Welcome, Graphics Request, and Polls

[ranalore]

Hello, everyone! I'm so excited to see such a positive response to this community! While I'm asking for input, I wonder if any of you with graphics skills might like to create a header for the community, and perhaps an icon? If so, please PM me and we can discuss what I have in mind (and if something else would work better).

I have a few questions for members before I finalize how prompts will be handled. Most old school drabble comms posted new prompts either late Sunday or early Monday, but it's been suggested to me people might prefer a new prompt to go up on Friday, so they'll have it fresh in their minds on weekends. I can put up prompts pretty easily on any of these days, so I've made it a poll question.

Likewise, many drabble comms used to have an element of challenge. The easiest one for me would be to "close" the old prompt when I post the new one, which would impose a deadline of a week to write for each prompt. There would, of course, be amnesty periods when people are free to write for all prompts, so this is not a "one chance only" proposition. If you like the challenge concept, but have a different idea for it, feel free to talk about that in comments. Just keep in mind, if there is a challenge component, what it is will be influenced heavily by what your mod, a spoonie, can easily manage on a weekly basis.

Finally, while I don't intend to limit how many times a member can respond to a prompt, I would like to get everyone's input on whether to allow more than one drabble per post. I do plan to have some events in which drabble sequences will be allowed, or stories in which each drabble is a chapter. I am also thinking of allowing drabble series at that time, which are what they sound like, where each drabble is a standalone story in a series of stories. The question remains, however, as to whether to allow unrelated drabbles to be posted in the same entry to the same prompt. So, that is also on the poll.

I will leave this up for two weeks, to allow as many incoming members as possible to participate. Please feel free to comment and ask questions during that time, and I'll answer as best I can.

Poll #25434 Prompts and Multiple Drabbles

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 29

On which day of the week would you prefer prompts to be posted?

Sunday
1 (3.4%)

Monday
1 (3.4%)

Friday
15 (51.7%)

It makes no difference to me
12 (41.4%)

Should prompts "close" once a new prompt goes up?

Yes
8 (28.6%)

No
5 (17.9%)

I'm fine either way
14 (50.0%)

Something else I will explain in comments
1 (3.6%)

Should members be allowed to post more than one drabble per entry outside of special events?

Yes
14 (48.3%)

No
1 (3.4%)

I have no preference
13 (44.8%)

Something else I will explain in comments
1 (3.4%)

Comments

[theladyscribe]

I have a question about how posting will work. Will people be making their own posts for their drabbles, or would they be replying in comments to the prompt post with the drabble(s) they've written?

[ranalore]

People would be making their own posts.

[theladyscribe]

Ok! That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.

[ranalore]

Since none of the rules and guidelines are up yet, I know it's not clear how everything will work. Thanks for bearing with me!

[hhimring]

Prompts could be closed after a month rather than a week? (Although, sorry, that might mean more work for the mod?)

Also, it does not seem to be too much trouble to ask for separate posts to be made for unrelated drabbles, but perhaps (related) double drabbles could be allowed outside special events?

[ranalore]

Simply due to my spoon supply and other obligations, any timed component of a challenge would be on the same weekly schedule as the prompts. I just wanted to see if anyone had thoughts on a non-timed component they wanted to suggest.

Thus far, allowing multiple drabbles in a single post seems to be winning, which is understandable. I know many people jot down drafts throughout the day, either longhand or in something like a Google doc. Then, they polish them up when they get some downtime in the evening, at which point it's indeed easier to post them all in a single entry than create multiple entries (not to mention, many feel self-conscious about "clogging" a comm).

Also, drabble series usually arise from several different prompts, but allowing multiple drabbles in a single entry would mean people could post series together that riffed off a single prompt. Just to clarify, your suggestion is to allow two related drabbles of any form to be posted in the same entry, correct? Not to limit posting of multiple related drabbles to the double drabble form only? And by related, I assume you do mean series, not sequence? As I said in the post, I won't be allowing sequences except during special events.

[amedia]

Simply due to my spoon supply and other obligations, any timed component of a challenge would be on the same weekly schedule as the prompts.

I was gonna suggest an overlap, but given the excellent reasons you've given, I'll change my vote to, "same weekly schedule." It totally makes sense!

[ranalore]

Yeah, I wish I had it in me to do multiple timed aspects, but while I can set reminders to keep track, I know from experience that too many reminders about various tasks can overwhelm me. So, I have to simplify my leisure reminders as much as possible.

[hhimring]

To be honest, my comment was just based on communities I already belong to. My opinions are not strong and I am happy to go along with whatever is decided.

[ranalore]

That's understandable, and I'm sorry if my reply sounded short or inarticulate in any way. I'm having a bit of a cognitive struggle this week, but as I don't ever know what tomorrow will hold, I didn't want to procrastinate and potentially make it appear I was ignoring anyone's comments.

[hhimring]

Sorry to hear that you have been struggling in any way!
Whatever you feel you can maintain as mod must certainly be the main criterion.

[amedia]

Hmmm ... I thought about this for a while and came up with one idea to toss into the ring, but the more I thought about it, the more I'm uncertain about it.

Here's the idea: We could ask people to each post no more than one drabble for the first few days, so as to get a nice mix to start with. But then after a couple days, everyone could post all the other drabbles they've come up with for the prompt, because getting multiple drabbles from the same people still means more delicious cake drabbles!

I would make this a suggestion, rather than a rule, because it would be a lot of work for mods to keep track of who posts when, to say nothing of the unpleasantness of trying to enforce it.

Or ... the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking we could just not even make a suggestion and if that means that we sometimes have ten drabbles in a row from one person, we can always keep scrolling if they're not to our taste. :-) I think, at the beginning of this marvelous project, we don't want to discourage anyone from contributing.

[ranalore]

As you point out, there's both the difficulty of enforcing such a policy, and the concern that it could, and likely would, discourage participation. Plus, the question is really about how many drabbles should be allowed per entry, not how many drabbles per user should be allowed per day. While that sort of policy might make sense on an extremely active multi-fandom community with thousands of members and a team of mods to enforce it, I don't think we're ever likely to reach that level of membership or participation.

I also think we have to allow for the fact that certain prompts are going to really inspire some members, while other prompts are going to inspire other members. I expect to see a lot of fluctuation in who participates more in different weeks, and that's just the nature of the beast. It will be in the guidelines to use cut tags for anything longer than a drabble, and for multiple drabbles, if that is ultimately the way the poll vote goes. That will make it easier to members to scroll past things if they don't have time to read, or if the headers indicate it will be something not to their taste.

[amedia]

I also think we have to allow for the fact that certain prompts are going to really inspire some members, while other prompts are going to inspire other members.

That's a really good point!!! I like the idea of cut tags for anything longer than a drabble, including multiple drabbles.