Your gracious apology is more than accepted and I extend mine in return.

It’s over. Thank God.

Thanks for the spell-check. But I think you missed my overall point- proper spelling and grammar are NOT some kind of litmus test for what makes a decent writer. (Not that I’m claiming to be that either. “God complex”? Hardly.) So I kinda think we agree.

Cheers, and I’m done with this thread now.

WGA Writer

Good one, Robert Wolfe. Restoring my faith in writers in one fell post.

I hope you and the other 7.5% aren’t feeling too sad.

92.5% of us are tying one on, and thrilled to go back to our jobs.

If you ever have one again, you’ll see how much fun it is.

Good day, sir.

P.S. I’m also voting for Obama, so it’s a good day for me!

Yes, I’d have liked to have seen the actual contract and had time to read through it in detail before the strike was called. And I wish the terms were much better and worry they will have some not-so-nice consequences long-term… But this whole thing is now over, and we’ll never know one way or the other what was possible and what wasn’t… So in the spirit of let’s-all-move-forward-and-kumbaya, I’m going to apologize for calling you a dick (and even a douche).

The time for polarizing rhetoric is over. It’s time to deal with whatever happens next. And we did accomplish some very good things these three months… so massive props to the leadership for getting us all off our collective asses in the first place.

And with that, I am out.

WGA Writer

PS- Nick Counter did not pay me for this one either.

I’m having such fun with the little flame war, so let’s take it one more round, and then I’m done.

First off– No question- my vote of “no” is *not* going to be in the majority by any means, and I’m very much expecting a blowout in the “yes” direction. But I think we could have done better in the end than the contract we have, so my vote is more a registration of that opinion. [update: email says it passed 92%, so there you go]

Second– I hate to be the one to tell you, but Strunk and White are still the go-to dudes on comma usage, even in 2008. My proposed usage of commas would hardly be considered “excessive”. It’s called standard English, my friend– sorry to humiliate you like that, but you gave me little choice. I am amused and flattered that you think I last “published prose” decades ago. Thank you.

It is the paragon of douchery to go all Mr. Grammar on someone in a nasty screed itself littered with grammatical errors. (Oh, and since you were criticizing screenwriters and not “book writers”, I’ll note that the use of sentence fragments is fairly common in the screenplay format. Try reading one sometime.)

Of course, it’s just as hypocritical to ridicule the idea of “shills” in one post, then in the next accuse me of being paid (by whom exactly? Nick Counter? Really?) for posting here.

You claim I am giving a “vote of no confidence” towards the leadership- I bear no ill will AT ALL toward the negotiating committee, the board, or anyone else. I like them personally and admire them very much for their tenacity, drive, organization, and accessibility, and think they’ve done a great job throughout the strike AND have defended them many times under many circumstances. My problem is with the contract proposal itself and the rapidity by which we are being asked to vote for it. I, like so many others, didn’t appreciate the tone of inevitability at the meeting (you’re wondering how I was there since I’m not a member, right?), nor the short timeframe for reviewing the contract summary.

I *still* have not seen the actual contract language. Have you?

I will vote “no” and “no”.

And you miscapitalized your name, you dumbass.">

1) It turns out “miscapitalized” isn’t even a word. Well, I take that back. “Miscapitalized” is a word like “ginormous” is a word.

2) “Apparant” is actually spelled “apparent”. Too bad for you the “a” and “e” buttons aren’t close enough together to form a proper excuse, right?

So, honestly, how does it feel to be a writer with a god complex? Were you too busy reading grammar books as a child to hear the “don’t be an asshole” talk from your parents?

Shame on you

Robert Wolfe, you not only kick ass (DS9 for the win!) but you crystallized the pros and cons of this plan without calling writerly hopefuls like me useless shits for our concern. Kudos. I have to believe, have to desperately cling to the hope that this really did cement a future for the Writer’s Guild and other entertainment unions in this country. My abiding and overriding concern has been that I would never have a WGA to join, much less a fair contract. If you’ve seen any of the other strike forums on the Internet (and even at times here), there’s a huge anti-union sentiment from people my age. My generation was weaned on our parents’ formula and tasted the Kool-Aid still lingering therein (flavor: Reaganomics Raspberry). It’ll only do harm.

Re: the promotional window, was the point ever made that the life span of Internet video is a mere fraction of that of any other medium? An Internet vid can be a hit, a t-shirt, a Halloween costume, and out in days. I just worry the studios will reap their e-cents easily and click “X” before the windows close.

Thank you for your moment’s balance in this discussion about the deal with this deal.

“…And cliche is a hole in it.” Get some better yarns, Tina - that dress is falling apart.

I don’t have a IMDB profile, and the prospect of writing anything lame enough to make a plutocrat enough horse to hoof me into the Guild is but a beggar’s fanciful wish. I’m certainly no “Mike Binder.” But I beseech you fellow writers and entertainmentvolk: judge debaters and their arguments on their own stupid and ad hominem merits, not on the size of one’s IMDBalls. “Tom Reynolds?” The Tom Reynolds who was in one episode of Dynasty? I won’t rely on “Alex’s Secretary’s” profundity to determine the apex and zenith of my compensatory destiny, thanks. (For he is no Mike Binder either…)

Nothing I’ve said herein is as odious as this name-dropping circle jerk. It’s as obnoxious as Eisner announcing the strike’s “done”ness while the meat was still marinating in the fridge. Each person plying this field, from loudest Mr. Anonymous to Google-readiest Reign Over Mike, has a stake and is owed a voice. Our priggishness or benevolence as storytellers and individuals earns us our reputation in this world, not our paycheck or our Internet credits. Enough of this piss vinaigrette.

Granted, your obnoxiousness masks valid points. It’s time for this strike to end, to get BTL folks off of collection agency hit-lists and avert the nascent World’s Loudest Gassy Secretaries on NBC. I also agree with Jonathan Handel that forgetting DVDs was unfortunate on the WGA’s part, but that pudding was thrown in the pot hastily and years too late. But it’s not falling on your sword to admit this contract is not perfect nor great - since it also isn’t eternal. I trust those who have been through this before, who know better, to vote in my name. I hope you all realize it’s not just your gambit you’re throwing here. And I hope, when I get the chance, to make an equal or better ante someday.

(Get thee gone, Nikki’s flu!)

- same DVD residuals
- reality and animation is still not WGA
- promotional window for internet downloads/streams
- the new media residuals are actually really crappy if you consider that on-demand via internet is likely to replace a lot of re-runs.

So… People really striked for this deal? The rhetoric of the WGA made me believe they wouldn’t stop until they brought down all of the big corporations to their knees. Revolution was nigh, or at least those Youtube videos from the picket line told me so.

This deal is a letdown.

First, though, the negatives. The things that keep me from using the Caps Lock key and hitting that exclamation point.

These days, I work mainly in cable. So I’m troubled by the fact that the DGA increases in cable directing were not mapped to writing fees and the fact that the vaunted 2% of gross for ad supported streaming does not apply to original cable shows.

Next, the failure to secure a DVD rate increase. I would have struck for this alone. I understand that, in the end, this may have been impossible to secure. I also understand that in time ESTs will probably cannabilize this market. Still, not getting a DVD bump (and not having favored nations if SAG pulls off a miracle and gets it for themselves) is a major disappointment.

Now for the neutrals:

I’m not thrilled by the 17-24 day window. Still, I’ve seen firsthand how free viewing windows can help a shows ratings, not to mention boost ESTs. For many, this is a huge negative. For me, it’s fairly neutral. I would have prefered a shorter window. We didn’t get it. C’est la guerre.

An EST rate of .7% (.65% for films) is not terrific, but it is an improvement on the .3% rate the studios were insisting for before the strike. I recently developed a show that sold well on iTunes. I’ll let the checks be the judge of how good a deal this is.

And finally, the upside:

I feel that 2% of televison library streaming (including, from what I can tell, cable shows in the second year of streaming and beyond), 1.2% of feature steaming, 1.2% of online rentals, and New Media jurisdiction with separated rights are substantial wins. More than that, they’re the things we had to get from this strike to protect the future of the entire WGA.

Sadly, I do not think we would have gotten these gains without a strike. In the end, we did better than I feared, worse than I hope. Our leadership did their very best. In some places they came up a bit short, but all in all they achieved their most important goal, they laid the groundwork for our future in New Media.

And that gets a “yes” from me.