The Cult 2009 Launches!!!
Okay, I think my staff and I all have "eyes-bugging-out-of-our-skulls" syndrome. It's a rare condition. It afflicts those who have been working around the clock to launch a massive new version of an expansive author website.
I won't spend too long on a history lesson because you're all probably itching to explore the new site. What I will do though, is thank you all for your patience. Believe it or not, this site really is over a year in the making. Many of the features and options you are now being presented with, we fought tooth and nail to get into our 2008 version. But a series of bad circumstances just led us to a wall. And rather then get to build upon that version of the site, it soon became all about weathering the storm and steering you all to safety.
Today, that storm has cleared. So without further ado, here are your new features:
New Writer's Workshop
- Submit, read and review stories with greater ease
- Earn points for helpful reviews and comments
- Qualify to have your work read and reviewed by Chuck Palahniuk
- Qualify for the potential to be included in an Anthology Chuck will be publishing of the best stories in 2010
- New Writer's Desk lets you monitor new activity in the Workshop
New Forums
- We have a new version of the Drupal forum with a cleaner, fresher look and layout
- Mark All Forums Read actually works now
- There is now a 'Jump to Button,' at the top of all threads
- When there is a new Reply, if you click it from the forum listing, it will take you right to that post in the thread
- In Topic View, you can now see a "pager" navigation for threads that are more than 1 page. Example: Page 1, 2, 3...
- In the main Forum index, "Last Post by [username]" is now a link that jumps right to it
- It no longer shows you the first post of a thread when you go to Page 2, Page 3, etc.
- There are now more navigation options on the bottom of long threads
- Not to mention, a new Community Dashboard, which serves as a hub for all forum and community activity
Additional Features
- Awesome new user profiles with dynamic layout
- New convenient User Box with avatar view
- New sidebar activity boxes
- Out with the old search, in with a new custom Google search engine
- Updated Blog layout and Group features
- Our Book Recommendations page returns
- New sub-forums for Pygmy and Movies In Development
- All new Book and Movie pages
- A new Haunted movie page
Okay, digest that all in while you explore the site. 2009 is going to kick ass!
Comments
congrats guys. re-launching a website is tough work and thanks for giving us a place where we can all love and hate all the same.
Beautiful looking, guys. I'm exploring every crevice as I type. Thanks!
Awesome. Shit loads of thanks to all of the cult-crew.
Now; just play/experiment with the new opportunities and let's see in what ways the changes might/will bear fruit.
Yeah I really love the new Cult, it's awesome.
a new website? and i thought i browsed to milestogoclothing.com. you've designed a website where the primary header is an advertisement. sad
you are not your banner?
jason
Looks great guys! Thank you so much for your hard work! Appreciate it!
i like the new site a lot. good work, and the workshop is a lot better than i remember it being last time i was part of it. i thought we were supposed to be able to rate reviews though. i dont see that.
Atomos,
During the madness of configuring the site, it appears I forgot to turn that function on. It has been corrected and you should see 3 buttons below each review.
You can only rate a user once per submission though, so if you ask someone for additional feedback take that into consideration before rating them.
Depending on your rating, they have the ability to earn (or lose) points.
dont reckon i like the idea of someone being able to take points away, if they dont like your review.
I think the thing is, if someone keeps giving bad feedback for good reviews, just because they might be critical of the work; then they will eventually find it hard to get anyone to read or review their stuff.
It should keep everyone pretty honest.
i understand that, but there are people on the workshop (myself included) who tend to be more negative, or, i should say, focus more on things that need work, as opposed to things that do not. im not out to rip people apart, and i dont think they are either, but i could easily see people saying those reviews werent helpful, and people who say "great story, dude" are helpful.
Nate nailed it.
We purposely labeled the buttons "Note Helpful", "Helpful" and "Very Helpful" instead of something like "Good" or "Bad" because we hope that people recognize that something that might be critical can in fact still be "Helpful"
Additionally you can only get a negative hit ONCE per author per submission. It is intended to encourage people to write actual reviews and critiques as opposed to the dreaded "WOW that was god LOL" type comments.
On the other hand, if they found your review "Helpful" or "Very Helpful" you'll be rewarded with additional points.
We're going to be closely monitoring the system at the beginning to see if it needs any tweaks, so if it seems way off don't worry we'll probably be aware of it before you.
This is awesome! More interactive. Easier to edit and submit. Haven’t searched the whole thing yet, but I would say it’s definitely improved significantly. The more I click, the more excited I get!
We had a ratings feature in the previous shop, although it only built a reviewer's reputations rank and did not directly affect points needed for making submissions; nonetheless, we had plenty of experience with people rating the quality of reviews, and loads of initial concern for these features getting used in the shallow way you describe.
We were pleasantly relieved to see that by-and-large, people didn't do that. Think about it some more. No one really wants to see a positive stroke with no real content, like "great story, dude," as the sole content of a review on a story that you've labored over. The person who wrote the story is assigning the Helpfulness rating. As the author who labored over the story, you know you want more than a feeble but positive stroke.
On those rare occasions when shallow but positive reviews hit the shop in the past, I saw hardcore honest responses, like: "yeah, thanks so much, but your comment is Not Helpful. Please try writing a Real Review sometime."
So while I'm on the lookout for numerous and more subtle forms of abuse to crop up, I don't think this one is a major concern. As Kirk pointed out, though, we'll definitely keep an eye on it.
I'm so EXCITED!
AHHHHHHHHHHHH
So while I'm on the lookout for numerous and more subtle forms of abuse to crop up, I don't think this one is a major concern. As Kirk pointed out, though, we'll definitely keep an eye on it.
i take comfort in that. really. ive taken some classes where the teacher didnt actually read the reviews for content, she just gave people points for doing them. so ive seen a metric assload of shit reviews
So, Camel, are you the one on the left or the one on the right in that avatar photo? Inquiring minds need to know.
New site, new username?
I once chose the username "cnicholso", did I make a life choice, or is it changeable?
Also, my only problem with the new points system is in the initial stage. I don't understand how the first submissions were made as they couldn't have had points, and those initial submissions will now receive hundreds of good reviews, as we all clamour to get points to submit our own stuff! Would a couple of free submissions to every member be a better starting point?
Sorry, we don't allow for username cahnges.
We allowed in free submissions the first day to get the ball rolling. We don't intend to ever do that again, and so far, it hasn't been an issue for anyone who wants to participate.
Assuming your reviews are helpful, expect to receive additional points from the author of the submissions you've reviewed.
Thanks, I appreciate the idea of points to get an active, working, and mutually beneficial community. I'll get on review detail!
Cheers, Davey
aka cnicholso
as far as the name changes, does setting your pen name show up as the name your story is under?
In that you'd still be stuck with the screen name you picked way back when and everything you submit would link to your old screen name but all of your submissions would show up under your new pen name?
Um... Sorry that was a little tough for me to follow.
Your Pen Name is changeable at any time. Your login/username is ultimately what your submissions are attached to. The Pen Name is more or less for display purposes and to make the Workshop more personable. You don't have to use a Pen Name, but I think most people prefer to.
Kirk gave a good answer to this, but I'd like to expand on it a little, maybe clarify a point or two.
1. Those initial submissions will not now receive "hundreds of good reviews."
Every newer story that hits the shop shows up at the top of the list and is easier for newcomers to find. Hell, easier for old-timers to find. Because no matter how much experience you gain in the shop, no matter how well you learn to navigate it, it's still easier to put your attention to the fresh material that shows up at the top on your Desk. In our experience with the previous workshop on this site, most attention falls to the "top of the list" or easiest-to-access stories, and the top keeps getting refreshed with new submissions all the time. Missing the initial window and submitting a little bit later actually puts your submission in a choice place. And now that points for submissions all have to be earned in advance, the influx of new submissions is much slower than our first onslaught of stories, and new submissions will hover near the top of the list much longer than did the first stories in.
Those people who got in ahead of you and gave us a starter crop of submissions to review from, those people did you a big favor. Furthermore, in our experience, as a submission falls deeper and deeper into the stack, it tends to stabalize at those first seven or eight reviews it received. Or maybe even nine or ten reviews, or whatever kind of level the workshop is hittting. But most of them come while it's fresh material and high on the list. When it goes deeper, you might be surprised by a new review "out of the blue" and one person's fresh interest three or four months later. But by then, hopefully you've moved on, improved the story from early feedback, and you've also turned your attention so much to newer work that you say "thanks" for the revived interest in that older story, but it actually isn't any big deal to you. By the time workshop material has been sitting in the shop for several months, it's calcified, man. It's got the only eight or ten reviews it's likely to ever get until you do something new with it. And it's gotten quite as much feedback as you could possibly need to do something new with it.
2. "A couple of free submissions to every member..."
would invite the half-hearted to drop a couple of stories in for shits and giggles and the "lottery" style chance that something might get picked. An unlimited number of people could do that and never review a single story for anyone else. Even if this constititued a slim minority of total workshop participants, it's a pattern that could go on and on, forever. And it would be annoying to the people who work their hearts out. Also, it would have been technically difficult to administer free starter points for one or two submissions to every premium member, and make sure that it applied to already established premium members as well as to new accounts. A problematic strategy in multiple ways.
* * *
Chances are I'm reaching a personal limit right now on explaining things like this, because I need to shift my focus and invest my time in other ways. But I would like for people generally to understand our process, and also to understand that we have a process. Weeks and weeks of intensive private staff discussions and careful weighing out of all such things prefigured everything that's in front of you right now.
puppy is right. good reviews do not a workshop make, bad reviews, are more helpful and constructive of skills than coddling.
huh?
i meant more negative reviews, people dont so much need to know what they're good at, ive found (in all three writing classes ive taken this year) that most of them have a grasp of those things, but they dont understand, or miss, or misuse things that they didnt even realize they were doing. thats generally what i look for in reviews, especially with (really) short or (really) thin pieces that are dealing with thicker things.
Site looks great! I think I have this same template on my blog!
(Note sarcasm)
i meant more negative reviews, people dont so much need to know what they're good at,
i'm going to disagree - a mix of thoughtful and helpful criticism with highlights of what is really working (a great line, a powerful paragraph, something that made you laugh, etc.) will also let the writer know where they are doing really well - it's easy to look at the comments, and a LBL and think - huh, i got three stars, and they didn't mark ONE thing as great or special, i must be an average writer at best
pepper your criticism and comments with what really works too, so that we (as writers) can work in our strengths more, while trying to improve our weaknesses as well
Thanks for your feedback!
We were going to go with a 5.5MB flash site that has shit flashing all over the place and things that move around, making everything totally unusable. However, it turns out that we have actual visitors who need to be able to get around.
Oh well, maybe next time!
you're right, rich, im sorry i worded it that way, made me sound like an ass.
Not intended to bust on all the hard work it took to put it together, websites are a beast.
I think its just Chuck frozen in a pose of Creamsicle Orange that throws me off, or makes me want to go out and purchase a frozen treat.
Um... Sorry that was a little tough for me to follow.
Your Pen Name is changeable at any time. Your login/username is ultimately what your submissions are attached to. The Pen Name is more or less for display purposes and to make the Workshop more personable. You don't have to use a Pen Name, but I think most people prefer to.
What I mean is that your pen name is what would show up next to your story title, like in the little box that shows newly added stories and whatnot?
Where else would it display, if not in relation to what you've written?
So if he didn't like the username he picked, he could just change his pen name and have that show up connected to whatever he's submitted.
Hey, Sorry my comment pushed you to your personal limit! That was not my intention, love the hard work you've all done, and my membership is pushing my writing.
Thanks for the replies, they make good sense. That rarest of things - the compelling argument!
For me the process is working great. I'm reading and reviewing, and learning.
One other question - is there a way to know how people score our reviews or would that be too combative? I can foresee problems, but it could inform and help us to review better.
Cheers, Davey
aka cnicholso
We'd rather you judge by the tone of any reply post, rather than scuffing your ego on any particular rating. There's probably more to be gained in the flow of commentary, and in seeing how eager that person is to return the favor and review something of yours. But you can always get a general sense of how well you're getting rated from the overall progress of your points level. We haven't designed it to reveal the particular breakdown.
Also, please understand that your earlier comment didn't send me over the edge. The limit I'm feeling is in how much time and energy I can devote to giving those painstakingly detailed answers to preliminary concerns. It's me struggling against my own compulsion. That's all. I'm feeling a strong urge to turn off my "explainer" and actually participate in this new workshop, as well as balancing other facets of my life against the time I spend here.
I'm glad you're finding a good experience with it so far.