• Story News Stuff!

    Auto Updates
    I discovered a feature buried in blogger while updating story posts!  I can schedule stuff to be posted at future times! This is good news considering how many stories I have in my email right now. 

    So today is testing day.  I have 4 stories set to post, 1 every hour from 4-7 PM pacific time.  I will be at work for 3 of those, so we will see how it goes! 


    Pre-Post Readers Needed
    Also if anyone (preferably authors who have done a few stories here) is in the mood to read stories/provide pre-post feedback, feel free to toss me an email on gmail.  I really don't want this place to turn into fanfiction.net. I try to contact authors if something is "off" about a story, but most of you never get back to me.  
    I think 13 pre-post readers is enough people for this! Thanks everyone!



    Length Requirements
    I am usually pretty lax on this.  I still haven't decided on an exact length for things...But story "series" are something that probably need to be tackled now. 

    I have sent emails to 3 of you for these stories: (Apple Bloom's Date, Everypony Loves Dash, Just Like Papa) Each of these is a promised "Series", meaning lots of update posts.  The quality is good, but they are really short.  Only Everypony Loves Dash has responded so far. 

    If you send me a planned series, include a few chapters.  Having to bump something 12 times is a bit overkill for the non-fic crowd.  An introduction is cool, but include an introduction+2 chapters or something.  I've enforced this a few times now, and it seems to work out well.

    Anyway this was way longer than I originally planned!

    tl;dr
    Auto Story Posting
    Seeking Pre-Post Readers
    Length Requirements "Series" stories.

    27 comments:

    1. 1) Neato feature!

      2) I'll think about it; I'm not sure if any of my critiques are... critical, but I think I can support my opinion well enough to say whether or not a fic should go up.

      3) Brilliant idea! (yeah, that's all I got)

      ReplyDelete
    2. >pre-post readers
      Excellent idea. A pool of proofreaders/editors would be a great help for writers.

      ReplyDelete
    3. I do hate reading a story only to find out it isn't finished.

      ReplyDelete
    4. Eeeeeh. That requires me to actually -finish- something before submitting it.

      I normally get a few hundred words done and then ADD kicks in, so I go off to find a shiny object.

      ReplyDelete
    5. @Anonymous

      Brohoof to you. Yeah, regulars here & in IRC know my rage at this. I so rage when I'm JUST getting into a story and see 'To Be Continued...' Ffffffffffffffffff-

      ReplyDelete
    6. I'm pretty sure Appleblooms date was a short one shot thing. I remember being on /co/ when it was written and posted on there.

      ReplyDelete
    7. The auto-updates will save the blogger the need to do stuff personally. But wll they work as planned news at the prescribed time here!

      Only on Equestria Daily! Your daily source for Frienship and Dash love fictions.

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    8. Pro-tip for future career writers: please include more than a prologue when sending out a story.

      ReplyDelete
    9. 4pm.

      My reminder alarm is ready.

      ~Scratch

      ReplyDelete
    10. Awesome, thought I dont 'have enough reliable internet to be a proof-reader.

      ReplyDelete
    11. What's the point of autoposting? If you already have a chunk of posts ready, why not just post a large batch at once, as usual?

      Do people really bug you if they don't see a post up every hour?.. Bad ponies! *hits with newspaper*

      ReplyDelete
    12. @Anonymous

      I still have to do it, I just set it to actually publish at a later time.

      ReplyDelete
    13. @Fire.Esper

      It gives stories longer time at the top, since a lot of people only read the top 5 posts anyway.

      If I do it in a big chunk stuff is ignored.

      ReplyDelete
    14. @Fire.Esper
      The front page only holds 15 posts. If a batch comes close to that number, the first post in that batch could drop off the front page very quickly. This way, everybody gets an equal time in the limelight.

      ReplyDelete
    15. @Sethisto & @Anonymous Clever. Apparently you're way smarter than me. *puts away newspaper*

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    16. Maybe we should have a new tag, "Complete," or "Incomplete." Another thing that might be helpful... FF.net has what's called the "Beta System," where one can ask a more experienced writer for help. Perhaps we could set something like that up here? Maybe?

      ReplyDelete
    17. @Darkhawk1

      I could start adding those tags, but most authors like to randomly throw new updates at me. Plus marking the 300 old stories is..time consuming lol.

      I'll start doing it for stuff that is garunteed complete.

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    18. @Darkhawk1

      And Ponychan had a writers league for a while. Wonder what happened to it?

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    19. @Sethisto

      I don't know. My pony fandom knowledge pretty much comes from Equestria Daily.

      Hey, and thanks for accepting me as a pre-reader!

      ReplyDelete
    20. Wait... huh? You mean you send out e-mails to people who's stories don't get put up? I never got any... I just figured they were all rejected and you were too busy to tell me.

      Don't see any in the spam folder... unless if you are trying to sell hormone medication...

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    21. Even if constructive criticism is given I've been accused for systematically "tearing apart" stuff. Are we going to have to give out personal emails and "look for these authors" on IRC because public comments are too "unkind" now?

      There isn't much of a point in proofreading and whatnot when people are convinced that their error-ridden document is the best thing since sliced bread... And the toaster that came with it.

      In fact, it's quite annoying to have people respond like as if you're out on a witch hunt because you corrected them for spelling "Their" as "There".

      How strictly will the new guidelines be enforced? Will there be a level of standards that every member of the community is expected to adhere to?

      I've raised this issue before, but... Yes.

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    22. @Sethisto

      On the table I've been making sure to put "COMPLETE" in the comments for multi-parters, but the only author to tell me his story was a WIP is... on that other list. Maybe specifying WIP or COMPLETE should be in the How to Upload rules: no answer, no post.

      ReplyDelete
    23. WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE

      that screenshot...

      Pinkie wasn't in Boast Busters

      ReplyDelete
    24. So, in regards to the third point, if I write a multi-chapter story series, I should send you not only the first chapter, but a few additional chapters, correct?

      Does that mean I would need to send you multiple chapters every time I want to send one, or is that only for the first time? For example, say I send you the first two chapters of a series, then next time I would also need to send two or more (for the same series)?

      Sorry if I'm a bit confusing, I've spent my whole day running around and trying to bake for people, hah.

      ReplyDelete
    25. @Lovecraft

      It depends on the length really. If each chapter is really short, I'd ask for more. (everypony loves dash for example).

      ReplyDelete