New Style Writings

[Totality]

Hey there, feel free to delete/move etc if inappropriate.

I'm currently extremely bored.

As Such - I was thinking of purchasing a new website, and making it into a writings website.

My request is:

Would people use it?
What content should I include on it?
Website Names?
Forums?

etc.

Thanks,

P/S

If I do go through with this, will be looking for staff.

[DreamSeeker]

If you did you need a topic and there are loads of competition for all topics so keep that in mind. It's hard at first, I've tried setting up tech blogs 3 times in the past hut gave up due to the competition, how hard it is and lack of time.

[Totality]

yeah, that I know of.

I operate several sites at the moment.

I just want a new challenge etc.

And writing site was the first to come to mind, since I'm in the middle of writing my novel.

[SlightlySane]

I'd certainly be willing to help :)

[Origami]

As with any other website or organization, you need basic things.

1. A competent staff. You have to know what you're doing, as well as the other staff members. Incompetence is nothing but a road to failure. Application forms are not enough to prove ability. Staff members should be able to show their complete projects or a successful website they are a staff member of. As well as proving to you they are competent.
2. Do something original. If you don't have the ingenuity to create a new concept to attract users, then you won't achieve anything at all. It's as simple as that.
3. Rules and Guidelines. Basics, obviously.
4. Quality Material. You should use successful web-based software to develop your website. DO NOT USE FREE HOSTING AND WEB SOFTWARE. They are shit and people will see you for your shit development. You will thus only attract shit and your website will be shit. Understand this shit?
5. Activity and Commitment. You have to have committed staff and members. Inactivity will be the death of your website. Also, you should only be looking to attract members, not staff. On EY we have 46 members and 4 staff members. Technically 5, but he's there to lend a helping hand. Three administrators. One is the Founder and host, one is the site GFX and intellect. The third is for "the people." A social, friendly, helping admin. Then fourth is a coder. Does behind the scenes activity and seldom posts. The fifth member is a moderator. Know that we have far more than we need at this point. Two could run it easily.

As for participation. If you attract quality writers and not these "my heart hurts" bullshit scams. Then yes, I will frequent your webpage.

[Totality]

As with any other website or organization, you need basic things.

1. A competent staff. You have to know what you're doing, as well as the other staff members. Incompetence is nothing but a road to failure. Application forms are not enough to prove ability. Staff members should be able to show their complete projects or a successful website they are a staff member of. As well as proving to you they are competent.

Answer: I almost never let staff apply, if we want them to staff the site, we always ask them. The only reason, I will be looking for help at the moment, is due to it being a new website etc. Yet most of it, I can easily accomplish myself.

2. Do something original. If you don't have the ingenuity to create a new concept to attract users, then you won't achieve anything at all. It's as simple as that.

Answer: Something Original as always been my idea around websites, however hard it gets, you can always come up with something, no matter what.

3. Rules and Guidelines. Basics, obviously.

Answer: Yep.

4. Quality Material. You should use successful web-based software to develop your website. DO NOT USE FREE HOSTING AND WEB SOFTWARE. They are shit and people will see you for your shit development. You will thus only attract shit and your website will be shit. Understand this shit?

Answer: I never use free hosting and web software, I use premium hosting that allows unlimited everything and buy a proper domain. As for web software, I normally use a mix between HTML and Joomla for applications and posts.

5. Activity and Commitment. You have to have committed staff and members. Inactivity will be the death of your website. Also, you should only be looking to attract members, not staff. On EY we have 46 members and 4 staff members. Technically 5, but he's there to lend a helping hand. Three administrators. One is the Founder and host, one is the site GFX and intellect. The third is for "the people." A social, friendly, helping admin. Then fourth is a coder. Does behind the scenes activity and seldom posts. The fifth member is a moderator. Know that we have far more than we need at this point. Two could run it easily.

Answer: As said above, we normally ask people if they want to staff, seldom do we host Application Forms, and yes agreed. Inactivity will be the death of any website, so will be looking for active members.

As for participation. If you attract quality writers and not these "my heart hurts" bullshit scams. Then yes, I will frequent your webpage.

Thanks for the show of interest guys. I'm thinking I might go ahead with this. Just need a domain name =].

*puts thinking cap on*

P/S

I am looking for ideas also, either Pm me or post on here with your ideas for the site.

All Ideas Considered.

[Origami]

Why not just use this thread title?

[Totality]

Could do =]

I originally intended it to be

newstylewriting.com

Just thought I'd ask around aswell.

[embers]

I'd be willing to help and would join if the site got started. TeenageWriters is a bit tedious, hence why I stopped visiting it.

[Sage]

I'd support it if it's not specifically targeted at teenagers but instead writers in general.

[Origami]

I'd support it if it's not specifically targeted at teenagers but instead writers in general.

Indeed. Allow those who are more adept in their capabilities join in as well. No need isolating it to a less practiced group.

[Totality]

I'm wanting to make it for all writers, no matter on age.

I don't specifically like to single out certain groups which is why it will be aimed at any and all writers.

EDIT: I have my Hosting all Sorted - Just waiting to get paid so I can purchase the domain - should be the end of the week at the latest.

EDIT2: Setting all up now - right now its pointed to a subdomain (Horrible, I know) - just until I can purchase the full domain then Ill edit the nameservers and everything so it will all be done properly.

[Origami]

Careful, transferring domains often leads to massive data loss.
When they EY servers switched I lost 200 posts, as did several other members lose a number of posts.

[Totality]

Well, I actually left it in the end - I'm buying the domain and hosting now of the same company - so it should all be alright because they will set their own nameservers up for me. =]

[Origami]

Well, I actually left it in the end - I'm buying the domain and hosting now of the same company - so it should all be alright because they will set their own nameservers up for me. =]

I'd recommend buy it from separate companies. It's usually more expensive, but much more reliable. On EY we started on the same company, hit one issue and found they were more focused on hosting than domain relevance. Switched to two separate companies and haven't had problems.

[Totality]

Fair Enough. We shall see how it goes.

For the website I was thinking on this, what do people think? I want it to be a community project, not just my ideas - but I want input from everyone on everything.

I was thinking we do this:
Tutorials
Guidelines
Rules
Forums
Affiliates
Publishers
etc.

And then, split the forums into:
Prose
Non-Fiction
Poetry
Lyrics
Etc.

What do you think?

[Origami]

Tutorials is pointless. Writing doesn't have tutorials. It's a comment and criticism game for improvement. That section is useless.
Guidelines can fall under rules.
Forums is fine.
Affiliates is fine.
Publishers is useless unless you really take off.

So in other words, start with it all being a forum. Forum could be categorized as such:
[ -Denotes Category; --Denotes forums ---Denotes subforum]

-New Style Writings
--Announcements
--Suggestions and Issues
--Staff Applications
(Organized much like VT is now)

-General
--General Discussion
--Arcade

-Prose
--Short Stories
--Essays
--Novels
--Other Prose
--Prose Discussion

-Poetry
--General Poetry
--Epics
--Lyrics
--Poetry Discussion

-Affiliate Sites
--Site #1
--Site #2
--Site #3

[Totality]

Fair enough.

I'll start on that.

I'm using myBB for forum software.

[Sage]

Tutorials is pointless. Writing doesn't have tutorials. It's a comment and criticism game for improvement. That section is useless.
Guidelines can fall under rules.
Forums is fine.
Affiliates is fine.
Publishers is useless unless you really take off.

So in other words, start with it all being a forum. Forum could be categorized as such:
[ -Denotes Category; --Denotes forums ---Denotes subforum]

-New Style Writings
--Announcements
--Suggestions and Issues
--Staff Applications
(Organized much like VT is now)

-General
--General Discussion
--Arcade

-Prose
--Short Stories
--Essays
--Novels
--Other Prose
--Prose Discussion

-Poetry
--General Poetry
--Epics
--Lyrics
--Poetry Discussion

-Affiliate Sites
--Site #1
--Site #2
--Site #3

To be honest, I really don't think all those subforums are entirely necessary when the site is starting up. A lot of boards with little posts makes the site look bad. Also, it's not impossible to make writing "tutorials", but "guides" is a better term. There are a lot of topics in regards to writing I could write a guide on, like the common mistake of people describing pointless things too much which makes it sound like they're describing a movie scene instead of writing a story.

[Totality]

Ill make a main rough site now - and then post the link - its based on Joomla so its easy to edit.

Forums are not active yet until domain is active properly, however I can post the temporary URL.

[Origami]

To be honest, I really don't think all those subforums are entirely necessary when the site is starting up. A lot of boards with little posts makes the site look bad. Also, it's not impossible to make writing "tutorials", but "guides" is a better term. There are a lot of topics in regards to writing I could write a guide on, like the common mistake of people describing pointless things too much which makes it sound like they're describing a movie scene instead of writing a story.

You're probably right, and yes, the old show don't tell method.

[Totality]

Well, its all up and running. However it is very plain.

So I am looking for help in it all.

Site: http://www.newstylewritings.com
Forum: http://www.newstylewritings.com/forums

I'm still updating and everything.

Signing up at the Website, also signs you up at the forums.

[Origami]

Shit bro, let me make you a banner. That's gaudy as fuck!
Also, look into investing in an appealing forum style, or make one like we did at EY ( www.express-yourself.org )
I'm signed up under my real alias - Relyh

[Totality]

I'm looking for the help I can get.

I'm using Joomla - because its a simple CMS to use and it allows me to set it so people can post there own guides.

I would use my own website and such, but I'm not well versed in web-development. But Joomla is simple to me.

I'm using a builder to recreate a new site - but for now, i used Joomla just to get all set up and working and whatnot.

Any and All help on anything is welcome.

[Totality]

I've been working hard on this.

We now have rules and guidelines.

We also have ideas on the main page which are mainly story starters right now.

We need more content in the forums and on the site, so any and all content related to writing is welcome.