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As far as I know, we have done the most we can to try in get in touch with the people in charge of kingdom pen. This isn’t a hasty decision. The more active users have been discussing this for several months in different topics, and trying to tag and email the moderators. We still haven’t gotten a response. I personally am not one of the people who tried to get in touch, but I know others have. Everyone here would rather stay on kp, but after months of dealing with this, plus all the glitches and other frustrations, a new website with active moderators seems to be our best option.
⭐️World's Slowest Writer⭐️
Gotcha. Like I said, I just wanted to make sure that had been done first. If that’s not getting anywhere, then this does make good sense, and I hope the new site does well!
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
I very much prefer staying here. In fact I think we’ll all stay here as long as the website runs. We aren’t going to pack our bags and leave! The idea is to have another website that we might use in the event that KP stops working. It’s a precautionary plan.
I am one of the people who tried to contact the moderators and I would be one of the first to volunteer as a new moderator.
I am out of signature ideas
However many days later………
I watch the video.
Finally.
Life got busy. XD
Okay, first off, I do some web designing, in fact that is what I have been doing for the last 5 hour straight and I’m about top loose my mind. Sooo, not sure how much of that two people can do at once on the same web site without being in the same room, but I can help in any way I can. And I would love to help designing the feel and aesthetic. I would also be more than happy to write all those little descriptions. I think this looks like a really amazing website.
I know if you use Hostinger, it comes with a free Web domain name, but buying the program goes into that. idk if that would be a cheaper option. You pay yearly and not as much as 10 a month at all.
Maybe kind of a side-track, but I would love if you would be willing to take a peek at my website and maybe get a feel for the kind of stuff I do. It’s nothing like KP, but whatever is on there is my current skill level. (plus, I’d love feedback from another designer) https://wildhorsepublishing.net/
I still wish we could find the moderators. If they would put some of us in then we could save this. Poor little KP.
btw, if it’s costing them every month, who’s paying for it? That’s what I’d like to know.
Oh, and yes, I really like the idea of the forums being private.
Also, I did die laughing over the Wyoh thing! XD
we’ve tried. At least I have. And we haven’t gotten any response. I even tried all the old emails I had saved etc.
One question I did have though is are we going to do the same thing as kp and have an age limit for the website? (I think it’s 25 or something?)
I thought it was 30. and I would personally say that I wouldn’t want anyone older than 30 JOINING the group, because that could end up not being super safe, as well as it would def. put a whole different feel on it. But I would be willing to talk about letting Kpers stay as long as they liked.
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who couldn't hear the music
and I would personally say that I wouldn’t want anyone older than 30 JOINING the group, because that could end up not being super safe, as well as it would def. put a whole different feel on it.
Definitely agreed there.
But I would be willing to talk about letting Kpers stay as long as they liked.
Yeah, I would be really sad if I got kicked off at 25. 30 maybe not, idk. I think it would be nicer, though, if people just naturally left as they move on with their adult lives instead of being kicked off at a certain point. But there is also that safety question so I get if people want to keep the limit.
⭐️World's Slowest Writer⭐️
I feel like it’s different if you grew up on KP rather than joining as an adult. I think gradually leaving is nicer too, but then again, has anyone actually held on long enough to be kicked off at 30?
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who couldn't hear the music
@ellette-giselle @loopylin @esther-c (@whalekeeper, tagging you as well because I have a feeling you want to stay in the loop.)
Thank you to all three of you for volunteering. Seems like we have different strengths among us, which is a good thing and will help us cover different areas of the site.
I don’t think I am going to proceed with making the website quite yet, I would like to see a couple of other people volunteer to moderate as a backup (I may reach out to writers at my church as well), as well as for financial support. But if you guys want to start making moodboards for the website, you can go ahead with that. The feeling I was thinking was that of sitting in an armchair, reading a book by the fireplace, so you could make that. Or you could make some other concepts and surprise me! Feel free to make several. And work together on this. I don’t want this turning into a contest. See if you can present this in a way not just to inspire me, but also to inspire others to help out with the site!
I will also task you with naming the website. See if you can get the look and name to fit together. Make sure to use a domain name checker to see if the website name is already taken. (Also check variants, like .ca, .com, .org, ect)
One question I did have though is are we going to do the same thing as kp and have an age limit for the website? (I think it’s 25 or something?)
I’ve left rules, guidelines, statement of faith, and other things like it very much flexible at this point because I didn’t think it would be right to decide these by myself. Once I know who all the moderators will be, I will discuss this with them. Age limit is definitely something we will discuss at that point. Thank you for bringing it up, Loopy.
Okay, first off, I do some web designing, in fact that is what I have been doing for the last 5 hour straight and I’m about top loose my mind. Sooo, not sure how much of that two people can do at once on the same web site without being in the same room, but I can help in any way I can. And I would love to help designing the feel and aesthetic. I would also be more than happy to write all those little descriptions. I think this looks like a really amazing website. – Ellette
That’s good to know. Depending on your skill set, I may also throw you some other tasks as well.
Also, it might be a good idea for the planning team to go somewhere more private. Just because when this sort of stuff is open to too many people, things can get a little crazy, as everyone has their own idea of what something should be. People who volunteer could communicate by email or something. What would your thoughts be on this? (If you are against this, that’s okay, but we will probably have to do this eventually) Once I get enough volunteers, I will be closing this off for anyone to help, to avoid this chaos, regardless.
Again, thank you for volunteering! I’m excited to see what you com up with.
Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to see the stars.
I took a look at the website. Overall it looks good. Maybe, if I have enough time, I may give you more feedback, but there are a few things I noticed.
Areas to improve:
- The logo needs to be refined. It’s a fine picture, but as a logo it looks messy, and the small black text is hard to read on the grey clouds. A good way to test this is to squint at it. If you can’t see the text while squinting, the colour and/or size needs to change. I recommend something more simplistic, like the silhouette of a horse, and remove anything unnecessary. (Take a look at the logos of other publishing companiy logos and ask yourself what you like/dislike about them)
- When I scrolled to the bottom of the page, I expected the words ‘Books‘ and ‘Shop‘ to be clickable, especially when I was on my phone. The text underneath these words very much suggests that I should just be able to click on them. It would be helpful to convert those into actual links for a better user experience.
- You are hard to find. I don’t know how much you know about Search Engine Optimization, but when I Google ‘Wildhorse Publishing’, your website is not popping up. In fact, I get your Kingdom Pen posts talking about the website before I see the website itself. It dosn’t help that there happens to be another publishing company with a very similar name, Wildhouse Publishing, and that is the top result when I search your company. (SEO is complicated, and I’m not sure how to explain how it works to you, but it would be worth looking into)
- You don’t ship to Canada. How am I supposed to support you if I can’t get your books? ?
Areas that are working:
- Overall, the site looks neat and clean. I’m not feeling overwhelmed by information in any of the pages.
- It is easy to navigate and find what I want.
- I really like how the cart is something that just slides open on the right, making it easy to check without losing my place or having to open a new tab.
- The forms are simple and easy to use, making for a great shopping experience.
Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to see the stars.
Thank you for your concern. As others have already told you, we have looked into it already. But I am still glad you brought it up. If you have any other questions/concerns, please let me know.
Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to see the stars.
I’d love to help you with this project, but I don’t really have any strengths that someone already on the team doesn’t. I could be a moderator but I’d most likely be either too lenient or too strict; web designing is not my strong point, as I know virtually nothing of coding and the like; and on top of it all, my time on screens is somewhat limited each day and I intend to at least partially keep the schedule as I get older, so I wouldn’t be able to be monitoring the project as much as I should.
I do have a beginner understanding of graphic design and that kind of thing if you need that, but if not it’s okay, and I can simply be a beta tester or something.
"When in doubt, eat cheese crackers."-me to my charries who don't even know about cheese crackers
@linus-smallprint @everyone
Definitely interested in updates.
There’s still one thing nagging me about this, since R.M. Archer commented. (And I’m thankful to her for prompting this thought.) How do we want to treat this website in relationship to the original KP community? I think we need to be cautious about this because communities have branched off before, and there’s a possibility of misunderstanding and bitterness around the idea of “leaving.”
I want to make it entirely clear – I am not leaving KP. The way I’m thinking about it, this new website falls under the category of KP activity – an extra thing for our members – and stays that way unless something goes wrong on the original website. Does that make sense? If this becomes too much of its own thing before KP hypothetically stops working, it might inadvertently trigger a separate community with a more independent relationship to the original, similar to Story Embers.
Is that what we want? It worked for Story Embers, don’t get me wrong, but is that our goal here?
Now I still think this is amazing work on your part. It’s cool to see how much you – and the rest of us – are capable of. I’m just trying to look into the future and shoot down any issues that might crop up.
So I want to know – what does everyone think of this? Are you guys thinking about this project from the same perspective as me? I want to avoid misunderstanding.
I am out of signature ideas
I’m open to communicating by email. I think everyone who volunteered has mine already…..
When I scrolled to the bottom of the page, I expected the words ‘Books‘ and ‘Shop‘ to be clickable, especially when I was on my phone. The text underneath these words very much suggests that I should just be able to click on them. It would be helpful to convert those into actual links for a better user experience.
Odd. They are supposed to be……. though there have been a few glitches recently.
You are hard to find. I don’t know how much you know about Search Engine Optimization, but when I Google ‘Wildhorse Publishing’, your website is not popping up. In fact, I get your Kingdom Pen posts talking about the website before I see the website itself. It dosn’t help that there happens to be another publishing company with a very similar name, Wildhouse Publishing, and that is the top result when I search your company. (SEO is complicated, and I’m not sure how to explain how it works to you, but it would be worth looking into)
*sigh* I’ve done everything I can to make that work. I have a SEO spreadsheet of things to do open and have done everything save the social media tagging, and so far it’s not gone anywhere. Not sure what I can do to make it work better.
You don’t ship to Canada. How am I supposed to support you if I can’t get your books? ?
There should be a note saying to contact us for shipping outside of the US. We have shipped to the UK before. It’s just different as I have yet to figure out all the in and outs of price for shipping so far away. So yeah, if you are interested in anything, go ahead and contact us, but at the moment we don’t have set shipping for those places and can’t afford to do it for free.
Overall, the site looks neat and clean. I’m not feeling overwhelmed by information in any of the pages.
It is easy to navigate and find what I want.
I really like how the cart is something that just slides open on the right, making it easy to check without losing my place or having to open a new tab.
The forms are simple and easy to use, making for a great shopping experience.YAY!!! Glad all of those things are good, because all those were big ones that I wanted to be laid out well.
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who couldn't hear the music
I think I’m on the same page as you on that topic, though I’m most likely to just follow where everyone else goes. If everyone were to migrate to the new website while kp was working still, I’d go to the new website too. But I doubt that will happen. Do we even have enough active people for there to even be a risk of people splitting off? It doesn’t feel like there’s very many of us.
One problem I’d have with staying here once the new website is up is that we wouldn’t be interacting with all the new people who have been waiting so long to join our group. I’d rather just be active on both websites. Flipping between tabs is no big deal.I’m realizing that I don’t actually know what I think about this subject. Maybe I’m not on the same page idk :/
⭐️World's Slowest Writer⭐️
I pretty much agree. I know how to use this place, and I intend to use the blog library here more, since I remembered it existed. XD I don’t intend to leave. I see the new website as another resource, with the possibility of being a retreat should this place succumb to Wyoh or the famous 400 Chinese robots who attacked a few years before I joined… *gazes sentimentally into the distance* *eats a raspberry*
Right. Anyway, I haven’t watched Linus’ video. *Covers face and laughs nervously* I do plan to do that, I just haven’t. But to my knowledge, the new website would be a more secure place to share projects etc. So, this place would be a great touch base for us, and is important because many people I know from my early days return here once in a while. (Trying to catch one and reconnect… Although they’re mostly KaPeefers, so a “generation” ahead of me and probably don’t know me. XD) But I would likely rather share writing on the new site just because the open view forum of KP has bugged me since the beginning. I’m a private person, believe it or not. It’s nice to limit who I share different layers with. Also with security stuff, or if I have to use a different email or something, I would probably end up appreciating the other site a lot.
So yeah, I’m viewing it a little like how I would view YDubs if I can eventually afford a full-time enrollment there. YWW would be for instruction, and KP for a homebase. I love how we are close enough here to connect one-on-one, how we support each other, and pray for each other. How we nag each other but are relaxed enough to make sure everything is going ok. How we can post about the randomest, most un-writing related things, and it builds community. I hope that doesn’t change, whatever site we’re on.
Plus, to be completely honest, I thrill to be a part of one of the first online Christian writing communities. We predate YWW and Story Embers.(Which doesn’t mean we’re better, but I like to see the people running those programs and think, “KP helped them get there.”) We’re not the same as we used to be, but it’s still important. We have a friendly competition with other groups, which makes us happy to support them but also happy to stick by each other even when on other sites. Checking in on our own. I hope to one day meet up at a writing conference with everyone wearing KP merch. XD I suspect most people wouldn’t know what we were, but some would have deja vu, and that would be fun to see. Plus it would be nice to not go alone, but I digress.
God has blessed me through KP. It’s special to me. I don’t intend to leave it unless I must.
You have listened to fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you... Are you brave again? -Aslan
As one of the few active KPers who is not a teenager, I have thought about the age requirement thing too, more and more as each year goes by. Here’s a thought. What if at 25 or 30 the KeePer is offered a position as a mentor? Not a regular student, but a real Eccentric Mentor who acts as a bit of an instructor or a sounding board for others. Not that they couldn’t still ask questions and stuff, but that they’d have some small duties like doing a “Question of the Week” thread once a month or so. Something that could be worked into a schedule, probably tailored to that person’s skills. The thought is that since most people move on anyway before then, someone is invested to that long. (Or they have no life, but hopefully not that, lol) As we get older, we’ll move further in our careers and will have different needs that won’t be filled by a community of teens, but that we’d turn to a select friend group that we probably know off site/in real life. If someone is invested in the community itself, there would be great value in their contribution and experience. Obviously, if they were a safety concern, they’d hopefully be kicked off no matter the age.
You have listened to fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you... Are you brave again? -Aslan
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