Just a few days left for the Monthly Competition. Hurry, hurry, hurry!
Just a few days left for the Monthly Competition. Hurry, hurry, hurry!
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A Room with a View

About Forums Den of Writers Blogs A Room with a View

Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 56 total)
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  • #227
    Athelstone
    Moderator

    Well, I’m probably woofing bonkers, but I’m running a new annual short story challenge over on the WordCloud. Only minutes after posting and people have signed up already. My view is ‘flush those people out’ and if we love ’em get ’em over here to the Den. And keep the Cloud going as well. Let the Writing Forums proliferate. I know many of my wonderful Den Friends have already signed up, but it would be wonderful if as many of you as possible could take a look. We all have busy lives (except me) so there’s no pressure to sign up.

    Thanks for reading!

    #231
    Philippa East
    Participant

    Thanks Ath
    They are always a really good motivator for me, even if I can’t get my story over the finish line in the end. Will go and sniff about and no doubt sign up.
    x

    #232
    Woolleybeans
    Participant

    Awesome sauce. I’ve signed up to the challenge.

    #233
    Pinkbelt
    Participant

    I think i’ll go over and sign up too. I could do with a new project to keep me occupied.

    #237
    Daedalus
    Participant

    Yay!

    #238

    Great idea, Athel 🙂

    #240
    Pinkbelt
    Participant

    I’m all signed up and choosed.

    #243
    Mad Iguana
    Participant

    Afraid I won’t have the time to get involved, Ath. But good luck to ye all.

    #252
    Athelstone
    Moderator

    Thanks all. I hope the extra pressure on the Cloud isn’t breaking it. I notice that things like style sheets and image files aren’t loading straight away which does some odd things to the Cloud’s appearance. I wonder if SocialGo have stopped routine tasks that keep the system in good order.

    #351
    Daedalus
    Participant

    I was wondering that, but it was happening to me just as much before the announcement.

    Without wishing to sound too pessimistic, what happens if the Cloud finally breaks beyond fixing before the conclusion of the challenge?

    #352
    Knicks
    Participant

    Was wondering the exact same, Daeds. Today it loaded for me, but with none of the pictures or graphics. So it looked even whiter than usual, if that’s possible ?

    #353
    Jules
    Participant

    I found the Cloud has been slower and more erratic than ever over last few days. Could be coincidental or coukd be increased activity I guess. Suggest that everyone keeps a record of their choices and the story when it comes to it, just in case.

    #355
    JaneShuff
    Participant

    Presumably we’ll shift the challenge over to here if the Cloud breaks. It often doesn’t load for me at all, particularly if I try to go onto the notifications page.

    #359
    Janette
    Participant

    Yes I’ve noticed a change these last few days. For me, slower, no pictures showing and headings all over the place. Notes have been made just in case.

    #360
    Athelstone
    Moderator

    One issue I can foresee with moving the competition here is that when it closes for entries, we may well have entrants who do not wish to join another forum in order to participate. Also, I don’t have a way to contact all members except via the Cloud should it go toes skywards. I think I will be backing up topics and the wall as we go along once the group goes private, but we’ll just have to see if and when anything bad happens.

    The SocialGo model is not well organised. They seem to have some data held on their own servers. As far as I can tell these are mainly system files, but also things like cached images and links which are drawn in when you view a page. They also hold a lot of customer data on Amazon Cloud Servers which may be something they started more recently: a few years ago. I assume they’re not actually just pocketing Harry’s money, so they will be paying the Amazon bills and Amazon, for all that, have a business to run and are professional. On the other hand, I strongly suspect that SocialGo no longer intervene at all to maintain their own servers (or a minimum amount) but leave that to automated procedures, defragments, reboots, data moves whatever they have in place. This would mean that sometimes when, say, a server hits a problem, any alerts are ignored and we see an issue at our end such as icons missing or images not loading. This remains the case until the next automated process fixes it. How long this can last is just speculation. Could be weeks; could be years.

    #364
    Barny
    Participant

    Totally barking, Ath, but very very well done!

    MPO is that if the cloud goes then all communication with participants goes too and you aren’t responsible for that. Attempting to continue with a subset wouldn’t be the same competition, would it?

    #511
    Athelstone
    Moderator

    Well, looking at my last post, the Cloud seems to have only lasted a few days. I have a full list of all the members who joined the group, and a record of all the choices made before the Cloud fell over. What I didn’t have time to do was to collect contact addresses so that the competition could be resurrected at another venue. Time for a think.

    #513
    Kate
    Participant

    Hope you are able to get it up and running at a new venue Athelstone. Took me ages to figure out where my room could be! I reckon all of us must have a few e-mail contacts with other Cloudies, that when pulled together would cover the majority of those that signed up for the challenge. Perhaps messages could be passed on. Good luck with getting it sorted. It would be a pity for all your work to be wasted.

    #514
    Raine
    Participant

    Looks suspiciously like a move of our rooms here might be necessary… I wish now I’d been quicker to post a general comment about this place on the Cloud wall so’s more people had found us here. But like Kate says, if we can all check our Facebook/emails we might be able to trawl a fair few untethered CLoudies.

    I guess, if this is it for the CLoud, at least it happened at the start of this comp, and not, say, once people had started posting stories. :-O

    #515
    Jules
    Participant

    I hesitated about posting a general update about the Den too. But I think you’re all right – I’m sure I’m in contact with some Cloudies on twitter, FB and email so I’ll set up a smoke signal and see who responds. Maybe everyone else could do the same?
    You could definitely hold the challenge here, Ath, assuming you’re happy to. I think you’d get a lot of takers and there was a reasonable window of time on it so it should allow people to join the Den and get used to the new navigation before the competition is fully underway. It does look like the Cloud is really gone, doesn’t it?

    #517
    Debi Alper
    Participant

    Should we have a hashtag so we can all find and share tweets and guide people here?

    #518
    Jules
    Participant

    That’s a good idea, Debi. Any suggestions? #writingden ? #denofwriterforum ?

    #520
    Woolleybeans
    Participant

    I’ve put a post on FB.

    I am not great with twitter, but is there a reason we can go with the hashtag denofwriters? Is it already out there it the twitterverse?

    #521
    Woolleybeans
    Participant

    Have shared the FB post to my twitter, but with zero hashtags, because. If a hashtag is decided upon, I’ll try remember how to get on twitter properly and add the hashtag.

    #522
    Debi Alper
    Participant

    There are quite a few people with WritersDen handles. Nothing with Den of Writers and no hashtag for it. Yet!

    #523
    Woolleybeans
    Participant

    Let’s go denofwriters, then.

    If anyone wants to share my post, it’s out there to be shared. Please add the hashtag. I am off for a dog walk on the beach.

    #524
    Raine
    Participant

    Oooh I love a good hashtag!! #Denofwriters 🙂

    #526
    Mad Iguana
    Participant

    Oh I’ll try to tweet all my writing tweets with #DenOfWriters for the next wee while (i.e., for as long as I remember to do it).
    And I’ve created the twitter account @denofwriters too, so we can tag that in if we want to. Anyone who wants to follow it, fire ahead. I might pass that on to someone else who has the time to administer it, but for now, it’s there at least.

    #527
    Jules
    Participant

    Good thinking, Mad. Thanks 🙂

    #530
    Athelstone
    Moderator

    The competition group was open, so I don’t think there’s a problem posting the names of those who had already signed up here. Several are already here, but it would be great to see whether we could get the rest. I worry about one or two who may not be quite so internet-savvy and I tend to take Barny’s point – it would be a great shame not to include them if possible because it would be a different event without them. If and when the competition goes ahead, I will obviously allow a little time for latecomers to join, bearing in mind the problems. That said, I won’t allow a lot of time!

    Aiyla
    AlanP
    Athelstone
    Barny
    bazbaron
    Clebs
    Daedalus
    FergC
    GippsGirl
    Hil
    J.net
    Janeshuff
    JB
    JD
    Jillybean
    John Alty
    John Taylor
    karen
    Kate
    Knicky Laurelle
    KazGinnane
    L
    Lightning
    Lizzielion
    Matty
    Philippa
    Pinkbelt75
    Poggle
    Purple witch
    Raine
    RichardB
    Sandra
    Seagreen
    Skylark
    Squidge
    Thea
    Woolleybeans
    Yo

Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 56 total)
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