Post by DiscipleofBob on Aug 28, 2013 18:06:04 GMT -5
To say the site's in a rough spot right now is an understatement. We're not completely dead in the water, we still have several active writers on the site.
First of all, welcome to the new blood! I promise the site has been and will hopefully be more active than it is now. But several dropped titles and one Schroedinger's admin have not just thrown a wrench, but an entire toolbox into the works.
Overextended metaphors aside, I'm posting this thread not just to give my suggestions, but to open the floor for discussion and suggestions from everyone. At this point I'm not a full admin, so my abilities to help the site if all the admins vanish and stay gone are limited, so I won't be able to implement all of it nor make any "official" rules changes myself.
As an additional disclaimer, all of these are just suggestions from me and in no way are guaranteed to happen.
INCENTIVES:
Currently the incentives on the site are post at least 6 issues of a title and resolve the current story, you can get it established in continuity. Then if you post so many reviews, you can get an extra claim per month.
In my opinion, we need more incentive for people to write and actually complete titles or else we'll never get continuity off the ground. Obviously we can't pay real money as we're not actually DC.
So how do we motivate writers to write? Some possibilities:
RESTRUCTURING:
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The following is JUST a suggestion. It's not a sign of things to come. If and when this measure would be taken, everyone on the site would be notified well in advance and no existing titles would be affected. I understand that this next proposal is likely to be controversial.
The crux of it is this: We need established titles. Dropped titles mean months of wasted work that no one else could have used to get something written down in stone. Many writers here let their ambitions get ahead of them and take too many titles without considering their ability to fulfill their first claimed title. Even moreso if they write for another site.
What I propose is a restructuring of when and what kind of title can be claimed. New writers, or writers without a completed title, would be required to write at least one complete story for a Solo Title. At least 6 issues. Enough to firmly establish the character in continuity.
After at least one completed Title, the writer would then have the opportunity to write a Team Title. The writer has shown that they can be reliable enough to complete a title so are allowed more flexibility with what they can write.
After completing at least two titles (neither of which has to be a Team Title if unwanted), the writer would then have the opportunity to write an Elseworlds story. One that is either a full on parallel universe like what's in the new Infinite Crisis game, or one that's just mildly different from the main canon, allowing for writers to take on storylines that maybe our main canon or claims by another writer on the site would prevent.
I have more suggestions, but I have to go for now. Discuss. Suggest. Nothing here is set in stone at all, so if something frightens or offends you here, don't worry. These are just suggestions on how to improve the site.
Good luck to everyone here, new and old. Let's salvage this.
First of all, welcome to the new blood! I promise the site has been and will hopefully be more active than it is now. But several dropped titles and one Schroedinger's admin have not just thrown a wrench, but an entire toolbox into the works.
Overextended metaphors aside, I'm posting this thread not just to give my suggestions, but to open the floor for discussion and suggestions from everyone. At this point I'm not a full admin, so my abilities to help the site if all the admins vanish and stay gone are limited, so I won't be able to implement all of it nor make any "official" rules changes myself.
As an additional disclaimer, all of these are just suggestions from me and in no way are guaranteed to happen.
INCENTIVES:
Currently the incentives on the site are post at least 6 issues of a title and resolve the current story, you can get it established in continuity. Then if you post so many reviews, you can get an extra claim per month.
In my opinion, we need more incentive for people to write and actually complete titles or else we'll never get continuity off the ground. Obviously we can't pay real money as we're not actually DC.
So how do we motivate writers to write? Some possibilities:
- Original characters. It's been asked about several times before. Currently they're not allowed as the goal for the site is to use the DC characters to form an established universe, and we don't want it overpopulated with made up characters. But I see no reason we can't open up the possibility for a few original characters for established writers. My suggestion is to allow a writer to add one original character to one of their titles, either as a hero, villain, or support character, every time they complete X number of issues or complete an arc.
- Elseworld titles. The big reason alternate reality titles aren't a thing right now is because we need a main universe before we can really establish divergents, with a few rare exceptions. Perhaps we could open up the possibility for writing a few Elseworld stories for those who have actually completed one or two actual titles.
- Fan Art. I think it'd be nice if we could get some artists to maybe do some illustrations for some of our titles. Put some of our Ultimizations down in color (or black and white or whatever medium is used). Personally while I sketch, I don't consider myself good enough that my art would be in any kind of demand, but maybe we could find someone (or someone here knows someone) who could produce some quality artwork for the site.
RESTRUCTURING:
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The following is JUST a suggestion. It's not a sign of things to come. If and when this measure would be taken, everyone on the site would be notified well in advance and no existing titles would be affected. I understand that this next proposal is likely to be controversial.
The crux of it is this: We need established titles. Dropped titles mean months of wasted work that no one else could have used to get something written down in stone. Many writers here let their ambitions get ahead of them and take too many titles without considering their ability to fulfill their first claimed title. Even moreso if they write for another site.
What I propose is a restructuring of when and what kind of title can be claimed. New writers, or writers without a completed title, would be required to write at least one complete story for a Solo Title. At least 6 issues. Enough to firmly establish the character in continuity.
After at least one completed Title, the writer would then have the opportunity to write a Team Title. The writer has shown that they can be reliable enough to complete a title so are allowed more flexibility with what they can write.
After completing at least two titles (neither of which has to be a Team Title if unwanted), the writer would then have the opportunity to write an Elseworlds story. One that is either a full on parallel universe like what's in the new Infinite Crisis game, or one that's just mildly different from the main canon, allowing for writers to take on storylines that maybe our main canon or claims by another writer on the site would prevent.
I have more suggestions, but I have to go for now. Discuss. Suggest. Nothing here is set in stone at all, so if something frightens or offends you here, don't worry. These are just suggestions on how to improve the site.
Good luck to everyone here, new and old. Let's salvage this.