Writer's Digest's new Online Content Director

[RobTheThird]

There are architectural problems with this site. But this is @Jess Zafarris' welcome thread. I'll save reiterating those complaints for another time.

Jess, we need to hear from WD. Writers Digest itself. I guess that's you (as far as this forum is concerned, anyway). We've been enduring problems since some time in 2016 (arguably further back than that, if you count the spam waves we experienced for quite some time), and Writers Digest has been essentially silent to our complaints. Just TALK TO US. Please. The thundering silence from WD leaves us no option but to think that we are not a concern (much less a priority) to WD.

Welcome, Jess. I look forward to seeing what's to come from WD. But not all of the problems are technical.

[Jess Zafarris]

I hear you, RobTheThird, and I'm 100% interested in seeing that these problems get fixed. The first thing on my to-do list is making the main WD site redesign and relaunch happen as smoothly as possible, which I'm told will wrap up sometime in the next two months. In the meantime, I'm finding out from our IT group if anything can be done in the short term about the errors and such that recur on the forums, as well as the problematic ads that seem to be slowing the WD site down.

Edit: In that vein, is there anywhere wlse in the forum you'd recommend I post to introduce myself and announce updates as they happen?

[RobTheThird]

@Jess Zafarris

Unless that function starts failing, I'm used to using the "View New Posts" function on the main forum page, so I should see your announcement wherever you put them. I would suggest making a "sticky" thread in the Writer's Block Party subforum. Then edit the first post as updates become available, and add a reply that the OP (Original Post) has been updated.

I know that most forum software has a news/announcements function, but I'm guessing that's not an option here.

[Jess Zafarris]

Roger that, thank you for the tips!

[T.A.Rodgers]

I moved this thread to Writer's Block Party.

[Oldtimer]

Hey, welcome Jess! It's very nice to meet you on the boards, instead of just seeing a name in blue at the bottom of the page. I'm looking forward to reading your reports.

[updog]

Welcome, Jess. You give us hope, which is something that's been missing around here the last few years.

[Rosedarling]

Hello, Jess and welcome aboard.

[Dreaming Imrryr]

Hi Jess Zafarris.

I'm just happy that the forum is still here for us.

I realize that Writer's Digest is a business and that the company needs to focus on the aspects of the website that will provide more profit and stability, thus keeping the company going. And the forum probably isn't the most profitable part of the website.

I hope I am not intruding by giving my thoughts on how to make the forum better. But the forum is becoming less active than it used to be and it is probably because of a number of factors, but one factor may be because the forum is losing members to competing forums.

There are two forums that I think are more active than this one and I think they draw a lot of members who actively post because they allow members to put their book covers in their post signature. I know that Writer's Digest doesn't want to let authors advertise their books without being paid for it, but it would draw more members who actually make posts and that might be more attractive to third party advertisers who cater to authors.

But as I said earlier I'm glad the forum is still here such as it is.

[ostarella]

One thing I think we'd all love to see is fixing the spam. Paul was able to do a semi-fix in that they all end up in Introductions (rather than scattered throughout the forum) until they can be gotten rid of, but obviously they still show up on the forum pages. If there could be an additional fix so no one can post PERIOD until they're approved for membership, it would be a real godsend.