ATTENTION ALL WORDPRESS WRITERS!!!

attention-wp-writers

 

Attention WP writers, betas (and readers/enthusiasts). After much discussion on the state of our beloved TB/SVM fandom and some hints from readers here or there we feel there could be a better way to direct traffic away from ff. net, which with its creeps on PM, hateful guest reviews and random bigotry has left us all disenchanted and on occasion has stalled the motivation to write. We feel there should be one site that allows an easy overview of what the different WP writers have to offer as a better alternative to the dreaded ff. net and hopefully invigorate our slightly waning fandom. At the moment a lot of writers have a blog roll on their own page that will direct you to the different blogs, initiate spotlights or make recommendations but despite that for most readers transitioning from ff. net to WP it’s a difficult place to navigate and a lot of great writers are simply lost in the maze.

So I proposed there could be a single WP site that would act as a directory for all that’s available in our fandom (perhaps branch out to others in the future with sister sites) where each WP writer would be an author/contributor to the blog and they could maintain their own dedicated Writer’s Page that would be similar to the FF. net profile page that in turn would link to the stories on your own blog. It’s simply a service for the readers to better navigate the WP landscape and make it more appealing. I’ve had countless comments on FF. net the past few months that express how happy they are that I am to still writing because to a lot of those readers it feels like stories and writers are simply disappearing when they have simply moved on to a mostly exclusive WP existence for understandable reasons.

There could be other features but they are not required, for example there are a lot of smaller blogs that do reviews, recommendations, etc. If these bloggers would be willing to contribute posting content too, that would be great. They could in turn spotlight new authors who move over to WP, alert on new and finished stories, competitions and awards, etc. in one place rather than many.

So you’re a writer and you’re already thinking that’s a shit ton of work right, I’m busy enough as it is… This is what we would ask of you: setting up the initial Writer’s Page, there would be some template that gives a brief description and a choice of tags that would describe your blog content, basically communicating the type of writing you do. Then it’s simply a question of copy and pasting story descriptions with the banners if you wish and linking it all back to your site. You could just leave it as a description and a link to your site only if you prefer. Then it’s simply a matter of updating whenever you add a new story to your site if you go with a more elaborate profile. Last we ask you link back to the site so that anyone visiting your site can find the directory if they’re unaware of it.

Betas, we’d love to stick you in a directory too albeit in a pared down version of the Writer Pages and have a single page with all of you in one place, so feel free to respond to this too.

This will only work if people are all on board and willing to contribute but it would make a great hub for the SVM/TB fandom as a large fraction doesn’t participate in all the different Facebook groups or on Facebook at all. Please respond whether you’d be willing to join in on this venture or even to say you think it’s a horrible idea, at this moment we’re simply taking inventory of what is feasible and whether there is enough interest.

PLEASE reblog this even though that is extremely annoying for all the readers who follow several blogs (I deeply apologise for the inconvenience) but we’d like this to get around as far as possible so everyone can be on board.

106 thoughts on “ATTENTION ALL WORDPRESS WRITERS!!!

    1. As a reader, I love the idea. To be honest with all of the fanfic sites I go to, WordPress gets forgotten until I get a notice that there’s been an update from a specific author(s). With a guide, it would help me to find other wonderful word-crafters and expand my reading options.

      Liked by 1 person

  1. I would make a directory page with a alphabetical list of authors, could break down in categories or not. Like ff.

    As for updates, I would give authors posting abilities so they can post to blog as they update their stories. Readers could then post either to main blog, author blog or both since WP Doesn’t always get out notices.
    I have some time but I imagine there are some others you all would fit better with.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. We’ll definitely have a single page and then the more elaborate pages per writer so one can browse and nose around. We’ll use the tags and categories to categorise everything rather than a search feature. The plans for now are for the blog updates to remain with the writers but perhaps we could work in something like the fanfiction minions used to provide but I think a curated approach would be more welcome than a constant churn of updates, though you are right WP can be negligent in showing updates. It’s happened to me a lot and I doubt it’ll be eliminated completely. If we’re in need of people if and when it gets started we’ll put out an APB for specific tasks, maybe you’ll find something that suits your skill set 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Sorry mistyped meant writers to post updates to blog and readers to subscribe to it. I used to hand code websites and WP is a breeze.

        But there used to someone that used to email or Twitter daily lists of updates. Not sure how that was done. But I think y’all’s idea is the most logical yet. Thought about including some of the indie sites?

        Liked by 1 person

        1. We’ll be going with the free WP.com stuff because if we’re going to have to rely on donations or amazon links it’ll just die in the end. You can set it up through publicize to automatically notify through twitter et al, it would be an idea if we all used the same twitter account and connect that to the individual blogs, or tumblr, or one of the other social media outlets… I don’t really know the indie sites are they TB/SVM related or just creative writers writing original stuff? If this gets a decent following we’re thinking of expanding it to sister sites.

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  2. Reblogged this on MsBuffy and commented:
    This is one of the most creative & excellent ideas for our little slice of the WP universe. I’ve been a follower of many of these blogs for so long, yet there remain so many that I’ve still not seen nor heard of, and you all know I love a great story!

    I can’t see any reason why we couldn’t put aside any negative feelings that some people have toward one another, or for those in ‘cliques’ to put all that away for now. We could undertake this project together in order to add new life to our little universe. You know, it strikes me that if this isn’t something we can all do together, work on together, and CREATE as one team, well, then just why are we all here on WP? Setting up something like hisviks is describing isn’t all that difficult and once it’s completed, it does the work itself. It appears that we may need a meeting for this, or at least a poll to get it moving. As far as I’m concerned, it’s got my vote!

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Reblogged on msb. This is a terrific suggestion & idea. Your brilliant mind continues to astound me! You know, of course, that I’ll be happy to assist in any free time I may have. Keep me posted! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I have already automatically put you on the beta list because I knew you’d agree 😉 lol. It would be nice since you’re the positive reinforcer of us all to get you a column where you scream and shout how brilliant we individually are *bats eyelashes and reminds you I’m the favourite ingrate*

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Please don’t take me wrong I think this idea is great!! I love it.

        Other Indy sites sigh one is fiction pad.

        I figured you would use free WP. But you can also get a cheap domain at go daddy for s few bucks and free WP will host the domain for $18 a year. You just have only the free set up still.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. All criticism is welcome (even if I didn’t read it as such) we want a good product in the end and a critical eye is essential to that. I think though it will primarily focus on WP writers we should allow people to link to their stories on ff.net/fictionpad/twcs if they feel so inclined the only thing is they need to be able to navigate the WP admin area themselves. Yeah the costs of those are low but the thing is who will be paying it in a couple of years, that’s the issue with these things, while I do admit a .com domain is preferred for easy access… it’ll be a discussion point I’m sure…

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      2. …Runs to put on cheerleader outfit… I do think it’s a fantastic idea, and would certainly help to draw those who still feel trapped by the toxicity that runs rampant on that ‘other’ fan fiction site.

        No need to ‘suck’ up, my dear! You are the favorite ingrate, you’ve earned that title, and you own it! LOL!! 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Awwww *preens a little too proudly* Yeah, I’ve had several people on FB right now expressing they would love to get back into writing again but don’t want to deal with FF anymore but can’t figure WP out so we’ll have to match them up with some people willing to do that.

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  4. Unfunfortunately I have zero talent for writing or blogging as I’ve never done either but as one of these strugglers from ff.net it’s sounds absolutely amazing and soooo helpful. So I hope you get loads of support from anyone who can help and I can’t wait for the idea to come to life xx

    Liked by 1 person

      1. That would be so helpful I stumbled on to the blogs and stuff by googleing but a couple I couldn’t get on to because we weren’t “friends”????? I still don’t get it lol xx

        Liked by 1 person

        1. There’s a few private ones, I only know of seastarr08 you have to contact her through a PM on ff.net then she’ll give you access although she opened it up a while ago to someone I know without the request so who knows anymore…

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          1. I’m not really sure who they were it was quite a while ago now they where the top of Google after the ff.net links but it’s OK I found others through the “I follow these…” links on others I could get on. At the moment I’m rereading all my favourite twilight Bella/Paul fics 😀 xx

            Liked by 1 person

    1. We’ve got a few tech people on board already unless you meant something else but if enough writers commit and we’re in need of help we’ll put out notices for help needed! Thanks!

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  5. I have tried doing something like what you are talking about, but I don’t have time to do it alone and update it all the time. If someone or someones with more time would like to help me with it, I would love it. Here is a link to what I have so far. So far it has 1,308 stories on it.

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    1. Yes, someone pointed this out on FB alongside another, at the very least we’ll see how we can incorporate or work together on past ventures. Thanks!

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  6. Do you know if there is no limit on the number of contributors to a blog? Could you give that many people access? I would do this, write an author page, but I’m not sure I’d want to keep updating it and my wordpress when I post something(heck, I am not even on Facebook and barely on ff anymore). There are two examples above of sites where they catalog or list authors and stories and it seems like A LOT of work! Having each person doing their own page saves work but I’m wondering if wordpress would even allow that. I think something like the list of authors and a link to their wordpress would be good, and have whoever supports the idea list that link on the top of their homepage or somewhere on their blog to direct others to more authors to check out(because I had no idea the above two sites existed before now). A database just seems like a lot to get going. Maybe some people have the time to do it though. If it does work out, I will support the page, of course. I just worry about the logistics of the whole thing.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. At its core it’s a directory and you would only update the writer’s page whenever you add a new story, but you could simply leave a writer’s page as a description with a link to your personal blog (that would be the most minimal involvement). Think of it as the profile page on ff.net with the little bio above and the list of your stories below. You can add different type of users to your WP with different levels of security access, writers would most likely be ‘contributors’ and I have seen nowhere that there would be a limit to it. Yes there are others but they are usually initiated by a single person and becomes too much work to maintain, the theory is as long as writer’s are active this page is active. There are others who have offered to contribute content like recommendations, spotlights, reviews, etc. who are not writers willing to post content to justify a following and keep things active.

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      1. Ok, well, only updating the story titles and descriptions seems more doable. And would this site allow all authors and story types? Have you thought about how to categorize, if at all? Are you offering only certain categories to authors/are you making certain categorization mandatory? Like stories with certain kink, levels of explicit sex, etc. On my site, and I don’t know if it’s the same with every theme, but I can only tag/categorize posts and not pages. Unless you don’t mean that type of tagging. Also, I am not on Facebook, so who would be running/setting this up?

        Liked by 1 person

        1. We’re thinking SVM/TB related only for the moment, if it ever expands it’ll be a sister site. I assume anyone is allowed on but there will be some sort of vetting process, no discrimination on content or anything like that but your WP needs to be up and running properly for example. We’d be using the tagging and categories similar to the way you use them now. It’s up to you to use the tags, that’s a good point . We’ll have to check on how that works per theme. Saksi Chopra has offered to do the setting up of the site and admin. As long as a good number respond (ie we’re not building for five people) we’ll start working on it and preferably communicating outside of FB so that it’s accessible to all. It was my idea after like a 300 comment discussion on what to do with the current state of our fandom and bring it some life again, so I got the honour of communicating it, there’s already a bunch of writers who are on board and a few non writers willing to help out in the running and setting up and adding content.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Please let Saksi know I’m willing to help with any free time I have; as in when not editing, reading, cleaning, being the dutiful wife, mother of ingrates, or spending time with “pseudo-grandchildren.” Hell, just give me another 8 hours in the day & I’ll do the whole thing. Who needs sleep? 🙂

            Liked by 1 person

  7. I really like this idea. Even though the books and show has ended S/E will always be my favorite fiction characters. I’m not a writer but avid reader so to read on one site would be awesome. Thank you for coming up with this great idea.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yeah we like them too and we don’t like seeing FF.net discourage writers from bringing more stories. We won’t put all the stories in one place but it will act as a central hub that guides you where you need to be.

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      1. FF is discouraging writers from bringing more SVM/TB stories? Will that site ever stop surprising me? Only when they are gone, I’d imagine.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. No a lot of people have expressed they have stopped or been deterred from writing because of the negative guest reviews. So it’s not the site itself but the climate it cultivates.

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  8. I reblogged this at my own site. and I’m willing to be a contributor. Granted I have one true story and one cross over. Are we going to allow SVM/TB crossovers on the list or just straight up SVM/TB stories?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It doesn’t matter how many stories you have, the focus is on the writers rather than stories. We’ll allow anyone who has SVM/TB related stories on their WP even if it’s a crossover. Glad to have you on board 🙂

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  9. Reblogged this on California Kat and commented:
    Howdy. Check this out. Some industrious folks are thinking about putting a directory for stories not on ff.net. Given the exodus of many from that site, this could help us to find stories we might have otherwise missed. I hope it works out!

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    1. That’s great to hear. I must admit I once had a nightmare where FF sent me an email in detail of all the ways I violated their site… so I get that ridiculous anxiety of FF and their discriminating ways. Glad to have you on board!

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  10. I have already started a site that does this, but for more than wordpress. The plan was to list links to writers stories on any site they move to. Be it wordpress, blogger, writers coffee shop, etc. But I need help finishing it and updating it. I thought I would have more time, but home schooling is taking more out of me than I thought it would and would only have time to work on it during summer break. I have a large list of stories, but I need some one to go to each and every writers page and see if they have a wordpress account, blogger account etc and put story link for each writer below the fanfiction one. Then I would need some one to collect links for wordpress stories that are not on fanfiction and put them in the right place. Then I would need someone to update with new stories. I just can’t do it all myself. Plus the site is ugly and I can’t figure out how to make it look nice. So if you could put out a shot out for helpers that would be great! If some one knows a more user friendly site for this, I am all ears. Bloggers website is a hazzle to use.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Sorry, I didn’t respond to the comment you posted earlier. At this point we would find it too complex and difficult to work with a similar format. We’ll definitely link back to this and other similar ventures as a reference.

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  11. I think this is a great idea, especially as a reader since the searchability and central location is something that keeps me going back to FF. Another thing, especially for me is that I use there app to be able to go back a re-read stories. Something I do ALL THE TIME. It would be great, if once a story is finished the author PDF’s it and makes it available on their site. The author of ‘Lifting the Veil’ did this and I can download it on my iPad and re-read the finished stories whenever I want. Just a thought!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. We’ll certainly discuss this idea of a .pdf library but I know some writers prefer to keep their finished works on their site and like to still receive feedback on it and rather not have the work distributed in various places. In the meantime the Facebook group SVM/TB FanFic Library does keep a lot of stories on file created by readers and writers in a variation of file formats.

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    1. Yes many writers have a similar blogroll on most of their pages but this unfortunately is never a complete list of all that is available, that is what we are hoping to achieve with this.

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    1. From all the platforms available to us WP has won out as the favoured platform for most writers but for readers that is slightly more difficult to navigate between the different sites that’s what this initiative is for.

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  12. Hi Hisvik,
    Commenting purely as a reader as I’m not on wordpress:

    Would a simple list of author’s sites work better? That would be enough for me — as long as I can find someone’s main site, I can find their stories.

    Without links to individual stories or updates, it would be a lot easier to maintain. And the easier it is to run, the longer it would keep going I reckon. We’re all doing this in our own time, after all.

    Could it run alongside the youwantblood awards site ? That’s already familiar. I’m thinking the list itself needs to be easy to find for newcomers.

    Just tossing out some ideas. Hope it helps.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi Magpie,

      Well I remember trying to lure you to the dark side of WP in the past… I can always try again 😉

      We won’t bother with weekly updates unless we find a large group of people who actually want to do that and will keep it up, to me too that seems a fruitless exercise destined to fail. The only thing I’m contemplating is highlighting new writers, beginnings or endings of stories and recommendations. While every writer can do whatever they want with their individual page there will be one directory at its core where you can click at your heart’s delight and explore. The choice whether to list all stories is up to the writer themselves (or the upkeep of it, it just stands to be more attractive if you do and give more insight in the type of writing you do). We’ll have to see how we go once it’s up and running, we’ll definitely encourage everyone who joins to direct traffic its way on their own sites and hopefully other much used sites like the youwantblood awards will do the same for us.

      Thanks for the suggestions we’ll definitely keep them in mind!

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      1. Thank you! I don’t post too often these days, RL and other excuses, blah-blah, but my WP is up to date, and I love all the choices and possibilities the platform affords. I feel ff. net is so last year…

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Ehm ff.net has always felt like 1992 to me, just on the basis of its looks and how irritating it is to navigate. Yeah, WP takes some more work to get into but it’s so much more rewarding as is the community on it now we just need the sign post to get everyone on board 🙂

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  13. Great idea! I now follow most stories onto the authors’ WP sites but in the beginning I would never have found them and FF was so useful for that… So an index-type WP is a brilliant idea… esp. if authors include it in their links or on their FF profiles (for those still on FF)…

    One mid-way solution that might not be ideal but I always found smart was to have the first one or two chapters of a story on FF and then the full story only continued on WP… I think I found a bunch of stories in this manner in the early days…

    Anyway… kudos for such a great idea and look forward to seeing how it all progresses… I am no wizard but can do basic stuff on WP if you needed worker-bees to volunteer to share admin of the WP site…

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Yes, we’ll have to ‘enforce’ (yes, I’m getting dictator like tendencies already 😉 ) a cross promotion of the site on FF profiles and on writer’s own WP pages to make it as successful as possible. While WP is great for committing yourself to a writer, it’s not that great in finding new ones and that’s really a shame. We’ll probably be in need for worker bees for a variation of things, I’ll keep you updated or just harass you directly when in need 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  14. I think it is a great idea to have a directory in WordPress to find authors which we used to find on ff.net. I think it would be too much for most people to update all their stories there. Have you considered A03 as an alternative since it would have the notifications and such, like ff.net, since if it is all separate authors there would be no common notifications, etc? I ended up subscribing to favored authors WordPress blogs, but I find no new authors anymore, so I read almost no fanfiction anymore.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Ficitionpad, AO3 and twcs are all alternatives that many people use but our hopes are most people will simply subscribe to WP for the updates instead. We’re not aiming for common notifications but simply content to highlight, introduce, recommend etc. so you can find something new among the offerings, it’s not our intent to overwhelm you with everything that is out there. Thanks for the support!

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  15. As a reader (and lover) of fanfiction, I think this is a great idea. It seems like a lot of writers are opting to post their work here and it is sometimes difficult to find/keep track of stories. Just want to say thanks to all the writers for all their hard work!

    Liked by 1 person

  16. I saw your post today and although I re-blogged this on my WP site on 2/2, I don’t know if you’ve put me on the list of those interested. I am only on WP and not ff.net, so I’m not transitioning, but I think it’s a great idea to put as many as possible into a collective place and I would be thrilled to be one of the writers participating. As for helping with the site, I’ll do what I can, but I am learning as I go, so there’s that. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yep you’re on the list had you down from FB already but it’s good to hear the confirmation. We’ll be looking for different types of contributions, it doesn’t necessarily have to be techy stuff, I’ll post something about it when the reblogs and traffic on this post finally die down…

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Well I’d be surprised if you missed this post, I lost count on the number of reblogs… or did you mean me? Yeah it was a challenge to keep track of everyone since not everyone has the same name on FB but I think I got them all…

          Liked by 1 person

  17. Hi! I heard you were looking for me 🙂 I was out of pocket for the last couple of weeks, so I was too busy to reply when I saw the idea, sorry about that!

    I love the concept and would definitely like to be a part of it. Morrgy is sending you my email so I don’t have to post it here. Just let me know what I need to do and when.

    Thanks so much for putting all this together!!

    Justwanderingneverlost

    Liked by 1 person

  18. I really love your idea!! I really wanted to be a Beta but I’ve never done it before and I have no clue how to do it. Do I need a program? My computer is older so how do I receive and send back fixed or beta’d to the author?
    So I’m thinking if someone needs a beta for a Sookie and Eric fic I could probably help if someone can teach an old computer ignorant woman how to do it….LOL… But this is a fantastic idea way way better than fanfiction now. I loved fanfiction in the past and it brought me to this fandom but it is too judgemental now and people are rude when they should be thankful someone wants to write for them ya know!! Anyway let me know and I can try to do something for you…. hopefully I don’t fuck it up…. oh and I don’t know twitter or how to blog or reblog so I’d really need a good scrub up ya know what I mean lol…
    Raeleen

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Realeen,

      Thanks for the support and the enthusiasm, it’s been a few weeks since this was originally posted so we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to get this up and running so at the moment we’re not looking for anymore volunteers. I’m forwarding your contact information to Leah who is a Beta herself so she can talk you through the programs and things necessary on how to become a Beta. (Since you have to be signed in with WP to leave a comment an email address of yours is visible to me, this is what I’ll send on to Leah). Hope to welcome you to the new site soon!

      -hisviks

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  19. I have been reading Sookie stories on FF for a long time and really like the centralization of the stories and the easy downloading, I hate that so many writers that I like have left, it is a lot harder to keep up with, finish/not finished, updated/not updated etc. A site where all of these stories are kept track of, would be nice.

    I saw the site below and was wondering if maybe it would be a start towards what you are talking about.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. We’ll be focusing on the writers rather than their stories, an archive like you mentioned (sorry I had to remove the link since it was marked as spam) is a giant undertaking and always speaks of a preferred taste so we have chosen not to go down that route.

      Please know that a lot of writers have good reason for leaving FF behind, it’s a lot more work to operate and maintain a WP site and while it offers great opportunities it is understandable that for the readers it’s difficult to keep track of everyone especially those that are newer to the fandom that’s why we started this initiative, so one could find old writers they may have lost track of and find some new ones along the way.

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  20. This is a really awesome idea!!! When I first found out about WP I tried to find authors or stories on here but found that it was difficult. So when I do find a writer on FF that I like I see if they have a link to a WP so I can continue to read their stories!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. That was my issue when first trying to figure out the WP landscape too and what inspired this initiative. Hopefully it’ll be up and running soon, we’re just waiting on all the writers to finish up their profiles now and then the site can go live.

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  21. I found all my fan fic stories here. But I don’t remember posting them or even opening a page. But I’d be happy to join you. As Ericizmine said, though not about me, I’m “older than cookies”. So I’ll need help.

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