Brian Coltrane

I think deleting the crap would be doing the right thing for HNet and most members. After further review, you could say, my stance on the issue has changed.

I have to respectfully question the value of keeping some of the low-quality fics. If it doesn't attract readership, doesn't promote interest in the DOH or HazzardNet, and it's basically the writer's equivalent to ...manual self-gratification, then why dedicate server space to it? After looking some of these RR's over, I'm not seeing much more than a quest to see how many posts can be racked up. A couple years ago or so, we broke up the categories in the RR's to please a particular segment of members. In the process, we displeased a particular segment of HNet staffers. Nobody's been bothered by that latter fact, apparently, but I don't see where the change brought any improvements. Excuse my temper, but it's starting to piss me off, when I stop and think about how much we sweat the details on how this site looks and functions, and what the user experience is like.... and then we pretty much get run over with crap and we're expected to protect it. Say what? I'm not saying everything is Masterpeice Theatre around here, or has to be, Lord knows I've got baloney posted in several areas. But I think we NEED to use that delete key to get the point across, in the most blatant cases. If we don't care about the content in the RR's, nobody else will either, and the quality will never improve. I'm all for supporting budding authors and helping people grow their skills. However, when the RR's pretty much become a Twitter page - we're done. Can it. Flush twice to make sure it goes down.

Bail? What bail? Oh, thassright. BAIL! We can't have Rodger freeloadin' around in our jail forevah. Besides, we're equal opportunity injustice, and we gotta give other folks a chance to experience the hospitality of our hoosegow. Roger, here's whatcha gotta do to pay your way out. Write a poem with a Hazzard theme. It can be an Ode to Miz Tizdale if ya want. Post it here where everybody can see it, and if it passes our already notoriously lax standards, you'll be free to go! Have at it!

I'm sorry we interrupted yer date takin' Miz Tizdale to a catfight. But lookit the bright side, the AOL dial-up is a free trial. MUAHAHAHA!!

You just got here. You already want to make a phone call? I suppose it's awright... I'm still comin' up with what the bail's gonna be. MaryAnne's gone looking for more victims, er - lawbreakers.

To help HazzardNet keep the Round Robin sections in good order, please take a moment to nominate your favorite story, or stories. Include some feedback about why you like those stories. It's OK to vote for something you're participating in, or have started yourself. We'll fine-tune this as we go along, and we may use this kinda feedback for determining writing contest winners n' such.

People gotta earn their way OUT of jail, not into it. It's very easy to get in. This is Hazzard, after all. Jail's always an option in Hazzard County... And to take the first thang last, if a writer isn't lookin' for feedback....then they can ignore it. But it's always gonna be there. Any type of art is gonna bring opinion.

Tell ya what! Feel free to rat out some offenders, and we'll get the warrants out on 'em. The Hazzard County Jail is officially open. Roger's our first "guest." He hasn't realized this yet. Heh! I'm ponderin' his bail.....hmmm...

Very good points are being made by ya'll. There's some well-thought out feedback and ideas here. MaryAnne and I will put our heads together today - *bonk* OW! - and sort out the likely plan, and get Mufn's input. Meanwhile, I'm gonna start a thread for voting on your favorite stories. One of the things we'd like to do going forward, is make sure our writers get recognition and constructive feedback. Voting for favorites, and maybe having an occassional award, is something we should do on an ongoing basis. Similiar to the "Fan of the Month" thang, maybe we should have a fanfic award, quarterly. Who knows, if we see a story that's really good, we might include it in our monthly ( or every so often-ly) newsletter. Or at least link to it. I hear two things over and over that are very positive in these discussions. Namely: "I wanna write!" "I wanna read!" I think we can find a win-win.

There's been some good feedback on this thread and the "Say No to One-Liners" thread, which probably has the latest on the proposals going around. Everyone's input is appreciated and will be considered. I like the idea of a "Hazzard County Jail" section, tho' I might use that for a variety of purposes. It'd be a hoot to list somebody in there at random, then given that person a "bail" of sorts, being a task they'd have to complete, in order to be "released." Like, for example, I threw Chet Duke in there. Chet's "bail" might be, a 100-word essay on Why Brian Coltrane Is The Best Moderator Anywhere. Tho' I might pitch Roger Duke in there first, just becasuse he'd get a kick out of it.

Sounds like we're on the same page, couisn. I've already started deleting a few very old, and dormant threads, that were crafted by one of the nuisance parties. But I won't touch anybody else's stuff until Mufn and other folks around here can weigh in. I think if we leave a few active stories going , that are good, and we archive some for library material , and delete the dead stuff.... we can breathe some new life into the RR's. And you and I can keep up with them. Not that we're going to butt in all the time, and participate in EVERYTHING, and take it all over.... no. Not at all. But we won't abandon the place again. Maybe we've over-categorized the RR section, too. We've tried so hard to keep everybody happy, that darn near nobody's happy. Including me and MaryAnne. For now, nobody panic. We'll always have RR's and we do want all levels of writers to feel welcome. But we also want READERS to feel welcome and have, as it's been said, something worth reading. I don't wanna see the RR's reduced to scratchpaper and scribbles.

I'm gonna quote myself and answer my own question, to see what reaction , if any, it gets. I think we've went off-course with the RR's. I'll take responsibility for some of that , as I used to patrol those pretty heavily, and I'd delete the crap. Yep. Bad post? *ZAP*. No post. No problem. Other times, to make a point, I'd take a post that made no sense, and make it even worse, editing it to amuse myself. This isn't professional conduct, but it was funnier n' hell. If a story thread was so awful that it was a waste of server space, I used to get out the Magic Black Eraser and *POOF!* Gone. I paid more attention to what was going on in the RR's , when I participated. But then when there was that big to-do with some people not wanting non-original Dukes characters in an RR...I took it as a hint. I left the RR's to go in whatever direction the participants wanted, left all of it to MaryAnne to sort out, and I spent my writing time elsewhere. Looking back....maybe we're too democratic and too kind here, and we've let quality slide to the point that some people don't even make a real effort to post something worthwhile. I'm tempted, with a couple of exceptions, to blow up everything on the RR's and start over. Clean slate. Begin anew. Before anybody panics you could all vote on the top 3 or 5 stories you think are worth keeping going. This might be a radical notion, but it's the only way a moderator could jump back into the fray and keep up with what's going on. Opinions?

It ain't unreasonable, to want a story that contains something. Heh!

BAHAHAHA! Thanks for pointing that out, Roger.

I think the question really is...what are we looking for, on HazzardNet? What was our original intent with the RR's, and are they what we'd hoped for, today?

Well said MaryAnne. I'm curious though, what's your take on the whole issue of RR quality? Much as we like giving people a place to learn and grow - this ain't a preschool. At what point do we draw the line and say, "shape up, or move on?"

Oh, baloney. I saw your other post, you worded that better than I could have. Khee!

I gave a longer reply to this topic elsewhere, but I'll chime in on this thread too. I think one-liners that make sense and move the story forward, are ok once in awhile. But if it's just idle prattling going nowhere, then why bother? At that point it's more like graffiti, posting for the sake of leaving your mark.

Awright, one of my longtime, loyal informers said there was a dispute in the RR's again. I'm one of those people who work 40 hours a week - more than - and when I did participate in the RR's, I made sure the posts acknowledged what went on before, and moved the story forward. (MaryAnne and I have been gunslinging on RR's before HazzardNet.) I left the RR's years ago, mainly due to lack of time, but I did have a hand in crafting them. Sometimes the stories petered out on their own. Other times, good stories were ruined, or derailed, by posts that made no friggin' sense. We did our best to skip around bad posts and carry on, but eventually you get discouraged. Especially if people seem to ignore your post on purpose and just post garbage that doesn't connect to anything. At the same time, HazzardNet tries to allow everybody to participate. If somebody's writing skills are a bit weak, we'd rather let them have a place to at least TRY writing. We've watched some people improve their skills by leaps and bounds here. We're proud of that, and we're hesitant to get so restrictive that somebody doesn't get a chance to grow. However, nobody learns by reading crap or writing crap. Plus, I don't want to see people driven away from the RR's because they're frustrated and pissed off by posts that wreck an otherwise good story. Are the offenders "wrecking" stories or are they playing tennis by themselves in their own stories? I agree that some standards should be maintained, but I'm also big into the whole First Amendment thang.

Those are worthy resolutions, Garrett. Setting resoultions never really worked for me until I started making them public. That way I can't deny them later. Hopefully this helps you stay on track too. It's interesting to see what people's goals are. I know MaryAnne's resolutions include cutting down on her cussing, and being less orney. Tall order there! Let's all wish her luck.

My New Year's sal-u-tation is a little late, but I just woke up. Anybody got New Years's Resolutions? I'll share mine first, what the heck... 1) Be more available to my friends; not let my day gig overwhelm my life. 2) Completely restore my 1967 Chevy Impala. 3) Save up a chunk of money. How this is gonna work with #2 in front of it, I dunno! 4) Restore myself. 5) Write a screenplay and sell it. Ya know, a few years ago I posted some New Year's resolutions on HazzardNet, which included fixing up my Impala and buying a house. It took a year or so than planned at the time, but I managed to buy a house. I started repairs on the Impala. Not everything on that resolution list got handled, but enough did that I wanted post 'em on HazzardNet again. May 2010 bring good things to ya'll!

MaryAnne, obviously.

Yeah, but you've got some real competition these days. Seems like more folks are misbehavin' lately. Undoubtedly, there's a bad influence in our midst.

You've been on the naughty list for as long as I can remember. Nasty the Reindeer won't forget you at Christmas!

Christmas party, eh? Ya know, you shouldn't post this kinda thang in public right where everybody can see it, because just about anybody could show up. Like Nasty the Reindeer. Now then...who's all on mah naughty list? KHEEHAAAA!