kunst
2 months ago
meta-point about the website: would it be helpful to have a section or stickied thread to share and critique writing? it would be nice to share some writing, but i don't want to make a new thread for every dumb story i write. (also post ur writing here and i will read it)
_1024x1024.jpg?alt=media&token=2adbfbbd-9915-42f1-a023-cd846a3abbff){kind=avatar}
lowiqmarkfisher
2 months ago
Glad you brought it up! I actually want to add a feature to introduce original writing to the site. It's one of the ultimate ambitions with this site, to make it more than just a "goodreads but better" site. My main concern has been surfacing the writing, I will probably create a new page like /writing or something similar. Here's what I have in mind so it's not shitty: - Ability to pair your writing with music + image - The same rich text editor we use for reviews - Minimum word count (last thing I want is short bad writing, even though long bad writing is even worse) - Minimum reviews / books in shelf count so some idiot doesn't make an account and start spamming bullshit If you have any good ideas, please write it in this thread or reply to this comment. I will monitor this thread.
literati
2 months ago
I don't think books in shelf is a good metric since many active users, including myself, only add the few books we physically own. Also, it could easily be subverted by searching a generic term such as "a" or "the" and adding the first x results A minimum account age (1 week at least) would be nice. Reviews + (num_lists/15*total number of books across lists) would be a good metric though I'm not sure if there's a way to fetch list length quickly yet. If not, just reviews w/ >15 words + lists with length > 5.
lowiqmarkfisher
2 months ago
you’re right, minimum age of account makes way more sense. Also in a way forces you to come back to the site to “unlock” that feature
kunst
2 months ago
i have scattered thoughts on this. forgive me if they are poorly arranged. i can't bring myself to edit a comment. i think it would be cool if this site let you (1) share original writing and (2) solicit critiques of your writing wrt (1) i think a good way to avoid the problems of spamming bad/low-effort writing would be to let people just post writing to their profile directly. and maybe you can see the new posts of the people you follow in the explore section/notifications. then maybe ban/have strong norms against posting stuff like "read my new story" in the salon. (2) is a little more complicated, but it would be nice to have a place for amateur writers to receive feedback that isn't: -full of low-effort, generic reddity praise or chud criticism -a platform for explicit self promotion ("please read my story/poem/substack!") -a place that turns weird or experimental writing into bland literature-by-mfa-committee writing so maybe there could be a separate section, subdivided by genre, for soliciting critiques. perhaps that section could have a higher barrier to entry based on account age, books on shelf, etc. i don't really know any UI/technical solutions that would ensure the above points though. may just have to rely on vigilant vibechecking.