Interest Check Forum Slot

[Discount_Blade]

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.

 

[High-in-the-skys]

The problem would be that there are readers that don't even go to forums and stay on reader site...

And guess who could read the stories posted on that thread? The readers who's staying on the other site of course.

 

[Discount_Blade]

The problem would be that there are readers that don't even go to forums and stay on reader site...

And guess who could read the stories posted on that thread? The readers who's staying on the other site of course.

There are actually a lot of people that come on the forums but never engage. If you look at the main forum page, several hundreds of people are online, but only a fraction of that actively engages in messaging on the forums. More people than you think traverse the forums and DON'T interact than those that do.

 

[LostLibrarian]

There are actually a lot of people that come on the forums but never engage. If you look at the main forum page, several hundreds of people are online, but only a fraction of that actively engages in messaging on the forums.

According to Tony's Changelog (3.12.), https://forum.scribblehub.com/threads/change-log.313/:

• The forums will also display the users online from the main site.

So there is no real way to know, how many users really use the forum and which are only reading on the main site. I would say, the majority is only active on the main site...

 

[Discount_Blade]

According to Tony's Changelog (3.12.), https://forum.scribblehub.com/threads/change-log.313/:


So there is no real way to know, how many users really use the forum and which are only reading on the main site. I would say, the majority is only active on the main site...

So what I'm guessing is that there is no interest for this idea?

 

[LostLibrarian]

So what I'm guessing is that there is no interest for this idea?

I wouldn't say that. I actually think it would be cool with some rules. Something like the One Shot Manga System to see whether the interest is there. I just don't think there are that many people who would actively go for that in the forum.

I would see that more as a feature of the main site, where one could post one-shots and the readers can't rate but up/downvote instead. But that would probably way too much work for Tony right now...

 

[Discount_Blade]

I wouldn't say that. I actually think it would be cool with some rules. Something like the One Shot Manga to see whether the interest is there. I just don't think there are that many people who would actively go for that in the forum.

I would see that more as a feature of the main site, where one could post one-shots and the readers can't rate but up/downvote instead. But that would probably way too much work for Tony right now...

Nope. Everywhere I've seen it, it was apart of the forums in the EXACT form I've stated. If it's just going to be some one-shot collection on the main site than that goes against the point I made. Not many will take the time to write some one-shot and then leave it when no interest forms. My idea was better.

If it's put into the form you're talking about then of course it will fail, and it would be stupid to even implement in the first place.

 

[LostLibrarian]

Honestly, it was meant to be "something like the one shot system" not "write entire one shots". Like taking a more or less defined idea out there to the main page where people can vote. (I blame my lack of sleep while writing)

My idea was better.

Well. Then it seems like both ideas are stupid :D

 

[Discount_Blade]

Honestly, it was meant to be "something like the one shot system" not "write entire one shots". Like taking a more or less defined idea out there to the main page where people can vote. (I blame my lack of sleep while writing)


Well. Then it seems like both ideas are stupid :D

Nah. Mine was used on 2 prior sites and it functioned wonderfully. Only reason I mentioned it at all here. I wish both were still around because I would still be there. Inkpop was part of that disgusting mess that is HarperCollins. Once Harper Collins decided it didn't want to continue it's self-publishing ventures they burned all their sites. Authonomy was completely deleted and inkpop was sold to Wattpad. Figment came under new management and changed its name to GetUnderlined or something like that and about 1/3 if it's former population migrated to Wattpad.

I can't remember about inkpop, but figment was as big as RR is now before the previous owner got sick and sold it to some woman who got creative and changed the entire format of the site as well as its name and alienates much of the population.

I get that people like to be creative, but I'm always amused at how people purchase an already successful venture and then when feeling creative and "expressive", they want to "experiment" and change things. They always seemed so surprised it failed. I've seen it happen more often than not. Love the old adage, "don't fix what isn't broken"

 

[LostLibrarian]

Mine was used on 2 prior sites and it functioned wonderfully.

It only works if you have a big and active audience in your forum.
Which is a massive IF. Especially in a time where most sites don't even care that much about forums anymore...

But anyway... no need to discuss it further.
We won't see eye to eye on that one.

 

[AliceShiki]

To put my 2 cents on this... I do think the idea holds a lot of merit, but... I also think these forums aren't super active either, so I dunno if it would be very successful.

I mean, the site has been up for 2 years and we have around 108k posts in the forums right now... That's ridiculously low.

Comparatively speaking, NU has been around for a bit over 5 years, yet it has 6.15M posts in its forums... Granted, a good chunk of those come from stuff like LCD and Spoilers sections, which are much less active in Scribblehub because we can just comment on the chapter directly over here, but... Those two only have about 500k messages total. Even if we take the entire Novels subforum out of the picture, that's a reduction of only 1.5M messages.

Even if we go a step further and remove community games out of the equation, which amounts to 2.3M messages total... NUF would still have over 2M messages in its 5 years, which is ridiculously more than our incredible 108k in 2 years.

So... I just don't think there is enough activity in SHF to make this idea work. It is a good idea, but it just lacks the activity to make it successful IMO.

I mean, geez, those forums have survived with only 1 mod for almost 2 years due to how dead they were... By the end of its first year, NUF had 5 active mods from the top of my head, and maybe there were 1 or 2 more that I forgot. There is a clear difference in the levels of activity... >.>

 

[Discount_Blade]

To put my 2 cents on this... I do think the idea holds a lot of merit, but... I also think these forums aren't super active either, so I dunno if it would be very successful.

I mean, the site has been up for 2 years and we have around 108k posts in the forums right now... That's ridiculously low.

Comparatively speaking, NU has been around for a bit over 5 years, yet it has 6.15M posts in its forums... Granted, a good chunk of those come from stuff like LCD and Spoilers sections, which are much less active in Scribblehub because we can just comment on the chapter directly over here, but... Those two only have about 500k messages total. Even if we take the entire Novels subforum out of the picture, that's a reduction of only 1.5M messages.

Even if we go a step further and remove community games out of the equation, which amounts to 2.3M messages total... NUF would still have over 2M messages in its 5 years, which is ridiculously more than our incredible 108k in 2 years.

So... I just don't think there is enough activity in SHF to make this idea work. It is a good idea, but it just lacks the activity to make it successful IMO.

I mean, geez, those forums have survived with only 1 mod for almost 2 years due to how dead they were... By the end of its first year, NUF had 5 active mods from the top of my head, and maybe there were 1 or 2 more that I forgot. There is a clear difference in the levels of activity... >.>

See THIS is a wonderful response. And yeah, LostLibrarian mentioned the population problem that would hamper it and yeah I honestly didn't consider the amount of activity here in comparison to these other sites during their heyday's.