback might have shattered the other person.

I’m saying you, I don’t mean actually you. I really mean myself :joy: and whoever else might feel the same way.
There’s this one person in our group whose writing has a lot of room to grow and sometimes it feels like all I have are negative notes. I can’t help it, really. I’m even harsher with my own writing. I’m just a very critical person. So I listen for clues of how it’s being taken and I look at what others say, are they delivering any good feedback? If they do, then I don’t worry as much but if they don’t, I try to step up and moderate myself.

I bother because I have never encountered writing that was so bad, I’d want that writer to quit and I’d hate it if they did because my critique pushed them over the edge. I don’t deliver bad news to be negative. I genuinely want to help them improve.

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66

I am glad it’s working for you. I’m not willing to try.

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