Discount_Blade
Sent Here To Piss You All Off
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2019
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- 1,347
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I don't know if there is something like this here, or if there is something that currently functions as such, but I had an idea from something I've seen from three other writing sites. 2 of them are dead now and the other one....I don't think even has a proper forum anymore. Figment and Inkpop, old sites, and once-upon-a-time Wattpad, all had a section in their forums called "Interest Check".
It was where people could go to post a random novel idea they had, to test the proverbial waters and see if it garnered any actual interest from the populace before they started writing it. Or if they had already started, see if it was worth even posting. Like, Person A has written Story C, but doesn't know if it'll be popular, and wants to sort of simulate a potential readership. So he goes to the "Interest Check" section and posts the general idea, and if he/she wishes to, posts a brief snippet (though they normally just posted a synoposis and a brief description of the story as well as the general direction it was planned to develop)
I thought it was neat because it could gauge potential interest, and quite a few people I knew on these sites had a ready-made audience ready to hop onto the story as soon as it was posted since it had been advertised and people had responded favorably to the idea(if someone responded that is.)
I think this might also, (indirectly perhaps though I'm not sure I could explain why I think so) give a bit more life to the "Latest Chapter Discussion" forum thread, though that part is probably more wishful thinking on my part than anything else.
Anyways, any interest in a "Interest Checker" spot in the forums? I think it would be good for gaining a potential readerbase right before posting. The only problems I can see is that it would develop into a "advertisement hell" for people spamming repeated threads about their story.
The other sites fixed this however by limiting the number of times a single person could post into that forum by say, once a week. I'm not sure how they enforced it but they did. They also limited it ONLY to stories that hadn't been posted onto the main site yet, or if posted, had less than 30k words.
It was where people could go to post a random novel idea they had, to test the proverbial waters and see if it garnered any actual interest from the populace before they started writing it. Or if they had already started, see if it was worth even posting. Like, Person A has written Story C, but doesn't know if it'll be popular, and wants to sort of simulate a potential readership. So he goes to the "Interest Check" section and posts the general idea, and if he/she wishes to, posts a brief snippet (though they normally just posted a synoposis and a brief description of the story as well as the general direction it was planned to develop)
I thought it was neat because it could gauge potential interest, and quite a few people I knew on these sites had a ready-made audience ready to hop onto the story as soon as it was posted since it had been advertised and people had responded favorably to the idea(if someone responded that is.)
I think this might also, (indirectly perhaps though I'm not sure I could explain why I think so) give a bit more life to the "Latest Chapter Discussion" forum thread, though that part is probably more wishful thinking on my part than anything else.
Anyways, any interest in a "Interest Checker" spot in the forums? I think it would be good for gaining a potential readerbase right before posting. The only problems I can see is that it would develop into a "advertisement hell" for people spamming repeated threads about their story.
The other sites fixed this however by limiting the number of times a single person could post into that forum by say, once a week. I'm not sure how they enforced it but they did. They also limited it ONLY to stories that hadn't been posted onto the main site yet, or if posted, had less than 30k words.