Misc things for a post

[sholio]

Thank you so much to everyone for your answers to the book question! :) I may not get around to answering everyone individually, but I REALLY appreciate all the answers - it's very useful, and I'm also really interested in the wide variety of answers, though the common theme throughout a lot of them is that word-of-mouth (from friends, family, social media, etc) is probably THE big way that people find new books. (I also think I need to learn how to use Goodreads....)

Anyway, I'm way behind on comments as always, so I wanted to say that just in case I don't get around to answering everyone individually.

In other news, I updated Kismet early tonight (Red Wolf of Tertia, yessssss; it's such a lovely feeling to get to parts of the storyline that I've been sitting on for YEARS) and I've been dinking around with the header links, trying to make them more user-friendly. The fundamental problem, I guess, is that I have a ton of stuff to link to, and I'm not sure how much of it is useful enough to be worth cluttering up the header with. (I know I don't need separate links to the LJ and the DW since they crosspost, but which is more useful? Why is this hard?)

I still don't have automatic-updating capabilities and probably won't until I break down and teach myself to write CGI scripts, but by now I've gotten the comic-updating protocol down to a matter of minutes, including updating all the places around the website where it needs to update, and updating the RSS feed. (Orion claims people don't use RSS feeds anymore. I am, for the time being, ignoring him.)

Also, I posted some pictures of solstice fireworks over on my realname blog. THE DAYS ARE GETTING LONGER NOW. WE MAY SURVIVE. \o/ Relatedly, check out this nifty graphic I found on Facebook that shows how many hours of daylight various places around Alaska get on the solstice. It's a neat way of looking at how incredibly big Alaska is, and how much difference a few degrees of latitude makes when you're this close to the Arctic Circle.

Oh, and guys, just LOOK at my h/c bingo card. :D I only have 8 squares to go for a blackout! I've never gotten that close before! I don't know if I can manage to write all of them by Jan. 3, though, which is when Round 5 closes. Is it tacky to write Yuletide treats that I plan to claim for h/c bingo squares? Does anyone ever do that?

ETA: ALSO I'M PROBABLY GOING TO KILL THE CAT SOON. Just fyi. (It's gotten colder so he can't go outside, and he will. not. stop. getting into things.)

Comments

[theladyscribe]

Just FYI, GoodReads has been doing some semi-sketchy things (mostly: it allows people to post completed fanfiction that has been "self-published," and its set up allows people to upload other people's fanfiction without their permission; this has been especially vexing for people who both write fic and publish original fiction). I've been watching for actual articles on the issue, but so far the only place I've seen this talked about in detail is tumblr. (From what I understand it is possible but slightly difficult to claim/remove your fic if it's been posted there, but having it taken down won't necessarily mean someone else can't put it up again later.)

So, uh, I know a lot of people who use GoodReads as it's intended, but there are clearly some flaws in its design.

[sholio]

Hmmmm, correct me if I'm wrong here, because I haven't been on Goodreads all that much (beyond creating an account that I never do much with, and occasionally checking to see if the listings for my stuff are accurate), but .... Goodreads isn't a fiction hosting platform, is it? You can't upload fics there (or fiction either). What people are doing, as I understand it anyway from what I've seen of the discussions, is linking to fic from Goodreads (the fic being hosted elsewhere). Which I thought was generally okay to do; I rec fic on my journal, after all. I thought the thing people were upset about was, mostly, having author accounts created for fanfic writers without their permission, which I think is sort of a ... difference in prevailing norms between the pro author and fanfic author community, I guess? Because in fanspace we would assume that every account bearing your name is you and you have control over it, whereas in pro-author space it's normal to have listings made in your name on sites like Goodreads. (I don't -- currently -- have control over my author account on Goodreads, although I've been thinking about converting my reader account into an author account and taking "ownership" of my stuff just for general ease of updating listings and not getting trolled.)

So anyway, yeah, I don't gather it's a plagiarism issue so much as a linking-without-permission issue, and I can see why Goodreads is in a bind, because the entire nature of the site is that it's DESIGNED for readers to add books that aren't already on there so that they can talk about them, except I'm not sure if anyone expected self-published stuff that's posted in transitory locations on the Internet (i.e. fanfic) to be included like a "book". But there is nothing in the site design to disallow it that I'm aware of.

... LOOK AT ME TALKING LIKE I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. *facepalm* This is just my gleanings from what little I've used the site, and if someone else has better information, pleeeaaaase correct me.

[theladyscribe]

Ahh, my understanding was that they'd been uploading PDFs of fic to the site, but I could be wrong. (This is part of why I've been hunting for articles from reputable sources; I find it weird that so far there haven't been any.)

[morgandawn]

no fic has been uploaded - just listed, along with recs. Goodreads automatically creates a stub for the author, and some of the Librarians started to fill them in with info they found via google. As soon as an author claims their profile page, they can make changes, but seeing links to your fic your blog,, your tumblr side by side with pro books freaked many fans.

there is a page in progress on fanlore - still in draft form.
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Goodreads

[theladyscribe]

Oh, thank you for the info/link! I'd only seen some of the tumblr posts, plus some scoping out of the Goodreads site (limited, I'll admit, because I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for and don't find the site to be intuitive), so this is helpful. I did see a 3-chapter Harry Potter fic posted in full on Goodreads in that searching, but it's possible the author posted it themselves and I just didn't realize it.

[sholio]

Thank you very much for the info! <3 I don't know too much about Goodreads since I'm not on there much, so this is excellent to know, thanks.

[muccamukk]

I like goodreads. They're related to Amazon, who're ethically challenged some days, but it's a good way to keep track of everything you've read and get recs.

I think the conclusion is that it's tacky to use gift fic for bingo fills, even treats. Or it was last time I asked (dammit).

Daylight fact: Around here, at least, the evenings are ALREADY several minutes longer, but the mornings are still getting shorter and will until almost Epiphany.

[sholio]

I think the conclusion is that it's tacky to use gift fic for bingo fills, even treats. Or it was last time I asked (dammit).

Awwww rats. :P That's kinda what my instincts said, though.

Around here, at least, the evenings are ALREADY several minutes longer, but the mornings are still getting shorter and will until almost Epiphany.

Okay, wow, that's IMPRESSIVELY weird! Planet, why are you so strange?