As i was writing and after posting it made me wonder why can't there be several boxes? There could be one for reviews in general with an updated recently. Would there be the possibility of taking the Updated Recently box along the right side and adding a box for New Threads where they might remain showing for a week before being bumped down by responses to all the older ongoing threads? This way in a 1 week time frame it allows everyone coming to the site a chance to see new postings day and night rather than it being luck of the draw based on the volume of responses? I know that i respond as often as i can but there are days where my time and participation is limited and other days i can view more frequently. There are times i have had to go a searching to find a new thread?

If not their own section, then we can try what you've proposed Shax.

I've always said anytime I've tried something in business, if it doesn't work we reset to how it was.

I've only ever had to do that once and that was out of respect to someone else wanting to do it differently. We did it his way, but it wasn't as productive; more politics and easier to just go with the flow in that case.

I've somehow manged to miss this discussion, which means that I should probably make a point of checking in on the Help Desk section more regularly than I do. I also wonder whether our friend Roquefort Raider has seen this thread or not, since it's certainly relevant to him as well.

Anyway, although I like and appreciate the weight and respect that shaxper is awarding the forum's review threads by bringing this idea up, I ultimately voted "No". The main reason for that is because I feel having a new "Staff Writers" section will actually result in decreased visibility for review threads. Speaking from a purely selfish viewpoint, having my Star Wars thread in the main forum -- the forum with the most traffic -- increases the chances of people seeing it. If we move it to another section, it will, in all likelihood, end up getting less views.

An attendant issue is that having a thread or sub-forum entitled "Confessor" (even with a description of what's inside) really isn't gonna pull anyone in. Whereas, having the words "Star Wars" and "Marvel" in the title of a thread in the busiest part of the forum, has pulled in quite a lot of new members, since I started the thread -- some of which only joined the forum to participate in my thread. I'm doubtful that those people follow me because of the quality of my writing; they follow me at the moment because I'm writing about Star Wars comics and that's something that interests them. If the great and powerful staff writer Confessor decides to do a review thread about Rob Liefeld's Youngblood next, I don't think too many people would continue to follow me then, no matter how eloquent I waxed about the series.

Another reason that I voted "No" to the idea of a staff writer's section is that I don't like the idea of having to post reviews to a deadline. I'll post as often or as little as I want and only when I feel like it. I really don't want deadlines where i have to have a new review ready to go every Monday or whatever. That would suck all the joy out of it for me.

Something else to bear in mind is that my Star Wars review thread is almost done now. I only have 6 more issues left to review, plus two brief overviews of the Droids and Ewoks mini-series. Yes, I will undoubtedly do other review threads after that, but they may not be as popular as my SW one. Also, if I was going to be regarded as a CCF "staff writer", I'd like to be listed under my real name, not as Confessor.

So, the long and short of it is that I'm saying let's leave things as they are for the moment. Dividing the forum up into smaller parts only makes navigation easier up to a point -- and I think we're probably close to that point now. I don't think we need to clutter up the forum any more than is necessary and that's what a "Staff Writers" section would do, IMO.

The entire idea would be to sell a featured reviewer over the actual focus of the reviews. Essentially: here are are five writers virtually everyone around here loves. Check out what they've written this week, as opposed to "Hey, I like Star Wars so I'll read this" and "Hey, I don't, so I won't." What folks often loved about Brian Cronin was that you never knew where we was going next. He would often lead readers to areas with which they were unfamiliar, and he would make it worth their while. You'd have an opportunity through a vehicle like this to attract a ton of new readers who don't think they care about Star Wars but who are curious to read the work of a featured writer.



No worries. No one would be forced to do this, of course. If the community approved (and they don't), I would have next asked those who qualified if they were interested in doing this. It was entirely possible no one was going to say yes.



That would be my preference for the Staff Writers, but that would have been up to the writer his or herself to make that decision. I would never force someone to use their real name.




I had a tentative plan for some rearrangement that would have prevented this problem, but it's moot. The people have spoken, and this idea is dead.