Writing.Com General Discussion

I want to address my experience of WDC (Writing Dot Com) and how I think it could be better. I have a lot of frustration to get out, so I'm not going to make any attempt to make this post organized or even particularly coherent.

I'm certainly open to spending more time at WDC and participating more, but I have to do what meets my needs and, sad to say, WDC isn't really doing that. I feel like each time I come here I'm entering a huge, mostly empty building. This is I think mostly the effect of the software that runs the site.

I checked just now and I see that when one enters WDC one finds "Welcome to Writing.Com!" and a page full of dense text. Perhaps what got me thinking was my first experience of "The Hub." I find this far more inviting than anything else I've seen on WDC. Perhaps users could select where they will enter WDC, like a choice between the Welcome page and the Hub, or their portfolio, or something else. I suppose one can create bookmarks for each of these...

Now, I got an email from someone that mentioned that I "do GC level." I didn't know what this meant, so I went looking for a FAQ file. It took me probably three minutes to find it, and then discovered that there was no general explanation of acronyms.

In addition, I saw somewhere that groups were a good thing, so I wanted to know what groups were. I found nothing in the FAQ, nothing under "Community" in the sidebar links, and a general search led only to more frustration. I still don't know what groups are nor how to join one. It was "Community" that led me for the first time to "The Hub." [Later addition: I eventually found "Groups" under "Forums."]

Lately I've become a heavy Twitter user, and that's largely because the software is absolutely brilliant. Twitter, unlike WDC, makes no real effort to explain itself; one jumps in and quickly finds that clicking on just about anything leads to something good, whether it's statistics or a reorganization of what you were just looking at, and so on.

WDC, however, is dense with explanatory information. Well, that's good, but information is only valuable when it is needed. WDC throws everything at you all at once, leaving you to either run a search (rarely effective, I find) or search by reading, a tedious process. I have yet to read, all the way through, the "Welcome to Writing.Com"; that's on me, of course, but ...

An eye-opening experience just now. In trying to get another look at "Welcome to Writing.Com," (hereafter "Welcome") I clicked on the logo in the upper left corner of, apparently, every screen here. And I was taken to "Personal Newsfeed," a display I had never seen before, and it looks far more useful than "Welcome." Well, it's right there in the sidebar under "Email," which is the first thing I look to when I enter WDC. I've never clicked on "Newsfeed" before. Why? <shrug> It's just another in a long list of things, few of which excite my interest. Again, that's on me. [Later correction: I have clicked on "Newsfeed" often, and found it generally of little interest.]

Still looking for "Welcome," I clicked on "Get Started" in the upper right corner. Another thing I've never clicked on before. And what did I get? Another huge page of dense text. That's ugly. Now, it has a table of contents, which helps a lot, and maybe all my questions will be answered there and my frustration with WDC will go away. I still don't know how to find "Welcome," however.

Clearly, my approach to a new web site and new software is a complete mismatch to what goes on here. I am impatient; that's on me. But my style is--has never been--to read a lengthy introduction. I like to jump in and make discoveries, and that doesn't work well here because there are too many places to jump in, presented all at once. It's organized, and that's good. But it seems that each new place I jump into presents me with yet another lengthy introduction that I'm too lazy to read.

To conclude a too-lengthy post: clearly I'm NOT lazy; this post demonstrates that. My problem is a mismatch of styles. I haven't watched the introductory video for the same reason that I won't read a long description of "how to do it." I find such things generally intolerably tedious. I'm not going to try to offer solutions to MY problem. I'll keep blundering around on WDC, and eventually, like the proverbial pig, find an occasional acorn.

I just wanted to vent, I suppose. WDC is what I've been looking for on the web: a place to interact with other writers. It's also a source of endless frustration because when I come here I mostly DON'T interact with other writers. Instead, I wrestle with the interface for a while, then go back to my blog or Twitter.