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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

MOD Questions about the new boards? Read this thread!

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by Commander-DWH, Aug 31, 2012.

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  1. EmpressJainaSoloFel

    EmpressJainaSoloFel Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2009
    Thanks! It's exactly the same.
     
  2. Jinn is MINE

    Jinn is MINE Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    May 12, 2005
    Testing, testing, testing ...... I didn't want to clutter up the Qui-Gon Index or start a new thread with this, but I need to check to see if my URL translation is working. So, some test links .........




    Stories by: Princess_Arulmozhi (a.k.a. ithesock)

    Title: A Knight's Tale _by ithesock a.k.a. Princess_Arulmozhi
    Timeframe(s): Before the Saga
    Genre(s): Humor
    Status: One-Post Story
    Summary: Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and children. Enough said.

    Title: Against the Code _by Princess_Arulmozhi
    Timeframe(s): Before the Saga, JA
    Genre(s): Humor
    Status: One-Post Story
    Summary: Your perception defines your reality. Or some such thing.

    Title: Shelter _by Princess_Arulmozhi
    Timeframe(s): Before the Saga
    Genre(s): Mush, Humor, Fluff
    Status: One-Post Story
    Summary: Qui-Gon tries to not pick up another pathetic lifeform.

    Title: The Passing _by Princess_Arulmozhi
    Timeframe(s): Before the Saga
    Genre(s): Drama
    Status: One-Post Story
    Summary: Every experience is a teacher.

    Title: Lotus Leaves _by ithesock a.k.a. Princess_Arulmozhi
    Timeframe(s): Before the Saga
    Genre(s): Drama, Mush, Fluff
    Status: Complete Multi-Post Story
    Summary: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan go on a mission to Scalti and Qui-Gon leads Obi-Wan to examine his emotions, Jedi training and the teachings of another Jedi.

    Title: Parched _by Princess_Arulmozhi
    Timeframe(s): Before the Saga
    Genre(s): Drama, Adventure
    Status: Complete Multi-Post Story
    Summary: Just another. . . . mission.

    Title: The One Above _by Princess_Arulmozhi
    Timeframe(s): Before the Saga, JA
    Genre(s): Fluff? A Little Humor
    Status: Complete Multi-Post Story
    Summary: A certain jedi Master learns that harbouring pathetic lifeforms is not always a good thing. Notes: Written in a silly moment. Started out as a challenge entry for the Qui-Gon hair challenge, but as usual, it grew too big. Just two parts, though.





    Qui-Gon with Obi-Wan Stories
    (sorted by author name(s))


    ### LuvEwan ###


    Stories by: LuvEwan
    - Timeframe(s): Before the Saga and/or AU
    - Genre(s): Drama, Angst, and/or Mush
    - Status: One-Post Story

    Title: A Change of Heart-Vignette (Semi-Sequel to A Change of Plans) _by LuvEwan
    Summary: A conversation between Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Knight Ullo Tirr.

    Title: In The Mean Time _by LuvEwan
    Summary: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan share one last evening together after some time off before being sent on another mission.

    Title: With No Reprise _by LuvEwan
    Summary: A Master glimpses more of what he never wanted to see in his former teacher.

    Title: Watching the Wheels _by LuvEwan
    Summary: Master and apprentice on a rainy day. Happy ending.

    Title: No Consolation _by LuvEwan
    Summary: Qui-Gon must employ cruelty to justify an act of love.

    Title: The Quiet One _by LuvEwan
    Summary: Qui-Gon Jinn defies the Council and Obi-Wan is forced to see, yet again, the things that separate him from his mentor.

    Title: Before The Phantoms Fell _by LuvEwan
    Summary: This will be an ongoing collection of scenes inspired by the list of plot bunnies offered so generously by dianethx, shanobi and Kynstar.




    Yep, the links seem to work - of course the stories are still truncated. One problem at a time.......
     
  3. PonyTricks

    PonyTricks Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 25, 2003
    What is a 'trophy'? What happens when someone gives you a 'trophy'? Are you supposed to acknowledge it in some way? Keep in mind that PT is OLD and does not Twitter or Facebook, so explanations will have to be in regular English, as opposed to computer-speak.
     
  4. Valiowk

    Valiowk Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 23, 2000
    The gripe I have about this setup is that it is very unintuitive for new users who might be looking for an actual FanFiction forum and only find a resource forum when they first look around. I'm sure many of us might have been puzzled initially to see only the resource forum but not the FanFiction forum when we logged into the new boards, and clicked on the resource forum because we know that a FanFiction board should exist (and, at the least, can clear our confusion there). This isn't the case for a new user, who might end up thinking that there doesn't exist a FanFiction forum if they don't look hard enough. (Also, it might be annoying for those who have no interest in popping into Resource to have to click more, although this will probably be resolved if a "Favourites board" comes back.)
     
    Jedi Knight Fett likes this.
  5. Sara_Kenobi

    Sara_Kenobi Jedi Grand Master star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 21, 2000
    I'm not caring for the set-up myself. It's great for those that often take part in the writing challenges it offers. It's an annoyance for those who simply want to read and post fanfic.
     
  6. ViariSkywalker

    ViariSkywalker Kessel Run Hostess Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Aug 9, 2002
    I actually do agree with all of this. My POV was only that of a person who was here before the move and knows where everything is (or should be). Now that I've had a few days to look around the entire JC - and having had to switch back and forth between different boards without the use of a Favorite Boards option - I've been able to see how new users might miss the existence of the actual fanfic board, especially since the Classic forum and the NSWFF board show up as main forums under the "Fanfic" tab. I just wasn't sure the mods wanted this thread used to discuss the change to the forum structure. But since we're on the subject... ;)

    The thing I actually miss the most from the old boards - at this point, anyway - is the series of links in the header that could take you to any board in the Fanfic forum. I know it really doesn't take all that long to click a few times to go back to Resource from the story forum, then click on the story forum again, then click on the tab for whichever era I want to look at; but I don't like doing it when I know that I used to be able to go anywhere within Fanfic in one simple click. :p The lack of a Favorite Boards option is another thing I miss, although it really doesn't help me as much without separate forums for each era. I hear that we may be getting the Favorite Boards option in the future, but from everything I've seen, it doesn't seem like we'll get the nice header with all the links back. (Don't even get me started on how sad I was when we lost the footer with all the links a few years back. I didn't realize how much I depended on those until I had to start scrolling to the top of a page to find the links. :oops: )

    I guess if I'm honest with myself, I'd rather just go back to the way we had the Fanfic forum set up with IGN: all forums are on equal footing (no subforums), and the three eras are separate.

    Funnily enough, I was checking the other night to see if my post history was complete, and I came across the discussion thread from back when we first separated the boards into Before, Saga, and Beyond. I think they did a discussion every two months for the first six months after the change, and at six months we all voted on which structure we preferred. There was plenty of discussion about forum traffic and everything, and the general consensus at the end seemed to be that even if story traffic got heavy again in each new forum, it would be utter craziness to go back to the merged forum. A lot of those folks are gone now; I think it would be amusing to see their reactions if they knew we were trying out a merged forum again. And yes, I know we don't have nearly the traffic we once did. I just find it funny.

    So much for my whole "I won't discuss it until there's a discussion thread." I didn't want to sound like a cranky oldbie who hates change.

    tl;dr version: Story forum as subforum of Resource isn't my first choice, but it's not the most annoying aspect of the move for me. I don't like prefixes as a substitute for separate era forums.
     
  7. jacen200015

    jacen200015 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 11, 2002
    I think it depends on how quickly one can pick up where everything is. I had been away from the boards for a few years and when i came back it was to the new boards and I easily found the fanfiction section. Also, I am delighted with the prefixes, i think its an awesome idea and less cumbersome.
     
  8. ViariSkywalker

    ViariSkywalker Kessel Run Hostess Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Aug 9, 2002
    Meh. I don't care for how they look in Resource because it causes the thread titles to not align nicely. But that's probably just me being nitpicky. The way they appear in the story forum isn't as bad, but it actually does take me longer to sort through stories by prefix than it did when we had dedicated boards for each era. Part of that issue, though, has to do with how the new boards are set up.

    In the past when I came to the JC, I went directly to Resource. From there I'd often go to Saga. From there I could go directly to Beyond. And so on. Even after I clicked on a story, all it took was one click to go anywhere in the Fanfic forum, whether it be Resource, Saga, Beyond, etc.

    Now after I get to Resource, I go to the Fanfic board. From there I have to scroll down past the stickies to see any actual stories. I end up clicking on the Saga prefix anyway. Then I have to go back to Resource (since that's the last link in the header) or I have to find that little prefix tab and close it. Then I click the Beyond prefix. And once I'm actually in a story thread, there doesn't seem to be a quick way (other than backspace) to get back to the full Beyond (or Saga or Before) story list without having to start the process all over again.

    This is just my experience with it. In the end, this is not a make it or break it issue for me. I can deal. I'm sure I'll get used to it, if we decide to keep things the way they are right now. And if we do go back to three separate forums, I don't mind keeping the prefixes. I don't know how useful they'd be in that case, but I don't completely dislike how they look when the same prefix is grouped together. My problem with them is how the function in this new board, not with how they look. (Except in Resource, as previously mentioned.)

    Like several of you, I was here when the forums originally split, and I remember how a lot of people were vehemently against the new system while a lot of other people thought it was absolutely the best thing ever. I was in the latter category, and I had only been around for about a year. Now it's been ten years since I joined, and I find myself wary of the changes that have happened with the move. But I realize that there are a lot of people, both old and new alike, who think it's great. All I'm really hoping for at this point is that we have an open discussion about the forum structure in the coming months, and that the community then be allowed to vote, much as we did nine years ago. Whatever the outcome, I'll live with it. I'll probably even learn to like it. [​IMG]


    ETA: I think my total word count for this topic exceeds that of all the fanfic I've worked on in the last six months. That makes me a little sad.
     
  9. Valiowk

    Valiowk Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 23, 2000
    No one else has brought this up yet, but there is also the issue of being unable to mark threads in Resource as read without also marking the entire FanFiction subforum as read (I asked in Communications and there doesn't seem to be a way around this unless the admins find a way of marking specific threads as read without having to click on all of them). I'm not sure if this would be annoying to anyone who uses the "Mark as read" feature to keep track of where they followed until the last time.
     
    Jedi Knight Fett likes this.
  10. Valiowk

    Valiowk Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 23, 2000
    One fix I can think of would be to code links for all the prefixes into the header section of the Fan Fiction boards (like in Community, for instance). However, it probably would look weird to have links for Before, Saga and Beyond in the header of the Resource section (since there would presumably already be links for the prefixes of Resource itself), and it's also unclear how this would work for threads instead of forum index pages. Any better ideas?
     
    Jedi Knight Fett likes this.
  11. Commander-DWH

    Commander-DWH Manager Emeritus star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 3, 2003
    You guys bring up a good point about the lack of intuitiveness of the current setup- now, I don't think this means we have to change the structure, but I do think we can discuss changing our naming and descriptions to mean something a little more accurate. :)
     
  12. ViariSkywalker

    ViariSkywalker Kessel Run Hostess Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Aug 9, 2002

    Interesting. I checked out Community and clicked around for a little while to see how everything worked. If we were to keep all the eras combined but give them their own forum (as opposed to being a subforum of Resource) I think this might make navigating the combined eras a little easier. But I think you’re right when you point out that as a subforum of Resource, the Before, Saga, and Beyond prefixes would probably get jumbled in with Resources own prefixes. Unless there’s a way to put the era tags only in the header and not the Resource ones? I’m not all that tech savvy when it comes to stuff like this; not sure if our mods can work on this or if we’d need to ask some of the other admin people.


    But we’ll still be able to discuss the structure as a community and be able to vote on it at some point in the future, yes?

    Changing the descriptions could help a little, although I’m personally rather fond of them the way they are. And combining descriptions for stories and resource has the potential to make things more muddled. Say we change the name of Resource to “Fan Fiction Resource & Stories”. A new person clicks on it, expecting to find stories. Instead, they’re actually only in Resource, which they may not realize is a separate board from the story board. Maybe they’ll see the link at the top, maybe they won’t.

    Like I’ve said before, I don’t mind having the stories underneath Resource, but I’m starting to agree that it’s not the most elegant or simple solution.

    Just a side note: I believe we are the only section of the JC that has a significant forum hidden from view on the main page due to it being a subforum of another one of our forums. That could be contributing to any confusion new users (and some old users) are experiencing. Also the fact that NSWFF is shown with two separate forums on the main page - one for stories and one for resource - could be another factor in any confusion.
     
    Valairy Scot likes this.
  13. Commander-DWH

    Commander-DWH Manager Emeritus star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 3, 2003
    We'll be evaluating for sure, and we'll be getting your guys' input on that front. How exactly all that will end up working, we haven't really discussed yet- we've been too busy just getting this place ready for general usage.

    That said, I do have some good news for you guys... unlimited editing for posts and title bars is back! You can go about editing things to your heart's content now. :D
     
    YodaKenobi and jacen200015 like this.
  14. Valairy Scot

    Valairy Scot Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 16, 2005
    Yeah - I got to be the guinea pig, too! Wahoo...[face_party]For titles it takes 2 two steps - Edit, then More Options to get the title bar up to edit.
     
  15. ViariSkywalker

    ViariSkywalker Kessel Run Hostess Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Aug 9, 2002
    Fair enough! (I'm all for the voting and stuff because that's how it went down in 2003, just so you know where I'm coming from on that. [​IMG])

    Now, if I were to go back and edit past posts that got cut off at 10,000 characters so that the full posts are there, will that become a problem later on when all truncated posts are fixed? For example, will my entire post show up, plus the part I edited in?

    I guess what I'm really asking is, should we wait until after that issue is resolved before editing posts that are currently truncated?
     
  16. Valairy Scot

    Valairy Scot Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 16, 2005
    ViariSkywalker, previous mod posts indicate that while you can restore those posts manually, the board restore will overwrite them - that means if you manually restore AND edit/modify at the same time, you'll lose your modifications.

    (If this has changed, mods, please correct or eliminate my post.)
     
  17. Commander-DWH

    Commander-DWH Manager Emeritus star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 3, 2003
    Totally understandable! It's an option that's on the table for sure, but we'll discuss it more after we have everything in place, so we can actually focus on it. :)

    As for editing over truncated posts, what will happen, we've been told, is that whatever is in the database currently will be written over any changes you make. So if you put your posts back, the old posts will just be written over them (for presumably a net change of zero, unless you've done some 'new and improved' postings).

    EDIT: Yeah, what Valairy said. :p Answering questions and watching training videos at the same time makes me a bit of a slow poster.
     
  18. ViariSkywalker

    ViariSkywalker Kessel Run Hostess Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Aug 9, 2002
    Thanks for the clarification, guys! I must have missed the update when I was looking through Comms. Or I just plain forgot. Stupid pregnancy brain. :p Looks like I'll be leaving all those posts alone for the time being. :)
     
  19. Commander-DWH

    Commander-DWH Manager Emeritus star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 3, 2003
    Believe me, I've missed plenty of things myself. :p It's a lot of information to go through, and to remember! That's why we're here to answer all your questions. :)
     
  20. hlc88

    hlc88 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    I was slightly worried about starting to post my own fics here due to the truncated posts and I *did* think that if I did start posting my long chapters would be cut off, but if others can go back in and restore their posts to what they were, it should be ok. Right?
     
  21. jacen200015

    jacen200015 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 11, 2002
    Any new posts won't have that limit so you can start posting your fics to your heart's content.
     
  22. hlc88

    hlc88 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Thanks! :)
     
  23. WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

    WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Aug 31, 2004
    I also miss the cluster of links at the top and having Beyond and Saga be separate; for the longest time I just read Before fics and then more and more Saga, but still with a heavy concentration on Beyond.

    These questions may be totally duh-ish, but:

    1. If I post a new thread which fits in Beyond, that's all I need to put as a tag; and are there special characters like http://url][/url] title to do?

    2. And are markups still like this italic?
     
  24. WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

    WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Aug 31, 2004
    Cool! I looked at how I typed it and it worked [face_laugh] [face_laugh]
     
  25. ardavenport

    ardavenport Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2004
    Whenever I want to use a filter, I have to go find a message that has the tag I want and click on that. Is there a menu of all the filters somewhere, so I can use the filter I want without searching for a tag first?
     
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