Fanfics

[Boris_amj]

At the risk of being difficult (perish the thought), I find the fanfics system a bit awkward to use.

Editing the stories is not easy and you cannot put pictures in them.
With the font so big, I find that stories stretch a bit too much.
Also, why can they only be read by members ? Friends have asked me this question a couple of times now.

But most importantly, I miss being able to comment on the stories. There and then, as you read them.
I know we have a special section for it. But I find it too much removed from the stories.

Maybe we could have a regular section for them ?

This are just my thoughts, so please don't take it the wrong way.

I don't know what other people think and would like to know other opinions.

[Demonocracy]

At the risk of being difficult (perish the thought), I find the fanfics system a bit awkward to use.

Editing the stories is not easy and you cannot put pictures in them.
With the font so big, I find that stories stretch a bit too much.
Also, why can they only be read by members ? Friends have asked me this questions a couple of times now.

But most importantly, I miss being able to comment on the stories. There and then, as you read them.
I know we have a special section for it. But I find it too much removed from the stories.

Maybe we could have a regular section for them ?

This are just my thoughts, so please don't take it the wrong way.

I don't know what other people think and would like to know other opinions.

I agree with @Boris_amj about the fanfic utility.

It's difficult to edit and does not allow pictures to be added (aside from just adding links which either breaks the rhythm of a story or ends up at the bottom somewhere and therefore without context).  I realize that the picture issue is something to do with the forum version we have, so I understand that there may be limitations.

I would love it we could allow for non-members to read our stories too.  Comments on the story/chapter would also be a great change.  I agree that the current system makes everything feel more removed.

Can comments be enabled or non-members allowed to view the fanfic area?  Or are these also limitations with our forum version?

[Kaldir]

I have no experience with editing fanfics, but I agree on the commenting, pictures and non-member remarks of @Boris_amj and @Demonocracy.

Also, I find the fanfics section too much disconnected from the main forum (despite the redirect in the main menu) and often forget to check it. I don't know if there is a way to embed the fanfics in the forum somehow. Using regular forum posts will probably be too limited, with the 5000 chars post limit and no way to insert a post (new chapter) before everyone's comments.

Edit: another thing I miss is seeing which stories I already read, and which I didn't read yet. It's not an issue yet, but if we get a few more authors, it might become more tricky.

[solarscreen]

Yeah the fan fiction section has not worked as well as advertised and I'm not sure I want to pay for the "pro" version. It does allow you to create chapters and add onto what you have created before rather than have to post again but I guess in the forum you will have to manually label your posts as chapters.

@Boris_amj if you want to move stories or if we want to invite writers to repost we can move everything to the Fan Fiction chatter sub and I will relabel to just Fan Fiction.

Sound good?

[Boris_amj]

Ah, just came back from lunch and saw this.

Yes, it sounds good to me.
I will steadily move my posts.

[rkelly17]

So am I correct that the plan is to move everything to regular posts in the Fan Fic chatter section? Do we have a deadline?

[solarscreen]

So am I correct that the plan is to move everything to regular posts in the Fan Fic chatter section? Do we have a deadline?

Yes, why aren't you done yet? 

[rkelly17]

 

[rkelly17]

Uh oh, just ran into a problem for us more loquacious types. There is a 5000 character limit on posts. I put in the summary, but I need to work on dividing up the rest into chunks of less than 5000 characters.
 

[solarscreen]

Uh oh, just ran into a problem for us more loquacious types. There is a 5000 character limit on posts. I put in the summary, but I need to work on dividing up the rest into chunks of less than 5000 characters.
 

I can change that, maybe you too.

How many? 10,000?

[Boris_amj]

Right, I think I've moved all the stories now.

There are still two in the brewing.

One where @nmid is standing trial (not saying for which offense, but we can guess, can't we ?)

The other one is where Lou has a conversation with a time traveller.

[rkelly17]

@solarscreen, 10,000 would be nice for some fan fiction, but then would we want other posts to go on and on? I am aware that I talk way too much and need some limits. But 10,000 would make the fan fiction work easier.

Can the user override the limits? I suppose I really ought to RTFM.

[solarscreen]

@solarscreen, 10,000 would be nice for some fan fiction, but then would we want other posts to go on and on? I am aware that I talk way to much and need some limits. But 10,000 would make the fan fiction work easier.

Can the user override the limits? I suppose I really ought to RTFM.

I don't think the number of posts that would have thousands of words would be many and from a bandwidth standpoint would mean nothing.  It's just who would read it? 

For Fan Fiction though, I think we need it.

[rkelly17]

Go for it!

[solarscreen]

@rkelly17 @Boris_amj  - done. 10,000 it is.