Admin Post: January 2018 Newsletter Posted!

[dawn_felagund]

Our January 2018 newsletter has been posted!

We first share some news within the SWG. Our annual New Years letter looks back at 2017 and ahead to our goals for the new year. We are looking for backup biography writers, so check this out if you're interested. We're revisiting some of the cool and almost-forgotten resources of our site this year, beginning with Linguistic Foolery. We've made a minor change to the archive, our 30-Day Character Study has a week left to go, and we welcomed five new members in December!

This month's biography focuses on Elemmírë. Elemmírë is mentioned just once--literally, just once--without even a pronoun attached to the character's name. Oshun looks at how this ungendered character has been reclaimed by fanfiction writers to address the imbalance of male and female characters in the legendarium.

If you're looking for fiction or poetry to read, why not check out one of the more than two dozen stories added or updated during the month of December? And if you're looking for articles or fandom news or challenges or conferences or events, stop by Around the World and Web for a comprehensive collection of links and announcements from within and beyond the Tolkien fan community.

Many thanks to this month's contributors--Oshun, Elleth, and Angelica!

Comments

[zdenka]

I really, really like the "review" to "comment" change. It's only one word and it feels like it shouldn't make a difference, but a "review" feels more official and important somehow, which means it's also more intimidating to leave one. (As well as "comment" just feeling more accurate to the situation.)

[dawn_felagund]

a "review" feels more official and important somehow, which means it's also more intimidating to leave one.

That was really our big motive behind wanting to change it. "Review" used to be the commonplace term, but newer community members less familiar with it might believe it carries more expectations than it actually does ... and we wanted them to feel equally comfortable contributing. (And it is just more accurate! :)

[independence1776]

I appreciate the change as well! I have a vivid memory of a completely critical reviewer on ff.net who used the existence of professional critics and Amazon reviews as their excuse to leave completely negative responses to fics they disliked (not flames, just negativity) and I couldn't get it through their head that fanfic reviews are not the same thing because they're for the author, not fellow readers.

(Though look at me still using the term review! Old habits die hard.)

[dawn_felagund]

I've been actively working on saying "comment" instead of "review" for years now, and I think I still mess up at least 50% of the time! :D

I think I remember that person! (From you, not from my own personal experience since I wasn't posting on FFN at the time.) It's certainly one of the more ... interesting ... reasons I've heard for spewing bile all over someone's hard work. But besides that, "review" is really just not accurate. I'm glad the response to the change has been positive so far. ^_^

[grundyscribbling]

I also like the change to "comment" from "review".

But I have completely fallen down on the 30-Day Character Study challenge. Maybe I can manage to check off a few things for my chosen character, but I'm not holding my breath. *sigh*

[dawn_felagund]

Ohmygoodness. Putting together this newsletter, I had to laugh, like I once and recently thought I might do this challenge! I still haven't even chosen a character. *headdesk*

Good luck, if you get to yours! (I've pretty much given up hope, though I'm filing this one away to come back to once this school year is over.)

[grundyscribbling]

I've managed to knock out a few of the items, and I can probably write something for it, but there's no way I'm getting all 30 done. I had such good intentions...

[kaja_lakoka]

I'm still available as a backup bio writer, though I seem to have missed the vibe somehow. I will try ot get back in the saddle soon, so you can count on me again.

[dawn_felagund]

I'm also going to be sending an email to those of you who write backups regularly for us. It was supposed to go out before the general announcement, but I didn't get to it and then didn't want to wait till February for the newsletter announcement! ^_^

[rhapsody]

pssst, my style doesn't show links in dreamwidth posts, so I went to the site instead. This url: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/newsletter.php redirects to the january 2010 newsletter instead of 2018. Just saying.

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! All fixed. I must have uploaded the newsletter to the public_html directory ... eight years ago! XD Anyway, that's deleted now; the newsletter would be found under news/newsletter.php

[rhapsody]

Sweet! But on the main page, under the header Main Site Sections ( div id="maincontent" ), the redirect for the newsletter is still the old one ;) *continues to munch on dinner*

[dawn_felagund]

Fixed! Thank you :)