Emailing authors

I agree with all of the points raised above. The pace of technical work on the site as slowed of late, due to other commitments on the part of the person carrying out the work. We really want the story and poem of the week back, and also the 'contact the author' option. I would argue that they are vital to the way in which this site works, and as you've all pointed out above, their absence does leave a little bit of a hole in what the site can offer. Maybe I should do a front page about how to get feedback on your work, with an explanation of how you produce a 'mail to' link. It's something that does trouble me a lot, and the sooner we have back what we once had the better, as far as I'm concerned. We're getting there, but sometimes things move slowly.

We could also start a thread on the writing page saying: email us for comments as the title, then have writers on the site add their name and email to a list if other writers want feed back they could email links.

Not responding to praise is maybe shyness. it is in my case.

It wasn't shyness or not wanting constructive criticism on my part when I didn't respond to a now long ago critique on a poem of mine. It was sheer procrastination extending into protracted guilt OVER the procrastination, and my apparent ingratitude, that did it! And it was one of those wonderful flag-ups, too, which resulted in a real exchange between several people over the merits and demerits of the piece. I did elect, publically, to stay out of the picture 'til folks had their say, but never did got around to expressing my own reactions. And I know this can be discouraging to those who make the effort to think about a story/poem and post their thoughts on it. Especially here, where the 'discuss abctales writing' forum is the only way to offer public critque from which all readers/writers can learn.

Andrew, it DID make a HUGE difference, to both of us. Made me feel like I could write :0)

I asked this question on the other forum a long time ago, Neil. Never got an answer :(

I would assume that if an author doesnt supply an email address, then they dont want to be contacted. You can flag their work on the top forum, maybe they'll see it, but there is no guarantee that they will reply anyway - especially if they dont want to enter into discussion about their work - not everybody does, do they?

Liana is right - if people haven't put an email address on, it means they don't want to be contacted, and the best you can do is flag it up on the forums as a piece of work worth reading. An awful lot of writers don't seem to want to respond to even praise about their work, which is mystifying to me, but it is their choice. When I was an editor and I'd send emails to most people I cherrypicked saying why I'd done it and what I most liked about the piece, about 30% of those emails got ignored. That was even the case when I was making the piece Story or Poem of the Day, which used to guarantee about another 100 reads. Thankfully, there were always people like Richie and Fey around, and when they got positive feedback you could tell what a difference it made to their confidence. I know we keep saying it, but can't we have Story and Poem of the Day or Week back? Even if it is not on the front page, but with a Thread by Mark or Tony or whoever with a link to the piece? As the volume of work increases, it would be so helpful to have some work given additional highlighting. And then we could discuss it too.

You CAN write, you lovely lady! How is the baby? Do we have a name?

I think what Neil's talking about - and know I am - is that the data on our bio pages still isn't accessible, isn't visible. Yes, some may choose to keep their addy's private, but most didn't in times past, and this WAS the primary mechanism used to give members feed-back on their writing. At least, that was what many longer-term members advised, including Liana, Fish and you, Andrew, as I recall. I'm with you, completely, on your appeal for a return of story/poem of the week or day. Great feature.

Yes, would agree there. I think we've lost a lot by the disappearance of accessible profiles and pictures of the authors.