@MonicaCellio - I'm going to take a looksee for a new image.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 sounds good. I really like a lot of what's in the current one, but fitting the text to it within SE's size rules is being challenging.

Ayup ;-)

(Context for everybody else: @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 has kindly offered to design an ad for us to run on Worldbuilding for the coming year, replacing my plain boring ad from 2016.)

And while we're talking about ads: we should consider targeted ads on some other sites, linking to either our site or specific tags. Anybody want to make a technical-writing ad for Software Engineering (nee Programmers), or (after reviewing the tagged questions for quality) scientific-writing or academic-writing ads for select science sites and Academia? Also, SF&F...

Think about which graduated sites we could reasonably submit ads to for our site. We don't want to be spammy, but where we have good content, let's try to spread the word and invite more in.

@MonicaCellio - do you think something like the following would work better ... I mean for the white/white would work better to put text on top of, I'd think.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 oh, yeah -- that looks like it would allow better visibility of text! And we get the notebook back. (You'll have to dodge the pen, but that seems doable.)

"Dodge the pen" ... as in ace, ax, get rid of?

A darker brown, like the darker color in the coffee cup, might contrast well with all of that.

Or just change the color of it?

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 no, I just meant that when laying out the text, you'll have to consider the pen so whatever text exactly overlays it is still visible. If the pen runs between words, for instance, that's probably better than being right under an "l".

Oh, duh!

Sorry, playing dense right now, I'd guess :o)

NP. I might have been too terse, too. :-)

Nah.

We can also tweak the text if that helps. The current text is: "Built your world? We can answer your questions about how to tell your story. Writers.SE" That's a little verbose. I like the "Built your world?" part to lead with and we need to end with "Writers" (.SE is optional IMO). The middle part could instead be "We can answer your storytelling questions", maybe? We need to avoid suggesting anything like critique or discussion, so not "we can help you write your story".

Good point.

I welcome improvements on that from anybody. It's the community's ad, not my ad.

Even shorter? "Built your world? Now build the story. Writers.SE"

To me it sort of ties the two sites together.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ooh, nice.

Yeah, let's see what we can do with that!

Or we can see how the community likes it.

Be back in a few.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 thanks for all the help! And please don't feel any pressure; I think it's usually a couple weeks into January before SE posts the annual ads questions anyway. We've got time.

@MonicaCellio - No worries. I'd rather get something done as if I don't get it done, I won't ever get it done ... if you follow my logic there.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 :-) . Yeah, I recognize that reasoning...

@MonicaCellio - Haha! I'm glad I'm not alone in this world ;-)

This was the image I was talking about @MonicaCellio

It gives a large blank canvas to work off of.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 good find! Plenty of room to put text there, yes.

:o)

Keyboard, thumb drive, mouse, paper/pencil, and coffee -- all the essential hardware. :-)

Ok, I'm assuming the keyboard and mouse connect to a CPU. :-)

That's actually an eraser. You know what that is, right? :o)

Ah. Yes, I know what those are; I just didn't recognize it here. I thought erasers were pink. :-) . Well, except for artists' erasers, which come in a variety of forms; my favorite is white and comes in a plastic casing from which you advance what you need.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 nice! I like.

I'm thinking it needs a border to stay within the guidelines.

Oh, right -- because of the white from the keyboard and paper. Yeah, it need a 1px border. Maybe the same color you used for the text?

Actually, with the size I have it at (600x500) it'll need to be 2px, but yah, same diff.

Oh right. Same difference in the end, as you say, but let's make sure we satisfy the SE rules.

Exactly.

I offset the text to sort of break it up ... you good with that, or should I have it more in line? or??

I like the layout.

kk

Do you have an account on Worldbuilding, by the way? (When the time comes, do you want to post this or do you want me to?)

I have an account over there.

Good. You did the work; I think you should post it.

And no worries.

People will know from the comments that I support it. :-)

lol

Hey, I don't know how much I can assist through Q/A, but I can help here a bit. My pleasure.

Thanks for the help, and I look forward to your contributions on the site too. And well-asked questions are contributions, so don't worry if you don't expect to answer much!

It's all good.

Just remember Mechanics when your car goes caput!

:o)

I suspect that any question interesting enough for your users would produces answers beyond my ability to implement, but I'll keep y'all in mind. :-)

Actually, do you do "all things car maintenance" or only innards? Like, are questions about body work on-topic?

ROFL! Don't even worry about it. We've got some great "explainers" over there.

Oh, I'm sure I'd understand the answers on a theoretical level -- but that's still a far cry from actually doing the deed (with the tools I likely don't have). :-)

I'm sure you'd do just fine. A lot of people ask questions just to understand what's going on.

Oh! If the "why is my car doing X?" questions are on-topic, then I can see myself asking questions occasionally.

Absolutely on topic. Just so long as you don't ask "how much would it cost" or "where can I buy x at", you'd be just fine. Give enough detail and all is golden.

Let's see how this looks:

That looks good! I think the border helps the rest of it too, not just where it's technically required. That is, if the keyboard and paper had been off-white and didn't technically require a border, I think adding it would still be a win.

Just a slight change ... moved the "Built" line a little to the right so it wasn't as close to the edge.

That was typed in response to the first one. What's the difference between the two?

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 oh I see. Yes, that's better.

Just a little aesthetics change is all.

(I was looking at borders and missed that you'd moved the text!)

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 yes, definitely better.

I think it works. Just let me know when you want it.

I'll ping you when SE posts the "call for ads" post. Thanks again!

You said they'll do a new quest for ads here pretty soon?

I'm sure I'll see it too over on Mech, then.

They make a new post every year, yes.

Has Mech graduated? Only sites that have graduated get community ads.

Okay, I didn't realize it. Since Mech just went viral and I've only been a mod over there since the elections, I wouldn't have a clue, lol.

That's why Writers can advertise on Worldbuilding, but not the reverse.

We haven't gotten our site design yet, but we've graduated.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 oh wait, elections? So you have graduated, then?

yes

Sorry, hard to keep track of everybody.

No worries!

Ok, in that case you'll get a post like this too.

yup

We got the original one when we graduated. One of the issues with our site is there isn't anything else on SE which we can really align with. I tried to get DIY to bite, but ... alas, no luck.

I think they are about as close as we can get. I should ask over on Electronic Engineering ... they send a boat load of questions our way.

Well, the community ads are mainly intended for sites to advertise off-site stuff of interest to their communities, but sometimes related sites can advertise on each other too.

Or I guess it's actually "Electrical Engineering", right?

And promoting relevant Area 51 proposals is a thing, too.

Gotcha

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 if another site is sending you a lot of questions then, yeah, it'd be worth advertising there if you can.

I'll pose a question to their mods and see what they think.

And, of course, none of their mods are in the TL, lol.

On Mi Yodeya we have about half a dozen ads. Two are for resources (online sources useful to our community), one is for our own publications (we have publications, yes), one is the Hebrew Language A51 proposal, one's the Twitter feed, and one's for a set of user scripts helpful specifically on our site. So, quite the mix there.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 maybe later, then. Is their chat room active? That's another place to feel people out.

An ad is going to need a score of 6 to run, so at least some community members have to like it beyond mods.

I just posted something over there.

On their chat.

Sounds like a good plan.

It appears active, but we'll see. I appreciate your friendliness ... while SE has a "be nice" policy, I would suggest it's not strictly enforced in other parts of the SE world.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 unfortunately, there are variations in that across the network, and sometimes the enforcement is intended but delayed (mods aren't active 24/7 but sometimes it feels like non-nice users are). Welcome again to Writers, and thanks so much for designing our ad for Worldbuilding!

I've got to take care of some things now (most immediately, a cat demanding dinner -- but also this human would like dinner too :-) ). It was great chatting with you, and I'm looking forward to your questions on the site.

Be well. See you on the flip side.

See you! Happy mechanicsing -- I hope you have a nice heated garage. :-)