I’m a doofus. : )

The overlay/markup idea was interesting; I’m definitely looking for that kind of original author interaction, letting them guide the story through annotation separate from comments, but I’ve got a bit of a different take on it that may not go the overlay route. And having some kind of embedded thesaurus lookup would be great provided I can find a decent 3rd party API to use…

I think the main point I was making in my original response was how we go about defining social networks. We can arbitrarily say that anything with community-oriented features is a social network, though I’m not sure that’s accurate. And I’m sure that’s not what you were implying, but I do think a lot of people (especially those who are trying to ride the hype, like VCs and marketing types) are lumping all sorts of things together these days, and they need to understand the notion a little better before jumping in with both feet.

The distinction I’m trying to make here is that Protagonize is a collaborative writing site with some social features, and not a social network for writing. It may sound like just semantics, but it goes to the core of the site’s functionality and purpose, so I think it does need to be differentiated.

Anyhow, I don’t want to sound like I’m splitting hairs, so I’ll leave it at that. :)

I wrote fiction exclusively from somewhere after six years old (early works were a little lightweight), until September 11th, 2001. Thereafter, I lost fiction and went into nonfiction. I’ve become much more of a writer since that event than before, when I used to write stuff in the vein of A.M. Holmes, Victor D. LaValle, and stuff not unlike the McSweeney’s guys (only not as good).

I just didn’t want you to think my ideas come from nowhere about what I’d want from a social network on writing, but at the same time ,I wanted you to realize that I was taking on “social network for _____” sites of all flavors, not really you.

Much love.

I agree that conversation is inherently a good thing and debate tends to generate some excellent ideas. Some of the suggestions you had for the site were things I hadn’t thought of and that I’ll be adding to my roadmap.

You’re a classy guy and I appreciate you taking the time to come here and discuss the issue. You could have easily just brushed my comments off, so thank you.

Keep on doing what you’re doing, Nick. You’ve got a plan. Work the plan, and make it work.

Guy Kawasaki loves to talk about how even VCs can be bozos. So can social media dudes who look over your site, but aren’t a deep part of your community. Definitely another way to see it all.

“I want more. I want lots more. No, don’t come comment on my post and tell me that it’s coming. It’s not your fault, but here’s the thing.”

I’m not sure how you wouldn’t expect me (or anyone) to respond to something like that. But I definitely felt like I had to respond. :)

Even if the piece wasn’t intended to come across harshly, I think it did. And many of the suggestions you make, such as:

- “For a site about stories and writing, I want MUCH more specialized tools”

- “I want mark-ups and overlay editing features so that others can come in and give you edits and annotation to your stories.”

- “Don’t stop at the basics. Don’t just give me another place to make a profile and add friends. It has to give me much more than that before I care. And I think I’m speaking for the user base in general at this point.”

I think my remarks were justified and your post merited a response — it’s fine to want more features, but you have to look at that in the greater context.

I’m just trying to prevent people from drawing invalid comparisons, more than anything.

Your site is the way you designed it to be. Enjoy it. : )