Anthology

[Drizzt Do'urden]

I know it's been awhile since anyone has touched on this. But I'm coming to this issue now in my story post in the anthology section. Allamorph pointed me to this thread when I raised the question to him today.

I had a solution that maybe could allow for the rule to be changed, but keep stipulations in place to make it more of a "compromise". What if the rule allowed multiple posting based on the criteria that 1.) Posters would need to wait 1 week to allow other people the opportunity to post their comments. 2.) If a poster is making a post simply to push his/her post to the top of the list and not making any progress in the discussion/story. The moderator [U][B]WILL[/B][/U] delete the thread and the poster will be barred from posting for a set period of time.

I know you can edit and make breaks and that's all well and good. But it all comes down to, just as Justin said, just being able to add a post to your story instead of editing, deleting, copying, pasting, is a time saver. It allows for more time to write, and it may just be me, but the presentation is much better. It also gives someone following the story the ability to click the first unread post button and go straight to the new post. Or if they've been absent for awhile, they can go to where they left off.

I would appreciate some input on my addition to this discussion. Just so I know how it's being received.

Thanks
Zach

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I don't really care that much if the rule is changed (which is ultimately up to James), it just seems a bit lazy to want an exception to a rule when there's already a viable way of achieving the same thing that only takes about ten seconds longer. Same for wanting chapters in separate posts instead of making use of bb code to break things up. I've even made custom tags so that people who don't know HTML can use stuff like horizontal rules and anchors to link to specific sections of a post. (And I'm willing to add more if anyone has ideas for custom tags.) The options are there, it just seems like few people are taking advantage of them.

If we do change the rule, I think the exceptions should be kept as simple as possible. Basically just something like, "You're only allowed to double post if you're adding a new chapter to your story or you reach the character limit." Stuff like time limits confuse people and are a pain to enforce.[/color]

[Allamorph]

[quote name='Drizzt Do'urden']I know you can edit and make breaks and that's all well and good. But it all comes down to, just as Justin said, just being able to add a post to your story instead of editing, deleting, copying, pasting, is a time saver. [B]It allows for more time to write,[/B] and it may just be me, but the presentation is much better[/quote]

[FONT=Calibri]Now, I have a question about this idea. Are you writing your story in the postbox itself? Or have you written it somewhere else, and are posting it here for a showcase mechanism?


If you're writing it inside the post box, then I suggest NOT doing so and using an outside word processor instead. Writing your story elsewhere will do three things for you:

[list=1][*][B]It will give you an easily accessible place to store your work for future reference, should you decide you want to showcase it outside of the boards.[/B] If you write only on the site, then you have to go through the tedious process of sifting through every thread you've started, and that could potentially be pages of stuff you won't needâ??especially if you don't remember what you called it. Also, your hard drive is obviously more accessible than the internet, so your work would be quicker to get at.

[*][B]It will release you from being limited by inactivity of other critics.[/B] Let's face it, OtakuBoards's Anthology section is pretty much dead. No one wants to step out of their comfort zone to show support for a work by someone they don't even know (also known as 'clique syndrome'), and they don't want to offer criticism for fear that someone will tell them they're wrong. Relying on other posters to provide your breaks and bumps for you isn't the logical way to go, and a word processor will allow you to continue on with your fiction independently of the silence of the elitists.

[*][B]It will save you time in posting and editing.[/B] If you're writing the fiction here, then you have to deal with the confines of the post box. That means, like you said, you must copy the entire previous material, delete the post, repost the material, and then start adding your newly inspired stuff. A word processor, by allowing you to continue your work away from the post box, will save you time in that regard; all you have to do is delete the post and repost all of your work to date, excluding whatever you put into your initial post. Since you already wrote the fiction somewhere else, you don't have to worry about delete-bumping wasting your time, and you can also add to the story if you don't happen to have access to the Boards.[/list]


If, however, you [I]are[/I] using a word processor to store your stuff in, then I'm not sure what you mean by 'wasting time'. It seems like only the addition of a couple more seconds this way.[/FONT] Edited March 31, 2012 by Allamorph

[James]

[quote]Let's face it, OtakuBoards's Anthology section is pretty much dead. No one wants to step out of their comfort zone to show support for a work by someone they don't even know (also known as 'clique syndrome'), and they don't want to offer criticism for fear that someone will tell them they're wrong. Relying on other posters to provide your breaks and bumps for you isn't the logical way to go, and a word processor will allow you to continue on with your fiction independently of the silence of the elitists. [/quote]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think the biggest problem has nothing to do with elitism or fear - it simply has to do with laziness. It takes real effort to read through someone else's story and critique it. Most people aren't willing to do that regularly.

The same thing will happen in many places, including back when we had regular fan fiction on theOtaku.com. It was one thing to publish your work and have it read, but it was another thing to get any real criticism beyond "OMG that was awesome!!"

So it's a common problem and it's somewhat understandable. Some people just prefer to read and don't want to sit there and analyze the work.

I don't expect you to sugarcoat things, but you're the Moderator for Anthology - it would be a good idea not to use the term "elitists" when referring to Members within your own forum. Seriously, we should be encouraging constructive criticism and participation rather than discouraging it.

In terms of this rule, I don't really see the need for a time exception. It would be easier to just say "double posting is allowed in Anthology" and leave it at that.

The next question, though, is whether we allow more than double posting - in other words, five or ten posts in a row. And does it really matter?

Ideally people would use anchor tags and stuff, as Des has suggested. It's not only easy to follow, but it's tidy and you can easily link to each chapter in your piece.[/font]

[quote]If we do change the rule, I think the exceptions should be kept as simple as possible. Basically just something like, "You're only allowed to double post if you're adding a new chapter to your story or you reach the character limit." Stuff like time limits confuse people and are a pain to enforce.[/quote]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Yeah, I agree with this. It needs to be simple. Lots of weird exceptions and time limits are nothing but a pain and they can't effectively be enforced.

My preference would be to simply allow double-posting in Anthology and leave it at that. Members can then each decide how they want to use that.

If Anthology users would like to see double-posting allowed in that forum then I have no problem giving it a try. We can see how it goes and adjust things as we go along.[/font]

[Rachmaninoff]

[quote name='James'][font=franklin gothic medium]I don't expect you to sugarcoat things, but you're the Moderator for Anthology - it would be a good idea not to use the term "elitists" when referring to Members within your own forum. Seriously, we should be encouraging constructive criticism and participation rather than discouraging it.[/font][/QUOTE]I have to agree. For shame Allamorph, you should have been politically correct and simply said they weren't interested in reading other member's stories. Whether or not it's true is irrelevant. =P

I do agree that the biggest issue is people don't have the time or interest to read and really critique someone's work. It doesn't help if what they post is the type of story you're not really interested in.

If you take that into consideration, then even though I'd just do the delete and copy/paste deal. I'd just give the double posting bit a try and see what happens.

[James]

[quote]I do agree that the biggest issue is people don't have the time or interest to read and really critique someone's work. It doesn't help if what they post is the type of story you're not really interested in. [/quote]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Yep. And that's really the reality here - it's not about elitism (I'm not even sure how that could be measured). Critiquing written fan works has never been terribly popular, even on theOtaku when we used to do regular fan fiction (I'm not sure what the situation is there now though).

So it's been a common problem. In fact at one point there was even a question as to whether or not OB should even have an Anthology forum.

Anyway it seems like we might as well give this a try, since I don't think it will do any harm (and may be something most people prefer anyway). I will make the changes shortly.[/font]