Gathering of the Figments

pommie42

Right then.
Please don't be distracted by the lenght of the post, this is all very important, it needs to be said, it needs to be read, and most importantly, it needs to be paid attention to.
Let's begin.

This forum is a forum for writers (or poets etc.) to gather together, share ideas, get advice, and most importantly I think, to get critique for their work, because it is very hard to critique your own work, it just is.
To be sure, there is always going to be a bit of rambling, we're authors, it's natural for this to happen.
BUT
This is not what is happening. I see very little in the way of writing, and even less in the way of critiquing. Apart from a couple of our new members, I think we have had one or two poems in the past month or so, and the novel state is terrible. Apart from me, Rowpindi and fbi_woman, there hasn't been a post there, let alone critique.
Yes, I know some of you are hard at work with NaNo, but this problem started a long time before that.
And to make matters worse; I posted a short story up a couple of days ago. So fare, the only people to read this is myself, and a couple of guests. I know this because I check how many views it has had when I log on and off, and when other people log in/off. And let me tell you, this view count has only increased when I look at it, and when there is no one but a couple of guests with me.
For a forum devoted to writing and critique, this I have to say, is a more than a little wrong.
The amount of rambling we have here is also far to much. Just because the thread is in the rambling forum DOES NOT mean that you can talk about anything the heck you want. I set up the What are you afraid of thread. This was desinged for people to quite simply say what they are afriad of; and what do we get? Grey Dawn going on for a page and a half about Velociraptors. All it would have taken is ONE POST, not A PAGE AND A HALF or more. The Welcome area is in little better condition.
I saw a post today by Darkwaltz that questioned about the new users who mysteriously vanish after making a few posts. This is the answer. They come here, expecting to find people interested in writing, critiquing and reading their writing. But instead they find a morass of rambling, randomness and plain stupidity. It is no wonder that they leave.
Now, I don't want to go all Nazi and deleting every single post that consists of unneccessary rambling. I won't like that, you won't like that, and I know for sure that Figment won't like that. But it is my duty as a moderator to stop what is quite frankly, spam. Pretty much everyone is doing it here. Including, I am afraid to say, a few of my fellow mods.
It is our duty to prevent this, not to promote it. I will be leaving a more detailed message about this in the Moderator Messages.

Ok, so here it is. I don't want complete sanity across the boards, we aren't like that I know. But what I do want to see is restraint. Restraint from the unneccessary spamming that is sadly now the norm here; and I want to see far more critique and writing.
As sad as it is to even say this, if I don't get the critique I want, I will have no option but to find it elswhere. Now, I don't want to do this, I like it here, but if I have no option, then I will. Because I want to improve my writing skills, and I can't do that if all I am doing is stopping unneccessry spam.

Please take this in mind, and let us see a better GotF.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and also sorry. but it really did need to be said.

pommie42
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Kidashka · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:55 am Post subject:

Sorry, pommie....

I'll post on those more... Sad

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Beware the evil donkey
Falling slowly from the sky
You can choose the way you live, my friend
But not the way you die.

*splat*

ShadowFang · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 8:18 am Post subject:

Yeah sorry...this forum is really all about writing and stuff...I'll post more non-spam too...*thousand apologies*
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http://www.myspace.com/shadowfang2011

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Hawkins · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:39 pm Post subject:

Can't blame me; I haven't been here. *kicks high school kids*
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Tyler's on vacation...to CANADA...*sad*

Figment · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:56 pm Post subject:

Thank you so much for saying that Pommie...
I know i haven't been upholding the critting fort, and i need to do that, and will be...

But as to the other stuff... The Rambling... Quite frankly, i don't blame the people who left after one post... I haven't been on here as often... because it has been DRIVING ME MENTAL, and just reading the forum posts was making me feel stressed and it was a struggle to come on here... And just saying that makes me want to cry... This is my forum... My baby... and I have wanted to leave it... It had gotten to the point where i was like "whatever" because i had asked it to stop... And it hadn't... It made me want to give up foruming actually... And that's REALLY sad... When we are supposed to be getting in poems for our book! I don't want to sell a book with a link to a site i cant stand to go to any more...

We have a thread for TOTAL ramble... You can talk about WHATEVER you want... If you have another thing that you are wanting to talk about, and that you think might go for more that a couple of posts, CREATE A TOPIC where people who also want to talk about that can join you!

I love you guys, and i want to stay here, i want YOU to stay here... but you were starting to drive me mental!

*Hugs*
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Hawkins · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:22 pm Post subject:

Sorry Figment. *cry*

I LOVE THIS MOVIE--wait...
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Tyler's on vacation...to CANADA...*sad*

DarkWaltz · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:34 pm Post subject:

I'm sorry!!!! I will try to take special notice of too much rambling and deal with it (and the other mods will be helping of course). We love you Figgy!

~J
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~DancingEponaTinuviel

Hawkins · Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 9:07 am Post subject:

I'll bet Grey Dawn was considering suicide when he read that, though. xD

"La di da, another day of random--OMG! NO MORE RANDOM STUFF! *jumps off building*"
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Tyler's on vacation...to CANADA...*sad*

Figment · Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 10:58 pm Post subject:

random stuff is still allowed... As long as it is in the right places!
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The Grey Dawn · Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:38 am Post subject:

Actually, suicide never crossed my mind. Instead loopholes did. I found one!
Every time we get off-topic I CAN CREATE A TOPIC! As to the writing and critiquing. Don't expect too much in the way of writing from me for awhile. I'm busy with high school, and my AP English class eats away at my writing time. And NaNo I refuse to post until I finish it, and probably edit it, so that won't be up for awhile. Add a song that I just wrote onto that ( Very Happy

). HOWEVER! I vow to try and critique more. Mainly novels and short stories, I suck at poetry. It's never really caught my eye. Sorry, but that's just how I am. So to sum up this post, a new less hefty paragraph! vvvv
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I shall move off-topicnesses into new topicnesses. While I can't post my writing for awhile by the looks of it, I can and will try and review stories (although not poetry, sorry guys).
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Remember, a velociraptor can run at 10 m/s (indoors) and it knows no fear.

a_weirdo · Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:39 am Post subject:

Well said pommie.

I agree entirely. MORE POSTS!
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A: None. Ice cream has no bones.

Aurora Asha Ila · Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:29 pm Post subject:

beleive it or not thats why i stoped visiting this forum. i got sick of rambling and it kept going so i visited another forum. Pommie has it right. Im back cuz he seemed confident things were going to improve, this is great. its about time someone gave this place the kick in the pants that it needed.
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I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty, city,
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

Extract from Clancy and the Overflow, by A.B. Patterson.
Ironically he never actually went outside of a city his entire life, let alone Droving. phht. Henry Lawson was much more acurate, he didnt romanticise the Aussie bush.

Hawkins · Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:18 pm Post subject:

S'nice that you're back, AAI. ^^ We missed you. Kinda. xD I'm kidding; we missed you completely.

Or /did/ we?...*evil look*
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Tyler's on vacation...to CANADA...*sad*