Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Great content, design and community atmosphere |
| Disadvantages: |
I'll never get any work done now . . . |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
The tagline on the front page of the Thought Cafe website reads "a quiet corner of the internet for amateur writers to meet, chat, publish their writing and give and receive feedback" - and by and large it is true.
Although appearing to be devoid of any sponsorship or advertising, Thought Cafe is a well crafted site providing amateur authors the facility to showcase their work, and invite comment.
The site requires authors to register (for free), which allows them to add their own writings into the site. The amassed archives of writings already submitted by other authors are collected together by category, with all genres allowed for.
Along with the basic author details, members are encouraged to write a short biographical summary of themselves. The author page also lists a bibliography of the author's work on the site linking through to the actual articles - the makers of the site really do seem to have covered every angle for navigating the content.
The casual visitor to the site can take part in any section of the site - commenting on articles, leaving their mark in the guestbook, and contributing to the many discussion forums. Contributing members have access to a wonderful feature called "My ThoughtCafe" where they can see the comments and number of views of all their articles.
Their seems to be a real sense of community within the site, with a very friendly atmosphere and a real depth to the content. The editor even writes a regular newsletter announcing new content, and updating members with any news of changes to the site. When new members join the editor even takes the time to individually welcome them!
While browsing the site it was noted that none of the sections appear to be created from third party technologies either - something that is refreshing and good to see. The advantages of this were seen recently when members asked for modifications to the way a section worked - and within hours the change had been made.
All in all, the ThoughtCafe is obviously one of the most professionally put together sites I have run across on the internet - and something of a rarity in that it appears to be a labour of love - not a commercial entity. Bravo I say, and here's to all the members, and the novel I may write one day!
