Hello, all! I'm Janna, your returning forum moderator. We'll be operating the forum a little differently this year, but not too much differently.
First things first, welcome to Character and Plot Realism Q&A! This is the forum where you can ask all your "stupid questions" and get "stupid answers" in response! ;-) One of my best friend's profs in her Masters program said that the only stupid question is the one you don't ask. I agree.
I'll be keeping an eye on things, along with cybele, the lovely moderator of all moderators, but basically I'm in charge. Which isn't a big deal, as long as you all play nice. I'm pretty easy-going. Just keep your language clean and be respectful of each other, and we'll get along just fine.
I know many of our returning users are used to seeing "expert threads". The only problem we moderators have with that is how cluttered it makes the forum. Therefore, we are instituting a new program this year, to make the best use of our experts as possible.
First of all, there will be a thread called "Experts Listing". This will be an alphabetical list of topics with the names of our resident experts listed alongside. If you would like to be a part of this listing, you must PM me with your topics of expertise. If you want to post a question, feel free to check the experts list and PM the users listed by your topic of interest. This will (hopefully) keep the forum somewhat easier to navigate.
Secondly, there will be an "Index Thread". This will be an alphabetical list of topics covered by the threads in the forum, with links to the threads in question. I will update this list once a day (when possible). When you first arrive in the forum, you may want to check this list to see if your topic is already covered by an active thread, or you might like to see if there are any new threads with your topic of expertise listed.
Finally, I would ask that you make your subject lines as clear as possible. It's fun to come up with really cute/cool subject lines that sort of refer to the topic of your post, but that makes it difficult for people to know whether or not your question is one they'll be able to answer. For example, if I was asking how many wallabies would fit into a streetcar, I might think it was cool to have a subject line of "traveling mini kangaroos", but that really won't help me get answers. A better subject line would be "how many wallabies in a streetcar?" Yes, I know that's boring, but we want answers, not confusion! :-)
Watch this post for further information and links to the threads you'll want to keep an eye on!
-Janna
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-Janna
NaNoWriMo Co-ML for Calgary
NaNoWriMo Moderator, Character & Plot Q&A
NaNoEdMo ML for Canada
ScriptFrenzy ML for Alberta
