I am excited for this forum! Ideas?

[_truth dancer]

First, a big thanks to Dr. Shades for providing us with this forum!

We have numerous posters with incredible talent, and now we can all learn, share, and improve our writing skills! YAY!

Can we discuss a few guidelines for this forum?

Perhaps it would be beneficial if we worked hard to stay away from personal attacks and your basic nastiness?

If the tone of this forum was helpful, supportive, and encouraging I think more people would participate.

Any other ideas?

~td~

[_Hoops]

Yes, to avoiding nastiness. WE should all PRETEND that we are professionals, whether we are or not. In that sense, we should be able to critique honestly without fear of retribution.

First, we have to decide HOW to critique. I've noted that Jersey Girl put up the first sample but it's not in a form by which we can make notes/crits. Is that important? Do we just offer a general crit?

I would find it helpful that a critter could make a note on a particular line such as, "this stinks. I don't get the imagery." Or.... "this is wonderful. I like how you compare writing on internet message boards with having a speck of dust in ones eyes. IT certainly is maddening."

But, perhaps, this forum won't allow that. That's fine. So what ARE we trying to do?