Caroline,

Love that word 'crofter'. Wish this site had sound so I could hear how you say it. Always a sucker for a Scottish accent.
If money is tight you may want to wait until your trial is almost up before becoming a full member, might as well get thirteen months for the price of twelve.
Anyway I think you will find it is well worth it. Beware the addiction part of it though.

Brian (considering a name change)

Guys - we have been giving the 'members only' forum idea some thought since it was last raised. The solution we're going to go for is to make the lounge forum that place - in other words, threads posted there will not be visible to trial members and will not appear in the search engines. Hope that's an acceptable solution to one and all!

Perfectamundo - thanks David.

Elspeth

Excellent idea, David. Thank you.

Now… any thoughts on the option to have work in the archive visible to paid-up members only?

Dee

I think we could certainly change it so that when you select "members only" it means paid up members. That should be something we can manage.

Can we not have both options? ‘WW members only’ and ‘Full members only’?

I definitely wouldn’t like to see a blanket exclusion of trial members. For instance, I’d be happy for most of my short stories to be visible to them, but not all. And I would be more comfortable if novel chapters could be restricted.

Dee

Hmmm..now I'm confused. Off to ponder some more...

Couldn’t you just add an extra option? Something like:

Everyone (visible on the internet) WriteWords members only (including free trial members) Only Full WriteWords members Only my writers group Only me

Dee

Hi,

I really don't have any problem with things as they are, actually.

Any website's going to get a few questionable characters passing through every now and then - that's just the Internet!

Some people are going to get what they can for free - don't we all sometimes? And with a lot of people the 'freeloading' is not what it seems, as we've seen with the John A-G example. He did reply to some people - but as with most agents/publishers, whatever, he's busy and not everyone will get the reply they want. As Paul pointed out, that's the nature of this industry.

If you came along as a trial member, it's most likely that what you're looking for in the first instance is advice on your work. How many writers trawl the internet in search of other writers to crit?? So it is fairly likely that the first thing most people will do is post up their own work before they get too involved and crit other people's. Some of those people may then decide the site's not for them, or get wrapped up in other things and move on. Does it really matter?

Anyway, even if people don't get as much crit back as they put in, the act of critiquing itself still helps us improve our own critical eyes towards our own writing.

I think the free trial is crucial for the promotion of the site - as some new/trial members have pointed out.

Cath




<Added>

Sorry, if I seem a bit behind - I missed the whole 2nd page of the thread before I posted this! (Brain is still not working properly, caught in a whirl of flathunting!)

Cath, no-one is suggesting we do away with the free trial month. We’ve all been there and I think it’s an excellent introduction to the site. I would just like the option of a little additional protection when I feel the need for it.

‘That Incident’ that Andrea referred to arose after a free-trial member posted a piece of her work. I, along with one or two other members, commented on it and she WWmailed to thank me. Then, a few days later, she took it off the site and started what I can only describe as a campaign of abuse against me. When her free month expired she rejoined twice under different user names to continue her abuse of me in particular and the site in general.

It’s not the first time I or other members have been attacked in this way. I know the majority of new people are genuine, but there’s a limit to how many times I can take that kind of treatment. I come on this site to meet like-minded writers, not to be attacked by someone having a bit of vindictive fun at my expense.

I think the new options are a good development but I must stress – as far as uploading work is concerned, I’d like the extra option I’ve suggested, not the alternative that David mentioned. I never make my work visible to the internet search engines, but I wouldn’t want that to automatically exclude new members. Like most of us, I love getting feedback, and it’s great when a new member reads and comments on something I’ve written – as Caroline did the other day. So I would rather keep the status quo than lose the option of making work visible to all members.

Dee

I saw the first part of that incident, Dee, but didn't realise she returned under different names. Some people have way too much free time obviously!I think these people make themselves look silly above all else, but as she was attacking your style of crit and therefore your contribution to the site, so I can see your objection.

With regards to your suggestion of adding an extra option, you put 'full members only'. Just to point out there is other membership categories as well as 'trial' and 'full'. When I renewed my membership last year I actually opted for 'community only' as I wasn't using features like the 'jobs and opps'. I'm still a long term paid-up member, though!

Sorry if that complicates things even more!

Cath

Ah! Forgot about that. I do mean any member who has paid to participate in the site as opposed to those who are on a free trial month. I'm sure David can come up with some suitable terminology...

Dee

I've been following the thread with interest since opening it up. Perhaps my criticism of John G-A was unjust, but I still think if someone comes on the site, asks for scripts and can't manage any kind of response within 18 days it's pretty poor. He has also joined the Film & TV Writers Group. So are we to expect a sample piece?

This led me to look at other groups and they tend to have 2-4 members on trial who haven't posted. One group has a member inactive since October 2003!

The banner at the top still informs me this is a writers' community. I welcome David's move to make the writewords lounge exclusive, but I don't think it's enough. I can click on the site without logging in or being a trial member and read this entire thread.

Also a sample of fifteen trial members over the last three days shows that over seventy per cent hide their profile. One person has even registered twice under different names just in the hope of flogging a musical jingle to a writer!

There should be filters to stop this.

Just skimmed the above and think Dee is overcomplicating the idea of Members Only. I'd like to offer my support for the idea that "Members Only" means paid up members only. To have an interim option is a bit of a waste of time, you might as well have it visible to anyone as part-members are potentially anyone anyway.

That's wot I reckon.

One other thing: it was the positive comments and kind advice that encouraged me to fully join this site in the first place, so I will continue to offer that support to part time members. It only seems fair.

Colin M

Erm, just read back a bit slower. Found this...

When her free month expired she rejoined twice under different user names to continue her abuse of me in particular and the site in general.

This is pretty bad. If anyone doesn this from now on, is it possible to block a particular IP address from accessing the site?

Of course, this wouldn't be a a complete solution as they can always go into internet cafe's if they are that determined to go to war.

Colin M