A
website started and mainly maintained by
Derek M. Powazek which
features creatively written,
albeit true to life, and imaginatively presented real life stories.
The Fray has four major categories all of which have their own
charms and place. The four categories are:
Although there does seem to be something
common among the stories that are classified together, one can't really put one's
finger on it, or at least I can't. To fully understand, go to
www.fray.com and read a few stories from each category. For some reason I am particularly fond of the stories under
Drugs, especially the one entitled "
Lost" by
William Hilf.
Like everything2 the content is mainly user contributed, although a number of the stories there are contributed by Powazek himself. Unlike e2 you don't have to stick to facts and nobody will tell you to earn your bullshit because in fact the stories are mainly stories that tell others about yourself, although you should note that there is a chance that they will not accept your submissions. The one important thing that a story must have is that it must end with a question, the very same question you have answered by writing your story. This encourages others to add their stories to yours and for people of similar backrounds or experience to communicate.
The highly imaginative use of web design is also a thing to marvel at fray.com, the design of the story layouts are not done by the story tellers though, stories are just submitted as text and it is the people of fray.com that do the design on the pages where the story is presented. So far they have not ceased to amaze me with what can be done without having to resort to Flash or some other sort of crap.
There is something about fray.com makes you feel that it really is a gem that you have found.
If you keep getting getting feces hurled at you because of the GTKY nodes you write, you might want to try The Fray, you will still need to keep a very high quality of writing and have a point to your story but at least you don't get chastised for writing about your experiences. The Fray also doesn't "lock" a story because it has gotten very big, reader contributions are as welcome on the day the story is posted as it is years later. The content will be select and updates far between, but overall, it is a must visit place on the world wide web. It is one of the last websites that I know off that still feels like it was really crafted by humans.
What have you read lately?