beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2006-03-04 05:14 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2006-03-04 05:14 pm
Entry tags:
Part labels
pet peeve of the day - people misusing the 'Part 1/10' label.
Fic used to be posted to mailing lists. Mail programs were unreliable, and variously so, meaning you could post a bunch of parts and different people would lack different parts. Solution? Label them all with numbers.
Labelling something 'Part 1/10' gives the reader the information that there are precisely ten parts of this fic, ten seperate posts, and they are looking at one of them. If they want the whole thing, they need to go find another 9.
(Unless the list uses a part 0. 0/10 means you don't have to read it to read the whole story. Its where they hide the header information.)
If someone then posts parts 8a and 8b, the system breaks. Because the existence of 8a implies 8b, and 8b implies 8a, but they say nothing about 8c through 8z, and the /10 bit no longer works because you actually need to hunt down at least 11 parts to have the whole thing.
Internet 'Part' headers are *not* chapters. They have a practical purpose. Chapters are chopped up in the places story and drama say they should be. Internet parts are chopped up in the places dictated by software limitations, or mailing list conventions, or size convenience. If there's a character limit or a size limit on what files you can send, that makes 1 part. (There are elegant ways to divide parts up. Having one huge post and one with just the famous last words works less well. But thats content, not mechanics.)
And writing /10 means you have chopped up your story, which already exists, and in front of you there are 10 parts. It doesn't mean you predict there will be 10 parts when you finish writing it. That is what /? is for, when you don't know.
The thing about the internet is that it is fluid, constantly changing, linking in assorted arrangements, with things reposted in different shapes in different places. Headers have evolved to deal with that. Breaking what they're meant for decreases their usefulness.
/cranky
In my head, there are Rules, and they make the world work. Unfortunately everyone else has Rules that are different.
Which, in my more philosophical moments, I see as positive diversity. Unless its rules like 'walk down one side of the corridor only and not in a big line with all your mates like a rugby scrum'. Positive diversity leaves room for more diversity.
And not so much when its rules like 'this word means this thing', because those rules are the only way people communicate at all, due to the lack of mind reading function.
Communication rules are really useful. When shared.
Fic used to be posted to mailing lists. Mail programs were unreliable, and variously so, meaning you could post a bunch of parts and different people would lack different parts. Solution? Label them all with numbers.
Labelling something 'Part 1/10' gives the reader the information that there are precisely ten parts of this fic, ten seperate posts, and they are looking at one of them. If they want the whole thing, they need to go find another 9.
(Unless the list uses a part 0. 0/10 means you don't have to read it to read the whole story. Its where they hide the header information.)
If someone then posts parts 8a and 8b, the system breaks. Because the existence of 8a implies 8b, and 8b implies 8a, but they say nothing about 8c through 8z, and the /10 bit no longer works because you actually need to hunt down at least 11 parts to have the whole thing.
Internet 'Part' headers are *not* chapters. They have a practical purpose. Chapters are chopped up in the places story and drama say they should be. Internet parts are chopped up in the places dictated by software limitations, or mailing list conventions, or size convenience. If there's a character limit or a size limit on what files you can send, that makes 1 part. (There are elegant ways to divide parts up. Having one huge post and one with just the famous last words works less well. But thats content, not mechanics.)
And writing /10 means you have chopped up your story, which already exists, and in front of you there are 10 parts. It doesn't mean you predict there will be 10 parts when you finish writing it. That is what /? is for, when you don't know.
The thing about the internet is that it is fluid, constantly changing, linking in assorted arrangements, with things reposted in different shapes in different places. Headers have evolved to deal with that. Breaking what they're meant for decreases their usefulness.
/cranky
In my head, there are Rules, and they make the world work. Unfortunately everyone else has Rules that are different.
Which, in my more philosophical moments, I see as positive diversity. Unless its rules like 'walk down one side of the corridor only and not in a big line with all your mates like a rugby scrum'. Positive diversity leaves room for more diversity.
And not so much when its rules like 'this word means this thing', because those rules are the only way people communicate at all, due to the lack of mind reading function.
Communication rules are really useful. When shared.