Can we change the description of this forum?

[AG31]

This is the description for this forum:
"Post your feedback about Literotica stories you love or hate!"

It doesn't invite authors to request feedback. I was tickled when I found the @Omenainen/@AwkwardMD thread where authors could request feedback, but it seemed to be a one-off.

Over in AH there's been a very active thread about discussing stories. Some have asked why we don't do it in the Feedback forum. Well, I think the description might be one answer. Can we change it???

 

[AlinaX]

Authors often start threads here asking for feedback on their stories.

Threads where authors offer to review on request are rarer here, but there are some.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Authors often start threads here asking for feedback on their stories.

Threads where authors offer to review on request are rarer here, but there are some.

Ever since I've been on Lit (ten years this year), the Feedback Forum has always had a small cross-pollination of participants from the AH. The dynamic has hardly changed - there have always been one or two "deep review" threads like @AwkwardMD and @Omenainen's - Lien Geller gave superb commentary for many years, and AMD flew solo for a long time.

Individual writers have come in with their stories, asking for feedback - there is no other word for it. And it's mostly fellow writers who respond. Reader input is rare.

@AG31 It doesn't matter what you call a forum, what matters is what the participants do when they get to it. This place could be called Fred Writes, but it would make no difference to the dynamic. Yes, participation is minimal, but there is some traction, from those who bother to respond. If you want the forum to work "better", you gotta get in and make a contribution.

There's only one way to catch a bus - stand at the bus-stop. It doesn't matter if it's a sign on a post or a full blown bus-shelter, or even a fancy terminus. When the bus comes past, you jump on it. Treat the story offerings as buses, and climb on-board.

 

[StillStunned]

Over in the Hangout I've started a thread about one of my stories. It's more than just asking for feedback, though: I explain some of the "design choices" and thought processes, and invite people to share their thoughts.

Hopefully it will gain some traction, and other writers will do the same. I think regular discussions about the words we write will be eye-opening and make us all better at what we do.

 

[AG31]

@AG31 It doesn't matter what you call a forum, what matters is what the participants do when they get to it. This place could be called Fred Writes, but it would make no difference to the dynamic. Yes, participation is minimal, but there is some traction, from those who bother to respond. If you want the forum to work "better", you gotta get in and make a contribution.

I misnamed my post. As the text explains, the problem may be with the description, "Post your feedback about Literotica stories you love or hate!" I know for a fact that at least one member, me, didn't ask for feedback because the description told me it was dedicated to people who wanted to register feedback on stories of their choosing. As I said in my OP, the @AwkwardMD/@Omenainen thread struck me as a valuable exception.

So, maybe I'm not the only person who was misdirected by the description? So what could it hurt to change it?

I have changed the title of my OP>

 

[AG31]

Over in the Hangout I've started a thread about one of my stories. It's more than just asking for feedback, though: I explain some of the "design choices" and thought processes, and invite people to share their thoughts.

Hopefully it will gain some traction, and other writers will do the same. I think regular discussions about the words we write will be eye-opening and make us all better at what we do.

I'm all for this kind of interaction. I will definitely respond. But, given the thread you're in now, how come you didn't post it in Feedback?

 

[ElectricBlue]

So, maybe I'm not the only person who was misdirected by the description? So what could it hurt to change it?

Firstly, I guess, the reality that the site's not going to change a forum description, not when it's been what it is for twenty-five years.

Lit forums have morphed over time to what they are today, regardless what a subtitle says.

I think it's obvious from looking at any thread how people are using it today, which is mostly to seek feedback on their own stories, and occasionally, giving their unsolicited views about someone else's. And if you go back into history, those four little words have a whole truckful of controversy, which you'd only know today, if you were there.

The Lit communities are so disparate, and people get so stuck in their comfort zones, that they rarely go out of their favourite park. But that's a reflection on the users, not the site. It's one of the charms of the place, that you only discover it by wandering about.

Very few people know the Authors' Hangout is there, even fewer know the Feedback Forum is here. That tells me more about the users than it does about the site - where's their natural curiosity? I bet more readers have dogs than have cats.

 

[StillStunned]

I'm all for this kind of interaction. I will definitely respond. But, given the thread you're in now, how come you didn't post it in Feedback?

A few reasons. AH has more traffic, and its denizens are writers. One thing I want to achieve is a discussion between writers, to "discuss the craft of writing" as the AH description says. A review, I think, would be geared more towards the readers.

Hopefully we can get a few of these discussions going and all learn a little. But the thread isn't getting much response, at least not in-depth.

 

[KeithD]

Firstly, I guess, the reality that the site's not going to change a forum description, not when it's been what it is for twenty-five years.

This. Users don't have much trouble using the forum sections as they like--other than political stuff being quickly shuffled to that corner.