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My gratitude to all who walk with me at Writing.com! |
Note:You will find that this article has some invalid author names and some invalid items too. I have deliberately NOT removed these invalid names etc. so as to remind myself and you, dear readers, of the time when this item was created. Trish, Islam and the "Opal Twins" are no more with Writing.com. Prash, who is now a black case, was a yellow case earlier. Katybear Ronnie is now one person, while his brother is another, but at that time, they used a common username. Hence the name applies to both of them. MY HOME ON THE NET:WRITING.COM I became a registered member of writing.com about ten and a half months ago. I was searching for a web-site where I could put up some of my creative work for the netizens of the world to see. Google's top search site was "http://www.stories.com". I am a resident of India, and American people perhaps had no time for an upstart author from an under-developed third world country, or so I thought to myself, as I tentatively registered for a free portfolio service. My registration done, I decided to start reading about how to create an item. This needed going through the "Getting Started: Table of Contents" ![]() ![]() ![]() That day marked a water-shed in my life, as I stopped all other net-based activities, barring web-mail reading, and plunged headlong into www.stories.com. Like a mother goose enveloping its chicks into its fold, and fussing over their well-being, Stories.com enveloped me into a warm, friendly, nursing environment ... a milieu, that to this day, continues to enchant, enervate and educate me. By profession, I am as far from writing as a plumber is from, say, designing jewellery/jewelry. I am a practising Pediatrician, and usually sit on the net only in the afternoons, between my consulting hours, and late at nights, after my wife and children have fallen asleep. However, as fate would have it, I had dabbled into writing prose and poetry since childhood; pressures of time and lack of coherent opportunities had led to my not writing anything new for the past several years! Stories.com, therefore, was a Godsend for me! With its superb layout, dynamic interactive web-pages, excellent services (mostly free) and free web-based e-mail, it was just about PERFECT! And yet, to a beginner, its very vastness and features can become troublesome and difficult to surf, like an uncharted sea! To their credit, however, the webmasters, The StoryMaster ![]() ![]() I cannot clearly remember who it was who first helped me, but I am sure it was one of you readers who offered their hand of friendship to a newcomer, who knew he wasn't a great author, but trying nonetheless! The first kind soul to hit my port was Kenzie ![]() ![]() Then came along Madam shaara, a vivacious, friendly writer, whose port has wonderful gems. At that time, she was a preferred author, and to a newbie, her port was so nice, I kept visiting it almost daily. Over the last ten months, we have continued to interact, and I feel lucky to have known her through Writing.com. Some of my early reviewers perhaps came to my port out of curiosity, and most still do that, but there have been some who have come at my request, and have helped me out in sharpening my stories or poems. My favourite reviewers are Shaara, Ms Kimmie ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Some members helped me hone my craft through their review fora, such as Farhana ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Over the next several months, my port has been viewed over a thousand times, with as many as 500 to 600 people rating my items, and nearly 250 actually writing reviews to me! In the process, I have made over 50 friends, from Senior Moderators down to free members. I have brought in eight referrals too. Since my upgrade in April, I have added more than 50 items to my port, started two groups, run contests and done so much else. I have been helped by still other members. billwilcox, whose writing I have always admired and learned from, took up my request to seriously rate my heretofore unrated items. I still remember his mail' "Here I go colouring your port with those little stars", he wrote, and I was ecstatic to see them in the port! He later also helped me judge my contest on "Epigrams for the Modern Times" ![]() Dreams - Anon, who are you? ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() During the above-mentioned I.A.D., I also met "Islam", who has since taken on the mantle of starting an unofficial newsletter on Islam, and has enrolled me as one of the editors! VR Leavitt ![]() ![]() There are many more, like Laserfox ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() While candle ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The best part was when an anonymous person SPONSORED my epigrams item during the run of its last contest for nearly seven days. Thanks to that wonderful Anonymous person for highlighting my forum and making me a very happy author indeed! I took part in a campfire run by marri90210, viz. "Invalid Item" ![]() ![]() ![]() For me, writing.com, with its myriad avatars and infinite art forms is simply marvellous! While the static items allow you to create something that remains till posterity, the interactive items allow one to, what else, interact! I just love the madlibs, the message forums, the polls, the Ins and Outs and the Campfires. Even more enjoyable are the C-notes, the contests, the Shameless Plug page, the Chat Rooms and the Instant Messaging System! And the icing on the cake are the newsletters: these are at once informative, educative and entertaining! Hats off to The StoryMaster ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I absolutely adore the Gift Points System! It is a pleasure to send them, receive them, sponsor items through them, and so on. They add value to an otherwise purely cerebral web-site by allowing us to smile once in a while. Who among you hasn't enjoyed seeing that mail: "You've received Gift Points"? A final acknowledgement or two, and then I am done: Ms Kimmie ![]() ![]() ![]() Then, just last month someone introduced me to "SLAM!" ![]() ![]() In this endeavour, both Cappucine ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I pray that such camaraderie and friendship will continue to prevail on writing.com in the years to come. Thus far has my journey been so far on this fantastic web-site. Please also check my testimonial that I wrote just a month or two after joining! That's it for now. Since the time I wrote this, I have made many more friends here on Writing.com, won many awards, and have been gifted more than ten merit badges. I am really having fun here! |