Thread:Berserkchart486/@comment-2089817-20151117215118/@comment-26116199-20151118045832

Please pardon my intrusion, but I feel like I need to add my own two cents to this. Everyone here starts off as a new author, and a majority of these new authors inevitably create articles of questionable, or genuinely shitty quality. Just like Dal stated in a previous thread:

"It's a different style of doing things sei. Your method is great for a small close-knit site, but actively discourages newer people from joining. It keeps article quality higher, but we decided we'd rather allow people to come and go freely, new and old."

Sure, that means that there will inevitably be terrible articles, stereotypical ideas, godmodding and pure bullshit; but the key point here is freedom. A successful community should be open to additions, to new people; to their ideas. That's what the other users of NF have opted to go for, an open community. The thing is, what we're currently trying to do is expose these newcomers to our ideas (not force them, mind you), and give them genuine pointers on how to legitimately improve upon their articles. Ash and Serk have been actively doing so, for example. It's all about giving people that chance to improve, contrary to going all: "You make shit like this, you pack your ass and ship tf out."

Forcing people to accept our ideas, shoving everything down people's throats would neverthelessly improve upon article quality immediately, but it'd also chase people away. Not everybody can immediately pop in and submit a glorious 150k byte, flowery, grammatically astute, logically indisputable, emerald of a character as their OC on the first go. You're gonna see many Absolute Releases, RinneKanne whatevs and Time-Travelling Sakuras—but these users can improve. We have to at least GIVE them the chance to improve. A dictatorial regime would cater to the experienced users, yes, we'd see the emeralds surface then, but we wouldn't give newer people the chance to improve; we wouldn't have that freedom.

We're not whoring out, we're letting people in. We wanna see their ideas, we wanna be THAT medium where they can contribute their ideas, express their imagination. When they're doing something wrong, we advice them. We share our experiences with them. We want them to become good writers, just at their pace. At the end of the day, they should always be given the choice to choose to follow or advice, or keep it in mind; to agree with our views, or disagree, but exposure to different viewpoints effectively improves one's views better than having them shoved down the throat. It's a slow process, but it's worth it.

Sure, many of them come in with the goal of making the Master of the Universe, but that goal fades away as the weeks and months pass, once they see what the others are working on. A great number of the users here who joined earlier this year have now grown into great authors, all those cases spanning the past six months...but they weren't all that great at the start either. I sucked balls when I first started, but thanks to advice from the likes of Serk, Con, N and others, I was able to gradually improve. Emphasis on gradual. If this had been a forceful dictatorship, I'd probably have packed my bags and given up on this stuff, as would many other users. But thanks to the freedom I was given, I got to improve myself, I got the chance to make myself better...and I and many other users can also vouch for the fact that things being the way they are right now, helped us greatly.

Once we step in and put a leash on people's necks, we effectively eliminate most of them, stifle their interest, cut off any potential great ideas that the Kannegans, Absolute Releases whatnot were hiding...we'd never be giving them a chance to improve. And that in my eyes, is a sin. Sure, some tough as nails individuals would remain, and come out of the fire stronger than the devil's ass...but why would that be necessary? Why not just give everybody the chance to evolve at their own pace?

Just my own thoughts on the matter, I mean no insults to anyone. I'm all for giving these new people the chances and freedom I was given. Thanks.