Idea for creative writings forum

[lennisf]

Hey! I just got an idea of doing something like a creative community (english and german cause my home language is german) There should be workshops available for members, and some self written stuff by me or other helpers (if you wanne be, contact me either here, mail or on the forum, URL later) and that those members can post their own works as well. I came up with this so far
http://hobbywriters.2ya.com
What do you think? Anybody interested to help out, contact be either way.
Thanks
Lennis

[Queen Bee]

Hi Lennis, and welcome to the community!

We're working on recreating a category just for this type of discussion, and will move your thread to a more appropriate board soon. You will probably find this more helpful.

Thought I'd like to add the fact that I think your personal literature forum is a great idea.

[lennisf]

oh thanks, then i 'll start working on it a bit more soon

[Queen Bee]

Alright, still trying to find a name for the new board, but this will do for now.

With what would you like help? I'd be glad to lend a hand in any way I can. I'm a graphic artist and webdesigner, if it could give you any idea on what I could do for you (Free of charge, of course).

I'm not a literature fan to a high degree, but I do fancy some writings (Sun Tzu's Art of War and the Holy Writ), and could possibly lend a hand with developing the forum.

I'm probably not your best bet, but I like to help when I can. I'm sure there's a few other members here much wiser than I that would be glad to help out in other ways.

[lennisf]

Oh cool. Thanks a lot for that offer! Well, if you look at the forum right now - what do you think you could change to make it better? It would be too much for you to do one skin wouldnt it? *naughty* THe current skins are good but this ads ... well, anyway, what do you recommend to improve? Ah, what you could help with is a first page, index page, yeah, that most people have, but not like a portal like on http://www.kohl-net.de/ the first page, that has got the look of the forum but is not any modification. Only if you have time. And I can't decide which skin to use - thats my main worry.
I'm talking a bit confused cause im so happy some one would help me *happy*
see ya

[Queen Bee]

As far as making it better, I like the board selection you have right now. If you want really good advice on improving your forum's potential, you'll have to wait until you become a forum regular and then submit in 'Site Reviews'.

The only things I can really do for you in this particular board is help out with codes, graphics, etc. Any other suggestions I have to limit there. (Them's the rules )

And I can't decide which skin to use - thats my main worry.

Hmm, well... What kind of look do you want for your writer's forum? Classic, Modern, Clean?

Some people like to use other forums/sites for ideas. If you have a particular one in mind that you happen to like, send it along.

Or, if you actually like the forum color scheme and graphics you have now, we can start working on a matching index (I see you already made the logo). I use Dreamweaver, NS Composer, and/or Notepad for websites.

BTW, I wouldn't worry too much about the advertising, as it's pretty unobtrusive. But if it bothers you, you'll can always start fresh.

[lennisf]

Sure, codes and graphics, thats enough! The look for writers forum - i think the one now is ok. Rather Clean and attractive, so that people wanne come back. OUtstanding from the other mass of forums I like the spiderman skin as well, cause it has those contrasting colours in it, but unfortunately http://www.ozzu.com uses that already and i dont wanne double ... That's where i need a professionals suggestions Well yeah, now i just cannot decide between the spiderman and subVereor one ... Maybe we could communicate per mail, its better i think. I think if we use the subvereor (current default) one we should change those "new post" and "no new post" and "hot new post or whatever" graphics like in spiderman, with different colours (to maybe the ones in the current logo) so that people can see better when scrolling quickly down the page. And if we get that, we can work on the index. And after that, or parallel we defenitely have to make a really good logo. This one's only temporary cause one member wanted to post a link to the writers forum with a logo so i just made one quickly ... my mail is lennisf@web.de
thanks a lot for helping
lennis

[SensoVision]

Hi lennisf, and terribly sorry for so big delay with my reply I was very busy lately. First of all welcome to our community!
As for suggestions to forums I think that layout you have is one of the best I ever saw at least I really like it and don't sure what Rachel want to change there (since layout doesn't need modification IMHO)? maybe those organge bands look a bit bright but nothing more. I think this skin is really good. Or Rachel maybe you already do some work there and I see results of it?
As for logo I like it as well but I see some small artifacts around letter, maybe you can try to use antialiasing?
But I have few suggestions on the board structure, I would advice to start having only few boards, since  forums with many empty boards scare off people it's known thing... so I would advice to lower board count to only general boards and later add other boards when you have at least several threads of similar topics which could be placed in one category, or if you have enough people on board which would post for sure in the board which you'll create. But if you don't wish to delete any boards I would try to post in each of them as much posts as you can so people who come there have something to read and try to post new threads there from time to time()... because if they read it some may have coments and it would start some discussion.
Actually in Eng. version you have problem only with this board "     Cooldudes
Episodes of cooldudes here! Note: Anything posted by the Admin is copyright and is not allowed to be copied unless the Admin gives permission personally!" is it really necessary now because if not maybe you can remove it?
Also if phpBB support sub-boards I would use them probably as well to make categorization of boards easier in use.
I'm also far from literature so probably wouldn't be much helpful but maybe some folks who see this post would find your community interesting for them and would join you.
By the way have one question, do you really wish to have multilanguage community since it could be fun but usually such communities if have same boards for English and other version some board is keep on growing and other not..?  I think it's a bit hard to make it active everythere... I think that most succesful multilanguage communities have most boards in English and only few boards for general talk for other languages or vice versa.
Good luck with your forums and if you have more questions ask them please.

[Queen Bee]

I was working on another layout for Lennis, because I was unsure of whether or not they really liked the orange. But either way, it should be really easy to just create a new logo for that particular style. I'll wait to see what Lennis has to say.

[SensoVision]

aha thx. for update since I already start to think that you're too picky, even more than me

[lennis]

(Sorry i am not logged in) Yeah, thaanks phoenix for the suggestions. Well i dont really really like the subvereor one as much as the spiderman and plasma style, but itsok. if articutis is working on one, lets see how she gets on with it, maybe we'll just leave it if its too much work, or just do the new one slowly and work on the index page first so that member s can actually come and see and guests get a better picture and the page can actually be reopened. As to "cooldudes" i have written soem episodes already and it was my original inspiration (i wanted to publish something like that on the net and ended up with this kindo f forum) so i wont delete this. But thanks anyhow, I'll try to get some posts, thanks for the suggestions
lennis

[Queen Bee]

Okay, well that's what I wanted to know.  
I'll go ahead and send the logo I've been working on, I think you'll like it.

[susieq]

Hello Lennis
welcome to our GREAT  community.....sorry the welcome is late...I've been "out of town"

[MyWebTeks]

I got an idea from one of our designers. You have a nice looking logo for the site but what if we spiffed it up a little with some flash? Keep the same logo you have for the end of the movie but have a cool looking pen writing on a pad of paper that trails off with a bright flash of light and up pops your current logo into place as a fade in, assemble or typewriter affect. Since there would only be one or two images at the most, the file size would remain very small as well.

Just  a thought