Minor revisions. I need feedback, please! · 5:41am Jun 7th, 2017
So, how about that site update, huh? Personally, I just hope Knighty makes the [ right_insert ] and [ left_insert ] tags work again.
The reason I’m writing is because this update offers a few more text formatting options than before. And the one I’m interested in at the moment is right alignment.
Did you know that my initial plan for the Alarm Clock chapter, “The Filly with the Moon in Her Head”, called for right-aligned text? It was supposed to be a visual clue to the achronological arrangement of the chapter: the scenes running beginning-to-end would all be left-aligned, while the scenes running end-to-beginning would be right-aligned. That’s how I wrote it in my draft on Google Docs.
But Fimfic didn’t support right-aligned text when I published that chapter, so I had to scrap that idea. And now, with this update to the site, it looks like I can make my original dream a reality.
But should I? Based on reader feedback, I get the sense that “The Filly with the Moon in Her Head” already works just fine. Would right-aligning half the scenes genuinely add something to the chapter, or would it just be an annoying gimmick?
I made an unpublished sandbox chapter to see how it would look with that formatting and ... [EDIT: It’s been deleted.] Oh, dear. Looking at it now, after all these years, I’m not such a fan of that look anymore. So unless a lot of you think I should do it, I think I’ll pass.
In any case, I definitely need to go through all my stories and make some other minor revisions in light of the update. Some of my formatting choices just don’t work anymore with the new-and-improved horizontal rules:
But they’re so pretty...
Generally speaking, text formatting gimmicks are distracting and don't add anything to a story.
Love the new avatar. You’re pretty much the only person I’ve seen so far adapting to the new frame.
My excuse is that the image has a natural curve to it anyway.
As for right-aligned text... never understood why we even invented it in the first place.
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My old avatar was so obviously meant for a square frame, cropping it into a circle just made it look broken. I had to let it go.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not a fan of the circular avatars. But it’s not a hill I’m willing to die on.
Anything’s better than the days before standardized texts, when some scribes who copied documents by hand would alternate the text direction with every line.
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...
People did that?
Tried clicking on that sandbox chapter link, and got 404d. It was a nice reminder of what the delightful Fimfiction 404 page looks like, though. Hi, Derpy!
From what I’ve heard, taking out the support for inserts was, indeed, intentional. At least, they knew ahead of time that they were going to stop working. (Source: A friend’s conversation with a story approver who had though he was using said inserts as author’s notes.)
In general, I’d side with JetstreamGW in saying that text formatting gimmicks tend to just get in the way of enjoying a good read, but I am open to the possibility of it being done well. I’d have to see it in action, though.
Personally, the piece of formatting that I was most excited about was the inclusion of bullet points.
That chapter is so unpublished I get a 404.
Just from how this post looks I’d be up for the right-aligned text, but I have a feeling that a good part of it is because the paragraphs aren’t particularly ragged in my screen width. My vote would probably be to go for it (we’re on a modern environment, we can make use of the tricks of the medium), but it sounds like I’m in the minority.
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Wikipedia calls it Boustrophedon, but apparently it wasn’t as widespread as I thought. I’d been told that many Biblical Hebrew texts were written that way, but Wikipedia has no mention of that...
I would do it, as it's not every line, and the difference would be visually intresting. I don't think odd formatting damages legibility nearly enough that you have to worry about it.
If you don’t think it’ll work, I say go with your gut.
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There are languages that are read from right to left, you know.
I’m reminded of the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” While the formatting shenanigans in question could be considered an improvement, they could also just be meddling. Ultimately, it’s not only your story but it’s been up and doing just fine for years. If you don’t think it would be improved by the formatting change, then that’s the vote that counts the most.
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In my defense, I was basically asleep on my feet when I typed that.
What does [ right_insert ] do?
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I believe that that those tags are the ones used for adding text boxes inside the story, where the main story text flows around the textbox. right_insert places the box on the right.
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It inserted a text box on the right side of the page, that the main body of text would automatically wrap around. I had it one on my personal frontpage: Here’s a Wayback Machine capture of how that looked before; even with the broken image link, that should give some idea of how it worked.
I think it was the best way of inserting footnotes into a text, but I can’t find any good Wayback Machine captures of how that looked.
For some reason, I don’t get the little red alert flag on my feed icon that tells me something new is in it.
(And instead of a globe, shouldn’t it be a feedbag?)
c1.staticflickr.com/2/1154/1342852483_2aefa03738.jpg