Feedback

[Ozymandias]

A question for all, what would you like to see from the pen?

 

Absolutely all answers welcomed.

[Katzaniel]

Do you mean like, what do we want from it, as in what are our goals in being here? (My answer: practice and feedback in my writing, and also the friendships I've garnered) or more administrative-oriented answers (My answer: less bureaucracy, without sacrificing the openness - yeah, good luck with that, I don't imagine it's very possible), or more technical (My answer: The news page to make a return) or something else entirely? (My answer: A T-shirt!!)

 

I'm guessing from that last line that you mean anything and everything, ie all of the above, but I find a little direction is desirable...

[Sweetcherrie]

Hmm...first reaction…

 

I applaud the initiative, but as for me, I had too many expectations, and have only been disappointed time and time again. So I've tuned them down a little, and I no longer expect anything of the Pen.

 

I have friends around here, I post my stories and I react to others as I see fit. Each time I decide to care too much I only get hurt.

 

I sincerely hope this works, and I will try my best to add something positive in here later.

 

My apologies for being sceptical, but somehow things only work if you have all aboard together…but yeah, once the people who are taking up the key-positions have found out what they are willing to invest, let me know, and I might be capable of investing a bit more again as well.

 

As it is…I’m holding my breath.

 

Sweet~

[Sweetcherrie]

Righty…I gave myself a little shaking, a pep-talk, and spoke with Gyrfalcon and Gwaihir (somehow those people are capable of dragging me out of negativity time and time again, thanks guys ), so now the something more positive thingie I had said I would post.

 

I think the most important thing is trying to get back that feeling of togetherness. We’re here together, and we should do this together. Stop bitching about each other, and start finding back that way we used to give and receive feedback.

 

I remember that at the beginning when I was here people actually tried their very best to make the people who had written things feel good about themselves and their work, as well as helping them to improve. We somehow seem to have lost that first part, and I miss it.

 

Yes, we might be a happy chappy forum, and we might be a bit overly loving at times, but I liked it that way…and isn’t that why we’re here, and staying? Because we secretly all hope to find back that time when we simply had fun and felt good about being part of this community?

 

Secondly, we should try to stop mistrusting each other. I’m guilty of this myself as well, and would like to apologize to one person in particular.

 

Sorry Reverie, my reactions towards you have not always been as well though out as you are worthy off, my apologies.

 

We are all here to have a good time, and all here to give or very best. I know this is hard to believe, especially seeing recent events, but if we cannot believe that everybody here is of good will, then we might as well quit trying any saving attempts straight away.

 

Thirdly, (sorry, in ranting mode now…) please people, show yourself! We have become so hung up on quality that we seem to forget that it’s the interaction with the other people around here which makes this a special place. How are we supposed to interact if so many people are only surfing the forums, but are not posting.

 

I would love to read all your stories/poems/rp, participate, give feedback, whatever, but give me something to do that with. I see so many people browsing, but somehow they don’t post…please, please, with sugar on top, post! Whatever you have on your hard drive that you haven’t posted for whatever reason, dump it here

 

Lastly, and this is mainly for the people who have willingly taken the responsibility of special roles around this place. If you’re not able to fulfil this role temporarily, for whatever reason, please don’t just drop of the face of the earth….

 

Show us that you care enough to tell us why you won’t be there, and how long you think you won’t be able to be there. I know you care, but it’s so hard to see if you simply disappear….

 

Hmm…started doing something else in the middle and lost the train of thought I was on…

 

Guess this would be enough of a rant anyway for the moment

[Akallabeth]

Reasons I come to The Pen:

 

-I have friends around the Pen that I met through the "Rabbits of Caerbannog" (a former guild in an online game that had Pen members at its roots) and who I've met on the Pen since joining it at the request of one of the "Rabbits" members.

 

-Shortly after joining, I began playing Werewolf, and have enjoyed a good number of games over the past years, though I haven't played in all of them

 

-I am not a person who is frequently inspired to write for the sake of writing. (I recall this happening once in the past 20 years.) As a result, I don't post much in the way of writing unless it is for Werewolf, or at the request of a Pen member.

 

That's all I can think of at the moment, and I hope it's satisfactory as I can't think of any suggestions for improvements.

[reverie]

Sweet: I'm sure I've misinterepted you equally as often if not more. You have my apologies as well.

 

*nods to Akallabeth

 

Reasons I come to the Pen:

 

-First and foremost Joat invited me. Unfortunately, I didn't take him up on the offer 'till about a year later, and to my surprise Joat seemed to fallen off the face of the earth.

 

-Ever the optimist, I decided to make the most of it. The "story-tellers" as I used to refer the proto-members of the pen proved to be an exciting crowd that I wanted to learn from and be part of... And I can say, that for the most part, I haven't been disappointed. Oh sure, I've had my misunderstandings and conflicts, but I love the pen and I get a lot of love back from it.

 

-I've never forgotten just how self-conscious I was as an writer (online and off) before finding the pen. A read of my earliest works reveals just how hesitate a guy I used to be. So sometimes, I go a little overboard trying to pay the pen back for all it's given me.

 

What I want from the Pen :

 

Basically, I want the pen to always be there, always be supportive, and to continue to evolve in a happy way. I also want the pen to remain shiny during all this. Some thing that I've been trying to do on my own in a kind of misguided Don Quixote fashion is to raise the feedback level bar and by extension the quality of polished posts (semi-edited i.e. not a first draft and generally error free: "physician heal thyself." ~someone ancient and not me) of the pen. I'm not the first or only one currently trying to do this, but we are few and easily distracted by that annoying thing called life. Baby steps.

Edited August 13, 2006 by reverie

[Degorram]

Personally, I would like to see more action. It's hard to make friends on the forums alone. How about a few contests? Or, if not that, a few days where we just make a few boards ofr discussions on different types of writing: Sci-Fi Day, Mystery Day, Romance Day, Fantasy Day, blah blah blah.

 

Overall, just more chances to get to know people. So far I've made virtually no friends.

 

~Dego

[reverie]

Degorram:

 

Try jumping into some popular RP threads, if your in to that sort of thing. If not, the maybe the IRC channel. Anyone got a quick link to some info on that? I hear there's a carnival (assortment of contests and games) still here about. Maybe one of the guild leaders could introduce you to it.

 

Also I subscribe to the "letter writing" theory of feedback. If you want letters, well you have to write letters or as some anonymous sage before me put it, "if you want a friend, be a friend."

 

 

rev...

Edited August 13, 2006 by reverie

[Sweetcherrie]

Yes, join us in the IRC channel

 

The Carnival is just about to be ended, but there is a werewolf game running (in which you could still join, just let me know), and I'm sure there will soon be more activities.

 

Also, if you have questions, please feel free to poke people...well, you can always poke me, and I'm realitvely sure that most others around here won't have a problem with it either

 

Hope you'll soon make new friends here.

[Regel]

That "The Pen is mightier than the sword" exists at all is amazing. My expectations of it have always been limited. I really only expect that the people in charge will continue to be people of compassion, that they will seek to build a safe environment for poets and writers to post. The rest is really out of their hands. The rest is always up to the rest of us. As a peripheral member I have always been treated fairly. I have never had comments that have been anything but constructive and supportive. I really don't have any demands or even questions.

[Alaeha]

What Alaeha expects from Themightypen.net

-- A working message board populated by intelligent, largely sensible people.

-- An IRC channel where Sephora can doodle on the Idling Statues and visit the penguin inside the couch.

 

What Alaeha would very much like (in descending order of apparent feasibility)

-- A group of D&D 3.x players willing to participate in a play-by-post a campaign

-- The return of the Hostel Fox RP

-- An extra few hours in the day to spend on writing.

-- A cake baked by Q

 

Separate from the previous lists, things that would be nice to see

-- The return of Salinye's Life Questions threads

-- An increase in non-carnival activities

-- More parties in the IRC channel

[Morgane]

what do i want from the pen....

to be able to continue lurking

play now and then

oh and get less confused by the file structure hehe

 

huggles Morgy

[Patrick]

-- A group of D&D 3.x players willing to participate in a play-by-post a campaign

I'm sure there are quite a few around. For example, I wouldn't mind brushing up a bit on my rusty D&D skills, seeing that I haven't found a playing group here in France yet...

 

As for my own feedback. It'll come a bit later, when I've had a bit more time to think.

[Vigil StarGazer]

I agree... I would be very interested in a D&D campaign.

 

 

P.S We also need our own wikipedia entry.

Edited August 15, 2006 by Vigil StarGazer

[Rune]

I came here because of Pere. I followed him in one day when he accidently left the door open.

 

I havent been here in awhile so I am not sure what to suggest but I do offer you the best in your research!

[Alaeha]

Oh, on further thought, something that I would very, very much appreciate:

 

The option to have the "save a copy to my sent folder" thingy default to being On when I'm sending PMs. I've lost all but a handful of the PMs I've sent out since the board switched over because I keep forgetting to check that little box -- early on, I didn't even notice its existence. I would offer cookies in repayment, but cookies don't handle being mailed very well.

[Gyrfalcon]

I'd love to do the last one, but I think at least two or three people have gone over the admin options with a fine-toothed comb, and it's simply not a feature in the current version of the board software. =\ I agree, it's very annoying to have to remember to click the box to save your outgoing message.

[The Big Pointy One]

I just want The Pen to be as awesome as always. Things change, people come and go, but I know when I come around, I'm usually met with patience and warmth, as is everyone else. As part of The Pen, I do what I can (although I should do more) just as I expect everyone else to do. Continue to make this a fun and warm environment for everyone here, be it guests or members.

 

Oh, and I'd really like to see some more Conservatory action that isn't the form of a Werewolf. They seem fun, but some good ol' freeform RP is where it's at in my opinion.

 

[Appy]

A revising of the board and it's uses would be very very appreciated.

For instance:

 

- A seperate WW forum

 

- A Greenroom accesible by anyone, not just initiates. And positioned closer to the Conservatory for obvious reasons... which would be that you don't have to search the whole board to find the OOC Room.

 

- Same for a Critic's Corner, or something similar, maybe named less negative. Same as in, accesible by people not member of the Pen.

 

- A more logical placement of the Walls of the Pen, possibly connected to, or positioned on;

 

- the return of the Start page

 

- Relocation of the Piazza of Portrets, bringing it physically closer to where the actual RPG's are going on.

 

- (people might hate me for this one) Removing of the Guilds, or combining them into One forum.. the only big thing I saw lately was carnivals, and I'm sure the (active) guild leaders don't need three seperate forums with sub-forums to organise that

 

And last but not least, a revising of who can see what. I find it highly uncomfertable for instance that those who are put up for nomination can see their name posted in the Minstrell Hall (pages), but can't do a thing about it.

I find it very confusing that things only the people above Quill-Bearer can vote on, are posted in the Minstrell Hall, stating that only members should vote.. which I know means only those above Quill-Bearer. (in my mind, being accepted in the Recuiters Office is becomming a member.) This is mostly promotions, but has been done on other subjects as well in the past.

 

All in all, I would like to see us create a more open Penkeep, focussed on writing in general, and not on making people write in the right forums or posts.

[Gyrfalcon]

Oh, on further thought, something that I would very, very much appreciate:

 

The option to have the "save a copy to my sent folder" thingy default to being On when I'm sending PMs. I've lost all but a handful of the PMs I've sent out since the board switched over because I keep forgetting to check that little box -- early on, I didn't even notice its existence. I would offer cookies in repayment, but cookies don't handle being mailed very well.

Check that. With the wildly appreciated help of Rune in guiding me as to what to change, both default skins should now have their 'save a copy of the PM' box checked.

 

Thanks Rune! You are awesome!

[Alaeha]

Yay for Rune! I had just noticed as I was going to send a PM that the box was already checked, and I paused. "Wait a sec, I don't remember checking that..." So I went and opened up another PM and it was checked again. Very cool!

 

I should totally get my head together with Ayshela to figure out how to package cookies so they don't go stale...

[Gwaihir]

Rune, you really are totally truely cool. We appreciate you.

 

Gyr, seriously thanks for being a consistently responsible and helpful hand with website management as well as everything else you do.

 

Yays.

[Katzaniel]

Gah! But there's no way to change for a particular user when they want it to default to off?

 

... Ehh, I won't complain if there's not. I suppose it's far worse to lose important messages than to fill up the outbox with often not important ones. It's just that I am used to checking that box if and only if I want the message...

 

PS. I only bring it up because I'm sure that option used to be settable. It was default on, and I changed my settings so it was default off.

 

And thanks Rune! I don't mean to offset your help. I just looked myself for how to fix that, and found nothing, so I can understand that whatever you did wasn't easy.

Edited August 17, 2006 by Katzaniel

[Gyrfalcon]

It's a setting in the skin itself, unfortuantly. If enough people really wanted it, I suppose we could clone the skin they use most often and change that one setting back to off?

[Ozymandias]

*smiles broadly*

 

Good, good! Exactly what I was hoping for. Come on, I know there're more of you out there with comments, questions, etc. on yourt mind! Don't be shy!

 

Sadly, I'm running a bit late for work, but if anyone needs it, here're two quick points of "thought-jogging":

 

* What does the Pen give that you desire?

* What doesn't the Pen give that you desire?

 

 

Remember, there are no wrong answers. In the end, it is very much desired to know what everyone thinks when they see the opening question, in as much detail as they want to give. That is the purpose here.

 

Thanks to all of you who have thrown in so far. Everybody, keep it coming!