Welcome to Tea Leaf!

by **Ghost Writer** Tue Nov 23, 2010 9:18 am

I've decided to start a new community, still in the beta phase of course (like everything I do is), more centered around what I do best, which is writing. The name was inspired by an old graphics community I had joined a while back that changed their name from Tea Leaf Graphics to Ego-One. So I've adopted the first part of their name and made Tea Leaf Writing. TLW is a harboring community for writers and journalists. While the inspiration for the name was minor, the inspiration for the community is much larger. Many years ago, back in high school, my options for e-mail access were crucially limited. The school had blocked most of your major webmail clients, like Yahoo, Gmail, etc. I had been scowering the internet for a providor that wasn't blocked when I stumbled across Writing.com. Somehow the spider searches picked up on the community's free e-mail offer with every account. Since Writing.com was a website for authors of all types and skills, and more of an online portfolio and personal publishing site than a webmail provider, the school's firewalls didn't block it.

So that's how I stumbled across my best inspiration for writing. I had the opportunity to read up on thousands of members' personal works, many of which were amatuer like my own creations, but others were quite astounding works. I created my own portfolio and released some of my past work for critique by the member base using their "shameless plug" feature. I received a lot of positive feedback and great critiques for improving. I was quite satisfied with my membership.

Alas, that was long ago and I hardly ever visit Writing.com again. Instead I wanted to create and control my own community for authors (I've never gotten over that web-power-hunger I have). Thus, I give you TLW. TLW is a community that basis itself off a college-level setting. Forums and categories are named after streets and locations, such as the Main Street Cafe. The main writing area is set as a "university", which comes along with an exclusive-access forum named "Dante's Inferno" for those elite members that have established a respectable portfolio of works with positive reviews.

The Basics

TLW is still under construction at the moment, but when completed it will boast many forums and "galleries" for not just written works but graphic art as well. It will sponsor anything from prose to poetry, and from journalism to collaborative writing. I've also thought of bringing in some ideas that Writing.com boasts, such as a type of string roleplaying, where you branch off of a previous post giving the next author two ultimatums or paths that the main characters can choose from. Members may also earn and pocket Gift Points, a currency that they can spend on special items and prizes to help bolster their membership benefits and portfolio. Gift Points are earned by creating works in certain forums, such as the University forum. For each addition to your portfolio you will earn 10 Gift Points. For each review or feedback you give in the Museum forums you will earn 5 Gift Points.

Dante's Inferno

As mentioned earlier there is also room for the elite writers of TLW. Dante's Inferno is an exclusive-access forum where only members that have met the club's requirements are allowed to enter. After completing the requirements the members must still pay 200 Gift Points to finally gain access to the forum. The requirements are: having a portfolio of 20+ works (graphic or written), at least 50 Cups o' Joe, a letter of recommendation from a member of the staff, and finally, the 200GP membership fee. What goes on inside Dante's is not much different than the rest of the forums, however it offers members some privacy from the public view, and a quiet place to receive reviews and critiques from members of similar callibre and dedication. Upon receiving the exclusive Dante membership, the member is awarded the "Dante Member" rank.

Cups o' Joe

I mentioned in the above paragraph that in order to become an elite Dante Member, one must acquire a at least 50 Cups o' Joe. Click here to learn more about the Cup o' Joe feature, exclusive to Tea Leaf Writing.

Welcome...

Finally, if you're reading this and have made your decision to join TLW, then I would like to welcome you to the community. I realize that the above may seem like a large bit of information to take in all at once, but I will explain each section in detail in their appropriate forums. Feel free to browse around the site and try out some of our features if you choose to register. Keep in mind that, for the most part, the site is still under construction so not of all of the features mentioned above may be fully active or may seem broken. We're working on getting everything up and running and quickly and as smooth as possible.