steph

I really liked Laika! wonderful dynamic between brothers

hey, this is MY post, so I can say... *grumble, grumble*

doesn't look like it... the file date for the last chapter was 3/8/06. BUT! the file date for the most recent chapter of ITFB is 6/18/07... coincidence that a surge of visitors happened 9 days later?

Every now and again, I look at the board stats listed at the bottom of the main forum page, and every time, I'm curious about this stat... Most users ever online was 449 on June 27 2007, 12:12 AM So, what the heck happened on June 27, 2007 at 12:12am that had 449 users surfing the GA forum?

one good thing, Kev, is that you never repeat yourself and you're always amusing. personally, I think you are long-winded in mostly the right places. the soapbox is for rants, which can get long --so I think that's appropriate. whenever you post questions in the lounge, you usually post the question as a short initial post, and then your longer answer separately --that makes it easier to distinguish between the two. I think you just need to be concious to how many points you're making in one post. if you're making many points, keep the expounding to a minimum.

crap! I really feel old when THESE are considered classics! James, what's your cut-off decade? 70's? 80's? I've heard U2 on classic rock stations now-a-days...

Kev, nice little dialogue with your friend (hahahahaha). So, have you ever used something from a conversation IRL in your stories? I could totally see this in BMAD... although, who would be the clueless one?

good point, Trab! I liked it, too, James!

hmmm... I don't see any goats... nice call to arms, though!

Here, here! In fact, I don't want a ring when I get married, because they just accentuate my short, stubby fingers... which may be fine on a guy, but a girl?! Regardless, I feel pressured to do the traditional ring exchange --the ring being a symbol of eternal love, blah blah blah. But really I think girls in general just want the diamond. For those GA members who are engaged or married... did you exchange tokens to signify your commitment to each other?

Snowy! You should have said something BEFORE you voted! Now, even if it is changed, you can't change your vote!

Pay no attention to the goat behind the shades...

If he doesn't do it, I certainly can

opting for instant gratification plagues me to no end! the key is to keep your final goal in mind. find some way to remind yourself... a picture or a quote that represents what you're shooting for. as for motivation... Tiff has it right: small steps. they not only help to get you where you're going, but also allow you to feel a sense of accomplishment along the way. throw the word "but" out of your vocabulary! never say, sure I've completed this class, but I still have thousands more to go. instead, stop before the "but" and enjoy the sense of accomplishment. say, I've completed this class, wahoo! on being a shut-in and avoiding life itself... one of my best friends from college once told me that I have to trust my friends. I may feel ashamed that my life hasn't advanced as much as theirs, but that really doesn't bother them. they just want my company. I don't know, I'm still struggling to understand this one myself. all I've figured out so far is that when avoiding becomes habit, you almost have to relearn how to participate in life again. totally sucks.

Silly Graeme... you're the Anthology Coordinator! of course you'll be "contributing" to the anthologies, even if it's not to write a story. I resent the implication that doing the the coordination and tech work is not considered "contributing." (j/k - I know what you meant!) I guess now that I'm posting to this thread, I should say why I'm here... I first came for the stories. I only ventured into the forums to find out the progress of ITFB. Since I'm neither gay, nor male, nor even a writer, I tend to lurk around on sites like GA, read some comments, and I'm on my way. Then, I saw a post from JSmith looking for volunteers for the tech team. Lucky for me, I took the plunge and PM'ed Joe.

Okay, Joel, humor the straight girl here for a sec... does your accent sound as hot in real life as it does in your writing?

Graeme, it's not only that you're an established author, but that your online personna in the GA forums oozes maturity, intellect, and respect. It's part of what someone mentioned earlier that an author's presence in the forums can affect whether a reader will read and/or review the story. If the author's known as brash, than the reader may be apprehensive about making a comment. For example, before I joined the tech team, I would never have commented on one of Myr's stories, because he comes across as scary and unapproachable (which I've seen learned that he's not). But again, I seem to be shifting blame... I don't mean to. I guess I don't know how to convince readers to leave a review. Partly, making the process easy to do is extremely important. Another part is having the feedback plea at the end of the chapter. This provides readers with guidelines for how the author wants to be approached (email, PM, forum) and what kind of feedback is welcome (criticism, "I've been here" notes). As I mentioned earlier the reader needs to be logged in to leave a review everywhere on GA. It makes it harder to leave anonymous feedback. Had anyone noticed a decrease in feedback with the implementation of spam filters on eFic? Maybe it doesn't matter.

Nils makes a good point. Due to spam filters for eFic, the reader needs to be logged in to leave a review. This is also true for the forums and sending a PM. I wonder if the read counts in eFic could be seggragated into members (logged in) and guests. I'd be curious to see if the majority of readers are those who are not frequenting the forums are the majority of the readers... thus causing this plea not to hit the right audience either.

ooooo! can I change my vote??

Good point, Nick! It much harder to ignore the work of someone you like. I'd also like to see some of the beloved people in the GA community make more recommendations. I don't know, maybe GA needs a Siskel and Ebert team.

Point! I'm noticing that as I get older, I have less and less male friends than women friends. And mostly all of those guys are taken... just not by me . Of course, I'm not increasing my chances here on GA, but I'm learning that platonic friends are good for the soul and the older I get the harder those are to find.

Technically, we could easily add the word count on the index page. How easy is it to get the word count on stories submitted in HTML format?

Good point, Snowy! Self-hatred is built upon feelings of shame and usually creeps up when someone feels s/he cannot change something about themselves, something that is not "appropriate" according to the general society. Did you know that shame can be considered a left-over emotion from the caveman days when an individual's actions affected the security of the group? Back then in cases of valid shame, the person was usually a step away from being thrown out into the wilderness to be eaten by wolves! Now-a-days, we tend to feel shame most often for the wrong reasons. We've jumped from feeling shame over threatening someone's life to feeling shame over threatening someone's perceived quality of life.

Thanks, Orsino! It was an abbreviation!

In Oregon, if I waited for nice weather, I'd never leave the house! lol actually, I tend to read a lot. sometimes, I'll choose stories I know will cheer me up. other times, I'll choose stories that'll make me cry... and then I feel better... even if I wasn't crying over whatever I was upset about. just the act of crying lets me release the emotion sometimes.