How to use the title box

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Please Please Please Read This!

I have to mention this every once in a while, like about eight times this week already:

Please

Don't use number words or Roman numerals in the title box of chapters because that makes it very difficult to keep them in order.

Don't use plurals like "chapters" or "parts" unless you're going to always use plurals.

Don't use more than one space between words or numbers in titles.

Don't get tricky with the punctuation, like :-- or ......... or putting the title in quotes.

For the sake of my sanity, don't change the title of the story half way through!

Do put the story title and author name inside the story box, too, BTW.

Remember, the title box is just the index to your story, it's how people find it and how the system keeps things in order. It's not part of the story and not someplace to get particularly creative. It's like a door handle on a car, if the door handle doesn't look and act like a door handle, how the heck are you going to get into the car?

The automatic system will order number-named chapters like so:

Eight
Eleven
Five
Four
Nine
One
Seven
Six
Three
Twelve
Two

Roman numerals will be automatically ordered like so:

C
D
I
II
III
IV
IX
V
VI
VII
VIII
L
M
X
XI
XII

Putting them in the correct order by hand is a pain and impractical when you don't know how many chapters there are going to be. You can use number-names or Roman numerals inside the body box but in the title box, please use Arabic numbers.

All the other things mentioned above are also problems when they appear in the title box. Please don't do them.

Hugs,
Erin

Additionally

erin's picture

Please be consistent in how you write your title in your title box, things like punctuation or spaces have to be the same in each title for each chapter.

Breezeway - Chapter 1 will come AFTER

Breezeway Chapter 9

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

About spaces...

Puddintane's picture

Because of the way your computer displays spaces, extra spaces are completely invisible when displayed on the posted page.

These Titles, for example, are "correctly" sorted, but you can't see why they sort this way without looking at the source code for this page.

Farkle - Chapter 4
Farkle - Chapter 2
Farkle - Chapter 5
Farkle - Chapter 1
Farkle - Chapter 3

Here the extra spaces are made explicit, as they will be when you first post the story, or revisit it to edit it into submission:

Farkle - Chapter   4
Farkle - Chapter  2
Farkle - Chapter  5
Farkle - Chapter 1
Farkle - Chapter 3

Tricky, isn't it?

It's a feature, not a bug.

It's a feature, not a bug.

It's a feature, not a bug.

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

More about spaces...

Puddintane's picture

A Trick for Sorting Roman Numerals

Note: The sorting is done by inserting spaces in front of the Roman Numeral Chapter Numbers, according to a set pattern which can be extended.

With a maximum of four spaces, one can create a sorted list of up to thirty file names which sort properly because of a trick. (The critical spaces are designated — for display purposes only — as little dots)

Title - Chapter····I — Chapter Heading 1
Title - Chapter····II — Chapter Heading 2
Title - Chapter····III — Chapter Heading 3
Title - Chapter····IV — Chapter Heading 4
Title - Chapter····V — Chapter Heading 5
Title - Chapter····VI — Chapter Heading 6
Title - Chapter····VII — Chapter Heading 7
Title - Chapter····VIII — Chapter Heading 8
Title - Chapter···IX — Chapter Heading 9
Title - Chapter···X — Chapter Heading 10
Title - Chapter···XI — Chapter Heading 11
Title - Chapter···XII — Chapter Heading 12
Title - Chapter···XIII — Chapter Heading 13
Title - Chapter···XIV — Chapter Heading 14
Title - Chapter···XV — Chapter Heading 15
Title - Chapter···XVI — Chapter Heading 16
Title - Chapter···XVII — Chapter Heading 17
Title - Chapter···XVIII — Chapter Heading 18
Title - Chapter··XIX — Chapter Heading 19
Title - Chapter··XX — Chapter Heading 20
Title - Chapter··XXI — Chapter Heading 21
Title - Chapter··XXII — Chapter Heading 22
Title - Chapter··XXIII — Chapter Heading 23
Title - Chapter··XXIV — Chapter Heading 24
Title - Chapter··XXV — Chapter Heading 25
Title - Chapter··XXVI — Chapter Heading 26
Title - Chapter··XXVII — Chapter Heading 27
Title - Chapter··XXVIII — Chapter Heading 28
Title - Chapter·XXIX — Chapter Heading 29
Title - Chapter·XXX - Chapter Heading 30

Without the dots, the spaces collapse as usual in HTML displays, leaving behind what will appear to be a single space between the parts of the Title / Filename, but which will sort properly in an alphabetical list.

Title - Chapter I — Chapter Heading 1
Title - Chapter II — Chapter Heading 2
Title - Chapter III — Chapter Heading 3
Title - Chapter IV — Chapter Heading 4
Title - Chapter V — Chapter Heading 5
Title - Chapter VI — Chapter Heading 6
Title - Chapter VII — Chapter Heading 7
Title - Chapter VIII — Chapter Heading 8
Title - Chapter IX — Chapter Heading 9
Title - Chapter X — Chapter Heading 10
Title - Chapter XI — Chapter Heading 11
Title - Chapter XII — Chapter Heading 12
Title - Chapter XIII — Chapter Heading 13
Title - Chapter XIV — Chapter Heading 14
Title - Chapter XV — Chapter Heading 15
Title - Chapter XVI — Chapter Heading 16
Title - Chapter XVII — Chapter Heading 17
Title - Chapter XVIII — Chapter Heading 18
Title - Chapter XIX — Chapter Heading 19
Title - Chapter XX — Chapter Heading 20
Title - Chapter XXI — Chapter Heading 21
Title - Chapter XXII — Chapter Heading 22
Title - Chapter XXIII — Chapter Heading 23
Title - Chapter XXIV — Chapter Heading 24
Title - Chapter XXV — Chapter Heading 25
Title - Chapter XXVI — Chapter Heading 26
Title - Chapter XXVII — Chapter Heading 27
Title - Chapter XXVIII — Chapter Heading 28
Title - Chapter XXIX — Chapter Heading 29
Title - Chapter XXX - Chapter Heading 30

In other words, the system can be gulled into sorting filenames properly, using a trick which is devilishly difficult to debug.

Note that the same pattern will work until one gets to Roman Numeral fifty (L), accounting for which is left as an exercise for the curious student. No one will have the slightest sympathy if you muck it up, but it's an interesting use of what might otherwise be considered a bug, and not a feature.

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

If you know for sure in advance how many...

erin's picture

...chapters there will be, you can use the weights to sort. Just don't expect me to do it. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

*just had to laugh at that*

Zoe Taylor's picture

No one will have the slightest sympathy if you muck it up

Sorry, but that line made me giggle. I am the GRANDMASTER of mucking things up, which is why I shall continue to use the weighting system as I do now, but that's still a brilliant way of pulling off Roman numerals!

* * *

"Zoe, you are definitely the Queen of Sweetness with these Robin stories!"
~ Tychonaut

~* Queen of Sweetness *~

~* Queen of Sweetness *~

Become a Patron for early access ♥

As a private exercise...

Puddintane's picture

I've extended the trick up to chapter 118 using the same scheme, a maximum of four spaces and using weights only up to 3 (three), so it's clearly possible to create hundreds of chapters in this manner and still have them sort properly, but please realise that I'm a professional programmer, have all the tools available to test offline, have the good luck to be able to focus on teeny-tiny detail without going crazy, and have prior experience in automating computerised access to a Nuclear Power Plant Manual, the sections of which used interesting and inconsistent combinations of Arabic and Roman numbering.

The complex access algorithms involved had defeated their in-house programmers for years. They were more than ticked off when I solved it in three days. It's all a matter of how one looks at things.

The Nine Dots Puzzle

Euler's Seven Bridges of Königsberg Problem.

The last one's just as simple if one thinks outside the box.

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Not our software

erin's picture

That's how the HTML spec reads. If it didn't work that way, it WOULD be a bug. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

What about

What about using hexadecimal or binary?

Love,

Paula

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.

The Coda
Chapterhouse: Dune

Paula

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.

The Coda
Chapterhouse: Dune

Hahahahaha!!!

Funny you should mention that.
Well, it will be inconvenient for less math-wired ones.
But binary should still work, provided you initially set a certain number of bits beforehand.
As for the hexadecimal? Dunno.

Faraway

On rights of free advertisement:
Big Closet Top Shelf

Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!

Faraway


On rights of free advertisement:
Big Closet Top Shelf

Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!

Hexadecimal

As long as you prefix the number with some text, alphabetical sorting algorithms should be fine with Hex - just don't forget if you're writing 15 < chapters < 256, use double digits (e.g. 01 --> FF), and for 255 < chapters < 4096, use triple digits (e.g. 001 --> FFF)
Binary only works if you know in advance how many chapters there'll be (to the nearest power of 2):

        01 --> 11         =     3 chapters (202-1)
       001 --> 111        =     7 chapters (203-1)
      0001 --> 1111       =    15 chapters (204-1)
     00001 --> 11111      =    31 chapters (205-1)
    000001 --> 111111     =    63 chapters (206-1)
   0000001 --> 1111111    =   127 chapters (207-1)
  00000001 --> 11111111   =   255 chapters (208-1)
 000000001 --> 111111111  =   512 chapters (209-1)
0000000001 --> 1111111111 = 1,024 chapters (210-1) = a kilochapter

Octal notation would probably work without modification, or you could even be devious and use something like powers of 2, triangular numbers, square numbers, prime numbers, multiples of π or fibonacci numbers (from n=2)...
 
 
--Ben


This space intentionally left blank.

As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

10 bits

"Never trust a girl that can count to 1,023 on her fingers..." -- W. Jurek in reference to me in 2000.

The horror! ^_^

You know, I am creative/perverse enough to use my pinky toes and my thumb toes to elevate that up to 14 bits! Or, if you want, 16191!
But I commend you, this manner of counting with fingers was unexpectedly creative!! I never even thought of that.

Faraway

On rights of free advertisement:
Big Closet Top Shelf

Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!

Faraway


On rights of free advertisement:
Big Closet Top Shelf

Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!

Now

Now my head hurts from the eyestrain

Binary behaves no differently to decimal notation

Puddintane's picture

You simply have to adjust the weighting appropriately. In particular, you don't need leading zeros.

1 - Weight = 0
10 - Weight = 1
11 - Weight = 1
100 - Weight = 2
101 - Weight = 2
110 - Weight = 2
111 - Weight = 2
1000 - Weight = 3
1001 - Weight = 3
1010 - Weight = 3
1011 - Weight = 3
1100 - Weight = 3
1101 - Weight = 3
1110 - Weight = 3
1111 - Weight = 3

...

111111111111111 - Weight = 15

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Weighty Subject

So... you're saying that the value of the weight should be one less than the number of digits, then?

Seems to me that that would work as an easily-remembered rule-of-thumb for decimal, too. (Octal, hexadecimal, no, let's not go there.)

Penny

That's right

erin's picture

Except in the case of things like Epilogues, Prologues, and such, the weight is equal to the number of digits -1.

That's why it is easy to set the weights if the chapters are numbered according to the plan. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

And if you follow the "plan"

Puddintane's picture

...and aren't one of those who arranges their own Outline arrangements to collect their story (or stories) together, you will be the recipient of heartfelt gratitude on the part of the site elves who arrange these things on your behalf.

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Hex and Octal

Puddintane's picture

Work just fine, but it does tend to shift one's audience toward the nerdish extreme. I imagine answering all the questions would quickly offset any particular pleasure one might derive from the technical coup.

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

I hope you're kidding :)

erin's picture

Seriously, after this amount of overkill, you are kidding aren't you? :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Numbering chapters - Eep? Edit: Oh, duh.

Zoe Taylor's picture

It just occured to me that I may need to edit my first four chapters again.

There are 24 chapters in total, posted two chapters at a time.
Currently I'm using the order as
Becoming Robin - 1 & 2 -
Does the system number 1 before 11, or should I make that 01, 02, etc? Just checking :-D

I really wish I had read the FAQ section in its entirety before starting to post, for which I apologize profusely to our wonderful Moderator staff in any event :-)

Edit: Nevermind, I found the post on using weights and the ++Organizer. I'm going to go to bed now :-P


Zoe_anime_CAC.png

~* Queen of Sweetness *~

Become a Patron for early access ♥

Weights does the job, but....

two chapter posts would sort like this:
11-12
13-14
1-2
21-22
31-32
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10

So, as is mentioned elsewhere leading zeros are your friends... And, it's probably better to be consistent. (01-02 looks better than 01-2 to most people)

Anne

Leading zeros

erin's picture

Leading zeros are not really necessary and they don't look good in every context.

It's easy enough to predict that I will need a weight of 1 for a two digit number, a weight of 2 for a three digit number ... but what weight is needed for Chapter Thirty-One or Chapter XXIV?

There's also this problem, someone names their chapters this way:

A Saga
A SAGA PART 2
A Saga Chapter 3
A saga Pt IV
Part the Fifth: A Saga
Interlude in a saga
Chapter 7
Chapters 8-10
Chap. -11-
Ch. Twelve

That kind of thing drives me nuts. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

As Erin pointed out...

Puddintane's picture

Multiple chapters are no problem at all, as long as the file title stays consistent.

Chapters 1-10
Chapters 11-99
Chapters 100-300
Chapters 301-450

all sort perfectly normally if one follows the standard formula of bumping the "Weight" by one with every order of magnitude.

So...

Chapters 1-10 has Weight = 0
Chapters 11-99 has Weight = 1
Chapters 100-300 has Weight = 2
Chapters 301-450 has Weight = 2

Not a problem.

Stuffing in:

Chapter 451

on the other hand, throws a monkey wrench into the works, because the format has changed.

If one simply must have Roman Numerals for Aesthetic reasons of Refined Artistic Temperament, it's easy enough to stuff in a discreet number in front somewhere, like this:

Fred's War 1 - Chapter I
Fred's War 2 - Chapters II to IV
Fred's War 3 - Chapters V to VIII
Fred's War 4 - Chapters IX to X
Fred's War 5 - Sylvan Interlude
Fred's War 6 - Chapter XI
and so on....

Thus far, all these are Weight = 0

If you like, the number could just as well be in front, like this:

1 - My Dinner with Fred
2 - Fred's Wife Wilma
3 - Betty
4 - Barney
5 - Bam Bam

Putting it in front allows for complete freedom in the tail end, and simplifies the burden on one's memory.

Cheers,

Puddin'

P.S. Please note that the stuff in the so-called "Title:" box on the story entry page is actually a file name, which is part of the technical underpinnings of the site, not your story. If you want a title that's guaranteed to remain exactly how you formatted it, put it in the "Body:" box where it belongs. That's where your story lives, not the various entry fields around it.

You'll notice that it's bigger than all the other boxes, to leave plenty of room, and can be "dragged" to make it larger.

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Confusion

OK, most of my story is set up like:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I'd like to do two parts together like:

Part 5 & 6, or Part 5-6

Then go back to individual parts again.

Possible?

Confused Connie

Not a problem, unless you try to be grammatical

Puddintane's picture

and make Part plural.

Part 1
Parts 2-4
Part 5

would sort to:

Part 1
Part 5
Parts 2-4

When the system sorts your "Title" filenames, it looks along the line of characters letter by letter and alphabetises them. It doesn't matter whether any numbers are missing, as long as they're in the proper order. The only thing that matters about sort order is the weight, which is used to make ugly leading zeros unnecessary.

Part 1 - Weight = 0
Part 2 - Weight = 0
Part 3, 4, and 5 - Weight = 0
Part 6 - Weight = 0
Part 7-8 - Weight = 0
Part 9 through 12 - Weight = 0
Part 13 and 14 - Weight = 1
Part 15-16 - Weight = 1
Part 17, 18 - Weight = 1
Part 19-44 - Weight = 1
Part 45-310 - Weight = 1
Part 311 - Weight = 2

Note that you could do exactly the same thing with leading zeros.

Part 001 - Weight = 0
Part 002 - Weight = 0
Part 003, 4, and 5 - Weight = 0
Part 006 - Weight = 0
Part 007-8 - Weight = 0
Part 009 through 12 - Weight = 0
Part 013 and 14 - Weight = 0
Part 015-16 - Weight = 0
Part 017, 18 - Weight = 0
Part 019-44 - Weight = 0
Part 045-310 - Weight = 0
Part 311 - Weight = 0

but it looks a little nerdy, like Stardate 23859.7

I've used random title formats after the leading number, just to show that it doesn't matter.

For neatness, it would be nice to make all the titles share a single format, or a set of formats which varied by the number of conjoined chapters or parts, whatever you want to call them.

Cheers,

Puddin'

P.S. I actually sorted these examples in an external editor which works in the same manner as does the Big Closet sorting mechanism, except I had to simulate the weight feature through manual selection of all the lines beginning with numbers of a given magnitude.

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Weights doing their job

Puddintane's picture

11-12
13-14
1-2
21-22
31-32
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10

As usual, all the initial chapter numbers which have with a single digit will be Weight = 0 (zero)

1-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10

All the initial chapter numbers which have two digits will have Weight = 1 (one)

11-12
13-14
21-22

They'll sort like this:

1-2 --- Weight = 0
3-4 --- Weight = 0
5-6 --- Weight = 0
7-8 --- Weight = 0
9-10 -- Weight = 0
11-12 - Weight = 1
13-14 - Weight = 1
21-22 - Weight = 1

Just as one would want them to do.

The Weight = 0 numbers take precedence over the Weight = 1 numbers, so they will always appear first in the list, properly sorted, and then the Weight = 1 numbers will be properly sorted below them.

This whole "weight" terminology is a little confusing, because it uses "heaviness" as a metaphor for "precedence," but this is common in other contexts as well: "He's a heavy hitter." "Big man on campus." "We're putting all our heavyweights in the alpha team." "A weighted list." "Fred is a lightweight."

The problem arises because the alphabet sorts in order of precedence, not how much the letters weigh, and the numbers which should take precedence over "lower" numbers are smaller, the opposite of "heavy" in ordinary thought.

One might think of them as "rising to the top."

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

I freshened the date on this...

erin's picture

..because it continues to be a problem; like, four to VIII times a week. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

This Could Be Fun

Before you change things, think!

The author might wish to make this an on-line puzzle, supplying the various pieces and letting the reader assemble them in the correct order in their minds as the story progresses. It would be like the after effects of getting a good shot to the head; all the memories are there, they're just all jumbled about and mixed up.

This could be so much fun!

(Yeah, right!)

Nancy Cole

Nancy_Cole__Red_Background_.png


~ ~ ~

"You may be what you resolve to be."

T.J. Jackson

It's actually quite easy to go wrong...

Puddintane's picture

If you're starting out a serial story, it pays to make a sort of skeleton framework for every chapter, so you can "copy and paste" identical information whenever you start a new episode. As an example:

<!-- Fred's Farkle - XXX -->

<div align="center"><strong><font face='verdana,arial,geneva,sanserif' size='5' color='#A05'>Fred's Farkle</font></strong></div>
<div align="center"><strong><font face='verdana,arial,geneva,sanserif' size='4' color='#A05'>by Isadora Smith</font></strong></div>

~o~

XXX Intro Stuff XXX

~o~

I've used a couple of tricks to make life easier.

First, the series title is hidden within an HTML comment element, so you don't have to remember to delete it, and can leave it in place as a reminder. All you have to do is replace the first XXX with an actual chapter number when you paste it into the title field

Second, I've used easy-to notice strings of characters for the bits that need to change in every new episode. If you use an actual chapter number, or cut and paste from a previous chapter, it's all too easy to overlook the old chapter information, because it will look right, but may have the previous chapter number.

Third, I've made the "business end" of the Title very short. If you simply must have Roman Numerals, or spelt out chapter numbers, you can easily add them at the end, where they will do no harm.

  • Fred's Farkle - 1 - Chapter One
  • Fred's Farkle - 2 - Chapter II
  • Fred's Farkle - 3 - Book of the Three Mileposts

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Here's a helpful hint

For authors with a multi part story. Copy and Paste the title from the previous chapter and just change the number. That's what I do when I post a new oart if .

“My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.”- Thomas Helm

Daniel, author of maid, whore, bimbo, and sissy free TG fiction since 2000

What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.- Oscar Levant

Browser memory

erin's picture

When I start to fill in a title box, the browser remembers what similar things I last filled a title box with and offers to use that. I let it then change the parts that have changed. Very little typing and no need to cut and paste.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

It truly is sad when it comes to that for some of us

Andrea Lena's picture

My browser has more memory than I do. Ah me!

She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Con grande amore e di affetto, Andrea Lena

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

Hmmmm

Erin, dear,

Are you trying to tell us something?

Nancy Cole

Nancy_Cole__Red_Background_.png


~ ~ ~

"You may be what you resolve to be."

T.J. Jackson

Yes, I am

erin's picture

Not to pick on you at all, Nancy, I know you're trying to lighten themood.

But I'm about seventeen cents short of giving it up as a bad job since someone wrote me a poor me letter saying that since they could not do it right, they just wouldn't post at all.

I need to be able to have rules and I need to be able to call them to people's attention. And no one person is responsible for the situation, as I said, it happened eight times last week before I posted the original plea for following rules and it's happened about ten times since then.

I've got eight cents in my pocket, does anyone have a quarter?

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Just out of curiosity... is

Just out of curiosity... is it not possible for you to just default sort everything in the order it was submitted? Why does it automatically sort things in alphabetical order?

Because that's how indexing works

erin's picture

The main pages sort in order of submission. Having an index that sorted in exactly the same way would not be useful. Alphabetic sorting has been around probably as long as alphabets, because it is useful. Think of an Encyclopedia. How useful would it be to sort things in the order the articles are written.

And my rule here is that I don't rewrite the software, that way, BC does not go down for months while I struggle with programming. I use off the shelf software and I'm limited by that.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

It would also be...

Puddintane's picture

Extremely awkward if one deleted and re-wrote a chapter from scratch, which has been done by some authors uncomfortable with online revision. How would one get the chapters back in order?

This was in fact one of the things that drove story sites away from BBS and e-mail hosts, and created a large part of the market for Drupal and Joomla and other "content management" systems which use databases as their primary record structure.

Look at how awkward ASSTR is, if you actually want to find anything, or many older sites. This is much better than the competition from any of the primitive dinosaur systems.

For example, if you want to find a story and happen to remember that the word "atropine" appeared in it, you can enter that as a search term and up it pops.

There are exactly two such stories on BC:

The Narragansett Fork - Chapters 25 & 26

Timeout 3-Continuous play: A Whateley Academy Fan fiction, Chapter 14

I chose the word at random.

Beats the hell out of "categories."

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Well...

If the Author was given direct organisational control over their stories there would be no issue with deleting and then resubmitting previous parts.

This was just in defense of my idea. I realise now how unpractical such an idea is, as Erin would have to recode this whole site. Not so good...

What part of organisation is missing?

Puddintane's picture

I'm having trouble understanding, but perhaps I'm too influenced by what's possible.

There is, in fact, a sequential list of stories which one can follow just by going to the bottom of the site splash page and following the links back in time.

A similar sequential list -- arranged by author -- can be found by following the righthand author's name, although many authors intersperse stories in different stages of completion, but the listing is sequential.

The other sorts of organisation require a bit of strategic planning, but the provision of author pages and title pages, the primary organisational tools available, is completely under the control of the authors, unless they prefer site editors to do it for them. It's a little complex, I know, but it's doable.

The type of story which doesn't fit well into this hierarchical format are the loosely interconnected thread stories, which weave into each other over time. Without a fully associative database, it's difficult to arrange such things, as associative databases are thin on the ground.

Maybe next year,

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Loosely interconnected thread stories

"The type of story which doesn't fit well into this hierarchical format are the loosely interconnected thread stories, which weave into each other over time."

You're telling me. What has lately become even worse is when the "loosely interconnected stories" are written by more than one author, for example the recent "The Center" universe. How the heck is a newcomer ever supposed to figure out what story goes in what chronological order, and where to find the next one?

Aaagh!

Penny

- Sorry, Erin. I'm not deliberately trying to make your life worse...

Universes

Puddintane's picture

Sometimes, the stories are connected together on a page dedicated to the universe, but the automated tools are designed for sequential stories.

This means that any level of meta-organisation has to be created manually.

Back in the olden days, Erin and I created a little trailer to fit into the bottom of a story page, which blended in with the normal sequential story links but allowed meta-content to be inserted into the story as needed.

Unfortunately, the story in which we did this is no longer available, but here is one form of the meta-links:



What it looks like:

<blockquote>
<hr />
<div align="center"><a href="http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/20577/comics-retcon-universe">&​#171;&​#160;Visit the Comics Retcon Universe&​#160;&​#187;</a></div>
</blockquote>

A similar treatment could provide links into parallel or sequential stories by other authors.

Alternatively, you could handle the issue in the text itself, as is often done in the context of fan fiction: "This story takes place after the incident at Ferndale Gully in Episode seven, but before the Exploding Gerbil episode."

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Authors DO have direct organizational control over their stories

erin's picture

Once you have an author account, you can create Organizer pages yourself and link things together. That's all there is to it. Some authors do do it for themselves, but not everyone is techie enough to tackle it.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Duh

Its so easy to post a comment. Why does it seem
impossible to post a short story. Where do I go for
simple instructions on how to post a story. I am
working on a short story. But don't have the
slightest idea how to post. Please help with info.

Kaptin Nibbles

First, you need an account

erin's picture

Visitors cannot post stories. You have to have an account. I answered this question for you once earlier today.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

What Then

I open an account what then. What door appears
that allows me to post. Sorry for the second request
for info. I got lost and couldn't locate where I had
requested info. I am computer challenged. But I
am a wizard with a slide rule. I am from the age
where you got married before you had sex. At least
that is the lie I was told.

Kaptin Nibbles

After logging in...

erin's picture

...you'll see a menu item ++Fiction near the top middle of your screen. Click that and there will be an electronic form to fill out. Put in a title. Pick New Author from the author menu. Make choices from the other menus for Publication, Genre, Rating, Theme, Elements and Permissions. Fill in your story or paste it in from some other program. Make sure you have blank lines between paragraphs. Scroll to the bottom and click review or preview (I've forgotten what the button says). Review your entry and get a look at what it will look like. Then click submit.

The story will immediately appear on the front page for logged in viewers. Non logged in readers will have to wait up to half an hour to see the story because of caching. The site uses two different kinds of caching, one for logged in users that refreshes any time something changes and one for non-logged in users that refreshes every half hour.

After it appears, sometime in the next 24 hours usually, I will upgrade your account to author which will allow posting images and editing after posting and I will add you to the author menu so you don't have to use New Author for your next story post. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Title Box

Thank you. I have copied the info.