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Several months ago, I was working on something work-related but extra-curricular, a guide for my sector about operating in China. I was reviewing the draft report and feeling quite impressed (if I can so say myself) with the standard of my writing.
And I thought, you know what, a lot of this is down to having made an effort to produce good work, consistently over a few years, on the Special Reserve forums. And let's be honest, a lot of that (at least the effort to write to a high standard) was driven by the Game A Day competition.
I have a feeling Tony Rainbird knew what he was doing when he incentivised everybody put some thought into writing quality posts. I know the game a day thing created a community and loyal customer base (perhaps one of the first social media marketing tools!), but I suspect there was a lot of alturism and some financial losses in there too.
So having seen Tony's still posting here, I want to say thank you for doing it. I think a lot of people who are now in the (relatively) young adult bracket are benefitting from being able to write well because of what you did for them.
It so happens that I'm working on a book at the moment, in my spare time. Only a small proportion of books get published, but I'm writing non-fiction for a gap in the literature on my subject matter that (I think) is crying out to be filled. I'm maybe 80% done at around 62,000 words of a first draft, before the long process of reviewing, improving and editing. But I think there's a great chance of making it to publication. Again my ability to write to sufficiently high standard to do this is probably down to Tony and the Special Reserve GAD.
If anyone deserved a name evocative of a beautiful and rare avian of the rainforest, it is surely he. <3 :^D
As an aside, I'm looking at starting chapters with quotes, and one (not directly related to the book's subject matter but I can make it fit!) is something Goatboy wrote that somehow stuck in my head. It was along the lines of 'Sex in a relationship gets boring after the first few months. You end up bending on in once in a while just to be polite.'
(Yes, the tone of my book isn't very serious.)
Does anyone know if the old forums are searchable? I'd like to try to find the original quote. I have no idea when it was though!
And does anyone know Goatboy, or at least his real name? (I'm sure we can manage to communicate without doxing him publically.) I'd like to ask or at least credit him for the quote.
What's the web site? I'd be interested to see your work.
It did help, thank you!, in that I tried the search functions, but I couldn't find the quote I was looking for. My theory is that the quote was probably in the Life... forum (where I spent most of my time), which doesn't seem to have been archived.
So now I'm thinking I'll quote him as best I remember it, unless I can think of a better quote related to the word 'Bend'.
Dr Duck wrote:
Hi all, this is my bi-annual nostalgia visit to the forums while renewing my domain. Nice (and surprising!) to see some familiar names posting recently. :^)
Several months ago, I was working on something work-related but extra-curricular, a guide for my sector about operating in China. I was reviewing the draft report and feeling quite impressed (if I can so say myself) with the standard of my writing.
And I thought, you know what, a lot of this is down to having made an effort to produce good work, consistently over a few years, on the Special Reserve forums. And let's be honest, a lot of that (at least the effort to write to a high standard) was driven by the Game A Day competition.
I have a feeling Tony Rainbird knew what he was doing when he incentivised everybody put some thought into writing quality posts. I know the game a day thing created a community and loyal customer base (perhaps one of the first social media marketing tools!), but I suspect there was a lot of alturism and some financial losses in there too.
So having seen Tony's still posting here, I want to say thank you for doing it. I think a lot of people who are now in the (relatively) young adult bracket are benefitting from being able to write well because of what you did for them.
It so happens that I'm working on a book at the moment, in my spare time. Only a small proportion of books get published, but I'm writing non-fiction for a gap in the literature on my subject matter that (I think) is crying out to be filled. I'm maybe 80% done at around 62,000 words of a first draft, before the long process of reviewing, improving and editing. But I think there's a great chance of making it to publication. Again my ability to write to sufficiently high standard to do this is probably down to Tony and the Special Reserve GAD.
If anyone deserved a name evocative of a beautiful and rare avian of the rainforest, it is surely he. <3 :^D
As an aside, I'm looking at starting chapters with quotes, and one (not directly related to the book's subject matter but I can make it fit!) is something Goatboy wrote that somehow stuck in my head. It was along the lines of 'Sex in a relationship gets boring after the first few months. You end up bending on in once in a while just to be polite.'
(Yes, the tone of my book isn't very serious.)
Does anyone know if the old forums are searchable? I'd like to try to find the original quote. I have no idea when it was though!
And does anyone know Goatboy, or at least his real name? (I'm sure we can manage to communicate without doxing him publically.) I'd like to ask or at least credit him for the quote.
Special Reserve was at a time when I was doing late shifts, so it was pretty handy when things slowed down to put my efforts into more creative pursuits than crunching numbers. Difficult not to feel nostalgic about those days.
Hmmm... wrote:
Hi Dr Duck - welcome back!
It's scary how time flies.
Yes you can search the old forums.
Either via Freeola's official search https://freeola.com/search/ or the search page I set up many moons ago before Freeola had their own: http://www.hmmm.ip3.co.uk/search - use the 'Search Freeola Chat' option.
Searching for your name or some of the snippets you post above I see returns different results - so try both if you don't find what you are looking for.
Hmmm...
I went in there once, almost never made it out. The nostalgia surrounds you, chokes you...
Dr Duck wrote:
... Does anyone know if the old forums are searchable? I'd like to try to find the original quote. I have no idea when it was though! ...
Hi Dr Duck - welcome back!
It's scary how time flies.
Yes you can search the old forums.
Either via Freeola's official search https://freeola.com/search/ or the search page I set up many moons ago before Freeola had their own: http://www.hmmm.ip3.co.uk/search - use the 'Search Freeola Chat' option.
Searching for your name or some of the snippets you post above I see returns different results - so try both if you don't find what you are looking for.
Hmmm...
Several months ago, I was working on something work-related but extra-curricular, a guide for my sector about operating in China. I was reviewing the draft report and feeling quite impressed (if I can so say myself) with the standard of my writing.
And I thought, you know what, a lot of this is down to having made an effort to produce good work, consistently over a few years, on the Special Reserve forums. And let's be honest, a lot of that (at least the effort to write to a high standard) was driven by the Game A Day competition.
I have a feeling Tony Rainbird knew what he was doing when he incentivised everybody put some thought into writing quality posts. I know the game a day thing created a community and loyal customer base (perhaps one of the first social media marketing tools!), but I suspect there was a lot of alturism and some financial losses in there too.
So having seen Tony's still posting here, I want to say thank you for doing it. I think a lot of people who are now in the (relatively) young adult bracket are benefitting from being able to write well because of what you did for them.
It so happens that I'm working on a book at the moment, in my spare time. Only a small proportion of books get published, but I'm writing non-fiction for a gap in the literature on my subject matter that (I think) is crying out to be filled. I'm maybe 80% done at around 62,000 words of a first draft, before the long process of reviewing, improving and editing. But I think there's a great chance of making it to publication. Again my ability to write to sufficiently high standard to do this is probably down to Tony and the Special Reserve GAD.
If anyone deserved a name evocative of a beautiful and rare avian of the rainforest, it is surely he. <3 :^D
As an aside, I'm looking at starting chapters with quotes, and one (not directly related to the book's subject matter but I can make it fit!) is something Goatboy wrote that somehow stuck in my head. It was along the lines of 'Sex in a relationship gets boring after the first few months. You end up bending on in once in a while just to be polite.'
(Yes, the tone of my book isn't very serious.)
Does anyone know if the old forums are searchable? I'd like to try to find the original quote. I have no idea when it was though!
And does anyone know Goatboy, or at least his real name? (I'm sure we can manage to communicate without doxing him publically.) I'd like to ask or at least credit him for the quote.