Have you noticed that here on rant rave only certain topics get the most responses? I believe that is because there are only a certain limited amount of active members on rant rave that actually spend time contributing.
That is not to say that there aren't a lot of readers. I believe there are a lot more readers then there are contributors. However the majority of those readers don't write. Ever wonder why that is? I believe they don't write because they feel intimidated. The regular writers and commentators are mostly politically or religiously slanted. Both of these topics are usually kept out of polite living room conversation, consequently those that might have something to say might not say it because they are afraid to be type cast as either this or that.
My exercise in creative writing servers two purposes. First it allows me to figure out how serious people take themselves. The rant rave community is the best place to do this because I don't really know any of you and nobody really knows me. As far as anybody here is concerned I could be a 70 year old grandmother or I could be 16 year old teenager. I don't feel comfortable playing these mind games on real people but rant rave is a virtual community of opinions. Quite the fertile ground for seeing what makes people tick.
The second purpose my creative writing serves is to explore the boundaries of ideas. In the real world as I said before. It is not a good idea to tell your friends and families something that is not true just to see how far that particular idea can be expanded. People in general tend to react differently when they know something is make believe. In a virtual world ideas tend to take on a life of their own. Truth and Fiction are not boundaries. An idea online therefore can morph organically based upon the fuel of real opinions rather than the cultural boundaries of the real world.
By creating multiple personas, especially out in the open I allow people to make up their mind who to believe. Am I the conservative 40 year old family man? Am I the liberal gender bender? Am I the southern bell? Am I the Christian with cult like beliefs? Which of these personas appeal most to the rant rave readership?
Politically speaking some personas get more attention, albeit negative, however religiously speaking other personas tend to be favored. One big observation I've noticed is that those that comment usually love an argument. They need a counterpoint, whereas those that only read don't. Some of the rants or raves with the most views have very few comments on them while some of the rants and raves with the most comments have relatively few views.
I don't suppose that rant rave could increase its traffic by analyzing my various contributions and making changes accordingly but while writing under the pseudonym Siempre Solo I noticed that part of rant raves greatest asset is its greatest curse. People who write tend to have a lot to say while people who read tend to be looking for a voice to express their boxed up thoughts. Bringing them together in one form seems like the logical thing to do except that once that is done nothing has really changed. Those that write do so linearly attracting the same crowed and those that read will not declare publicly what their preferences are.
This leads me to my third and last reason to contribute creative writing essays to Rant Rave. I fell in love with Rant Rave's format. As frustrated as I got on different occasions I kept coming back because I knew that even if there were no comments coming in that writing at rant rave did not fall on deaf ears. Rant Rave has a devoted readership. The problem is the lack of two way interaction on topics that are not politically or religiously motivated. Perhaps by writing openly as different personas I can coaxes others to feel more open about contributing ideas that they might otherwise feel that would type cast them as one or the other.