Guild of Writers

It's a pretty good setup, but I would just have one thing to add.

I would suggest that the "story" and "artists" categories be folded into one category called "concepts", since concepts are equally likely to be visual or verbal, and however they start out, someone will jump in to add backstory or concept art to it. When a thread in "concepts" gathers enough momentum and contributions, it can be promoted to the "projects" category for further development.

(I would further suggest that concept threads be given a somewhat descriptive name, other than just "some sketches" or "ideas" -- if not the name of an Age, since it doesn't do to be premature about these things, at least a working title, like "Jungle Age concept", or just "sketches for tribal-style lamps and other props" or "mushroomy island ideas" or something.)

Perhaps we could keep "storytelling" and "artist" categories around for discussing the craft, rather than specific concepts, but I don't think there's nearly as much call for that as for, say, the "craft" of Blender. Most artists are pretty familiar with their pencils and if they really want to discuss perspective or shading techniques, I don't see them polluting the Concepts category with too many threads of that nature...

bump...

It may have been asked before, but one question...

Why is there no forum link from the http://www.guildofwriters.com main page? I just noticed when I followed a link from the latest issue of the Archiver talking about places where "Guild structure is being discussed" -- there's a link to the GoW main page, but of course, there's no way to see the discussion from there...

For that matter, there's no link from the forum to the rest of the site...

I was tryiong to read the forum today on my cell phone, and it was bearly readable.

My suggestion is to alter the layout a bit, or code, so that its compatible on mobile phones.

Hehe, there are lumpers and splitters...I'm a lumper, by the way. I think the forum layout works for now and should be left alone, at least until a need becomes apparent, and I'm sure it will. This way we won't end up with unnecessary, unused forums.

I think we need to split up the departments a bit before things get too large so it's less of an issue. Get things like concept art and textures seperated, etc.

We need a forum link on the front page and we need a wiki to replace the old Alcugs one (so we're all more or less together).

Not urgently needed, but it would be nice to have a poll feature...

Actually, I think getting a poll feature is fairly urgent. We're stumbling around here trying to figure out what we want to do, it would be nice to be able to gauge opinions and develop a consensus. In the absence of a firm leadership structure, voting will be pretty important.

A poll feature would be cool, but I don't know if it's terribly urgent until we want to elect people for positions of some sort, which I don't think we should do until Cyan makes us "official" in case they do have some sort of scheme for our hierarchy. (I don't think they will, but a lot of people are concerned enough for us to wait.) We need poll things for that because they should be anonymous votes. But other stuff that doesn't have to be anonymous can be implemented like ChaosSong's poll in storytellers.

I'm afraid I must disagree. Polls are quite helpful in the making of any decision, from 'what should I have for breakfast?,' to 'how many huts should I have in the age?'