Mod post - Midnight Whispers panic posts, and an idea...

[wouldbedorothy.livejournal.com]

Hi folks :)

We've noticed that we are getting quite a few "Midnight Whispers is down for me, anyone else?" posts lately. We understand that you get stressed when you can't get to a fic, and no need to feel bad if you've done a post like that, but it is getting a tiny bit ridiculous, especially as it seems that often MW is only not working for a few minutes or a couple of hours. Might we ask that next time that happens to you, you give it a day?

Now, we are talking about possibly giving you guys a place to post things with a bit more freedom. An open discussion post type thing (always to be started by the mods). This is a search comm, but since we seem to be one of very few active QAF comms left, we figure maybe we should give you a place to say things that don't fit the "search" criteria.

Thoughts?

ETA: I'm kinda loving that so far no one wants anything to change!

Comments

[lanbeo.livejournal.com]

I think we should be very careful about opening thought/discuss in this comm. You know, 'cause "just searching site" seem to be a very friendly and spam-free and war-free place. Though I know somes happened in the past, but I think we should avoid the same mistakes in the future.

For now, I'm satisfied with this comm, I'm not sure I'd like it to change much.

[predec2.livejournal.com]

I agree with Lanbeo. I like the fact that this is normally restricted only to requests about fics, and I have found some wonderful stories through here that I wasn't even aware of at times.

I'm worried if this comm broadens its scope, it will dissolve instead into an 'opinion' board where it evolves into arguments, which invariably lead to nasty comments when someone doesn't agree with the other viewpoint. I think a better solution would be to open up a new comm for that purpose.

As for MW, I personally have had few problems accessing the site. Occasionally I will get a error message, but it seems to only be temporary. If it is ever down for a LONG period of time, though, if you want feel free to PM me about it. I can contact Bob and check to see if there's a major problem. After the server had a malfunction on 2/18 and info was lost, an upgrade was done so hopefully that will help protect something like that from happening in the future.

[ipitydaf00l.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to toss in my two cents in that I agree with the two posters above me.

[nightvision55.livejournal.com]

Perhaps not a specific discussion post, but how about a sort of News or Alerts post where people could query about a site being down or a journal that's been deleted.

[netlagd.livejournal.com]

not really related to this, more of an FYI teatotaller and I are working on getting the qaf_recs community up and running - we'd chatted about this previously with the mods here since the getithere community is a search community not a rec community.
The qaf_recs community would be for folks who wanted to recommend a fic they were currently reading or for folks to ask about recommendations - I think there would be a heavy amount of telling people to check the tags in the getithere community, but lessen the amount of folks asking for this or that type of story. (of which I am guilty).

teatotaller and I have both had busy schedules so it hasn't really happened so far, but are hoping on something later this month possibly. We'll keep you and red and court in the loop. It wouldn't be totally unacceptable to asking about functioning archives in such a community.

[chadmom.livejournal.com]

This should stay a search site only. That is what makes it so great: fics without the extraneous conversations/requests.

[mander3-swish.livejournal.com]

or midnight whispers should get their own comm/twitter/tumblr for keeping members updated when the site goes down...

Not sure if I've said this before, but thanks to you 3 wonderful mods and this comm because it is awesome. I follow gleefinders and I want to punch the mod in the face everytime I see she comments to someone's post about tagging properly...and their tags are totally vague and mostly useless IMHO. (so i guess i'm saying it's awesome that you do the tagging here and the tags are fantastic! ....just wish more people knew how to use "CTRL + f" to search for a specific word in the list...)

anywho, keep up the fantastic work! :D

[onthaedge.livejournal.com]

People could also use this site to confirm:

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

[predec2.livejournal.com]

There is now a Twitter account set up for MW to update members on system problems, fan fic challenges (there's a new one coming for the summer!), as well as other items of interest. It's "WhispersFanFic." Thanks for the suggestion, mander3_swish!

Idea and some permissions questions.

[mander3-swish.livejournal.com]

I just thought of something. How about a Page-A-Mod/Contact a Mod Post that could be linked in the sidebar that you guys track (or really anyone) and then when an off topic question arises or a request to make a pimp post comes up, that can just be asked there? (for example: http://fan-flashworks.livejournal.com/437.html)

I thought of this because I wanted to ask if I could pimp this Poll & Discussion at qaf_ficwriters (http://qaf-ficwriters.livejournal.com/11814.html) in a new post?

Cuddle Day is also around the corner and Bunny and qafmaniac and I are cooking something up that will hopefully be ready to promote soon. (so i'm preemptively asking permission to post about that)