User blog:Hazelcats/Reading Week: A New Approach

Hi, guys!

So, I know that the last few times we've had Reading Week, it hasn't quite worked out. But I've been thinking about it, and I came to the conclusion that at least part of the reason Reading Week is unsuccessful is because the readers of this wiki don't know where to start.

I mean, let's face the cold, hard truth: the only reason that [most] users of this wiki read other users' stories is because either A) they are asked to, or B) it has to do with one of their own stories/characters. How often do we actually look through wiki activity, a user category, or press the randomizer button and think, "Oh, this story looks interesting! I think I'll give it a go and see what it's like." Of course, it is harder to tell what stories are interesting and which are not, because our wiki activity doesn't display a description like fanfiction.net, or there isn't any description of the story at all, even on the page.

So today I came up with the idea that, what if we had Reading Week every week? I know that might sound like a hassle, sounds like it would be extremely unsuccessful, but it would be different than the Reading Weeks we've had in the past! What would happen is the users of this wiki submit whatever stories they want, and once there weret enough stories, a blog would created every week (or every other week, if we had to) displaying 3-5 stories (probably just three, but it does depend on the length/amount of stories that are submitted) and their descriptions that were chosen randomly from the list. Then, during that week/those two weeks, users of the wiki would be encouraged to read and review those stories. Then, when the next blog is created, the set of stories would change and the cycle goes on.

I think this would be a very good solution to our Reading Week problems and our problems with stories never being read on this wiki. But here's the thing: If this were to happen, users of this wiki actually need to participate. Users are always complaining about how nobody reads their stories, or how only some users' stories are read, or whatever their excuse or complaint is. But really, stories typically get no reads to maybe, what, four at the most? And even then, stories that have more reads and reviews have typically either been around for a while, or are constantly advertised on chat and reviews are directly requested  by the author. So for this to happen, the users that submit stories and expect their own stories to be read, also need to put in their end up the bargain and read other people's stories as well, or it can easily be seen as hypocritcal, lazy, and can ward off other users from reading their stories.

This would actually be quite simple, all that would be needed is the stories that you want submitted and a description of them if there is not already one on the page. Also, as an incentive, we could set up some kind of point system for reviews and reads, so that the winner at the end of some amount of time (probably not every week, maybe once a month) gets some sort of special prize like having a story of their choice featured, or is a featured user. (It wouldn't replace User of the Month and Article of the Month-it would fall under some sort of seperate category.)

Please leave opinions and ideas in the comments!

-Hazel