30 May
Since you can now check to see how many reviews a person has made, I’m now able to see who the top 10 reviewers are:
Congrats to the top 10!
29 May
For anybody active on YWS, you’ll know there are more females than males on the site. The exact breakdown is (note, this doesn’t add up to the total registered member count as 20% of all members have never specified their gender):
When I first saw those numbers, I thought it was a bit odd. After all, it doesn’t seem like females outnumber males by more than 2 to 1 on YWS.  But that’s because males are, on average, more active than females. If you look at the post breakdown by gender:
So the average male has a post count of 96.5 posts, and the average female has a post count of 73.5 posts. That means the average male member is almost 1/3 more active than the average female member. This suggests that while females are more likely to seek out and register on a site like YWS, males are more likely to stay on the site for a long period of time. Either that, or we males are more likely to write completely random posts! Although, what is also interesting is that only 3 of the top 10 posters on YWS are male.
29 May
So who here is reading the first six Harry Potter books before the seventh one comes out? I haven’t started yet, but I plan on it as soon as I’m done with the current book I’m reading.
Also, when did you start reading Harry Potter? I remember dismissing it as a kids book back in high-school, but my mom had started buying them to get my brothers into reading. One day, I tried to get my youngest brother to read it by reading it first to him. He ended up walking away after two pages, and I kept on reading and reading and reading. As I worked at a kids bookstore at the time, I also picked up and read #2 and #3. Then #4 also came out around that time, and I read it as well. I got #5 and #6 the week they came out, and read both within a day.
So I’ve already pre-ordered #7, and I’m having it delivered to where I’m working during the summer.
28 May
I really love camping. I also love anything and everything that goes with camping, such as: boating, tubing, skiing, hiking, caving, campfires, s’mores, drama, dogs, headlights, campers, trucks, sunburn, tan, sunblock, bathing suits….it’s all good.
 Anyone else share this love?
21 May
So who agrees with me on that?
Writing is THE life! I especially realized that when I’ve been working on my entry for the Claude Monet contest. (Eep, hope I get it done in time! XD) It’s so much of a therapy, and it allows you to discover facets of yourself that you didn’t know existed. One of the things that I love most about writing is that I can write things from my very soul and no that no one will ridicule me for it. It’s a great way to get out feelings (talking to yourself is too), and it’s helped me so much over this past week. I’m going through a lot of emotional drama right now, and I can create a world where that drama all comes out right. I can place bits of my heart into other characters, kind of like a mother does to her child.
I’m just so blessed to have the ability to write. God has given me that gift, and I intend to put it to the best use possible. I don’t want to misuse it by writing immoral things and the like; I believe writing is the ultimate expression of beauty. Some use chisels to carve out aesthetics; I use words. But as with anything, it takes practice. I’ve been coming to appreciate the difference between talking about writing and actually writing writing. Writing writing is the best way to go, trust me.
Just a writer’s thoughts on writing itself. 
21 May
I’m at work right now, but instead of doing work, I much rather be surfing around YWS. It’s not that I don’t have stuff to do; it’s just very boring stuff that’ll take me an hour at most to finish up.
So instead, I thought I’d write up a quick post about what I think is going to happen this year with YWS. First what I’m expecting is May to be the biggest month ever for YWS in terms of activity. Already, 335 posts are being made per day on average, which is 25 posts higher than the previous record set in March.
After May, I’m expecting a bit of drop for June as people either finish up with finals or go on to summer camp/vacation. July will end up being much the same as June, and then I think there’ll be a pick-up in August (basing this all off previous experience as well as general internet activity).  However, I’m betting September will be bigger than May, and then each month to increase past that until December, when activity will again fall. The lowest day for 2005 & 2006 was Christmas Day.
That above month by month prediction I feel pretty confident about. However, I post the rest at the risk of sounding like a fool at the end of this year…
I believe the number of posts on YWS will be somewhere between 275,000 and 325,000 by January 1, 2008. I also expect the number of registered users to be somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000.
But, really, who knows? Site activity could end up plummeting like it did in early 2006.
20 May
There are two great contests going on at the Young Writers Society right now! The first is a user-run contest by Whence called “Poetry: The Terza Rima.” It’s a great contest, and I encourage anyone who appreciates a real challenge to try for it.  First prize is 300 points and an added bonus of 3 in-depth critiques from Whence, who has already demonstrated in a very short time his ability to write great critiques.
The second contest is YWS’ official contest for the month of May. For it, you have to write a response to Claude Monet’s “Sunrise.” The form of the response is your choice, and first prize is your choice of anything from the YWS store under $20.  Deadline is May 30th at 11:59 GMT, and winners will be announced in the June 9th edition of Squills.
19 May
Draw-> it’s a great stress reliever
Read everything-> how else will you know what your missing?
Shop at Wal-Mart-> no one cares, save yourself some money
Drive everywhere-> you’ll love knowing your way around anywhere
Wear jeans-> lifes to short to spend half of it primping yourself everytime you leave the house
Spend time in the country-> you’ll never know how stressful your life really is until you do
Get at least one tattoo-> it’s your body so make it you, you’re going to die eventually anyway, who cares?
Spend time with your family-> they really are your greatest asset
Write-> it’s fun to read later
Play sports-> it’s accidental exercise
Be independant-> there’s nothing like it
Go out of the country at least once-> you deserve to experience another way of life so you know what you’re missing
Watch who you give your heart too-> we can’t control our emotions
Listen to music-> it’s the best way to illuminate any mood your in at the time
Travel, a lot -> it will make you appreciate your home
Be yourself-> the world can’t handle two of any one person
Write letters-> there is no substitute for good old, hand-written snail mail
Dont forget the past, but don’t dwell on it either-> no matter how horrible it was, your past has had a significant impact on who you are today
Be happy in your job-> if you are miserable every time you go to work, the money isn’t worth it.
Don’t know everything-> the rest of your life will be pointless if you do.
Oh…and wear sunscreen.
18 May
Since we have got this new blog, it was a slow start, though fun. Comments are low though. I remember how squills (the blog) was commented on a lot, and popular. Perhaps because it was easily accessible? I do not know. What I do know is that the majority of people I notice commenting (If at all!) are also posters.
Any ideas of how we could get the blog more spotlighted? It should be our main “news” area, or at least sort of, right?
Just my thoughts…
18 May
Some of the newer members may not actually know about these, so I decided to write a post on it.
The genre of fan-fiction is one well established. You will find all sorts of stuff there, from movies to TV to books that people read. These traditional areas are the core of most fan-fiction.
My fan-fics are different though, because they are not based on what I see on TV or read in books. They are based on YWS and most recently, TW. You can check it out here.
I encourage you to check it out and to enter in on another inside joke of YWS.
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