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| I am so tired, tired, tired of pessimistic views of the future. Just occasionally it would be good to hear that we didn't ruin the planet, that things actually got better and that hope persists for humanity. |
| The end of the world has been a popular theme since... well, since the beginning of the world, I suspect. Humans love to worry, I think. Well, I do anyway. The new fashion for dystopian futures which envision vampires or zombies or disease (or diseases that turn people into vampires or zombies) are the themes I am growing tired of. |
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| How lonely is the solitary wanderer? Been thinking about this question asked in the Writing.com Support Newsletter of June 15. The answer came to me from the blue a few minutes ago. The solitary wanderer is never really alone. The reader is always there with him/her. |
| And the solitary wanderer is always talking to the author, telling him what happens next. |
| Just wrote a little thing for the 75 Word Contest and that made me think of this... Amilcar had the call and went to the desert to meditate. Two days later he was back and his friends asked him why. "No decent honey and locust restaurants," he replied. |
| I don't get it. Most of my stuff has loads of views but reviews are as rare as hen's teeth. My latest piece won a contest and had plenty of views (as a result, I presume) but no reviews to date. Okay, it's only been up for a couple of days but you'd think that, out of 23 views, at least one person would review it. All I want is a bit of feedback - even a "Gee, that was nice," or a "Why do you write such nonsense?" would be better than this dreadful silence. Is my writing so awful that no one knows where to start? Or do I scare them with how good I am? It would be nice to know... Incidentally, I don't really know how this Notebook thing works. This is written mainly to see if anyone reads it. There again, would anyone bother to reply? |
| Lots of views, few reviews -- You have your items set to No access restrictions. That means anyone on the internet can view it, including bots from search engines. However, only members who are logged in can send you a review. If you want to be reviewed, you could wait for people to randomly run across your items, but it works better if you put some effort into it: Seeking Reviews from Writing.Com 101  . After all, you're competing for reviewers with everyone else who has work posted here. Using the Please Review page isn't for tooting your own horn. It's there to ask for helpful feedback to use for improvements in items that still need work -- so for work that isn't considered polished and finished. An effective request comment will ask for the kind of feedback you think you need, rather than making a sales pitch for how wonderful the item is. That kind of sales pitch is for the Shameless Plug pages. Posting a review request in your Notebook, which goes to the Newsfeed, works better after a member has established a presence in the community, and has been added as a Favorite or Fan by other members. Otherwise only people who look at the Community Newsfeed will see it. Notebook Tab from Writing.Com 101 and Newsfeed from Writing.Com 101 . If you truly want to know whether your writing still needs work, request a review from someone who does in-depth reviews. And questions about how the site works and/or how to use it belong in "Technical Support Forum" for the optimal response time. "Technical Support Forum" is linked as Need Help? at the upper right, and also as Writing.Com Tools/Help: Technical in the left nav menu. |
| Thanks, Northern, for that extensive and comprehensive reply. I shall use it as my guide into better use of WDC in future. Interesting that the No access restrictions settings opens viewing to the entire net. That needs some thinking about. I have taken advantage of the Please Review page and discovered that it works very well. Already I've had two reviews of my posted item as well as discovered at least one excellent writer I was unaware of before. Thanks also for the info about help and support. It will all come in useful, I'm sure. Your willingness to spend time in answering my silly queries is much appreciated. Once again, many thanks. |
| Arrgghh, Linn, I don't want thumbs up. I want interaction! :D |
| Welcome, Beholden! If you've missed the company of writers, you have surely come to the right place. I'm Carol. Nice to meet you. |
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