- Sitting Here
- Dec 31, 2007
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Hi! The purpose of this thread is to get feedback about how we can improve this subforum. Additionally, I'd like to generate some discussion regarding special events or other fun things people might like to participate in.
My feeling is that CC is basically fine, if a bit sleepy. It's got a couple threads that are active daily, and many more threads that don't get much activity, but at least they exist for folks with more niche crafts or hobbies. For my part, this subforum generates almost no reports, and the people who post here seem to post in relative harmony. So like, we're not exactly a scintillating capital of posting activity, but there aren't too many problems, either.
Any and all feedback is welcome. Also, I have a few things I'm curious about :
- What types of threads or activities would people like to see more of?
- Is there a collective interest in collaborate/crossover events with busier forums?
- Is there an interest in a very casual "look what I made"-type thread for more relaxed creations? e.g. notebook doodles, office supply projects, things of that nature
- What makes a good art community in 2023, anyway?
All the usual rules of decency apply here, and let's keep discussion focused on CC.
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Jun 17, 2023 12:36
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- Leng
- May 13, 2006
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One song / Glory
One song before I go / Glory
One song to leave behind
No other road
No other way
No day but today
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I have a few things I'm curious about :
What types of threads or activities would people like to see more of?
I feel like CC generally breaks down into: craft-related chat threads (e.g. Fiction Writing thread), industry threads (e.g. the self-pub thread), event threads (e.g. NaNoWriMo thread), project threads, and crit threads (the Fiction Farm thread).
Is there a collective interest in collaborate/crossover events with busier forums?
These can be pretty cool. But honestly, most of my creative efforts are getting funnelled into my own work and what little I've got leftover is reserved for crits.
Is there an interest in a very casual "look what I made"-type thread for more relaxed creations? e.g. notebook doodles, office supply projects, things of that nature
I would probably not check that thread but it wouldn't bother me if it were there.
What makes a good art community in 2023, anyway?
Don't know about this but I love CC the way it is already.
I did go back to pull up my post from the last feedback thread to see if my feelings have changed in the last 3 years:
I'm a new poster to CC (I normally post in BFC or TBB) and have been mostly lurking the self-publishing and fiction writing threads while getting ready to post a NaNoWriMo project thread. CC might inherently be a slower/lower activity forum and I don't know that it can be helped. Creative endeavours take time, critiques take time, and everyone's only got so much time to give.
As a newcomer, the main issue with CC is that threads are mostly organized by art form. This probably makes sense from an intuitive standpoint, but if CC's purpose is focused on getting creative stuff done, then there's only 3 main types of threads: project threads (by individual posters), craft threads (discussing the technical specifics of creating whatever art) and daily chat threads.
But what happens if your art form doesn't have an existing thread? I'm currently having trouble finishing the second act of a musical, but I don't know where to post:
- Book problems are generally issues with character, plot or dramatic structure, so the same principles apply across fiction writing, screenwriting and stage plays. But there's no general thread like that. There was a TV/Film Screenwriting thread which is the art form closest to theatre but it died 2 years ago. The only thread I could post in and hope to have a reasonable chance of getting an answer would be the Fiction Writing advice thread, but that thread is so specific to fiction writing I would be off topic.
- Lyric problems are similar to poetry, but on top of the usual technical aspects of poetry, lyrics need to advance either character or plot and preferably both. The only active poetry thread I could find was Poem Dome, which isn't for that purpose. A songwriting thread (doesn't exist) would come closest, except most songwriters are posting in Musician's Lounge (usually as project threads, or in share awesome things threads)
- Score problems are a headache and a half in themselves. Musician's Lounge is full of threads organized by instrument, and focused on gear and music production. The closest thread I could go to for a score critique would be the Music Theory thread which seems to be where the composers hang out, but again, it would be off topic. It would be weird to post a project thread in Musician's Lounge, because while it might get attention from composers, it seems off topic for Musician's Lounge, because it's actually a creative endeavour, which means I should be posting in CC, but I don't think the composers hang out here.
I could post my own thread in CC but it's not likely to get traffic or responses, so I don't end up posting at all.
If there was a theatre or stage play thread, I would probably be very active in that thread. That said, I don't know that there IS a need for a musical theatre specific thread (other than as a chat/appreciation thread which wouldn't fit in CC) because the kind of help I usually need (trying to figure out a character's arc, trying to figure out why my 11 o'clock number isn't landing) can be given by anyone who's got a good sense of story structure, not just someone who writes musicals.
I'm not really writing musicals anymore but I have since started the YouTube & Streaming thread which basically has the same issues of being a mishmash of different things: storytelling, graphic design, video editing, audio production, plus the social media/community aspect. It's a slow thread in a slow forum that only gets sporadic activity when people have questions or want crits. I'm not really sure that it has any thread regulars other than me, but that's alright. Community building takes time. I'm sure there are loads of goons who run YouTube channels and stream out there but I know a lot of posters who found the thread didn't know to look in CC for it.
I could post more in that thread but it would mostly be updates on my channel which would risk turning it into a project thread instead and I don't really want to do that.
Sitting Here posted:
3) It would be fun to have cross-subforum events. GBS seems like the best place to host something like that, though I understand if some people don't like to post there. readingatwork posted:
3) I agree that we need to find some way to push people into the individual project threads. I can speak from experience that creating one is really intimidating because you are opening yourself up to negative feedback but at the same time probably not going to get much return for your risk in the form of eyes on your work. Maybe we could encourage people to post links to the individual project threads in the hub threads or even have a hub thread dedicated to reviewing goon projects.
4) Sitting Here's idea of cross-forum events is a good one. Perhaps certain threads could periodically migrate to other forums for short periods of time if it seems like something that forum would be into. So for example we could move Daily Doodles to GBS for a couple weeks and let the people there go nuts as long as they relatively stay nice about it. We could also migrate goon project threads in a similar way if one comes along that's particularly promising.
The best way to get people into project threads is to make them cross forum events with the related appreciation forum for that type of project. For example, maybe there could be a "WANTED: beta readers" thread that sits in Book Barn, where CC posters can post a short description of their novel, genre, what kind of feedback they're looking for and a link to their project thread for TBB posters. Or something similar for film projects in CineD. It's pretty common for someone who starts off appreciating an art form to get into creating it, so it could have the effect of getting more people wanting to make awesome stuff.
That said, I think I'd prefer in-progress project threads stay in CC where CC rules apply, rather than being migrated out to other forums. Creating something is hard, putting it out there for critique is harder, and learning how to accept critique is hardest of all. If my NaNoWriMo project thread got moved into TBB where everyone's expecting polished publication ready work when I'm posting early self-edited drafts that probably shouldn't see the light of day, I'd almost certainly abandon the thread and (potentially not) finish my project while crying by myself in the dark because of flat characters, lack of an interesting hook, terrible prose, etc etc etc.
Once a work is finished though, it'd be nice to get it cross posted to the other forums (with a link back to the project thread for anyone curious as to how it developed).
Cross-posting of completed projects/calls for beta readers in TBB is already happening in the genre-specific threads and the TBB mods have been real good about letting us do that. I have thought that it would be really nice to have like some sort of showcase/gallery thread of goon creations. A while back there was a request for goon-authored books in the SFF thread and there were at least half a dozen of those. But this sort of thing might be nicer/more browsable in a wiki or something instead of a thread.
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Jun 22, 2023 05:54
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Jun 17, 2023 12:36
