sholio | Community pimpage

sga_talk is a new(ish) community for critical discussion of SGA fanfics. I happen to love that sort of thing, and the first discussion seems to be off to a good start, and roaming into tangential discussions of Sheppard's personality and the role of Wraith in the series. Tangents are fun!

On a random side note, I've been messing with my icons lately -- my early icons are pretty blurry, and I've been trying to sharpen them up and make them look better. In the process, I've made some interesting discoveries about how LJ handles icons that might be of interest to those of you out there who haven't already discovered this (and for all I know, 99% of the LJ-going public got there before me *g*).

Most of us have probably noticed that when you delete an icon, it vanishes from all discussions where it was used, and is replaced with your default icon. But here's the interesting part. Based on my experimentation, what LJ apparently uses when it "finds" an icon is the Keyword(s) that you've given it. Therefore, if you delete an icon and re-upload it, all you have to do is give it the same keywords as the old one, and it'll replace the old one in all the places you've used it.

On the flip side (and I tried this, just to see), if you change the keywords, LJ will lose its "link" to that icon in previous discussions where it's been used. This is useful to know if you go changing your keywords around -- you'll end up with your default icon in a lot of old posts. (You can always change them back after-the-fact, though!)

This strikes me as being especially useful for those of us who try to keep our icons under the default limit. (I know at some point I'm going to have to buy more, but I haven't yet.) It means that, as long as your keywords are suitably vague, you can swap out icons at will without it screwing up any journal posts where you've used those icons. For example, you can have a "WTF?" icon and change it to a new fandom when you drop out of your old one. You can have a Christmas icon and keep it on all your Christmas posts while changing it as the mood strikes you.

Or, in my case, you can fix blurry, dull icons and have no one be the wiser ... unless you tell them, of course. *g*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The com looks like an interesting idea...but that master list looks LONG and the idea of submitting our own fic is very strange to me.

I almost think it'd work better like a rec site vs what might boil down to self pimping.

Thanks for the link, will lurk there and see how things work.

The problem, though, is that it's a discussion community, not a recs community -- and some people really don't want their stories dissected in public. Hence the need for writers to give permission. So far, I've asked a few authors if they mind if I suggest [x] story of theirs for discussion, and the answer has always been "yes, I do mind, please don't".

I think of it more like submitting a book for review -- you don't know what the reviewers will say about it, could be good or bad, but it's just interesting to find out what they DO think. In throwing some of my stories out there for discussion, I chose not the ones that I liked best, but the ones that I think would generate the most interesting discussions.

My confusion, its like mixing a writer's critique com and a book com. I've seen lists with its members discussing members works and lists that excludes your own to discuss others.

I'd never seen it mixed like that, hence why I wasn't sure what it was.

Thanks, will enjoy reading the discussion and try to part take every once in a while.

thanks for the info about the icon keywords. I didn't know!

Sure!

Had no idea about the icons, good to know!

No problem! I wasn't aware of it, either, 'til I started experimenting.

(p.s. apropos of your icon, I was flipping through a few months' old issue of National Geographic and happened to notice a photo of an Emperor penguin that had been radio-collared. What was the name of the penguin? Rodney. I cracked up laughing.)

Thanks for the icon info. Now, maybe, I can finally start switching them out as I'm getting bored with some of them.

The discussion board is such a cool idea. I was actually thinking, one day, that there should be something where people can discuss fics. Then, low and behold...

Should I manage to overcome my cowardice, I may one day submit a story to it, just to hear what people have to say.

I was delighted to discover that about the icons, because it's an excellent way to switch icons without having all your old discussions switch over to the default.

I do urge you to submit a story! It'll be interesting to watch how the discussions go -- it seems like they are quite reasonable and even-toned, and the "reviewers" mention both the good and bad points of the stories. I'm enjoying it a lot and I hope that it generates enough interest to keep going.

Dammit. I actually didn't know that LJ did that... I'd been trying to be clever and have a different icon for each of my fics (and use the same icon for each chapter of said fic) and now it turns out half of my fic posts have reverted to my default icon! That's really annoying. I guess maybe I'll just have to have one icon for all fic or something... *sigh*

Or wait until they sell permanent accounts again so I can have more than 35 icons! :/

I actually discovered the deleted-icon thing very early on, because my old (Basic) account only had 6 icons, so I was constantly swapping them out. I like the idea of each story having its own icon ... I guess you could make little headers for the stories instead of using different icons, maybe?

You can buy extra icon space (which you probably know, but I thought I'd mention it). So far I haven't really felt like it's worth it to me, though.

You can buy extra icon space (which you probably know, but I thought I'd mention it). So far I haven't really felt like it's worth it to me, though.

Can you? I thought the max was 35 that you get with a paid account, unless you buy a permanent account? *wanders off to investigate*

Yup, you can buy extra icon space! I'm not sure if there's any limit to how many you can buy (says the voice of temptation...).

Way ahead of you! I investigated after reading your comment above and was uploading new icons within half an hour! :D

It's only $10.00 for a year! And it ups your limit to 105! :D

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