Project Relaunch One Month Update: Is It Working?

[skuttrusk]

Thanks for recommending my story! Excellent psychology - it's prompted me to add a new chapter to Amy's Treatment, as I'm sure you intended.

[Claire]

Thanks for recommending my story! Excellent psychology - it's prompted me to add a new chapter to Amy's Treatment, as I'm sure you intended.

You're welcome! But honestly, that is not what I intended, though I'm happy about it. A fortunate side effect.

No, we want to use these shoutouts to give some stories of authors who are active members of the community some more appreciation or at least attention for their creative work. And the fact that it motivated you to write/publish a new chapter proves my larger point: Engagement with our authors' stories is the key factor for making the forum more attractive for old and new authors to publish their stories here.

If you ask me what I wanted to achieve psychologically, then I would hope that you take your own experience of getting this shoutout, getting new ratings and comments for your story, becoming an Accomplished Writer, and draw the conclusion from that that it is essential you do the same for others in the community. Invigorating our community is not a difficult task. We just need a few people like you to get out of their shell to for example take the 10 minutes to read the two stories competing in the final of the tournament and then congratulate the winner afterward - even if the winner is not the guy you voted for. The next time one of your stories makes it to the Popular Stories board, I hope you won't get 3 to 5 people congratulating you on your achievement but 20. I would love for authors like you to achieve something like writing a Community Favorite or winning a contest, then go to bed in the evening only to login the next day with 20+ notifications from people showering you with praise. That would be easily possible and you could be one of those 20 people for the next person who reaches a milestone with one of their stories.

So, the next time you see someone here become an Accomplished Writer or win a contest, make sure you take the 30 seconds to write something supportive. And maybe give some of the stories in the Popular Stories you haven't checked out yet a look. I hear Mornings in Potaissa are nice this time of the year.

But seriously, your help would be much appreciated. If you can, help us make posting stories, participating in contests and becoming an Accomplished Writer feel special. Not to be nice to me, but because your own experience of how this made you publish a new chapter of Amy's Treatment makes you realize how important that is for the community to thrive. That is the psychological effect I would like this to have.