As of yesterday I will be the Moderator for the Writers Forum and Gallery. 

The main reason I'm posting is to find out if there is anyone who would be interested in a monthly challenge. I figure that would be a good way to make this forum more active. 

Congrats on the appointment!!!

Congratulations and.. what, exactly, did you have in mind? Lou.

Basically, we pick a topc (I'll do that on the first challenge, then the winner each month will pick the next topic). Entries can be either prose or poetry, no other restrictions, as long as they are on the set topic and within the TOS.  The entries must be posted in the Writers Gallery under the "Challenge" genre.  When it's time to pick a winner, I'll post a thread with links to all the entries, and the members will vote on them. Whoever gets the most votes wins, and gets to pck the topic for the next month's challenge.

Sounds good to me.. I'm in. Lou.

OK, as soon as a few more people express interest I can get it started.

maybe a challenge involving manga pages?

Wouldn't manga pages fit better in the Comics Corner forum and the Digital Comics gallery? 

I have to disagree.. in a sense, Manga is a story with LOTS of illustration...lol.. truthfully, though.. I think Manga should be allowed. Lou.

I read manga for the stories, the artwork sparks my impulse to buy a manga book.

A lot of people have never looked at a manga book, this could be an opportunity to introduce manga story telling.  Especially for us, since we want outlets for our renders.

but, i need shojo flowers props to get started. 

I can't think of how to compare comics to manga. I'm not attracted to comics; so, there has to be something definable about the differences?

OK, I know nothing about Manga, I just thought it was just Japanese comics. I guess the challenges could include Manga, if that will get more people interested in participating.

Ok... Manga.. the only comparison to comic books is that it is, pretty much, told frame by frame.. this is not hard and fast.. there ARE many that have blocks of text. also.. Manga tells an ongoing story... yes, X-men and the Stan Lee comics did.... to some extent.. BUT.. manga stories would best be described as a book that got hyper-illustrated. The main difference between Manga and comics, as I see it, is that... Manga, unlike comics, tells a whole story... plot, subplot and threads running through it and developing. It is not, and never has been, Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny doing slapstick... although, you DO get slapstick, sometimes.

  Aside... if you have watched Amine, you have seen an animated Manga.. in Japan... if you do not have a PROVEN following, you have no chance of having your story animated. Lou.

Sorry but.

Manga are comics created in Japan, or by Japanese creators in the Japanese language, conforming to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga

Also-would it not be better if any and all entries were posted anon which would prevent the old clique voting regime?

i've already started working on my manga story entry.  i keep changing my mind on the lettering.  the papyrus font is realllly nice

the upload img / max 800 x 800 for writers/challenge is too small. 

I requested they increase it but they haven't yet.

Larger image increases have been requested before and never happened-but good luck with your request-hope you are lucky

When I took over the writers gallery the size limit was 450x450. I got them to increase it to 800 and now I'm working on getting them to increase it some more.

Sorry was not talking about this part of the forum in particular-Previously in other contests the size was 800 and it was requested to allow larger files so more detail could be seen--The size remained at 800-That is why i said i hope you are lucky....

A thought, here.. is it the "physical" size or the file size, they are objecting to?... if it's the file size, I can recommend something that I posted about in Photoshop.. it's called Caesium.. yes, that is the right spelling.. it's free at Source Forge.. you can google it but you'll end at the same place.

Caesium is quite good. It will reduce most images by quite a substantial amount, while keeping image quality... ran across it by accident a while back and have been using it ever since. Lou.

P.S.

While it says UP TO 90%... don't EXPECT that every time, lol.

What is the reasoning behind the different sizes allowed between different area's of the site ?

I can upload 1400 x 1200 on other page's yet like here i am restricted to much smaller sizes?

It is the size of the file that count's toward's the upload and not the measurement's.

This image is 1400 as an example..

ROFL.. truthfully?.. I have no clue, whatever.. I just know that it varies. Lou.

It's been forever since I've been in the Writer's Forum, since there was nothing going on here for so long.  It's nice to see activity again!

I'd love to see a topic of the month (rather than a contest) and have people post their work IN THE WRITER'S GALLERY!!  A contest keeps writing OUT of the gallery, which has never made a lot of sense to me.  A topic of the month would be inspiring, and maybe a little interest could be drummed up for increasing the number of submissions to the Gallery. 

Could you do me a favor?  Take a look at the header links on the Writer's Forum.  That Haiku challenge was in 2009.  The "Information Library" was old and outdated when I started here in 2007.  No links at all would be better than stuff that's beyond out of date! 

The links on the Gallery heading need the same sort of help.  And did you know it still says the upload size for an accompanying image is 300x300?  I've been doing 400x400 forever.  You say it's now 800x800?   That would be nice to know.  At some point Craig and I will pick up on "Shadows" again, and it would be great to have a larger size image for the "book cover!"

If you do a topic of the month or a challenge or a contest, maybe you could make new links!  !!!  :)  That would be so cool.  I'd feel so much more like something was going on with the Writer's Gallery if the links took me to live issues.

Thanks for listening.

(Speaking of things in the Writer's Gallery ... I was really enjoying your story, Jeff.  I hope you'll post more of it!)

The Topic of the Month idea seems like it might work (I haven't seen enough interest in the Challenge idea to go ahead with it).

I can't edit the links at the top of the Forum and Gallery because I keep getting an error message.  I also tried to edit the thing about the image size being 300x300, and also add a note that ian image is optional in the Writers Gallery, but for some reason every time I try I get an error message on that one too.  I guess I should contact the programmers and see if they can edit it for me.

I will post more of my story as I get it written. Eventully when I finish it, I plan to publish it as a book.

Thanks Jeff!  Even though my participation in the Writer's Gallery has been sporadic, it's near and dear to my heart.  I'd love to see it updated and moving along!  Whatever you can do to further that will be greatly appreciated. 

Glad to know you're still working on your story ... it's very good!

there is a sad little post under Writers-Challenge gallery.

I just learned of the new moderator for the Writer's Forum and I gotta say a hearty CONGRATULATIONS!  I'm all on board for the writing challenge as well.  I love the idea of a monthly challenge as a way to get creative juices going; I see it as similar to the "prompt" exercises in writing workshops across the globe, and maybe that's something that can work its way in here as well.  I love a good prompt exercise.  There could be a whole thread based on that: a single image, for example, and everyone willing to participate is invited to write a story or poem based on that image!  It could go hand-in-hand with the monthly challenges, and in terms of the monthly challenges, that's a great idea, too, especially if lots of people get on board!  I'm all for that!  And so, lemme get this straight?  We can now post 800X800 images?  Cool.  Call me a weirdo, but I rather like the smaller image sizes as they seem to mirror the sort of artwork once found in the science fiction magazines I spent my adolescence reading.  I like the allowable size increase, but I'm probably gonna stick with slightly smaller images...just 'cause I'm weird that way.