MetaFic

Maybe if we number these as they occur, we can keep track.

10. The posting parser doesn't seem to accept opening and closing html codes that span multiple lines (and thus have breaks between). For example, here's what I input at the beginning of the prose for BLS, with brackets instead of < or >:

[i]Ready?

Err . . . yeah. I can’t think of anything we’ve forgotten.

If you could, we wouldn’t have forgotten it.

Hush.[/i]

As posted, only the first line is italicised. This, again, relates to question 1.

Problem 1 was actually easy to solve. I used the HTML Filter options to adjust a couple of things.

The settings are: Filtered HTML accepts listed tags and turns new lines into HTML break/paragraph tags.

Full HTML did it also, but I turned that off, so now by using DocFrac's output, you get the proper formatting. You'll notice that Phoenix Snog looks much better now.

So, now if you use Full HTML, and it didn't go through DocFrac, you'll lose all formatting!

I added italic, bold, blockquote, hr and other nice tags to Filtered HTML, so you can fix most of your stories by editing them and just setting the input to Filtered HTML.

I already did it for Best Laid Schemes.

I'll do it for your other stories too if I have the time, but check them, just in case.

Creating Series might be a problem. The Current Story/Chapter connections are based on the Relativity module. As you've seen it's pretty neat for creating stories, but the problem is that if we used that mechanism, you'd have to create the Series first, and then the story, and then the chapters? You can't create new parent-child relationships with previously posted chapters.

Still, if an author wants to create a series, he could contact us, we create a page (or a block) and link it to his user profile.

Besides, currently the only people who actually need that are the you and me.

Didn't you say that normal users would not have access to the full HTML option? I'm probably going to use italics more than just about anyone, but others will probably do it fairly regularly. Does this mean that they can't use docfrac? Or can they still use docfrac with filtered HTML?

Once we've got the html upload working, I'm going to re-upload all of my stories, anyway. For most of them, I used a not-quite-final version because I already had a manual HTML copy of that version. When we get done, I'll use my docfrac html files to get the final-final versions posted. So don't worry about editing my stories... I'll just repost them.

I think it's fine to create a custom page for a series. As you say, there won't be many, and those we do get will likely be from people who are serious about their series. You, me, and Josh, for starters.

The HTML upload sucks big time, so that's a big no.

But, I can create a DocFrac profile for users which will be a combination of Filtered and Full HTML. That profile will accept everything necessary for proper formatting, if the documents are exported from DocFrac.

How does that sound?

That works for me. That way we don't have to give everyone access to full html, but we have a systematic way for everyone to upload chapters. They just have to use docfrac.

Now, if we wanted to get really fancy, we could try to find a way to integrate docfrac into the submission system, such that a user could upload a .doc file and the system would run it through docfrac, choose the right upload format, and then spit out the desired result for the site. But I think that might be a bit much.

DocFrac filter added. Those 3 chapter of Meddle I posted are DocFrac formatted, and drupal accepted them without any problems.

Including DocFrac into the site would be cool, but the problem is that we'd need to install it to the server, create a way for the page to use it, and receive the output. Complicated, and a security risk.

I asked the DocFrac author if we could distribute DocFrac as a download on this site and I'm waiting for his reply. There shouldn't be any problems about that as it's published under GPL.

The docfrac format worked very well for Ages. Just to make sure I'm not doing extra work, is there an easier way to do it than:
1. Save .doc file as .rtf
2. Use docfrac to convert .rtf to HTML
3. Open HTML document in Firefox and use 'view source' (or open the doc itself in Notepad)
4. Cut/paste source code from doc into Metafic input field.

Mostly I want to make sure there's not an easier way to do #3.

P.S. Do we have to preview every comment before posting it?

You're doing everything properly. No shortcuts. Every step is a necessary one.

There's another (free) app. Programmers use it because it has great code colouring. It's called Notepad++.

You can install it, and right click the HTML file (select "Edit with Notepad++" or something like that.

The tags colouring makes it much easier to keep the track of all the tags.

But that's only a app replacement for step 3. Oh, it's good to compare two versions of the same file too.

Re: preview We can turn it off.

Can you create a set of Forums that are just about writing? Maybe have subforums for things like:

The Helpful Beta - a forum to discuss editing and find a beta
Sagely Advice - for new authors who have questions about writing and for the old hats who just are stuck and need some help
The Bunny Farm - a humane place to store all those plot bunnies and discuss and nurture them with other Bunny-loving folks.
The Creative Corner - a discussion about writing in general, the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of that sadistic muse we all suffer under.

-just some thoughts

- A good novel is an indivisible sum; every scene, sequence and passage of a good novel has to involve, contribute to and advance all three of its major attributes: theme, plot, characterization.
Ayn Rand - The Romantic Manifesto p. 74 (pb 93)

Sounds good to me. Dave? What do you think? You're in charge of the forums here anyway...

You think Josh would play along with those names? It's not like they're menu items...

I have no problem with the idea. I wonder, though, if we need that many subforums. With the current CM membership and the amount of traffic we usually get there, I don't expect to have enough volume here to need subforums to keep things straight. I'd start with one writing forum, and then we can add subforums if we find that we need them for our own sanity. Does that bother anyone?

One general writing forum should cover all the needs at this time. So, go ahead and create it. It's fine by me.

One forum should work to start. I just like being over organized.

- A good novel is an indivisible sum; every scene, sequence and passage of a good novel has to involve, contribute to and advance all three of its major attributes: theme, plot, characterization.
Ayn Rand - The Romantic Manifesto p. 74 (pb 93)

Is there any possible way to change the skin? Or are there any plans to do so?

If not a completely different layout, then maybe an option to turn off the left sidebar when reading stories?

---
The more people I meet, the more I like my cat

The left column is fixed and won't be hidden on any part of the site. Also, you won't be able to use skins. Many parts of the site rely on the functions that were programmed into the current skin while we were building the site.

That being said, you can easily just open the printable version of each chapter (the link is at the bottom of the chapter page). That will make the content easier to read and there are no menus on printable versions.

Dave,

From the FAQ and in relation to your #2:
Sexual Situations: Intimate content suitable for ages 17 and up. Explicit sexual content (aka porn of any kind or degree) is forbidden on Metafic.

Just to prevent trouble in the future, you might want define where the line is. I would interpret the above to mean nothing explicit, but even that might be considered vague. I personally prefer "implied actions/scenes of the 'adult' kind", but I do believe 'adult scenes' can be tastefully done. (Of course, if it's tastefully done, it's probably not porn. :-)

Another area of potential trouble is words, especially the "F" word. I know some sites just say no and never, considering it to be porn. For others, it's probably the context in which it's used, i.e. describing action or just as an expletive.

I really hate to bring this up, but like I said, I think it's better to deal with it up front.

Otherwise, nothing else caught my eye as unclear and I like what I see on the site.

Kevin

I'm far from solely responsible for the policies; I just lost the draw to write up what we were thinking about. So my answer is by no means 'the' answer. Perhaps Josh and Dino will weigh in.

Personally, I don't want to get too bogged down in the wording of the restrictions. We have a very limited authorship now, and we have a validation process. I would rather trust that our authors are intelligent people (they are) who can reasonably interpret a general guideline, and if necessary we can catch questionable content before it's posted. If we start trying to define a line, we get into terminology and detailed consideration of what is and is not allowed, and that's just not a pleasant conversation to have. In general, I agree with you - adult scenes can be tastefully done, and such scenes should be allowed on that basis.

As for the language, my personal feeling is that the notorious F-bomb is an expletive. It has a certain literal meaning, but so do most other expletives. We have an extreme language warning, and I think it's enough to cover that territory. If someone uses the F-word in the context of an adult scene (aka with its original meaning), chances are reasonably good that the scene won't qualify for posting anyway. There's a gray area there, but I think we can again trust our authors to be reasonable.

If, of course, we ever open the archive to general submissions, that would be a very different story. By then, though, we might have some examples and precedents to use as a basis for a more detailed policy.

Josh, Dino... any thoughts?

I really concur with everything you said, Dave. As long as it's used as an expletive, I have no problems with it. For those who don't share that view, there's always the warning which will save them from having to read such stories in the first place.

If we really set out to write an extremely precise collection of rules, they might end up being longer than some stories on this site. And with the limited collection of authors, there's no real need.

In these situations, common sense is always a good way of measuring things, and from my experience, all the people listed as authors here have that in abundance.