1. I'm not submitting to Canonfire in fear of my work not being accepted.
What? If your work pertains to Greyhawk, it has a 99.9% chance of being accepted. In all of Canonfire's history only 1 article was rejected and that was moreso because it had nothing to do with Greyhawk and when the editors contacted the author in an attempt to help him adjust the article to better fit the boundaries of Greyhawk, there was no reply.
We want your contributions. Without sharing eachother's ideas, Greyhawk runs the risk of dying. You wouldn't want that, would you? Me neither...
2. The Canonfire Staff might not like my work bcuz they are writing Pros. There's no way I can measure up...
lol, with the exception of Gary Holian, none of us are pros (hey! I'm just a freelancer who got lucky and cares about GH way too much... -glh). We're just a bunch of losers with too much time on our hands, enabling us to slave away in order to bring Canonfire to the fans. Most of the Staff hasn't even submitted more than a couple of articles, if any! (Slackers)
3. I'm afraid if my ideas suck, people will make fun of my work.
Eww, no way! Canonfire only allows constructive feedback and most of the time that is what you'll receive. We, as a community, want to help one another get better at writing.
4. Hmmm.. sure looks like these Canonfire contributors know what they're talking about. My submission would probably not garner very much attention.
True, submissions receive a very diverse amount of attention. However, I assure you, there are things even the newest Greyhawker can come up with that will surprise the old codgers.
I'm going to use WightNight (WN) as an example here. (sorry, bud) During Postfest II (Mysterious Places), WN wanted to submit something, but he was feeling a little intimidated by the other contributors and didn't think he knew enough about any locale to write a piece on it.
I let him in on a little secret; If you write about something that has never been covered before, then you are the one that will be creating it and there will be no basis behind which to contest it.
He read the few paragraphs in WGR7: Ivid the Undying about Goldchasm, and decided to write a piece expanding on what little information was available.
His work ended up being one of the more popular postfest submissions!
5. I'm just not very good at writing. I don't think anybody will like my stuff.
BING! (that's the WRONG buzzer)
If you are afraid of your spelling and grammer skills, forget about it. That's what the editors are for. We will work closely with you to ensure your article receives the presentation it deserves.
If you are afraid that you can not present your ideas very well in a written fashion, submit them anyway! The Canonfire users are more than great at giving constructive criticism and feedback and would enjoy helping you become a better writer. That's what the Canonfire community is all about. Helping you share your Greyhawkian ideas and becoming better at conveying your contributions.
6. I better not join in on Thursday's GreyChats, I'd embarass myself not knowing anything.
Oh you! More reason to show up! The group loves to explain answers to questions and discuss Greyhawk. Get your rear to the Chat and ask away! Time to learn...
7. Damn It! Even with the directions, I still can't figure out how to join those Chats.
Contact me, or anyone else that participates in the Chat and we'll do all we can to get you in there!
8. Hmm, I'm just going to lurk on the Canonfire forums. I don't think my ideas are valid enough or my points of view will be discarded.
lol, what are you thinking!? You better start posting to the forums! We need a diverse amount of opinions and ideas in our discussions! Isn't that the point of forums? You bet it is!
If you have something you wanna discuss, chances are others will wanna discuss it too. Let's get involved here, people!
9. Ok, well I have submitted an article and it's been a few weeks... My article still hasn't been published..they must not like it..
Please be patient. There are always a number of articles in the line-up and, for the most part, they are published on a "1st come, 1st serve" basis. If there are a large number of articles in the line-up it could take up to 2 months or so before your article will hit the frontpage. It may seem like a long time, but it sure feels good when yours is finally featured!
10. Dang, I can't figure out how to use 'X' feature of Canonfire or understand what 'X' is for and how it works...
Please, ask.
Also, your question may be answered by perusing the (somewhat out-of-date) FAQ
11. Wow! I really like this article I just read.
Well then, leave the author feedback in way of a comment! Even if its just a "hey, I like this article, thanks."
If it really struck you, consider opening a thread about the article in the Reader's Workshop
Alot of work and effort goes into alot of submissions. Authors will appreciate any comment or feedback you have to offer, no matter how simple or in-depth.
Also, to the right of each article is a link that will redirect you to a Printer Friendly Version of the article which is very convienent for that procedure! _________________ Kneel before me, or you shall be KNELT!
Last edited by abysslin on Wed Apr 06, 2005 6:32 am; edited 11 times in total
Great advice Abysslin. I know that for myself I get worried everytime I post that someone might poke fun at it. Silly little worry I admit but it never fails I post or reply and the worry demons start crawling up my back saying "hahahahaha they are going to laugh at you and rip you apart!!" All this and I write reports for a living . I'd love to write an article myself but I know it would come across like a crime scene report, dry and boring and way to technical So I appreciate the fears that others have when the want to do the same. And you were right on the money in #3.
I'd love to write an article myself but I know it would come across like a crime scene report, dry and boring and way to technical.
Oh boy, Maraudar! You just stuck your head in on that one. I look forward to seeing your Canonfire debut and offering any suggestion I may have about how you could better present it excitingly and dull out the technical issues.
Really though, sometimes a technical point of view is a better approach, depending on the content of the article, IMO.
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I'd love to write an article
Chop, chop, lol... You said it. _________________ Kneel before me, or you shall be KNELT!
Well done Abyss! It is many of the things I thought as I wrote my postfest article. I just have gotten to the point where I am not as concerned of other's opinions. I wrote it, if you like it great, if you don't *shrug.
I finally took the plunge and submitted my first article after viewing the site and mining it for ideas for a year. This site has grown quite a bit since then, with tons more forums and articles now then just a couple of years ago.
As far as Greyhawk goes (and really the whole RPG D&D hobby as a whole), this site is the real deal. By and large the majority of the regulars here are very polite and willing to work with you when you participate on the site.
That made all the difference when I put my first article "Keoish Intelligence Report from the Pomarj" up on the site. I was just some guy who came out of nowhere to submit some of my old DM notes I worked on several years ago, but I was treated very well by the CF staff, who helped me edit a couple of things and were always very prompt in returning my emails. It is the little things like that that made me really love the site and inspire me to keep posting.
Kudos to all the site admins, and thanks a lot for all your assistance. Now I have almost ten articles up and have loved every minute of it. I would always encourage anyone to try their hand at posting articles.
Abyss makes some great points here, all of which I'll second. As a now retired admin here, I'll add a few points to his:
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1. I'm not submitting to Canonfire in fear of my work not being accepted.
What? If your work pertains to Greyhawk, it has a 99.9% chance of being accepted. In all of Canonfire's history only 1 article was rejected and that was moreso because it had nothing to do with Greyhawk and when the editors contacted the author in an attempt to help him adjust the article to better fit the boundaries of Greyhawk, there was no reply.
Exactly, with very, very few exceptions, everything submitted gets accepted and published. Those exceptions are stuff like vulgarity ridden articles, articles where the copyright is in question, and stuff that is so wildly off topic that it is deemed inappropriate. In all cases, the author will be contacted (usually via email) and informed of the decision, and 99% of the time, offered a chance (and some help) to revise the piece.
I was the one who had the unfortunate task of rejecting that one article Abyss mentioned, and I can confirm; it was woefully short (one small paragraph), had nothing to do with Greyhawk, and was laced with grammar and spelling errors. I made every attempt, however, to contact the author and offer to help him flesh it out, tie it in to GH and edit for legibility, but no response was forthcoming.
I should mention though, that was not that author's only submission, he went on to submit a handful of other articles that were excellent.
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2. The Canonfire Staff might not like my work bcuz they are writing Pros. There's no way I can measure up...
lol, with the exception of Gary Holian, none of us are pros
Well, in fairness, Allan Grohe (aka Grodog) is also on board the staff here, and has some involvement in the industry, though not directly concerning Greyhawk. Abyss's point is a good one though, the rest of us are just enthusiastic fans (perhaps a wee bit too enthusiastic sometimes, as in my case) like you. Sure, there's a handful of articles on the site by "pros" like Erik Mona, Gary Holian and Rob Kuntz, but there's about 400 other articles by fans like us.
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3. I'm afraid if my ideas suck, people will make fun of my work.
Eww, no way! Canonfire only allows constructive feedback and most of the time that is what you'll receive. We, as a community, want to help one another get better at writing.
Like he says, blatant attacks on your work are frowned on here, and we have a ton of diverse ideas presented in the various articles and forum posts.
For chat visitors, I'll also add this point, a lot of the "trashing" of each others work you see going on in the chatroom is good humored fun. We're all friends there, and like to give each other a hard time.
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6. I better not join in on Thursday's GreyChats, I'd embarass myself not knowing anything.
Oh you! More reason to show up! The group loves to explain answers to questions and discuss Greyhawk. Get your rear to the Chat and ask away! Time to learn...
And, as I mentioned above, we're all friends there, you'd be surprised at how much of the chat is just banter between friends. There's all levels of Greyhawk knowledge present in the chat, so don't feel intimidated, just join and jump in the conversation.
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7. Damn It! Even with the directions, I still can't figure out how to join those Chats.
Contact me, or anyone else that participates in the Chat and we'll do all we can to get you in there!
My AIM is Abysslin and my email is abysslin@canonfire.com
We'll get you in there!
If you can't pin down Abyss while you're trying to get on the chat, you can also visit the Psionics.net (the guys who host our chatroom) website, at, oddly enough, www.psionics.net. They've got all the information you need, as well as support forums for their users.
The other point that Abyss overlooked that I simply must add is...
Tell your friends about Canonfire! The more visitors we get, the more the site grows, so tell everyone to stop by. _________________ What would Raxivort do?<br />
You can post new topics in this forum You can reply to topics in this forum You can edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises
. I'd love to write an article myself but I know it would come across like a crime scene report, dry and boring and way to technical 
So I appreciate the fears that others have when the want to do the same. And you were right on the money in #3.
