ms. vodka

makes perfect sense to me, maia.

write on.

valeca

Tune it out! Now there's something I can relate to! Makes perfect sense to me too, maia...thanks

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"...make your own nature, not the advice of others, your guide in life." --Pythia, Oracle of Apollo at Delphi

Londongrey

I know what you mean Mia, unfortunately as a 25 year old who will probably never have children my patience wears thin with idiots and prats who think they are the first to discover everything. I will mostly step in and give someone a verbal good hiding. I can't help it, I just son't suffer fools gladly.

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You are only as dull as the light in the room you occupy, everything else is just hearsay - Me, about five minutes ago.

Cipher2

It's mainly an issue for the senior ranks of this board. They have the authority to guide it in the direction they choose. True, everyone contributes to the board but they cannot make a big change or criticise other members. So there are many posts that I don't like, but don't see as wrong given the culture of this forum so I stay out of it.

There is another point:

The social sections of the board don't exist in isolation to the writing sections. After all, who will be critiquing the work? Those same users. No-one is going to post their work if they see puerile nonsense in the social sections of the forum. They set the context for the rest of the forum. If this is going to be a kids forum, which it is at the moment, then that is a decision for the administration. Though I personally don't see the point in posting my work.

zaoshang

I tend to be with Maia on this, although it's also true that there are many teens here who write unbelievably well and show that they take this forum seriously indeed. I'm saying this because they may feel offended by hasty generalizations.

So I don't think there is any solution to the problem but to ignore the immature postings altogether, as Cyberspecter put it.

mammamaia

cipher makes a valid point that i hadn't considered till s/he mentioned it... and perhaps we and the admin should give this some serious thought:

if new 'serious' writers of comparative chronological maturity see an ever-growing number of teen members and 'puerile' posts, this is most likely to become a more and more teen-peopled/oriented forum, eventually causing most or all of the 'adults' to pass us by and seek an atmosphere more to their liking... and thus, driving the few of us older folk who're left to join them!

do any of you see this as a real 'danger'?... and, if so, what can [or should] be done about it?... is there any value, for instance, in setting up a separate forum for the under-20s?... a place where the so-inclined can be as silly as they want, away from the censuring eyes [and keyboards!] of the 'big folks'?

to be honest, i've harbored thoughts lately of dropping out and going elsewhere, since there seem to be relatively few here now who take the art of writing as seriously as i do... and, as a mentor, i'm finding fewer and fewer who are 'helpable' if you'll pardon the word-coining...

so, if there was a 'young 'uns' forum running alongside our 'old 'uns' one, those who want to, can check both and those who prefer the company of their peers only, can avoid being annoyed by the 'other side'...

does that make any sense?

hugs to ALL, maia

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Scratches

I'm sorry, I'm going to keep complaining about the way things are heading in this thread. I don't believe many of us teenagers act in an immature or annoying way, and I don't want to be corralled like you're proposing. I find the suggestions of writers of any age useful. I don't want to lose that.

You can't keep blaming it all on youths like we're the cancer. The only really repellent thing is the joshing around and the grammatical errata and the pointless profanity-ridden arguments. If you can find some way to greenbelt those that feel serious about writing in their own place, without blankly refusing teenagers, wouldn't that be better? Hell, even some sort of initiation ceremony would be better than this segregation. i.e. If posters are seen to be abusive, incomprehensible and/or just plain irritating, they're out of the arena. If we act mature, potential members that are really worth knowing won't mind how long we've been on the planet. Impossible?

I may not have been here long but I'm enjoying having this little community. If you cast us into a playpen we won't be able to interact with some of the most interesting people on the forum, and I'd like to think you "grown-ups" value some of us as well.

The main reason I CAME here is that all the teen forums I went to were, for lack of a better word, crappy. I don't mean to offend some young writers, but some of the work in those forums is on a far lower level than I have the heart to criticise.

I'm not just bloody sixteen. I'm an aspiring writer, committed to improving myself.

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Never get so attached to a poem
you forget truth that lacks lyricism
and never draw so close to the heat
that you forget that you must eat
- En Gallop, Joanna Newsom

gohn67

Yea, what Scratches said. I'll add that for me, when I post in the lounge and word games I am rarely serious, but when I visit the other sections, I try to be helpful critque what ever I can, and hopeful give a helpful response.

Segration is not the way to go. Haven't we learned from history the faults of segragation.

(Ok time for me to sleep. 5 in the morning now.)

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cyberspecter

With inflation high as it is in Colorado USA, my two cents is worth half that now, but still going to toss it in.

Scratches is right. Too often adults’ first reaction is to punish groups for the fault of some individuals. There are those under 18 here that are serious writers. I don't just mean the exceptional ones, like scratches, who, to be honest, I thought was much older than she is judging by sophistication and knowledge. There are some who write and read at the level of their age, but are serious about writing.

We are dancing around like the adults we are trying desperately to not go to that place where we grab pitchforks and shovels and form an official mob. But perhaps that's what we need to do.

It is crunch time for the authority on this board. Direct question: What are you going to do about people that have no interest in being here but causing trouble? Are you going to ignore them? If so, make it your stance and let chips fall where they may.

If not then excise the cancer. X-ray the site, find the cause of the disease, and eradicate it. I am obviously not the only one who's been looking at other forums.

When I log on and 90% of the posts are sludge that I have to wade through to find something of any value, I naturally don't bother. The web's a big place, and I can find other forums. That isn't a threat; it's a symptom of the cancer.

The cancer is growing and the patient is dying.

Paul

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Cyberspecter
(Evil incarnate, devourer of souls....and pizza)
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Farror

I agree with most of the above posts, save portions of mammamaia's. The quality of the posts have a definete downwards trend, and I have considered leaving. In my opinion it is time for the administration to start cracking down on users who are not up to scratch. If they can't respect our rules and standards, then why keep them?

And mammamaia, if you just booted out anyone under 20 years old, people could still lie about their ages and enter at will. You would also exclude several members who are serious about writing, and have not acted immaturely on the sight. An example being Pawn, 18 years old (I believe) and a mentor on the site.

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A minifridge... The doll house of the alcoholic.

Pendulum

Ah, the good old days. When I was naught but a lowly noob, and the forums took me in. How I miss those times. Nowadays, what with all the spamming, the insults, the whole forum revolving around the lounge, it seems as though the forum has strayed from the path it once took. I agree wholeheartedky with Farror, I think it's nescessary for the moderators to start taking more severe action towards the ne'erdowells that lurk around here. I will not name names, because it's fairly obvious who these people are. That being said, it's certainly not fair to base the fate of many on the actions of a few. A lot of mature, constructive people that are an important part of this forum are under 20 years of age. So I think it's just a matter of better, perhaps harsher, moderation of the forum. There's my two cents Canadian.

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Society Blows

blademasterzzz

I completely agree with the last few posts. I thought we already had a thread where we agreed that writers shouldn't be judged by their age.

And there are many people here under twenty. Without them, the forum would be far worse off.

Ilan Bouchard

These are all valid points, but we forget it's ultimately up to us. We can beg the moderators to do something; ban, threaten, punish, but in the end we're the only ones who can do anything.

And it's not so difficult to do. Spend less time in the lounge, for one. I rarely look at a piece of writing that isn't written by a member I recognize and respect. The members really dedicated to the forums will be recognized, and their writing will get due attention. Those that don't contribute will remain in the sub-community of those like them. (Drazva is the only exception that comes to mind--he writes, yet never posts or critiques.)

I've also noticed members who do their best to offend get the most attention, along with those we simply view as foolish. And then, we complain about it.

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Ruthless comments encouraged!

Queasy Dillo

Said Pendulum:

I think that says it nicely.

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You have not yet begun to scratch the surface of my depravity.

daniela

Nicely said, Ilan. I was trying to post something similar (and longer) when my computer froze on me but I think you said it much better.

All I have to add is this: I challenge everyone who wants more topics about writing to go out and find interesting subjects for us to talk about. There are plenty of blogs, websites, and newsletters dedicated to writing (both the craft and the business) which you can get them from. Some of you have made an effort already, but we can do more. Sitting around and complaining isn't going to help. I'll make my best effort as soon as I get a few projects out of the way and I hope more of you will do the same

--DM--

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