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Suggestions for improvements and additions to the site.
This feature was rejected 6/27/2012: Automatically rejected as part of the FWW clean out.
madglee

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
I think that there should be a restriction on being able to publish a story with dead links. When you go to publish the story, it should tell you there are dead links and force you to fix them before you can publish.

I've played a lot of the stories, as many of you have, an we all know how frustrating it is to play through a story only to find a dead link near the end (or even the beginning, god forbid!). Forcing an author to go to the pages specified and fix the dead links before publishing would increase replayability and enjoyment for every reader! We, as readers, would be guaranteed a complete story, regardless if it is stellar or sub-par! Rejoice! Kill the madness!


JJJ-thebanisher

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
But i dont wanan kill half of you... haha complete agreement with your post though.
madglee

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
It's making me crazy. Absolutely, stark raving mad!
JJJ-thebanisher

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
Dude lol I think we all noticed lol
Fleshnblood_78

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago

the problem here lays in the dead end links that can be over come with an item. however, if the editor can detect that then i totally agree.

nate

alexp

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago

Agree in principle, but this is something that is far to complicated to test out ,especially for Advanced Storygames.

As Nate mentioned, Items can overcome a deadend. But at the same time, Items and Variables can *create* them. Consider if you had a link that said "End and Leave Comments" that was only visible when TRICKEDYA was equal to 37. There's just no way of programmatically telling if TRICKEDYA will ever get to 37 without running a simulation.

madglee

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
Understood, but I'm mainly talking about the basic stories where a person just hasn't taken the time to recheck his work or has, and just missed one that could be corrected.
alexp

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago

Hmm ... ok, well, in that case, I will think about it some more. It's certainly possible for classics.

Havacoman

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
Yes!  Make it for classics.
JJJ-thebanisher

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
Complete and UTTER agreement.
madglee

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
Holy COW!
JJJ-thebanisher

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago

I live in Canada dude, its moose. 

HOLY MOOSE!

alexp

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago

OK, I'll give it a shot. But what I'll need is some test data to work with ...

  • A REALLY long storygame (Sept 17th series comes to mind)
  • A storygame that has no path to the quit link
  • A completely twisted maze of links that with a spot that i can easily remove/add the path to the end

These don't have to be real at all. But they all must be classic.

 

 

madglee

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
Forgive my ignorance of .NET coding, but can't you just put a "restriction" on the link "Publish anyway" when people go to publish and it tells them "Found 5 dead links/errors." Instead, make the new link say "Go back and fix your dead links!" or something?

If not, what do you want me to do? I'll do anything to remedy this problem.
alexp

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago

Yes, we could do that. However, consider that authors would then be unable to utilize "Dead Ends" as part of their style. I like giving authors the ability to do that; perhaps they don't want "you die" pages to always link back to the beginning.

What I'm thinking of doing (hence, why test data are required) is programmatically testing to see if a path exists from the START PAGE to an END AND LEAVE COMMENTS link. If no such path exists, then the storygame will be restricted from being published.

JJJ-thebanisher

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
Hmmm I see.
madglee

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
So are you saying you want authors to have the ability to get you to a page where it just says "No links available" and you have to manually click back? That's what dead end means to me. And even if they have one END AND LEAVE COMMENTS but a bunch of those no link things, that's maddening. With all due respect, I don't see how leaving a page without any links on it whatsoever could be a part of someone's style. It just seems like bad adventure writing. Maybe I'm not understanding. I can certainly write a nonsensical story pretty quickly that you could test this on.
alexp

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago

A DEAD END page should always have this:

No Links. You may go back or reset to start over.

 

So, would it be any different if the author did this?

  • go back
  • reset and start over

I didn't realize that was the problem -- I thought it was stories with just no path to the END link.

madglee

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
I'm talking about what you just said. If there are stories with no path to the END link that would be even worse. Yes, it would be different if the author put pages that said something specific, though not just "go back" or "reset and start over." Here's why - it shows forethought that they intentionally created a dead end rather than just leaving the page without links. By using text in the link that shows what's going on, they are, as you put it, having a style.

Here's an example. You choose "Go left down the winding tunnel" and reach the following page:

"You follow the tunnel for what seems like hours. At its end is a roughly hewn wall. You can see no visible means of escape this way."

Then either it just says "No Links. You may go back or reset to start over" OR, "Trudge back up the tunnel." I think the latter shows style in using a dead end, prompting the reader that this is not the correct way. The former seems to lack any forethought, and even gives an option to reset! Besides this argument, many of the stories that have these "Dead ends" don't actually seem to be dead ends. They are just the writer forgetting to add a link, and the room description in no way explains that you are meant to be at a dead end.

I definitely see your point more clearly now, but I still maintain that authors should at least make some effort to add some style to the dead end pages, if they choose to add them.
JJJ-thebanisher

Dead links and publishing

19 years ago
Amen to that.  The moose side with madglee ;) ;) ;)