First off, yay! We’ve been boingled! We needed to stress test the Ficlets server, anyway. Thanks to the Boing Boing folks for the mention, and all the other folks who have been chatting up the site. It’s a nice way to start our existence.
I wanted to note a couple of questions that have been brought to my attention more than once and in various forms, so you know that they’re on our radar. One is about how ficlets (the stories themselves) are structured; the other is about having to sign in to write a ficlet or comment. Both issues await you after the cut.
The first question (and I’ll be paraphrasing both) goes roughly like this:
“I find the way you thread Ficlets confusing. Can you make it so all the stories follow a linear path?”
What this means is that some folks would prefer each story have one sequel (and, presumably, one prequel), rather than people being able to add as any sequels/prequels as they want, and at any point in a story thread. And I can certainly sympathize with that because a single story line is going to be a lot easier to follow than one that can branch willy-nilly and at any time.
But I think one of the exciting things about Ficlets is that it isn’t strictly linear, and that it’s up to the reader/writer to decide where he or she comes into the story with his or her own take. It’s messier, yes, but it opens up more possibilities for the story, and in the end I think it makes the site more fun to play in. It’s very Choose Your Own Adventure, except that instead of going to page 34 (or wherever), you’re writing page 34.
Also, as a practical matter, sticking with a linear structure to Ficlets means that whoever decided to write a sequel first would be the only person to write a direct sequel to that story, and, well, what if that sequel stunk? That’d pretty much clip off that story right there. This way, if you don’t like where someone else is taking the story, you can follow someone else’s sequel – or write your own.
So we’ll be keeping the multi-branching style. Having said that, I think there may be ways to make the threading and branching clearer on a visual level, and that’s something we should look at here at Ficlets HQ for future improvements on the site.
The second questions goes something like this:
“Why do you make us sign on to write ficlets and comments (and read ‘Mature’ ficlets)?”
Well, one reason is that spambots are unlikely to have AIM/AOL or OpenID accounts (and if they do, it makes it easier for us to purge them when they show up). Leaving the system open would mean we’d already be slammed with spam, and I personally have other things I want to do with my time than manage spam, like write and laugh and skip through fields of poppies – basically anything else than manage spam, frankly. Also, from the user end, a spam free site is nicer to see and than a spamful one.
There are other ways to deal with spam (CAPTCHAs and so on), of course, but having folks sign in allows for other useful features (for example, being able to see all of an author’s ficlets – so if you like something an author wrote you can see their other stuff too), so overall it seemed like the most reasonable solution.
As for needing to sign in to see mature-tagged ficlets, well, you know. We want folks of all ages to be able to cruise through the site without freaking out (or having someone else freak out). AOL tends to err on the side of family-friendly, so having mature-tagged entries behind a sign-in firewall is not terribly surprising. But they’re there if you want to read them (or write them) – it’s your choice.
Remember that if you find bugs or just want to give us feedback, you can, and we really hope you do. Ficlets is at 1.0 at the moment, and its your feedback that’s going help us make it better.
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