I didn't get Permission the first time I tried, either. My first attempt had more problems in it than just paragraphing. Come to that, I want start writing my first mission when I finish this week's homework. I just have some questions to answer for World History and an English project which I should have started on Monday, so we'll see.
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This was a fun read, but the paragraphing was confusing in places. by
on 2022-03-03 18:20:57 UTC
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This is difficult. by
on 2022-03-03 17:09:47 UTC
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On most counts, you do very well. I know who you are, I like your characters (and not because I'm low-key promoting a Hobbit takeover of HQ, ignore Maly and Dagger, they don't know what they're talking about), and I like the humour in your writing. The Mirror of the Sue, the 'getting nowhere faster' line, Jesse's 'eloquence' - it's good!
But there is something askew with your pacing, and I think the reason I'm having trouble is because there's two effects overlapping each other.
1/ Your paragraphs are breaking up in strange places. Example:
It was a hobbit. To be precise, a harmless-looking female hobbit with curly reddish brown hair, warm chocolatey eyes, and an excited expression. She yelled out, "You’re my partner!". Jess nodded, not really sure what to say in response. The hobbit had an Irish accent, a really strong Irish accent, so she was probably a rescue from a Sue story, because that was not canon as far as they remembered. Wasn’t dazzlingly beautiful enough to be an ex-Sue, so a side character? Eh. Right, introduction.
"Hi. I’m Jess. Or Jesse. Sometimes Pikachu, but I prefer to be called Jess. My gender’s confusing. I am more so. Nice to meet you," Jess said. The hobbit nodded in reply, waving slightly, a smile still on her face.
As a rule, a paragraph should be about a single thing, or should only have a single person acting in it. Your large paragraph there switches from Mya talking to Jess nodding, which should definitely be a paragraph break; but your second paragraph is the same "thing" as 'Right, introduction." Then you've got Jess speaking and Mya nodding clumped together again. There's a little subjectivity involved, but I would break it up like this:
It was a hobbit. To be precise, a harmless-looking female hobbit with curly reddish brown hair, warm chocolatey eyes, and an excited expression. She yelled out, "You’re my partner!".
Jess nodded, not really sure what to say in response. The hobbit had an Irish accent, a really strong Irish accent, so she was probably a rescue from a Sue story, because that was not canon as far as they remembered. Wasn’t dazzlingly beautiful enough to be an ex-Sue, so a side character?
Eh. Right, introduction. "Hi. I’m Jess. Or Jesse. Sometimes Pikachu, but I prefer to be called Jess. My gender’s confusing. I am more so. Nice to meet you," Jess said.
The hobbit nodded in reply, waving slightly, a smile still on her face.
One side-benefit is that it kills the big paragraph. I don't know about you, but my eyes skip off that sort of thing; I didn't notice Mya had spoken in the middle of it until I went back and checked why Jesse was introducing themself (er, themselves? Theirself? You use both of the 'them' versions once each, so...) rather than asking why she was there.
2/ Pacing. This is almost two effects in itself, but I'll be good and link them. Check out Jesse's speech up there - as a single block of text, it comes across as them staring at Mya and either babbling or reciting. People move while they talk! Does Jess smile when saying "my gender's confusing"? Do they shrug? Do they wave a hand to dismiss the growing list of names, before stating their preference? Something like that would help make them feel more like a person, and less like a required line of speech to get the narrative moving.
Similarly, you've got a number of lines which can be paraphrased as "An interesting thing happened, but I'm not showing you". After a random agent passing by had been enlisted to distract them is one example. We don't need to see the whole thing, but the 'after' means we just skip over it - we go from 'didn't have a distraction' straight to 'distracted'. Consider something like the following:
Eventually, running flat out having achieved nothing more than aching thigh muscles, Jess had to resort to picking a fight with a passing Floater. It was sheer bad luck that said Floater's Klingon partner happened to pass by a minute in, but at least the threat of a bat'leth'ing was enough of a distraction that they wound up outside their RC at last.
It feels (hopefully) like something's happening - like Jess is interacting with the world, rather than brushing through it to get to the next scene.
The thing is, I think you could fix this! It's not a deep issue like turning your characters into a pair of talking heads. So I'm going to hold off on making a decision, and instead ask you to rework your second prompt (the Mirror) to be better paragraphed, and - if you find any opportunities - to work on the pacing a bit. I've ticked the box so that hopefully the Board will ping me when you reply to this thread, and I'll take a look at it then.
hS
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Thank you! (nm) by
on 2022-03-03 11:30:10 UTC
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The woes of mobile editing by
on 2022-03-03 03:48:14 UTC
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You cannot backspace an empty line on mobile. Try it, I dare you.
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"Matthew (Kittyauthor)" page created! (nm) by
on 2022-03-03 03:35:01 UTC
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Yeah, I'd agree (nm) by
on 2022-03-03 01:30:47 UTC
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Nah, it's an easy change to make. by
on 2022-03-03 00:54:41 UTC
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Might as well go for it on the off-chance that you're not the only colorblind person reading the wiki. {= )
Incidentally, I pulled that lighter red hex code from a site meant to help non-colorblind people come up with colorblind-friendly palettes. It's pretty spiffy. I checked the link colors of my site. I guess they're okay? (Apparently the gray background of my site looks pink to people with deuteranopia, though. Huh.)
Re. Courtyard... Oof, that comment was mine, wasn't it? Sorry about that; I don't think I meant it to be a jab, just keeping track of whether the name became more widely adopted, but I can see how it reads that way. Honestly, whatever you'd prefer is fine with me, and that remark can go away anyway. >.>
~Neshomeh
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Link all the things! by
on 2022-03-03 00:21:40 UTC
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Answering anyway, just in case anyone else is wondering. And, yeah, I'm for linking all your stuff from your user page. Looking at mine right now, I think the only important-ish things I don't have listed there are my character journals, but there's not much on them, and anything really relevant IS linked from the agent's wiki page and their index on my site.
I could probably list my stuff more clearly in terms of where to find which spin-off (both my site and AO3). I might do that, and add the journals while I'm at it.
~Neshomeh
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Ignore this. I figured out about the Neocities site thing. (nm) by
on 2022-03-02 21:06:03 UTC
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*awkward sounds* (nm) by
on 2022-03-02 17:02:19 UTC
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Redlinks. by
on 2022-03-02 16:50:02 UTC
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I wrote most of the article in Notepad, so my links were added on faith. :) I know they'll auto-complete if you're sensible and use the source editor directly.
Dashed underlines on hover are all very well... but only if you know there's a link there. I was looking straight at the Miss Cam Courtyard text and couldn't tell it was a link at all. Sure, that's okay for a page I just wrote - but if I'm scanning older pages for redlinks, I just can't see them. (This is why inline hyperlinks should be underlined...!)
The lighter red does pop a bit better, but honestly, I'm not using the wiki enough to change the styling on my behalf. (I've had the same issue with people who like to edit Word documents by making changes in red rather than highlighting like sane people do... I cope. ^_~)
hS
PS: Yes, you're quite right that the Courtyard didn't really need a name. At the time, which was probably Crashing Down but may have been earlier, it wasn't clear that there was only one Courtyard. If it'll let me remove the snarky jab at the bottom of the article, I can even go back and edit the name out as unnecessary. ~hS
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I have a question. by
on 2022-03-02 16:36:05 UTC
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I know it doesn't necessarily pertain to me, but it's a question I've had for a while: What if an author has multiple websites? Should it just be the hub that is linked, followed by journals/other sites linked into it, or shpuld all site be linked to an author's page, with a little label saying "Main site," "Site for hosting Agent Whatever's missions," etc.?
-kA, who effectively has two sites, but forgot their password to their neocities one (and which one of the three emails they used). Whoops.
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Huh, that's interesting. by
on 2022-03-02 16:30:38 UTC
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I just mostly learned through experimenting. "Does this work? No, well let's try this" sort of thing. Never really bothered to look for mobile editing help.
And, yes, gods, the annoyance when I first started with mobile editing, but i got used to it, for whatever reason. I can now do things on mobile pretty easily, when it wants to work. When it doesn't, well...
But I've never liked any iteration of the Visual Editor—it's slow and janky and imprecise; Source Mode all the way
I'm 100% with you... when it's on the computer mode. Source mode on mobile is just plain janky and jerky. It tends to overwrite random bits of text when one pastes stuff in. For example, I was trying to pull something into Claimed by pasting it and got this... mess: "[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8759278/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Guardians-of-Hogwarts "Harry Potter and theClaimed by Kittyauthor, December 31, 2021.laimed by Storme Hawk March 25, 2016. Renewed as Novastorme August 15, 2018. Re-renewed April 11, 2020."
Thankfully, I caught it and fixed it, but still. I had to switch over to Visual in order for that not to happen again.
But, as you said, this is Fandom's territory, which sucks but okay, I have work-arounds if I need to use them. It could, of course, be a user error (although I'm not sure how I could have caused it) or a tech error (because phone) on my end, so, unless someone else has experience, take this with a grain of salt.
-kA, who understands nothing can be done, but wants to share their experences in editing on mobile nonetheless
(PS: If someone could create Matthew's page, even with a simple line of "Matthew is written by Kittyauthor," I'd be eternally grateful. Once it's created, I could coax my phone into editing it into a normal-ish agent page.)
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Sadly, not much we can do about the mobile experience. by
on 2022-03-02 16:08:37 UTC
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Fandom has a pretty tight grip on that, as far as I can tell. They're focused on providing an optimal, uniform experience for mobile users (apparently that's about half the traffic across Fandom wikis), but ironically, I couldn't find much help specifically for mobile editors. I didn't spend too much time looking, but IMO, I shouldn't have to.
I did take a look at that page on my phone while I was at it, and had the same experience. Would not recommend. But I've never liked any iteration of the Visual Editor—it's slow and janky and imprecise; Source Mode all the way—and I despise doing anything that involves significant typing without a keyboard, so take that with an appropriate amount of salt.
~Neshomeh
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You're singing my song. ^_^ by
on 2022-03-02 15:57:44 UTC
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I'd love it if all spin-offs had good navigation between stories and all stories said who wrote them and when, too—just as a general practice, and especially in the absence of a hub site.
~Neshomeh has said this before and will keep saying it till it sinks in. {= )
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H'okay so. by
on 2022-03-02 15:32:20 UTC
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Attempting to jot down my current thoughts, which may not apply to everyone else:
- Agent wiki pages should link to all their appearances. I think the timeline/mission log split works for this from my perspective.
- Wiki pages should link to the current author's page.
- The author's page should link to their website, and also to their key agents. This should, unlike my current one, be a usable page that isn't obnoxiously long.
- Stories not hosted on a site should link back to the site, if the author has one - ie, all my Google Docs should start with a link to the Webplex.
- Stories that build off other stories should link to them. Sometimes these are one-offs - I have a Kaitlyn interlude which links to a Huinesoron mission in its A/N - but it would also be good to link series together, either by way of a link to a site, to the wiki, or to the previous (and next?) story in the series.
- An author's website should contain all their stuff, in an easy-to-use format. If that format isn't a chronological timeline, it should link to the relevant agent wiki pages.
hS
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I, however, can speak for mobile. by
on 2022-03-02 12:28:54 UTC
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In mobile, if there is a red link, it appears a bright red and is underlined, while regular links, oddly enough, a darker maroon-y red. Here is how it appears. (that's a link to an image, btw)
If I tap on a red, underlined link, it redirects me to create the page (which is... nifty. I've never noticed that.); specfically, it directs me to the editor. Although it won't let me edit the dang thing, meaning I can't actually, but that might be an error on my end. Exiting the editor gives me the following text on the page: "There is currently no text in this page. You can search for this page title in other pages, search the related logs, or create this page." Rather than whatever the computer says.
As for linking on the wiki, that... doesn't happen in the editor, at least for me. I have to, if I don't know the name, use the link function available in the editor (I think in both versions, but definetly visual), then the first few letters will provide me the pages that fit. Here's what I'm talking about.
I know a fairish amount about mobile editing, since that's my primary mode, but not a ton about it.
-kA, who got excited for a second and thought they could actually create Matthew's page without needing to go into the phone's desktop mode, but nope, they can't. Whelp.
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The Index? Nooooooo! by
on 2022-03-02 05:26:20 UTC
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Oh, that's gutting. Ugh. {= < I'm glad you have something left to work with, but buggerit, I was counting on having that to look at whenever I get around to adding dates to the LotR missions like I've done with the HP missions.
(Tangent: I want to dispense with the Specialized/Unspecialized/Crossovers sections and just have a mission timeline in each continuum. I figure people can look at agent pages to find missions organized by agent, and apparently that may not be a major use-case anyway. I may ask for opinions on this in a different sub-thread here, if that's okay.)
I'm fine with having "Miss Cam Courtyard" redirect to "Courtyard." I gueeeeess we could even rename the page to "Miss Cam Courtyard" and have "Courtyard" be a redirect... I've never been totally convinced it needed more of a name than anything else in HQ, but the name exists nonetheless, so I guess that's just too bad for me. {= )
Hmm, I should be able to tweak the redlink color. Does this shade show up any better than this shade does?
FYI, there are additional ways to spot redlinks, too: when you hover over a link, if the page doesn't exist, it'll get a dashed (as opposed to solid) underline and the hover text will be "Page Name (page does not exist)" rather than just "Page Name."
Also, you should get suggestions for existing pages if you start typing a link. No suggestions = no pages that start with the letters you typed. ... That's if you're on a PC and your connection doesn't suck, anyway. Can't speak for mobile.
~Neshomeh
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Mostly addressed. by
on 2022-03-01 17:01:39 UTC
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- I'll give the punctuation another scan later; the only one I found was (SIGH) the very first one in the body text.
- Typo fixed.
- Huh, Fandom Wiki redlinks just look black to me, that's a non-colourblind-friendly choice of link colour... a-ny-way, either "Miss Cam Courtyard" needs to be a redirect, or I just need to edit across the board to "Courtyard". I don't think piping the link is necessary. Thoughts?
- Compressed the timeline for ye.
- I... do... not know. Okay, they're third-level now, but, uh, I'm not sure they're necessary at all, given that only one story doesn't fall under the Floaters header. Maybe I'll just remove them.
- Added. I've kept the summaries in-line because it means the whole Reading List can fit onto one screen, which I like.
- Okaaaaaaay. I haven't done this, but I'm probably the person best suited [b]to[/b] do it, so okay. Ultimately I want to have both publication and timeline dates on all my docs; I think the full version of the Grand Index has gone down with its ship, but I still have the condensed version with publish dates, so this is doable.
hS
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Whee! by
on 2022-03-01 16:17:22 UTC
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Okay, so, mostly this is awesome and I wish I had more time to read All Things Kaitlyn now. ^_^ Since I don't, some notes:
- Punctuation goes before ref tags. There are some spots you've got some after a tag.
- Typo: "She sent to live in their Response Centre" should be "went" (or possibly "was sent").
- Is Miss Cam Courtyard going to become a redirect to Courtyard?
- I'd have less whitespace between segments of the timeline, but that might just be me. At least less of a gap at the top, though.
- Are those fourth-level headers under Mission Logs? Why not third-level?
- You're missing some continuum tags on later missions. Summary/commentary typically goes in a sub-bullet, but if you'd rather not, I'd advise using a hyphen like you did in the timeline.
- Please include publication dates on reference links? *puppy eyes*
Aaaand I think that's it!
~Neshomeh
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Okay, that's quite funny. XD Good! by
on 2022-03-01 15:54:09 UTC
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So, second half of the question: how do you find the author's website? Because I know I'm terrible about linking it, and it's not like we have Board profiles to look at.
hS
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And now I've made a finish of this. by
on 2022-03-01 15:52:27 UTC
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Apart from one more picture, I think Kaitlyn's Wiki page should be in good shape. (Oh, I need to check if she was in any of the other Hunger Gameses, but other than that...)
hS
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Erm. The author's website, actually by
on 2022-03-01 14:51:46 UTC
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That's how I've always done it. Hence finding all your stories through your website.