Talia_Brie

Other people seem to manage it. Maybe you should look at how they do it.

I'll answer this question seriously and in depth if you're really interested, and not just trying to score points. It's not really that hard.

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JoannaMac

I'm not point scoring. I would like to know if you have points on how to make doing a comprehensive critique here easier. I find working in this little dialogue box rather cramped. Usually if I do an in depth critique, I will PM the person and ask if I can email it to them.

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If you aint got nuffink, you can't lose it!

Foxee

Jo, I find it easiest to do it in word (that way I have a copy in case the net betrays me) then c/p and give it a good look over to fix any formatting gone awry. One of the nice things about this site is that the formatting from word will usually carry over without having to code it. However, I'm just in the habit of putting the code tags before and after my formatting...that way when I c/p it the forum software reads it easily. Preview, adjust, post.

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By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean. ~Mark Twain

HarryG

I read the ‘goodbye all’ post from what sounds like the longest serving and most active member of this forum and sat back to await the flood of replies from all those thousands of people she states to have helped over the years.

Apart from the brave JoannaMac, there seems to have been a resounding silence from the forum members.

It reminded me of a retirement party held at a posh London venue, when the long serving chairman of a famous public company stood on the stage with tears in his eyes to deliver a long speech on his achievements. The silence was deafening until some of the young upstarts at the back of the venue started throwing cocktail sausages . . .

Anyway, Maia, I’m sure your intentions were honorable and I wish you well.

JoannaMac

Thank you Foxee. I'm computer illiterate really The formating tip is good and I'll get Vlad to show me how to put code tags on. Before, I kept finding that fonts and colours didn't translate when I pasted back in to the dialogue box.

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If you aint got nuffink, you can't lose it!

Chris Miller

Hey Joanna,

Ditto to what Foxee says. Any extensive wiring I post (not like this) I do in Word first, and then cut and paste. Also fixes my crap spelling and grammar and lets me save as I go. Of course I also occasionally exchange thoughts and word docs with friends I trust (like you) through email.

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the fairwriting blogs

Barcelona Review story: http://www.barcelonareview.com/64/e_cm.html

JoannaMac

Thank you Chris, it was good of you to say

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If you aint got nuffink, you can't lose it!

lin

She makes it sound like that, but it's not the issue. Anybody here can offer help. That's what critique boards are all about.

The issue is her attempts to hijack people off to her private email. There are lots of reasons that MANY forums take a dim view of that.

To start with the most crass: sites with any sort of advertising get paid by the number of hits. If somebody is whipping the conversation off the board to private exchanges, the conversation is not generating hit counts for the board. In some cases people do it to build their own competitive forums.

More to the point here, I would think, is this idea: why does she want to get them out private instead of just doing all her altruistic, selfless, valuable help here on the forum, where it would also help other seekers, not just that particular one?

One suspicion would be that she doesn't want anybody to see what she's telling these poor chumps or to correct her frequent bad advice. She doesn't want to help so much as gather a hive so she can be queen bee.

Again, this damages the validity of the forum. If her advice is so wonderful, why not put it here for all to see? If it is fallible, why not put it here so that other writers, including those here with actual professional experience and credentials, to add their modifications, corrections and two cents?

The most paranoid question would be: why is she collecting all those emails?

It's not uncommon for forums to ask that people not lead others off the forum. It's only polite, if nothing else, to oblige that. Otherwise, the poster with outside agenda becomes a parasite on the forum.

This forum is pretty loose and understanding with rules. (One evidence of this is that they allowed Maia to continue to break them for so long before cracking down) There are lots of forums that just go beserk at any sort of link posting. You mention a hotel you thought was nice and they're all over you...you can only mention it if somebody asked about hotels in that town, etc. Posting a mention that you got your book published with a link to it is called "spam" on some sites and people get insulted and warned for it.

This is not the case of persecution and denial of rights that Ms. Nurture fancies to pretend. It's just a case of requesting that she obey the same rules as everybody else.

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PaPa

too long

didn't read



any of this

honestly who gives a shit

well, you guys obviously

maybe you should stop that

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+1

lin

Regarding critique that doesn't fit on the forum. Consider pasting in what you have, and if you feel there are unsupported features that are vital to it, PM the person and offer to email them the full version if they like.

But again, this site is provided free and works by volunteer moderation. It is helpful and entertaining to many. It's only common courtesy to keep things on the site rather than drag them off into private places.

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lin

Well papa, thanks for taking the time and caring enough to post something telling us you didn't read what you are telling us we shouldn't care about of post on.


Regarding Maia, I think HarryG has the perfect bottom line. If she was Mother Theresa to throngs of happy aspirants who are still on the site, why aren't they flocking to support her or at least bid fond goodbyes?

The internet isn't real. You can kind of be anybody you say you are here. It's a mistake to think that somebody's story about what they are doing and why has any reality other than their saying it. As far as real life goes, it's a different story. Or is it?

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PaPa

No problem. I do my best to help the world in whatever small way I can.

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+1

HarryG

The King is dead, long live the King. Is that an appropriate cliché to this thread? I did get to thinking about 11,000 posts. At my present rate of posting, I would reach that level around the age of 90. I don’t expect either event to materialize.

It seems inappropriate that this topic has only received such a small number of replies, somehow; maybe that cold contributor from that cold country up north (Papa) has got it right, does anyone give a shit?

Well, I do.

CaptainFreedom

Well, it's only been a day, Lin. I’m curious to see if her supporters come out.

I sent her something one time too. At the time I thought her advise was helpful. It pretty much confirmed what I had suspected – that the first couple chapters of my book were poo. I rewrote them from scratch (my idea) – which turned out to be a valuable weapon in the fight against crappy writing.

Looking back on it though, she also seemed to go out her (or his? – who knows, right?) way to convince me that the idea didn’t make sense and the plot had been done to death. Both of which are really off the mark. As far as I know the storyline is new, and she didn’t offer anything to the contrary - just told me I should do my own research because she didn’t have time to find an example.

As far as the plot not making sense. I don’t know if she didn’t get it (and didn’t want to admit it later) or if she was just trying to be mean, but she seemed to like telling me all the reasons that it couldn’t be true. It’s a little science fictiony, but not really that far-fetched. If I remember right, she used the word ‘laughable’. Great, thanks for the one-on-one advice, right?

Luckily, I didn’t take her advice on the plot line, but I can imagine there are plenty of young malleable writers who took what she said to heart and canned a whole story based on what she told them.

That was my experience with her – helpful to show me some simple mistakes in the writing, but also far too eager to tell me how much the work sucks. I have the impression that she hasn’t read anything she liked in a long time.

Judging by some of the things I’ve read, I think others have had similar experiences with her – it would be pretty interesting to hear them. (or did anybody actually get a positive review of their work?)

Sending somebody something in private makes sense if you want to keep it relatively secret, but she was too aggressive with it. Having a link in her signature should be enough to hook a few newbies anyway.

CF

Oracle

Aww, darn. I missed the send-off. Anyway, here's a belated goodbye mamma!

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The bubble is round.