What do you do with a B.A. in English? · 7:08am May 8th, 2013
(Disclaimer: this blog is not a musical.)
I'm graduating and getting my bachelor's degree on Saturday (well, they have to mail me the actual slip of paper after the fact, but I digress), and so this marks a flurry of activity for me. On my To Do List for the next six days or so:
1. Finish up final test business
2. Do a commissioned review of a 20k+ word piece (I'm getting to it, I swear!)
3. Pack up for a move that's going to take me across the country
4. Somehow get my money, mail, and everything else in order so I don't have to show my face in this godsforsaken state of North Dakota for a long time
5. Say at least a brief goodbye to all the folks in my social circle
Not really any time for pony in there.
I had hoped that by now I'd have my next story out, but the aforementioned final exams have been eating into my free time considerably. At this point, "some time this summer" is the best guess I can give. It's a longer one, at least; I'm anticipating it to be roughly 30k words when it's done. I believe I've alluded to this before, but it's a sequel to my "Eagle Eye" stories. It should be written so that those new to the character and events should be able to jump right in (I write these episodically anyway), which is new for me, since I'm having to wrestle with more exposition and such than is normal for the loosely strung together series of sex jokes I call My Little Pony fanfictions that I vomit onto the site.
tl;dr After about the 15th or so I'm probably going to vanish for an indeterminate amount of time until I'm set up in California and have gotten some productive things accomplished. I gotta prioritize.
On an unrelated note, I've seen a few people now go into serious analysis of their upvotes and downvotes on a story, which makes me realize I've never said this before:
I almost never look at votes on my stories, or favorites for that matter.
If an opinion isn't expressed in a comment, odds are I ignore it. Not that I don't appreciate the upvotes/faves, but they don't help me identify what worked (or didn't), and votes on Fimfiction are about as good a gauge of quality as star ratings for fics were on EqD before they were finally removed (that is to say, mostly useless and prone to being bombed for any number of arbitrary reasons).
In short, give me comments. I love them.
First of all, good luck with your move to California!
Second, I think up/downvotes are a pretty useful metric, as long as one stays cognizant of what they really mean, which is basically "interesting vs. objectionable" I think. They'll give you some sort of measure of popularity, though not a particularly good measure of quality. They'll also give you some measure of objectionability, for reasons of theme, story, grammar, or what have you.
But I completely agree that they're... well, 'worthless' is too strong, I think... they're a very poor measure for quality, in a lot of cases, and they're too granular for anyone to really get much feel of where the problems in a story might have been on the back of scores alone. Comments are much, much better.
I say this as one of the people probably being alluded to in the statement about people talking about votes, but oh well. I find them interesting. I'm a statistician after all, and they're nice data. But I suspect a lot of people think they mean something that they plainly don't.
gettit?
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I tend to be blunt and overly generalizing with my declarations about these things anyway, and I'm not much of a numbers man myself.
I hope things go well, Vimmy. If you need somebody to annoy (that isn't Ebon), I'm almost always around. And there's the IRC, of course.
We love you, man. If you need any advice, a helping hoof, somebody to vent on... we're here.
Damn, my first thought was music when I saw that line.
Good luck with your finishing up of school and the move and everything.
Sounds freaking sweet! Best of luck down in Cali!
And amen, it's what I keep harping about. If all they do is up or down your story but didn't leave a comment, to me, it's indicative to them not caring enough or at all for the story. Not that it's always the case, and I know that feel of wanting to leave a comment sometimes but simply not having the time right away.
One thing I get skeptical about though are usually the downvotes on a story that started off with a decent ratio of being good, than it starts getting a lot of bads because it clashes with some people's favorite pairings or headcanon.
Gotta say though, getting gold stars from your teacher always gave you that little warm feeling of *yay*, I kinda miss the star ratings on EqD to be honest. As useless as they seemed, it was still a fun visual gimmick.
A 20k commission? Holy cow lol looking forward to seeing what that turns out to be! But in any case, have a safe trip and be glad at least you get to leave your god forsaken state for a time being. I only managed that for a short while, and since then it has left me wanting more. So, enjoy it while it lasts!
Oh, you like comments do you?
P.S Why the move to Cali from N.D? I thought South Dakota was the shitty redneck one
Californee whey? eye herd they'res pwns aught Cauliflower weigh.
(pardon that, I just got up.)
It takes exactly as much time to see one upvote as one hundred. A good comment, particularily one that is only praise, takes very much longer to go through.
Enjoy yourself, and we look forward to your next stories
edit- one that is MORE THAN only praise, ahem. waking up takes a good few hours.
Good luck with that, then
Myself, I'm busy enough just trying to get everything together to move onto a property five minutes away and find a new job 
Re: Upvotes and downvotes... I'm not quite sure how you'd "seriously analyze" votes. You can't really assume that a vote after a certain chapter is posted has anything to do with that chapter, so... yeah
I don't consider them completely useless, though. Ascribing them to quality would be a mistake, but they can be a fair representation of overall appeal. They're more useful than views, anyway
~What is my life going to be?
Four years of college, and plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this USELESS degree!~
~I can't pay the bills yet, 'cause I have no skills yet...
The world is a big scary plaaaaaaace!
But somehow I can't shake,the feeling I might make,
A difference! To the huuuumaaaan race!~
Sorry, but no one had done it yet, and it had to be done! I REGRET NOTHING!
And I agree. Most of the time downvotes are from people who didn't even read the chapter/story, so they're just ignored. Comments are the only good way to get feedback, totally agreed, but sometimes you can't get anyone to freaking comment! (It's really frustrating... ; ; )
Review Facfics on Youtube
Move to avenue Q. And/Or despair.
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Or teach.
But yes, here's to your transition going smoothly. The weather's going to be warm.
We all know you love upvotes just like everyone else don't deny it you lyer :B
Hope your transition goes well. Moving to California, huh? You gonna write the big time movies, yes? Do that, would be cool.
Maybe you could talk to Knighty about changing the vote system so that you have to comment on a story for the vote to count.
Huge congrats on graduating! Always an awesome milestone. Good luck on the move. Horray for the West Coast!
I totally agree about upvotes/downvotes. They're a nice little statistic, but I always look to the comments for the real criticisms/compliments on a story.
BTW, I now have the entire Avenue Q soundtrack stuck in my head. I blame you. In a good way.
Congrats on earning your liberal arts degree, Vim! Best of luck with the move, finding a career, and life in general!
"What do you do with a B.A. in English?"
Badumtish. 
Anything but get a job.
Seriously, though. Best of luck finding work!
Awesome stuff seems to happen to awesome people, so it seems. Get your stuff done and good luck on the road ahead, Vimbert. The west coast beckons for you.
I agree with you on the voting system. It's a nice touch, however, but it definitely isn't worth holding a candle to in any regard. Comments are by far more important. Have a scarf.
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I'll second the notion to teach. People need to learn how to write, and you have plenty of experience showing how.
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Oh Buddha no.
I hate children.
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It'd be too much work for him to change, most likely.
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This is probably going to be about as close as I get.
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They're almost exactly the same.
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Er, it's a commission to review a 20k word chapter of a story, not write 20,000 words.
1074658 I know. I'm just wondering what that story is.
Looking at my original post, I guess I should of clarified that.
1074658that is excatly what i ment like for bronies and other internet fandoms
Would you read my story under those circumstances please
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Unfortunately, Zelros and I are no longer making those videos, since in a matter of days we'll be on opposite sides of the country.
1076075 Maybe i could make them with you then?
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No thanks.
1076139 Alright then