My story was ruined :(

[jessIncognito]

I posted a story to literotica last week. Most of my fans read the story when it comes out and it is on the new stories section.

Unfortunately, I used <> triangle brackets to indicate when one character was talking to another telepathically. Everything between those brackets was scrubbed. My best guess is they were trying to remove html.

As soon as I saw the error I published an edited version, but alas, literotica wouldn't release the edit until I was off of the `new` section. Somehow I still got a good rating and positive feedback. Not sure why, the story was a little hard to understand without the communication between characters.

Ever had a fuck up?

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

I once forgot the hyphen in a name. Really embarrassing.

 

[John_Vandermeer]

I had a story "publish" and links to it show up everywhere, but once you clicked on any of those links there was nothing but an error page. I resubmitted it as an edit, and that edit went live as a new story a week later. Eventually the original got fixed with no intervention from me and now I have two basically identical stories side by side. Given both started getting votes and favorites fairly quickly I have not wanted to remove either. But the whole thing was a big Lit tech F-up.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

I haven't, but I did take a gamble with some strange text.

As everyone in the AH is doubtlessly tired of hearing me bang on about, I wrote Eldritch Pact which contained text like this:

W̸̞͋͗̊h̸͓̀a̷̤̍t̸̡̫͓̏ ̶͇̗̿̇͑m̵̲̬̈́̋o̴̧̨̘͗͌̀r̶̦͙̠̍̌ẗ̷̢̜̪̌́ą̷̌͐̒l̵̳̙̗̐͊ ̶̘̺̬̌ḑ̸̳̯́a̷̫̲͗̊͝r̸̫̜̭̿͛ẽ̴̘̰̗́̽s̷͔̹̽̉ ̷̳̙̏t̸̛̠̞̻ǒ̵̲̘̃ ̵͎̙̱̒d̷̩̃͝ḯ̷̩̥̆ş̸̳̿̈ṱ̶͙͓̆ų̴̯̃̄r̵̪̖̈b̸̟͚͌̿ ̸͈̏̕m̶͍͒͋̈́e̸̯̚?̵̢͕̳͆̎̈́

It published perfectly, and I was so excited. (the words were kinda telepathy, kinda audible).

 

[ElectricBlue]

I posted a story to literotica last week. Most of my fans read the story when it comes out and it is on the new stories section.

Unfortunately, I used <> triangle brackets to indicate when one character was talking to another telepathically. Everything between those brackets was scrubbed. My best guess is they were trying to remove html.

As soon as I saw the error I published an edited version, but alas, literotica wouldn't release the edit until I was off of the `new` section. Somehow I still got a good rating and positive feedback. Not sure why, the story was a little hard to understand without the communication between characters.

Ever had a fuck up?

Exactly the same thing with one of my stories (twice, actually, I forgot the second time). Like you, I used < and > to designate text messages, and of course, lost the words in between.

I submitted an edit, but they're always a low priority. The story still did okay - no one commented, and the fix went up in a week.

My worst fuck up was with italics, flipping the entire second page. You can never predict a Lit page break, so you gotta close html at the end of every paragraph. Lesson learned. That's when I stopped using html in any big way.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I haven't, but I did take a gamble with some strange text.

As everyone in the AH is doubtlessly tired of hearing me bang on about, I wrote Eldritch Pact

Yep, and it went wrong for me .

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Yep, and it went wrong for me .

You were the one soul I had to sacrifice to achieve my dreams. I will never stop mourning the loss of you patronage.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You were the one soul I had to sacrifice to achieve my dreams. I will never stop mourning the loss of you patronage.

It's okay, I've read others of yours, which worked better .

 

[alohadave]

I used <> triangle brackets to indicate when one character was talking to another telepathically.

Well that's good to know. I use that format to indicate text messages. Looks like I'll be changing that.

 

[alohadave]

I haven't, but I did take a gamble with some strange text.

As everyone in the AH is doubtlessly tired of hearing me bang on about, I wrote Eldritch Pact which contained text like this:

W̸̞͋͗̊h̸͓̀a̷̤̍t̸̡̫͓̏ ̶͇̗̿̇͑m̵̲̬̈́̋o̴̧̨̘͗͌̀r̶̦͙̠̍̌ẗ̷̢̜̪̌́ą̷̌͐̒l̵̳̙̗̐͊ ̶̘̺̬̌ḑ̸̳̯́a̷̫̲͗̊͝r̸̫̜̭̿͛ẽ̴̘̰̗́̽s̷͔̹̽̉ ̷̳̙̏t̸̛̠̞̻ǒ̵̲̘̃ ̵͎̙̱̒d̷̩̃͝ḯ̷̩̥̆ş̸̳̿̈ṱ̶͙͓̆ų̴̯̃̄r̵̪̖̈b̸̟͚͌̿ ̸͈̏̕m̶͍͒͋̈́e̸̯̚?̵̢͕̳͆̎̈́

It published perfectly, and I was so excited. (the words were kinda telepathy, kinda audible).

I like it. That could be useful for some things. Is there a how-to on how to format that?

 

[alohadave]

My worst fuck up was with italics, flipping the entire second page. You can never predict a Lit page break, so you gotta close html at the end of every paragraph. Lesson learned. That's when I stopped using html in any big way.

The only story I had sent back had this issue. I had to close all the italics and bold tags in the story. Luckily it was only 750 words.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Well that's good to know. I use that format to indicate text messages. Looks like I'll be changing that.

Actually, she said telepathically, not text messages. I guess the scrubbed effect doesn't show up in preview mode; it's about the only thing I know of that doesn't appear.

I suppose you could use brackets, like this: {Text here.} I don't know if there are any unexpected results from that. The fact of telepathic communication must be mentioned early in the story, I suppose. Maybe it should be mentioned in the note to story moderator about what is intended. Maybe Manu or Laurel could offer advice.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I have a dummy file that I use for testing things. The scrubbed effect doesn't show up in the preview, as I expected. The brackets look okay, but they are hard to pick out.

Maybe try bolding it, with dashes at each end. It would sort of look like this, with en-dashes. Except the dashes aren't bolded in the forum post.

– She goes running for the shelter, of mother's little helper. –

 

[ronde]

There's always the old tried and true preface to the telepathic communication - "He heard her words in his mind and returned his thoughts the same way". I think it's likely a lot of readers wouldn't understand the use of <> to denote telepathic communication unless you explained the formatting somewhere. My experience is the easier it is to read a story, the more readers like it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

There's always the old tried and true preface to the telepathic communication - "He heard her words in his mind and returned his thoughts the same way". I think it's likely a lot of readers wouldn't understand the use of <> to denote telepathic communication unless you explained the formatting somewhere. My experience is the easier it is to read a story, the more readers like it.

The only problem is that if there is a lot of "dialogue," it becomes tiresome to mention that for every line of it. If some special notation is needed, than a note to the readers at the top of the story should work. There are limited formatting options on Lit, so a different color text, say, can't be done.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Well that's good to know. I use that format to indicate text messages. Looks like I'll be changing that.

Right angle brackets will display normally, as long as they're not paired with a left-bracket. This is how I represented text chat in "Loss Function":



The coding as submitted was:

<Kbd>> Hello cabbage, I’m home.</kbd>

If you want to show both, I think replacing "<" with "&lt;" and ">" with "&gt;" should do it, though I haven't tested this. See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3505047/printing-html-using-html

 

[gunhilltrain]

I like it. That could be useful for some things. Is there a how-to on how to format that?

Yes, how is it done in a forum post?

 

[Bramblethorn]

The only problem is that if there is a lot of "dialogue," it becomes tiresome to mention that for every line of it. If some special notation is needed, than a note to the readers at the top of the story should work. There are limited formatting options on Lit, so a different color text, say, can't be done.

Yep. If it's a long conversation all in telepathy it's not too bad, you can just mention the telepathy and then format as normal speech. But if it needs to be signalled a lot, e.g. if people are using telepathy as a side-channel at the same time as having a spoken conversation, it's useful to have a terse way of marking which is which.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I like it. That could be useful for some things. Is there a how-to on how to format that?

If you're just aiming for the general effect and don't care which specific diacritics it's using, you could just paste the plain text into something like https://lingojam.com/ZalgoText

That gives me this:

t̵̥͓͂̇̽̓͝h̶̜̖̟̤̠̥̻͈̄͑͜é̸̤͕͚̤̫̥̺͙̟̞̯͙̔̿̈́̓͜͠ ̷̨̛̫͍̘̳̱̿̒̊͊́̄̀̓q̵͖̘͕̖̞̤͋͆͒̒́̌͝u̴̙̬̻̠͚̹͚̖̫̲̣͊̾̀̃̀͆͜͝í̵͖̪͔͉̱̖͓̰̹̉̕c̶̘̹͌̊̚̕͝k̴͙̜͎̖̗̟̞̯̒͊̒̐̊ ̸̻̜̟̰͔͈̞͐̏̏̽̈͑̐̒̊̆͒͂̊̇̚b̴̨̤̜͈̯̠͕̜͎̭̖̣̓͂ͅṙ̷̼̖̜͌̏́͑̿͠ö̴̧̺̲̺̩̤͕̊ẃ̴̬̯̼̤͖̮̭͓͓̹̹̾̓n̶̠̒͌̉̓̊̀͋̈́̄̆ ̶̙͔̝̮̔͂̽͋̀̃̇̒͌͐͜͠͝͝f̵̖͚̯̩̤̼̹̫̝̈́̾͛̏͝o̴͓͋̉͠x̶͓̼͖͉̮̥̽̔̅̔̈́

Googling on "Zalgo text" will probably find other resources for it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Right angle brackets will display normally, as long as they're not paired with a left-bracket. This is how I represented text chat in "Loss Function":

View attachment 2247878

The coding as submitted was:

<Kbd>> Hello cabbage, I’m home.</kbd>

I've never tried the <kbd> tag in a submission (it used to be the <tt> tag). It changes the font, about the only thing that works for that on Lit. So you used both the tag and the right angle brackets to make it as noticeable as possible?

 

[gunhilltrain]

Exactly the same thing with one of my stories (twice, actually, I forgot the second time). Like you, I used < and > to designate text messages, and of course, lost the words in between.

I submitted an edit, but they're always a low priority. The story still did okay - no one commented, and the fix went up in a week.

My worst fuck up was with italics, flipping the entire second page. You can never predict a Lit page break, so you gotta close html at the end of every paragraph. Lesson learned. That's when I stopped using html in any big way.

If you just follow the rule of tagging every paragraph, then it should be fine. I use HTML whenever I wish, but it's usually italics and it's usually one or two sentences at most. Sometimes it's a single word. I use bold if there are subheads within the text, but that is not very often.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've never tried the <kbd> tag in a submission (it used to be the <tt> tag). It changes the font, about the only thing that works for that on Lit. So you used both the tag and the right angle brackets to make it as noticeable as possible?

That story has several passages with things like chat and email transcripts. I used <kbd> for all of the computer text, but other formatting details like the > vary on which specific medium is being quoted.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Did the preview not reveal the omitted text?

 

[onehitwanda]

If you're just aiming for the general effect and don't care which specific diacritics it's using, you could just paste the plain text into something like https://lingojam.com/ZalgoText

That gives me this:

t̵̥͓͂̇̽̓͝h̶̜̖̟̤̠̥̻͈̄͑͜é̸̤͕͚̤̫̥̺͙̟̞̯͙̔̿̈́̓͜͠ ̷̨̛̫͍̘̳̱̿̒̊͊́̄̀̓q̵͖̘͕̖̞̤͋͆͒̒́̌͝u̴̙̬̻̠͚̹͚̖̫̲̣͊̾̀̃̀͆͜͝í̵͖̪͔͉̱̖͓̰̹̉̕c̶̘̹͌̊̚̕͝k̴͙̜͎̖̗̟̞̯̒͊̒̐̊ ̸̻̜̟̰͔͈̞͐̏̏̽̈͑̐̒̊̆͒͂̊̇̚b̴̨̤̜͈̯̠͕̜͎̭̖̣̓͂ͅṙ̷̼̖̜͌̏́͑̿͠ö̴̧̺̲̺̩̤͕̊ẃ̴̬̯̼̤͖̮̭͓͓̹̹̾̓n̶̠̒͌̉̓̊̀͋̈́̄̆ ̶̙͔̝̮̔͂̽͋̀̃̇̒͌͐͜͠͝͝f̵̖͚̯̩̤̼̹̫̝̈́̾͛̏͝o̴͓͋̉͠x̶͓̼͖͉̮̥̽̔̅̔̈́

Googling on "Zalgo text" will probably find other resources for it.

 

[jsmiam]

As Steven Wright says, “If you can't hear me, it's because I'm in parentheses.”

so, “if you can’t see me, it’s because I’m in brackets.”