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Suave View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Suave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2019 at 3:29am
Originally posted by GallifreyGirl GallifreyGirl wrote:

I'm going to throw in my two cents --

There's no reason that anyone needs to be "in charge" of the Master List other than the initial post, hosting a Google docs spreadsheet, and some basic formatting & maintenance in the spreadsheet as the round goes on.

As an example, I usually make my own list that I work from, and here is the one I did for SSC18: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-93qnLJD7oOV8r-SRoh5olymKuM0VRmPDHA6f5unGzQ/edit?usp=sharing
(I did not make my own list this year because I was lazy, which is why I'm including last year's instead)

It usually takes about 30 minutes of work to create the spreadsheet in the first place; if the work of adding in people's forum names, titles, & story links were offloaded to the individual writers, the spreadsheet could be kept up with the tiniest bit of input from the list "master." 

It also has the added benefits of being: sortable, contained in a single document, and easily updateable & cross-checkable for subsequent rounds (still in the same document).

Possible drawbacks: apparently even though it's 2019 already some people are still flummoxed by Excel I guess? (Yes I am shaming you).

Ways to counter these drawbacks: If people can't figure out how to input things themselves, they could still have the option of leaving a forum comment so that the listmaster could add in the info for them; also the listmaster will most likely need to check periodically to make sure that people aren't messing up formatting etc in the spreadsheet. Still, I doubt it would be the massive timesuck it must be in its current iteration.





You don't know how much work in the background we do.  People have a lot of trouble using the list we have, in the doc your talking about people could easily screw up other peoples posts - I really don't this could work here.  I think the Format we have is the best for the situation.

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stephenmatlock View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (3) Thanks(3)   Quote stephenmatlock Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2019 at 7:49am
Originally posted by nixie nixie wrote:

Originally posted by GallifreyGirl GallifreyGirl wrote:

I'm going to throw in my two cents --

There's no reason that anyone needs to be "in charge" of the Master List other than the initial post, hosting a Google docs spreadsheet, and some basic formatting & maintenance in the spreadsheet as the round goes on.

As an example, I usually make my own list that I work from, and here is the one I did for SSC18: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-93qnLJD7oOV8r-SRoh5olymKuM0VRmPDHA6f5unGzQ/edit?usp=sharing
(I did not make my own list this year because I was lazy, which is why I'm including last year's instead)

It usually takes about 30 minutes of work to create the spreadsheet in the first place; if the work of adding in people's forum names, titles, & story links were offloaded to the individual writers, the spreadsheet could be kept up with the tiniest bit of input from the list "master." 

It also has the added benefits of being: sortable, contained in a single document, and easily updateable & cross-checkable for subsequent rounds (still in the same document).

Possible drawbacks: apparently even though it's 2019 already some people are still flummoxed by Excel I guess? (Yes I am shaming you).

Ways to counter these drawbacks: If people can't figure out how to input things themselves, they could still have the option of leaving a forum comment so that the listmaster could add in the info for them; also the listmaster will most likely need to check periodically to make sure that people aren't messing up formatting etc in the spreadsheet. Still, I doubt it would be the massive timesuck it must be in its current iteration.

A couple of things to consider about that approach...

The reason we have chosen not to do this in the past is because hosting in google docs that way requires a generic "anyone who can find the doc can edit it" link - which means the links out to peoples stories are now on a public location rather than in the closed forum.  for many publishers, this can cross the line into considering the story "published" (it has been made accessible in an unsecured public location).   the closed forum protects the "unpublished" status of the work.

For my part, the challenge I most often find with shared spreadsheets is that every person who comes along sorts it a different way - and leaves it that way when they leave - which means it never looks the same twice. This can be confusing for folks who are not tech savvy. (I'll skip the stories of "accidental edits" and lost data...)


+1 on Nixie's statements here.

While we can ameliorate the issue of having our stories on the open web by posting only the link back to the forum where the link to our story is, the danger is that information will leak due to the kindness of people who don't think about the implications of publicizing a piece before it's been shopped around. That we keep our content behind a paywall means that we aren't in public view.

And accidental edits are a huge problem. Most people struggle just to get their forum posts and links working, but they do so in their own sandbox of their own posts. I can't imagine the chaos of multiple people attempting to simultaneously editing a shared spreadsheet, many who might not understand all the nuances of dealing with shared documents.

I'd prefer this not to happen, and I will state flatly that if this is done (a public spreadsheet) that I will unfortunately no longer share my private documents in the NYCM forums.
Pithy sayings are for the apt. For a longer message, you need a condo.

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GallifreyGirl View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GallifreyGirl Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2019 at 1:12pm
Okay, I have been properly chastised. I didn't consider the 'public' part. Sorry!
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nixie View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nixie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2019 at 4:38pm
Originally posted by GallifreyGirl GallifreyGirl wrote:

Okay, I have been properly chastised. I didn't consider the 'public' part. Sorry!

No chastising!!  Just "learned a new thing" - which is important.  Writers must have the New Things all the time - else our stories will be full of the Old Things. 

I have great empathy for the much-easier-to-use tool - I am very much the same way (which is why I dump info from here into spreadsheets and databases lol).  When we do stuff like that all the time - it's easy to forget or not see how changing the environment may change the equation. It becomes so "second nature" that stuff like that just doesn't occur to us.

When you get that additional info - don't be "chastised into silence" - be "challenged into figuring our an ingenious solution" :)

As Suave points out, the MLs ARE a lot of work - and the forum-system features are the primary reason for that. (every tool has its features and its foibles - and this one wasn't really designed for collaborative editing...). If there is a way to make them less work - I haven't found it yet, so I'm not likely to.  Our best opportunity for forward motion is in getting more people thinking of more things. :)
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