Select your own editors...

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Sun, 2004-01-11 16:07

1legspider-(unv...

Select your own editors...

Some ideas repeated here from a 'Evil CHERRIES' thread below:-

To leverage the value of the 30, 000 odd pieces on the site.... Create a network! (that is the internet way after all)

And now that we have html in stories, it does not have to cost anything!

Here is how it could work:

For every piece you submit, right at the bottom, you could have a list of one or more linked pieces, if you like, preceded with a short description e.g.

Linked Pieces:

1) Got the seed of the idea after reading this,
2)Another Ghost Story with a twist,
3)....

Of course, you could leave your piece as a potential cul-de-sac if thats what you wished.

There would have to be some sort of minimal guidelines eg a limit to the no of links, suggested format so that it is consistent across the site etc But as nothing beyond that is proscribed this could take a creative life of its own... the rules could even allow links outside of ABC!

There is nothing to prevent you from going back to edit these links e.g if you change your mind, new works turn up that you wish to link to or even to link a set of diary entries together!

Another suggestion is for each person (who is so inclined) would be to create an ABC set entitled Favourites. Entries such as Favourite ABC pieces, Favourite ABC Authors, Favourite Websites etc would have lists of links that direct you to your selections. Encouraging 'Favourite' sets would have the following benefits:

1)Collects all your favourite pieces in one place for easy access if you wish to reread them.

2)If I am interested in anothers authors work, I would be curious as to what meets with his/her approval.

3) The equivalent of everyone having cherrying capability... except you get to choose your own editors! So eg I set great store by Liana's recommendations so would her go to her Favourites set to see whats new.. this then leads me on to another Author and his/her favourites etc ad infinitum...

The upshot of this is that more peoples work would get read, and one would not purely have to rely on ABC editors choices (excellent though that they are) to source new reading material...

Mon, 2004-01-12 20:26

mississippi

Did you work on the enigma code, Mark?

Mon, 2004-01-12 21:01

Andrea

Tried it and it works fine, Mark :-) Will email results...

Tue, 2004-01-13 00:18

stormy

hmm. last time I looked it seemed to me that uka already has these ideas, albeit in a slightly different format, in place. they've also got a chatroom, a shoutbox, writer of the month, 'nibs' I think, which are cherries, competitions, comments on stories, ratings that work, a links directory, articles, a blog facility, ad nauseum. solution? get elf to steal their code. :-) (bet most of its freeware anyway, abc's advantage is the ability to sustain, cough, huge uploads everyday)

Tue, 2004-01-13 05:08

britgrrl

You're right stormy, UKA has had most of the features mentioned above in place since long before I got there a few months ago. And the links work very well. Another advantage on abc besides huge uploading capacity though, is the abc writing forum. It does attract a fair number of discussions, while nothing like that seems to take off on uka. Probably because people have more latitude for voicing opinion with the comments section and other various forums there, to include one for critiquing. [%sig%]

Tue, 2004-01-13 13:25

Andrea

Awww, that's not fair :-( The crit forum does very well: As for a 'huge upload capacity', auto upload is easy peasy to implement, I just don't wanna do it right now. In fact, I'm trying to hold off as long as poss, the idea being that, as it is, each author gets to remain on the showcase pages for a decnt length of time (3-4 days) and no one author can entirely hog them. A long-term bone of contention with ABC members, I seem to recall. As for freeware - what d'you think this forum is? *exits stage left with dignity*

Sun, 2004-01-11 16:26

1legspider

Excuse the typos... typed in a hurry..

Sun, 2004-01-11 18:10

mississippi

I always knew there were some odd stories here Gerry, but didn't realise there are 30,000 of 'em!

Sun, 2004-01-11 19:27

Liana

I think that's a terrific idea. Wonder if it's doable?

Tue, 2004-01-13 15:43

#10

britgrrl

Andrea? You think I was being unfair? I wasn't saying the crit forum doesn't work. I was saying that the equivalent to the forum on discussion of abc writing doesn't exist on uka probably BECAUSE of all the alternatives. The forums do work there, just differently. Surely you realize how much I personally enjoy taking a detailed look at someone else's writing style. It intrigues me to see what techniques another writer employs to develop a theme. I do this mostly via the comments section on uka, because I would like others to become curious about my working style, too. Whether they tear my writing apart, or offer supportive commentary, it helps me understand what it is I'm actually doing, because I often haven't a clue!

Tue, 2004-01-13 15:53

#11

Andrea

Sorry Brit, was referring more to Storms' egging on of the Divine Elf to nick the code...meant to be tongue in cheek anyway, hence the :-( No offense meant to either you *or* Storms, natch. *covers self in sackcloth 'n' ashes*

Tue, 2004-01-13 15:58

#12

britgrrl

*covers Andrea with bearish hugs*

Tue, 2004-01-13 16:30

#13

stormy

can I watch? sorry, I'll see myself out.

Sun, 2004-01-11 23:28

#14

Karl Wiggins

Excellent ideas Gerry. Well worth discussing.

Tue, 2004-01-13 17:24

#15

Andrea

'Course you can Storms - cost yer a tenner though. *snuggles up to Brit*

Tue, 2004-01-13 18:02

#16

Flash

Will there be a video or dvd?

Tue, 2004-01-13 19:01

#17

Andrea

Both, if you cough up enough, Flash...

Tue, 2004-01-13 19:40

#18

Elfyn

What about a live webcast? :-) :-)

Tue, 2004-01-13 19:48

#19

britgrrl

There's a pic of me bear hugging Andrea on UKA if you care to look. It got a bit out of paw though, and it's hard to figure out where she is! I'm the one with my very white bum up in the air (oh this cursed white, white skin I inherited!).

Tue, 2004-01-13 20:11

#20

Andrea

And I'm the one asphyxiating on the...er...bottom.

Mon, 2004-01-12 15:29

#21

1legspider

Another thing... Occasionally the 'Writing on ABC' phorum works brilliantly when a highlighted piece generates a conversation, with the author and others pitching in from all angles into the discussion. A much more entertaining and better form of feedback than just free standing comments I suggest.... However, beyond the first few days this conversation 'gets lost' and is probably never read or contributed to again... to the loss of any new interested persons coming across the piece in question. A few guidelines on how to highlight someones work could overcome this: 1) Include Title and Author of the piece in the Subject Line 2) In the first post (or soon thereafter). Create a hotlink to the story/poem. - This is easily done by cutting/pasting the url address and encapsulating it with a <....>, where the dots represent the full url address. 3) Contact the author by email, inform them that a thread has opened on his/her piece. Ask them (politely) to put a link within their story/piece (last line) that points directly to the open thread (link in the same manner as 2) above) . Any person coming across a piece for the first time then has a direct link to a discussion thread if one exists and can then contribute accordingly. Author keeps getting continual feedback on his work. Mark/Tony/Liana etc if you deem any of this ideas have merit and are workable... How about posting some guidelines on the Front page. Even if they are not universally followed, they will still be useful IMO.

Mon, 2004-01-12 16:32

#22

Mark Brown

I reckon this one leg fellow might well be on to something here... I'll have a good think about it, discuss it with my fellow editors then get a page of guidelines up. I things there's a great chance of this working out.

Mon, 2004-01-12 16:38

#23

chooselife

Mark, I tried adding a link to the bottom of a test piece and it disappeared. Does the editor support links ?

Mon, 2004-01-12 16:56

#24

Hen

I think there should be a link at the bottom of every piece that immediately starts a thread on it in the Discuss Writing forum, with additional comments if you prefer.

Mon, 2004-01-12 17:53

#25

Mark Brown

This would be possible as a 'masked' link (<) followed by (a href=")the full address (http://www.............") then (>)the text you would want the link to have followed by a closing tag () if someone wants to try that out, drop me a line and tell me if it works.

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