Maybe you wouldn't need moderation if it were private? Maybe a setup like David Farland's Writers' Groups. I'm fuzzy on the details, but there is a big forum, and smaller private groups within the forum, and the groups are separated by genre. The groups have their own rules and leaders (rules being more about how often you critique others' work, how often you submit your own). And if someone stops participating, the leaders can lock out the non-participants, to discourage lurking.

Producer Scott is needed... By Mother's Day On May 1, after blowhard Producer Scott trashes his script, a wannabe screenwriter locks him in a basement and threatens death if he doesn't help fix it and get it sold by Mother's Day, but the script's hopeless, so the producer's only hope is escape from the writer's mother's booby-trapped manse.

A forum could be fun. But it'll cost you time and money in terms of hosting fees. Also Admins and Moderators that you can trust, etc. On the plus side, you could build up a great screenwriting community that complements your work here. But based on the very small number of great screenwriting forums, it'll be tough. Then again, the Quest might be a quick way to build a community. So the answer is yesno. ;)

Looking forward to hearing from that G****mn M*****f*****g P***k Max!

When I first read Producer Scott - I thought two words: LESS GROSSMAN I hear he may be getting his own spin-off movie. By the way, consider that a nomination for "great characters"! Also, you may want to consider using Google+'s hangout feature for webinars. The Dramatica Users Group did it last night, allowing those who normally attend their monthly get together live and in person to interact with several over the internet while using both a camera and software features. It was a pretty nifty experience. Best of all... it's FREE!!!

Max Millimeter is a god. I love this guy. On the topic of the forum for "Go On Your Own Quest", I think it would be best to have a way to create small groups of 3-5 writers to work together. I imagine it will get a bit vicious and overwhelming with a thousand people evaluating and commenting on everything.

I was one of those that thought a forum dedicated to the "Do Your Own Quest" would be a good idea. While it might not "blow up" and become a huge success throughout the industry, I think it would provide those that desire critiques and enjoy collaborations a place to congregate. So, in order to put my money where my mouth is(or how ever the phrase goes), I have an extra domain (with hosting) that is current until the middle of January 2013. That domain was used by me for my web design clients (so that way they could see a working site and approve the changes, etc.) that is no longer in use. I could have a working site, with a landing page and the forum by the start of the "real" "Quest." This site would have the same look and feel as GoIntoTheStory. I offer all of this up as a way to thank Scott and all of the others who contribute to the posts and the discussions within this site. In response to the admin and moderator issue: If the forum is set up in "modules" per category -- i.e. Story Concept, Character Background, etc. -- and it allows the creation of new groups that would remain private once the writing group have been established, the need for moderators would be lessened. Additionally, if you add a CAPTCHA to the sign-up form it would remove the need of an Admin approval. While I do not intend to boast about my literary talents (far from it actually) I would volunteer to be a moderator. I have been giving this some thought, and think it could work as a central hub for the "Do Your Own Quest." If it does succeed, and there is demand, I could extend the hosting and domain registration from that point on. Also, Scott, if you like this idea and get enough feedback, I would gladly transfer you the domain name so that way you would retain ownership.

You rock.

Depending on how many people participate, but what if people actually joined their city's group? Or with 4,000 logline entries, their suburb! You could then actually meet up once a month with your local 'chapter'. Have a beer and shoot the breeze of script notes...

What Teddy said.

That's super generous, BFletcher. Let me mull this over a day or so. There are some considerations. Part of me would want to approach this as a kind of open source thing. GITS would 'host' the DYOQ as home base for posts each week related to the 24-week workshop, then people would be free to create their own groups on whatever platform they want to support each other. We could have an ongoing thread here where people could seek to find writing groups, but wouldn't it be nice to create a structure tied to a calendar, then it could spread out to whoever wherever however they choose to use that. Does that make any sense or am I just being too much of an old hippie about this? Again just to be clear, the content on DYOQ, in terms of what gets disseminated here by me, is tied to the weekly subjects and writing assignments of "The Quest" itself, but the lectures, techniques and tips we work through there stay there. I'm happy to steer and engage with people here about the subjects [e.g., Style, Brainstorming, Outline, The Opening sequence, etc], but that information is not proprietary like "The Quest" is so, like everything on this blog, it's just out there for people to use [or not] at their choice and discretion. Thoughts?

Scott, I by no means meant to imply that the material for the "Quest" would be posted on such a forum. I simply posted that such topics could be "stickied" to the top of the forum; think of it as the most important information (that you have already provided us) remaining at the top, and any questions pertaining to such topics could be added towards the bottom. Additionally, I have noticed that you are using Wordpress as your means of maintaining this blog. The developers for WP also created a pretty good forum software called bbPress. If you check it out, that was what I was envisioning for such a forum. It allows groups to form, and then set their privacy to either public or private. Those groups could work together, and the forum would simply act as a hub for people across the nation and those international visitors, to get together and hash out their own story issues. The bbPress option could be integrated with your own WP installation so that way people wouldn't have to sign up a second time. Also, while this may seem like a load of work, I just know that getting second opinions or critiques on my writing has helped me tremendously. Moreover, being a member of a forum provides a mask of anonymity and even with "bad" critiques, we would be able to get a genuine feel for the quality of our writing. I completely understand your stance on the situation, and I just want to clearly state, that the forum would be open-sourced, and that it would provide no more information than what your blog currently does, the biggest advantage of creating such a forum would be the development of writing/critiquing groups. This is all nonsense if there isn't enough people desiring to join such a group for the 24-week DYOQ period. Should there be enough people interested in working together during the 24-week "Quest" workshop on their own DYOQ, I would be more than willing to use my domain and hosting to set it up for people to join and create their own network/writing groups.

For everyone who thinks Hollywood is a bunch of soul suckers they need to join the online screenwriting community. Generous and caring. Thanks for your offer of hospitality BFletcher_R. You got a case of the mitzvahs too. :)

I know you got it, I was just posting that info for others who might read the thread who weren't up to snuff about this parallel "Quest" idea was about. Re WordPress: Had no idea about bbPress. Sounds intriguing. I'm thinking.......

Scott is going out of his way to make sure everybody gets to benefit from this amazing revolution called "The Quest." Good on you Scott and I personally hope that all of this benefits you as much as it's benefiting us! You're amazing. Norman

I hope the message board thing becomes a reality. In the meantime, we could start a group on facebook. Those can be private as well. Just an idea. That said, I will also throw this out there. I run a screenwriting group in Hollywood, CA. We meet every Monday night and have been going strong for four years now. Last year one of our members had a script make it to the semi-finals of Nicholl. He was the least experienced writer when he started coming to group with almost no concept of how to write a script. Most of our group members wear multiple hats - producer, director, actor. We tend toward a group of people who want to make stuff happen and are actively doing whatever we can to advance our careers in film and television. We have had guest speakers over the last few years. Some sold specs and are working their way up the chain. We had a development exec from Bad Robot come in and talk. He gave everyone his card. If you are in the LA area and interested in joining a group, we are currently looking to add a couple of quality writers. Find me on twitter @TheUrbanHobo and we can discuss you possibly sitting in one Monday and go from there. Good luck to all in The Quest. I'll be looking forward to that message board when it launches.

I am part of a writers board already discussing The Quest. You can find us here: http://www.mzp-tv.co.uk/forum/writer-chit-'n'-chat/'the-quest'-screenwriting-workshop-(via-gointothestory)/ We'd be delighted to see any of you come, join in and expand discussion. We're all great admirers of this project.

Scott, if you can find a way to keep the forum(s) on or connected to the site (in a way that doesn't cost you money / time / resources), I recommend you seriously consider it. 1) Moving it off-site will inevitably fracture the community. Keeping it here will give it more synergy, even if there are smaller subgroups in a larger forum--and it would give *you* something back. 2) What would you get? Well, while I'd recommend making private, password-access areas of a forum for posting works in progress (and I think we're all in agreement there), other modules for general discussion, indexed to the components of Do Your Own Quest, could be public...and in SEO terms that is SEARCH ENGINE GOLD. Think about how much traffic your blog drives to your site. Now think about how much traffic you get when 2000+ writers are writing keyword-right content that gets indexed by search engines every day to drive content to your site. How would you like to be the top-ranked website for every term associated with the Quest course? That's what I'm talking about as Search Engine Gold. Which is also why I'd recommend creating a sub-domain on a domain you own, like forum.gointothestory.com or forum.screenwritingmasterclass.com, so you really do own all that indexing. (NB: Why would you send all that traffic to make money for someone like Mark Zuckberg--no offence Mark--if groups set up on Facebook, for example, rather than let it support you and what you do?) There is so little we can do for you, but if our discussions, of your material, can drive more traffic back to your site, and to your paid services, that would be fantastic. 3) If you choose to make "Do Your Own Quest" an annual event (or even just repeat it at any time in the future), the forum doesn't need to be reinvented: it would still be there, already set-up, ready to roll out any time you want. (It may or may not also be useful to your paying students; I don't know if you use fora as part of your coursework or not.) 4) All of that is off the top of my head. I feel like we haven't begun to fathom the potential of not just what a forum could do for the community but also for you. So, if you do go ahead, it sounds like there is a lot of expertise available here from people who would be happy to help (we all love to give back, given a chance), and I hope you keep the reins of it all, no matter how much you delegate, so that the benefits can come back to you, too.

Shaula, you are obviously smarter on these things than I am. I'm a writer. I'm a teacher. Those play to my strengths. All the rest, I just go by instinct. Honestly all I care about is creating an environment which inspires writers to write, and supports their efforts as much as possible. If we can create online 'communities' or what-not to facilitate that process, great! I WANT TO SEE BETTER MOVIES! I WANT TO SEE OUTSIDERS HAVE INCREASED OPPORTUNITIES TO BREAK INTO HOLLYWOOD! I WANT TO SEE WRITERS PREPARED TO SUCCEED AS HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITERS! However we / you / us can do that with something like Go On Your Own Quest, great. So thanks. I'm going to need the help of people like you to sort this out.

That's what I/we are here for. Count me in to help in any capacity I can.

I didn't see that one coming. Hi Max!

I just noticed "Less". Hahaha - funny. Damn you autocorrect.

I'd like to add some rain to the parade. Just a sprinkle, if you please. There are message boards out there, Done Deal for example. They are great for free, sprawling conversation. Not so much for targeted goals. What we're looking for may be a different type of software, more workflow software, that allows for posting files, giving assignments, notes on the assignment, more chat-like conversations connected to specific projects and files. Something like this: https://trello.com/. Perhaps a techie screenwriter like John August has some suggestions. It will also be helpful if it has some customizable sign up pages for screenwriters to form groups, or an admin to coordinate groups. Maybe what we should be doing is creating a list of requirements for whatever platform we use?

[...] the new Black List membership community, our Definitive Spec Sale list, and most excitingly, The Quest, and… well… suffice it to say that there’s A LOT more [...]

Shaula Evans you rock! On behalf of Scott and everyone of us, thanks for that insight. It was FRANK. I love being in community with guys like you all here on GITS.

BFletcher, I'm replying to your comment in an attempt to reach you, and in the hope that you subscribed to updates on this thread. I have a time-sensitive question about forums and I hope you can help me. If you receive this message, could you please email me at shaulaevans at gmail dot com? Likewise, if anyone else on this thread knows how I can contact BFletcher directly, I appreciate if you could put us in touch. And I apologize, again, to everyone who gets spammed with this off-topic comment. So sorry folks.