This is BIG news in the indie publishing world.

https://www.draft2digital.com/blog/draft2digital-has-acquired-smashwords/

Quote by Mendalla

And you'll make sure it is ignored for purposes of length limits in Flash and Micro? That's part of why I suggested Author's Note.

If the copyright notice pushes a short piece over the word limit, I’d suggest adding a Note to Moderator stating that, to cover your bases.

My choice would be Tom Hiddleston. If The Saint was Moore’s Bond audition, The Night Manager was Hiddleston’s, and he nailed it. He checks all the boxes for Bond.

Quote by Ping

Has anyone asked about or commented on the missing word counts from poems and stories?

I briefly scanned the other posts. I may have missed it. Can anyone see word counts? If so, where are they?

Thanks.

I’ve noticed it but not mentioned it. Estimated read time appears to have taken its place, but I prefer word count for a number (ha!) of reasons. 

Please take a few moments to read and reflect on the famous poem by Alan W. Jankowski, a.k.a. DirtyMartini.

https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/poetry/we-shall-never-forget-9-11-tribute

Quote by verbal

I'd like to see the line spacing tweaked a bit, so that spaces between paragraphs are a little larger, and easier to differentiate from the spaces between lines within a paragraph. I'd apply this both to stories and to Forum text.

Yes indeed! Thank you, Gav, for all the years of handing our requests, big and small. I wish you all the best in your next endeavors. 

Cheers! 🍺

Between all the quibbles and complaints, I’d like to take a moment to recognize the outstanding service of our new tech team. Even with the hard deadline approaching on rolling out the parent site, you’ve already addressed several issues specific to Stories Space. Your attentiveness and quick response are sincerely appreciated.

Best of luck on the next rollout, and we look forward to the fine tuning here after everything settles down. 😊

Let’s dial back the tone of this thread. Nicola has posted a gentle reminder here:

https://www.storiesspace.com/forum/site-announcements-and-members-feedback/a-gentle-message-concerning-new-site-feedback

Which section of the Oxymoron Museum is your favorite? I’m partial to Lost Discoveries. 😀

Quote by AnnaMayZing

Quote by verbal

I think Violet and Annie's concerns are reasonable, and have been expressed politely and eloquently. I think the developers have been taking it seriously too, and I expect their concerns to be addressed eventually. I'm disappointed you chose to be dismissive about their very legitimate concerns, and hope the site as a whole is more inclusive and welcoming.

I'm sure you do, Verbal. I'm disappointed that you have completely missed the point. The site, is, was and always will be, inclusive and welcoming, as am I. Unfortunately, these two are making a lot of noise unnecessarily. Gender identity is a choice. We all come into this world as boys and girls. What we choose from there is a matter of personal choice. There is genuine equality on this site. It is telling, to me at least, that these two, for all their complaining, are still identifying themselves as female. The admins have given them 13 options to choose from and still they are not happy. Who the hell cares what colour the little figure is. If this site can be manipulated in this way then I want no part of it. There is way too much influence coming from the other side of the fence. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/health/transgender-trump-biology.html

To blatantly state otherwise is diametrically opposed to the welcoming inclusiveness you claim – it’s dismissive marginalization.

Verbal and I are not the ones missing the point here.

Quote by Mendalla

Funnily enough, I think most of my cover pictures came out okay. You should be able to remove them yourself by editing the stories, shouldn't you? Though that now seems to "bump" stories back to the front page, which is itself a change from the old site.

Quote by Verity

I have a general question. I tried to post a story in “Humor” but it wouldn’t let me. It said my story would have to be at least 3’000 words. I’ve had a look and can’t find many stories in humor that long. Is it something I’m doing wrong or is it a new rule? And secondly. As the new site doesn’t show my old story artwork properly. Could admin please remove all my old story pictures. At the moment they just look stupid. Regards, Verity

The minimum is supposed to be 3,000 characters, or about 600 words. Please make sure your story is at least 3,000 characters and try again, or submit it as Flash Fiction with a Humor tag. Let us know if you’re still encountering a problem. 

Quote by Mendalla

A small glitch I am seeing that I though I should post in case others have it. I have a red 1 on my bell that absolutely refuses to go away even though I have cleared all my notifications. Not sure what's up with that. Usually, a refresh gets rid of "stuck" numbers there but this one is visible on both desktop and phone and won't go away.

I’m seeing that too. 

Quote by AnnaMayZing

I am a little surprised by the gender discussion getting so heated from certain members. While I appreciate that gender may be very important on a certain other site, I don't see why it is here. Surely it only matters if there is some kind of, shall we say, 'interest'. I am here to write stories. Friends can be whatever they want to be, so far as I am concerned. Shouldn't we just be glad that we have a site at all? So far as I am concerned, we can all be gender-neutral, or Human Being so, Male, Female, Other should be the most that are required, in my humble opinion. 

Let's just get the site settled, shall we? 

Edited to add: As Violet said, we understand this is a low priority item, and we appreciate it being addressed when time allows.

Quote by Baronvonmonty

The vast majority of users want an easy way to see if they are speaking to a man or a woman etc. I can't tell you just how many complaints we get from people saying they are only interested in being contacted by women, or men etc, this is a simple way before them wasting a click on a profile to know if it's a man or a woman. So for any kind of filters or searches to work for this majority of people we need to establish sex.

Quote by Baronvonmonty

Also we have had issues in the past with people believing they have been chatting to (or meeting people) of a certain sex that have been disingenuous with their online profiles. Pick your own colour would not work unless it was accepted by all genderless people and users across the site otherwise they would not know what it was for. 

Quote by Baronvonmonty

Personally I don't care if people want to identify as an Alien, Toaster, or a Werewolf, as long as they are happy. But right now we don't have anything on the site that will allow one Toaster to search for another. 

Quote by Baronvonmonty

Im not saying that in the future we won't incorporate a special feature set for those who identify as Toasters or Werewolf's etc to find each other, but until then it's a case of using the options available.  There are already so many options on here for sex and gender that "99.9%" of people will be able to express themselves with no problem at all. And for everything else I would suggest personalising your profile and profile text. 

Allitigation 🤣

Quote by Mendalla

Okay, so I am fiddling with story submission and tested the "Show on profile" to see what it does. If you set it to "No" then it prompts for an author name. So does that mean if you submit with Show on Profile set to "No" and a name entered, it will show in the Stories list as being by that name with no connection to your profile? Is this a way to have a "pen name"? Or will there still be some indication of which user account posted it? I am not sure what to think of it because I am not really willing to submit using it just to see what happens.

Maggie? Molly? New site guys?

Sorry, no idea. 😐

Quote by Welshdreamer42

Re. Comp stories

No one is arguing about editing during competitions, of course you can’t, it’s against the rules. But editing stories after the results have been announced has always been allowed, they’ve never been locked before. And if the issue with the cover pictures can’t be resolved, the ex-competition stories need to be editable.  If they remain locked, I shall have to hit delete on a couple of mine that look really dreadful  

Amid all the discussion of this issue was some talk of editing during competitions and how it wasn’t against standing competition rules, so my message was intended to clarify where it’s spelled out. You’re absolutely correct that editing old comp stories has been allowed, and those stories should not have been locked. I don’t have any idea of the timeline for fixing the problem, but I’m confident it will be resolved, so please hang in there. 😊

Quote by Mendalla

EDIT: Checked the copy of the comp rules elsewhere and you're right. There is no rule against editing comp entries. So they should be editable unless that rule is being changed. And old ones should be editable in any case.

The rule against editing comp entries is included in the individual competition rules. A couple of examples are below.

From the Cheers to 10 Years contests:

“Before submitting an entry, please make sure that it has been thoroughly proofread and is the story you want to submit. Entries may not be edited after submission, or deleted and replaced with another entry.”

From the Drabble contest:

“Only one submission is allowed per person. Once submitted, it can't be changed. If you remove your story from the comp, you may not resubmit anything new. Please ensure you take your time and think it through before you submit.”

I have entered a number of contests on other venues, and none of them allowed competition entries to be edited after submission. That said, they should be editable here after the judging has concluded and winners are announced.

Quote by Baronvonmonty

Avatars should auto approve, but it's only working for mods or admin as it is a bug. We should have it resolved on Monday, but a mod will need to approve them in the meantime.

May I request that avatars continue to require approval? It only takes a minute to approve them, but hunting down an inappropriate profile pic later can be a challenge.

Quote by Baronvonmonty

Magnificentrascal they are in the admin area, click top right on your avatar pic, scroll down to admin and they should be in there?. I don't have an admin account to do it I'm afraid and the office is closed now to make me one . 

Quote by Mendalla

Hey, um, who approves avatars/profile pics? I changed mine (cropped to try to make it fit better in the circle) but the new version is stuck in approvals.

Your profile pic isn’t showing up in the admin image verification queue, so I don’t know where it got to. 😐

Quote by Welshdreamer42

I like everything. There are a couple of teething problems, yes, but give it time. It’s a great FREE site and it’s still here. Thank you so much x 

Quote by magnificent1rascal
Micro fiction — complete stories of 20-100 words — is gaining popularity as a writing category. Many people assume writing fewer words is easier than writing a traditional short story or flash fiction piece, but in fact mastering micro fiction is a difficult task. Even though the number of words is tightly limited, the writer must convey the five main elements that make up a story: theme, setting, plot, character and conflict. Although some of the details may have to be inferred rather than being stated outright, all of these elements must be present in some form.

- THEME is the central idea of a piece of fiction. What message are you trying to convey? This doesn't need to be stated in the story, but the micro fiction writer should have a specific, narrowly focused idea in mind while writing.

- SETTING is not just the physical location where the story takes place, but also the mood surrounding the action. In micro fiction, the writer does not have the luxury of waxing eloquent about the setting; when every word counts, many have to do double duty. Descriptions of setting need to be slipped in while advancing the plot.

- PLOT is what happens in a story. Typically, the plot of a story consists of five stages: introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement or resolution. By its very nature, micro fiction requires a simple, straightforward plot.

- CHARACTER means both the individuals portrayed in a story and their characteristics. Every story needs a protagonist, the central character, and most have an antagonist, someone working against the protagonist. Don't undertake a story with multiple characters as a micro fiction piece. One or two will usually suffice.

- CONFLICT is not just fighting or butting heads, although those are examples of it, but rather anything that alters the course of the action in a story. Conflict is what drives plot.

Is it possible to fit all of those elements into a story of 100 words or less? Absolutely. I'm going to dissect my own micro fiction piece, It's Over, as an example of how it can be done.

"Honey, I'm ho-ome," Matt warbled as he entered the kitchen and tossed his keys into a bowl on the table. Loosening his tie, he made for the bedroom, where he expected to find his wife changing from her work clothes.

This establishes the setting of the piece and introduces the characters. The physical location is a couple's home, and the mood is light and cheery at the beginning. The characters are Matt, the protagonist, and his wife. We know that the couple has a dual income. Matt is in a position that requires him to wear a tie to work. His wife may be a businessperson, or her work may call for a uniform. Matt warbling his greeting implies a happy marriage.

Instead he met her in the dining room, glaring at him from behind a laptop computer through eyes red from crying. She knew. To deny or rationalize the affair would insult her intelligence and make matters worse.

"It's over, I promise," he said simply.

Rising action and conflict take place in the middle of the story. The mood also shifts dramatically, leading to the piece's climax:

"Oh? So are we."

After the climactic line, the reader must fill in the falling action. But what was said and done, and whether the couple was angry, subdued or tearful matters little, for it led to the same outcome.

The next evening, Matt swiped a card to unlock his door.

The denouement is that Matt has left their home, at least temporarily, and is staying in a hotel.

It's Over began life as a six-word story: "It's over." "Oh? So are we." However, it soon became apparent that the piece would benefit from a little fleshing out. While it didn't quite work as a six-word story, it is well-suited to longer micro fiction.

In summary, use the following guidelines when writing micro fiction:

• Stay within 100 words. Use the site character / word counter to check the length of your submission. http://www.storiesspace.com/resources/count-characters.aspx

• Keep it simple. Aim for a basic plot and few characters.

• After the writing is finished, diagram the piece as I've done above. Ask yourself if the story includes all the elements of a short story, and be truthful in your answer.

• Revise, revise, revise. It's not easy to fit a story into such a small space. Lines you love may have to be trimmed or excised.

Quote by The Rumpled One
Calls for submissions by 28 Flash Fiction Markets That Pay. Copied from the free, online newsletter of Authors Publish magazine -- highly recommended