There are some questions I would like to make, and a few points I want to raise, concerning the infamous Writer's Portal (at least it's infamous in my point of view).
What happened to the idea? I've recently seen a lot of stuff (the most recent being 2013) talking about a future Writer's Portal, but apparently that never got to exist. Why?
Sure I get the idea that the portals work in function with demand. There are portals for games, movies, music and art because there is high (or at least considerable) demand for them. And I also get the idea that making a Writer's Portal would be like placing a bet: it would require a lot of work and investment, and it would all be done with the risk that there would not be enough demand for it to sustain itself. I am fully aware of the difficulties of making it happen, and I imagine they are the reason why it just didn't happen.
But I would like to raise a few points about writer on Newgrounds
Writers on Newgrounds are stuck to a secondary role: it's not like there is no work for writers here, there's a lot, there will always be someone trying to make a movie or game and they need someone to create a story. And that's just fine, creators cooperate all the time, but they also get the chance to do what they actually want, freely.
A writer on the other hand needs to work in function of what the other creator wants. For all you game devs, animators, musicians and artists reading imagine this: you have an interesting idea, you could develop on that and you know people will like. But before you can even start to develop on that idea, it needs to be approved. Not just the usual "Under Judgement" that every game and movie goes through, I'm talking about someone coming and saying that your idea is no good and you will not be able make anything out of that (probably never really, because when an idea gets rejected it goes straight to the limbo of forgotteness).
This prevents writers to fully develop on their creativity and enjoy the democracy and liberty that Newgrounds has to offer.
Writer's Forum: One thing that has shown up many times in the discussions about the idea of a Writer's Portal was the Writer's Forum. And apparently some people think that it is a good enough place for writers to post their creations, but they are wrong. Sure, it's nice to have a forum to post stuff, but there are some things that make the forum less efective for posting creations then a portal is.
Think about it, Newgrounds is a democratic place, every content that gets posted here gets some exposition (which is a feature that some seem to underestimate). No matter if you are famous or not, if people have favorited a thousand other creators, your content will show up at the New tab of the front page or the portal. Everyone has a chance to shine, and all that matters is whether it's good or bad. But the writers don't get that.
The forums don't get much exposition, and in fact, only a portion of Newgrounds users frequents it, and more, no one that doesn't have an account will get to see it, after all, who accesses a site just to creep on someone else's forum posts without saying anything? (Probably more people then I think, tho). And there is more to that, posting your creations in the forum means that they will need to compete with all other forum posts. Besides, the forum doesn't have reviews, votes, trophies and all other features that the portals have.
Sure, there are some writers that share their creations in other forms, such as games. One exemple is @kungfuspacebarbarian, probably most people reading have played at least one of the Crypt Shyfter games. But what if a writer doesn't know how to make a flash game or an animation? What if I don't want my story to be an interactive multipath adventure?
Actually, Crypt Shyfter is a good exemple here, it is popular and breaks the argument of those who say that the Writer's Portal would get no visits because no one wants to read. This games have been very popular, many people have played it and some even made to the top 5 monthly, but hey you are just reading when you play it. There are many other writers just waiting to make stuff just as good as the Crypt Shyfter series, they just need a place to post it.
Benefits of having a Writer's Portal: So, for those who have doubts about how much demand there is for a place for writers to share their creations, be aware of the fact that there are several sites on the internet wich are solely focused on the idea of writers sharing their creations publicly. And they aren't slow and empty places, they are full of people posting their poems, scripts, stories and people to read them.
Now sure, you could tell the people who ask for a Writer's Portal to go for one of those websites, and yes, we could go. But we don't want to post our creations there, it's not our community, Newgrounds is, and we want to share it with this people we know and love.
Imagine if you saw a great change that some country arround the world has done, and you think it would be great if that was implemented in your own country, but every time you try to tell someone about it they say: "Then you can go live in that country". You could, but you want to be in this place you love, with all your friends and neighbours. And if you can't have that change with all of these things you love, then it's not even worth having.
I mean, there are many things to like about Newgrounds, as I said before: it's democratic. As I write this I'm sure someone will read it, were it on other site, I wouldn't think so. We like Newgrounds, and we don't want to quit it just to be able to post our creations.
But you could also see the Writer's Portal as another attraction to this site. People roam the internet looking for places to outlet their writing creativity and to read someone else's work. If on their search they would stumble across this veteran website, they could access and create an account, which means more content being added and, possibly, more supporters for Newgrounds, and both are good things.
With all things spoken, I am not saying that there sould be a Writer's Portal (sure, I would love it if there was, but that's not the point here). I just happened to be thinking about this and this points came to my mind, if they happen to convince someone to support the idea, great! But I will not raise my flag so soon, for as I said: I don't know why this idea was forgotten, maybe the reason(s) nullify(ies) all of the points I have raised. Or maybe this ideas I said were not considered back then, and maybe this post will light the discussion once more... Or maybe not, then that would mean the community doesn't want it anymore.
If you have any other points to add, or if you disagree, please, say it. I am interested in knowing what you people think.
