Forum / Stop. Posting. So. Often.

Lynn Beighley
Aug 16, 11:01pm

I hate the periods after words, I don't know who started it, but it's annoying. And yet I do want to emphasize

how unpleasant it is to post anything here

when it whips past us all. How are we a community when we can't possibly respond to each other? When some people monopolize the flawed system? Are you listening???????????????????????????!

Please, please, yes, please, give each of us a limit on how often he can post every 3 days or so. It's not difficult to code, I volunteer to dig in to the database and the PHP code running the site to create this.

Ann Bogle
Aug 16, 11:16pm

Lynn, each time a member registers this complaint, I give my own tally. 1,134 days at Fictionaut, 96 postings (including slight revisions or entries split due to length, et al.), average one posting each 11.81 days.

Lynn Beighley
Aug 16, 11:29pm

I know, Ann. It really isn't a tough problem to address. But we're all waiting for the new and improved f'naut. I guess.

James Claffey
Aug 17, 01:53am

good advice. i'm taking most of my stories off-line and going to a ten-day minimum posting cycle.

Lynn Beighley
Aug 17, 02:18am

I just wish we'd all think about quality over quantity. A girl can dream.

Sally Houtman
Aug 17, 04:00am

Here's my (perhaps unpopular) opinion, FWIW-

If you are an active part of the community (i.e. participatory, generous with your time, supportive, encouraging of others' work), then I say post your prolific little ass off and I salute you. These folks don't worry me. The ones who do worry me are those who post on a rather continuous basis, yet seem uninterested in the 'community' aspect here or in the great work so generously shared by others.

For selfish reasons I would hate to see the site impose some sort of 'external' control on the posting front, firstly because I don't believe the site itself is 'flawed,' and secondly because I'd hate to see some of our more prolific and talented writers be shooed away. Also, although I don't post that frequently, when I do I will often run a new piece several days in a row as I work on it to gain distance and perspective. Not being able to do this would preclude us from using this site as a valuable tool for our writing, which I thought was part of the point.

Also, when I read that someone as supportive, encouraging and generous with his time as James Claffey say he's taking his work off line and limiting his posting, I feel we all lose.

Come home, James! All is forgiven!

James Claffey
Aug 17, 05:01am

it's okay, and thanks lynn and sally. i did have to take down some stories that are pending publication, for obvious reasons. i'm lucky i've time to post the way i do, and i worry about overreaching and all that jazz. cheers! :)

James Lloyd Davis
Aug 17, 12:27pm

James, your work has always possessed superior quality for all the quantity and you've been more than generous and consistent with your support for the time you've been here.

James Claffey
Aug 17, 02:35pm

thanks james, appreciate the support. i'm afraid if i slow down the faucet will dry up!

Darryl Price
Aug 17, 04:58pm

I think, for me, I agree with James. Fear is not the friend of a writer you think it might be, we're all on limited time anyway--from the get go. Of course you want to support other good writers,encourage them,applaud them,welcome them into your head and your heart,but then you are faced with the obvious;what do you do now with the gift of that inspiration from others? Hopefully you use it to create, to brave one more try, to continue to believe that writing is an important, major art form that is an obvious,necessary part of any good life. Please don't fight with me over this--I get it that there are different opinions that carry the exact opposite feelings to their own conclusions.Good for us. We're well rounded.I guess the thing I'd like to say here is if anybody's looking for a utopia of any sort for writers, good luck with that. I welcome the wide diversity,even in the way people choose to perform their being here in the first place. I find it interesting, and as I've already said,inspiring. I don't have a lot of time these days, can't even remember the last time I wrote something,except for this. I like the community. Why? It's full of interesting people who write really adventurous,brave,revealing, fun things. It shows a certain seriousness and intelligence still exists in the world that I certainly believe in and long to partake of.I've read and enjoyed pieces by all of the above writers. They've all reached me, one way or the other. Without Fictionaut,flawed as it may be, I probably would never have had the pleasure, and I do mean pleasure..look up in the dictionary--that's what I'm talking about! I don't want to feel like I have to comment just because I'm enjoying the show so much. Sometimes I don't because I feel it would be redundant on my part or maybe I just feel like I don't have anything smart or helpful to add.

Lynn Beighley
Aug 17, 06:38pm

I appreciate the thoughtful comments and your differing, well reasoned point of views. And I do find myself less cranky today then when I posted this.

I do want to add, though, if I were coming to the Fictionaut party today, I doubt I'd stick around. I'd post and it would be gone from the front page into relative obscurity in hours. It's bound to be tough on new members. Now that I'm back a bit more, I'll make it my mission to read and comment on pieces from people I don't know. Just one comment can make the difference.

Problem is, how does anyone have time to keep up?

Anyway, better this Fictionaut than none at all.

Philip F. Clark
Aug 17, 07:15pm

As a new Fictionauter, this thread has taught me some good etiquette lessons! What I love about Fictionaut is the amazing amount of diverse work that I can read -- but I realize that I've been posting on a daily basis, simply because there do seem to be hundreds of people, and only a few very might get to read particular pieces. So it's sort of like hoping you'll get the heart in the jar, once you've thrown it. But I understand that it would be far more productive and valuable to post just one or two pieces and see what responses you get over a period of time. As a new poster, I also feel it's important that I read as much of everyone's work that I can -- and giving good feedback. So, I was glad to read this. I'm going to reign in the posting, and increase the feedback. As a community, I've found nothing like this as exciting. But I understand that some limits are helpful. I love the democracy of it all however. "Two cheers for democracy". (Forster).

Gloria Garfunkel
Aug 18, 06:18am

I suggest politeness over ranting to keep this the friendly, civilized place I love. I started seven groups in a row to reinvigorate the group program and if that 's a problem for some, just skip over it and read an Obama email or something.

Lynn Beighley
Aug 18, 12:13pm

Other than perhaps my initial post, in which I'm hoping to express a bit of exasperation, I see nothing unfriendly or uncivilized here. I do feel strongly about the limited exposure we all get on ther front page, but I hope I'm politely stating my viewpoint and not ranting.

I don't understand your statement "if that's a problem for some". Why are you discussing groups? Do you have an opinion on the topic at hand? I'd very much like to hear it.

Lynn Beighley
Aug 18, 12:33pm

Ah, I see the miscommunication. Gloria, I was talking about the posting of stories and poems, such that they appear on the front page.

RW Spryszak
Aug 18, 12:39pm

I am ambivalent when sober, and am in desperate need of a drink so I can have an opinion. Orange juice and vodka sounds good about here. Or perhaps a little bubbly with the waffles.

I guess it can be frustrating to put something up and see it buried pretty quickly. Then again I'm still debating why I would put up any work on Fictionaut knowing that if I wait long enough I'm going to hate/want to change it and take it down, often.

The advantage this site offers me is that when I see what I've been working on in a different medium it is like looking at it with a new eye. I have no idea why that happens.

What the hell does Obama have to do with anything, he asked, finally coming up to present time.

Gloria Garfunkel
Aug 18, 12:46pm

I get it. I skimmed the forum, guilty as charged, I do have strong opinions about groups as potential ways to get to know each other better as explained in one of my "lost" posts on why I'm so obsessed with groups, having led so many in my career as a psychotherapist which ended suddenly due to a brain injury June 10. Yes, these things get lost, but we are a big group. I'm healing well and this is my new home. I feel protective, if not always very attentive. Sorry for any misunderstandings. I've voiced my opinions on groups over and over. They're just buried.

W.F. Lantry
Aug 18, 03:55pm

"Stop posting so often?"

Lynn, you say you only posted this because of exasperation. Fair enough, and I respect your position. But will you respect mine for being exasperated by statements like this?

The reason I don't post much anymore is because of a similar discussion that occurred about 18 months ago. I slowed down, and stopped. A few months later, the person who started it admitted she was just frustrated about something peripheral, but the damage was done.

I started posting less, other people started posting less. People started posting so little, it was taking three or four days for a story to slide off the front page. So everyone got discouraged, and started posting even less. Participation went down. Interest in the site went down. People started to quarrel among themselves, instead of encouraging each other to produce new work. Instead of feeding off each other, people started to snap at each other.

And the solution to this is that we should post even less often?

Maybe we should all learn to use the front page differently. Maybe there's some solution which is preferable to discouraging participation. I don't know. I only know that I seldom feel like posting anything anymore, because colleagues are so often telling other colleagues not to post things...

Best,

Bill

Jerry Ratch
Aug 18, 03:58pm

Bill,

Stop listening to the critics and post already!

Lynn Beighley
Aug 18, 04:11pm

Thank you, Bill. This is why it is a topic worth discussing. I see your point, having over-participation is perhaps better than under.

I post work I'm proud of and want people to read. Having little participation on the site doesn't accomplish this, but having my work sink into obscurity so rapidly doesn't serve me either. Eh.

I suppose there's no solution. Or maybe the solution is that people will get so tired of posting and getting no views, no comments, that they'll get bored and go away. That's a shame, too.

Anyway, I respect your view a great deal, and thank you for sharing it.

Marcus Speh
Aug 18, 04:29pm

For someone like me, who has been a member of Internet communities for over 20 years, started quite a few and buried more, Fictionaut in its 3rd or 4th year of operation (?) is entering a interesting phase. For one thing, as others have pointed out in this thread, technology has moved on. Some of the features that were great a few years ago, seem a tad dated now or are still missing (like: editing/deleting one's forum/story comments), other features (including the absence of features) have proven to me that minimalism is a viable path for communities built on quality and content like this one. As an outsider (geographically speaking) it is particularly gratifying, and always has been, to be able to enter and thrive in the community of virtual persons of good standing, who don't play clique. As for the question at hand, it seems clear as I reached the bottom of this page, that they are as many different habits of reading and posting as members in the community.

For myself, the value of this place at any given time directly corresponds to the time I put into reading and commenting. Next to it, my own posts are less important. This was not so when I first began. However, a superficial look seems to tell me that those who stick around also thrive on the interaction rather than on the kick of self publication and attention for it.

Having given up writing flash for submission/publication, I don't post anywhere except on my own blog and here. My posting frequency seems to be about once a month. As I'm heading into book promotion land (http://bit.ly/TYFYS), I might selfishly post a little more.

Whatever happens on the front page or under the counter, I will always love this place, no matter who owns it.

Susan Tepper
Aug 18, 06:16pm

There used to be a 'Fictionaut rule' that if you have a story on the first page, you must wait to post a new story. In fact I remember getting an automated message that told me I must wait. Was that disbanded? Just curious. Since I haven't posted a story in a long time, I'm not paying much attention to the amount of times people post. I go to New Stories and read the authors work I like and some new authors if there is time.

Sam Rasnake
Aug 18, 06:30pm

The limiting effect is still in play I believe, Susan, but with a variation. A year or two ago the front wall was expanded to hold more stories - from, I think, 10 or 12 to the present 17. The original setting of 10 pieces on the wall prohibited a new piece being posted by a writer until the earlier piece scrolled off. The same setting is probably still there, but after the 10 public pieces, another piece can now be added, allowing 2 pieces from one writer to appear on the wall at the same time. Either the original limiting setting has been turned off or as I've described, two pieces - one newer and one older - can now appear at the same time.

Susan Tepper
Aug 18, 07:01pm

Sam, thanks for explaining.

Gloria Garfunkel
Aug 18, 08:51pm

As far as I've been counting, there are now THIRTY stories on the front page and you aren't allow to post a story until your story is off the front page. In my experience, that has taken about three days. I think that solves the over submission problem quite perfectly as the rule I as a newbie have been told, no submissions until your story is off the first page and I have rigidly followed the rule. I assumed everyone else did too. A rule is a rule, right?

Sam Rasnake
Aug 18, 09:12pm

My comment about 17 stories is for the rolling post of new stories/poems, Gloria. The right side of the page holds the stories/poems of the previous two to three, I think - that used to be within a 7 day period. The stories that receive a combination of the most favs, views, and comments.

Gloria Garfunkel
Aug 19, 12:48am

There must be some technical inconsistency, then, because I am always locked out before thirty and I see others posting two and three times in that interval. Time to contact Carson Baker.

Sam Rasnake
Aug 19, 01:19am

I see now how you arrive at 30, Gloria. If you click the "see more" link, the wall list of 17 expands to 30. I'm not sure about now, but the earlier setting here only blocked from the main wall (17) and the expanded new list. In the past, the expanded list was not included in the blocking. That feature may have been changed at some point. If it has been changed, it should be reset to apply only to the main wall of new posts. Agree about contacting Carson.

Sam Rasnake
Aug 19, 01:21am

My comment should read ... blocked from the main wall (17) and not the expanded new list. Sorry about that.

Carson Baker
Aug 19, 01:40am

17 is the right number. The only rule in effect is that you can't publish if another one of your stories is already among the 17 on the homepage.

James Claffey
Aug 19, 03:30am

yes, three to four days seems to be the working norm. but does the 17 story wall mean that once 16 others post stories you're able to post again? not quite clear on that.

Dolemite
Aug 19, 08:36pm

I, too, long to stand in the middle of a stagnant, barely-moving stream, waving and waving and shouting my name for as long as humanly possible...

;-)
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