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Author Topic: My Hatrack Peeve
pantros
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Pertaining particularly to Fragments and Feedback:

I'm sorry, I just hate it when people post their first 13 and then, after recieveing a single response, go and make changes to the original post. Upon getting a second feedback, they re-edit and make more changes, obliterating anything that might have remained from the original posted first-13 and, often, making the previous feedback irrelevant and useless to anyone who didn't read it while the original first 13 was posted.

That feedback isn't just for the thread starter, its something everyone who reads it gets to learn from. If a poster changes their thread starting post, they lose something for all the rest of us.

If you post your first 13, never, ever make any changes to that post. Ideally, you should wait a few days to gather feedback and then rewrite it, and possibly, repost it to a new thread or work on the rest of the story along the same lines as the feedback you recieved. If you absolutely have to make immediate changes, post it as a response so we can all benefit from the process.


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Matt Lust
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me so sorry



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Paul-girtbooks
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To that I would like to add that if you request to read someone's full manuscript and then it later transpires that you're simply never going to get around to reading it then kindly email the person who wrote the story and say, "Sorry, but I just ain't ever gonna get around to this" or whatever.

Don't just ignore the person.

On two occasions when I've posted a fragment six people requested the full story in both incidences. And in both cases only two people got back to me.

If you find yourself suddenly snowed under by life, then fine - just tell us, okay?


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Elan
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My pet peeve is newbies who do NOT read the "how to post your 13 lines" rules. I know when I was new I at least LOOKED for the rules somewhere. It's not like they are hard to find now that Kathleen has made a separate forum just for that reason.

1" margins, 12 point courier type. It's not rocket science.


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sojoyful
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Amen, patros. A couple of times, I have recalled a piece of feedback that I gave, and I wanted to look it up because it reminded me of something I was doing in my own work. How annoying to be unable to see what my feedback originally pertained to.

Ditto to Elan, except that my peeve is folks who have read the rule about 13, but deliberately ignore it and say something like, "I know it's over 13, but it wouldn't make any sense otherwise." or "I wanted to give more than 13 because it's so good." Give me a break.

Edit to add something else:

Another peeve of mine is people who leave feedback and then never return to that thread again. What if the author had questions about the feedback or needed clarification? Those types of critiques are like hit-and-runs.

[This message has been edited by sojoyful (edited December 15, 2005).]


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Matt Lust
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By the way I hope i didn't come across to childish. I am loopy from all nighter for paper writing.

best


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wbriggs
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I'm guilty of alteration. Anybody got some pasta?
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pantros
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The original post here was not directed at Mr. Lust, though his recent edit edit edit edit story was the catalyst that brought me to post this. I have seen it a dozen or more times by a dozen different writers.

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pantros
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wbriggs, I think there is still about two gallons of fettucine alfredo in the break room. Today, my company catered a lunch for us. There was chicken cordon blue, roast beef, mashed red potatos with skins and several other things.

The coke was all served warm though.

Free lunch is still free lunch


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Christine
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I wouldn't call it my biggest peeve but I agree that it is annoying when I can't follow a thread for all the edits made to the original post.

In defense of those who have done this, though, I will say that when changes have been made, or when you post a revision, or when you have a follow-up question you wish to ask, people tend not to read far enough down the thread to see these things. (What a HORRIBLE sentence...but I'm not going to edit it.) Yes, theoretically F&F is for posting 13 lines and getting feedback, which should probably be revised separately and not reposted, but from time to time I've had questions about titles, synopsis sentences, and etc. that I've worked through on F&F with great success. In these cases, I often want people to look at my new ideas and ignore the old ones.

My compromise solution is to retain all of the old information in the original post, but still edit it with the word "EDITED" to show the changes. This way, people keep up with my new question without having to read the whole thread. (I do wish people would at least skim the whole thread, though...didn't I post something about this a month or so ago?)


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TheoPhileo
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quote:
(I do wish people would at least skim the whole thread, though...didn't I post something about this a month or so ago?)

*nods head*


I'm a obsessive editor when it comes to posts, though I do tend to avoid it in FF.


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ChrisOwens
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My pet peave used to be people who had pet peaves, but then I discovered earlier this week that I had one, the phrase: Sorry, you feel that way...
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Robert Nowall
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Well, I wish I could write my responses in the same window as all the other responses, so I could be looking them over while I'm writing...but, hey, it's not my bulletin board and it's a petty peeve...
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pantros
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you haven't noticed the full text of the thread is in the frame immediately below the box you type your response in?
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Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
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Yes, Robert. If you scroll all the way down on the reply page, you will see a box that contains the whole topic and you can use the scroll bar at the side of the box to move to whichever post you'd like to see.
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Beth
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I didn't notice that lower frame for the longest time. It is not very obvious.
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TheoPhileo
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You could also use Firefox and open the reply page in a new tab.

~Keith (always advocating for the abolition of Internet Exploiter)


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wbriggs
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I just learned something! I never knew!
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Robert Nowall
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Ah. I only used the main scroll bar...never even noticed the other one. Boy, that'll sure make it easier for me when I post here...
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Minister
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It took me a long time to figure that out too.
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sojoyful
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quote:
You could also use Firefox and open the reply page in a new tab.
~Keith (always advocating for the abolition of Internet Exploiter)

Or, if you use Internet Explorer, you could just as easily open a new window (File->New->Window or just hit Ctrl-N) and then you have the added benefit of seeing them side by side or jumping back and forth between them without clicking (just hit Alt-Tab to go back and forth).

~Katie (Always advocating for the abolition of the stupid argument over which browser is better. Who the heck cares? To each their own. )


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Jeraliey
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Whoa! I thought that was just a picture! Hee hee!
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MidnightWolf_ofClan_Zero
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I've only been doing this for what... two days now without ever reading this and knew that. mee soopur smartts.
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Calligrapher
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On my computer, the scroll bar attached to the Reply dialogue box is greyed out and disabled. I'm using Internet Explorer. Am I supposed change a setting somewhere to be able to scroll down and see the rest of the thread?
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Beth
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It's not the reply dialog. It's below the reply dialog.
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Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
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The scroll bar on the reply dialog box will be grayed out until you write a long enough reply to more than fill the dialog box.

The scroll bar that will let you see the box showing the topic with all the posts in it is at the side of your browser, and it shouldn't be grayed out.

If you go to the right side of your screen and move that scroll bar to the bottom, you will see the "submit reply" and "clear fields" buttons under the reply dialog box.

Then, under those buttons, you will find another box with its own scroll bar (also to the right), and that is the box that shows you the topic page with all the posts so far in the topic.


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Calligrapher
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Oh, "I see now," said the blind man! Thank you, Kathleen.
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HuntGod
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Why can't I just think the words and ideas and they appear on the screen...

This whole typing thing and retyping is way to much like work!!!

My pet peeve is that writing is work and not enough people realize it :-)


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