Hilary - thanks for the word count suggestion. It was such a good idea I rushed off and did it straight away! You can now see the word count at the top of the page for each work (Yours

Hi there,

Had an idea...

How 'bout getting people to login to go to the the individual group sections? We can use the same log in as before. But, I think it would give a sence of us going into somewhere else a little bit intimate and special. Whereas at the moment, it just feels like another part of the site.

We can then have listed on screen the user names of everyone else also currently logged on. I thought that we could then have say, pre-arranged meeting times (for all those who can make it) for say poetry or short story jamming sessions. May be even some of them under time pressure. Say, with a theme, then have for example 3 mins to come up with whatever we can. Once it's up, the timer will tell us that our time is up, and we can either submit or reject (but no longer edit) what we've just done. Then all the submitted pieces can be looked at and commented by everyone logged on. And other members later can also look at what's come out of each jamming session.

What d'ya think guys?

Jube - some excellent suggestions (again!) - thanks for your input. Sounds hard work for me - we'll have to look at them in depth.

As for now, the current group reorganisation is nearly complete - check out the new groups we've added and the new look group home pages, complete with a (re-introduction of) the group forum, which we hope people will use more now the numbers are larger. That's the place for discussions in the group that aren't related to any particular piece of work.

One new thing not mentioned so far is the 'Group Hosts' concept. These are members who have kindly agreed to perform a kind of 'welcoming' role into the groups. Many thanks to those of you who have agreed to this and if you see a group without a host, and would like to do so, please WWMail me.

Would those type of sessions not be easier using chat rather than a forum style board? Forum styles are great for messages to be left for others to see, but not great for real time discussions.

I have to say though, I think it is a great idea .....

If you used chat, you could maybe look at getting IRC or something linked to the website - then when people are in chat their names are listed. I am not sure how you go about 'booking' an IRC chatroom, but you can register people that as 'ops' which means they can boot people out for being abusive etc. It's a good system IMO (even though it is getting on in years in internet terms).

On poetry or short story jamming sessions: Perhaps anyone could join in these sessions rather than just shorts writers and poets, in that, although poetry and shorts are definitely shorter than other forms, they can take vast amounts of time to perfect, so in that sense they have their own weight.
Sessions like these, I think would need their own specific site, it's something which wouldn't suit everyone, I suspect. I confess to being one of them. Maybe it's a good idea for sparking off ideas, especially if you believed in writer's block, (I don't personally.) But it could be fun for those who were into it.
Becca.

Hi David,

Had a look at the changes you mention. It's all coming along nicely. And I do understand the hard work involved on your part.

Do you think though that may be we could work towards my suggestion?

It's just that I think it would be such great fun. And also help produce some interesting creative works.

I personally don't have writer's block problem. But, this would be a good way of getting over that.

Also, it's surprising when you impose restrictions of time or that everything has to begin with the same letter (or both) or ... well, it's surprising what interesting and unexpected creative results you can come up with.

...So, would be a real positive addition I think.

And Breeksy, thanks for your support.

I can see great new things coming out of these :)

A side note to everyone regarding the experts. The concept of the site experts, as you probably know was only introduced a few days ago, and we haven't yet completed the invisible 'back-end' of this process - for example, there's not yet a system of notifying experts of new group work. Once that is in place experts will get email notification of new work in their selected groups - and as a result you're likely to find far more of them commenting.

It may therefore take a couple of weeks before you start seeing more expert comments on the site, so please be patient!

Cheers David,

Thanks for letting us know.

Eeeee, it's all getting exciting now. So, well done for all your splendid work.

---Jib

I would just like to say I am very impressed with this site - I am new here, but the feedback that you give us David, about the changed and keeping us up to date with the developments is amazing - few websites provide as much information and keep their members as up to date as this one. And the fact that it is being continually updated and improved is fabulous (a least it has been since I joined)

Thank you, I am sure I can speak for more than just me when I say it is very much appreciated.

Hi, just wanted to put my penny worths in and say thanks for the changes David, everything is looking fab and it's great to belong to a site that's ever growing.

Cheers
Beverley x

Thanks everyone for the kind words - helps me keep my motivation!
I've done the first stage of group email notification now - go to your My WriteWords page and you can select to be notified when anyone uploads a new work to your group.