# A tip when uploading stories to FA...



## Poetigress (Jan 25, 2008)

I wish more writers would include some kind of description of what their story is, what it's about, _something_ of relevance, in the description field when they upload stories.  Every day I hover over some story on the main page, and all the description says is something like "here's the first chapter of my story, enjoy".  :roll:  Nothing there to hook my interest, and then if I do still click on it out of curiosity, it usually winds up being a .doc or something I'd have to download, which makes me even less interested in checking it out.

I know it can be hard to write quick summaries of things, but... at least make the effort if you want more people to read your stuff.

Oh, and many thanks to those who use tags, thumbnails, and the description to warn of possible issues with adult stories (fetishes and so on).  I was browsing an adult story the other day, and because there were no tags or warnings in the description, I didn't find out it dealt with a fetish I find particularly distasteful until... well, until that started happening.  *shudder*  Mind you, I don't care what people are into, but I do appreciate it when they mark it clearly for those of us who might not share the interest...


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## Rilvor (Jan 25, 2008)

This is why I don't browse FA. I used to try and browse recent poetry, but like you said descriptions (if there is one at all) suck, and got tired of stumbling into someone's latest "I need E-hugs broke up with my latest boyfriend/girlfriend *sob*" poem....

that or about how lonely they are or some depressing shit....


Edit: I'd also like to add a mini rant to all you people out there uploading your poems in whatever format that requires downloading. Call me lazy, but I don't feel like wasting my time.

.txt is your friend.


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## Poetigress (Jan 25, 2008)

Rilvor said:
			
		

> Edit: I'd also like to add a mini rant to all you people out there uploading your poems in whatever format that requires downloading. Call me lazy, but I don't feel like wasting my time.
> 
> .txt is your friend.



Absolutely.  Especially now that you can use BBcode to do bold and italics, for heaven's sake.


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## Rilvor (Jan 25, 2008)

I fail to see why bold/italics are even necessary in a poem, but thats me.


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## Poetigress (Jan 25, 2008)

Italics can be -- I've used them for dialogue/quotations in some poems, because italics tended to look better to me than using quotation marks.  *shrug*


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## uncia (Jan 25, 2008)

Rilvor said:
			
		

> I fail to see why bold/italics are even necessary in a poem, but thats me.


Form can be important for emphasis...









			
				Poetigress said:
			
		

> Every day I hover over some story on the main page, and all the description says is something like "here's the first chapter of my story, enjoy". Rolling Eyes Nothing there to hook my interest, and then if I do still click on it out of curiosity, it usually winds up being a .doc or something I'd have to download, which makes me even less interested in checking it out.
> 
> I know it can be hard to write quick summaries of things, but... at least make the effort if you want more people to read your stuff.


Seconded on that: if one takes the time to type up 2,000 words and upload that for others to read, it's surely worth the extra effort to write a couple of lines summarising the plot/subject matter to inform/hook them in. 

d.


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## Rilvor (Jan 25, 2008)

I'll disagree, since if a poem was doing its job right it wouldn't need emphasis. In my opinion.


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## Poetigress (Jan 25, 2008)

In Uncia's example, it's not so much emphasis, as the form being used for effect and adding some extra/alternate meaning to the text.  (Take that text out of the form, and the humor/sarcasm doesn't come through at all.)

To me those types of poems are kind of a novelty more than anything -- I've seen that technique used well, and I've seen it used as a gimmick without adding anything to the text (putting your love poem in the shape of a heart might be cute for your SO, but it doesn't do much for the casual reader), but at least the formatting is being consciously used, and not the way people will, say, center every single line just so it looks "like a poem."  >_<  (No, now it looks distracting and amateurish...)

Another example I could think of is if you had two speakers in a poem, and wanted to use italics or bold to differentiate the two voices.

I agree, though, that the words, not the formatting, should still be doing most of the work in the poem...


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## yak (Jan 25, 2008)

Text formatting has a _massive_ impact on the flow of the story and on how well certain aspects are emphasized - which are *practically un-transmittable*  otherwise.


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## Vore Writer (Jan 25, 2008)

I try and put in a good enough description which will hopefully draw in some people, but I don't want to say too much and run the risk of basically telling them what's going on. The one thing I always do is, if it's a vore story, mention what type it is.

As for the file types, I prefer using .rtf. A lot of my stories are too long to use anything else, and I know not everybody has Word.

I hope that makes sense


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## Xipoid (Jan 25, 2008)

Sometimes I try to put in just what is in the short little story, but then I realize I literally have nothing to say that would fall outside of a plot summary, and I'm sure no one (well, I don't) wants to read a plot summary just before the story itself.

To compensate, I write a little prologue which doesn't take too long, but I guess in order to catch it you would have to browse my gallery specifically instead of FA's main page.



As for my .doc submissions... I need to get around to converting them to txt and adding in the BBcode.


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## Poetigress (Jan 26, 2008)

Xipoid said:
			
		

> Sometimes I try to put in just what is in the short little story, but then I realize I literally have nothing to say that would fall outside of a plot summary, and I'm sure no one (well, I don't) wants to read a plot summary just before the story itself.



I tend to think of it in terms of a back-cover or jacket blurb -- giving some idea of who the main character is, the setting, and the conflict they encounter, without summarizing the plot completely.

Besides, it's good practice for someday writing a query letter to publishers...


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## makmakmob (Jan 26, 2008)

Does RTF need to be downloaded on FA?


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## yak (Jan 26, 2008)

makmakmob said:
			
		

> Does RTF need to be downloaded on FA?


At this moment, yes.
RTF parser is on the TODO list, but not on the middle-to-higher priority right now.


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## Xioneer (Jan 27, 2008)

Poetigress said:
			
		

> Rilvor said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I myself don't care to download often...

What is the trick to .txt? It is just basic html programming? I can do that, but I have been creating files only in .rtf for a while.

I actually assumed that the stories one does not have to download were pasted into the Artists Comment area. I had no idea the FA browser/server could download some programmed files (.txt?) automatically. I am not techno wiz...


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## Xipoid (Jan 27, 2008)

Poetigress said:
			
		

> I tend to think of it in terms of a back-cover or jacket blurb -- giving some idea of who the main character is, the setting, and the conflict they encounter, without summarizing the plot completely.
> 
> Besides, it's good practice for someday writing a query letter to publishers...



Well, I have some editing to do don't I? I'll need to get on that one day, whenever I go back and covert everything to txt.


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## Poetigress (Jan 27, 2008)

Xioneer said:
			
		

> What is the trick to .txt? It is just basic html programming? I can do that, but I have been creating files only in .rtf for a while.



Basically, it's just saving the file as .txt instead of .rtf or some other type of file.  Basic formatting like bold and italics are the same as html except for using [these] instead of <these>.


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## Xioneer (Jan 27, 2008)

Poetigress said:
			
		

> Xioneer said:
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> 
> 
> ...



Thanks. Sheesh! It's so easy! I only save in .rtf because "rich" sounds better!


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## Xipoid (Jan 27, 2008)

Don't forget to encode it in UTF-8, and as for the [] notation, it is just BBcode (what's on this forum).


UTF-8 encoding is found by:
File-->Save as-->Encoding (bottom choice just below file name and whatnot)**

**Be sure you are saving via notepad OR explicitly as a .txt file (through another program) or this option is likely not to appear.


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## Xioneer (Jan 28, 2008)

Xipoid said:
			
		

> Don't forget to encode it in UTF-8, and as for the [] notation, it is just BBcode (what's on this forum).
> 
> 
> UTF-8 encoding is found by:
> ...



I am about as clear as mud on all that. I was just hoping to HTML code a .txt version. Are there really going to be serious issues with doing that or am I confused? I don't use UTF-8 or notepad, only Wordpad and then save in whatever format...


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## Toonces (Jan 29, 2008)

This is at least part of the reason why I title my stories like I do.

Granted they could still use a little extra description sometimes, but still.

What FA could really use for stories is a tagging system like that on Yiffstar.


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## Kerrigan (Jan 29, 2008)

Ch-Ya, i'd like to start out by saying everyone has good points, but i'd like to make one...
I upload in TXT files, and, generally, i write in diffrent styles, but for certin stories, it stays the same, unless i revise it. I don't type descriptions, save for my "First/second/thrid/xnumberhere part of my Epic/romantic/whatever story!" so that i don't ruin ANYTHING for people who do happen to find the story on the front page.


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## Xipoid (Jan 30, 2008)

Regarding UTF-8: In layman's terms, if you do not save your text file in UTF-8, then all that will happen is that certain characters (e.g. the quotation mark and apostrophe) will show up as question marks once uploaded. Otherwise, it makes no difference. Coding in HTML could prove a problem, as I do not believe FA is going to read HTML as code but instead as just text. I know that yak has set FA to read BBcode within plain text submissions, so it is safest to use that, but you are welcome to try HTML.

If you do decide to save as plain text with UTF-8, I suggest using notepad directly.
Here's an image to show you just exactly where this option is in notepad.

Something similar for MSword, though versions may differ.


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## yak (Jan 30, 2008)

HTML will show as plain text, only bbcode will work.


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## Xioneer (Jan 30, 2008)

Xipoid said:
			
		

> Regarding UTF-8: In layman's terms, if you do not save your text file in UTF-8, then all that will happen is that certain characters (e.g. the quotation mark and apostrophe) will show up as question marks once uploaded. Otherwise, it makes no difference. Coding in HTML could prove a problem, as I do not believe FA is going to read HTML as code but instead as just text. I know that yak has set FA to read BBcode within plain text submissions, so it is safest to use that, but you are welcome to try HTML.
> 
> If you do decide to save as plain text with UTF-8, I suggest using notepad directly.
> Here's an image to show you just exactly where this option is in notepad.
> ...



Thank you for all the help, Xipoid! I ran through everything and submitted a test sample. UTF-8 is what I need to use and obviously BBcoding is easy.

I am noit quite so dense that I needed the screenshot links you provided, but I do thank you most sincerely for taking the trouble.

...and thank you for the specificity, Yak.


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## Xioneer (Jan 30, 2008)

Oops! And thank you, Poetigress!


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## Poetigress (Jan 30, 2008)

Kerrigan said:
			
		

> I don't type descriptions, save for my "First/second/thrid/xnumberhere part of my Epic/romantic/whatever story!" so that i don't ruin ANYTHING for people who do happen to find the story on the front page.



I can understand not wanting to ruin things, but to me, as someone browsing, it's like being in a library where the book covers are all blank except for the title, author, and maybe the genre.  After a while, I get tired of having to open the thing up and read the first few pages just to know if it's going to be something I might be interested in.    (Admittedly, this is far less of an issue with .txt files than with something that has to be downloaded.)



			
				Toonces said:
			
		

> What FA could really use for stories is a tagging system like that on Yiffstar.



I think some sort of tagging system is coming for all submissions eventually, and the category drop-down list is to be done away with, if I understand correctly.


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## Houshou (Feb 24, 2008)

So, help me understand something.

I am writing a story. BBcode encoded. I want to upload it to FA. So I save the file as .txt encoded as a UTF-8 file.

Is that all I need to do? I just upload it like a normal photo/image but its like that?

Basically, I have a story I just started on another forum and its not getting any responders. And due to the way I want the story to run, I kind of need more than 1 reader...I'll let them know that the story is being displayed on multiple sites. 
I thought about uploading the story here, and maybe DA. But I want to make certain I got all the 'best way to upload a story' right before I just went and uploaded it like a ignorant newbie.


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## TakeWalker (Feb 24, 2008)

When you go to upload, there's an option for stories. Just make sure you click that in the first screen, and you're good to go. The BBCode should show up just as though you were posting it to this forum.


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## Hyenaworks (Mar 10, 2008)

Is there a quick and easy way to convert .doc to .txt?

It's a real pain in the ass trying to reformat stories that are 2,000+ in notepad and it does make a difference trying to get the paragraphs all laid out properly.

If there isn't a faster and easier way to do it, I'll just deal, but if there is, *please* share!


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## Poetigress (Mar 10, 2008)

You just open the file in Word, click "Save As..." and choose .txt from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the window.

Unless I'm missing something...

Now, as far as formatting goes, you'll probably have to remove the smart quotes, ellipses, and possibly the dashes, and replace them with the plain straight quotes, three periods, and two hyphens, so you don't have things showing up as question marks or squares.  You can either do a find-and-replace, or open the .txt file in Notepad and change them manually one by one.  (I keep those particular autocorrections turned off in Word so that I don't have to keep doing the find-and-replace thing...)


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## Xipoid (Mar 10, 2008)

Poetigress said:
			
		

> You just open the file in Word, click "Save As..." and choose .txt from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the window.
> 
> Unless I'm missing something...
> 
> Now, as far as formatting goes, you'll probably have to remove the smart quotes, ellipses, and possibly the dashes, and replace them with the plain straight quotes, three periods, and two hyphens, so you don't have things showing up as question marks or squares.  You can either do a find-and-replace, or open the .txt file in Notepad and change them manually one by one.  (I keep those particular autocorrections turned off in Word so that I don't have to keep doing the find-and-replace thing...)



If you encode it as UTF-8 you can avoid most of that. However, Word is somewhat fickle about saving indentions of any kind when saving as txt. Though it is nice to have it converted, going through a story that you have to manually add an indention for each new paragraph can get somewhat annoying.

I have yet to find a particular method that will preserve indentions. If any one knows a method then please share.


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## Poetigress (Mar 10, 2008)

*nods*  I wasn't aware of the indention issue.  Indentions haven't been a concern for me, since I start off each story formatting it for on-screen reading (no indents, and spaces between paragraphs).  Unless you're planning on 1) self-publishing the story in a print format (Lulu or the like) or 2) submitting it to traditional mainstream editors (check guidelines), there's little reason to start off typing something with traditional print formatting these days.

And of course, if you are planning on doing one of those two things, you probably shouldn't be uploading the story to FA anyway.


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## Keaalu (Mar 11, 2008)

Xipoid said:
			
		

> I have yet to find a particular method that will preserve indentions. If any one knows a method then please share.



I just use find-and-replace, and switch all the tabs (because "find what" accepts a tab as a special character, unless you indented with "paragraph - indentation") to about eight spaces. (That reads really strangely.)


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## Altivo (Mar 21, 2008)

Maybe I'm just dense about negotiating FA's structure, but I've never succeeded in uploading a text story so that it didn't need downloading. Even when I do plain, unformatted text, FA still says it must be downloaded in order to read it.

What I have here currently are PDF files. But in most modern browsers, you don't have to consciously "download" those. They display right in the browser. Unfortunately, FA does not transmit the proper mime type to browsers so that they recognize PDF or RTF files and display them directly. This really shouldn't be that hard to fix.


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## Poetigress (Mar 21, 2008)

Altivo said:
			
		

> Maybe I'm just dense about negotiating FA's structure, but I've never succeeded in uploading a text story so that it didn't need downloading. Even when I do plain, unformatted text, FA still says it must be downloaded in order to read it.



If the story's been saved as a .txt file, it should show up.


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## Altivo (Mar 21, 2008)

Nope. And I do know how to save text files. I've been writing professionally for nearly 30 years.

As far as I can tell, FA does not assign correct mime types to even plain text. It could do so, but Firefox is not detecting the mime type for any story or music items, only the visual graphics. Most browsers have no trouble displaying plain text, RTF, PDF (provided Acrobat Reader plugin is installed), or even DOC (if Microsoft Office is installed) without the extra step of downloading and then opening in a different application. But the key to that is the mime type transmitted to the browser by the server application.


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## Poetigress (Mar 21, 2008)

Um, I wasn't trying to insult your computer literacy.  I didn't say that you didn't know how to save text files; I said, if it's saved as a text file, it should show up, meaning that that's the way the site is supposed to work and it works just fine from my end -- but I'm using IE, so maybe that makes a difference?


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## Altivo (Mar 21, 2008)

Perhaps but it shouldn't. Those of us who don't run Windows can't run IE. If the issue is one of browser compatibility, then FA is still responsible for working with more than just IE.


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## Poetigress (Mar 21, 2008)

I'd suggest posting about this in the 'support - open problems' forum and getting some input from there...


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## kamunt (Mar 21, 2008)

Poetigress said:
			
		

> In Uncia's example, it's not so much emphasis, as the form being used for effect and adding some extra/alternate meaning to the text.  (Take that text out of the form, and the humor/sarcasm doesn't come through at all.)
> 
> To me those types of poems are kind of a novelty more than anything -- I've seen that technique used well, and I've seen it used as a gimmick without adding anything to the text (putting your love poem in the shape of a heart might be cute for your SO, but it doesn't do much for the casual reader), but at least the formatting is being consciously used, and not the way people will, say, center every single line just so it looks "like a poem."  >_<  (No, now it looks distracting and amateurish...)



Yeah, concrete poetry is hit-or-miss pretty often, unfortunately. Many concrete poems suffer from what I call the "Shel Silverstein Syndrome", where they merely just take the shape of whatever their subject is, instead of actually putting effort into what the form to create advanced meaning. Shameless plug, anyone? This is a concrete poem I had to write for our concrete poetry unit in Creative Writing. It was something different, but my teacher really liked it.

Whoring aside, what I've been doing with my stories is uploading them as a document, but also copy/pasting the text of the poem/story just right in the description of the work, so that nobody has to actually download the file if they don't want to. Please everybody, I figure.


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## yak (Mar 23, 2008)

Altivo said:
			
		

> As far as I can tell, FA does not assign correct mime types to even plain text. It could do so, but Firefox is not detecting the mime type for any story or music items, only the visual graphics. Most browsers have no trouble displaying plain text, RTF, PDF (provided Acrobat Reader plugin is installed), or even DOC (if Microsoft Office is installed) without the extra step of downloading and then opening in a different application. But the key to that is the mime type transmitted to the browser by the server application.


I don't think I fully understand what do you mean by saying FA does not assign correct mime types to user uploaded files.

The only files that FA knows how to display on the page properly at the moment are plain text files. This is determined by a simple extension check, e.g if the story/poetry file has the .txt extension, read the file onscreen. 

Assuming your FA username is the same as the one here on the fora, I did a check and found two text submissions that are both saved in .pdf files. FA does not know how to display those at the moment.

As for the download link, it takes you directly to the place the file is located on the data server; and the software that runs it knows what correct mime types to assign to the files it serves, returning a proper text/plain Content-type header for .txt story/poetry files.


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## Altivo (Mar 23, 2008)

What I mean is this:

My browser (Firefox) normally recognizes the mime type when I click to download a PDF file, and automatically starts the Acrobat Reader plugin to display the PDF file within the browser window. I don't use IE, but I know it does the same thing.

However, even when I tell FA to "download" one of those files, Firefox says it doesn't know what the file type is and asks me to save the file to disk or cancel. So the mime type, as far as I can tell, is not being seen or recognized when it is passed to Firefox, if in fact it is being passed.

If the mime type were properly passed and recognized, then FA doesn't need to know how to display RTF or PDF files itself anyway. Most browsers are now equipped to handle these themselves, and the "download" link could be reserved for use by those who really do want to download the file to their hard disk (in other words, "download" should generate a mime type for a binary data file that doesn't have an associated application or plugin.)

As for plain text, a couple of months ago I did upload a file in plain text. It had a name ending in ".txt" and really was plain text. At that time, FA gave me the same message it gives for RTF and PDF: it said it did not know how to display the file and I'd have to download it in order to view it. So if everyone was going to go through the extra step of starting a separate application to view, I figured I might as well use PDF and control the display and print format.


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## Rhainor (Mar 23, 2008)

Altivo said:
			
		

> What I mean is this:
> 
> My browser (Firefox) normally recognizes the mime type when I click to download a PDF file, and automatically starts the Acrobat Reader plugin to display the PDF file within the browser window. I don't use IE, but I know it does the same thing.
> 
> However, even when I tell FA to "download" one of those files, Firefox says it doesn't know what the file type is and asks me to save the file to disk or cancel. So the mime type, as far as I can tell, is not being seen or recognized when it is passed to Firefox, if in fact it is being passed.



Sounds to me like there's something wrong with the Acrobat Reader plugin, as your stories load in the browser window just fine for me.


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## Altivo (Mar 23, 2008)

That's possible, except I just spent the afternoon resolving problems on an OpenVMS installation that required me to view multiple PDF files from the HP support site. All of those opened in the browser directly, yet the ones from FA do not. I suppose there might be more than one mime type in use for PDF and my browser only recognizes one of them...

This whole discussion was prompted by Poetigress' complaint that she is forced to download PDF files in order to read them from FA, so I'm not the only one apparently. That or she is using the word "download" only in the sense that she had to click the "download" link. Part of my point is that the "download" link is unnecessary complication. If FA just sends the file with the mime type, either the browser will display it on its own, or it will ask the user where to save the file, so the end result is the same.


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## Rhainor (Mar 23, 2008)

Which version of Firefox are you using?  The latest standard version is 2.0.0.12.  I'm using Firefox 3 Beta 4.

I tried pulling up your story "Catch Me If You Can" in 3 different browsers: Firefox 2.0.0.12, Firefox 3 Beta 4, and Internet Explorer 7.  All three times, the browser loaded the Acrobat Reader plugin and displayed the story in the browser window.

The problem is either at your end, or somewhere in the _series of tubes_.


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## duo2nd (Mar 24, 2008)

Well I always don write fanfics. But I need advice on how to make them look better.


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## Poetigress (Mar 24, 2008)

Altivo said:
			
		

> This whole discussion was prompted by Poetigress' complaint that she is forced to download PDF files in order to read them from FA, so I'm not the only one apparently. That or she is using the word "download" only in the sense that she had to click the "download" link.



I meant "download" in the sense of any files other than text, where the text does not show up right there on FA's page -- in other words, anything that has to be viewed via another program, whether it's Adobe Acrobat Reader, Word, or some other word processor.

EDIT: (I should also add that, technically, my original complaint wasn't as much about having to download files as it was the fact that writers weren't including any relevant information about their stories in the descriptions, and how frustrating it is to not even be able to tell whether the stories were something I even _wanted_ to download -- as well as the issue of poems and stories being posted as .doc or .rtf when they had no special formatting and could just as easily have been posted as plain text instead, making them much easier for the casual browser to read.  Of course, now that writers can use BBCode to add bold and italics to the plain text, that adds another facet to that point.)


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## ZeekFox (Apr 18, 2008)

I have a great appreciation for literature. I do understand why it would be better to upload poems as a text file but text files are the worst type of file when it comes to stories. It degenerates the english language and disables important techniques for setting moods and foreshadowing. Im all for .txt file poems but I must disagree when it comes to stories for it drains the quality of the literature. We recently debated the concept in my literary appreciation class and the outcome was the same as stated.


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## Poetigress (Apr 18, 2008)

I don't understand how text files degenerate the language or disable any techniques.  All stories are, is text.  You foreshadow and set moods with your words, not your formatting.  As long as you have italics for emphasis, I don't see the problem.  Can you explain a little more what you mean?


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## Hakumei Ookami (Apr 18, 2008)

Actually, I prefer to not write any kind of interesting descriptions on my work, so the only people who read them are people who are interested without having to hook them first 

Which is fair, as my poetry's boring, and I don't have the willpower to keep my stories up to date.


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## Hakumei Ookami (Apr 18, 2008)

Also I have to agree with Poetigress. If you need to use Microsoft Word's fancy features to make your stories interesting, you're not a good writer. The English language doesn't include pictures or large/small variations of Comic Sans.


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## Poetigress (Apr 18, 2008)

Hakumei Ookami said:
			
		

> Actually, I prefer to not write any kind of interesting descriptions on my work, so the only people who read them are people who are interested without having to hook them first



Which is fine, as long as you're satisfied with the size of the audience you already have.  >^_^<


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## Kimmerset (Apr 18, 2008)

Hakumei Ookami said:
			
		

> Also I have to agree with Poetigress. If you need to use Microsoft Word's fancy features to make your stories interesting, you're not a good writer. The English language doesn't include pictures or large/small variations of Comic Sans.



I kind of chuckled at this one.  

Agreed that flashy anything just looks plain God-awful, but I like Word because it's what I've had to work with since I was 5.  It's handy with tabs, numbered lists, point form, and making generally nice layouts.  I like word and kinda wish the format was supported, but I suppose I'll have to bite the bullet and format my stories in .txt.  WordPad is fine, but Word is just my preference, really.  

Anyway, you're confusing a very versatile program (used for reports, assignments and presentations, which often need clip art or even several different kinds of fonts) with people trying to be fancy with something that doesn't need a lot of visual representation. 

I'll patiently await .rtf format, because I know it's not critical. I just like a bit of decent formatting when it comes to reading/writing stories.


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## TakeWalker (Apr 18, 2008)

I hope Zeek comes back to explain himself, because... I'm not seeing how a format that basically mimics the format of every novel ever printed in the past fifty years degrades the English language.


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## Kimmerset (Apr 18, 2008)

He won in a debate class. It has to be true. 

On the odd occasion I use bold and italics to symbolize sarcasm and irritated tones, but as mentioned, that's possible in text files now (which I didn't know until today. Awesome). So it does kinda eliminate the need for anything other than (God forbid) Notepad, or (more preferably) WordPad.  If you need special formatting other than the basic bold, underline and italics, to jazz up you're writing, you suck.


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## Poetigress (Apr 18, 2008)

Kimmerset said:
			
		

> I'll patiently await .rtf format, because I know it's not critical. I just like a bit of decent formatting when it comes to reading/writing stories.



Now that we can do bold/italics/centering/etc with plain text, I don't really mind that it's the only format that displays.  I just wish there were an option to make the text a little larger and/or print it out (like FurRag has), so I wouldn't have to squint at the screen for long blocks of text (or download longer pieces).  >_<  That's an issue of comfort, though, not of losing any meaning or intent...


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## Kimmerset (Apr 18, 2008)

If you have a scroll wheel mouse, you can press ctrl and scroll up or down to make text smaller or bigger.  That should solve your problem a bit.


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## Altivo (Apr 18, 2008)

Kimmerset: That depends on both the software and hardware you are using. It doesn't work here at all, for instance. I'm guessing you're on Windows or maybe a Macintosh? My scroll wheel scrolls pages up and down. Pressing CTRL doesn't make any difference, it still works the same.


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## Hakumei Ookami (Apr 18, 2008)

I use Linux myself and the scroll wheel works fine for me. I actually use it a lot for just this very purpose.


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## Altivo (Apr 18, 2008)

It still depends on which browser software, which fonts are available, and how the mouse is defined to the system. That was my point: not all computers are set up alike.


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## Hakumei Ookami (Apr 18, 2008)

And my point was, it's got nothing to do with the Operating System, but it doesn't matter as it doesn't affect you either way.


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## Kimmerset (Apr 26, 2008)

It works on two computers that I use often.  Throwing it out there for people that it might work with.  I use both Windows XP and Vista, in combination with Firefox.


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## xoagray (Apr 27, 2008)

Just a quick question, I've heard a lot of talk about using BBcode. I'm unfamiliar with BBcode.  How would that work exactly?  Like if  I wanted to indent a paragraph, or add bold text or whatever, would I have to actually type [bold]bold text [/bold] or something like that? Or is there something that one could use that would translate say an RTF file into BBcode?  
It'd be a pain to have to either go back through and erase or add things like [bold] or whatever all the way through a story, or even a long poem for those of us who post to multiple venues.


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## Hakumei Ookami (Apr 27, 2008)

You can use BBCode in the .txt files you upload?

Erm, I'm not sure about translators, there's bound to be one, but BBCode is very limited and at its basic level, it's just *, , , and maybe , [url] and [img], though I'm not sure if people really want those in stories *


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## xoagray (Apr 27, 2008)

I'm not sure, after I found out that I couldn't use anything but a .txt file, I just saved my files as .txt's and uploaded them. 
But, I was wondering how it worked, so that in the event I did any future text uploading, I would know how to do it.


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## TakeWalker (Apr 27, 2008)

I think if you go to http://www.furaffinity.net/user/yak and check the journal, he's got a comprehensive BBCode tutorial. Includes a few things only related to FA, but the stuff surrounded by brackets is what you're looking for.


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## xoagray (Apr 28, 2008)

Okay, So basically, what I'd have to do, if I wanted to put formatting into the files that I would upload to FA, is to add in that BBcode by actually typing it into the story where it needed to be. That works, but it could get to be a real pain in the butt when it comes to working on writings that are on the long side and going to be posted to more than just FA.  thanks for the info.  

*wags*


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## Poetigress (Apr 28, 2008)

xoagray said:


> Okay, So basically, what I'd have to do, if I wanted to put formatting into the files that I would upload to FA, is to add in that BBcode by actually typing it into the story where it needed to be.



Yep.  If you're using Word, though, I can point you to a shortcut.  (It might work with other programs, but I know it works with Word.)

This is assuming you have a file where you already have stuff in italics, and you want to put in the BBcode.

1. In Word, select "Edit" --> "Replace"

2. Click the "More" button.

3. Click "Format."

4. Select "Font."

5. Under "Font style," select "Italic"

6. Click OK

7. Under the blank "Find what" box, it should now say Font style: Italics.  In the "Replace with" box, type the following (without any spaces): [ i ] ^ & [ /i ]

8. Replace all.

This should put the BBcode tags around all your italics.  Save the file as text (under a different name) and you should be ready to go.

(Standard disclaimer -- this works for me, in my version of Word, my OS, yadda yadda yadda, YMMV.)


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## xoagray (Apr 28, 2008)

I'll have to give that a shot. I don't use Word, I use Pages, but it should have something similar.  (Mac user).  Or if not, I can always grab OpenOffice for this thing and give it a go in there.  

Thanks.


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## comidacomida (Apr 29, 2008)

txt is the easiest way for people to read what I've uploaded to FA.
no download necessary

It doesn't permit many special text characters or any visual-heavy font, but that's the beauty of it: people get to appreciate your writing at its purest.


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## xoagray (Apr 29, 2008)

> txt is the easiest way for people to read what I've uploaded to FA.
> no download necessary
> 
> It doesn't permit many special text characters or any visual-heavy font, but that's the beauty of it: people get to appreciate your writing at its purest.



Yes, this is true.  But at the same time, it's nice to have consistency.  If I have a story or writings up I tend to want the look of them to be the same.  It's not of paramount importance, but it's more about just making things look good for those who might read what I wrote.


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## Nequ (May 19, 2008)

Poetigress said:


> I wish more writers would include some kind of description of what their story is, what it's about, _something_ of relevance, in the description field when they upload stories.  Every day I hover over some story on the main page, and all the description says is something like "here's the first chapter of my story, enjoy".  :roll:  Nothing there to hook my interest, and then if I do still click on it out of curiosity, it usually winds up being a .doc or something I'd have to download, which makes me even less interested in checking it out.


Usually I just a few elements in the thumb itself. And I specifically format my stories for .TXT.


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## xoagray (May 19, 2008)

I think as far as the whole "You should put a description of your story" subject goes.  I've heard folks say a few good times, "If I put down what it's about, I'll give away the whole story!".  
Writing a Teaser is in a way, an art form of it's own.  Being able to draw someone in without giving away the plot or ending of your story.  I like to in my head, imagine those old radio shows when I think of a teaser to write.  I don't do my teasers in that style, but the same kind of questions they bring up, are the kind that I'll address in my teaser.  That way, the viewer gets a good idea of what the story will be about, but no real idea what's going to happen in the end!  
For those of you not so old timey radio inspired, there are surely plenty of other ways you can think of to write a teaser.  Just look to your favorite multi-part episode, anime, or even commercials on TV! Especially the "want to know more?" ones.  Because really, what you are doing is writing a "commercial" for your story.  

*wags*
X


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## TopazThunder (May 20, 2008)

Poetigress said:


> Yep.  If you're using Word, though, I can point you to a shortcut.  (It might work with other programs, but I know it works with Word.)
> 
> This is assuming you have a file where you already have stuff in italics, and you want to put in the BBcode.
> 
> ...



Ah, so that's how you do it.  My friend was telling me about that; didn't give me a proper run-down though.


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## Aryeonos (May 21, 2008)

Rilvor said:


> .txt is your friend.



Unless you have a computer that likes to change filenames. Though I shoulden't complain Computers are incredibly stupid at the speed of light.

each time I tried uploading a file from this acurssed it will change it to a .rtf or .doc that only will open with open office writer, instead of the wordpad I used or just plain old word that my working computer does have.


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## Calhanthirs (May 29, 2008)

http://www.zamzar.com/

This sight helps if you're having troubles converting files from one type to another.


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## Kalgorn (Jun 2, 2008)

Rilvor said:


> Edit: I'd also like to add a mini rant to all you people out there uploading your poems in whatever format that requires downloading. Call me lazy, but I don't feel like wasting my time.
> .txt is your friend.


 

Wanna explain to me how to do that? I've got two stories uploaded to Furaffinity, but both of them require downloading to read. I'm not even sure how to change that. Before i looked at this topic, i didn't know there was any other way you _could_ do it.


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## Poetigress (Jun 2, 2008)

Currently, those stories are in .rtf format.  First, you'd have to save them as .txt (adding in BBCode tags if you need them, for italics or bold -- see post #69 above if you're using Word).

Then on FA, click on "edit" below the submission, click "change story file" (over there on the right side of the screen), and upload the .txt version of the story.


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## Kalgorn (Jun 3, 2008)

Well, I don't have Word. The only thing i've got is wordpad. How do i change it to .txt?


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## Poetigress (Jun 3, 2008)

Open the file, choose "Save As," and select "Text Document" from the "Save as type" drop-down.  Then save.  

(Someone else here might be able to let you know whether you should choose "Unicode Text Document" from that list instead, to keep your quotes and so on from looking wonky.)


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## Toonces (Jun 4, 2008)

Get a Gmail account.

Go to www.Writely.com

Writes your story/Paste your Story

Click "Download File as Text"

Post this file.

The End.


Everybody should be using Writely.


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## Kalgorn (Jun 4, 2008)

Never even knew about it. . .  I've been ignorant to alot of things lately.


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## tenza (Jul 11, 2008)

æ—¥æœ¬èªžã¯JISã§ã„ã‚‹ãªã®ï¼Ÿ


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## tenza (Jul 11, 2008)

Well, that was some epic fail.


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## TakeWalker (Jul 11, 2008)

Poor Tenza. D:


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## veravex (Sep 13, 2008)

yak said:


> At this moment, yes.
> RTF parser is on the TODO list, but not on the middle-to-higher priority right now.



You know something else you guys could add to the TODO list, if it's not too much of a problem is a preview feature. You know how on DeviantArt you can mouse over a story or poem and see the first few lines? That would be a nice feature.

Also I find it odd that there is no search feature, only a filter feature. Is that on purpose to give each artist/writer a fair chance to debut their work without it having to be searched or is it just something you guys decided to leave out?

Anyways, if there is a suggestion area of this forum (I'm new) then please direct me towards it, thanks!


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## Poetigress (Sep 13, 2008)

There's a thread here about the search function: 

http://forums.furaffinity.net/showthread.php?t=13632

And this is the Suggestion Box forum:

http://forums.furaffinity.net/forumdisplay.php?f=25


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## Shouden (Sep 13, 2008)

Poetigress said:


> I wish more writers would include some kind of description of what their story is, what it's about, _something_ of relevance, in the description field when they upload stories.  Every day I hover over some story on the main page, and all the description says is something like "here's the first chapter of my story, enjoy".  :roll:  Nothing there to hook my interest, and then if I do still click on it out of curiosity, it usually winds up being a .doc or something I'd have to download, which makes me even less interested in checking it out.
> 
> I know it can be hard to write quick summaries of things, but... at least make the effort if you want more people to read your stuff.
> 
> Oh, and many thanks to those who use tags, thumbnails, and the description to warn of possible issues with adult stories (fetishes and so on).  I was browsing an adult story the other day, and because there were no tags or warnings in the description, I didn't find out it dealt with a fetish I find particularly distasteful until... well, until that started happening.  *shudder*  Mind you, I don't care what people are into, but I do appreciate it when they mark it clearly for those of us who might not share the interest...



You are welcome. I always try to include an image of somekind (still working on getting some better ones) and a warning of any offensive things  within the story as well as a short description as to what the story is about.


However, I do use word docs mostly because I hate how the txt format doesn't like the quotation marks. I will try rtf with my next story to see how that is. *wishes they would support .pages documents*


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## Silver-Seren (Oct 4, 2008)

Thank you for this. It totally just skipped my mind that people would primarily be choosing to read from what's stated in the tiny description there.

That has since been fixed and I thank you again for the reminder.


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## Wolfganghm (Jan 3, 2009)

I usually include a short summary with the stories i post on FA, except if they are parts of one big story. (Example: Living Fountain, my furry novel I am working on.)


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## yak (Jan 3, 2009)

Short summary is good, gives the search indexer something to find your stories with.
Whenever search comes to FA that is.


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## greymist (May 23, 2009)

You want to see something like this? http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2312851/ 

I know I am shameless.  But I agree.  its alot more interesting when you can see something that tells you a bit about the story.  kind of like reading the back of a paperback to get an idea of the whole story.

Grey


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## Shotgunjim (Aug 9, 2009)

You know, this is a good tip. Maybe I'd get more comments and views if I gave more in depth, less generic descriptions. Thanks!


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## forevernomad (Jul 9, 2010)

ugh, so i've been reading through this thread and i've gotta say...let it go.  From what i can tell this is a case of "i don't like that this person does this thing that annoys me and they need to learn to change it!"  And this is only followed by, "How dare you demand that i do things your way just because you told me to-".  

If it's too much trouble to download a file then just don't.  Description not enough for you to want to read further then don't read further.  It really is that simple.  If FA didn't intend on upgrading their site to have other formats visible in browser then .doc and .docx wouldn't be acceptable files for upload.  Which brings me to one more thing, if it's so much efford to download a file that's not in .txt format that you have to start an entire thread about it, then what exactly does it say for a writer to have to spend THAT much time having to convert a file from anything but .txt into a .txt format?  If a writer decides to do as such, it's his/her choice.  If a writer decides not to, it's his/her choice.  Same with you on whether or not to click the 'download' button.


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## Tanzenlicht (Jul 9, 2010)

The problem is that readers don't download the work.  Then the writers come here and complain about how no one reads any more.  What's wrong with furries.  They just want the instant gratification of visual art.  No one loves meeeee.

Well step one, make your writing as accessible as possible.

So if you don't give a shit about your readers, upload in whatever format you want.  But _if_ you're trying to get your work out to the widest possible audience _then_ you have to be the one doing the extra work, not the reader.

And that was the point of the thread.


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