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Help FAQ
If you have any
questions that are not answered here, please contact trAce
at
trace@ntu.ac.uk
- What is
trAce?
- Where is
trAce based?
- How did trAce
start?
- Should I
join?
- What do you
mean by "community"?
- What do the
Writers-in-Residence do?
- Why does the
site have so many cookies?
- Do you know
of any good web sites for writers?
- What do
people get out of trAce?
- Can you
recommend an Internet Service Provider?
- Can I have a
trAce email address or webspace?
- Do you have
meetings in real life?
- How do I find
what I want on the World-Wide Web?
- Is there
anyone who can answer my questions about writing online and using
the Net?
- Where can I
get free stuff on the Web?
What is
trAce?
trAce is a busy 24-hour
online community for writers and readers across the world. We write,
share our reading, critique each others' work, discuss our favourite
books and talk all the time. We communicate by email and conduct
live meetings and events via the internet. Occasionally we even come
together in Real Life at conferences and workshops.
Where is
trAce based?
At Nottingham Trent University and everywhere
in cyberspace!
How did
trAce start?
trAce
began in 1995 as a research project to discover writers' sites on
the Web. Our first web site went live in 1996 and in 1997 we won
a lottery grant from the Arts Council of England for a three-year
project to build a community of writers and readers worldwide. Since
2001 we have been a consultancy of The Nottingham Trent University.
Should I
join?
You can join using this web
form.
This is the
place to be if you want to play a part in how the future will look.
We have members in countries around the world, from Singapore to
Venezuela and all points in between. Many are professional writers,
and plenty more are busy learning the skills. Quite a few prefer
simply to read and love to share their reading with others. If you
enjoy literature you'll always find something of interest and
quality on the trAce website.
Membership is free and open to all.
For
more information on joining and leaving trAce, see our Privacy Policy.
"I keep
forgetting that trAce is 'international'. It feels so close!"
(trAce member)
What do
you mean by "community"?
We're more than just a website. You can join email conferences;
submit your writing for others to read and discuss; chat together
online, or go to our virtual meeting room for events and live conversation.
If you have a good idea for a project from a chat
to a collaborative project, you'll
always find someone eager to participate. /more
about the trAce community
What do
the Writers-in-Residence do?
Occasional resident authors, who specialise in writing or in
developing the relationship between writers on the Internet, work
with trAce both online and offline to build a lively and interactive
literary community. Send them your writing, meet them for tutorials
and discussions in virtual or live space, and learn new techniques
and skills. Previous Writers-in-Residence have included Bernard Cohen,
Alan Sondheim,
Alan McDonald,
and Christy Sheffield
Sanford. There are no current writers-in-residence positions
available.
Why does
the site have so many cookies?
trAce uses cookies to gain information about our visitors,
such as country of origin and browser use. We DO NOT collect any
information in this way about individuals. /more about cookies
Do you
know of any good web sites for writers?
Try the trAced Links in the
Resources section, where we research and review web sites of
interest to writers from webzines to writing competitions, from
poetry to scriptwriting. You'll also find sites there by trAce
members themselves as well as links to conferences and
events.
What do
people get out of trAce?
"I've learnt a lot
from trAce and all the writers I've listened to on this list, no
matter how experienced or how long-standing a member of trAce they
are. It's the freshness of the ideas and enthusiasm that I
like." (trAce member)
"Voices,
unified, ConCordant, Confident in reCreation" (trAce
member)
Can
you recommend an Internet Service Provider?
There
are so many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in each country that
we can't recommend a particular one. We suggest you choose a provider
which does not limit your online access, and which is free or charges
a flat rate fee per month (not dependent on your online time). There
are many magazines which cover the various types of Internet access
and the pros and cons of each.
Can I
have a trAce email address or webspace?
trAce does not offer
email addresses at present. Webspace is available to writers with a
formal arrangement with trAce: for example, Writers-in-Residence,
wired poets, writers on attachment and some trainees.
Do you have meetings in real life?
We hold our conferences
in virtual as well as real space. The educational community
LinguaMOO hosts our virtual meeting room, where formal and informal
discussions regularly take place. The first live Day Conference was
'Writers and the Internet' in Nottingham, England, in October 1998.
An international conference, Incubation, took place in July 2000 and
the next Incubation conference
will take place in July 2002. For an up to date list of events,
conferences and appearances, see the Events page.
How do I
find what I want on the World-Wide Web?
Some search tips:
- Be as
specific as possible, or you will get millions of hits!
Not
poets but Robert Frost
- Don't include
unnecessary words (e.g., papers about bacteria) unless they
are part of the search term.
- Use plus (+)
and minus (-) signs to force a word to be included or excluded,
and use quote marks ("") to look for a phrase.
e.g., to find
the English writer called Elizabeth Taylor, search for
+"Elizabeth Taylor" -movie -film -actress
- The other way
to find information, especially if you're not sure what you want,
or have very general needs, is to surf: that is, to start with a
web site and use their links page to move to other related sites.
For example, trAce has a list of links
to other writing websites.
- A good search
engine to use is www.Google.com, but results are
different on all: Yahoo offers
a directory-based search, Altavista is extremely
comprehensive and metasearch engines like Dogpile search several search
engines at once. Experiment to see which one suits you
best.
Is there
anyone who can answer my questions about writing online and using
the Net?
trAce's volunteer mentors offer
advice and support whether you're trying to make the most of the
trAce site, explore the Internet for the first time or create your
own web-work.
Where can I get free stuff on the Web?
The most comprehensive sources of free and
shareware software include sites like http://www.tucows.com, http://download.cnet.com, and http://www.zdnet.com/swlib/
but you will find many others too.
Remember that although you can get many applications for
free, most graphics on the Web are copyright. To use them on your own website
you should obtain permission from the site or its owner. There are
collections of free graphics which are stated non-copyright. Try
searching for free graphics. One place to start is http://www.freegraphics.com/.
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