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Okay, first of all, I am really happy to see how much feedback this got, and I almost feel like coming together to discuss ways we can become a stronger community has actually, like, made us just a little bit stronger as a community. Huh.

Anyway, I’m just going to go in order through the comments so I can adequately address everything that was brought up. Then I’ll recap with my conclusions:

@kelly-lundgren I’m so glad to hear that you’ve enjoyed your guild experience! That is really, really encouraging! I agree about the forum setup. It is a little hard at times (especially tagging!). I’ve found that if you copy/paste a large number of tags, it’s always better to just remove and then replace the @ signs on all of them. Tedious, but I’ve found that this works every time. (And you’re an INFP! *high-fives*)

@thetessinator I think nested replies is going to become a thing soon. No guarantees, but it is an option and the Powers That Be have been thinking about it.

Also, I have no personal objection to the idea about ranks, and that is another thing that the forum could implement. I don’t know if it will be. But it’s an option. Kind of along these lines, it might be cool to have special functions/ranks within the guild, as someone suggested later on in the replies. There wouldn’t be the same reward of “leveling up”, but it would be something…

@allison-grace INFPs unite! Woohoo!

I love the idea of a video chat, or some kind of platform that we can do either a live chat or a video/audio call. The only downside to this is potential privacy concerns; other than that, it’s a great idea, and one that I am seriously considering getting approval to implement within our guild. I don’t want to strike out too much on my own. 😛

I agree. DMing would be really great. I think it would help friendships to form more quickly and more strongly, and create much stronger sense of community. I think not having that feature was an intentional design feature, so that the focus of the forum would remain on actually improving our writing via discussion and projects. However, if we do some kind of live chat/video call at any point, we will probably end up with everyone’s contact information and be able to DM in that way – outside of SE itself.

*lights firecrackers and grins* I’m so delighted that you’ve decided to stay among us, Allison! What a lovely New Year present for all of us. 😀

@catwing I think you’ve really hit on something with this idea about guild positions. I’m already imagining the different positions and responsibilities that we can integrate into this – and it will keep things from being so top-down, which I haven’t exactly liked. XD Don’t get me wrong, I love being Guildmaster and interacting with all of you. It’s the setup that gets me. I think created positions within the guild will help make it feel like a group effort that takes all of us working together. 🙂 Remember what out name means, after all…

Oh, and there’s more INFPs everywhere I turn! Where have you all been hiding!

@devastate-lasting I love your devotion, and I’m happy to see that you’re dedicated to remaining an essential part of our guild!

Another vote for video-chats. Hmmm. See my reply to Allison for more about this.

@emgc *ponders* You know what, I think you may have hit on something there. I’m going to be thinking about inner-guild activities that we could do. That’s a really good idea.

@mlbolangerauthor I’m sorry to hear that life took such an unexpected turn! I hope you’re able to sort things out more and more in the coming weeks. 🙂

@sarah-inkdragon  I’m so pleased that you’ve enjoyed the guild so much!

I think you bring up a really good point we should discuss more about the guild wars. I have always been slightly conflicted about them. The only submission which I felt like we really came together on in a big way was the one where we literally created a transcript of a group chat and each person chose their own character. Every other time it has just been a very few people – and I know everyone is using their nicest gloves so as not to be too bossy about making changes. I definitely feel you about that, and it’s something that I think a live group chat would help facilitate better – we could give live updates about where things are at, when people need help or the ‘main writer’ is struggling with a specific issue, etc…

The Discord app is an option (I have that myself, and it’s actually a really decent platform for what we would be using it for). Messenger and Google Hangouts are other possibilities. I was thinking Hangouts as the best option, because the majority of us are more likely to have access to hangouts than any of the others. But Discord might be better because we can create different channels and keep our discussions distinct from one another that way. I don’t know. What do you think?

*clears throat and adjusts leather jerkin* Thank you very much for the kind words. I’m pleased to know that you’ve benefited from the things I’ve learned and been able to pass on (in many, many words).

@taaka-merespinner I’m so sorry to hear that. 🙁 But I do understand. If writing isn’t for you, then there’s no obligation to stick around. Here is my email address: mart.detwiler@gmail.com. Please contact me so that I can facilitate your exit from the guild. I do hope you’ll stick around on the main forums, though!

@sageinthemeadow Yeah… perhaps talking about ways we can make the guild better has actually brought us together more. XD

@princess-foo I think we should really focus on figuring out a good way to do the guild wars. As I said above, one thing that will help a lot is a live chat where we can discuss things real-time. Google docs are excellent, but they make back and forth conversations really really tedious. There may be other ways we can improve it, though, and it’s worth thinking about further.

I didn’t intend for this weeks “weekly wondering” to be taken the way it was, as a story prompt. I just wanted to be different and weird and see some interesting responses. Then some people actually came up with stories and I was absolutely blown away. XD
I understand how that would mentally steal from personal writing time. I understand how scarce that can be as it is. So don’t feel pressure to produce anything actually writerly in the weekly wondering. I’m just trying to be random and get some creative, fun juices flowing, if nothing else. I honestly didn’t think people would create whole stories out of it!

Thanks for these thoughts! I appreciate that you let us inside your head for a bit. I think we can definitely continue to talk through some of these things and fine-tune our guild operations. 🙂

+++

Final thoughts:

We have to strike a balance here. We are all writers, and the whole purpose of creating the guilds was to give us all a community in which we can percolate and discuss and sharpen one another by our unique insights, experience, and expertise. So the main purpose is to further our writing skills – which have to be actually USED in order to get better. So we cannot create a community that is so busy and thriving that we give ourselves no time for actually writing our own projects and putting what we’re talking about into practice.

At the same time, we do need community, the clash and sharpening of mind with mind, and even the camaraderie and encouragement of genuine friendship. Which does take time to develop, and time to maintain.

So we’re faced with a balancing act. We need to be consistent and genuine and even deep in our discussion and interaction with one another, but we cannot become so focused on creating a strong community that we let the real reason for our fellowship become overshadowed.

We are writers, and writers write. Or, well, they ought to. XD

Do you see what I mean, though?

Many of the ideas mentioned here can be validly implemented and will help us to come to a more balanced position in our guild life. Some of them may push the balance to the other side. I’m not completely sure which is which, but I think all the ideas mentioned here deserve to be thought about, and I so appreciate all the feedback that you have come up with here.

If anything else pops to mind at any point, drop a line here in this thread. That’s what it’s here for.

I guess that just about sums up everything I wanted to say. Next week, we’ll begin the major theme discussions in earnest! For now, I’ll see you around the forum!

-Karthmin