Jed's Super-Dooper 'Ask a Mod' Thread (for all your Newbie Questions)

Todd Strubbe said:

When is it appropriate to give out reputation points? Are they intended for anyone who helps you in any way? Or are they reserved for crits and things like that? Left to my own devices, I fear I'll be throwing them around like gold stars in a kindergarten class.

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I often use them just to exchange greetings and wise-ass remarks with my friends on the forum, with no connection to their posts at all. That's why many of us have tens of thousands of reputation points. The value of them, for most of us, is the comment that goes along with them. (I never give points without some kind of comment, even if it is only "I agree.")

Beyond that, I use them when someone says something funny, clever, profound, sad, or interesting, or that I just like or agree with.

Occasionally, I use them to quietly tell someone they've got a fact wrong or made a typo, and should correct it. Sometimes it's kinder, so that they can correct it on their own without public embarrassment. (Other times, I call it out in the thread. It depends on what the error is and who is making it).

Todd Strubbe said:

When is it appropriate to give out reputation points? Are they intended for anyone who helps you in any way? Or are they reserved for crits and things like that? Left to my own devices, I fear I'll be throwing them around like gold stars in a kindergarten class.

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There's an FAQ for that:

Everything you wanted to know about reputation points and comments

Thanks, Cassandra, Sophia, reddog and AW! I'll get the hang of this eventually.

Todd Strubbe said:

Thanks, Kelly. Who's keyboard do I have to "potato" on to get the password?

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Typically, around here anyways, they keep potatoes in their pockets, so potatoing the keyboard might be something you wish to avoid.

The password for the SYW can be found on the main page of the forum: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/forum.php.
Then scroll down to the heading AW Writing lab: the first listing under that entitled: Share Your Work.
There you will see descriptions of the various Share Your Work areas and each individual password.

Can anyone tell me how to modify a thread title?

Never mind. Found the sticky note. Thanks anyway!

This is a question of etiquette, I think. A post about stuff going on in someone's life got me thinking about a lot of questions that I think might make a good, sellable nonfiction article. Is it appropriate or inappropriate to ask the author of the post whether I could use some of their story to frame the article? If it is appropriate, is it best to ask the question by private message or as part of the thread? Should I suggest at the outset that we collaborate on the article and split the potential funds from publication if that happens? Or is that crass?

Marilyn

I don't know if this is the kind of question you're talking about, but do you need more than fifty posts to put up, say, a chapter for critique? I wasn't sure if this was just a place for writers to talk, or if critiquing actually happens here. (Super-dooper newbie here)

Newb question. How come my avatar shows up sooooooo small? I notice some members have larger ones then my tiny little Washu, but when I thinker with it to make images not even as big as the ones I've seen, it keeps showing up as the same size.

Am I not worthy of big Washu? ;_;

Is the 'running outside and shouting Banana' thing at all mandatory or simply considered beneficial for building good team spirit?

Okay I'm officially lost.

This is what I want.. I want to read other people's stuff and edit/crit it so they will read my stuff and edit/crit it. Occassionally if I'm feeling particularly lonely one day, I want to read some forums and maybe reply. Is this possible? If so where is the stuff I need to read so someone will read mine?

Oh, and how do I know when someone has replied to a post that I have replied to? Because I don't want to search through all these threads when someone does answer, to see if someone has answered.

Hi, RetaWest.

I'm not a mod, but I can help a little. AW's enormous, and it can take a while to find your way around.

To access the critting area, head to Share Your Work (the password is: vista). You can jump in and read and crit other people's work (in all kinds of genres) and query letters straight away, but you won't be able to put up your own writing for critique until you've hit 50 substantive posts.

If you're looking for a chat, there's plenty of social threads. Try the Office Party part of the forum. Lots of different conversations going on there.

As for your second question, you can subscribe to threads (I think it's under the "settings" tab at the top RHS of the screen, but someone might correct me on that).

@be frank Thank you.

This is really frustrating. I feel like I'm just wasting time when I could be writing. I can't find even my own messages. I guess when I have a year or two to waste I'll come back and try to figure this out.

So, I'm thinking of starting an analytics and stats thread, but debating on where to put it. Should it go into the General Publishing Discussions, or Book Promotion Ideas and Advice, since we're going to be talking a lot about marketing and stuff, or the Self-Publishing forum, since it's mostly for figuring out how to make sales go up?

AW Admin said:

There's an FAQ for that:

Everything you wanted to know about reputation points and comments

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I looked through there uh...I have 13 Rep Points but only 1 visible comment, am I missing 2? Did I broked it?

PostScript said:

I looked through there uh...I have 13 Rep Points but only 1 visible comment, am I missing 2? Did I broked it?

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Some people's reps are worth more than 1 point (if you've been around long enough, if you have enough posts, if you're a mod etc). So one person might leave you a rep that's worth 1 point, but someone else's could be worth 10.

Since newbies start with 10 points, I'd say whoever left you that comment has a "rep value" of 3.

Oooh, that makes sense. I didn't even think of that. Thank you.

SBDec said:

So, I'm thinking of starting an analytics and stats thread, but debating on where to put it. Should it go into the General Publishing Discussions, or Book Promotion Ideas and Advice, since we're going to be talking a lot about marketing and stuff, or the Self-Publishing forum, since it's mostly for figuring out how to make sales go up?

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I've been working on an FAQ for the publishing forum for a couple weeks about book readers and book buyers; I'll post it later this week, assuming the Internet doesn't thwart me any more than usual.

I'd suggest a general discussion in terms of making sales with respect to sales and analytics would be super for the General Publishing discussion forum; and if the local mods disagree, they'll explain and move the thread. A lot of the discussion is likely to apply to trade published as well as self-published, and lots of writers are both.

NH -- WTF (Need Help -- Where to Find (LOL)

Is there a sticky or something where I can find a guide to the abbreviations used on AW? (That one I was able to figure out all by my lonesome.)

I haven't figured out SYW (I hope that I'm remembering that correctly) and, although some of the letters may be common on social media, I am not and have only a few gathered in my pocket (LMAO, BTW, IMO). I'm trying hard to learn, tho'.

Thanks a bunch.