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azuriteOkay, so FFnet has decided that, along with hyphen/dash-based scene separators, they're also going to eat e-acutes, quotation marks (single and double), among other things, I'm sure.
I have to edit every single chapter of WDKY to date for changes to the display/characters that FFnet
a) did NOT say they were going to remove support for
b) that were properly encoded in the first place, in the original HTML
c) has not made easy to fix, because I have to go to the original story, export each chapter, go into Live Edit, go into HTML preview, and then paste the original HTML. Then and only then does it show up right in the Live Preview and HOPEFULLY on the reader's end, as well.
ARGH!
Azurite wrote:
> To whom it may concern at Fanfiction.net,
>
> I've been a loyal member for many years now, and at one time, a PAYING member, before you guys basically made almost all the paid features available to everyone for free. I've also posted something close to 90 stories, and I'm thrilled that FFnet and I can work together so I can get readership and you guys can get traffic. It's a wonderful relationship. However, I have to take issue with your latest update, for several reasons:
>
> (1) The next time you modify how documents are displayed/characters are read, TELL US IN ADVANCE! This will save us a lot of stress and extra time editing our stories AFTER you make a change. Think of all the stories that have been posted throughout the years that didn't have to keep your special rules in mind! It's not fair to suddenly render them illegible.
>
> (2) I received a review today from someone who said that throughout my entire 26-chapter story (which still has another 10 chapters to go before it's finished), all quotation marks, e-acutes, etc. have been removed! I have ALWAYS encoded my stories using proper (and supported!) HTML, so to have my story affected by the latest sweep of "ASCII character removal" is extremely frustrating. These are characters which are NOT dashes or hyphens! If you're going to make changes, make sure nothing ELSE is affected, and if anything else is and you CAN'T fix it, at least tell us so we don't have to scramble to find out AFTER the fact!
>
> So now I have to go through EVERY SINGLE ONE of my chapters for this story, and probably countless others too, and edit them so the characters that are supposed to be there --characters that WERE there originally-- are! Frankly, I have other, more important things to be doing with my time, but because I love my fanfiction, respect and cherish my readers, and appreciate Fanfiction.net for its system, I'm going to spend that time editing my stories. I would hope you can make my life just a bit easier and, maybe midway through my editing process or something, you'll realize that other, non-consecutive, non-dash (or hyphen) characters have VERY GOOD REASON to be supported, in both English and other languages, and support for them should be brought back!
>
> I sincerely hope that what I see in Live Preview is what the readers will see, because according to Live Preview, I can restore my missing characters (which, by the way, include the supposedly-supported Horizontal Rule!)
>
> You really ought to have a detailed page of exactly what is NOT supported, by the way, so people don't make the mistake of uploading files containing vast strands of unsupported characters and having a reader tell them how terrible it looks.
>
> Sincerely,
> Azurite
Their response:
Please forward us the link the to the story/chapter in question which was negatively effected so we may fix this issue for you. Please do not alter the story/chapter until we resolve this issue on our end.
James
Support
Well HELL. Now I have to find a chapter that's actually left untouched. I already edited the affected chapters 1 and 12, but so far 2 looks okay... I wonder if all the other chapters really are affected or if it was just a few? We're going to find out.
ETA: I linked them to WDKY, but mentioned I wasn't sure if my other stories that used similar formatting were also affected. I also know, based on the influx of rants on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ffdotnetrants that it's been happening to other people. In any case, they (being a guy named "James") wrote back and told me to clear my cache, and the problem has now been resolved.
It certainly looks that way for WDKY, at least, along with a few of my other fics which would have been affected. Yay?
I have to edit every single chapter of WDKY to date for changes to the display/characters that FFnet
a) did NOT say they were going to remove support for
b) that were properly encoded in the first place, in the original HTML
c) has not made easy to fix, because I have to go to the original story, export each chapter, go into Live Edit, go into HTML preview, and then paste the original HTML. Then and only then does it show up right in the Live Preview and HOPEFULLY on the reader's end, as well.
ARGH!
Azurite wrote:
> To whom it may concern at Fanfiction.net,
>
> I've been a loyal member for many years now, and at one time, a PAYING member, before you guys basically made almost all the paid features available to everyone for free. I've also posted something close to 90 stories, and I'm thrilled that FFnet and I can work together so I can get readership and you guys can get traffic. It's a wonderful relationship. However, I have to take issue with your latest update, for several reasons:
>
> (1) The next time you modify how documents are displayed/characters are read, TELL US IN ADVANCE! This will save us a lot of stress and extra time editing our stories AFTER you make a change. Think of all the stories that have been posted throughout the years that didn't have to keep your special rules in mind! It's not fair to suddenly render them illegible.
>
> (2) I received a review today from someone who said that throughout my entire 26-chapter story (which still has another 10 chapters to go before it's finished), all quotation marks, e-acutes, etc. have been removed! I have ALWAYS encoded my stories using proper (and supported!) HTML, so to have my story affected by the latest sweep of "ASCII character removal" is extremely frustrating. These are characters which are NOT dashes or hyphens! If you're going to make changes, make sure nothing ELSE is affected, and if anything else is and you CAN'T fix it, at least tell us so we don't have to scramble to find out AFTER the fact!
>
> So now I have to go through EVERY SINGLE ONE of my chapters for this story, and probably countless others too, and edit them so the characters that are supposed to be there --characters that WERE there originally-- are! Frankly, I have other, more important things to be doing with my time, but because I love my fanfiction, respect and cherish my readers, and appreciate Fanfiction.net for its system, I'm going to spend that time editing my stories. I would hope you can make my life just a bit easier and, maybe midway through my editing process or something, you'll realize that other, non-consecutive, non-dash (or hyphen) characters have VERY GOOD REASON to be supported, in both English and other languages, and support for them should be brought back!
>
> I sincerely hope that what I see in Live Preview is what the readers will see, because according to Live Preview, I can restore my missing characters (which, by the way, include the supposedly-supported Horizontal Rule!)
>
> You really ought to have a detailed page of exactly what is NOT supported, by the way, so people don't make the mistake of uploading files containing vast strands of unsupported characters and having a reader tell them how terrible it looks.
>
> Sincerely,
> Azurite
Their response:
Please forward us the link the to the story/chapter in question which was negatively effected so we may fix this issue for you. Please do not alter the story/chapter until we resolve this issue on our end.
James
Support
Well HELL. Now I have to find a chapter that's actually left untouched. I already edited the affected chapters 1 and 12, but so far 2 looks okay... I wonder if all the other chapters really are affected or if it was just a few? We're going to find out.
ETA: I linked them to WDKY, but mentioned I wasn't sure if my other stories that used similar formatting were also affected. I also know, based on the influx of rants on
ffdotnetrants that it's been happening to other people. In any case, they (being a guy named "James") wrote back and told me to clear my cache, and the problem has now been resolved.It certainly looks that way for WDKY, at least, along with a few of my other fics which would have been affected. Yay?
