The Guardian of Forever

[CX]

What, you mean the "No whining" rule?

Not sure what problem you're having with the forum, Linda. The current link probably wouldn't work for it yet as the forum is still set to be private until the board owner decides to make the remerge of TrekOnline official. I've already moved pretty much everything in the public forums from the surviving members of TO, so it could be any time. The link for the main BBS is here. GoF is going to simply be one part of a much larger whole, with one forum to discuss the fics posted at it and the site itself.

Someone asked me about poetry. GoF isn't going to host poetry, I just honestly can't think of a way to make a section for that that would fit with everything else. Nov-Net has a forum called the Coffee House though where you could post any poetry you'd like to share. I actually posted some of my stuff from my Creative Writing class there a while ago, and based on the feedback, I'm probably going to revise one of my TnT poems and submit it here.

Nov-Net is a pretty nice little place, much like this one, but it doesn't really have a focus. It used to be big on RPGs, but as you can see by what remains of those along the bottom of the index page, that fell off some time ago. It's also not exclusively dedicated to Star Trek, and while discussion about that is going to come back to Nov-Net because of the remerge (it had gone to TrekOnline when we split a while back), it's not going to be anything like what you'd find at a place like TriS or one of the other sites dedicated to Trek.

[Linda]

Oh, well, it is not particularly CX's site - I like the look of his site. It is GWI interfaces in general - a busy screen full of pictures, ikons, text, lists, it takes me awhile to locate things. Its the amount of info, not just the size. I think age has downsized the temporary storage section of my brain and slowed my comprehension, LOL.

[Distracted]

What, you mean the "No whining" rule?

Partially. Mainly, though, it's the "in your face" tone of the whole thing that's sort of offputting, as if you're talking to someone you know will be difficult and hostile and so you're laying down the law. I wouldn't have had the nerve to try to post anything on your site 3 years ago when I was starting out. Just the belligerant tone of the guidelines would have scared me away. Not to mention the HTML coding requirements. I had no idea what those were back then, and unless they have computer experience your potential contributers won't either. Fanfiction.net doesn't require any HTML knowledge. Neither does Fanlib. So the contributers you get will likely be computer nerds or old timers like me, and the bright eyed and talented teenagers will stay where it's safe and familiar.

Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with a computer nerd. Some of them can even write. It's just that there are a lot of gifted young fanfic writers out there, and, IMO, not all of them are brave enough to tackle your requirements. Just putting in my two cents.

[CoffeeCat]

I may be able to fix the formatting issue once and for all.
Writers don't want to html format and neither do archivists, so all that needs to be done is make the website do it instead.

And before you ask, yes I can write a program that can do this if you want to wait for it. Or you can be like me and jump on the efiction bandwagon: the good thing about efiction is that you can adjust the settings so only the archivist can post authors stories just in case you want to run the site like a zine where all submissions are screened and only accepted if they're something you're sure fits the style, tone, and will pacify your readers.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Regarding HTML-coding, there's a simple way to get around that. I have my own site at http://www.freewebs.com and I don't have to code anything. They have a generator that does that for you. So I just put in the text I've written (usually my reviews) in the "Paragraph Editor" mode and, voilà, it creates a proper HTML page for me. I can then switch to "Raw HTML Paragraph" mode in editing and it will show you the HTML code for your text - with italics, breaks, whatever. You can just copy it from there.

So basically, just sign up for a free account there and put whatever fics you get through their generator to get the coding.

[CX]

Not to mention the HTML coding requirements. I had no idea what those were back then, and unless they have computer experience your potential contributers won't either. Fanfiction.net doesn't require any HTML knowledge. Neither does Fanlib.

FF.N and Fanlib both do the coding for the user. The catch there is that both have a tendancy to screw things up. I had to fix the story I posted on FF.N after I uploaded it, and on Fanlib it actually wouldn't let me display my Letter story the way I wanted to. A very basica understanding of HTML can go a long way, which is why further down the page I give an example, explain what everything does, and further yet down the page I actually give a short lesson in basic HTML. Both TriS and HoT have these requirements, so I don't feel the odd man out about it.


The main thing for me is the no slash and no AinT, and I don't particuliarly want to hear anyone complain about it, hense my catch-all "No whining" rule. I am toning it down a bit though, as suggested.

[CoffeeCat]

The shorter the better, CX. If it were me I'd just come out and say that - or something like:

Me => Archivist
You = Not Archivist
You = Don't send me slash, Aint, J/P, or C/7. If you do: Me => not post story and might firebomb your inbox.

Actually... I might use that for Paris-Torres.net.

So, how would you feel if I designed a program that could format all line breaks in a .txt file into paragraphs, but would leave the <i>'s and the <b>'s to the writer. All you would have to do is just drop that sucker into a folder on the site.

[blacknblue]

Can I offer an unwanted opinion? As an ignorant old man, I suggest that you either force them to do it all, or offer to do it all for them. In between just confuses the issue and the writer both.

Surely there is something out there that can format a simple text or RTF file? In this day and age? There are eighteen dozen free HTML WYSIWYG web page editors out there, after all.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Surely there is something out there that can format a simple text or RTF file? In this day and age? There are eighteen dozen free HTML WYSIWYG web page editors out there, after all.

Yeah, like I said in my post above.

And to be frank, I think requiring writers to do the HTML-coding themselves will in all likelihood scare a lot of them away, no matter how simple you or I may think it is. And to do the coding while you're writing is just not done. Way too distracting. Which is why I'm thankful I can write my reviews in an ordinary word processor program and after that just paste that into the freewebs generator and it will automatically code it for me.

Heck, we use the same principle at the newspaper I work for. The editorial system works much like a word processor and when you transfer it onto the layout page, it automatically knows what should be bolded, italicized or whatever.

[blacknblue]

Thanks for the Link KTR, I intend to start using it. It really has been annoying and distracting, like you said, having to go back and add codes. In fact, I had gotten to the point where I cut and paste the <p> codes in advance, maybe twenty or thirty lines ahead of myself, and then just scroll down to start a new paragraph, merely to save myself some aggravation down the road. It's irritating to say the least. And it slows down production quite a bit too.

[CX]

Am I the only one who does it as they write? Usually it means I don't miss as much. I also test it out first to make sure I didn't forget a "/" somewhere.

Anyway, updated the Submissions page.

So, how would you feel if I designed a program that could format all line breaks in a .txt file into paragraphs, but would leave the <i>'s and the <b>'s to the writer. All you would have to do is just drop that sucker into a folder on the site.

Nah, if they still have to do some of it, they might as well do all of it. About the only thing would be if it did the underlines, italics, and bold lettering for them too.

[CoffeeCat]

I really don't want to go through every paragraph in the story to insert a <p> before each and a </p> after each one (and yes, as an HTML geek I would compulsively use the closing tag for all the same reasons that Rigil Kent hates cat macros).

Hell, I don't even go through the trouble with my own stories... not when I can get some program to do it for me. I think writers are nuts to go through that just to submit a story to a website that uses code from 1995.

I _just_ wouldn't. And to be honest, if I ever wrote a TnT story, I'd post it to fanfiction.net & if anyone sees it and wants it posted here or anywhere else *that* bad, well, then I'd let the archivist know in no uncertain terms that if they really really want to add it to their lovely collection, they better take my WYSIWYG converted version or just start inserting those <p> tags because I'm *not* doing it.

In other words - writers shouldn't have to do it and neither should archivists because there is enough technology out there that can do the dirty work. To expect either to have to sit there and do that would be like those nut cases on livejournal that spend their time sewing cloth diapers and maxi pads and call it a "poor skill".

Anyway, as far as getting it to convert underlines and italics...

If the underlines and bolds are only in the title and ratings and other story info, but not the actual story text, I could get the program to format that too. And if that were the case, I'd write in the submission guidelines that if the author wants certain text within the actual story to have italics that they can insert the HTML tags themselves and that it's not an absolute requirement.

[CX]

In that case a program like that could be useful.

[Distracted]

I'd use it. Coding stories drives me batty.

[CX]

Eh, it ain't so hard. Adding the italics and bold and that is old hand after being on BBS's for a while, you just have to go from the "[" key to the "<" key for most of it. I guess when I posted my first story to HoT even though I hadn't had a thing to do with HTML since my sophmore year of high school or so I was still able to do the basic stuff for the story without much trouble. I'm still not exactly HTML savvy and I managed to cobble a website together after all.