my toy store is super popular

[pocky_slash]

I had a very strange experience this morning. I had an anxiety dream, which isn't strange at all--I have those semi-frequently--but it wasn't about me?

Comments

[likeadeuce]

1/2. I've been posting fic since about 2004, and I've pretty much only done it on LJ.

3. To be honest, I've done so few fests that are of this variety (rather than 'post your own story to your own journal and/or archive account and link us') that I end up asking the individual mods. I know that I ran into some trouble in the first few years of Yuletide & Remix because the version of Word I was using caused format problems that showed up with HTML but not LJ. Since then I have made sure to ask what the mods want. I do wish the rules of most fests I've seen would be more specific as to format.

[pocky_slash]

Yeah, I feel like a big part of it was my own fault for just assuming that people would think, "Well, she's going to copy and paste it from my doc into LJ, so it should be 100% LJ ready!" and also assuming that "100% LJ ready" meant the same thing to everyone. Things to keep in mind for next year. (Hahaha, just kidding, I will never do this again, it was awful.)

I did clarify, not long into the process, that the stories should be coded and formatted so that they could be pasted directly into LJ, but people either didn't see that or ignored it. Also, newer versions of Word are even sneakier about format! There's now a fake paragraph break built into it. It looks like an actual line break in Word, but it's actually a spacing thing, so when you paste it into something plain text, it disappears.

I. Hate. MS Word.

[likeadeuce]

Yeah, I now routinely change my docs to Word 2003-2007 format. Word still seems like the most reliable way to me to save stuff on my home computer (also I paid for that shit before I realized how horrible the new version was,) but compared to an ideal of how a word processing program ought to work, it's terrible. I will say, I've never been able to make any kind of Notepad/WordPad program be remotely functional, so Word is the best of evils that I've found. . .

I will say that if I had been submitting to a ficathon where I knew the stories WOULD BE POSTED ON LJ, I certainly would have tested them on my own LJ to make sure they looked like I wanted them to. So with that qualifier, your assumption was not that weird. I was thinking of fests like 3_ships where the mods use their own archive.

[pocky_slash]

I think I gave up on Word somewhere in HS, right around when I first got LJ and was trying to post fic on it. The formatting just drove me nuts, so I started using Notepad and write stuff and then pasting it into Word to save. Then I just cut word out completely. In HS and college, I really only used it to format papers before I printed them. I never bothered to buy it for my laptop, which was frustrating for the first year or so because people just assume that everyone has Word and send stuff formatted that way, but then I discovered how to upload .doc files into GDocs and life's a little easier now. Not much, because Word formatting from .doc to GDocs still goes haywire, but it's got the bare minimum functionality and I'll take it

[theemdash]

I participated for the first time in a fest (like secret mutant) recently and was floored by the notion that someone else would code it. I'd tear my hair out as a moderator if I had to code all that shit. I asked THREE TIMES if they were sure.

And then I shook my head when I saw a comment from one of the moderators elsewhere complaining about doing the mark-ups. *COUGH*

How long have you been posting fic on the internet? Technically for 15 years, though the first few years I sent an MS doc to my friend, and she posted it on her website for me. That was all pre-LJ.

How long have you been posting fic on LJ in particular? Since 2004.

[metonymy]

But it's super nice out! And you have TARDIS tights! You are ready for anything! (My coffee definitely kicked in!)

I've been posting fic since probably 1999, on LJ since about 2003/4, aaaand I would do my own markup because I would figure the mods are too freaking busy to check my tags.

[bookblather]

Ooh, World Read Aloud Day sounds awesome! I must consider what to do for it.

Also, I hope your day gets better. Panic attacks in your sleep are the suckiest thing ever to suck. :( *hugs*

[bessiemaemucho]

I EXPLICITLY told Becca that Tiny Tower would consume her life. If she has a problem, she should build a tiny counseling center.

[mcwonthelottery]

EXCUSE ME BUT *I* AM NOT THE ONE COMPLAINING. AT ALL.

I'm taking this to tiny court. I don't have to stand for this kind of treatment. Where's my tiny solicitor?

[bessiemaemucho]

Probably at the tiny wig shop.