DSCF4261Visit our private TCWGroup Bar and Restrooms on Facebook for the company of authors and the chance of a glass of absinthe…as the water drips slowly through the sugar you can leave your comments below…or you can partake of any other refreshment you choose…

pickled eggspork scratchings

And these are for Fizz, when she arrives…

bolli

29 thoughts on “TCWGroup Bar and Restrooms”

  1. Excellent though this all is, things are moving a little too swiftly for this old dog.
    Will there be pickled eggs and pork scratchings?
    On the wider subject of WordPress, although I have set up a Blog of sorts and downloaded my archive from MyT, it runs all down the first page item after item.
    Looking at this very organised tcwg blog it is obvious that I haven’t yet scratched the surface of what is possible.
    Can anyone suggest where I might find the best ‘WordPress for Idiots’ web site?

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  2. No quick answer to this one Frank, but the first thing to establish is whether or not you have set up a site on wordpress.com or on wordpress.org — they allow different things.
    You could start here: http://www.wpbeginner.com/guides/ but I don’t know which version of WP it’s referring to.
    In the meantime: I went to a wedding a couple of weekends and discovered that I had forgotten how to knot a tie. Will that get me barred!

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  5. I recently entered a piece for the June CWG which I thought that I would be able to edit when it was posted on this site — not so — on thinking about it this bar on individual editing is the correct approach.

    However, it did establish that the site (possibly) allows complete HTML entires to be made in a reply (something that was limited to certain HTML features on MyT).

    If you already have a WP site of your own, creating and posting HTML is (relatively) easy. If there is interest in this I can compose a post on how I do it.

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  6. Hi Peter,
    At the moment, all the group are ‘Authors’ except Bleda and Araminta who are ‘Editors’ and I’m an Administrator.

    https://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/

    The link above gives the details of what is enabled by the different roles. As an Author you should be able to edit and publish your own posts, but I’m not sure about altering them afterwards.
    I think that for the future stories will be held on the writer’s individual website with a link posted either within a short blog post, or in the Comments section on the competition webpage. This then gives the writers control over their own content.

    A post on the mysteries of HTML would be great, many thanks for the offer!

    Giselle

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  7. I think that I am a registered ‘Author’ on this site — certainly my name and avatar is listed — but how do I create a dedicated page here as most others have done (as indicated by a direct link)?

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    1. Having read your previous comment on authors Giselle I’m Ok with how things are. I will do an article on WordPress HTML post a link to it and leave the administrators to decide where it should reside.

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    1. I have been thinking on this Giselle and will get around to doing something soon.

      In the meantime is it possible to choose how the comments are viewed e.g. latest first?

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  10. ** On reflection, that could make for a topic in a future month … “Write 500 to 750 words in the form of a letter of explanation as to why it was not possible to submit an entry for the current month”.

    I only recently picked up on the above — it’s actually a good idea! The changes I would like to see made are it being a letter set at the author’s choice of time and correspondents and referring to the author’s own entry preference — but must include an explanation as to why it was not possible to submit an entry for the current month.

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    1. I have been looking at Amazon regarding the monthly presentation of an ebook and certainly looks the most feasible and one that retains the formatting.
    2. The problem is that requires a bank account to be set up.
    3. I do not see this being a problem, especially if members of the group actually bought the ebook.
    4. It does raise the issue of control over the funds (assuming that any are accrued)
    5. I would report on this option if it was considered feasible.

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      1. Hi Peter. This site is “open” – any blogs or comments can be read by anyone, like MyT was. I don’t know if this would make a difference to this discussion – that’s up to you.

        Do you have a link to where I can find more information about e-publishing on Amazon please?

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    3. Here’s some food for thought:

      1) Rights – can we assume the writer is willing to have any piece collected? The default position is no. Copyright stays with the writer. Q: do writers want their product available on a platform they have no control over?
      2) Edit / proofread – most stuff needs this done by an independent – do this diy? the group has no funds to pay for this. I know we’re expected to make our product word perfect but but as an example, my competition entries are at best, at 2nd draft. Anyway the urge to tinker is in our genes.
      3) Mechanics – is there an automatic process to turn collected stories into kindle product? I’d like to think so but the only solutions I’ve come across are time intensive.

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      1. My original suggestion Terence was simply about a monthly collection of the entries into an ebook.
        Regarding your comments:
        1 Rights — What rights regarding collection? This can easily be done in PDF format and is already done when the entry is submitted to the competition and published as a collection on the TCWG website. However the issue of copyright remains and we have yet to address what control authors want over a monthly ebook.
        2 Edit/proofread — There was not intention that this should be done in a monthly ebook. The intention was simply to encourage entries and publish them as presented.
        3 Mechanics — Amazon provide a simple and what looks like a simple way to produce an ebook, which is what my comment above is about.

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      2. In my experience one author wavered between withholding and giving consent – eventually, after a protracted exchange, consent was withdrawn (this caused a lot of problems for the project. This hazard is more likely if we hoover up every piece submitted. Dealing with this would requires an ongoing mixture of awareness, and vigilance (in case an author withdraws).
        Your proposal effectively turns us into a micropress and the thoughts of some will turn toward editing / proofreading. The first collection was an opportunity to set the tone; I had neither the ability nor the funds to correct this deficiency. We were at different levels and my view at the time was it should have been edited. I published ‘as is’ which successive volumes have followed. ‘As Is’ publishing does make things easy though.
        I haven’t come across an easy to use package to prepare works for the Amazon Kindle. My books take a week plus to format. If an author’s piece plays around with fonts, the Kindle – which can only handle one typeface – just converts to plain text. That means the publisher has to come up with inventive ways to get round the formatting limitations of the Kindle. In The Tau Device http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01CC3X9L4 I applied right aligned formatting and additional hyphenation for this purpose; in Under Winter’s Bough https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01NH5RFDC I varied font size and spacing to make one poem work – I also added a historical note at the end because that was the right thing to do. I suppose things would be quicker if I didn’t bother formatting.

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    4. My question was intended to be simple Archie — Would a monthly collection in ebook format encourage more contributions?[A pdf collection would be simpler to do.]

      At he moment the response is very non committal but perhaps it’s early days yet!

      Then again we could wait and see if there are indications that the TCWG group will survive as it is.

      My view is that at the moment is that it is drifting towards ‘I know not what’!

      How much publication by The Telegraph — with its large international audience — was an influence on contributions I have no idea. [It certainly influenced my thoughts on ’social media’.]

      The problems you raise will certainly need to be addressed but at the moment I’m only looking for an opinion YES/NO in answer to my question and have suggested that the problems raised in doing side be addressed in a forum somewhere

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