silent readers

[Gnarl]

One thing I have noticed, in particular on Weasyl and here in the forums is that while a lot of people read, and hopefully admire the stories and the art, not a lot of them make any comments. I have seen that a large group of people have come here because of various reasons, as an alternative to other sites. Now that being the case I would have thought that those people would want to make this site better than the one they left. I am not complaining, after all I do seem to get many reads on the stories I have put on here, yet there are no comments. Nothing about if they liked it, or I should improve on this or that, or asking about any characters or anything. I know that some people think that this site might be a little "dead" but I think we could make it better, more interesting and alive with activity! I mean guys, isn't that what we as writers do?

[Noxid]

maybe there should be a mandatory pop quiz

[Frank LeRenard]

Yeah, I don't know. Is there an example out there of a vibrant, active online writers' community? And I mean one that doesn't focus on forcing people to give each other critiques. If there is such a thing, what do they do that makes them so vibrant and active compared to places like Weasyl?

[Poetigress]

There are places like Wattpad and Scribophile, but I think the main thing they have that makes them active compared to Weasyl (besides the fact that Weasyl is smaller and still a de facto furry site for now) is that they're sites that only focus on writing, not visual art. :/ So obviously that doesn't really help in terms of giving ideas on how to improve Weasyl.

I think as far as the writing side, we're stuck in the same catch-22 as the rest of the site: people aren't as interested in participating because there aren't as many people here, and there aren't as many people here because there's not as much activity. (From what I hear on the FWG forums, there's a strong preference among the writers there for SoFurry, out of the furry galleries, though some feel it's gone downhill since SF started allowing art.)

I'd love to see Weasyl more active, but I don't really have any ideas or answers. :/

[Gnarl]

What if we started a contest to see who could write the hottest erotic furry piece without any actual porn?
or any kind of a writing contest not NSFW! The best action scene, the most thrilling suspense? The most comical situation?
A space anthology? anything!
The way I see it, if we want people to get active, we have to be active. Forget the catch 22 bit, it is more like no one wants to be the first on the dance floor. We could even start a joke thread.
have you heard the one about the two guys who walked into a bar? The first one turns to the secan and says "You didn't see it either?"

[dogpencil]

Poettigress: What are the FWG forums?

- - - Updated - - -

Gnarl, are you volunteering to orchestrate and promote a writing contest?

I had seen a weasyl user give away steam game activation codes so people would vote on what game he should play next (or something like that i dont remember exactly). He got quite a few responses (maybe a dozen?) but he also had a good handful of followers.

[Poetigress]

FWG = Furry Writers' Guild.

Website (with lots of resources for writers): http://www.furrywritersguild.com
Forum: http://www.anthroaquatic.com/forum/index.php
Twitter: http://twitter.com/furwritersguild

To be a guild member you have to meet certain criteria as far as publication, but the forums are open to everyone.

(Full disclosure - I'm the current president of the guild.)

[Getta]

I think this applies to visual art as much as it applies to writing. I often wish online galleries did more to foster community.

Showcasing artists, genres, and types of art.

Giving viewers more options to showcase art that they like. If you give someone an option to choose a "featured favourite", list a favourite writer/artist, list a favourite genre or type of art", all as a part of their profile then they're likely to put something in there.

Put polls, contests, etcetera out there and people are likely to participate.

Ever notice how when you view something on Amazon it has that bar "people who purchased this item also purchased these items"? Galleries could do something like that for artists. "People who +watched this artist also +watched these artists" or "People who +faved this submission also +faved these submissions" to help nudge people towards artists similar to what they like.

Something as simple as prompting people to leave a comment or a shout can lead to a lot more activity on the site. "You viewed 5 submissions by this artist/writer, why not leave a shout/comment?"

I'm just spitballing here of course, but it seems to me that this entire side to what an art gallery should be is too often overlooked.

[Frank LeRenard]

That's an interesting idea, Getta, but I have to think it's not easy to implement. Amazon and Netflix and such can do it because they have teams of paid employees in Silicon Valley writing proprietary code to parse the information in their websites, but Weasyl is run by volunteers (as are most other art sites). Not saying our coders couldn't do it, but it would probably take a lot of time to get right, which is time that could be spent doing more immediately necessary changes, etc.

I like this, though:

Something as simple as prompting people to leave a comment or a shout can lead to a lot more activity on the site. "You viewed 5 submissions by this artist/writer, why not leave a shout/comment?"

[TeenageAngst]

The reason is probably because writing communities tend to be full of self-important bearded tossers who think they're so much better a writer than anyone else even though they ain't never been published yet. Writing communities are nothing but slings and arrows aimed at each other while at the same time sort of dragging each other along that winding path to perfection they all aspire to reach before *actually submitting anything for publication.* This atmosphere leaves the weak and poor writers extremely vulnerable and it makes the old guard jaded and elitist as fuck. No one wants to throw their opinion out there because it will either be rejected as trolling right out of the gate, shot down by fanboys, or picked apart by neckbeards.