No 69, just straight, vanilla punctuation

[Gorza]

I don't know why I haven't noticed this before, but my lovely curly quotes and apostrophes (“ ” ‘ ’) are replaced by straight versions when a story is posted (" '). I prefer shapely punctuation, but perhaps it substantially increases file size on Lit. I wonder whether I should reconfigure my text editor, so that it uses straight quotes, saving Laurel the time and effort of shaving my short and curlies.

 

[sr71plt]

Straight quotes are the chosen style by Lit. I don't think you can (or should) change that. Lit. is a rolling anthology. Anthologies standardize certain aspects of presentation (font, font size, paragraph style, etc.) to give the reader a uniform look across the anthology (which helps the reader from being distracted from the content). Authors aren't book designers; the more distinguishing bells and whistles they slap on their stories, the harder it is for readers to absorb the content.

 

[Gorza]

Straight quotes are the chosen style by Lit. I don't think you can (or should) change that. Lit. is a rolling anthology. Anthologies standardize certain aspects of presentation (font, font size, paragraph style, etc.) to give the reader a uniform look across the anthology (which helps the reader from being distracted from the content). Authors aren't book designers; the more distinguishing bells and whistles they slap on their stories, the harder it is for readers to absorb the content.

Yeah, I'm not suggesting it change. I don't remember reading that this is the house style. I'm used to following house style in my academic writing, as it saves editors time. I hadn't realised that straight quotes was the house style on Lit until I saw that someone (albeit with software) must have replaced my default style with straight quotes and apostrophes, and it would save time if I -- and others, likely -- knew that I should submit work with straight punctuation.

 

[TxRad]

Yeah, I'm not suggesting it change. I don't remember reading that this is the house style. I'm used to following house style in my academic writing, as it saves editors time. I hadn't realised that straight quotes was the house style on Lit until I saw that someone (albeit with software) must have replaced my default style with straight quotes and apostrophes, and it would save time if I -- and others, likely -- knew that I should submit work with straight punctuation.

I don't think there is any editing involved. The Lit software does it automatically.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Here's the style sheet that Lit uses.

https://www.literotica.com/sc/css/page-submission/vN.css

 

[Carnevil9]

They don't "remove and replace" your curly quotes. When you submit, all that makes it through to the Lit server is the raw ASCII codes for a, b, c, etc. (Well, except for a few tags that they let you use, like italics and such, but certainly not typefaces or other personalizations.) Then it gets formatted from scratch with the house style.

If they let every author choose their own style, this place would look like MySpace!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

In reality, the textbox you paste your story into has a style sheet set already.

Then when you submit the story it is saved in the database as rawtext no real formatting as Carnevil said.

When presented to the reader a standard style sheet is used to format the text with type face, etc.

There is nothing the author can do to change that...except to publish it themselves at their own site.

 

[LadyVer]

FWIW, when I edit, I ensure all the quotes are curly because I'm thinking the writer may end up posting his/her story on another platform that uses curly quotes. Maybe I'm making more work for myself in the editing process. What say you, Pilot? (seriously)

 

[sr71plt]

FWIW, when I edit, I ensure all the quotes are curly because I'm thinking the writer may end up posting his/her story on another platform that uses curly quotes. Maybe I'm making more work for myself in the editing process. What say you, Pilot? (seriously)

I submit them all curly, because that's the way they were/are going to be published elsewhere. But I know the Lit. system is going to make them straight.

 

[LadyVer]

I submit them all curly, because that's the way they were/are going to be published elsewhere. But I know the Lit. system is going to make them straight.

Thank you!

 

[sheablue]

I much prefer smart quotes, and back in the olden days when I was a proofreader straight quotes were really considered an error, but the Lit style guide is what it is and I must squash the pet peeved feeling of the straight vs. smart quotes.

My other major pet peeve is when the quotes face the wrong way, opening quotes are used instead of closing quotes, or vice versa. Makes me cray cray.

 

[Handley_Page]

I think I remember reading somewhere that the "straight" quote marks started on the early typewriters because it was one less key to worry about.

 

[sr71plt]

I think I remember reading somewhere that the "straight" quote marks started on the early typewriters because it was one less key to worry about.

Two fewer keys. There are both single and double quote marks.

 

[PervOtaku]

I think I remember reading somewhere that the "straight" quote marks started on the early typewriters because it was one less key to worry about.

Oh, no doubt. Oddly enough, when word processors started to have "smart quotes" that would automatically convert your typed straight quotes into the "proper" left and right/start and end quote marks, I turned the feature off. I don't think it really adds anything to readability and just invites problems when you start doing things that the smart quote system is unable to interpret correctly.