Heading needed?

[Mike Murphy]

When I was uploading information about new publication and competition opportunities I was not sure where to put them so lumped them under getting published. I know there is a resources page with a heading for competitions, but that is a static thing and an entry there does not necessarily alert members to a deadline for entries coming up.

[Peter McLennan]

Unfortunately, you're right. One of the reasons that I originally set up the resources page is because forum pages aren't static enough: useful info just got lost in the noise. But the absense of notifications whenever a resource is added there means they have no visibility at all. I'm kinda glad you mentioned this because it justifies my allocating some priority to adding that capability (although I gather that a chat facility remains a higher priority).

In the meantime, I can undeprecate (ie, unlock) the 'competitions' section here. 'Getting published' sounds like a logical place for publishing opportunities (eg, submission windows), but if you think another section under resources makes more sense, I'll create one. Let me know what you think.

Oh, and I've been meaning to say: I've noticed your activity in this area, Mike. It's good! Thanks!

[Mike Murphy]

How about we put notices about new resources/competitions etc in the Getting Published section with a note that details of this are available in the Resources section? It would require two entries but might be more practical. The first post would disappear over time but the second would remain findable for anyone looking for such information. Someone (and I am willing to do it) would have to keep an eye open for such items as people post them and make sure they were treated accordingly.
As an example - the Getting Published post could say "Entries for the Blah Blah Prize for short stories close on June 20th - details in our Resources section" - and the "Resources" post would include the rest of the information. I wouldn't expect members to do this themselves. It would require whoever is monitoring it to edit the original post and set up the info in the Resources section. The reality seems to be that not many people except you and I and a couple of others make such posts anyway.

[Peter McLennan]

That's a very fine offer, Mike; thanks. Double data entry is a sign of a badly-designed system, so I'll try to fix it as soon as I've got a new chat thingy going.

In the interim, I've:

• unlocked the 'competitions' section
• created a 'submission opportunities' section
• created an 'events' section
• hidden the 'competitions and other events' link to the resource database page.

Please let me know of any problems or suggested changes.

I still feel that the resource database provides a better way to structure such information, so my dream is for an entry there to automatically result in a forum post (in sections to be negotiated). This would make the info more findable, avoid double data entry, and notify members that something had been added/edited.

FWIW, since inception, the resources database page has received about 6,000 views and has resulted in quite a few redirections to the forum proper.

[Peter McLennan]

Just a quick update: I've worked out how to get the resource pages to automatically submit posts to the forum whenever anything is added or changed, so there's light at the end of the cliche. It might take me another week or so to complete the integration.