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Web Nuggets: The Great and Secret Thing - a community creative arts project

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  1.  (8651.1)
    Oh boy, here goes.

    About two years ago, Warren posted this:

    quote:
    quick idea notation

    ROTOR
    (placeholder name, no domain available)

    one site, five writers, five weekdays (five RSS feeds). every day each writer posts something new – either a piece of a serial, or a short fiction, or an article. Under 500 words, ideally (probably 100-200 words is the ideal), but whatever. Each writer is therefore, yes, generating content for free – but each writer’s sequence goes POD-book when it’s generated enough words, the spine and back of the book also bearing the ROTOR mark. And then start again. Or bail out and free up a slot for another writer, whatever.

    (tumblr version of same: one writer, one illustrator, one photographer, one musician, one video/filmmaker = five slots = one POD DVD every six months or whenever)

    #thinkingoutloud (nothing I’ll ever have the time to do, so I throw it out into the wild)


    Which got me thinking about doing a website like that, but a little modified.

    Instead of 5 writers, I'd get 5 different creative types, and give them one day a week - Monday through Friday - to produce creative content on a site. Network television was the model I was copping. You know, process shows on Tuesday, magazine shows on Wednesday, half hour comedies on Thursdays.

    I called it The Great and Secret Thing. The idea being that everyone had their own talents, that were both great and secret, and this is where they would be shown off.

    The site went up May of last year: http://www.thegreatandsecretthing.com/

    The initial line up was me doing serialized fiction on Monday, a photographer on Tuesday, another fiction writer on Wednesday, an illustrator on Thursday and a poet on Friday.

    We were planning on breaking up the monotony by having weekend guests, and that worked...for about a month and a half. Then we realized that we'd chewed through everyone one we knew. So it ended up just being us over and over again.

    But that just wasn't tenable. Not for an audience, and not for us.

    So, about two weeks ago, we threw the barn doors open, redid the site and opened it to everyone.

    Here's what it looks like now:

    The Great and Secret Thing

    Where before it was supposed be a pseudo-gnostic tome filled with secret works, this new TGST is more of a worn and world travelled letter. This is about everyone adding something, showing off their great and secret talents.

    The site has been a big success since the relaunch, and I'm actually kind of proud of it. (Thus the nervousness at the top of the post.)

    I don't have ads on the site, I don't ask for donations, I'm not doing this to build another DeviantArt. I'm doing it because I think there are a lot of creative people out there who won't ever show the world what they can do because they're afraid of getting turned away. TGST won't do that. If you've got the guts to post something, we'll damn well make sure that you've got a place to post it and people see it.

    So, why am I telling all of you all of this? Because people are attracted to other people. The more content and the more contributors TGST has, the more likely people will be to finish that half finished painting and show it off, or finally get around to putting the final touches on their manuscripts so we can read them. And, let's be honest, Whitechapel is overflowing with creatives, and I'd love for you to share what you can do.

    Anyway, specifics.

    The site is here:
    http://www.thegreatandsecretthing.com/

    The registration link is there at the top, under Want To Be A Contributor? or you can just go here: http://www.thegreatandsecretthing.com/?page_id=8

    We're having to be kind of make-shift, since WordPress won't let users upload photos as part of a registration process, so don't forget the section asking for a profile image link.

    I've got to flag all registrations as human, but I'll let you know once I do that and you can start posting.

    All posts have to be approved before they are published, but we won't block anything unless it's patently offensive or porn. Erotica (meaning the writing and story have to be good) and artistic nudes are completely fine.

    Just to give you an idea, our current main group consists of me on serialized fiction and short fiction, our Tuesday photographer, a Wednesday musician, a Thursday webcomic, a Friday poet (this one's a girl), as well as comedian, a knitter and another serialized adventure story.

    I think that's about it. That's The Great and Secret Thing in a nutshell.

    If you like the idea, join us. It's fun, I promise. If you're just curious, check us out. You can vote for the content you like the best.

    And, yes, I know MAGICTOWN is pretty bad. I've grown a lot since I started, and I'm getting better with each chapter. It'll eventually get smoothed out, promise.

    Thanks for your time.
    •  
      CommentAuthortexture
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2010
     (8651.2)
    Your site looks brilliant, and I applaud your ideas. Will comment more once I have had a proper read, and will definitely sign up and contribute. Congratulations on the launch!
    • CommentAuthorSpike3185
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2010
     (8651.3)
    Sounds awesome. Haven't looked just yet (I'll probably peruse for a long time and forget to post back here) but I'm almost definitely down.
    • CommentAuthorSpike3185
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2010
     (8651.4)
    All signed up! The Golem Wastes is fucking cool so far.
    • CommentAuthorArgos
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2010
     (8651.5)
    This is amazing! I'm really liking that sites like this are starting to pop up, such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt's hitRECord.org, where you can download someone's work, remix it, and upload your version. It's inspiring me to start DOING more, getting more creative, and well, actually put stuff out there (because yes, I am afraid of getting turned away). Unfortunately my internet is so slow out here that I won't be able to do anything until I get back home in september, but I'm really looking forward to this!
  6.  (8651.6)
    I want to play!
  7.  (8651.7)
    Signed up. hee hee!
  8.  (8651.8)
    Thank you all so much for the kind words. They really do mean a lot.

    And I put up content from at least two of you this morning.

    I try to get stuff up as soon as I realize it's there, but there might be as much as a 24 hour delay between you posting and me getting back in front of a computer.

    Is there anything about the site that you would like to work better? Or is there anything that it is completely missing? I'm not a php developer, so I can't promise the moon, but I'll try to make it work better if I can.
  9.  (8651.9)
    Very cool looking site. I like the style and love the name. I've had a webcomic going since last January (Aquarium Drinking) and am interested in staring up another project. I think that it might be cool to do a serialized prose thing on your site or something like that. I'm all signed up and will look into the idea folder for something to polish up. I might be a couple months before I post anything so that I can finish work on chapter 2 of my current project and get chapter 3 to a place that allows me to relax a little.
    • CommentAuthorJECole
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2010
     (8651.10)
    What a brilliant idea. I'm game.

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