Triond Publishing Great Except for One Thing
Creative writing is like a good meal. The food must not only taste good but it must look good, too.
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For several weeks, I would read a short story or some other content on Authspot and then try to leave a comment. The comment would never take, something to do with a bad security string. I would notify the Help Desk. So, since I had already read the story or the bio or the journal entry I would end up clicking on the writer’s name and I would send my comment to the writer as a message. Finally, I gave up reading anything at all on Authspot.
Recently, for some reason I found myself reading something again on Authspot. I think I was replying to a comment on one of my flash fiction stories and I noticed that Authspot looked different. Also, my name appeared over the comment box. Usually, my name did not appear over the comment box even when I was already logged in to my Triond Account.
Sure enough, my comment was accepted. I began once again to read articles and short stories on Authspot. But then I noticed there were no spaces between paragraphs in the content (short stories and articles) on Authspot.
This is a little disconcerting. The content seems to be all jumbled together. Writing should have visual appeal. When online writing is aligned to the left, double spacing between paragraphs offers the best visual appeal for the reader.
Just like food is not only about how the food taste but also about how the food looks, writing is not only about content but it is also about formatting.
Writinghood and Webupon use this more appealing formatting. I hope Authspot will institute this more appealing publishing formatting, too.
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Tags: articles, content, creative writing, Flash fiction, online, publishing, story, triond, writer, Writing
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August 19th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Yes. Space has a visual appeal. The words don’t come all at once at the reader overwhelming him. That’s something that has to be corrected.
Thanks for bringing this up.
August 19th, 2009 at 9:31 am
I know how you feel. They need to get it straight! Thanks for the share.
August 19th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I know how you feel as well. I recently submitted a poem on Authspot, and when it was approved, I went to check it. It was formatted as one large paragraph, no spacing, no line seperation. I had to manually edit the piece myself. Very disappointing at best. Hopefully, they will correct this issue soon.
August 19th, 2009 at 10:43 am
I agree with you in terms of comments. Triond does have to sort that out. And hearing that not being able to post comments on Authspot has turned you off it is quite bad because Triond should recognise that they are losing valuable readers! If it continues, some people might even quit Triond.
I also agree with the articles to look good too because Authspot does jumble up stuff. I know I don’t like to read massive articles with no spaces or paragraphing.
This is a very well observed and written article!
August 19th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Hi, Uma: I was very happy that I could start leaving comments again. After all, I’m a short story reader and writer; but Authspot really should do something about formatting. Surely, in this computer age this is an easy fix.
August 19th, 2009 at 11:57 am
alc, it’s really kind of funny. The old sever for Authspot had great formatting but you couldn’t leave a comment. With the new sever it’s easy to leave a comment but the formatting stinks.
August 19th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
S.Rubeck, spacing and line seperation are essential to the poem. I’ m not a poet but I know that much. Hopefully, the editors of Triond will realize how important formatting is to creative writing.
August 19th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Atikin, I hadn’t written an article for Triond for several days and I was trying to come up with an idea. I went over the usual subjects: blogging, flash fiction and writing. Nothing new presented itself.
Then I thought about giving up on trying to leave a comment on Authspot and I knew that would be a topic other writers in the Triond community would be interested in.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Probably it’s a glitch and I hope triond looks into it more carefully in order to fix all problems and errors conserning that page, thanks hogan.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I had run into the exact same problems. Thanks for bringing it up Guy.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Jeremy, it’s always nice to know that you’re not alone, that others are going through what you’re going through.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Buma, not being able to leave a comment was a glitch and was easy to correct but formatting is a matter of taste and may be more difficult to correct.
August 19th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Great article! It drives me nuts taking the time to space everything out just the way I want it and they just mash it all together. On some sites they also put a block of ads on the left hand side and make the text of the article wrap around on the right. It make the piece very irritating to read.
August 19th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Guy Hogan.. You have opened my mind about the importance of formating. Thumb up for U! Bravo …
August 20th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Kevin, formatting can make or break the effectiveness of an article, a poem or a piece of prose. No writer wants formatting to be in the hands of the advertising department.
August 20th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Purnomosidhi, I’m not too hopeful that there will be a change since Triond just got this new server for Authspot after getting rid of the old server.
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:02 am
I noticed my formatting wasn’t taking this week. Hadn’t realized it was an across the board thing–been too busy lately to notice.
August 22nd, 2009 at 9:15 am
Daisy, I’m afraid the formatting at Authspot does not add to the reader’s enjoyment of the content. I think many writers would agree that writing, the words on the screen, is truly a visual art form.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Guy—>I have encountered these icky problems many times LOL! It’s frustrating and time-consuming – and I thought the formatting was bad @Socerberty.
September 15th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Errica, Authspot did change the formatting so every looks great now. I’m sure happy about that.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Yes, I agree!
October 9th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Yolonda, I guess Authspot got the message.