About Us
ABOUT INDIEINK
- – -
WHO WE ARE:
IndieInk is a non-profit, independent literary and art collective. IndieInk (or “II” as we fondly refer to our community) was conceived in 2006 by Anastacia Campbell, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, because there didn’t appear to be a place where everyone could write without pretension or categorization. Nearly five years later, II has morphed into an amazing and diverse community of writers and artists of all genres whose main goal is to create. Stats, traffic, readership size, advertisements and making money, judgment…that’s not who we are or ever will be. We’re a community who cares about each other and feel this is a place where we can flex our creative muscles without fear of judgment and, further, where we can ask each other for feedback or help without feeling minimized or in any way less talented. The guts of II is filled with a small group of Editors who will do everything possible to reinforce this mission.
II is passion, spirit, creation and community.
II has seen a few iterations as we try to keep up with the inter-tubes and stay fresh and interesting. In September 2011, we decided to refocus our energies on what we think we do best – showcase your talent, because it deserves to be seen. There are other writing sites now, but we want to remain unique and always uninfluenced. What we want is to challenge you, to showcase your efforts and talent, to watch you (and ourselves) grow and to create an active community in which everyone feels comfortable. The 2011 II Remix is all about that: community. We’ve got challenges and forums and, most of all, fun. Because that’s what creating is and should always be: FUN.
We challenge the writing and art community, including ourselves, but always remember: Composition, Not Competition.
Let’s just have fun. Two basic rules: (1) write well; and (2) don’t be a d*ck. Abrasive? Crude? Possibly. Just don’t. We don’t play that stupid shit here.
WHO “WE” ARE
We here at II like to keep our operation small and cozy. We are not paid – either monetarily or with gifts and favors (although…) – we do this for free and on our own time because we enjoy it and like the community. Smoking jackets and snifters of brandy are always a staple of our lively Editorial Roundtables, wherein we engage in friendly debates concerning the superiority of the Chicago Manual of Style, as well as matters Strunck & White, The Bluebook, the selected writings of Bryan Garner, the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Writing, the Oxford Dictionary of English, the American Heritage Dictionary, Gregg’s Reference Guide, and selected treatises of Chomsky, Langacker, and Lakoff.
You think we’re kidding.
Above all, we’re a close-knit group who like you. We take our Weekly Editors’ Pick seriously and believe in rewarding hard and inspirational work. Each Editor nominates one (sometimes it’s a tie) post from his or her editorial shift, and at the end of the week they’re all collected for a secret vote that determines the piece for the week that stood out to us for some reason. THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION.
If you’d like to contact us, we loves us some e-mail – see the Contact page for all the information you will ever need to pin us down. Unless it’s mean, in which case our feelings will be hurt, so have some compassion for the fine folks who work for free to provide you a place with fun, forums, communication without judgment, challenges, diversity and helping you attain at least some of the attention your talent deserves, eh? Or just tell us to go straight to Hell, because we deserve a fiery, stabby death for fucking something up.
I hate that I have to single this next part out.
WHO “YOU” ARE
You are more than welcome to compete against yourself or to take advantage of some friendly, supportive jousting, but, to repeat, THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION. If you are looking to compete and be judged, you will not be happy here. We try to give feedback as much as we can, but sometimes you might not hear a peep from us. We are doing everything we possibly can to showcase you, so sometimes we don’t get the opportunity to talk to everyone individually every week. We strongly encourage positive constructive criticism and supportive comments, but we cannot force sincerity from others and sometimes there won’t be any comments. It would be ridiculous to gauge the quality of your writing on this alone. If you want feedback or help, ask! We love talking, we just may not have the time or resources to initiate it every time. Take advantage of the fact that this is your community. Start discussions, ask questions. If you need something, ASK FOR IT. Please help us help you. We’re here to have fun. If you don’t reach out to us to give us feedback, we can’t improve the site. It’s that simple. We want to hear from you, but we cannot read minds. What’s more, if you don’t reach out to us before you complain about it, well, you never really gave the non-drama method much of a chance and we can’t be held responsible. This is a drama-free zone.
As stated a few times throughout this page, we are here to have fun. We do not “do” drama or theatrics. We do not tolerate offensive behavior. We barely tolerate crabbiness from each other, much less anyone being a d*ck on the site to us or others, so please, if this is something on which you thrive, pretty please with a cherry on top, take it somewhere else. There are other sites who tolerate and/or encourage this far better than we will. For God’s sake, our official “mascot” is a blingee Gangsta Cat. That should say all of the things.
WE JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN AND WE WANT YOU TO HAVE FUN. That’s it! Easy-peasy!
Anyway. Enough talk.
Write well. Write now.
PS: This really speaks to us.
