I second Jen's suggestions.

Top page definitely schedules and announcements (release dates, tours, readings). Bibliography an easy link away/easy to find.

Of mixed opinion on where the DogBlog should be: on top or in the Board as we have now. Mild worry that having it on top would somehow segregate discussions a bit (not sure if I'm describing that right; not sure even if it's something to worry about *g*)

And I think a few bulletin board "Easter Eggs" might be fun. Such as Forum 9. Maybe we should call them Dog Biscuits. (Then again, who hunts for Dog Biscuits?)

i second everything jen said. and also, pictures! *loves pictures*

Considering both the old hacks who visit the BB on a religous basis, and the opportunity of new people who may be visiting your world for the first time, I think the inclusion of a "who is this Tad Williams guy anyway" link is essential for the front page.  The most regular questions that come up are about rhubarb and reptar abuse, but ignoring that there's book release dates and special events like appearances at "conferences" or book tours. I think, and you may laugh at this point, that a direct link to your blog from the home page could cause too many random posts (like that would happen now), maybe an introduce yourself thread linked to the homepage would be more pragmatic.
The delineation between the rest of the BB and the Halls of Fire may need clearer definition, I think it is an excellent addition as sometines only profanity will do but currently it is very easy to open a topic without readily noticing it may contain more adult content.
I realise it is possible in "the place that doesn't exist" but it would be nice if there was a gallery of some sort where people could post pictures, for a limited time (say a day or two), the file size would need to be controlled but often people who want to post pictures don't have a website or the wherewithall to upload a picture and create a link.  OK so it's a poor excuse but I think a pin board for pictures of shiny black minis or smarch related art, or new members fizzogs, etc. etc. If people wanted more permanent images they'd have to go the link to route. On the down side it would need monitoring for appropriateness, if that's even a word.
My only other comment would be the usability, the site is currently very easy to navigate, it's obvious what you need to do to go where you want to be, and the layout is consistent from screen to screen to aid this. More of the same would be nice.

Finally, I regularly visit a bulletin board for astrophotography (UKastroimaging), this has a facility to list any posts you have made that have had replies since your last post, is that something the Smarch BB could do as it is really useful?

My comment on the proofreading stands, you are clearly not enjoying it and looking for any other distraction, have you tidied up your room yet?

Good luck with your change Tad.

[ January 09, 2007: Message edited by: Stuart ]

I think I'd want Tad's posts in the Dogblog to be more easily found if I was coming here for the first time.
It'd imply he was active (and there's any number of author website where they're not).

Not sure how I'd organise that though.

Things that people often go in search of seem to be details on books and future books, so would a 'Publication Status' page be possible? My lovely fiancee and I agree that a link at the top of the page to a section on what's going on in summary form ("this book's gonna take a while to finish" / "oh, that's gonna be out tomorrow. You should probably camp out in front of the bookstore") would be very nifty. I know it appears in the Dogblog too, but a summary would be good for quick reference.

damon wrote:

My lovely fiancee and I agree

What this actually means is that *I* made those suggestions, and then Damon said, "Yeah." Lousy thief. That's right, I called you out boy!

I think a newly designed website for Tad should have:

a NEWS section: what is going to happen when, information about book and comic releases, book tours, convention appearances etc.

a BIBLIOGRAPHY: novels, short stories, comics. Maybe also bibliographies for his most important foreign markets like Germany, Netherlands, France etc.

a BIOGRAPHY (perhaps something more substantial than the couple of lines that his publishers have been using for years)

a BLOG: Tad could continue his "Dogblog" as a "proper" writer´s blog as a seperate part of Shadowmarch.com/Tadwilliams.com rather than as a topic on the mb. So people who do not read the site and/or mb regularly could easily find out what Tad has been up to lately without having to browse and read through dozens of "Dogblog" topic pages. Something like Neil Gaiman´s blog would be nice!

Additional features that would be nice to have are:

a cover art gallery
information about book releases in other languages

For the forum:

* automatically taken to the last page after you make a post, rather than the first page.

* having Active Topics set to when you last visited, rather than resetting at 12am Pacific.

(I'm lazy!)

I can admit this here, although I couldn't admit it in any other literature-respecting world, but Tad's personality drew me to his books as much as his writing did. So I think the front page should capture that, in the way a good book jacket does - I was drawn to the book for the topic, and drawn to The Man Himself by the bio - as well as by the shout-out to his peeps on the listserv, because that told me he was someone who really connected to his fans.

So, I'm agreed with all the really practical suggestions above, and especially with the fact that the fan forums and dogblog should be somewhere fairly obvious, so that the people who are drawn to them like the rest of us rabid folks can find them easily.

A link to Sahi's history, so newbies can catch up.

... and more cowbell ...

If possible, there will be no smilies on my watch.  NEVER.  I hates 'em, hates 'em forever.

You may notice I don't use emoticons.  If people don't understand irony, I say they're spinach and I say the hell with 'em!

Whatever that means.  YOU know, right?  God, I hope so, or otherwise I'm having another microstroke.

I'll add my vote to the 'no avatars, emoticons, smilies, images.' group.


A place like the non-existant section that allows images is cool, but once stuff starts getting posted all over the regular board things become graphical rather than linguistic. Or, at least, that's my sense of things from past experience.