(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.)
@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".
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".
I've got to go pick up dinner ... I'll get the image situated and get a new one out sometime in the next hour or so. I have an image I think will work rather well. It shows just partial parts of the KB/Mouse/Cup/Notepad and shows more of the desk from a vertical approach. I'll get something together and see how you like it.
@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.
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.
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!
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). :-)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.