General Writer's Block thread

We already have a sandbox written up for the "directory" thread. Here's the link: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Sandbox/WritersBlockDirectory

As to the other, I think that we agreed that it would be pretty much the extant "About Writer's Block" thread, but with the thread-listing removed.

(That is, "About Writer's Block" would be a dedicated introductory thread, while the "directory" would be a dedicated list-thread.)

The directory thread's title is the Crowner at the bottom of the thread page. Looks like the consensus is for "The Great Writer's Block Directory"

I've implemented it. I think we want to unpin all the other ongoing (not locked) threads except for "General Writer's Block thread" and "Random questions thread", right?

Thank you very much for so implementing it! ^_^

As to unpinning, I believe that the consensus was to unpin all threads save "About Writer's Block" and the new directory. (So "Random Questions" would be amongst those unpinned.)

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Oct 15th 2020 at 10:04:50 AM

Seconding what ArsThaumaturgis said.

Why do we still have 10 pinned threads?

I imagine that the unpinning just hasn't yet been enacted. Septimus was asking what should be done, and hasn't yet responded to our replies, and thus may not have yet returned.

A bit more prosaically, I am not here 24/7. Anyhow, I've done the unpinning.

Thank you for doing that! The forum looks much cleaner now, I do feel. ^_^

Could we change the order of the pinned threads? I feel that new people will start at the top and work their way down, but once they get to the directory thread, the shear number of resources there will trap them basically forever. I feel like the brief introduction in the "About Writer's Block" thread should go first, as it sets the overall tone for what we hope the Writer's Block forum should be.

That sounds like a good idea to me; I second it!

I third it.

A mod will have a better handle on this, but I'm not sure it's possible to do that with the mechanics of the forums. The threads are all timestamped based on when the last post was made. So we'd basically have to get a "bump post" on the About Writer's Block thread if we wanted to bump it to the top.

Edited by AwSamWeston on Oct 16th 2020 at 3:23:08 AM

It may be possible to just reset the timestamp, depending on the tools available.

I forget: Do edits count towards the positioning of a thread? If so, then that might work.

But even if neither of the above works, then a bump-post doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Except "About Writer's Block" is locked.

Edits don't count toward a thread's timestamp. Septimus Heap edited "About Writer's Block" at our request and it didn't change the thread's position.

Mods can lock and unlock threads. It should theoretically be possible to briefly unlock it, add a "bump post", and re-lock it. But that's their call, not ours.

I'd be disinclined to add a "bump" post as it'd be distracting. Also, I am not convinced that the order of threads is very important, really.

, Fair enough, on all counts.

Hmm... If reordering is still desired, and if it's possible to delete posts, then perhaps a bump-post could be made, then immediately deleted. That might update the order without leaving a superfluous post.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Oct 17th 2020 at 3:16:44 PM

Then allow me to convince you. "About Writer's Block" is intended to be an introduction to the forum. It contains advice about the appropriate way to act in here. Adding a "bump" post would be simple and useful: it could mention the Directory Thread and include a link to it.

The argument seems reasonable, to me.

Y'know, a simple post saying "bump" would be dumb, but I really like that solution, DeMarquis. Nice and elegant.

Aw, shucks.

Random, but I finally got around to checking the threde and saw that Madrugada's original post still has a reference to The Fear Mythos from almost a decade ago, which happened to be the first major writing project I took part in- *is overcome by a tidal wave of nostalgia and feels*

Since I plan on adapting my story into a role-playing game, I’m going to see if I can write a full-on Gamebook on AO3. Has it been done?