Found in Space was an excellent piece of work dude. It vastly outstrips any of the work you've put down here and I think that this is the place it should've been posted.

I have a hard time critiquing your work like this. I have a lot to say about each of the stories you've posted here, (very little of it good I'm afraid), but any time I make a start at a post expressing what I think of your fiction, I end up deleting it because I feel like an asshole that's shooting down your work. I think that if you want my opinions and suggestions re: Woodworcks' contents, we're going to have to talk about it in person :P

I'm not sure what you mean about the current Woodworcks format being limiting.

(warning: lots of words coming)

The format is limiting because the way I've envisioned it is. This may not be apparent to readers, but the idea is to post a story once a week (or whatever other interval I'll be going with) with little to no distractions. So if you open up woodworcks, what you get is stories and not much else. Additionally, the 'idea' was that every story update should have some meat to it. Not just quick and dirty, but proper reading material (at least in length, not necessarily quality-wise).

But if I start introducing microfiction to the mix, you get an unbalanced situation where my original idea just doesn't work. And if I start adding microfiction, I would like a way of stringing those together more effectively.

Also, Oblogata needs to go away. It's served its purpose (albeit badly) and it needs to be integrated into woodworcks, though also kept seperate. The same goes for comics. It's nice to have a scruffbutt site, but since that project is pretty much done, I'm fairly unable to use that site for other comics (I'd feel weird about it, since if they're not scruffbutt, they shouldn't be on the scruffbutt site).

The idea I'm facing is that I want to consolidate, but also keep the separation between all of my creative outings very clear.

So, consolidate and separate. All at the same time.

And while I can easily get my head around how that would work, for some reason it's proving really difficult to actually make it work in the form of a website. Websites are beautiful things, but they have certain limits (as does the platform woodworcks runs on, but thankfully it's my own so adapting it is easy as pie).

Let's just say that I'm running into obstacles I hadn't thought I'd ever run into.

Rundown.

1) I want woodworcks to house not just my 'proper' stories (once again, not talking about perceived quality) but also my other 'creative' works.'
2) I want woodworcks to offer a single front end for all these differing things, but make sure that they all feel like distinct features.
3) I want woodworcks to offer all these features, but want to prevent things from being lost in the fray, which is a common complaint I have about many full-featured websites.

And to do that, amazingly enough, just making a spiffy web design isn't going to cut it. Neither will having a robust, adaptable back end.

I'm going to have to give the UI a lot of thought. And for most of my websites, the interface is so simple that there's not much I can do wrong, it'll be intuitive enough for most people.

On the subject of critique: I need to reiterate, not just to you but in general, that one of the major reasons I started woodworcks is because I need critique. I need to know what I'm doing wrong to improve. I'll gladly accept that my writing isn't up to par in many (if not all) instances, though I personally feel that the ideas in many of my stories are generally sound. But, naturally, that's because I wrote them. So who am I to judge?

If you feel uncomfortable 'shooting down' my work on woodworcks, maybe shooting off an email would be best. Talking about it in person, you get a two-way conversation, and while in many instances that's a good thing, I would much rather get your unsalted comments, because even if they're fairly harsh, that's where I suspect I'll find the truth about how you feel about this stuff.

Also, given my nature, I know I can get riled up fairly easily. Being able to read your comments in my own time, have the time to mull it over and not have the chance to respond immediately is a good thing. It'll allow me to not respond to perceived insults and figure out what's beneath it.

I believe I've gotten a lot better at handling criticism and now I'm actively looking for it. Why would I put my stuff up here, to be shot down at leisure, if I wasn't expecting just that?

For pete's sake, I've been hoping for some comments that truly help me understand my own writing, and I've had many of them already! They've helped me shape the stories I've been working on since, and I feel I've improved because of them. Not knowing WHY you hate some of my stuff is the frustrating part. I'd much rather understand why. Because, don't forget - you have every right to hate this stuff, and I can even see why someone would. But I can't fix the reasons why unless I know exactly what they are.

You're not going to hurt my feelings. I've toughened up ;)

And this goes for everyone! If you feel your comments are too harsh and might not be appreciated on woodworcks' comment section itself, you can always just email me and I'll just read it there!

And a big thank you to all of you who've read anything on woodworcks and have commented, it's much appreciated! Thanks to all of you, I'll try to take the lessons I learn here along and get better, if only to make sure your pain wasn't for naught ;)

haha, then i'll try my best to put my comments down in an email ;) it's really impressive that you're
a) writing at this volume and
b) brave enough to put it online

and i don't want to shoot that down, cuz it's commendable. at the same time, i've got my opinions on the work you have shared, and you have asked for honest feedback. well, at the very least anything i've got to say will be more informative than "dude, this shit is balls." :) and my intentions're not cruel.

i see what you mean now about Woodworcks and what you want to achieve with it. the current format's indeed not gonna cut that mustard.

I know your intentions aren't cruel, hence the regular reminder that I really do want feedback - good and bad. If everyone would simply go "Awesome!" and "Good job!" I may as well allow the spambots back in, so they can tell me what a great site it is and would I like a bigger penis?

I see the current form of woodworcks as a nice little testing ground, a plaything to be improved upon after gaining some insight into what works and what doesn't. The 'prototype' has already been a positive influence, mostly thanks to the negative feedback, and it's time to start thinking about how to turn this plaything into something real.

Believe me, honesty is far more appreciated than decorum.