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AC POSTING GUIDELINES (site not forum)

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RokofAges75:
As far as the summary rule goes... I can see both sides of that.  I remember being annoyed at FictionPress for having such a strict word count limit for summaries.  I tried to post a story there with a summary that was only 3 sentences (48 words), and it was still too long!  So at least we're not being limited to that extent here.

Unfortunately, as with a lot of these rules, it's the people who have no common sense who have ruined it for the rest of us.  No one's summary should take up an entire page, but I've seen some - and recently - that do.  On the other hand, published novelists do have much longer summaries on their book covers - but in that case, they're not competing for space with other people's summaries.

I think that's what a lot of these rules boil down to - space.  Banner size, summary length, number of updates in a day...  It's all about making sure we have an equal share of the space on that damn Most Recent page, so that everyone's stories have a chance to be seen.

RokofAges75:

--- Quote from: colorguard_diva on April 07, 2012, 11:33:26 PM ---How can they post their whole collection at once, lol. That's clearly breaking the rule of more than two stories.

--- End quote ---

I know; that's why that rule was created in the first place LOL, because that's what people were doing.

julilly:

--- Quote from: colorguard_diva on April 07, 2012, 10:42:40 PM ---Hey Mare,

Thanks for clarifying for me. I have to say I'm lucky because no one's summaries have taken half a page for me. None of the current summaries have been bothersome to me, including those who have used more than one paragraph. I think some stories might lead to having more than one paragraph or the use of say 10 sentences and not take half a page. Just my thought on the subject. Even for myself I can't not say that all my stories (in the future) would be able to have summaries of 4 to 6 sentences. One might need say 10 sentences to make it coherent for a possible reader.

Really when you think of it 5 to 6 sentences with maybe 10 words in it is only 50 to 60 words, would it possible to have say 100 to 125 words for a summary instead. That way if you need more words to describe a story you would have them. Personally, I can see the run-on sentences forming in people summaries to fulfill that 5 to 6 sentences rule....lol. Just a suggestion.

The people who post at least three chapters of a story throughout the day in my opinion are still monoplozing the Most Recent page. Why can't you post all three chapters at one time. I'm not asking you to change the rules, I am just explaining my thoughts. There will always be those who follow the rules and those who will not and do it repeatedly. It's just the way life is.  I know it would annoy everyone If I posted the same story 5 times in one day.


--- End quote ---

The fact that you keep repeating "I haven't even noticed" just goes to show that very few stories on the site right now would actually break this rule. So most people have nothing to worry about.

The reason you haven't really noticed the ones that take up half a page is because every time they get posted I have to go in and edit the summaries to try and make them as small as possible. There have been summaries on stories added recently that not only are double spaced but are upwards of 500 words! That's not a summary, it's a synopsis. Not to mention, what qualifies as bothersome to you may not to someone else and vice versa (i.e. 500 words takes up a lot more space on someone's phone screen than it does on a computer screen.).

You can say a lot in 6 sentences and for those with banners maybe they need to start using their banners more creatively rather than just having a photo with a title written on it. There's a lot of space in a 600 pixel banner.

Though your suggestions are great in principle, in practice Mare and I would have to do a LOT of work. That's what it would take to give a summary word count because we would have to copy and paste every summary into Word to see if it met the guidelines. And in order for us to limit the number of chapters someone posts every day we would have to follow and get email notifications of every single author's updates on the site then count them up. Somehow, I can't see that being a very efficient or effective business model.

We can see sentences, we can see the day something has been updated which makes it easy and fast for us to follow up on.

colorguard_diva:
And while you may notice certain things, other notice other things. Really, if it were my story I would prefer you to ask me to edit my summary than editing yourself. Only for the simple reason that if you haven't read the story how would you know what information is pertinent to my story.

Like my original post I really just wanted clarfication because rule 7 came from out of the blue. The other rules we hear about all the time. Clearly, we don't want to add any work to anyone's  already busy life. Maybe letting the author edit their summary would save you time.

FrickingKaos:
Personally I think editing should be left up to the writers themselves.

Like for example someone breaks a rule, you give them 24 hours to fix it, or something like that. Kind of like how you handle banner size. Not telling you how to run the site, just a suggestion.

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