I took a look at our current "active beta" list today in order to get some suggestions for a new author. I was very pleased to see that the list, while not terribly long, is long enough to offer some real alternatives for authors seeking help and seems to have picked up more names than it had the last time I looked at it.  I was also pleased to see that people seem to be keeping up with the list, in terms of updating their profiles to indicate when they are and are not available, as well as being honest about where their talents lie.  The only thing(s) that didn't please me, were a few profiles in which the beta was offering help in grammar and/or punctuation, and yet, had punctuation or spelling errors in their profile. Now, it's entirely possible that the little things I saw are typos - but, you know, if I'm looking for someone to help me find my typos, I'm not going to have a lot of confidence in someone who couldn't proofread their own very short comments and notice the mistakes in there.  I'm just saying....  And if I'm looking to refer an author who needs help with punctuation, I'm not going to be referring that author to someone who is missing important punctuation in their own short answers.

A reminder that in the Forum (support section, I believe) there are two articles about being a beta (So You Want to be a Beta, Parts I and II) and one about finding and keeping a beta.(How to Find and Keep a Beta, or something like that).

And, a reminder to readers who enjoy fanfic but have no desire to write it, you can "give back" by offering to beta. Some authors are almost letter perfect in their mechanics, and tell wonderful stories that are well-written. All someone like that may need is just a basic proofreader. Someone to read the story and flag those missing/wrong letters or words that plague us all. :) Just something to think about.

How do I get myself on the active list again?  No wonder I haven't had any work lately!

I think, just go to the list (see menu at left of home page) and add yourself back?  Not sure. If that's not right, I'll look into it.  I may be sending someone your way shortly.

ETA - Just checked. You're still on the active list.  Alphabetically undesireable maybe? LOL  I'll probably be pimping the list a lot now that I know it's got enough people on it to make it rewarding for authors to check it.

You're right, I'm there!  Sure didn't see that last time I looked.  Senior moments abound!

Thanks

I noticed that there are several people on the list who apparently couldn't get the form to cooperate when trying to fill out the first two or three questions.  I want to add that to the list of glitches I'm making for Dia, but I need to know if it was a temporary thing that fixed itself, or if it is ongoing. Would someone who signed up recently please take a look and let me know if you are one of the ones missing information? And when you signed up?  Thanks so much. We're trying to keep things working as best we can, but we need to be told when problems crop up. :)

I see that the prospective betas who had typos or whatever in their own profiles still have them. Or there are new ones.  I just don't know how to emphasize this enough - if you're only writing one sentence about yourself and your skills, you really ought to be able to keep it error-free. It's what people will be using to judge how useful you'll be to them (and what I will be using to decide who should be recommended to new authors). So those typos, missing apostrophes, and careless capitalizations are going to hurt you.  Please proofread carefully and edit to correct any mistakes you find. If you can't do that, then at least take the "punctuation" and comments about how you "hate misspellings" off your profile's list of skills. :) 

I noticed that there are several people on the list who apparently couldn't get the form to cooperate when trying to fill out the first two or three questions.  I want to add that to the list of glitches I'm making for Dia, but I need to know if it was a temporary thing that fixed itself, or if it is ongoing. Would someone who signed up recently please take a look and let me know if you are one of the ones missing information? And when you signed up?  Thanks so much. We're trying to keep things working as best we can, but we need to be told when problems crop up. :)

 

I just took another look and noticed that my form was missing the info on story ratings, and the seasons for Buffy and Angel.  I filled out the form again to see if that helped,  but there was no change.  I'm not sure if I am doing something incorrectly or if this is still one of the 'glitches' .

I noticed that there are several people on the list who apparently couldn't get the form to cooperate when trying to fill out the first two or three questions.  I want to add that to the list of glitches I'm making for Dia, but I need to know if it was a temporary thing that fixed itself, or if it is ongoing. Would someone who signed up recently please take a look and let me know if you are one of the ones missing information? And when you signed up?  Thanks so much. We're trying to keep things working as best we can, but we need to be told when problems crop up. :)

 

I just took another look and noticed that my form was missing the info on story ratings, and the seasons for Buffy and Angel.  I filled out the form again to see if that helped,  but there was no change.  I'm not sure if I am doing something incorrectly or if this is still one of the 'glitches' .

Thanks, no_promises. That's very helpful.

I just took another look and noticed that my form was missing the info on story ratings, and the seasons for Buffy and Angel.  I filled out the form again to see if that helped,  but there was no change.  I'm not sure if I am doing something incorrectly or if this is still one of the 'glitches' .

Ta, this was very helpful, found the bug and it should work now.

I just took another look and noticed that my form was missing the info on story ratings, and the seasons for Buffy and Angel.  I filled out the form again to see if that helped,  but there was no change.  I'm not sure if I am doing something incorrectly or if this is still one of the 'glitches' .

Ta, this was very helpful, found the bug and it should work now.

I went back and entered all my information again, and everything worked perfectly.  Thanks for the timely response to the problem.