Okay, so with the advent of JamCon and the pre-spring break college exams, the forums are looking flooded again and I've been picking up slack again. Been talking with Roget about this.
I've made the first proposal twice before with a sort of lukewarm reception (though I think most of the negative responses were from people who don't do forum critique regularly?) so I never pushed for it, but I think now's the time to implement it so the writing help forums flow smoother.
1. Require that all new authors get their concepts greenlighted by at least two experienced reviewers/authors before they can ask for help with a full draft. Draft threads from new authors will need to have a link to the ideas thread with two greenlights, or they will be locked with a placeholder.
2. Auto-reject/Defer all drafts that hit two or more of the following criteria:
- 10+ grammar/mechanics errors > provide links to General Writing Resource thread, spellcheckers, Grammarly (though I hear it's not always super helpful, so grain of salt that)
- Nonsensical containment (SCP-specific) > provide links to containment-specific guidelines
- Lack of clinical tone (SCP-specific) > provide links to college-level writing resources
- General boring/clunky prose (Tale-specific) > provide links to character-writing essays, The Elements of Style, etc.
- Any others that can be suggested
An auto-reject/defer will basically be auto-crit, but with a more specialized selection of resources so the author can improve the draft on their own rather than just being told what's wrong. Defers should only be used on drafts that clearly need a lot more effort to succeed.
I will write up staff copypastas to use for both cases. In the event of backseat modding (which was my primary concern with auto-crit), the copypastas should still be helpful to authors/should guide them to how to use the forums properly.
I hope these measures will:
- filter out the high-error-volume drafts so the high-effort works get priority
- encourage site authors to study on their own to polish concepts and drafts to make sure they're tip-top shape before requesting help
- increase awareness of the mainsite resources available to writers
- establish a general set of requirements for a draft to merit the time and effort of a reviewer
I do anticipate the workflow shifting. We will definitely need staff to focus more on the Ideas and Brainstorming forum, but it should be easier and less time-consuming to tell someone "hey, we already have a bunch of dudes who fight good, read these essays, read the discussion page for these successful articles, and come back with a revised version of your concept" than slogging through a 4000+ word draft about a guy that fights good that also has a ton of basic writing errors.
Thoughts?