What happened to the site?

Postby Sealherlips » Sat Jun 28, 2014 8:29 am

I remember the good old days when this site was abundant with amazing stories. There are still a few, but not as much. This is how I feel when I sift through all the stories and constantly click the "Mark all Topics Read" button:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs7PmoHpNhA

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Cpt Wiggles » Sat Jun 28, 2014 9:40 am

I remember the good old days before mobile phones, when you had to make plans with your mates in school for the weekend, then you go round their house with a spare controller to play 2 player on the Megadrive.

None of this X-Box live bollocks.
There's always time for a nice cup of tea.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Sealherlips » Sat Jun 28, 2014 12:22 pm

Haha not exactly on topic but I know where you're coming from.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby tony2 » Sat Jun 28, 2014 12:25 pm

CW --

Don't give up yet --- this isn't the Titanic or my dad's troop ship that was sunk in the North Atlantic with a loss of over 1,000 men. Obviously he survived --- i''m here.
Perhaps if we all sit around and clap our hands and say "I believe in fairies" things will change.
That would be nice if it was that easy. In fact it really is though. If each person wrote either their real experience or a w dream fantasy with the idea of using words to paint a picture in the minds of the reader, things could get a lot more interesting here. I've brought stuff out of the closet where it has been hiding for 15 to 25 years and hopefully others enjoy it as much as i didn't when it was happening (grin).
Come on folks, cough it up and, for a minute, pretend your name is E.A. Poe. CW and I both thank you in advance and you'll have a lot more fun. You see, as you write about it, real or fantasy, it begins to come alive in your brain too.
If you believe in yourself enough -
nobody else will figure out you're faking it.


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Re: What happened to the site?

Postby drawscore » Sat Jun 28, 2014 3:35 pm

I think some of it has to do with writers not receiving encouragement and/or feedback from the membership. Writers like to hear how others like (or don't like) their efforts, and when writers see 30-50 reads, but just two or three comments, writers get it in to their heads that the membership is a collection of Philistines, unappreciative of their efforts. With that mindset, they are reluctant to write additional stories. One thing that might help, would be the addition of "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" icons, where minimal effort is required to vote a story up or down.

There are other reasons, as I'm sure will be pointed out by others.

Drawscore

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Cpt Wiggles » Sat Jun 28, 2014 4:17 pm

drawscore wrote:
There are other reasons, as I'm sure will be pointed out by others.

Drawscore


yes, some of us can't write for shit.
There's always time for a nice cup of tea.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby bondagefreak » Sat Jun 28, 2014 11:51 pm

Yes, much of this is due to low feedback, but as was mentioned, there are also some other factors involved.
Most of the views here come from guests or lurkers.

I've come into contact with MANY lurkers and other users here, who I found out, have been reading my works for years, but never posted anything on my stories to let me know they were enjoying them :roll:

Something else I found out, is that a lot of users tend to shy away from posting reviews on PG-17 stories.
Either they do so privately, or they don't at all.

On the other hand, we have a solid base of regular reviewers here and they deserve to be congradulated for taking the time to do so.

There have been LOADS of other threads on this very subject...and we've seen the same responses over and over again.
"I don't review stories I enjoyed, 'cause I don't really know what to say."

We always tend to look for something special to tell the author...but that's not always necessary!
Sometimes, just a word or two to let the author know you're following his/her work, is enough.
Image

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby skybird137 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 2:37 am

People don't need a fancy review of the stories, or each part. All that's needed is a kind of 'Thumbs up'.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby tony2 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 2:53 am

You fellows are spot on right. You can't have a functioning community of one person. When we write a story, it nice to know someone reads it. When we take even a moment to comment on a story, it makes the author feel needed and appreciated. Heck, that's even cheaper than a Kindle book!
Last edited by tony2 on Fri Jul 25, 2014 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
If you believe in yourself enough -
nobody else will figure out you're faking it.


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Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Lake Lover » Sun Jun 29, 2014 3:11 am

Skybird, BondageFreak, Toni2, Cpt. Wiggles. drawscore, sealherlips --- a thumbs up to all of you!!

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby tony2 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 3:21 am

LL- thanks -- we love you too!!!
If you believe in yourself enough -
nobody else will figure out you're faking it.


ANTS viewtopic.php?f=85&t=22496
Talk is cheap viewtopic.php?f=78&t=21971

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby xtc » Sun Jun 29, 2014 4:15 am

The only thing I would disagree with here is the suggestion of a "Thumbs down". That provides no encouragement at all.
If people see no reviews at all, however, they might consider their work to have no merit. I don't know bout others but, if I read a story and think, "This is shit.", I simply don't reply to it. That is seen (or rather not seen) by the author in the same light as if I just couldn't be arsed to comment on something that wasn't poor. I must be more appreciative!
Boxer shorts are cool,
but little speedos rule!

More by the same author: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22729

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby tony2 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:40 am

Very insightful and the colonies are in full agreement . Thumbs down is a counterproductive option.
If you believe in yourself enough -
nobody else will figure out you're faking it.


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Talk is cheap viewtopic.php?f=78&t=21971

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby chadmc90 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 9:26 am

With my own story, I've actually created a poll that allows users to vote my story(A Game of TUGs) on whether they like it or not. I have gotten some feedback from it but not as much as I was expecting. It may have to do with the fact that guests can't vote in polls, though.

On another note, I had considered also commenting on the low feedback this site has seen for a while, but I don't normally repeat myself. But I will say it again: if readers like the stories us writers post then they should take the time to give comments and feedback for them. Else they shouldn't expect much enthusiasm from the writers for updating those stories. It works BOTH ways, you know? Even if all you can think of is a simple "Great story!" Then it's certainly better than nothing at all.

One more thing: can lurkers and guests even view this section (TUG Talks, TUG links, etc.)? If that's true wouldn't our pleas for more feedback be almost worthless? We should be speaking where our voices can be heard, I think...

Edit: Ok, I logged out and the site does hide the TUG Stuff section from guest view. BUT if you know the URL to the section, you can still navigate to the section without an account. I don't know if it's true for lurkers, still.
Check out my latest story A Cowboy's Dream!

Feedback highly appreciated! Feel free to Private Message me if you prefer to not post on the public forum!

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Kyle » Sun Jun 29, 2014 10:01 am

I'll be honest, I hardly even look at the story sections anymore.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby chadmc90 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 11:58 am

Kimmi, I can understand where you're coming from. It annoys me sometimes when people try to tell me how my story should play out. When I start writing, I have a plot already planned out in my head, so I usually don't consider others plot suggestions unless they are really good. I prefer to writ the story I wanted to tale.
Check out my latest story A Cowboy's Dream!

Feedback highly appreciated! Feel free to Private Message me if you prefer to not post on the public forum!

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Mister Mistoffelees » Sun Jun 29, 2014 1:04 pm

chad, I usually start my work with a general idea of where I want to end up, then work backwards to the start. Sometimes, like the Bind of My Own Making and Dear Sally Diary University Days stories here, I do this episode by episode, and sometimes just play it by the proverbial ear. This is for fun. after all. I'll work in suggestions if they do not materially affect where the story ends up, or if they are out of character for my cast of characters. I've not had any suggestions for overtly pornographic things by my characters, and they would not be followed if given. Each one of us who writes has our own ways of working. Kimmi, it might work for you to simply "tune out" unwelcome suggestions, or to make clear at the outset that they won't be followed; I don't like seeing writers being run off because other people act like jackwagons.

And as has been mentioned before, feedback is mother's milk for writers, here and everywhere stories get posted. When I don't get responses, I very quickly lose interest in posting. All it takes are a couple words--I don't need long reviews. I and many others would just like to know that people are reading and enjoying what we create for them!...
Welcome to Snowden! Enter at your own risk...

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Tieup1 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 2:40 pm

I think we have had a similar thread on this before. Some people come on this site to write stories, others just come on here to post in other sections, tugs chat, for example. They just like to talk to people with similar interests. Other members just lurk, they don't post, for whatever reason. Each to their own.

Think the thumbs up idea is a non starter tbh, as has been mentioned before, if you enjoy a story, just a few words of appreciation, would give the story writer, some encouragement.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Mister Mistoffelees » Sun Jun 29, 2014 4:35 pm

Tieup1, I watched a perfectly wonderful site--the Girl Detective in Trouble Yuku site I still have linked to my user ID here--flat-out die because no one responded to story posts. The remains of that place is nothing more than a scrapbook for old girl-detective stories, and the only reason I still return there is to link to my old stories at other sites like deviantArt. And all because no one bothered to reply to story posts there. Not even I post stories there for that specific reason; it's a dead site. And it can absolutely happen here, too...
Welcome to Snowden! Enter at your own risk...

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby tony2 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 4:50 pm

Not if folks like us are still around to do something about it. Right ???
If you believe in yourself enough -
nobody else will figure out you're faking it.


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Re: What happened to the site?

Postby bondagefreak » Sun Jun 29, 2014 6:06 pm

It is true that feedback has a large roll to play in the apparent decline of the forum's writing community.
On the other hand, the situation is perhaps not as critical as we portay it to be.
Some stories get a lot of feedback while others get none or very little.

Let us not forget that some of the stories here will not agree with the vast majority of members sharing the community. In these cases, the fault lies with nobody.

There are a bunch of authors here who write wonderful stuff, but who's works I don't read because they simply don't appeal to me.

To add another facet to this discussion. There are authors who join up the site and publish wonderful stories, get loads of positive feedback, and end up disappearing a few weeks after their initial signing up. One such case I can think of that happened recently: Oddfox.
He wrote wonderful tales and had an important portion of the active membership on the edge of their seats.
Sadly, Karl is currently dealing with some real life issues that are keeping him away from the forum for the time being.

So the membership or the level of feedback is not always at fault.


Another thing that's been plaguing the forum over the past two years, is an atmosphere of hostility.
Let's be candid. There has been a LOT of headbutting on the forum this past year.
We've seen a handful of active members leave because of the "Mirea" incidents and I happen to know another handful of members who left because of last year's "Mikeybound vs Scottstud94" incidents.
I realise there's not need to bring back sour old times, but at the same time, we need to face the facts.

The bickering, headbutting, ego-driven struggles and misplaced critisisms (like we've just seen in the thread about the Ebay Account) have and still are, contributing to the slow decay of this place.

The more members leave, the less reviews we get and the less reviews we get, the less stories we have.
It's a vicious circle, but the fact that we are discussing it and trying to find remedies for the problem, means that we're on the right path.

This place might have lost some of it's old shine...but with a common effort to participate more actively, I'm convinced we'll have regained much of our lost strength and more!
Last edited by bondagefreak on Sun Jun 19, 2016 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Image

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby chadmc90 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 6:24 pm

bondagefreak wrote:It is true that feedback has a large roll to play in the apparent decline of the forum's writing community.
On the other hand, the situation is perhaps not as critical as we portay it to be.
Some stories get a lot of feedback while others get none or very little.

Let us not forget that some of the stories here will not agree with the vast majority of members sharing the community. In these cases, the fault lies with nobody.

There are a bunch of authors here who write wonderful stuff, but who's works I don't read because they simply don't appeal to me.

To add another facet to this discussion. There are authors who join up the site and publish wonderful stories, get loads of positive feedback, and end up disappearing a few weeks after their initial signing up. One such case I can think of that happened recently: He who wishes to no longer be named.
He wrote wonderful tales and had an important portion of the active membership on the edge of their seats.
Sadly, Karl is currently dealing with some real life issues that are keeping him away from the forum for the time being.

So the membership or the level of feedback is not always at fault.


Another thing that's been plaguing the forum over the past two years, is an atmosphere of hostility.
Let's be candid. There has been a LOT of headbutting on the forum this past year.
We've seen a handful of active members leave because of the "Mirea" incidents and I happen to know another handful of members who left because of last year's "Mikeybound vs Scottstud94" incidents.
I realise there's not need to bring back sour old times, but at the same time, we need to face the facts.

The bickering, headbutting, ego-driven struggles and misplaced critisisms (like we've just seen in the thread about the Ebay Account) have and still are, contributing to the slow decay of this place.

The more members leave, the less reviews we get and the less reviews we get, the less stories we have.
It's a vicious circle, but the fact that we are discussing it and trying to find remedies for the problem, means that we're on the right path.

This place might have lost some of it's old shine...but with a common effort to participate more actively, I'm convinced we'll have regained much of our lost strength and more!


Yea, I do agree with you, bondagefreak. I never said that low feedback was the only problem. This bickering and fighting is also a problem that seems to be growing. We should do more to sooth these issues, because I don't think you can completely fix them. There will always be conflict and not everyone will bother providing feedback to our stories.

I wondered was was up with Karl. He hadn't been real active lately. I kinda miss him... :(
Check out my latest story A Cowboy's Dream!

Feedback highly appreciated! Feel free to Private Message me if you prefer to not post on the public forum!

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby bondagefreak » Sun Jun 29, 2014 6:33 pm

Hello my friend!
chadmc90 wrote:I never said that low feedback was the only problem


I never said you said that :) In fact, I wasn't responding to your comments, or to anyone's in particular.
But I'm glad we agree that the low feedback isn't the only problem afflicting our authors.
On the author hand, it's a problem that can be more easily remedied than the ego struggles and bickering.

On a site this big, it's impossible for everyone to get along.
And let's face it...those of us who regularly frequent other online communities, know that this place is FAR from being among the worse.

There's lots of work to do, but we still have a lot to be proud of.
Image

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby xtc » Mon Jun 30, 2014 1:31 am

I reckon that BF's analysis is pretty spot on and there's no point in my reiterating it.

But I wonder:
If Sealherlips and Kyle would care to explain the sort of stories that are missing, perhaps giving links to some that they like (sorry, no more than five per post), writers might be prepared to do something about it. Even if not, members might be able to direct them to similar stories that they might not have encountered.

We are, as BF has pointed out, a broad church and not everything will suit everybody.
Boxer shorts are cool,
but little speedos rule!

More by the same author: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22729

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Fesselfan » Mon Jun 30, 2014 2:22 am

Some really good thoughts and discussions here already.
I'd like to add a couple of points which - for me personally- are not 100% good.

First, I like to read a story when it's finished...I positivly loathe to get stuck with an unfinished story. Many authors, however, publish (or even write) their stories in tiny tidbits. Usually, I end up clicking on the story thread once, twice a month...and if it's still not finished, I forget about it. That's why I encoured some years ago to use a "finished" tag when the story is done (obviously, to no awail).

Second is the overall quality. As seasoned members might remember, I wrote some stories a while back also...and can tell, writing a halfway decent story takes some time and effort for us non-genious writers. Writing it down...reconsidering...tweaking this and that story angle...correct spelling errors..format the whole thing (paragraphs and such)....such work.
And then take a look in the story forums- a lot of them look like they have been verbally "vommited" out. Don't get me wrong- not everyone (including me) is a good author. But I think taking the effort to at least run it through a spelling processor is a matter of respect to the future readers.

Cheers

FF
There are 10 kind of people in the world.
Those who understand binary numeral system, and those who don't.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby xtc » Mon Jun 30, 2014 2:32 am

I sympathise with FF. Some of us have offered help to members in respect of some of his criticisms. If it is done sympathetically, it is usually appreciated. There are, of course some who, as he says, just can't be bothered. If we, as a community, could offer greater support to keen but less experienced writers, however, we could enhance the experience of this site for all of us.
Boxer shorts are cool,
but little speedos rule!

More by the same author: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22729

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Fesselfan » Mon Jun 30, 2014 2:38 am

As construcive feedback :) There has been an age-old thread with some tips for writes, maybe it's worth to take a look at:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=177


Cheers

FF
There are 10 kind of people in the world.
Those who understand binary numeral system, and those who don't.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby skybird137 » Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:13 am

I generally write in a serial format for any story unless it is a short one. I don't think that some of the people on the board would have wanted to wait for more than six months to see the story that they requested.

I doubt that I would call my updates "tiny tidbits" but I have seen a few stories where the new post was a single short paragraph.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby Finn4323 » Mon Jun 30, 2014 4:10 am

Personally, I recently joined the site after reading the stories on here for several months. However, I had left the site for several months due to the constant battle between Scotstud and Mickeybound. I've even been encouraged to post a few of my own personal experiences on here. But due to the vicious attacks I witnessed I am recalcitrant to do so. Had the so called moderators actually done their jobs and nipped those attacks in the bud, more of us might be willing to take a more active role. I know I would. But, I realize that my writing skills are lacking and I don't feel like opening myself up to the vicious attacks and childish bickering that was so constant a year ago. In fact, I even suggested to a frequent contributor that if he wished he could post some of what I had shared with him, as stories. But, after what I saw last year, I plan on staying on the fringe.

Re: What happened to the site?

Postby tony2 » Mon Jun 30, 2014 4:48 am

Finn -
you make a good point and I hope you stay with the site long enough to feel able to share your knowledge and experiences with others.
One thing that is common in the "out of hand" battles, is when criticism, founded on ignorance or other, is negative in nature. The easy way to tell is that positive criticism will always offer a way to improve it, while negative criticism often attacks the author as a person.
A lot of our members are young (under 50?) and have yet to confront and learn that distinction. Most of the exemplars they see are negative so often, no one has pointed out the difference and so they are ignorant (not knowing) of the totally distinct downstream effects either course can take.
On occasion, we get the chance to plant the seed of enlightenment and see if it grows. Many times it does. But there will always be young'uns of any age coming along to give us a chance to teach a more positive approach.
Looking at the thread of this topic alone, I see more observations of what is right with this site than what is wrong. That says a lot for our fellow members. It is a good and growing group to be a part of.
Thanks for your observations. Stay with us, we need people like you to effectively resonate the voice of reason.
If you believe in yourself enough -
nobody else will figure out you're faking it.


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